FEBRUARY 5, 2010

SMASH MOVIE NIGHT—TONIGHT! 6:30-9:00PM
COME FREE AS A FAMILY—OR FOR CHILDCARE for
$10/CHILD, $20/FAMILY
“NIGHT AT THE MUSUEM”
Snacks will be available to purchase or bring your own food
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Dear SMASHing Families,
“The art of research already exists in the hands of children acutely sensitive to the pleasure of surprise. The wonder of learning, of knowing, of understanding is one of the first, fundamental sensations each human being expects from experiences faced alone or with others.”-- Loris Malaguzzi

In November, I previewed that The Wonder of Learning: The Hundred Languages of Children Exhibit was coming to Santa Monica. It is here, and I encourage you to take a tour.

The Hundred Languages of Children is a continuously updated traveling exhibition that, translated into various languages, has been telling the story of the Reggio small group projects-reflective work educational experience worldwide to thousands of visitors for over 25 years (Autumn 1981-Spring 2008).

Ideas running through all 7 multimedia/multi-sensory sections of the exhibit include:
* Celebrating intelligence in children and adults
* Celebrating the Hundred Languages with which each child (each human being) is gifted
* The importance played by poetic languages in safeguarding a more complete approach to knowing
* Processes of observation and documentation as a base for interpreting that are vital for designing educational work
* Learning considered both as a subjective process within a group and as group learning
* How cultural and expressive tension and participation produce and hold together effort, joy and pleasure in learning
Go to www.reggioexhibitla.com to find out more.
It is located at 1129 Second Street on 2nd St just north of Wilshire Blvd, across the street from the Fairmont Hotel. Park in a public lot on 2nd or 4th Streets or there is valet parking at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel located at 101 Wilshire Blvd, Santa Monica 90401 (Rates: $11 first hour, $5 each additional hour)
Truly Yours,
Jessica
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Is your child going to start Kindergarten in September?
SMASH applications are due NO LATER THAN March 31.
Any sibling application for Kindergarten received after this date cannot be guaranteed a space.
Applications are available in the main office and online at www.smash.smmusd.org
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SMASH SCHOOL TOURS
MONDAYS 9:00-10:00am February 1, 8 & 22 March 1, 8, 15 & 22
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LOOKING FOR PHOTOS FOR YEARBOOK!
If you have any photos of SMASH events (field trips, campus photos, etc) please forward the digital images (preferred) to Barbara or Kjersti (moms in Core 3). Thanks! barbara@earthlink.net
kjersti@rtd-la.com
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Santa Monica High School Theatre Presents: The Tony Award Winning Musical "RENT"
Friday 2/19 & 26 at 7:00pm; Saturday 2/20 at 7:00pm & Saturday 2/27 at 2:00 & 7:00pm
Students $10 Adults $15 Tickets:Samohitheatre.org 310 395-3204 Ext. 239
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THE AMAZING BONE, A Children’s Musical
For ages 4 to 104. Saturdays and Sundays at 11:00am, Until February 14
Morgan-Wixson Theater, 2627 Pico Blvd. Tickets: $6 for ages 12 and under; $8 for ages 13 and over. For information and reservations go to www.PigAndBone.com.
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YWCA Santa Monica/Westside 1st Annual Father/Daughter Valentines Day Dance
Saturday, February 13 - 6:00-10:00pm (all ages welcome)
Pre-purchase tickets: $20 per couple; $10 per additional daughter (limited tickets sold at the door) Music, food, drinks, games, prizes, photo booths! Girls, bring your dad or uncle/big brother or family friend YMCA Santa Monica/Westside Gymnasium; 2019 14th St; 310-452-3881; www.smywca.org
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CAN’T FIND YOUR CHILD’S JACKET OR SWEATER?
There is a pile of lost and found items at the front gate until Monday, February 8. After Monday, they will be donated. PLEASE label your child’s clothing. The John Muir PTA has been kind enough to sort through the clothing pile and were able to return labeled items to their owner.
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Dear SMASHing families,
Please donate for Haiti. These 10 items are what we are collecting:
1. 25 or 50 pound bag of rice (Costco or Smart and Final)
2. Dry Beans
3. Milk Powder
4. Liquid Formula
5. Peanut Butter (in plastic jars)
6. Dried Meat
7. Spaghetti
8. Cooking Oil
9. Bleach Tablets
10. Multivitamins
There will be a box in the main office. Please drop off your donations by Wednesday, February 24.
Thank You,
Core 2 Hope for Haiti Project Group
Written by Max Canny
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SMASH & John Muir Elementary
WINTER CONCERT
Tuesday, February 9
6:30 pm
4th Grade Viola, Violin, & Clarinet – Auditorium
4th Grade Cello – Room 565
4th Grade Trumpet, Trombone, & Flute – Library
7:30 pm
5th Grade Musicians – Auditorium
SMASH Middle School Musicians – Library
Ms. Bersch, Mrs. Cha, Mrs. Spike-Gravelle,
Mr. Loyd, Mr. McKeown
Students: Please arrive 15 minutes before your performance time and wear nice school clothes.
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UCLA School of Dentistry
Give Kids a SMILE! Children’s Dental Access Program
SATURDAY, February 6, 8:30am-3:00pm
FREE Screenings FREE Cleanings FREE Sealants
FREE Toothbrush, Prizes and Giveaways
ALL Infants, Toddlers and Children under 14 years are welcome
NO INSURANCE NEEDED
Wilson-Jennings-Bloomfield UCLA Venice Dental Center
323 S. Lincoln Blvd, Venice (West side of Lincoln, just south of Rose)
310-392-4103
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Only 4 more weeks until the SMASHing
Jog-a-thon 2010
Volunteer! We still need volunteers to help with refreshments, lap counting, etc. on the day of the event.
Pledge! Pledge packets will go home next week so look for your child’s pledge packet and read the information that accompanies it.Help your child fill out the form and collect pledges.
100% of donations go right back to our classrooms.
Save the date! Jog-a-thon ‘10 happens Friday, March 5.
Come run with your athlete and/or cheer on the rest of the runners.

