Friday Letter 10-17-08

Dear Smashing Families,

Take this SMASH Friday Letter Challenge! Help us see what type of information your family values most in these weekly on-line or hard copy newsletters.
1. As a family, read and discuss this week’s Friday Letter together.
2. Record onto a post-it (or small piece of paper) your student(s) name(s) and the one most important piece of information your family discovered or already knew about and then discussed.
3. Have your student(s) come to my office Monday ready to tape your family’s post-it/paper onto a chart

Ideas might include: Rummage Sale successes and appreciations, classroom curricular updates, upcoming events/volunteer opportunities, or neighborhood celebrations.

Have a great family discussion, and as the staff considers future changes to the content of the Friday Letter, we look forward to reading the chart of what your families find most helpful.

Truly Yours,
Jessica


Questions are needed for the Candidates!
For the October 22 Candidates Forum at the MLK Auditorium at the SM Main Library
6:00 pm - SMMUSD School Board Candidates
7:00 pm - City Council Candidates
Do the candidates support progressive education?
Do they support a small high school?
Is the BB money being spent properly?
Is the school lunch program the best we can do?
What about the GATE program? Do you support No Child Left Behind?

These are just samples of some of the questions we can ask of the candidates.
Please submit your questions to: contact@opa-sm.org
Please try to attend the Candidates Forum if it is at all possible
(see flyer for information)
We elect our School Board Members. Know the Candidates!


SMASHing BABY NEWS!

ALIE LANCE in Core 1 has two new baby brothers! RYAN, 5 lb 15 oz and KYLE, 6 lb 1 oz were born on October 8 to proud parents KELLY and ROBERT LANCE

KAZUKI UEMA gave birth to her baby girl, SAKURA ALICE KRONE on August 13 at 4:01 pm. She weighed 7 lb 8 oz and was 19 inches long.

MANA HALE gave birth to her baby boy, BODHI NALU HALE on August 28 at 10:14 am. He weighed 8 lb 4 oz and was 21 inches long.

CARRIE FERGUSON is happily anticipating the birth of her BABY GIRL in late January.

Congratulations and our best wishes to all!

Hey SMASH Community!
The SMASHING ARTS are well underway. Students have been acquiring singing, dramatizing, and drawing skills that will all produce great results at the end of this Arts semester. However, in order to get to that point we need a few things that will make this possible. In Visual Arts we are in need of clean white t-shirts, new or used, for one of our upcoming projects. We will be needing small, medium and large sizes to accommodate our growing students. In Drama class we could use any color, lightweight fabrics people may have and any small hand held instruments for our Playback Class. There will be a donation box in the office for you to drop off any of these materials that you may be able to provide starting next week on October 20. Thank you so much for all your efforts ahead of time on behalf of the SMASHING ART STAFF!

CASH FOR CANDY
Trick-or-treaters can bring their Halloween candy to Pacific View Smile Center and receive $1 per pound. Candy will be collected at 2811 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 590; Santa Monica on Saturday, November 1 from 10 am to noon. Candy must be unopened. It will be shipped to troops overseas through Operation Gratitude.
Dr. Kari Sakurai is at 310-453-3747 or www.doctorsakurai.com

Santa Monica Museum of Art Workshops
Bergamot Station G1; 2525 Michigan Avenue, Santa Monica

Free Family Day: Paint Sounds with Carl Burmeister
Saturday, October 18 1:00 - 4:00 pm
Carl Burmeister will bring a sculpture that scans paintings and translates imagery into sound. Each participant will first make a painting and then create a related audio recording. www.carlburmeister.net

Cause for Creativity: Creature Comforts
Sat., Nov. 8 6:00-9:00 pm
Recommended for ages 10 to adult - Free
Improve the quality of life for animals.
Join a fun evening of quilting and sewing with crafter Jenny Ryan of Felt Club. Participants will learn basic skills by making mini quilts, blankets, and animal toys for their own pets or for donation to local shelters through the Snuggles Project. Participants who RSVP will receive a Felt Club goody bag.
Supplies, refreshments, snacks and musical ambience provided! www.feltclub.com www.snugglesproject.org

