GFMS Yearbooks are on sale! Purchase your yearbook online:
www.jostensyearbooks.com Yearbooks cost $52 and are not free for 8th grade students.
Any questions concerning the yearbook should be directed to the yearbook advisors:
Fran Russo - frusso@carmelschools.org OR Karen Nagel - knagel@carmelschools.org
At its May 7 meeting, the Carmel Board of Education recognized music students throughout the district who were selected for the All County and Honors ensembles. The Carmel Central School District Music Department has so much to be proud of each year.
“This year, we had over 50 students perform in Area All State,” said Music Department Chair Meghan Cabral. “We also had students perform with New York State School Music Association's All State festival and the New York State Band Directors' Association honor bands. Our George Fischer Middle School students stood out at the Putnam County Music Educators' Association all county festivals, too. This year we had over 70 students accepted! Each year we also have students earn Excellent and Outstanding ratings at the NYSSMA solo festival.”
Carmel Schools have been recognized as one of the best communities for music education by the National Association of Music Merchants’ (NaMM) for seven years running.
George Fischer Middle School sixth graders donned tri-corner hats and revolutionary garb for a historical walking tour of Carmel.
“We hiked the Fred Dill Sanctuary trail then went to Reed Memorial Library where Town Historian Alicia Briley spoke to the students about the history of Carmel,” Reading Teacher Denise Santalis said. “Then we marched across the street to the Sybil Ludington statue where students made an encampment with tents and then drilled.”
The field trip is a reading department tradition. It is the culmination of a unit of study about Sybil Ludington, Enoch Crosby and local history. Prior to the field trip, students read about Sybil Ludington, the 16-year-old daughter of Colonel Henry Ludington, and how she rallied the militia to make the march to Danbury, CT to fight the British. Students also read about Enoch Crosby, the first American spy. Known as one of the country’s first intelligence agents, Crosby predated the CIA by more than 150 years. He lived in Carmel and was a cobbler in Kent.
Santalis and the rest of the middle school reading staff -- Ornella Salza, Lisa Booth, Rich Tompkins and Lucy Weidenhamer – got help from Joe Ryan and Jon Svibruk of the Living History Educational Foundation. The foundation loaned the students the Revolutionary War uniforms, haversacks, cartridge boxes and wooden muskets.
The advisors of the Carmel Rock Ensemble club know how much fun the club at George Fischer Middle School can be for the students involved. Of course they know; the club’s two advisors, George Fischer Middle School Music Teacher Donald “Buddy” Griffith and Aja Broderson, who teaches voice lessons in the community were members of the Rock Ensemble when they were seventh graders.
“It was in the 2002-2003 school year,” Broderson said. “We sang ‘Take Me to the River,’ ‘Holiday,’ by Madonna and ‘All Along the Watch Tower.”
At the Carmel Rock Ensemble concert in March, the songs were a mix of contemporary pop, rock and roll covers and even punk, but the advisors made sure all the songs were appropriate for middle school.
“We cover a variety of singing styles, artists and backgrounds,” Griffith said. “We make sure there are a lot of different instruments reflected in the songs. We try to include current songs because the kids love them.”
Art created by Carmel Central School District students will be on display at multiple locations around the community during Youth Art Month in March. The Annual Youth Art Month Student Exhibit is sponsored by the Carmel/Kent Chamber of Commerce.
“We have about 120 students represented this year,” said Christine Wisniewski, the district’s Art Department chair. “They have created work in ceramics, graphics, drawing, painting and mixed media.”
The student work is on display at Kent Town Hall, Patterson Town Hall, Carmel Town Hall, Putnam Hospital, Meadowlands of Carmel, Kent Public Library, Patterson Library and more. The Chamber of Commerce will judge the show and announce awards in April.
The Carmel Central School District implemented a new reading program districtwide in the 2023-2024 school year. Watch this video to hear what students and teachers have to say about the Core Knowledge Language Arts, or CKLA, reading program.
Aiden and Nouhou had a theory. They knew that putting a Mentos mint candy inside a bottle of soda, would make the soda go volcanic, but would putting a Mentos in different kinds of sodas change the size of the explosion?