For questions or to volunteer:
Lillie Schlessinger (213)742-3394 lillie.schlessinger@transamerica.com
Darlene Flanders (310)314-8716 darlene@quixo.com

CONGRAULATIONS TO EMILY TAYLOR FOR THIS YEAR’S
JOG-A-THON T-SHIRT DESIGN!
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SMASH Site Council Agenda
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
5:00 PM Core 2
Adopt Agenda
Approve minutes of last meeting
Community participation
Nonviolent Education and Parenting presentation,
45 minutes
Reports and Announcements (regular agenda items)
Principal’s Report
Student Reports
Community Organization Reports (to include but not limited to the following):
PTSA
Student Council
Other : 8th grade Safe Routes to Schools
Old Business
New Business
Community participation (if applicable)
Adjourn
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Ptsa news
Contribute to the family donation drive: ptsasmash.blogspot.com
*****
TONIGHT
MOVIE NIGHT: 2/5/10
*****
NEXT WEDNESDAY
IMPORTANT PTSA meeting: 2/10/10 6:30PM
If there’s ever been a PTSA meeting you should attend, it’s this one.
Details about the budget crisis and what we need to do to navigate it.
Opportunities to join the PTSA board and committees.
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WANTED
Board members and committee chairs for 2010/2011
Almost all board positions and many committee chairs are up for grabs.
Consider becoming an active member of the PTSA.
Contact your nominating committee:
Faye Jarow (fjarow@intelhc.com), April Motola (apnomo@earthlink.net) or
Tracy Saltzman (rhubarb1@earthlink.net)
*****
SAVE THE DATE
JOGATHON: 3/5/10
WE NEED T-SHIRT SPONSORS
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CORE 1 NEWS
Love is in the Air… in Core 1!
One of our favorite holidays, in honor of love and friendship, is coming soon! We will be celebrating Valentine's Day on Friday, February 12. Each child may (but is not required to) bring Valentine cards to share. If your child chooses to bring cards, please remember 3 very important guidelines:
· There must be 23 cards (one for each child in his/her circle group).
· Please don’t address the cards to specific children. You’re welcome to write From: _______ or Love,
______, but please DO NOT write To: _______. This can get extremely confusing at our celebration….
· Please do not bring in candy for the kids. We are simply sharing words of love and kindness!

Our field trip to The Amazing Bone was… AMAZING!! Congrats to Zelda, Sadie, and Gabe Schier for their performances and CORE 1 for being such a supportive and enthusiastic audience. Thank you to all of the chaperones for making this a fun and safe trip.

Our next field trip will be on Wednesday, February 17 to the Fire Station. Our appointment is at 9:30 and we will be eating snack at the park afterward. This will be a walking trip so we will not be sending permission slips. We will return to school around 11:00, so the children will be eating lunch at their regular time. Each child will need to bring a snack, however, and we would love to get as many chaperones aspossible. Sign-ups will be in the Magic Garden.

