Parent Association Meeting Notes
May 10, 2019
Ø HUGE, HUGE, HUGE THANK YOU FOR THE THOUGHTFUL AND CREATIVE TEACHER APPRECIATION WEEK CELEBRATION~ STARTING THE DAY WITH CURBSIDE HELP AND THE ENDLESS TREATS HAVE BEEN APPRECIATED!!!!
Ø HUGE THANK YOU TO HOLLY (JETT’S MOM) AND JENNIFER (LUCAS AND ARI’S MOM) FOR ORGANIZING THE WEEK AND BEING INCREDIBLE PA COORDINATORS FOR THE PAST TWO YEARS. HUGE THANK YOU TO JULIA (HARRISON’S MOM) AND YASSMIN (AIDAN AND NOAH’S MOM) FOR AGREEING TO THE BE THE PA COORDINATORS FOR THE 2019-2020 SCHOOL YEAR
Ø THANK YOU for supporting the Book Fair ($6,500 was raised) and donating boots!
Ø CONGRATULATIONS to the HPMS Basketball Team for playing an incredible game verses Village Montessori~ we finally won (46 to 18). The UE team won against Stevens (18-16).
Ø Please enjoy the video on the HPMS balloon launch (yes, that’s really the curve on the Earth from the balloon launched by HPMS students). This project has been happening for four years:
· Year 1 ~ focus was on altitude
· Year 2~ focus was on creating an environment for an insect to go into space (balloon had a hole and ended up in a lake)
· Year 3~ focus was on creating an environment for a small mammal to go into space~ students had ethical concerns if it didn’t work so they changed it to using the air supply to launch a rocket (but no trash was to left in space)
· Year 4~ focus is on communication~ there will be a live stream on the 6th floor for K students and up to watch on May 21
Ø Upcoming Events (it’s that time of year!!!) ~ EOY Celebrations begin at 9:15 on the 6th floor unless otherwise noted:
· May 21~ Blue/Red Room EOY Celebration
· May 22~ Indigo/Yellow Room EOY Celebration
· May 23~ Orange/Silver Room EOY Celebration
· May 24-27~ School Closed for Memorial Day Weekend
· May 28~ Homework Discussion ~ 6 pm
· May 31~ Field Day (PLEASE KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR THE SUG!!!!)
· June 4 ~ Earth Room EOY Celebration at 9:30
· June 5~ Sky Room EOY Celebration at 9:30
· June 6 ~ Ocean Room EOY Celebration at 9:30
· June 11 ~ UE/MS EOY Celebration & 8th Grade Graduation at 6 pm on the 6th Floor
· June 12 ~ Last day of School
o PA Meeting ~ 9 am
o WEE & Bridge EOY Celebration at 11:15 am for Wee and Square, 11:00 for Circle and Triangle
o End of the Year Picnic~ “BYOB”~ Bring Your Own Basket & Blanket at 5 pm in Hamilton Park
o HPMS will provide plates, utensils, water and treats.
o Please bring food for your family (or buy dinner at the Farmer’s Market!)
· June 19 ~ Silverman Golf Tournament supporting HPMS
Ø Year Book is now available for purchase~ please keep an eye out for the SUG
Ø Discussion for next year…thoughts about fruit as the go to birthday snack (child shares their favorite fruit with the class) and changing the snack sign up (parents bring in one item once a week instead of enough snack for the class for an entire week).
HPMS is celebrating World Down Syndrome Day on March 20! Wear your jeans and/or silly socks, too.
Thank you to all who joined us for the HPMS Winter Gala! It was a BLAST!
For any Birthday Celebrations.... please be aware:
Polar Vortex won't stop us!
Have you ever stopped to wonder what we do with 18 energy-filled middle schoolers during their HOUR long recess when they can’t go outside? Well, when we’ve exhausted strategic games and cleaning the 5th floor space, sometimes you just have to get creative…
Hear Ye, Hear Ye!
Our 8th level students published an HPMS newspaper this week. Check out their journalistic accounts of interesting stories happening in our community!
our HPMS Gallery
We’ve finished up our Bridges unit and have started on Power. In addition, we created some pretty incredible digital music projects for the Night of the Arts. You can see all this and more by visiting our HPMS Gallery.
