Greenfield Middle School

Greenfield Middle School 2018-2019 FALL Athletic Registration

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 BIG Y EXPRESS ~   

Education Express is a Family Program to help our local schools get FREE, much needed supplies & equipment!

PLUS,

• Everyone can participate!  Do you have children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews or even neighbors?  You can support their school by signing up for Education Express. 
• And from February 1 through April 25, 2018, for every 500 Education Express Points earned, you get a GOLD COIN!
• Just shop our stores and look for the participating items marked with the Education Express logo.  Each item will have a point value and savings on top of that!
• Through previous Big Y Education Express program, together we've given our local schools approximately $14 Million Dollars of much needed supplies and equipment! 

To sign up, please click the link below:

www.bigy.com/rs/educationexpress

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Recorder: "Water project for Puerto Rico wins top honors for Greenfield Middle School robotics team"

Post Date: December 19, 2017

Water project for Puerto Rico wins top honors for Greenfield Middle School robotics team

By JOSHUA SOLOMON Recorder Staff

Sunday, December 17, 2017

GREENFIELD — The robotics class tossed around different ideas for their community service project. The one catch was it has to be related to water.

They were going to enter a robotics competition down in Agawam to compete against western Massachusetts schools, and this year’s theme was water. So the class, led by sixth-grade Greenfield Middle School teacher Rachel Cummings, first thought about an idea involving access to showers for homeless people in town.

When Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in September, the class soon changed its plans. They wondered how they could get people clean water there.

Then, when a student from Puerto Rico enrolled in the Middle School after moving here following the hurricane, the connection grew stronger. The student joined the robotics Community Service Learning class, which meets for the final 45 minutes of the school day.

As a student without knowing English yet, she helped proofread their project, translated in Spanish. This way, their purification system not only was conceptually a strong idea to help those in Puerto Rico, but also it was more accessible to residents there with directions in Spanish of how to build their own device.

“It means a lot because you know you’re helping to the world,” William Ainsworth, 11, said.

Their project, which they also intend on documenting with the school’s film club, not only was an idea they were proud of, but it was one particularly well received by judges at the robotics competition they participated in earlier this month — earning them top honors in the community service category for the region’s Massachusetts FIRST LEGO League Alliance competition.

The robotics team, just formed, was competing formally in its first competition. Although they did not place in the competition in terms of their robot, built using various technology and LEGOs, and then coded on the computer, the GMS team did win in the community service element of the competition, and that was with their project to help out people in Puerto Rico.

“We went with the intent to learn and have fun,” said Cummings, who is excited to continue to build the team, made up of students in her class.

At December’s School Committee meeting, the robotics class, which was sponsored by Brad’s Place at the competition with T-shirts and food, showed off its new trophy and told the committee about their achievements and project.

Earlier in the day, though, while preparing to present before the School Committee, students tinkered with their robots. They were eager to use what they had learned from the judges and from other schools so that they could get better at what they were doing in a class that functionally acts like a math class, a coding class and, at times, an English class. But for most of them, it’s simply seen as their favorite class.

“This is a good group of students and it brings us together,” Jacob Petrin, 11, said. “We’re all learning and learning from our mistakes.”

You can reach Joshua Solomon at: jsolomon@recorder.com 413-772-0261, ext. 264

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School Start and Dismissal Times 

Students are to be in school by 7:30 AM and enter through the back door (between gym & cafe).  Door open at 7:15 AM.

After 7:30 students must enter through main entrance on Federal Street.

Dismissal is at 3:40, Monday through Friday

Early Release is 11:10

TO REPORT AN ABSENCE, PLEASE CALL 413-772-1360 AND PRESS “3”

Upon return to school, please bring a note explaining the absence.

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What makes us so special?

Did you know that GMS has...

(Items in bold are exclusive to GMS)

• ELA and Math Skills blocks in addition to regular academic courses
• Title I services for all students
• WIFI around the entire building
• Equestrian every day for a select group of 6th graders
• Field trips to GCC (Theater), Highland Pond, Sachem's Head, Montshire Museum, The Boston Science Museum, Connecticut Science Museum, and more
• Advisory meetings each day
• Sports (fall, winter and spring) for 6th and 7th graders
• Coding courses for 5th-7th graders
• Coding and robotics clubs after school
• Chromebooks for 5th-7th graders
• Theater, Family & Consumer Science, PE, Technology, Art, Band, Spanish, Health, and Literacy in Technology offered to all students
• Theme/Spirit days
• Monthly trips to the YMCA for the entire grade
• Free breakfast in the classroom every day 
• Free healthy snacks in the classroom every day
• Cycle Kids for 5th graders
• Student Council
• Multiple cultural assemblies/events
• One School, One Read
• New and improved lunch offerings
• Individualized band lessons
• Student leadership opportunities
• Jazz, Wind Ensemble, and Concert Band groups
• Source to sea cleanup for 5th grade  
• Community Service Learning block for all students

GMS Mission Statement

Middle School students engage in extensive community service, project-based learning, and thematic activities, connected to a rigorous and meaningful academic program of study.