Dr. Kevin M. Hurley Middle Schoolhms.seekonk.sharpschool.com › UserFiles › Servers... · The Seekonk School Department does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color,

The Seekonk School Department does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, sex, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, or disability in accordance with the applicable laws and regulations.

Parent Newsletter May 17, 2013

A Message from the Principal Dear HMS Families, The administration of the MCAS is now complete for all grade levels and subject areas. This week, students in grade six took the mathematics test. Eighth graders took the Science and Technology MCAS, and heard some words of encouragement from Mr. Carulli, Mr. Moszczenski, Mrs. Boyle, and Ms. Murgo during their MCAS breakfast. Earlier this week, I emailed everyone in the HMS community some information regarding the 6th and 7th Grade Academic Celebration that is scheduled for May 30th, as well as the 6th and 7th Grade Recognition Assemblies that will take place the last week of school. You can find a copy of the memo that contains all of the information on the Principal’s Page of the HMS web site. This newsletter also contains more detailed information regarding the 6th and 7th Grade Academic Celebration that is scheduled for May 30th. The Academic Celebration is not an awards ceremony, and is completely separate from the small sixth and seventh grade Recognition Assemblies that occur during the last week of school. Only the students and their teachers will attend the sixth and seventh grade Recognition Assemblies. I am very excited about the 8th Grade Promotional Ceremony that is taking place on Tuesday, June 25th. The ceremony is scheduled to take place outside on the front lawn of the school. All eighth grade students will walk across the stage to receive their promotional certificate, in addition to certificates for academic achievement and participation in sports and clubs. There will also be some special plaques awarded to students and staff. The ceremony will kick off with the National Anthem, sung by HMS Idol Winner Sara Moakler. I have also invited a special guest of honor for the HMS Promotional Ceremony to deliver some words of wisdom and advice to our students. Mike Tamburro, President of the Pawtucket Red Sox, will be on-‐hand to deliver a special speech to the HMS class of 2013. Family and friends of the eighth grade class are invited to attend this special event. The ceremony begins at 6 PM. It is recommended that all spectators for the Promotional Ceremony bring their own lawn chair. This weekend, the HMS Drama Club will perform “Aladdin Jr.” The performance will take place in the HMS Cafeteria tonight, May 17th, and tomorrow evening, May 18th. Both shows begin at 7 PM. The students in the show have worked very hard to make this a wonderful performance for their family and friends to enjoy. Please be sure to check out the HMS Principal’s Page of our web site. The site contains a lot of information regarding end of the year activities as well as other helpful links. I continue to urge you to encourage your child as well as anyone else that you know in the community that may be interested in the happenings of Dr. Kevin M. Hurley Middle School to check out the Principal’s Page. We are up to over 5,000 hits! Dr. Whalen

This week’s newsletter contains the HMS Honor Roll for the 3rd Quarter

Dr. Kevin M. Hurley Middle SchoolDr. Kevin M. Hurley Middle School 650 Newman Ave.650 Newman Ave.

Seekonk, MA. 02771Seekonk, MA. 02771 508508 -- 761761 -- 75707570

www.seekonk.k12.ma.uswww.seekonk.k12.ma.us Dr. William V. Whalen III Mrs. Mary C. Westcoat Principal Assistant Principal


All members of the HMS Community are cordially invited to attend the 6th and 7th Grade Academic Celebration to take place on May 30th, 2013. Work from all of the academic teams for those grades will be on display from core as well as encore subject areas. The celebration begins at 6 PM, with the doors remaining open until 7 PM, so feel free to come by and view some of the quality student work that will be on display for all to see. Here is

some information in regard to what will be on display: Mrs. Dumas's students will be displaying their projects from The Giver. Among the displays will be a T-‐chart illustrating the positives and negatives of Jonas's community. In addition, there are Venn diagrams for a compare/contrast of the fictional setting vs. Seekonk, as well as showing the traits that both communities share. Students also wrote "I AM" poems based on one of the characters and wrote them from the character's perspective. These are decorated with magazine pictures/illustrations. Students are also designing a major project, which could be a story trail, gifts to characters, paper bag report, novel newspaper, or an original idea. Some students are making board games based on the book, writing an additional chapter, designing a brochure, or making a map. Mrs. Geddes’ classes will have student posters and projects on number systems and multi-‐step word problems (PEMDAS, factors/multiples, and equations) displayed. Mrs. Metcalf’s classes will display their “Body’s Mysteries Solved” poster boards, “Feel the Beat” Lab tri-‐fold boards, and their Plant Foldables.