The boys’ project was one of 96 projects showcased in the George Fischer Middle School Science Fair. This year, students competed in four distinct categories: biology, earth and space, invention and physical science. Almost 200 students participated.
“The Science Fair is the district's largest academic event of the year, and this year was exceptional,” said Science Fair Advisor Jeff Diamonde. “We estimate that more than 300 people came out to support our students and see their work.”
For one weekend in January, the George Fischer Middle School auditorium was transformed into a Broadway-like stage. The actors and crew of Matilda the Musical Jr. created a show that drew standing ovations from crowds of admirers, and they had a great time doing it.
“I love acting,” said Ella Bancroft, who is president of the Drama Club. “But I think the most fun was getting to hang out with your friends every day.”
“It was also fun to make new friends,” said Analyse Pio, an eighth grader who is Drama Club secretary. The two girls each played Mrs. Wormwood in the play, which featured two different casts.
Seventh grader Aiden Forcheney, who played an “escapologist” in the show, said the play taught him that acting is very creative.
“I like learning new skills,” Aiden said. “We had to learn British accents. That was fun.”
Drama Club Co-Advisors Christine Ditota and Maureen Pio may have had the most fun of all. This was the second year that they teamed up to produce the middle school show.
“This program is working out so well,” said Ditota, who is a youth services librarian at the Kent Public Library. “I believe theater is extremely important. Theater inspires the children to create, imagine, play and experience other worlds and situations. Watching their confidence and willingness to jump in and get it done is something we should be proud of. “
With 53 middle school students and eight high schoolers involved, the cast and crew of the play was bigger than last year. The audience was bigger, too. Luckily, there were many helping hands.
“Ouch, that’s sharp,” a seventh grader said as the teacher passed around the claw of a great horned owl. “I wouldn’t want to get scratched by that.”
His classmates at George Fischer Middle School agreed.
Julia King, a naturalist at Putnam Northern Westchester BOCES’s Center for Environmental Education, visited Kerri Malheiro’s environmental science class in January and talked about the role of predators in an ecosystem.
“Why might an owl need sharp talons?” King asked.
“To take down their prey,” Christian said.
“That’s right,” King said. “And to carry it away. A great horned owl can lift 500 times its weight.”
The fourth graders lined up and marched into George Fischer Middle School earlier this month, eager to see what the next step in their education might be like.
“This is your first visit to the middle school,” said Dr. Merica Neufville, the middle school principal. “We are going to show you some of the things you can choose to do when you come here.”
First stop for the soon-to-be graduates of Carmel Central School District’s three elementary schools was an introduction to the middle school music department. The youngsters also learned that they would have some choice in their middle school education.
“I know that a lot of you are in chorus this year,” said Meghan Cabral, the district’s music department chair. “I hope many of you choose chorus in middle school, too. When you are in middle school, you will have the opportunity to do band and chorus or orchestra and chorus, but you do not have to choose any of them. All students will take general music.”
As an English teacher, Mallory Gray knows the importance of choosing the right word.
A member of the district’s Equity Committee, Gray helped her seventh-grade students think about the impact of words as part of the school district’s One Word Project. Then she guided the students as they turned their words into works of art.
The same process played out in each of Carmel Central School District’s five schools, where impactful words line the hallways.
"We did it during homeroom," said Gray, who teaches English at both George Fischer Middle School and Carmel High School. "The students thought it was cool. Our hope is that their one word is what they will turn to and keep in mind when they face hard times."
The Carmel Central School District Equity Committee’s goals for the 2023-24 school year included creating an affirming environment for our students, said committee member Michele Love, who teaches third grade at Matthew Paterson Elementary School.
The committee decided on the One Word Project, in which students choose one word to serve as inspiration for the year ahead. Students turned their One Word into a piece of art. Now the artwork is displayed in the hallways at every school and the words inspire students in every grade.
Date held for the field trip by Mr. Diamonde
Give-Back Day because of unused snow days. All Carmel Schools are closed.
Schools & Administrative Offices Closed
Fourth Grader Mingler will be held at GFMS 7 p.m.
