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7th Grade Newsletter - April 2024
B. F. Butler Middle School
Greetings from the Grade 7 Team!
Welcome to the April newsletter for the Grade 7 team at the Butler Middle School!
March is over with, spring is around the corner (some would say it's already here!) and we are entering the home stretch of the 2023-2024 school year. We have a lot to be proud of this year, but the job's not finished. Please keep encouraging your students to try their best each and every day, even as the weather gets nicer!
MCAS This Week
Your students will be taking the Grade 7 ELA MCAS assessment this Thursday and Friday. In the event of bad weather, the test will be completed early next week.
Our students have made significant progress in their iReady reading scores from the start of this year and as such, we believe our seventh graders will post some great scores this week for this important test.
Make sure your students get a good night's sleep Wednesday and Thursday ahead of the MCAS so they can do their best work and show their skills to the best of their abilities!
Quarter 3 Report Cards Coming Up
Final grades for the third quarter will be distributed via Aspen early next week and can be accessed through the parent portal next Wednesday, April 10. This will be the first report card which will not be sent home in a physical copy, so if you are struggling to access your child's grades, please feel free to reach out to any Grade 7 team member with questions, comments or concerns. Our contact information can be found at the bottom of this newsletter.
As always, students and parents are encouraged to check the family portal on Aspen to check for grades, progress, and any missing assignments students may have in all subjects.
Here is the link for ASPEN:
https://ma-lowell.myfollett.com/aspen/logon.do
Spirit Week Fun!
Ahead of this week's MCAS testing, Butler students and staff had a fun-filled spirit week in which they represented their cultures, dressed like one another and saw students dress like their teachers and their teachers dress like them. The official days were Twin Day, Culture Day, Decades Day, and Dress Like a Teacher/Student Day. The results were fun, funny, and brought a smile to the faces of everyone who participated!
Indoor Soccer Program Kicks Off
A new soccer team will be taking to the pitch this spring for the Butler Middle School, with three matches scheduled against teams from the Robinson Middle School!
Matches are currently scheduled for April 27 at Robinson, while the Butler will be hosting games on May 25. Games will be played on June 1 at Cawley Stadium, with June 8 scheduled as the make-up day for those games if there is rain on June 1.
Girls and Boys Volleyball to Set and Serve
The boys and girls volleyball teams will be kicking off their seasons Tuesday April 2 at the Bartlett Middle School, with the boys primed for a strong season and the girls team looking to repeat as city champions!
Seventh graders lacing up their sneakers for the volleyball team are Malina Seng, Cecilia Kosol-Neak, Nia Suong, Arianna Sun, Dayana Torres, and Aubriella Greene, while the seventh grade boys serving it up for the Bulldogs are Taylor Ly, Benjamin Soun, Kalel Sao, Reinol Chim, and Damian Lieu-Phlo.
Go Bulldogs, Go!
February/March Students of the Month
The previous winners of Student of the Month for the months of February and March are as follows:
Room 212 (Ms. Kothari): Javian Sam
Room 217 (Mr. Dev): Rosmannairys Pereyra
Room 218 (Mr. Francis): Skyla Morse
Room 223 (Mr. Corcoran): Andrew Mathes
Room 224 (Mr. A/Ms. Howard-Smith): Dianalyse Gonzalez
MLL (Ms. Ramos): Banlistheroy Coa
Congratulations to all winners! Keep up the good work!
After-School Extra Help
For students looking for help with essays, projects, homework assignments, preparing for upcoming quizzes or tests, extra help is being offered after school on the following days:
Mondays: Mr. A
Wednesdays: Math (Mr. Dev)
Thursdays: ELA (Mr. Francis and Mr. Corcoran)
Mrs. Howard-Smith is available for after-school extra help by appointment.
In the event that you would like to work with a teacher after school on a day they are not offering extra help, please reach out to them via their email address listed at the bottom of this newsletter.
After School Programming
A reminder that afterschool programming has begun again and is off to a great start, with over 200 students participating so far!
A couple of friendly reminders:
- After-school programs start promptly at 3 p.m. (Students receive a healthy and hearty snack)
- Students are dismissed at 5 p.m.
- Guardians who are picking up their students need to arrive promptly at 5 p.m.
If you have questions about after-school programming, please reach out to community school program coordinator Justien Martin at (978) 937-8973.
Upcoming Events
Please see the School calendar for other important dates and events!
- Thurs. and Fri., April 4-5
- Grade 7 MCAS Testing (ELA)
- Mon. through Fri., April 15-19
- April Vacation (NO SCHOOL)
Classroom Updates!
Science with Ms. Howard-Smith and Social Studies with Mr. A (pictured)
This month in science, after completing contact forces last month (and breaking lots of things, most notably eggs), we will be moving onto weather and water. There will be lots of experiments and activities to give students a hands-on learning experience to better understand the impacts of weather on our lives.
In social studies this month, we will be wrapping up Unit 4 on Southeast Asia and Oceania before April break and will begin our last unit on Europe when we return on April 22.
The last unit will focus on Europe with an emphasis on Ancient Greece and Rome and the foundations of western democracy.
Math with Ms. Kothari and Mr. Dev (pictured)
This month, students will be working on a geometry unit focusing on angles, angle relationships, circles, and real world mathematical problems involving volume, area, surface area of two- and three-dimensional objects.
In addition, math MCAS will be held on May 9-10, so we will be preparing students accordingly at the end of April by going over previously taught units on scale factors, ratio and proportional relationships, expressions and inequalities.
ELA with Mr. Corcoran (pictured) and Mr. Francis
In ELA, we've done a lot over the past month. Before break, we finished up our argumentative writing unit with a strong, well crafted essay. After, we did a few days worth of poetry analysis before moving into our MCAS prep weeks, which we will finish up Wednesday, April 3 before the test. We are looking forward to moving into the home-stretch of the year!
Looking ahead, Mr. Francis and I will be starting a short unit on poetry, followed our longer historical fiction unit.
Contact the Grade 7 Team!
Science and Social Studies
Math
Ms. Kothari (pictured)
Mr. Dev
Ms. Sebastian
ELA
Mr. Corcoran
Mr. Francis (pictured)
Ms. Loughlin