[email protected] October 11, 2019 PICTURE DAY MONDAY, OCTOBER 14 October 11, 2019 Dear SMASH 3rd-8th Grade Families, The two weeks of October 14- October 25, SMASH 3rdt-8th graders will be participating in a ~45 minute on- line SMMUSD-selected math interim assessment as well as a ~45 minute on-line SMMUSD-selected English Language Arts interim assessment. (SMASH Core 1 and 2 Teachers and Erin with 5th graders already con- ducted two other literacy assessments, Fastbridge on-line and a 1:1 Teacher’s College teacher/student read- ing assessment) The ELA assessment consists of 12-15 short answer or multiple choice questions in response to text. The Math assessment consists of 12-15 problem-solving questions. How will the results of the interim be used? These are designed to be district wide formative assessments and are intended to be used to monitor stu- dent learning across all sites. Who will see the data? This data will be shared with the Board of Education in a District-wide format by grade levels, individual stu- dent reports will not be provided. If parents are interested in learning about the progress of their student they will be encouraged to speak to their student’s teacher. If you wish to opt your child out of the assessment(s), please email Jessica Rishe at [email protected] by 8:00am Monday, October 14. You message should say: “I would like to opt my child, (first and last name and grade level) out of the October 2019 SMMUSD (math, math and language arts, or just language arts) interim assessments.” If opted out, your child will be given a quiet learning activity in the classroom instead. Truly yours, Jessica DATES TO REMEMBER! Monday, Oct 14 Everyone Picture Day School Tour—10am Wednesday, Oct 16 PTSA Executive Board Meeting 5:30pm PTSA General Meeting 6:00pm Saturday, Oct 19 College Success Summit SMC 9am– 2:30pm Friday, Oct 25 Halloween Carnival If your child is absent for school, please send an email to Marlen at [email protected] , Ania akubicz- [email protected] and your child’s teacher. Include the following information: Student name, Teacher name, Date of absence and reason for the absence (i.e., cold, flu, vacation, personal, bereavement, etc. and please be specific about the type of illness if your child is ill . Please remind your student that he/she can use the office phone for URGENT MATTERS ONLY. Make sure you discuss the after school plans before the drop off time (remind them of their after school classes, play dates, etc). Thank you for your cooperation and understanding. Please check the lost and found by the lunch bench area for items. All items left behind will be donated at the end of each semester. If your child is sick with a fever or has vomited. They cannot attend school until they’ve been free of those symptoms for at least 24 hours without medica- tion. Please let’s try to stay healthy and not spread the germs. TERRACYCLE Things we normally throw away are recycled and upcycled through Terracycle. Toothpaste tubes, tooth- brushes, cosmetics, lotion tubes, deodorant sticks, chips bags, granola bar wrappers, markers,... Families can collect empty,Terracyclable packaging at home and bring them to school in a bag. There is a purple Terracy- cle bin in the breezeway leading to the small yard. For more info or to obtain a complete chart of acceptable Terracycle packaging, please email Mimi Lichterman [email protected]. Also looking for someone to take over the Terracycle collection for SMASH. CORE 1 NEWS Partners - Graciela’s Workshop Group The Partners have played new math games this week. We are looking forward to sharing some of them on Monday, October 21 from 8:30-8:50 with those who can join us. Using a deck of number cards, we have played Clap the Number, Greater Than Compare, Less Than Compare, and the Game of Tens. Using Judy Clocks with moveable hands, we made up our own version of Hickory Dickory Dock to sing about what the mouse does at each hour. This week, the children were introduced to their district-provided math work- book. In the future, they will be taking those books home for fun homework. Our math discussion centered around the question What is math? Some words that went in our Circle Map are numbers, counting, shapes, colors, matching, less, more, size, greater than, less than. We will be adding more words or drawing over time. Bigs - Chrysta’s Workshop Group We are wrapping up our Personal Narrative unit of study in writing. You will most likely find some writing pieces in your child’s writing folder that they have chosen not to “publish.” With the piece they have chosen to edit, your child will be guided through the editing process (making the piece easier to read) as well as the revision process (making the writing better). In phonics we are