Team Aspire

March Newsletter

Team Taylor March Newsletter

Dear Parents and Guardians,

March is a busy month for us in sixth grade! The English Language Arts MCAS exam is approaching, the dates are Wednesday, April 24^th, and Thursday, April 25^th . Students have been working hard in their ELA classes all year and are prepared to show what they know! They have been embracing the strategies they are learning at school and should be proud of all of their efforts.

It is hard to believe that Term 2 is coming to a close. Grades close on March 14th, and students will be switching into their 3rd term Unified Arts classes. We continue to encourage students to check Aspen regularly, as we update our grades every two weeks. At this point in the year, we expect students to begin taking more responsibility for their own learning and advocating for themselves if they need help in any areas of the curriculum. We encourage them to use class and Flex time wisely to see teachers for extra help as needed. We will continue to support them and help foster this independence.

As a part of our Admirable Attributes program, Team Taylor recognizes two students each month who exemplify attributes of the authors we read in 6th grade. The Admirable Attribute for the month of March is Compassionate. We want to encourage students to be thinking of others this month and finding ways to show that they care.

We truly feel that the success of our students depends on clear communication between school and home. Please feel free to contact us if you have any concerns or questions about your child's progress. Email is the best method to reach us. Our email addresses available on the ASMS web page. You can also find a link to the Team Taylor news on this site. If you haven’t been on it, it’s a valuable page we use to communicate about our team news and curriculum.

Warm Regards,

Team Taylor Teachers

Important Dates This Month:

March 1 - ½ Day - Teacher Professional Development

March 8 - Myth Masters

March 14 - Term 2 Grades Close

Team Taylor Admirable Attribute Recipients:

September - Optimistic - Seth O. & Lily D.

October - Curious - Zachary T. & Eden D.

November - Respectful - Maddie O. & Taylor O.

December - Perseverance - Will C. & Lina B.

January - Generous - Lea E. & Brendan N.

February - Creative -.To Be announced!

March - Compassionate -

April - Independent -

May- Flexible -

June - Responsible -

February Newsletter

Team Taylor News

It’s hard to believe that it is already February! Students are busy working hard in all areas of the curriculum. As the year continues, the students are meeting the rigorous curriculum and the higher expectations that come with it. Students will have the week of February 18th off, as a much needed winter break!

One of the greatest keys to success in middle school is making sure to come to class prepared. We ask for your support at home to help remind your child to replenish materials as needed. Many students are consistently coming to class without pencils and having to take them from the class supply. We encourage students to go through their binders each weekend and replenish any supplies they might need for the upcoming week, including pencils, lined paper, page protectors, etc. We encourage you to check in on your student’s grades using the Aspen portal. We update the grades every two weeks or so. Also, if you have a question about your child’s homework assignments, we post them nightly on the Team Taylor page on the ASMS website. As always, we welcome any questions your child has regarding homework, they often are able to email us and we try our best to respond quickly!

A very good friend of mine has a sister that has started a foundation to collect gently used or new books for grades K-12. The foundation is called Read, Lead, Learn, and she is collecting books to donate to the island of Nevis currently. She hopes to expand her donations to other areas that are in need of school supplies around the world. If you have any gently used books that you would like to donate, I’m collecting them, and I’m very happy to bring them to her! Feel free to send them in with your child, I’ll give them a mission card for each book collected!

As a part of our Admirable Attributes program, Team Taylor recognizes two students each month who exemplify attributes of the authors we read in 6th grade. The Admirable Attribute for the month of February is Creative. We want to encourage all of our students to be creative in their work, thinking, and play.

Please know that we are all here to help all students be as successful as possible in their years at Annie Sullivan Middle School. We look forward to working with you and encourage you to contact us should you ever have a question or concern.

Warm regards,

Team Taylor Teachers

Daniel Kelley, Math & Science

Laura Welshoff, ELA and History

Kerri Marcotte, Special Education Liaison

Important Dates This Month:

Feb. 18th - Feb. 22 - February Vacation/Winter Break

Team Taylor Admirable Attribute Recipients:

September - Optimistic - Seth O. & Lily D.

October - Curious - Zachary T. & Eden D.

November - Respectful - Maddie O. & Taylor O.

December - Perseverance - to be announced!

January - Generous - to be announced!

February - Creative -

March - Compassionate -

April - Independent -

May- Flexible -

June - Responsible -

Math and Science Updates

With the new year well under way, as well as our second term, I wanted to give a brief update on our Math and Science curriculum.

In Math, we are currently finishing up our unit on percentages and unit rates. Students are using multiple strategies to find the percentage of something as well as finding what percent something is of a given quantity. Some of the strategies students can use are double-number lines, tape diagrams, and multiplying or dividing. Students have also found the value in unit rates by seeing its use in comparing cost and speed, as well as various other scenarios. As we move forward in math, students will work toward developing a standard way to divide fractions. The next unit will have students explore the meaning of dividing fractions through visual models. Students will then have the opportunity to work with a standard algorithm for dividing fractions.

