Greetings Gators!
It's hard to believe that it's October already!
Coming Soon: We are excited to share with you all the great things at our MSMS Open House on October 11! will start at 5:00 with an activities fair to see and learn about all the great ways to get your Gators involved in our school community! Then at 5:30, you will go to your Gator's TA class where you will get a schedule for the Open House. You will have time to transition between rooms during Open House to get a sense for all the adults and rooms your child interacts with during the day!
What are some of the awesome things did our Gators do last week?
- 7th and 8th Graders proudly showing their "Lift a Line" drawings demonstrating their learning about history of Howard Zinn's book, A People's History of the United States.
- Some serious soccer skills getting displayed in PE class and on the soccer fields after school!
- Celebrations at the end of the day on Friday recognizing students that are working hard in class each day.
- Students in Sustainability learning about food insecurity in Montpelier and creating goals to take action.
- A new salad bar making its debut in the Main Street Cafeteria providing more healthy choices for our growing students.
- Several of MSMS employees and students volunteering or participating at the MRPS PIE Fall Festival!
- Our amazing IAs flex and adjust (again!) to serve our learners and help them each day.
- Lauren joined SST to bring more reading love to our students.
- Students singing in the hallways the songs they are learning in choir
- Our food service crew is rocking it with now the addition of a kitchen manager!
- Students working on their civic goals and collecting 5 boxes of winter coats and supplies to donate to the Kitz-miller Rotary Coat Drive.
- Great book buddy interviews happening in our grade 5 team.
- Jazz band kids eagerly waiting for early morning practices.
- Our literacy/humanities teachers worked hard with our literacy coach on creating stronger readers and writers.
- Students helping other students whether they know him or not with carrying things into school as he navigates crutches for the first time.
- Cool science labs where students think about the movements of tectonic plates in Kim Kendall’s room.
Modification to Handbook: Discipline Section
Teachers and staff have been working hard to create, teach, and reteach clear expectations for our students. Sometimes, we have some students who stills struggle to meet those expectations and need extra support. Support always happens in class. Sometimes students work on skills they need during SST. We are now also adding an additional support time for students. We will begin to offer an Afternoon Learning Support Opportunity. This will alternate each week either on Tuesdays or Thursday and run from 3:00 - 3:45 with Jess Wells or myself. This will be a time for students to work on their learning, reflect and make plans on how to personally grow to better meet the expectations. When a student is assigned to join us for this time, caregivers will be notified by Jess Wells or Julie Conrad.
Go Gators!
Julie Conrad & Jess Wells
MSMS Administrative Team
8th Grade Trip Survey!
Hola y bonjour, 8th grade students and caregivers!
After a three year hiatus due to COVID, we are once again considering offering an educational and cultural experience in Canada for ALL 8th graders the first week of June 2023. This program, in its 19th year, is organized through the Montreal-based organization, Jumpstreet, and has become a capstone event of students’ middle school experience.
However, much has changed for our community in the last three years. As such, we would like to gauge interest in a travel experience before proceeding. Please fill out this SURVEY outlining your interest in a trip and what you are able to contribute to tuition. We are committed to ensuring that all students who want to participate can do so. This information will inform us as to what type of travel experience you are interested in, and how much fundraising we will need to do. We look forward to hearing from you! Ashley Dubois and Bibba Kahn.
From Nurse Caitlin
Please make sure you have completed each of your student’s annual health questionnaires. Here is an extra copy in case you have misplaced yours. You can also email or call Nurse Caitlin for a paper form. They can be turned into your student’s TA and they will turn them into the school nurse. These forms need to be on file for students to participate in field trips. Thank you!
MRPS 2022-23 Annual Health Questionnaire
School Safety Drills!
Clear the Halls is kind of like pulling over on the side of the road for emergency vehicles. It's how we ensure we can support an individual if there is a personal emergency. This eliminates hallway usage except for the adults that need to support that individual. This also helps to both protect the individual's privacy and makes sure there are no obstacles for support.
Secure the Building is a call we use to keep school going normally with the exception that we will not go outside during this drill or event. Our external doors are always locked during school hours but will be double checked at that time. This might be a safety drill we use when we are notified of something happening outside in the Montpelier community and we want to be extra safe in keeping our students from being exposed to a potential risk at that time.
While we will not notify Caregivers of our routine drills, we will notify you if there is ever a safety event at the earliest time possible. Please know this may not be immediate as we might be assessing and responding to an emergency. Our priority is always to secure the safety of our students and staff first. Please know that we may only be able to share small parts of information and that's because we are working to maintain the privacy of individuals. If you ever have questions, please feel free to contact the school directly or email Julie.
Curricular Spotlight!
This week: Sustainability Class
Using the framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the three spheres of sustainability and through personalized and project-based learning, MSMS_Sustain students will have the opportunity to explore areas of interest, connect with others who are working to solve those problems, and to communicate their findings to the school community. Currently, students are focused on food systems, local agriculture and food insecurity. Using donations from Feast Farm, the Time of Need Garden and donations from the community, students have produced pickles, salsa and pesto which has been donated to the Just Basics food pantry. Learn more at our MSMS_Sustain website or by following us on Twitter and Instagram.
Come and support our Gators compete!
Monday - 10/3
- Boys Soccer @ U32 (Grade 7 at 4:00, Grade 8 at 5:00)
- Girls Soccer v U32 (Grade 7 at 4:00, Grade 8 at 4:45)
- Field Hockey @ Barre Town at 4:00
Tuesday - 10/4
- MS XC @ NVAC Mt League Meet
- Boys Soccer vs. U32 (Grade 7 at 3:45, Grade 8 at 4:45)
- Girls Soccer @ U32 (Grade 7 at 4:00, Grade 8 at 5:00)
Wednesday - 10/5
- Gator Practices Only (They need some rest!)
Thursday - 10/ 6
- Field Hockey @ Mater Chrisi at 4:00
- Girls Soccer v. Peoples (Grade 7 at 4:00, Grade 8 at 5:00)
- Boys Soccer @ Peoples (Grade 7 at 4:15)
Saturday - 10/8
- Middle School Cross Country Meet @ Harwood Invites at 10:00 am.
Monday - 10/10 - NO SCHOOL!
- Boys Soccer v Crossett Brook (Grade 7 at 4:00, Grade 8 at 5:00)
- Girls Soccer 2 Crossett Brook (Grade 7 at 4:15, Grade 8 at 5:15)
MSMS Athletics
Anyone interested in playing fall sports should sign their student up by going to https://montpeliervt.gomyreg.com/info/default.aspx
All practices and games for our MS teams can be found by going to Montpelierschools.tandem.co
Questions about MSMS Athletics? Contact our Athletic Director, Matt Link at MatthewL@mpsvt.org
Montpelier Recreation Department:
Montpelier Recreation will start accepting registration for the Winter 22-23 Youth Basketball League on Monday, Oct. 3rd. Registration is available online at https://www.montpelier-vt.org/838/Montpelier-Recreation or in-person at the Rec. Center located at 55 Barre St. Rec. Center is open 8:30am – 4:00pm.
Interested in coaching or have questions please contact Haidi Arias at (802) 225-8691 or email at harias@montpelier-vt.org Deadline to Register is Friday, November 4th at 5:00pm.
MSMS Helpful Links
Main Street Middle School Webpage
Main Street Middle School Handbook 2022-2023
2022-2023 MRPS School Calendar
Instagram: MainStreetMiddleSchoolVT
Facebook: Main Street Middle School
MRPS BLOG: Visit https://www.smore.com/7agn0 and subscribe!