working on vowel sounds as well as blends and digraphs. In math we are working on strengthening our math identity (we are ALL strong mathemati- cians) by building our toolbox of problem solving strategies. Now all of the Bigs have at least one class job and a new recess line-up spot. We have gotten into our classroom routines. These kids really know how to work hard AND play hard. We are taking control of the fears that bubble up this time of year, with Hallow- een around the corner, through literature and the decorating of the classroom. Mentors - Ale’s Workshop Group Over the last two weeks the Mentors have been hard at work as writers, readers, mathematicians, and sci- entists. As writers we have been working on small moment stories by studying mentor authors. In reading we have been learning techniques to grow like beanstalks. In math, we have been exploring all the tools we will use throughout the year like number lines, hundred chart, money, and other math tools. In S.T.E.A.M. we have designing and building models of rockets empowered by our visit to the Endeavour. It is a busy and exciting time in our classroom! Upcoming Events: Monday, October 14 Picture Day Tuesday, October 15 Mentors go to the planetarium Bigs & Partners community walk to Joslyn Park Wednesday, October 16 Partners & Bigs go to the SM Farmers’ Market Friday, October 18 C1 Birthday Bash for October Birthdays Monday, October 21 Core 1 Math Morning Meeting 8:30-8:50 Wednesday, October 23 Mentors go to the SM Farmers’ Market Friday, October 25 Wear-Your-Costume to School 1:30-3:00 SMASH-Muir Families Halloween Carnival Children must be accompanied by adults Thursday, October 31 Wear-Your-Regular-Clothes-To-School-Day Core 1 Team Graciela, Nadja, Chrysta, Lydia, Alejandra, Juana, Marcus, Anne, Coach Angel Graciela: [email protected] Chrysta: [email protected] Alejandra: [email protected] CORE 2 NEWS Our first six weeks were all about routines, rituals, and building community. Our weekly letters were designed to give you the big picture of what we were doing and how you, as parents, could help at home. Now we are moving on to our next units of study and our letters will reflect what we are working on in class. In Reading Workshop, Sarah’s Advisory is starting a unit on Mysteries. As the students read and solve mys- tery stories, they will strengthen their prediction skills, pay close attention to story details that might be clues, follow the story arc, identify common characteristics of the genre, better understand characters by analyzing their thoughts and actions, set goals for themselves as readers, and strengthen their discussion skills. In Christian’s Advisory, students are working on taking care of themselves and their reading communi- ty--setting personal and classwide reading goals, thinking about what works for us as readers and what gets in the way of us getting the most out of reading, and learning how to find new books to enjoy. Class lessons are based on what students presented as their greatest challenges as readers. In addition to whole class les- sons during our Literacy time, the students in both advisories will be starting their small group work. During this time, we will focus in on specific areas of need for our students in order to help them grow as readers. In Writing Workshop, both advisories will be starting their Independent Writing units. The students will decide what they want to write about, study mentor texts in their chosen genres, make plans, learn alongside each other, follow the writing cycle, and create pieces of writing that reflect their varied interests and individuality. In Elder Maths, the students are starting a unit called “Factors, Multiples, and Arrays.” The students will strengthen their understanding of the meaning of multiplication operations with whole numbers, the development of computational fluency, the structure of place value and the base-ten number system, and generalizations about numbers and operations. We will focus on three Mathematical Emphases: 1. Under- standing and working with an array model of multiplication, 2. Reasoning about numbers and their factors, and 3. Fluency with multiplication combinations to 12 x 12. In Tribe Maths, students are continuing their work on place value, regrouping, equivalence, and the recording and organization of their math work. Next week the Tribe will be launching a new unit focusing on the use of number lines to subtract. In Project Based Learning, Christian’s Advisory is continuing to work on selecting a design plan for our out- door classroom. In this process, students will be doing final revisions and edits to their plans, writing persua- sive pieces to explain why their plan should be selected, and selecting a plan to put into action.