HAVE A RESTFUL WEEKEND!!
Candis, Chrysta and Jackie
Candis: cberens@smmusd.org
Chrysta: cwyse@smmusd.org
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CORE 2 NEWS
Dear Fantastic Core 2 Families and Friends,
We have settled into our new advisories. We are enjoying new friendships. Laura’s new Advisory is called The Jumping Jelly Beans in La La Land. Graciela’s new Advisory is called Do Potatoes Eat Ham? Choosing an advisory name is a democratic process, and in a democracy, often times the minority group experiences disappointment. We did agree that the process was fair.

Have you ever read a fairytale or nursery rhyme from the point of view of a plant? You may be surprised to know that plants play an important role in literature. In Art with Julianna, our young artists will visualize poems about fairytale plants.

In Math, 2nd graders are exploring numbers in the thousands. They are developing their number sense when they compose and decompose high numbers. They practiced reading numbers in the thousands, ten thousands, and hundred thousands. How would you read 5, 637 or 63,641, or 143,659? The 3rd graders worked with pattern blocks and talked about equivalent fractions (e.g. 2/6=1/3) on Friday.

On February 12, we will celebrate Core 2 Friendship Day. We will pass out cards or valentines before leaving for our field trip. We encourage students to make valentines for their own advisory group. On February 1, we will send home a list of the new advisory groups.
One social communication goal for Core 2 students is to understand the difference between stating a personal need and making a request. There is a difference between “I’m hungry” and “May I have something to eat, please?” There is also a difference between, “I want the orange marker” and “May I have the orange marker when you are done with it?” We are encouraging students to notice the difference.

A note from Majken about science:
Core 2 Science Mondays: It is wonderful to see how many scientists we have in Core 2. The children are inquisitive and eager to investigate and explore. The time for experiments is limited at school so hopefully the children will continue asking questions and exploring at home.
Science Homework: In this Friday folder there are two balloons (one small and one large). Please encourage your child to try to blow them up and notice if it’s harder or easier to blow up the small or large balloon. We will be utilizing this knowledge to make predictions and formulate a hypothesis pertaining to soap bubbles on Monday.

Next week’s Stars of the Week are Owen and Nicholas.

Dates to remember:
Friday, February 12 – Core 2 Friendship Day Bring cards, note, or valentines. No candy, please.
Friday, February 12 -field trip to The Amazing Bone at the Morgan -Wixson Theater Return the signed permission slip. We are requesting a $10 donation to cover the cost. Bring a lunch and walking shoes.
Friday, February 26th- Birthday Bash for January, February and March – More info next week.

Have a great weekend!
Laura & Graciela
lsherman@smmusd.org
gbarba-castro@smmusd.org
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CORE 3 NEWS
We're deep into Projects--it's messy and imperfect, yet bubbling with possibilities. We are always trying to honor the SMASH core value of giving students a choice and voice in their education. Projects is one way to do that. At the same time, we are mindful of maximizing our learning time and preparing kids to become the co-creators of their own futures. As teachers, we are constantly researching the ways kids learn best while observing them in the
process of learning. We've noticed that most kids just want to have their ideas honored, do things, build things, manipulate things, make things, use technology, and share with friends (socialize).

So how can two teachers and one aide monitor the learning of 60 students who are working in several different small groups of their own choosing on as many different projects that we may or may not be experts in or have resources for? This is the question we have posed to ourselves this year. We’ve read articles, shared ideas among the staff, visited other schools who do Projects, and talked to other educators about different ways to organize and sustain student generated projects. One of the things we have recognized is that some students want to learn new facts and information directly from us in the form of a documentary, guest visitor, or book. So we have a period each week where we explore new nonfiction ideas (Genie has introduced science and social studies ideas around mountain climbing and physics and Tamara has introduced local history, music, and the elements of art). Other students have tons of things they are curious about and are ready and eager to do independent research on any number of topics and ideas. For them, Independent Research Projects are ideal. Other students like working in a center that has been set up for them to explore an activity (games, art, math puzzles) or skill (vocabulary, typing, problem solving). Still others have
a hard time finding choices they genuinely care about—for them, Projects is a time where they have a hard time using their time wisely. We are figuring out how to meet all of these diverse needs during Projects.

Our main focus continues to be on the process of learning and how to teach those steps and strategies to our students so they become life-long learners by practicing responsibility for their attention, time management, work ethic, and independence. We are asking the students to begin to transfer their knowledge from the process of learning they experience in math, reading, and writing to other areas. So the mantras in math, "start with what you know..." or in reading workshop, "I think…because… which makes me think…” or in the writing process in writing workshop—taking a seed idea and nurturing and growing it to a draft and then revising, editing and publishing it--are a part of ALL learning. We also try to model the process of coming up with questions or an idea about a topic, gathering resources/materials to test that idea or research the questions, making adjustments to what we were thinking, and then finding a creative way to share our new learning or revise our questions/ideas and continue our research. It’s way different than being given a topic and writing (regurgitating) what you learn about it or having a question that you can answer with a fact and be done.

