[email protected] january 31, 2020 dear smash families
TRANSCRIPT
Dear SMASH Families,
Thank you to Student Council for organizing our Tropical Themed Family Dance Feb. 7th 6-8pm!
In order to make the Family Dance a fun and safe experience for all, please be sure to review these guidelines as a family prior to arriving at the event:
OPEN AREAS for the dance: inside the Cafeteria and outdoors around the lunch benches
CLOSED AREAS: the Muir side, front of school, upstairs and yards are dark, unsupervised, and closed during the Family Dance
Enjoy the dancing, food and visiting with friends in the designated event spaces!
Thank you for your help in keeping this this positive community gathering possible.
Jessica
[email protected] January 31, 2020
DATES TO REMEMBER!
Monday, February 3 School Tour
Core 4 Malibu Lagoon
10:00 am
Friday, February 7 Core 4 Heal the Bay
SMASH Family Dance
6:00 pm
Sunday, February 9 Core 4 in Yosemite naturebridge,
February 9 - 14
Friday, February 14 Core 1 Valentine's Day Shower
Monday, February 17 NO SCHOOL: Presidents' Day
Wednesday, February 19 PTSA executive board meeting,
PTSA general meeting: Dr. Drati
budget presentation,
5:30pm
6pm
Saturday, March 28 “Save the Date”
SMASH Arts & Letters Sale
7:00-10:00 pm
Valentine’s Day Shower in Core 1
On Friday, February 14, we will have a Valentine Shower in our Circle Groups. Children are invited to bring 24 unaddressed valentines from home. We will decorate a valentine bag in school. Each child will have a turn to sit in the middle of the circle while the community chants:
Will you be our valentine, valentine, valentine?
Will you be our valentine?
We love you!
We shower the child with flying valentines. The child collects the valentines and fills their bag. We kindly request that you leave candy, crafts, and toys at home and bring only the paper valen-tines. Your child can sign their name to the card, but please do not address them.
Partners - Graciela’s Workshop Group
Spring conferences are right around the corner. You will be getting a google doc to sign up for con-ferences at the end of February. Please see me or Jessica if you have any questions about the dis-trict assessments.
Bigs - Chrysta’s Workshop Group
Some Nuts & Bolts for Bigs Families: I will be in Yosemite with Core 4 from February 10 - February 14. Jen Mack will be my guest teacher (and will run the Valentine’s Shower). Jen Mack will also be my guest teacher from March 4 - 6 while I am at a conference in San Francisco. That means that I will hold our 20 minute parent-teacher conferences on March 2 & March 3, during the school day and after school. I will post the sign-up online and will be publishing the link for you, soon. Lastly, after reading Jessica’s 1/28 email, please let me know if you have any questions about the district math assessment.
Mentors - Ale’s Workshop Group
Our Spring parent/teacher conferences are fast approaching. This time you will sign up for confer-ences directly with me. I have the schedule ready so if you wish to have first choice please come in and see me before school to sign up. I will start confernces the week of 2/24 to offer some early morning spots (7:45am). I will be sending the schedule via google doc next week so you can sign up on line. In addition, please be aware of Jessica’s email, sent on 1/28/20, regarding the interim math testing. I will be proctoring the test mid February. Have a great weekend!
Upcoming Events: Friday, February 14 - Valentine’s Day Shower
Monday, February 17 - SCHOOL CLOSED for President’s Day
Monday, March 2 - 6 - 1:30pm Dismissal ALL week for BIgs and Mentors Parent/Teacher Conferences
Friday, March 6 - JOG-A-THON 10:30am-12:30pm
Core 1 Team
Graciela, Nadja, Chrysta, Lydia, Alejandra, Juana, Marcus, Anne, Coach Angel Graciela: [email protected] Chrysta: [email protected]
Alejandra: [email protected]
CORE 1 NEWS
CORE 2 NEWS
Upcoming Events: 2/5/20 IAB ELA Test 2/12/20 IAB Math Test 2/14/20 Valentine’s Day 2/24/20 Sarah’s Advisory - Field Trip to the Autry Museum * Chaperones Needed*
Valentine’s Day in Core 2
Core 2 is excited to celebrate Valentine’s Day on Friday, February 14th. We will be using this day as an opportunity to show gratitude towards each other and celebrate each member of our community. In class, students will create giant hearts on large sheets of paper and their classmates will write positive, personalized messages on them. With this in mind, students are not required to bring anything else in on Valentine’s Day. If a student chooses to do so, s/he may bring in cards to pass out as long as there is one for all of the 50 Core 2 students. (Small affixed items, such as pen-cils, stickers, and tattoos are okay.)
SMASH promotes good nutrition and supports the SMMUSD Wellness Policy which states: “We have low sugar school day celebrations, encourage “no thank you” tastes to new foods, and healthy community snacks.” In accordance with this policy, Core 2 will be asking that students re-frain from bringing in edible treats for the class on Valentine’s Day.
PS ARTS
Art with Julianna started two weeks ago! So far, the students have learned about the im-portance of framing/edges in a photograph and how to use vertical and horizontal lines. Using Ansel Adams as a mentor artist, they thought about how light reacts, mirror images, shadows, reflections, and contrasts: close-up vs. distant, night vs. day. They used this knowledge as a springboard for ripped paper collages and photographs. The students have created landscapes out of torn paper in order to create organic edges. They overlapped pieces of paper to create a layered look. Then they took photographs of architectural elements and plants. They were asked to consider the formal ele-ments (focusing on verticals and horizontals and framing it so the elements were parallel to the frame) and the story (what the picture makes you wonder). They are off to a great start!