The Halloween Fun Continues!
The SMASH/Muir Halloween carnival is on 10/29, but the fun continues even after Halloween! McKinley Elementary School invites SMASH and Muir families to the McKinley Halloween Harvest Festival
Saturday, November 1st, from 1pm to 5pm.
Come to McKinley for an afternoon of old-fashioned fun with game booths, a haunted
house, delicious food, an obstacle course, slides, music and fun activities for the
whole family!


PTSA news
President’s Note
Dear SMASHing parents!
What a fantastic rummage sale and car wash! Not only did we make lots of money, but it was also an incredibly fun event. Thanks so much to everyone who helped make this day such a success.
And we don’t stop here. Today’s the day to buy pumpkins at SMASH! We hope everyone stops by at our annual Pumpkin Sale to buy pumpkins and baked goods and costumes.
Best,
David Saltzman and Helga Schier

SMASHing Fundraisers

·Greenraising is recycled wrapping paper, and so much more… choose from a catalogue full of environmentally friendly goods such as bottles or lunch boxes. Order online during our drive from October 8 through October 27, and SMASH will receive 40%. Go to www.greenraising.com and choose ‘Santa Monica Alternative Schoolhouse’ as the affiliate for your order. Encourage family and friends to do the same! If you’d like to do it the old-fashioned way, order forms are available in the office. Check out the flyer in this Friday Letter.

·Ever had cereal for breakfast? Of course you have... Which means you most likely have a few BOX TOPS at home. Bring them in by October 27! Collection cans are in the office. Thanks!

·Ever go shopping? Of course you do. Please check out escrip and the many community partners programs from Target, Ralphs, Albertsons and other stores. Don’t miss these easy opportunities to support SMASH while you shop what you’d shop anyway! Just check out the SMASH website at www.smash.smmusd.org and click on “Support SMASH” for more information.

SMASHing Festivities
·The annual SMASH/Muir Halloween Carnival is on Wednesday, October 29, from 3pm to 5pm. As always, it’s spooky, it’s fun and it’s free. If you’d like to volunteer, contact Helga at 310-828-8421 or helgaschier@verizon.net. As always, we’ll collect $$$ donations so we can feed the entire Muir/ SMASH community. This year we’re also asking $$$ donations for small toys as prizes. For sanitary reasons, we can no longer hand out used toys. So if you can, please give a little extra! Look for envelopes in your child’s classroom! Thanks!

SMASHing Meetings
·Our next PTSA meeting is on Friday, November 7 at 8:15am. Let us know if you have issues, questions, concerns, ideas... we’ll put them on the agenda. Come check it out!

SMASH/JOHN MUIR HALLOWEEN CARNIVAL

Wednesday, October 29, 3PM–5PM

COME ONE, COME ALL. All students and their family are invited.

COME IN YOUR COSTUME! Dress up, dress down, dress differently! But please no weapons or masks.

DONATE $5 TOWARD FOOD AND DRINKS! We want to feed the entire SMASH/Muir community! Envelopes are in all classrooms and in the office. Would you rather donate goods? Core 1 … hot dogs and buns, Core 2 … side dishes, Core 3 … desserts, Core 4 … individual drinks. Donations and contributions due by Wednesday, 10/29, 9AM. Thank you!

DONATE A FEW EXTRA $$$ TOWARD SMALL PRIZES! We can no longer hand out used toys. So we can still hand out prizes to our little witches and goblins, please donate extra $$$ for small prizes. Our resident witch (she’s waiting in front of the office) will also gladly take donations small NEW toys. Thank you!

FOLLOW THE WELLNESS-GUIDELINES! Bring in foods and drinks that are good and good for you. Thank you!