We’re ready for you to become part of Projects! We are so fortunate to be a part of a community rich with diverse expertise, creativity, and passions. We encourage parents to volunteer for one session or a few sessions(over weeks or all in one week) to share and/or teach about something that gets you excited—whether it’s demo, an activity, cooking, a series of lessons, a read-aloud or movie, or teaching a skill. Please look for the "Parent Projects Sign-up” blast from Liz next week. Don’t be intimidated--we are looking everything from a one-time class to introduce students to your passion or hobby or career to a multi-class unit.
Tamara, Genie, and Malaika
tmugalian@smmusd.org
ghwang@smmusd.org _______________________________________
CORE 4 NEWS
Calling all 7th and 8th grade scientists to a special meeting with Samohi’s Teen Marine group Tuesday, February 9th - 2:50-3:20 - Kurt’s room These Samohi scientists will be sharing 20 minutes about the mentoring they can offer for science projects based on their partnership with Surfrider, and then they will spend 10 minutes answering questions about getting ready for high
school. There is 30 minutes of service credit to any 7th and 8th grader who attends this special chance to build connections to Samohi students and gain support for science projects we are undertaking.
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Hello Core 4 Families,
We are sailing through the year; all amazed it is February! This week the students took a field trip to see three SMASHING drama students perform the Amazing Bone at the Morgan-Wixon Theater under the directorship of Kristy our dramatic arts teacher. One student was also a sound technician. We are always reminded of how much talent exists in our community and how many hours of commitment they have outside of school hours to pursue their interests. It is
a good reminder to keep it all in balance- socializing, academics and extra-curricular activities.

As narratives are being prepared to be sent home, a focus for our young adults is to consider how balanced their days are. In Core 4, while grades are still not given, (except 8th grade math) the stakes are greater in their academic performance. They are developing the habits, skills and knowledge base to launch them into successful high school years. Please try to have some open discussions about the importance of school performance with your child.

Science class has students completing their research and quick science units.

Math update comes next week from Kelly

In Humanities this week, students actively debated the question of independence for the Colonies through a town hall meeting. After deciphering the Declaration of Independence, there will be a "Revolutionary War" fought next Friday, and then a Congressional Congress will draft the US Constitution grappling with the issues of slavery, sates vs. federal rights and balance of power between big and small states. We are focused on looking deeply at the controversy
and preparing evidence to support our opinions. It is imperative that students come to school as much as possible because the class is dependent upon participation in the activities.

Reminder: students should be more than 1/2 way through their colonial era historical novel, and the HBO John Adams series of DVD is excellent. Reading more and watching these relevant shows can serve to make up missed work. As always, feel free to contact me regarding any questions you have. It is an honor and joy to work with the group of spirited young adults.

Finally, Greg Mortenson spoke last week at Loyola Marymount. We are concluding our "Pennies for Peace" drive for building schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The pbs.org Bill Moyers Journal has an excellent interview with Mortenson from January 15, 2010.
Go to http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/01152010/profile2.html to watch the video.

Thanks for sharing your students with us,
Bailey, Kelly and Kurt
Kurt: kholland@smmusd.org
Kelly: kkulsrud@smmusd.org
Bailey: baileyfield@mac.com
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DATES TO REMEMBER
Fri, Feb 5 - 6:30-9:00 pm - SMASH Auditorium - MOVIE FUN NIGHT!
Sat, Feb 6 - 8:30am-3:00pm - FREE DENTAL Screenings, Cleanings & Sealants See details in Friday Letter
Tue, Feb 9 - 6:30 - Winter Concert—Details in Friday Letter
Wed, Feb 10 - 6:30-8:00 pm - PTSA Mtg
Mon, Feb 15 - Presidents’ Day - SCHOOL CLOSED
Wed, Feb 17 - 8:45am - Auditorium - Yosemite Assembly
Sun, Feb 21 - 3:00-6:00 pm - Cores 2 & 3 Art Gallery opens at the ReDiscover Center
Wed, Feb 24 - 5:00-6:00 pm - Site Council Mtg-Center for Nonviolent Education & Parenting Presentation
Fri, Mar 5 - SMASH Jog-a-thon—Details in Friday Letter