Middle School Gallery
Bridges, Power and more!
// Mayhem Poets //
This week we went to see the Mayhem Poets at the NJ State Theatre in New Brunswick. Students got to experience the power of the spoken word through this incredible performance by three Rutgers Alumni. It was great to get out of the building on a beautiful day and enjoy some performance art together!
// Parent Evaluation Form //
Miss Michele is currently a research delegate for SET Lab. She’s working on a research project to explore how to create a Holistic Student Report that would articulate students’ social, emotional, cognitive and academic abilities. To do this, she’s bringing together student, family and school perspectives.
If you haven’t already, please complete our Parent Evaluation Form to help her in her research. We’re hoping that this exploratory process will help us improve how we gain, measure and provide information about our students through better reports!
Also, you’re invited to the SET Lab Conference in May to hear Miss Michele and others share their work! Use code FRIENDS19 for 50% off!
We started a new unit!
What is power?
After a week of presentations and a week of reflection, middle schoolers moved on to our 2nd Project Based Learning unit on Tuesday. This unit is all about Power. Below are some images from our brainstorming session where students work independently, in small groups and then as a whole community to come up with as many ideas as possible related to the unit topic.
This week we’re also focused on ‘tinker activities’ in which students explore elements of our theme through collaborative tasks.
Remember, all of our units can be experienced in the HPMS gallery.
before our session…
and after!!
We’ll be working until the first week of February on this rich and enduring theme. Look out for more updates from our Tinker activities, and visit the gallery to see our other units.
// Specials Roundup! //
We’ve been busy in Art, Music, PE, Spanish and Electives! Here are some photos from our classes. Students are making a small wooden table in Art and focusing on the Laban Efforts and ‘competitive folk dancing’ in Music!
Brought to you by "The Media Mavericks" (Upper Elementary & Middle School Students @HPMS)
Visit the HPMS Gallery to see progress on our first unit!
Students are currently in the ‘Create’ phase of our unit on Bridges. Check out our gallery site to learn more about their process and see lots of images of their work so far!
A few happenings from Middle School
Okay, so we didn’t take a lot of photos this week, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot happening! Here are a few quick snapshots…
This is an Ishikawa or fishbone diagram. It outlines all of our student project questions and shows how they all connect to our Bridges theme.
Some of our 8th level students visited the Parent’s League NYC High School Fairs last week. Miss Cynthia made personal introductions of our students to the admissions teams and students asked questions.
//our Bridge unit in action//
We’re wrapping up the Tinker/Discover phase of our first PBL unit. Students have been working to formulate driving questions they’ll be unpacking through their collaborative projects. Below are some of their working topics and questions.
The post it notes you see on the documents are questions and critical feedback left by other students and teachers during our ‘Gallery Walks.’
Next week we’ll move into our second phase— CREATE!
// Back to School Night //
Thanks to all our parents who joined us for wine & cheese and our Back to School Night Presentation! Below is our slide presentation from the evening, as well as handout that includes lots of pertinent details about our program.
Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions!
Information Packet
Click the image to access our information packet. It’s a downloadable PDF!
Slide Presentation
Click the image to access our slide presentation from this evening.
// this week in middle school //
We’re moving right along in Middle School, and this week we started our specials like Art & PE, as well as getting moving with some ‘Competitive Folk Dancing’ in Music!
Students gave STEM Summer Project Presentations, and we continued working on our Bridges unit by using the Question Formulation Technique to discover our own passions & areas of interests that will lead to group project work next week!
QFT Outline
Here’s how the Question Formulation Technique works!
// Off to a great start! //
We had a busy first week in middle school! Our very first day started off with a community breakfast, but not before a team challenge. ‘Seats Game.’ We also tackled ‘Crossing the River’— student showed collaboration & leadership, and worked out challenges between their teammates.
Next, we introduced our first unit of the year, Bridges. Students brainstormed about all the kinds of bridges that exist, and then were presented with our Tinker Activity. They were challenged to build a bridge with limited materials and no use of the internet or research sources.
