Art Workshop at CTMS

Art Workshop at CTMS On Wednesday, May 23, the CTMS National Junior Art Honor Society along with advisors, Mrs. Backstrom and Mrs. Soderberg, held an Art Workshop afterschool for teachers and staff. Teachers were able to relax with music and refreshments while learning the art of Zentangle and creating their own original design. Students sat amidst the teachers assisting teachers in the creative process if needed.

Flower Dissections On Tuesday, May 15th, Thursday, May 17th, and Friday, May 18th, Mr.Stark’s and Mrs.Schmohl’s 7th grade classes visited Mrs.Humphrey’s, Mrs.Jewers’, Mrs.Jordan’s, Mrs.Esposito’s, Mrs.Brigham’s, and Mrs.Anderson’s second grade classes up at Naquag. Our mission was to teach each student one-on-one (or in some cases, two-on-one) about flower reproduction. In the picture displayed above (next-to/below) this article, I, Kara, and my friend, Cammi, are teaching our new friend, Kyle, the first thing we wanted him to know about flowers: what the petals, stem, leaves, and roots were. We weren’t surprised at all when he instantly rattled off to us what all four of those things were. The seventh grade spent the week of the 14th, and a little bit of the previous week, planning out how we were going to teach each of our second graders about flowers. Cammi and I printed out a few worksheets for our second grader to learn from; one consisted of definitions of five of the key flower terms: stamen, anther, pistil, stigma, and petals. We linked our definition worksheet with a color-by-letter worksheet. Our thought for this teaching tool was, who doesn’t love to color? I feel that teaching the second graders was very successful for both grades! The ‘youngins’ were very fun to work with! My peers and I agreed that we would all love to do it again and, hopefully, we will get that chance! The ‘little ones’ really seemed to enjoy it just as much as we all did. I think they learned a lot from us, but to our surprise, we learned a pretty equal amount from them! Teaching the second graders about flower reproduction was awesome!

~Kara Bailey, Mr.Stark’s 7th grade science class

ELA Awards Congratulations to Colette Patenaude, Meghan Riedle, and Sean Keller for winning first, second and third place in Ms. Sullivan’s short story contest. After lots of deliberation, teachers on the 7th/8th grade split team choose Colette’s story as the winner. Some say it was “breath taking” while others “really enjoyed how the plot unraveled.” Congratulations to all those who participated and keep up the good work! Colette, Meghan, and Sean will be able to share their stories with their classmates during Advisory the last week of school. In addition, Colette has won a new writers journal as well as a gift certificate to Barnes and Noble. Miss Sullivan really enjoyed reading all of the short stories and wishes all 8th graders the best of luck in the years to follow.

Let’s Play Ball! Baseball education took place for CTMS on Thursday, May 31st. The entire school paraded into the Worcester Tornadoes’ stadium to watch the game against the Newark Bears. Once seated, students were given a hat and a packet of questions to answer prior to the game. The answers to these questions where revealed throughout the game by volunteers in the audience. Also, seventh grader, Nicholas Yanco, participated in the pre-game ceremonies by throwing the first pitch. He along with eighth grader, Zachary Gull, acted as batboys for our stay. Overall, it was a great day for a game and the students in attendance were respectfully, the loudest in the stands!