The seventh grade Green Team will have all sorts of projects from the year on display, but, in particular, they will be featuring products from their cross-‐curricular project -‐ "Tiny Trees." They will have their mini-‐treehouses on display, along with related student essays, scale drawings, pencil sketches, info on local trees, and info on the deforestation of Africa.

Mr. Mare’s classes will be displaying shields and spears from their conquest, as well as streaming of a video of it! Projects on nonfiction topics from his Super core class will also be on display. Ms. Karalis’ Red Team science classes will have a project on display. The students created and 2D and 3D model of the Earth's structural and compositional layers. Ms. Thivierge’s classes will display the Greek masks and papers that they made recently.

All sixth grade math students have been working on a performance assessment with unit prices. The students had to create the unit price for 1 pizza and convert that cost to find a cost to feed 12, 60 and 240 students. A proposal also had to be written to convince the cafeteria managers that their pizza recipe was more cost effective than the current pizzas that are served. This display will include all of this student work along with an artistic presentation of the award-‐winning pizza recipe!


For Yellow team Social Studies, the students are researching the legacy of Greece and Rome. Students are working in groups to present the influence on our society in selected topics from the Greeks and Romans. They are presenting using presentation boards, scrapbooks, time lines, and power points. In Science, students have been working in groups, using the scientific method, to create a tri-‐fold that will show their understanding of how the Earth has evolved and continues to evolve over geologic time. The tri-‐fold will profile the compositional and physical layers of Earth. a graph showing Earth's interior temperatures and depth, a map showing how Earth may have looked 180 million years ago based on different types of evidence supporting continental drift, and a map showing the tectonic plate boundaries and their movement relative to surrounding tectonic plates. Mrs. Johnson’s students will display their “About Me” Collages, Autobiographies, Poetry Portfolios, Traditional Literature Scripts, The Cay Novel/Movie Posters, Personal Reflection Journals, Coat of Arms, and “8 Parts of Speech—About Me”

6th grade music students will be show casing their "home made" musical instruments. These instruments can be from any of the four families: string, brass, woodwind or percussion. Each instrument must be able to produce sound and the students will demonstrate in a class presentation. These instruments will be on display outside the band room. Mrs. Farrow’s art classes will also have some of their work on display. Health classes will have 6th grade "Smoking Sammy" diagrams on display. 7th Grade health students will have Self-‐Esteem Lists.

Librarian Mrs. St. Michel will put on a program where parents can come in to the library, and I could show them how their children use technology here at HMS. I was thinking it would be a demonstration of items such as Glogster, EasyBib, and Google Docs.


8th Grade Class Trip

Signed Behavior Contracts and Completed Medical Forms are Due by May 31st!

Student Council will be embarking upon two field trips in the coming weeks. On Thursday, May 30th, the representatives will partake in Student Government Day, an initiative designed to expose our students to the functionality of government at the local level. The permission slip and health form for the Student Government Day field trip are due by Wednesday, May 22nd. On Tuesday, June 18th, Student Council will make its annual voyage to Six Flags New England to reflect upon a year's hard work. The details of this trip have been included on the permission slip. The permission slip and health form for the Six Flags field trip are due by Wednesday, May 22nd as well.

Permission forms for the 8th Grade Dance were due back to school today. The 8th Grade Dance is

scheduled for Friday, June 7th.


