Smash Friday Letter

Dear SMASHing Families,
Many thanks to the organizers and participants at the Multicultural Pot Luck Wednesday. What a treat to have Lebanese pepper walnut hummus and sweet Jewish kugel all in one meal! It was a pleasure sharing delicious dishes and good family fun together.

Come join us for the Music Concert next Tuesday, January 24 6:00-9:00pm. Enjoy the continuum of our 4th through 8th grade musicians!

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend in the meantime.
Jessica
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DATES TO REMEMBER
Mon, Jan 23 - 9:00-10:30am - SMASH School Tour
Tues, Jan 24 - 6:00-9:00pm - Music Concert - See details in today’s Friday Letter
Tues, Jan 24 - all day - Ben & Jerry's on Main St. Use flyer & 20% of total goes to SMASH
Fri, Jan 27 - 8:45am - Yosemite Assembly - Auditorium
Fri, Jan 27 - Last day to submit Jog-a-Thon t-shirt design
Tues, Jan 31 - 6:30pm - Virginia Avenue Park - State of Our Schools
Wed, Feb 1 - 2:00-2:50pm - Camp Josepho sharing - in Core 2
Wed, Feb 1 - 5:00pm - Site Council
Thurs, Feb 3 - Last day to be a Jog-a-Thon T-shirt sponsor!
Wed, Feb 8 - 6:00pm - PTSA Meeting

SAVE THE DATE
Tues, Jan 31 - SMASH night at California Pizza Kitchen
Fri, Feb 10 - 6:00-8:00pm - SMASH Family Dance
Fri, Feb 17 - 8:30-9:30am - Parent Ed - Creating Upstanders: Anti-bullying efforts at SMASH/John Muir
Fri, Mar 9 - SMASH Jog-a-Thon. Sign up now to volunteer
Tue, Mar 13 - 6:00pm - SMASH Talent Show
Fri, Mar 16 - 9:15am - Astrocamp assembly
Fri, Mar 30 - Last day to apply for SMASH for September
(ALL siblings MUST have their applications in)
Sat, May 19 - SuperSMASH. Sign up now to volunteer.
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7th Annual Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School Distinct
STATE OF OUR SCHOOLS
Community Report
Superintendent Sandra Lyon and special guests present the latest information on:
Student Achievemen, Educational Initiatives and SMMUSD’s financial health
Tuesday, January 31 - 6:30-9:00pm
Virginia Avenue Park, Thelma Terry Building
2200 Virginia Avenue, Santa Monica
For more information, e-mail: swahrenbrock@smmusd.org
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Ben & Jerry’s
Tuesday, January 24 (2441 Main Street)
Join us after school for an event where giving won’t just feel good, it will taste great!
Bring the flyer that was sent home with each student today, on Tuesday, January 24 and
20% of your total will be donated back to the SMASH Middle School Music Program!
See You There!
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Hey SMASH,
the Family Dance is coming!
Friday, February 10
6-8PM
*People don’t have to go to New Orleans For Mardi Gras,
we’re having our own right here at SMASH!
We’ll have LIVE MUSIC,
tasty snacks, crafts, raffle, and
FUN!
*Presented by the SMASH Student Council
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GREEN LIVING WORKSHOPS
Save Money by Learning Solutions to Today’s Greatest Environmental Challenges
Upcoming Green Living Workshops
GLW 101
3 hour condensed version of the 6-week workshop.
Sat, Feb 4; 10am-1pm. Center for Environmental & Urban Studies.
Energy Workshop
LED Demonstration workshop covering energy issues.
Tuesday, Feb 28; 7-8:30pm. Santa Monica Main Library
Sign Up at Sustainableworks.eventbright.com
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The UCLA Family Commons Family Public Expert Series
Feb 1 - Understanding Children’s Anxiety & Obsessive Behavior; Dr. John Piacentini
Upcoming Classes & Programs:
0-5 Parenting: Putting the fun into fundamentals - Workshops every Friday 12:30-2:00pm
Youth Mindfulness - Six-week class beginning Jan 21. Classes for 10-12 year-olds & 13-16 year olds
Meet Our Team - Mommy & Me Music at the Family Commons. Monday & Wednesdays at 10:30am
1221 2nd Street; Santa Monica, CA 90401
310-395-5650; www.uclacommons.com
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Run for your lives! The SMASH
Jog-a-thon is coming Friday, March 9
· Submit a t-shirt design by 1/27. Open to all students. Simply draw your design (black/
white or color) on an 8 ½ by 11 piece of white paper. Include your name on the back and turn it into the office by January 27.
Save the date. The Jog-a-thon takes place Friday, March 9. Come run with your child and/or
cheer on the rest of the runners.
Volunteer. We need lots of volunteers to help with refreshments, donations, accounting, etc. both before and the day of the event.
Become a t-shirt sponsor by 2/3. T-shirt sponsors defray the cost of the t-shirts so that all students get a free Jog-a-thon shirt. Become a Corporate sponsor by donating $150, $200 or $250 or a SMASHing sponsor by donating $25, $50 or $100. Donations are tax deductible to the extent allowable by law. As a token of appreciation for your generous support, your name will adorn the back of the shirt.*

Questions?
Contact Lillie Schlessinger – lillie.schlessinger@transamerica.com
or Darlene Flanders – dflanders@quixo.com

*Please use the form below for making t-shirt donations and return to the office with your
cash or check made payable to SMASH PTSA by no later than February 3.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Sponsorship: Corporate ___$250 ___$200 ___$150
SMASHing ___$100 ___$50 ___$25
Name (as you would like it to appear on the t-shirt):______________________________

Child’s name (so we know who you are!):______________________________________

Size preference for complimentary t-shirt: ___XXL ___XL ___L ___M ___S (All sizes are adult sizes since all students will already receive a complimentary t-shirt. If you specifically want your complimentary t-shirt to be a child’s size, please note this.)