VOLUNTEER! Come go shopping (10:00AM), set up (8:30AM and /or 1:30PM), help in the kitchen (2PM), serve food (3PM and/or 4PM), and/or clean up (4:45PM).

The carnival is FREE. Participate! It will be FUN.

DON'T BE AFRAID TO VOLUNTEER!
Contact Helga Schier 310-828-8421 helgaschier@verizon.net

Got $1,000,000?
Got $1,000?
Got $500?
Got $100?
Got $50?
Got $20?
Got $5?

NO amount of money is too little or too much.
Please contribute as much as you can to our Family Donation drive.
Every single $ helps!
We are aiming for 100% participation
to make the Family Donation Drive our biggest and
most successful fundraiser of the year.
Put just $1 (or $2 or $3…) away every day,
and give what you saved to SMASH each month.
Thank you!!!

You can make your donation by cash, check or credit card with Janice in the office.
You can also make your donation by paypal.
We will e-mail the account information in the weeks to come.

We are grateful and thank you in advance for your support.
Sincerely,
SMASH PTSA

Your gift is tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. Receipts, for tax purposes, are available in the office.


It’s here!
It’s happening!
Let’s do it!
Greenraising

Order online during our drive from
October 8 to October 27, 2008
Go to www.greenraising.com
Choose ‘Santa Monica Alternative Schoolhouse’ as your affiliate.
We’ll receive 40% of the proceeds.
Tell family and friends to do the same!
If you’d rather do it the old-fashioned way,
order forms and catalogues are available in the office.
Order online, and your order will be shipped directly to your home (shipping charges will apply!) Order via order form, your order will be shipped to SMASH (NO shipping charges!).
It’s responsible!
It’s easy!
It’s cool!

CORE 1 NEWS
The secret is out! The Bigs presented "Treasure Boxes" to their Partners this week. This is a special box filled with meaningful treasures that the Bigs have been creating secretly in the afternoons. The Partners have been experiencing a story about this Treasure Box for weeks, and now they have a box to keep for their own. Each item has a special meaning:the heart stands for love, the doll stands for friendship, the pencil reminds us to write down the stories we love and the things we learn, and the "dirty rock" has a crystal inside - so we remember that there is beauty within everyone and everything.These treasures we keep in our box to remind us that they actually live inside of us. And these are the things that will bring happiness to every journey we have.

Reminders & Dates to Remember:
*Community Walk –Joselyn Park on
Tuesday, October 21 for a picnic snack, fun and exercise.

*ReDiscover Center Field Trip -
Friday, October 24 9:00-1:00.
Please return your permission slip and suggested donation of $7 ASAP.
Please pack a snack and lunch (in separate bags) on that day & sign-up at the Home/School table if you are available to chaperone.

*Halloween - Details about our Halloween guidelines and Annual Halloween Walk on Main Street will be in next week's Friday Letter.

Thank you!
* Thanks for your hard work at/for the rummage sale,
and for the special donations to Core 1.

* Thanks to Hayden’s family for bringing music back to Morning Meaning in the Sparking Sea.

* Thanks to the City of Santa Monica, Cultural Affairs Division, for approving our Arts Transportation Grant, which is paying for our bus to the ReDiscover Center.

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!!Candis, Chrysta and Jackie
Chrysta: wyse@smmusd.org
Candis:candisberens@smmusd.org



CORE 2 NEWS
Jayme’s Advisory Fall Family Conferences are next week – Monday, Oct 20, Tuesday Oct 21, Wednesday, Oct 22, Thursday, Oct 23 and Friday, Oct 24. Please sign up in the office for this goal setting conference. October Family Conferences began and ended this week for Laura’s Advisory. Thanks for participating in this important piece of your child’s assessment with us.

Shout outs to: Jayme for going to Catalina with Core 4, Leah for being with the Chocolate Chipmunks this week, and to Nadja for teaching Core 2 creative ways to move and share information without words.

