ERIC S. SMITH MIDDLE SCHOOL

🚌Today we TRAVELLED….to the historic sites of Philadelphia 📍What's happening: Grade 6 students visited historic Philadelphia, PA! This trip celebrates the 6th graders and their hard work as the end of the year approaches, marking a memorable culmination of their studies. 💭Why it matters: The 6th Grade social studies curriculum is designed to explore the theme of citizenship by examining various early civilizations and societies with a focus on the American Colonies and the founding of our country. Students visited the relevant historic sites such as… 🏛Congress Hall 🔔The Liberty Bell 🏡The Betsy Ross House 💲The US Mint ⛪Christ Church 🚪Elfreth’s Alley 💡The Benjamin Franklin Museum 📜A highlight of the journey was the visit to the National Constitution Center, where students explored exhibits and viewed a show dedicated to the United States Constitution. ⭐The bottom line: This experience not only connects students with the decisions made in the 18th century but also illustrates their impact on our lives today and serves as an excellent introduction for the civics education that students will receive in 7th grade! 🎉Special thanks to Ms. Young for organizing such a great trip, and to all our wonderful teacher chaperones!

🎤Today we PRESENTED…our Grade 7 Civic Action Project Presentations! ⭐ 7th grade students presented their Civic Action projects to the entire 7th grade and a panel of staff judges. Over the past months, 7th grade Social Studies classes have worked on projects aimed at improving the Smith School community. Students have worked on identifying and selecting a topic, researching their topic, surveying students & staff, and developing interview questions for administrators such as Dr. Matteo, Dr. Buinno, and Dr. Esdale to gain valuable insights from community stakeholders. Today’s presentation featured the information students got from their research, detailed their process of identifying a school based issue, and delivered a proposal for actionable change 👏Thank you to all our student presenters as well as our Grade 7 Social Studies teachers- Ms. Acebo, Ms. Aiello, Mr. Schrettner, and Ms. Ung! ➡️What's next: Select student groups will be chosen to present at Rutgers Unviersity’s Youth in Action Summit, where young people from across New Jersey and New York City will be sharing their research and recommendations on topics of deep concern to them.  More than 200 students and 50 teachers are expected to attend!

💪💪Today we PREPARED... for the Grade 7 Civics Action Research Presentation tomorrow ‼️ Our 7th graders have researched, collaborated, and worked hard to investigate topics that could help improve the 📒📘Smith Middle School Experience! Mrs. Ung's class is confident and ready to go ✅✅

March Madness Spirit Week at Smith kicks off MONDAY 3/24! Check out the flyer for each day's Spirit Theme to join in the FUN!

This week, Grade 7 students met with central office administrators to further develop their Civic Action Projects! Over the past months, 7th grade Social Studies classes have worked on projects aimed at improving the Smith School community. Students have worked on identifying and selecting a topic, researching their topic, surveying students & staff, and developing interview questions On Wednesday, students met with Dr. Matteo and Dr. Buinno to ask questions about topics ranging from homework & cellphone policies, school lunch prices, curriculum options, and more Why It Matters: This is an authentic opportunity for students to be able to talk to administrators who are direct stakeholders in the student experience at Smith What's next: Students will be meeting with school-based administrators such as Dr. Esdale & Ms. Rejent to further address their questions aiming at taking actionable steps within their topics. Later this year, all 7th grade students will create a plan and present on their ideas and proposals for change

Ms. Meyers' 6th grade science classes were water molecules for a day as they traveled from reservoir to reservoir in this water cycle simulation. They learned that water is always moving and may spend a long time in one reservoir! Maybe 10,000 years in a glacier!!! 😳

🦮Today we LEARNED from author Craig Grossi ‼️ A Former US Marine, Mr. Grossi met a stray dog while stationed in Afghanistan. Both of their lives changed from meeting one another, and our Grade 8 students got to hear the story firsthand from Mr. Grossi. 🐶 Currently, Grade 8 students are working on their memoir unit. Mr. Grossi also provided some insights into his own writing 📝process as well. ✅Thank you to Mrs. Larsen for coordinating this special event 🐾

Get your tickets now! https://bit.ly/3FxP0aM This show is not to be missed. The first night of Into the Woods was amazing. Two more shows left - Friday and Saturday at 7.

"Laissez les bons temps rouler!" Madame Treger's French classes learned all about Mardi Gras and its cultural traditions. They worked in groups on a reader's theater workshop and performed skits. They made themed floats out of shoeboxes for their class parade and voted on creativity and theme. The overall winner was the beach volleyball float. Students enjoyed a delicious King's Cake. A fun time was had by all!