Arts and Letters
This March, our school will be hosting a fundraiser. The students will be reaching out to chil-dren’s book illustrators to ask them if they would be willing to donate pieces of art. In their letters, they will ask the artists to draw images on enclosed postcards. The postcards will be displayed at the fundraiser, auctioned off, and will - hopefully - raise a lot of money for classroom materials.
The students have been asked to pour through different children’s books and find illustrators who really spoke to them. They tried to figure out what those chosen illustrators did to make their books engaging, how their styles made the students feel, and the moves the artists made to keep the reader engaged. The students harkened back to the knowledge they built during the materials investigation last fall to help them specifically identify the moves (directional lines, level of pressure, etc.) that those artists made when drawing and using watercolor. They considered how the illustra-tors used images as a way to teach or influence the observers. Soon, the students will craft letters to their chosen illustrators, asking for donations and sharing all that they appreciate about them as artists. Through this work, they will work on developing their letter writing, grammar, and editing skills.
All our best,
Carlee, Chrisauna, Christian, and Sarah
CORE 3 NEWS
5th Grade Math This week, mathematicians learned a new game, “Roll Around the Clock”, that helps with the prac-tice of adding fractions with unlike denominators. All of the fractions used in the game can use the common denominator of 12 (they are all factors of 12), which is why we’re relating it all to a clock, and it helps to visually show what is happening when you combine fractions. Also, we learned to play “Fraction Tracks” which helps mathematicians practice adding and subtracting fractions, as well as the ability to determine fraction equivalents. 6th Grade Math This week we worked on dividing decimals and using percents. Next week we will finish our decimal unit and take the unit assessment. Homework for Monday and Tuesday is to work through the re-view assessment with family members. Students will receive the review on Monday. We will take the unit assessment on Thursday. Social Studies This week continued our read aloud. We also worked on the physical geography of South America. In our US history study, we talked more about the 19th century wave of European immigration and looked specifically at the push and pulls of Irish immigration. In current events we talked about the recent helicopter tragedy, coronavirus, and the impeachment hearings. Writing & Science Scientists are researching NASA missions including the Endeavour, Discovery, Challenger, and Co-lumbia. They are working on comparing and contrasting the missions in preparation of writing a short essay on the topic. We’re using our note-taking skills that we’ve acquired through our synthe-sis pages to study each space shuttle. In preparation for writing our own science fiction stories, we’ve started to listen to a sci-fi mystery podcast, “The Unexplainable Disappearance of Mars Patel”. Writers are practicing the skill of note-taking and listening at the same time. We’ve also discovered that the author intentionally names characters and places, which we might try in our own writing. For example, the name of the school that the characters attend is H.G. Wells Middle School! Valentine’s Shower Core 3 will be celebrating Valentine’s Day on Friday, February 14. Students are invited to bring valentines (no food treats!) for EITHER their own advisory or the whole Core. Please make sure that they are signed to show who the valentines are FROM, but NOT who they are TO. This makes it easier to pass out during our celebration. All students will create a bag to receive their valentines, whether or not they choose to bring something to share. It is important to note that this celebration is about showing appreciation and including everyone, so please WAIT UNTIL AFTER SCHOOL if your child chooses to give something special to a select group of friends.
Have a wonderful three-day weekend!
Jayme: [email protected] Erin: [email protected]
CORE 4 NEWS
Announcements Tuesday, February 4 - Yosemite Bag Check Monday, February 3 - Malibu Lagoon - The Nya Group Friday, February 7 - Heal the Bay - The Salva Group Yosemite February 9-14 leaving Sunday 2/9. Please check in at SMASH parking lot at 7:15am. 7G take ELA Interim test Th 2/6 and Math Th 2/20. Students who opt out will stay in the room and read quietly. Please make sure they bring their just right book to school. 8G take ELA Interim test Th 2/6 and Math Tue 2/18. Students who opt out will stay in the room and read quietly. Please make sure they bring their just right book to school. Math 8th Grade Math: We are finishing up our unit on The Pythagorean Theorem. We worked on finding unknown side lengths. Algebra: We started learning about systems of linear equations. We learned how to solve them by graphing, using the substitution method, and using the elimination method. 7th Grade Math: Our mathematicians have a solid grasp around ratios which is great as we move into our second ratios unit, Comparing and Scaling. We will continue looking at ratios through story problems and proportions. Humanities - We are winding down our China unit with reviewing the highlights and Kahoots as well as experiencing our first round of debates looking at how a debate team can win. Projects - We had time with our Projects this week and worked on our ‘pitch’. How would we ex-plain our project in a few sentences? We also looked at experts we could interview and come up with questions we would ask. We also continued to think how best to write an introduction email to help with getting a response. Engineering - We are finishing our pull toy prototype by next week. A lot of the prototypes are look-ing really good. Many groups have put in a lot of effort into their prototypes. Dramatic Arts - We looked at different ways people have explored Shakespeare through song/rap and different performing art forms. Students should be ready next week to begin their choice project around Shakespeare.
Darwin Mendinueto - [email protected] Genie Hwang - [email protected]