In Science, we are working through our Space unit. Students presented their lunar phase models on Friday and did an excellent job explaining how each phase is created by the location of the moon, earth, and sun. As we move forward in this unit, students will deepen their understanding of how each lunar phase is created. Additionally, students will begin to learn about the size and scale of the universe and earth's place in it. Lastly, they will begin to explore the concept of gravity. They will explore what gravity is and how its force and impact on objects can change. When we finish with our Space unit, we will move into our life sciences unit where we will focus on cells, the levels of organization, and body systems.

January Newsletter

Team Taylor Newsletter

January 2019

Happy New Year Team Taylor families!

Welcome back after what we hope was a wonderful and joyous time spent with family and friends! We also want to thank the

Team Taylor families for the generous donations for our Team Raffle.

We continue to encourage you at home to take a look at your student's agenda book and compare it to our Google Classroom

pages. We also encourage you to check your child's grades via the Aspen portal. If you have any

questions regarding access to this, there is now a link on ASMS website, under Students/Families, then go to Aspen Access Students realize how important it is to complete their assignments with great effort, including homework, as this has a direct impact on their grades.

As a part of our Admirable Attribute program, Team Taylor recognizes two students from our team who exemplify the attribute

from the authors we read in 6th grade. December's attribute was Perseverance. Students will be nominating for this in the next

few days. The attribute that we will highlight for January is Generous.

Keep an eye out for both Mr. Kelley and Mrs. Welshoff to update the blog with curriculum updates.

We value the home/school relationships, please feel free to contact us if you have any concerns or questions about your child's

progress. We have times built into our schedule for parent/teacher conferences. We meet as a team and discuss your child's progress. Email is the best method to reach us.

Warm regards,

Team Taylor Teachers

Important Dates This Month:

Monday, Jan. 1 - New Years Day - No school

Monday, Jan. 21st Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday, no school

Team Taylor Admirable Attribute Recipients:

September - Optimistic - Seth O. & Lily D.

October - Curious - Zachary T. & Eden D.

November - Respectful - Maddie O. & Taylor O.

December - Perseverance - to be announced!

January - Generous -

February - Creative -.

March - Compassionate -

April - Independent -

May- Flexible -

June - Responsible -

December Newsletter

Team Taylor News

December 2018

It is hard to believe that we have wrapped up Term One! The students have accomplished so
much in this first term and we are extremely proud of them. They have learned to navigate their
schedules, classroom routines, and have made some new friends in the process. They are
learning how to manage their time when preparing for long term assignments and tests along
with learning a new curriculum.

Mrs. Welshoff is offering opportunities to order books for your child through Scholastic Book Club.
If you choose to order books from the site, please use the Class Code N283J when placing orders.
This is offered monthly, and is very easy to do through the website. https://clubs.scholastic.com/home
If you do place an order, please send a quick email to Mrs. Welshoff to let her know or you can tell
your child to let her know. She will be placing orders for this month December 11th. If you want to
keep this a secret for the holidays, please let her know to not mention that the books arrived and
she will put them aside so that you can pick them up here at school! This is a great way to help
build Mrs. Welshoff’s classroom library, as when she receives orders, she also gains opportunities
to add new titles to her library!

We are also holding our first Team Taylor Raffle. The students have been very busy earning
Team Taylor money in order to spend it at the Term One Raffle. In the past, parents have
donated items to this raffle. The most popular items to donate are big bags of candy
(Skittles, Swedish Fish, Chocolate etc) It can also be any item that a sixth grader would enjoy,
gift cards to Froyo, Taco Bell, Itunes, Gamestop for example. Also we have great success with
simple things such as small items, nail polish, lip balm, tech decks, school supplies, etc. We will
begin collecting these items next week. We couldn’t do this all without you and your help! The
raffle will take place in school on December 21.

We continue to encourage you at home to take a look at your student's agenda book and compare
it to our website homework. We also encourage you to check your child's grades via the Aspen
portal. Students are realizing how important it is to complete their homework assignments with
great effort. This has a direct impact on their grades.

As a part of our Admirable Attribute program, Team Taylor recognizes two students from our
team who exemplify the attribute from the authors we read in 6th grade. December's attribute
is Perseverance.

We value the home/school relationships, please feel free to contact us if you have any concerns
or questions about your child's progress. We have times built into our schedule for parent/teacher
conferences. We meet as a team and discuss your child's progress. Email is the best method to
reach us.

Warm regards,

Team Taylor Teachers

Important Dates This Month:

December 3 - Term 1 Grades Close

December 21 - Team Taylor Raffle

December 24 - Jan. 1 No School

Team Taylor Admirable Attribute Recipients:

September - Optimistic - Seth O. & Lily D.

October - Curious - Zachary T. & Eden D.

November - Respectful - To be nominated soon!

December - Perseverance -

January - Generous -

February - Creative -.

March - Compassionate -

April - Independent -

May- Flexible -

June - Responsible -