Hello 8 Blue Families! High school placements are underway.
Here are some helpful links for more information:
Oak Counselors’ Page:
https://schools.shrewsburyma.gov/oak/counselors
SHS Program of Studies: https://campussuite-storage.s3.amazonaws.com/prod/11162/b2004386-1ca3-11e6-b537-22000bd8490f/2047293/b77e8626-4780-11ea-aaed-0ab0c19a3cbd/file/Copy%20of%20POS20-21.pdf
High School Information for Parents:
https://schools.shrewsburyma.gov/oak/high-school-information-for-grade-8-families
Presentation that the students saw:
https://schools.shrewsburyma.gov/oak/course-selection-presentation

We are also looking forward to our field trip to see Midsummer's Night Dream in Boston this April.
Please make sure you have signed the permission slip in the Parent Portal and send in a check for $27 made out to Oak Middle School. Let us or Anne Koertge know if this a financial difficulty for your family.

Applications for the Shrewsbury Middle School Unified Basketball Team are now being accepted.
Sherwood and Oak are now accepting applications for “partners” who are interested in participating on the Unified basketball team.  Our Unified Team will consist of “athletes” - students with intellectual disabilities or autism spectrum disorders, and “partners” - students without these disabilities.  We are proud to say that we have 7 Oak and 5 Sherwood athletes. At this time we are accepting applications for 24 partners - 14 from Oak and 10 from Sherwood.
Prospective partners will need to submit an application no later than Monday, Feb 25th.  Selected students will be notified by the end of the day on February 28th.
Please CLICK HERE to fill out your application.
Practice and Game Schedule
All practices start at 3:00 and games start at 3:30

1. 3/2 - Practice
2. 3/4 - Practice
3. 3/9 - Practice
4. 3/12 - Game - Home against Auburn - Confirmed
5. 3/16 - Practice
6. 3/18 - Game away against Skyview (Tentative) Bus transportation to and from the game is provided.
7. 3/24 - Practice
8. 3/25 - Practice
9. 3/31 Jamboree at Fowler Middle in Maynard. Bus transportation to and from the jamboree is provided.

As soon as partners are notified of acceptance, parents/participants need to do the following:
1.    Complete the  Colonial ID found on the PowerSchool parent portal
2.    Completed Player Contract.
3.    Submit a copy of a physical that was completed on or after February 2, 2019. 

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We have been learning about the elements and the periodic table. Students are learning how elements and compounds have very different properties. After break, we will be working on chemical reactions.

MCAS Testing Dates for Spring 2020
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April 1 & 2 - ELA
April 29 & 30 - Math
​May 7 & 8 - Science

This week we wrapped up Ancient Rome and are currently starting the transition from the ancient world to the Middle Ages.  Ask your son or daughter about Roman engineering innovations, government structure, and why Julius Caesar is still a relevant figure to study.

We took a break in the curriculum last week to wrap up our Geography Bee on team.  I'm happy to say I've never had so many students make it so far in the preliminary rounds!  We also took some time to talk about what was happening in the news regarding Iran.  We focused on the importance of understanding the historical background behind many current world issues to help us form our own opinions and thoughts about things in the news.  I was very proud of the students' excellent questions and their respect of each other's differing opinions on some aspects of the situation.

In the curriculum, one of the skills we are focusing on this year is synthesis of new information and analysis of both familiar and unfamiliar sources.  This week we have been dissecting the thought process that leads to forming conclusions about the various types of information we see on a daily basis and how to analyze the validity and meaning of that information.  Students are practicing this by forming conclusions using various sources on the Byzantine Empire to answer the question: Are the Byzantines their own unique civilization or just an extension of the Romans?  
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We are thankful for you and all the support you give our students. Here is what they are thankful for.

We finished our unit on Forces and Motion by building a car seat for an egg that was going to crash into a wall. Then everyone wrote about how understanding Newton's Laws of Motion helped them protect the egg.