V M S S o c i a l S t u d i e s D e p a r t m e n t U p d a t e s

October 3: 6 PM—Title I / AIS parent meeting October 18: 6th grade Welcome Party (2:30— 4:30 PM) October 16: 6 PM VMS PTO Meeting October 23: VMS Photo Day October 24: AM—VMS Building Planning Team Meeting

Oc

to

be

r 2

019

Vest

al M

idd

le Sc

ho

ol

U P C O M I N G E V E N T S

History keeps happening at Vestal Middle School…

VMS Social Studies students are off to a great start. We continue to “think like historians” by investigating perspectives and opinions throughout history. Our primary purpose in teaching social studies is to help our Vestal students devel-op the strategies to make informed and reasoned decisions as citizens of a cul-turally diverse society. The department’s recent work has been surrounded around inquiry design and enduring issues. We use enduring issues as a focal point to units throughout the year. These enduring issues are selected to en-hance the learning and support the social studies regents’ in high school. Stu-dents learn to look and interpret multiple perspectives on many events in US history and the world. A sample enduring issue may include:

8th: 20th century at War: Why is the world at war? (WWII / Cold War / Vi-etnam…) -enduring issues: expansion, desperation, benefit vs cost, power 7th: Westward Expansion: Was it destiny to move west? -enduring issues: expansion, impact of conflict, impact of power 6th: Cultural diffusion: Is cultural diffusion always good?

-enduring issues: impact of … conflict, power, technology

In other news, the 2019 regional Social Studies competition yielded amazing results again for Mr. Fey’s “VMS Team.” The students took 1st Place again in 2019, against the most teams to compete in the regional competition with about 15 schools. Over the past 4 years the VMS Regional Social Studies Team have won three 1st place trophies and three 3rd place trophies. We are the number one Social Studies force in the Southern Tier.

Mr. Spierling hosted a September 19th International Talk Like A Pirate Day. This was a History Lesson on Pirates and a fun time for all. Mr. Spierling takes the Pirate Quiz and gets a new Pirate Name in each class period. Students are entertained at the classroom transformation of pirates. He will continue this with History Club meeting weekly to see history through many eyes. Thank you for supporting the VMS Social Studies Department.

donations from drives and monetary

donations (from fund raisers and

individuals who support the program).

The items we stock in our food pantry

include:

Individual serving sizes of: Breakfast cereal Oatmeal Cereal Bars Granola Bars Fruit cups Dried Fruit (raisins/cranberries) Juice Boxes Peanut Butter

Pasta meals Tuna Fish Canned Chunk Chicken Mac and Cheese Instant Soup / Canned Soup Ramen Noodles Chili Stew Crackers Microwave Popcorn packs Pudding Cups Applesauce Animal Crackers Graham Crackers Individual Powdered Drink Mixes Hot Chocolate

The Vestal Middle School Building

Planning Team in cooperation with the

VMS Parent Teacher Organization and the

VMS Student Council initiated the

Vacation Power Pack program in the fall

of 2015. This program was

established to meet the

nutritional needs of some of

our students during long

weekends and school breaks

(when students do not have

access to school breakfast and

lunch programs). Through this

program, participating students (chosen

from students who receive free or reduced

breakfasts and lunches) are given

backpacks before long weekends and

holiday breaks that are filled with non-

perishable food which can be used to meet

their weekend nutritional needs. Studies

have shown that such programs help

students perform better in school and

decrease school absenteeism.

The program runs on donations—food

V a c a t i o n P o w e r P a c k s

DID YOU KNOW….. STUDENT COUNCIL

HAPPENINGS

The Student Council will

be sponsoring a 6th grade

Welcome Party on Friday,

October 18th. This is an

opportunity for our new

6th grade students to so-

cialize with their new

middle school peers.

The Regional Middle

School Student Council

Workshop will be held at

VMS on Thursday, No-

vember 7, 2019 (9 AM—

1:30 PM) in the African

Road Auditorium addi-

tion. Our keynote speaker

for the event will be Jo-

seph Hashey, owner of

Synergy Athletics. Our

VMS Student Council

members will participate

in the workshop as well as

assist with logistics for

the events. We would

like to invite all Board of

Education Members to

stop by for the event.

Our 6th grade students were invited to take a qualifying test for our Mathalon team. The Mathalon competition will be held at the McKinley the first Saturday in December.

Mrs. Laramee and Mrs. Graham are gearing up for the VMS Musi-cal auditions. Students are getting excited the closer we get to audi-tions and the start of the musical season. This year they will be per-forming Frozen.

The ARE and VMS Safety Teams met together on October 1st to discuss building safety and to complete two table-top emergency exercises.

VMS students are invited to participate in lunchtime activities once each month that will be informative as well as encouraging students to communicate with their peers. This program was instituted last year as a result of VMS Building Planning Team work.

VMS is entering into our 5th year of the Vacation Power Pack pro-gram—food backpacks for long weekends and holiday breaks.