East Granby Youth Services
Thanks again to EGYS for coming in for their monthly lunchtime check ins to promote social and emotional health in our middle school students! This week's focus was on how to teach our students how to ground themselves when they are anxious or overstimulated.
2026 CAS Scholar-Leader Awards
Congratulations to Oakley Ferguson and Darsitha Nair for earning the prestigious Connecticut Association of Schools Scholar Leader Awards from East Granby Middle School! We celebrated them with their families at the Aqua Turf on Monday, May 18.
Q4 Announcement Team
Many thanks go out to Akshara Rajesh and Landon Estabrook for kicking off each day at EGMS with the Pledge of Allegiance and the morning announcements! Great job!
General Music Grade 6
In Ms. Chaloux's class, the students are working hard on learning the basics about the guitar!
Click on this LINK to hear them play!
Grade 7 Robotics
In Mr. Berardy's class, students are creating and collaborating with building robots and teaching them to carry out tasks.
AED Donation
EGPS Alumnus Nate Marin came to our school to present and demonstrate a donated AED from AED Service America. We were joined by town leadership as Mr. Marin showed us how to use the AED in the event of someone having cardiac arrest.
In the first picture, from L to R:
- EGHS Principal, Tony Demelo
- EGHS/MS Nurse Lori Kilty
- AED Representative Nate Marin for AED Service America
- Director of Pupil Services Joshua Martin
- Superintendent Suzanne Palmieri
- EGMS Principal Tim Phelan
- First Selectperson Jason Hayes
- Board of Education Chairman Bob Paskewicz
April and May Students of the Month
April:
Grade 6 - Myles Jones
Grade 7 - Kaitlyn Triblets
Grade 8 - Jonathan Mazzaferro
May:
Grade 6 - Elena LaTorra
Grade 7 - Alyssa Lengyel
Grade 8 - Cassandra Fairlie
SBAC: Over!
Mr. Fusco's class took a walk outside and found a guest mascot to celebrate the end of SBAC this week!
PTO: Teacher Appreciation Week
Many thanks to the EGMS PTO for celebrating our teachers everyday this week! It's been great having some form of fuel and treats everyday! On behalf of the EGMS Faculty and Staff, thank you so much for your positive thoughts and efforts in making us feel celebrated!
Volleyball Club
Ms. Pelletier started up a new club at EGMS: Volleyball Club!
Students with a variety of skills have been coming to this club after school on Mondays and Thursdays. They've been having lots of fun with skill development and playing games.
Q3 Announcement Team
Many thanks to Oakley Ferguson and Veronica Goncalves for brightening our day every morning with the announcements!
Great job!
National DAR Winner
It is with great excitement that we announce that Sofiia Boiarchuk is the winner of the 2025-2026 National Daughters of the American Revolution essay contest. Sofiia’s contest entry was a historical fiction story about having lunch with one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Sofiia has been invited to speak and to share her work at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. this June at the National DAR Convention. Congratulations Sofiia on your tremendous achievement!
Grade 6 ELA
Check out these photos of the students who were published in a book for the story contest they submitted to earlier this year. The contest was called "Stranger Sagas." Their task was to write a 100-word short story about something mysterious or unusual.
Once on this Island
Congrats to our EGMS/EGHS Drama Club for putting quite the show last weekend! They rocked the house with some great singing, dancing, and crew production. Many thanks to Mrs. Gilbert and Mrs. Mullane for all of their dedication and effort in working with our amazing student performers!
New England League of Middle Schools (NELMS) Conference
We had a team visit the annual conference in Springfield, MA on March 19 and 20. Speaking on behalf of the team, it was nice to meet with 400+ fellow middle school educators from the six states in New England and go to workshops to improve our practice here at EGMS! The common theme, without a doubt, was that making human connections with our students in this VERY unique developmental level is the MOST important tool in our toolbox as educators. Not content... not the 3 R's... but connection. Tapping into the social emotional well being of our students goes so much further than the other stuff in the long term academic and social growth of our students at this age. One profound statement that sits with me form this conference: "It's not about 'improving student achievement'... it's about 'achieving student improvement'." (Jeff Rodman, NELMS Executive Director). Many thanks to Kyle Fusco (Gr 8 ELA), Laureen Dabrowski (Gr 7 Math), and Kelly Zils (Gr 6 SpEd) for joining me!
8th Grade Science
Ms. Taylor has been doing a great job filling in for Dr. Faulkner while she recovers from becoming a humorously self proclaimed "bionic science teacher". In Dr Faulkner's absence, Ms. Taylor has been doing some hands on work while studying fossils. Her students had the opportunity to dig for bones and try to assemble the skeleton in groups!
Chromebook Damage and Repair
Our IT Department has been busy lately due to misuse of our devices. Please take a peek at the photos, but this list below sums up just a few recent cases of chromebook damage:
- Liquid spilled on keyboard (which fries the whole motherboard)
- Thumbprint-sized cracks on screens held irresponsibly
- Colored pencil jammed in the battery that could have caused a fire
- Keys intentionally popped out then switched or lost
- Edges broken from dropping or mispacking
To the point, while we recognize that these devices are used a lot by an age group that pretty much wears and tears at anything they wear or use, we would like to see a better effort by our students so as not to overwhelm our IT department with unnecessary repairs. Parents, please echo this and support this at home while we do our best here at school. Thanks in advance for your support.
Grade 8 Health: EGYS Visit
Mr. Ziff's 8th Grade Health class had guests today! East Granby Youth Services and Amplify worked with the 8th graders as an extension of the substance abuse unit.
Grade 7 Family and Consumer Science
In Mrs. Corey's FACS class, 7th graders are learning how to use sewing machines and how to iron.
Grade 7 Read Aloud
After a week of evaluating and analyzing text evidence for deeper meaning, students in Ms. Pelletier's 7th grade ELA class took a break to enjoy a read aloud from a guest. No matter how advanced we continue to become as readers, being read to is a nostalgic experience that we never outgrow!
