Family Update: February 7, 2026
We are now three full weeks into our 3rd quarter. Report cards went home in Friday Folders last week and we hope families took time together to carefully look at grades and comments with their students.
A big highlight from this past week was our annual 7th grade HerStory presentation. Our students knocked it out of the park! In fact, it was a big week of performances. In addition to our own, we were also inspired by a field trip to the beautifully renovated Zeiterion theatre on Thursday. Our whole school enjoyed MOMIX’s modern dance performance of Alice in Wonderland. We are suggesting informal homework for the month of February: read or watch as many versions of Alice in Wonderland as possible, and talk about how they are similar and different.
On Wednesday Judith Kalaora, a professional actress and living historian, performed her original work I Now Pronounce You Lucy Stone, which shares the story of Lucy Stone, the Massachusetts suffragist and abolitionist. Judith has been working with the 8th grade students as a part of a joint Creative Suite and Humanities project, in which the 8th graders put on a play about the women’s suffrage movement. Judith's performance provided deep insight into the life of one suffragist who is featured in the 8th graders’ play, further enriching all students’ understanding of the intertwined struggles to end slavery and win universal suffrage.
OSS’s Winter SPARK program is a 4-week STEAM and art design program hosting eleven 3rd and 4th grade girls. So far, students in the program have joined fun and games with Project Adventure, been introduced to the world of digital art using Procreate, and most recently, practiced watercolor skills! Our OSS student mentors have done a great job welcoming and sharing the OSS experience with our participants!
8th Grade Science participating in Mass Audubon’s Climate Democracy Project: Abby Abrahamson from Mass Audubon is joining 8th grade science classes for the Climate and Sustainability unit. Mass Audubon’s Climate Democracy Project (CDP) focuses on civic and climate literacy education. Students are learning to identify local climate justice issues important to them, then design and lead civic action projects that address those local issues. Coming right up, 8th graders will head to the hurricane barrier to continue our discussion on the effects of flooding to businesses and properties in close proximity to the harbor.
Today we highlight the Penikese Nature & Science Discovery Camp for girls entering 7th or 8th grade. Penikese Island is a wildlife sanctuary located near Cuttyhunk. The one-week camp sessions aim to provide students with role models of women in STEM and to foster their confidence in science, in nature, and in themselves.
Camp sessions fill quickly and the application is only open Feb. 2-20. Please let Ms. Sanders know if you’d like to apply so she can help you register ASAP!
Week 1: July 6 –10
Week 2: July 13 – 17
Week 3: July 20 – 24
Week 4: July 27 – 31
Week 5: Aug 3 – Aug 7
Financial aid application – Scholarship applications are part of camp registration.
We encourage you to explore additional sleepaway camps on our Summer Programs website!
Calendar Highlights:
Spirit Week Info:
Monday – Regular uniform day (no dress up)
Tuesday – Decades Day
Wednesday – Wacky Day
Thursday – Three C’s Day (Character, Color, or Celebrity)
Friday – Regular uniform day (no dress up), Winter Carnival
Update: our January and February all school birthday party will happen Friday Feb 13th as part of our Winter Carnival. Treat donations appreciated!!
Performing Arts Showcase:
We also warmly invite families to attend our Performing Arts Showcase, Friday Feb. 13, 8:45-9:45. We are so proud of our students’ hard work and would love for you to join us in celebrating them, but understand if you can’t make it as the event is during work hours.
Family Service Credit Opportunities:
February 10 from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm – Suffrage Play Costume Support
February 12 from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm – AHA Night
February 13 from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm – Winter Carnival
Please use link to sign up for these opportunities!
Fabulous resource!
Our Grade 7 and 8 math work this year has our older OSS students on the move! How are we getting there?
We are using Maneuvering the Middle and All Things Algebra curriculum materials, along with IXL practice, to frame a study of foundational pre-algebraic skills and algebra concepts. Each lesson offers a set of guided notes, independent practice and activities to engage students in the process of learning how to learn increasingly complex math ideas and skills.
So far seventh grade students have studied the properties of real numbers, how to work with algebraic expressions, and how to solve equations. Currently seventh grade students are using their developing skills to solve problems related to ratio, proportion and percent with an algebraic approach. Next, seventh grade students will move into an introduction to functions and linear relationships.
Eighth grade students have gone through a study of algebra basics, learned how to solve multi-step equations, tackled functions and function notation and have nearly completed an in depth study of linear functions. Next up, eighth grade students will extend their skills to include solving inequalities and systems of equations that have two variables!
All along the way we have been working to shore up foundational skills related to being able to add, subtract, multiply and divide whole numbers, integers, fractions and decimals. We also needed to help students understand exponents and roots. The students have come so far both in terms of skills and resilience. Now faced with a multi-step problem like long division of decimals there may be an initial groan of frustration but, on the whole, students know how to get started and dig in to the required work. We are so proud of them. We will continue to work with doing calculations by hand, on paper until we are very confident that these core arithmetic skills are solidified. They are well on their way!
Huge kudos go to all of our seventh and eighth grade students who were surprised to learn how quickly we were going to move in our study of mathematics. I am sure some students felt a little whiplash as we dug into our work together in September. So many students surprised themselves. They didn’t know that they could learn so much so quickly. What a celebration! For students who need extra support to access math learning there are many opportunities for extra help. Being able to teach in a team of two means there is a lot of individual attention available for students to ask questions, hear the lesson again or in a different way and get encouragement. We also see students in small groups during Genius Flex Block when we see they need help or they ask for additional support. Please reach out to Ms. McGonagle if you have any questions or want to learn more about our approach!
Save the Date: Mother’s Day 5k!
Stay busy during February break. Check it out and sign up!
Happy shoveling!! We look forward to seeing everyone Monday!
Ms. Herman and the OSS Team