In Reader’s Workshop, keep up with your reading homework. Just Right Books were introduced in Laura’s Advisory and will be introduced next week in Jayme’s.

In Writer’s Workshop, the students are learning that “writers use complete sentences”. They can answer the Who and the What in each sentence. The focus this week was on verbs.

In Arts with Ingrid, we put aluminum foil on a wire frame and then covered that with strips of plaster cloth. These will eventually be leaves on a tree with a photo of each child. Oh no - you can’t see it now – you will have to wait until our Arts Sharing Day.

In Math the 2nd graders have re-visited the Magic Pot story and learned how to play Close to 10. The 3rd graders are looking for patterns across our skip counting 2 – 12 charts. There is NO Math homework.

In Spanish, the children have been learning the parts of a human body and doing activities/songs about vowels

Maya Fellows has moved to Arizona. We will welcome our new student, Alessandra (Michael’s twin) on Monday.

Upcoming dates and events:
Mon, Oct 20, 21, 22, 23, and 24 -- Jayme’s Advisory October Family Conferences, regular dismissal times

Thur, Oct 16 -- Jayme at all day district meeting, Leah to sub
Fri, Oct 24 – 8:30–10:30 Tie dye with Ari’s Mike.
We need tons of parent help. You can e-mail Mike at clifthouse1@earthlink.net.

Fri, Oct 24 -- October Birthday Bash, see attached 1/2 sheet if your child’s birthday is in October

HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEKEND!

Laura: sherman@smmusd.org Jayme:jayme.wold@smmusd.org

CORE 3 NEWS
Math is an important part of our everyday lives and it’s an important part of what we teach every day. One of the major goals of our math curriculum is for students to focus on computational fluency with whole numbers. This emphasis places the understanding on the numbers and not the procedures used to get an answer. It’s the way mathematicians focus on their work--not just following a procedure that someone before them has already figured out, but finding things out for themselves. This is why we do not encourage the use of traditional algorithms (stacking/lining up numbers and working with numbers as single digits to “borrow” and “carry” or long division) because they tend to ask the problem solver to look at 958 + 219 as solving 8+9 and 5+1 and 9+2 without seeing that they are actually working with hundreds and will get an answer in the thousands (long division also has students work with digits rather than whole numbers). Algorithms were strategies that mathematicians all over the world figured out and shared over time and throughout history different nations had different algorithms that were taught/used—and they are important and efficient in many instances. Algorithms are addressed in each core, but will not be “taught” until 5th grade, when most students can developmentally understand and remember not just how to do them, but why they work. This does not mean that all 5th graders will become proficient with them or that some 4th graders aren’t ready to understand and use them--as with all things developmentally appropriate, children get there at their own pace. Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI), brain-based research the entire district is using to guide the development of the math curriculum, shows that learning algorithms too soon actually shuts down a child’s problem solving abilities.

Regular practice is a key part of developing computational fluency with whole numbers, utilizing different strategies, and building understanding of increasingly complex mathematical concepts. This is one reason we give regular homework. This work allows you to see what your child is doing in math and get a glimpse into his/her mathematical thinking. By design, the work must meet a variety of criteria: to review and practice ideas presented in class, preview upcoming work, support struggling students, challenge more advanced mathematicians, and keep all students doing a little bit of math outside of school each day. We encourage kids to start with what you know, do what you can, bring it in to ask questions and get help, and try a lot of different problem-solving strategies—it’s about the process, not the answer!