Dr. Kevin M. Hurley Middle School, 650 Newman Avenue, Seekonk, MA 02771 Third Quarter honor roll 2012 – 2013

HIGHEST HONORS Grade 8 Jacob Ciolfi, Wesley Gallishaw, Madison Gilmore, Griffin Hoskins, Erin Keough-‐Taylor, Jacob Merola, Alissa Pacheco, Madison Paine, Allyson Patterson, Lindsay Petit, Morgan Platt, Britni Robson, Sonya Valente, Julia Vieira, Lauren Voccio, Sophie Zirkel Grade 7 John Anghinetti, Hayley Bartlett, Hannah Bedrosian, Gabrielle Blum, Benjamin Brady, Azurae Cruz, Alexia Desrochers, Armen Eghian, Claudette Elkhoury, Shaelyn Fiske, Cheyenne Frausto, Liza Gagnon, Lindsay Guertin, Jason Ho, Eric Kerr, Madeleine Kinney, Andrew Lancellotti, Kate Lanzi, Chloe Lunnie, Jillian Machado, Sara Mallon, Aidan Morrison, Connor Pozzi, Devin Renquinha, Raven Santos, Leanne Silva, Terry Smith, Megan Terra, Angeleigh Tousignant Grade 6 Erin Broadmeadow, Justin Cardoza, Thomas Ciolfi, Nathan Costa, Jenna Dunphy, Hannah Forrest, Cameron Garabian, Cedrick Gustave, Olivia Klegraefe, Kiarra Morales-‐Sandoval, Aditi Patel, Deirdre Rocha, Ethan Santos, Matthew Silveira, Bethany Smith HIGH HONORS Grade 8 Alexis Ackell, Nathan Amaral, Morgan Anderson, Emily Botelho, Tyler Brack, Shannon Cabral, Holly Carroll, Brenden Cavaco, Tanner Emond, Kirsten Fernandes, Jocelyn Fournier, Matthew Gallup, Carmel Garcia, Sarah Gingras, Meghan Gorton, Shane Halajko, Samantha Hess, Perry Joubert, Joshua Lane, Olivia Leonard, Jordyn Lopes, Hannah MacDonald, Emma Mace, Monica Maziarz, Celia Mendez, Mackenzie Morris, Jordon Moskowitz, Gabrielle Oliver, Nathan Pickett, Amanda Read, Caroline Rex, Andrew Santos, Jennavie Semedo, Carly Sias, Avery Silva, Haleigh Silva, Andrew Silveira, Katelyn Silvia, Summer Small, Ashley Wellman, Audreyrose Woden Grade 7 Elizabeth Belliveau, Noah Brennick, Kathryn Calverley, Taylor Chancey, Alexis Chapman, Justin Coelho, Jacob Costa, Richard Curzake, Devlin Danner, Kaitlyn Danner, Brandon Deering, Hannah DiFrancesco, John Doorley, Jonathan Field, Kamryn Gelotte, Nicholas Gennari, Hayden Gill, Melissa Harris, James Jackson, Nicole Labossiere, Michaela Ludwig, Mason Martin, Brian Marulis, Jaiden Mayo, Sydney McDonald, Eleni Mihailides, Ashley Morgado, Sarah Mullen, Kayla Nastari, Brandon Petronio, Rachel Pion, Alyssa Poland, Ryan Riordan, Taylor Roy, Sabrina Russell, Kyle Sanborn, Kathleen Santos, Rachael Servidio, Jacqueline Sicard, Alexandra Silva, Nicole Silva, Sofia Silva, Zachary Smart, Olivia Strzalka, Caitlin Tavares, Matthew Tortolani, Cassidy Vincent, Jayden Vincente