Please join me in congratulating all of our 7th and 8th grade "Battle of the Books" teams for their stellar participation in the County Competition this morning! They were not only exceptional in their abilities to recall information and answer successfully, but they demonstrated superb sportsmanship and represented Ramsey in the best light. Both of our teams got every question correct in the first half of the competition, with "Overbooked" getting every question correct in both rounds. "The Smart Aleks" finished 3rd with an impressive 64 points and "Overbooked" placed 2nd after losing by 1 question in the Tie Breaker round, finishing with 80 points. Congratulations to The “Smart Alecks”: Arlette Ngabo, Joey Burns, Ayan Chung, Isabella Benfanti, Em Sands, and Erin Lee! Congratulations to “Overbooked”: Alishba Khan, Nyla Hashimi, Sully Oberle, Bobby Howard, Kudrat Kaur, and Dante Chung! Special shoutout to our supportive and excited audience participants: David Yale, Emma Latorre, Ethan Cabrera, Elena Oppenberg, Alexandra Zizza, Elanur Belen, and Melanie Meneses! TOMORROW, our 6th grade teams will travel to compete in the Bergen County Battle of the Books competition! We wish you best of luck as you represent Smith School. GO RAMS!

🐶Today, Team 6-1 students got to meet and interview a K-9 Officer! ELA students have spent the past weeks engaged in a journalism unit learning skills such as interview questions, how to find reliable information, and how to define a clear purpose for an article. 🐾This week, the Ramsey Police Department visited the 6th grade students to answer their research questions, give a first-person perspective on working with police dogs, and give our students a chance to meet our K9 police dog, Jack! Officer Michael Hamersma took part in an interview with students answering questions on the police dog selection process, what types of police work Jack has done, and what the training process for Jack is like. 🔍Jack performed a demonstration for students showing how he might track a lost person or item. Jack also got some time to play with the students and enjoy some affection from our 6th grade students. Why It Matters: This experience provides valuable learning insights and firsthand exposure to how journalists conduct interviews to gather quotes from experts. This experience is also used to teach students important elaboration techniques they can use in their future writing.  👏Special Thanks to Ms. Murphy and Ms. Mahoney for organizing this special event and to the Ramsey Police Department for providing such a fantastic experience for our students!

Grade 6 Science Students in Ms. Meyers’ class collaborated using 1,000 mL of water to create a scaled-down model of all the water stored in Earth’s reservoirs! They discovered that the oceans held over 950 mL of water while the atmosphere held less than 1 mL of water In their scaled-down model!

🎨 Today we are COLLABORATING... 🎨 Students in Ms. Hollm's Grade 6 Art class we working on their portion of what will become a larger piece of art work that includes bright colors, erased edges, sharp shapes, and a creative design. 🎨Thank you Ms. Hollm!

Gordon Korman visited Smith School today as our 2025 author visit! Author of over 100 popular middle school novels, Gordon Korman spoke to our students about his unique journey as an author, how his love of stories and writing started in Middle School, the inspiration and process behind his books, and the power of imagination in writing his novels, encouraging students to ask "What If?" questions and get creative! Gordon Korman also got a chance to have lunch with our 6th, 7th, and 8th grade Book Clubs to discuss the writing process further and sign books. Thank you to the Smith PTO and the Board of Education for your support in making this happen, as well as the Smith Library Staff, Dr. Esdale, and Mr. Lacherza!

Señora Stokes and Señor Urbina’s 7th grade Spanish classes wrapped up their unit on Love and Friendship by making friendship bracelets!

Bravo to the cast & crew of Smith's spring musical, Beauty & The Beast Jr.🌟

Congratulations to our Grade 6 and Grade 7/8 Battle of the Books teams on their successful Intra-School Competition. Since October, students have organized themselves into teams of no more than five to read a list of 15 books, discuss them, become experts on their contents, and hold meetings to quiz each other on the contents. Today, students competed against grade level teams for the School Competition title. In March, team representatives will travel to Cavallinni Middle School to compete at the Bergen County competition. Join us in congratulating the winners of today's In-School Battle of the Books Competition: From 6th grade, we had "The W's": Ava Gutherie, Brandon Wang, Max Patel, Oliver Mirzoyan-Morales, and Cedric Ngabo. From 7th/8th grade, we had "Overbooked": Alishba Khan, Sully Oberle, and Nyla Hashimi Excellent work to all the students involved! We wish our Battle of the Books teams good luck as they advance to the Bergen County Competition next month📚

🎭 Today we REHEARSED 🌹Our students are getting ready for their Spring Musical performance this weekend. We've practiced, choreographed, sang, danced, and laughed 😂 our way through the winter to bring Beauty and The Beast Junior to the Smith Middle School Stage! CAN'T. WAIT. 🏰🌹🦁

Happy Presidents Day! Today we honor the legacy of American leadership and the ideals that shaped our nation. 🇺🇸

🎶Today we PLAYED beautiful music! Thanks to an RPEF Grant, the 6th, 7th, and 8th grade Bands were able to have Dr. Elizabeth Peterson act as a guest conductor and host a Band Clinic over the course of a few days! 🎺Dr. Peterson is an esteemed former music professor of Ithaca college. Fun fact- she was the professor of all four of our Smith & RHS Music instructors (Ms. Hanratty, Mr. Stephenson, Mr. Baruch, and Mr. Jenkins!) 🎷This week, Dr. Peterson worked with students in preparation for the District-Wide Band Performance of Grades 6-12 that was hosted at Ramsey high school on Thursday evening. 🎼Thanks to our Music Department and the Ramsey Public Education Foundation for making this enriching experience possible!