Link: http://investigations.terc.edu/library/developing/overview.cfm for an overview of our math curriculum, go and/or check out the SMASH website (Core 3/Genie) for a fantastic math article on why we teach math the way we do. (It was in a Friday Letter last year, so some of you may have already read it.)
Tamara, Genie, and Malaika
mugalian@smmusd.org genie.hwang@smmusd.org

CORE 4 NEWS

Humanities: Over the past few weeks in Humanities we have been writing about The Giver and learning about and discussing issues related to government and the election. Last week we discussed the 3 branches of government in the United States. We also learned about the history of voting rights. Who was permitted to vote when the Constitution was written? What amendments since that time have given other groups the right to vote? Next week we will continue our study of governments and the election by researching, discussing, and writing about various propositions that are on the ballot next month.
Students have also been working diligently on their first five paragraph essay. Second drafts will be returned next Monday, with final drafts expected on Wednesday. These need to typed.
You may have noted my absences on a number of Tuesdays so far this year. Thank you for your patience as I have helped my son transition to his first school experience. Our family is fortunate enough to attend a nursery school
that lets each student transition at his or her own pace. As of this week he is now attending on his own and I will not have to miss any more school for this reason. Thank you again for your understanding.
I am aware that it is sometimes difficult to contact me as I’m here two and a half days a week. The best way to reach me is by email. I can usually return emails in 24 hours.

Erin’s Conferences: Since I am not on campus during the regularly scheduled conference times, I have set aside Monday, October 27 to hold a full day of conferences. Please sign up for one of these time slots ASAP. If you are unable to meet on this day, please email me and we can find another time. Thanks

Catalina trip by Claire Goldberg
If you didn’t know, some of core 4 went to Catalina over this past Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. On Monday we did rock climbing and snorkeling, but the water was very murky. On Tuesday we did a morning hike around the mountains and a ropes course. Later on we went snorkeling again and today the water was crystal clear and saw fish like garibaldis and different stingrays, some kids even saw sharks! Then in the night we did night snorkeling and creatures of the dark. Apparently they saw bioluminescent plankton, which was supposed to be very cool. Creatures of the dark was very fun, we learned about bioluminescent animals and got to do a super secret activity which was so much fun. The morning of Wednesday we did squid dissection and got to pet sharks and sting rays and a pretty cool sea hair and then we all went back to smash.

Catalina Trip by Sadie Saltzman
If you didn’t know some of core 4 went to Catalina Island. This trip happened on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. In Catalina we did so much!! Every thing was fun from hiking up a mountain to dissecting squid. During our hike we would stop and our counselor would talk to us we would hydrate ourselves. We walked through this part of the mountain we were hiking up there was a fire. “This fire was 1 year ago and almost passed through camp but it stopped.” My counselor said this as we walked through burnt trees that still were living by a thread. To show everyone in camp we got the ashes and wore it as war paint. We walked down a hill and we took a rope course. They were all team building activities. On Monday night we went snorkeling and on Tuesday after the hike we went snorkeling. Some people even went night snorkeling! I did and we didn’t see much but learned about bioluminescent plankton. That was awesome. After the snorkel on Monday night we went rock climbing and that was soooo much fun too!! Sadly that trip ended on Wednesday. As we floated out of the Catalina bay I thought that core 4 was so very lucky to go on this trip in the middle of nowhere.

My adventure in Catalina by Lea Waller
I would recommend going to Catalina because you can learn lots of things. One of the things we learned was a type of fish called Garibaldi. What I like about Catalina is that having an adventure makes you feel connected. When I went to Catalina on a school trip, an experience popped up when I touched the floor of Toyon Bay. It is a camp that brings life together on Catalina! I hope you enjoy a Catalina trip!

Hey SMASHing 8th Graders!!

We need 8th grade volunteers for this year’s Haunted House! Sign up with Anna (Kaitlyn’s mom) in the office to work on Thursday and Friday or next week (October 23 & 24) and on Monday and Tuesday of the following week (Oct. 27 & 28), between the hours of 1 and 5 pm. Hope to see most of you there! Remember that this is a great bonding experience and a great opportunity for you to bring out your SCARY creativity and present it to the rest of the community. Let’s make this Haunted House the best ever!

Enjoy the weekend!Kelly, Kurt, Erin & Andrea

Kelly: kelly.kulsrud@smmusd.org
Kurt: holland@smmusd.org
Erin: erin.haendel@smmusd.org