Grade 6 Stephanie Allen, Mackenzie Almeida, Michael Araujo, Cheyenne Ayotte, Mykenzie Beland, Devon Bento, Lillian Birch, Collin Brown, Sarah Cabral, Diana Carney, Marissa Carney, Logan Casala, Katelyn Charron, Daniella D’Amico, Sabryna Darocha, Sarah DaSilva, Hannah Desmarais, Sarah Elderkin, Nicholas Feeney, Emily Ferrick, Haley Fournier, Robert Gerardi, Morgan Halpin, Adam Horowitz, Sabrina Howarth, Emily Jankowski, Daniel Jensen, Alex Killeen, Christopher Lane, Sara Letourneau, Jalyn Letulle, Megan Loiselle, Trevor Lopez, Benjamin Lunnie, Julia Medina, Casey Merola, Brooke Michaud, Jayde Monteiro, William Ott, Evan Pacheco, Ethan Paiva, Saarah Papineau, Pritesh Patel, Aidan Perkins, Isabella Pezzulli, Felicia Prata, Kaitlyn Provazza, Hanna Saisselin, Kelley Shanahan, Lauren Shanahan, Samantha Silveira, Nicole Simas, Shelby Sloane, Olivia Soares, Hannah Stoepker, Hunter Studley, Taylor Troiano, Kathryn Vasu, Nicole Veader, Morgan Viccione, Madeline Whelan HONORS Grade 8 David Abbott, Emily Balasco, Kaylee Crooks, Isaac Fernandes, Dyson Gauthier, Abigail Hopkins, Emma Pelletier, Emma Sabatini, Iris Scherma, Kaitlyne Silva, Jessica-‐Lyn Sweet Grade 7 Elizabeth Arruda, Mitchell Blanchard, Michael Cabral, Justine Casper, Nicole Clarke, Brittny Correia, Emily Crafford, Peter D’Ambra, Jacob Dezotell, Spencer Dowty, Ryan Fecteau, Sydney George, Alyssa Hills, Casey L’Heureux, Ethan Mace, Jessica Miller, Tyler Moreira, Olivia Pagano, Zane Propatier, Darius Ribeiro, Ryan Sheahan, Hannah Smith Grade 6 Kaleigh Almeida, Jamilyn Amado, Kayla Banna, Rachel Bennett, Kenneth Boardman, Elizabeth Brady, Austin Cabral, Jared Cabral, Craig Disano, Makenna French, Ethan Hill, Jamie Holland, Christina Keeley, Wildson Landaverde, Michael Martins, Matthew Morency, Erin O’Halloran, Brooke Parks, Cameron Reilly, Gianna Repoza, Joshua Resendes, Nolan Rutter, Sean Westfield


Yellow Team – ELA Mrs. Johnson

Yellow team students recently worked in cooperative

learning groups, wrote traditional literature scripts, designed

props and scenery, and then made presentations in class! It was a

challenging and entertaining project, as each group member

utilized his or her unique skills.

Presently, students are reading The Phantom Tollbooth, a

novel about a boy who is bored and has no interests. His life

changes when he finds a mysterious package in his room one day

after school. We are only on chapter four, yet many students are

wondering what will happen next….




Saturday, May 25th is the Seekonk Memorial Day Parade! The HMS band students from grades 7 and 8 have been invited to participate in this wonderful event. Both classes have marched outside the school in preparation. Students must have their music memorized! The day of the parade, students must be dropped off at AITKEN SCHOOL at 8:45. The roads close at 9:00. Students will need to wear their blue band t-‐shirt, shorts of any color, and sneakers. Bring your instrument only and leave the case in the car. Parents will pick up their children at the Middle School where the parade ends. Mrs. Grande will bring all percussion instruments. The Band Festival is coming quickly! Monday and Tuesday, June 3and 4, during school, the students will receive instruction from professional guests and the guest clinician. The Spring Concert is Tuesday, June 4th @ 6:00-‐7:00-‐8:00. The Elementary Tour is Monday June 10 for 8th grade band students only. Blue Team English-‐ Students wrote "I AM" poems based on one of the characters and wrote them from the character's perspective. They are decorated with magazine pictures/illustrations. Students are also designing a major project, which could be a story trail, gifts to characters, paper bag report, novel newspaper, or an original idea. Some students are making board games based on the book, writing an additional chapter, designing a brochure, or making a map. Blue Team Math-‐ Mrs. Geddes's math classes have been finishing up multi-‐step equations. Next week we will be moving onto inequalities, but first up will be (weather permitting) a promised trip outside to measure the heights of trees using proportions!

A Message from Mr. Mosczcenski for eighth grade students and parents: Parents have been wondering when they will be able to view the cathedrals built by White Team students as a project. All cathedrals will be set up on tables in front of the library wall with nameplates, on the day of the Grade 8 Promotion Ceremony, which is June 25. Displays will be available from 4:30 on until after the ceremony. Parents who wish to bring the cathedrals home after students consult with their group partners may take them after the ceremony or on June 26, the last day of school.


Overall Standings for Massasoit League Baseball as of Wednesday, May 15, 2013 1) Bridgewater 7-‐0 1 2) Middleboro 8-‐1 3) Somerset 6-‐2 4) Dighton 5-‐2 5) Westport 3-‐4-‐1 6) Case 3-‐4 7) Rehoboth 3-‐4 8) Seekonk 3-‐5 9) Berkley 2-‐5-‐1 10) TCMS 1-‐6 11) Raynham 0-‐8

8th Grade English: Today our MCAS challenges will be complete for the 201213 academic year and we can get back to our own adventures and those of Tom Sawyer. Thinking ahead: May 25th, 26th and 27th define this year’s Memorial Day weekend. The Memorial Day weekend is a good reminder to students that they have one more week of the Tom Sawyer unit with summative projects/exams soon to follow. This is the time of year when students practice managing long-term projects and begin addressing summer reading lists. It is also the time of year when we are all looking forward to 8th grade end-of-the-year school activities while balancing town and other extra curricular activities. Progress reports go out today. Please help us remind our 8th grade students to check the due dates of those end-of-the-year projects while they continue to enjoy all the activities with which they are involved. We are entering the final inning, so to speak, of the 8th grade and we hope all students will experience base hits, maybe even a few home runs:)


8th Grade Math – Orange & White Teams Whew! MCAS is over. Students wrote reflections about their math MCAS experience. Overall, responses were very positive. “As long as you do your best, you’ll succeed.”

“I feel confident in my math MCAS . . .” “I felt like I was comfortable with mostly all of the questions on it.” “Wow, all I can say is wow. I thought it’d be a lot harder.” “I believe that I did well on the MCAS . . .” “Math Lab gave me that extra help I needed in math.” “Even though some [questions] I thought were confusing, I thought I did well on both sessions.”

In between testing, students participated in a bouncing ball activity. They dropped balls from various heights and recorded the time in seconds until the third bounce. Students will display the data they collected in scatter plots, adding trend lines (lines of fit), and analyzing the results.

Students also created their own graph animals using only straight lines. In preparation for their upcoming unit test on linear equations, they will find equations for eight different lines in their graph animals – lines with positive and negative slopes, zero slopes, and undefined slopes.

Nick Chin Sarah Gingras


HMS was Chosen to "Plant Something!" Arborist and extended member of our HMS family, Larry Hindle of Evergreen Tree and Landscape donated a young crabapple tree to be planted in the Kevin M. Hurley Memorial Garden. Mr. Hindle involved a 6th grade class in the "Plant Something" project for the state of Massachusetts on May 15th, a special day in which every town in the state "planted something" in a special place in their town. Mr. Hindle discussed with our class the importance of trees and their impact on the environment. Thank you Mr. Hindle and the "Plant Something" project! To see our school's name listed on the website, visit http://www.plantsomethingma.org/may15/

A Message from the Assistant Principal, Mrs. Westcoat “If you have the courage to begin, you have the courage to succeed.”

David Viscott

Another beautiful week has gone by. The sixth and eighth grade student worked diligently this week finishing up their MCAS tests! A wonderful breakfast was served to all before taking the test! As you know I have been asking you to talk to your children about spring fever and love in the air. Apparently our faculty has not been reading this part of the newsletter! Congratulations to Miss Penha, Miss Karalis, Miss Kaufman Corderio, Mr. Meagher, Mr. Botelo, Miss Pietrunti, and Mr. Sandstrom who have ALL gotten engaged this year!


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Dr. Kevin M. Hurley Middle Schoolhms.seekonk.sharpschool.com › UserFiles › Servers... · The Seekonk School Department does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color,