SMASH Jog-a-thon FAQs

Question: When is the Jog-a-thon?
Answer: Friday, March 9th from approximately 8:30 to 11:30 am. (An exact schedule will be printed in a Friday Letter before the event.)
Question: What happens at the Jog-a-thon?
Answer: SMASH students (and many teachers, parents, siblings and friends) run or walk laps to raise money for our school. Each student will be given a pledge packet a few weeks before the event and encouraged to get family, friends and neighbors to make a financial pledge for each lap run.
Question: How long is a lap and how many minutes will the students run?
Answer: Since SMASH’s field doesn’t have an official track, a ‘lap’ is as long as we say it is. We mark out a course on the day of the event and children run the course for 20 minutes (separated into different groups to avoid a Pamplona “running of the bulls” situation).
Question: How many laps will my child run?
Answer: It depends. A fast runner might complete as many as 60 laps and a good walker might complete 20.
Question: Are parents welcome?
Answer: YES! Parents are needed now as volunteers and are always encouraged to join in as runners or spectators. There will be music and refreshments for the kids and it is a great way to spend some time exercising with your child.
Question: What do volunteers do?
Answer: Volunteers help before, during and after the event and handle everything from setting up the course, to serving food/water to students, to counting laps and tallying pledges.
Question: How does my child submit a design for the t-shirt competition?
Answer: Simply have him/her draw the design (black/white or color) on an 8 ½ by 11 piece of white paper. Include his/her name on the back and turn it into the office by January 27th.
Question: What about t-shirt sponsorship?
Answer: T-shirt sponsors are very important. They pay for the cost of the t-shirts so that all students/teachers get a free Jog-a-thon shirt. Corporate sponsors donate $150, $200 or $250 and SMASHing sponsors donate $25, $50 or $100. Donations are tax deductible to the extent allowable by law. As a token of appreciation for their support, the t-shirt sponsor’s name will adorn the back of the shirt.*
Question: How can I find out more? How do I volunteer?
Answer: Contact Lillie Schlessinger, lillie.schlessinger@transamerica.com or Darlene Flanders, darlene@quixo.com.
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SMASH & JOHN MUIR ELEMENTARY
WINTER CONCERT

Tuesday, January 24

6:00pm
4th Grade Viola, Violin, & Cello - Auditorium
4th Grade Clarinet - Muir Computer Lab (Bungalow B)
4th Grade Trumpet & Trombone - Bungalow 1

7:00pm
4th Grade Chorus - Library
5th Grade Musicians – Auditorium

8:00pm
SMASH Middle School Musicians - Auditorium

Mr. Anderson, Ms. Bersch, Ms. Cha Mr. McKeown, Ms. Spike-Gravelle, Ms. Swift

STUDENTS: Please arrive 15 minutes before your performance time
And wear nice school clothes.

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ptsa news

president’s message

Dear SMASHing Parents,

One the great qualities of SMASH is the tremendous sense of community during the many events held throughout the year. One of these great community events, was the Multi-Cultural Potluck Wednesday evening, just two days after the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday on Monday. Not only did we get to share food from different cultures, it was a great time to connect and share with other SMASH families.

This Monday, January 23rd will be the first meeting of the Superintendent’s Advisory Committee, which will start discussion about implementation of the new centralized fundraising plan. Many of the details of this new policy are still to be determined, such as whether there will be different application of the new policy in the secondary schools compared to the elementary schools. As the only K-8 school in the district,
SMASH is vitally interested in how this policy will effect our school.
It is more important than ever for SMASH parents to get involved in formulation of the new policy by staying informed and attending meetings. SMASH needs your voice in implementing this new policy.
Dan McGee

ptsa annual family investment drive
· The SMASH Annual Family Investment Drive continues throughout the year. Have you made a commitment?
We are striving for 100% participation. If you have any questions, contact Marni Ayers Brady
(marniayers@gmail.com) or Helga Schier (helgaschier@verizon.net)

SMASH bash
· If you have not been able to enjoy a SMASH bash event, please consider attending an event in the new year. Please contact Marni Ayers Brady (marniayers@gmail.com) at your earliest convenience and find out what upcoming events are still available.

SMASH green tip
No Terracycle Collection 2/2-2/8: There will be no Terracycle pick up at SMASH between 2/2-2/8. Please bring in your Terracycling from home before 2/2 or save it until 2/9. DO NOT bring your Terracycling to school during those dates as it will not be picked up and will attract critters. Thank you!

Make a Green New Year's Resolution!: Many of us make resolutions to lose weight, eat healthier, spend
less money, ... Why not resolve to keep our planet healthy too? My New Year's Resolution is to make beans from scratch at home instead of buying canned beans. This will reduce household grocery costs, BPA consumption, and packaging waste. What will YOUR resolution be?

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CORE 1 NEWS

AQUARIUM FIELD TRIP:
Core 1 has been invited to visit the Santa Monica Aquarium on January 30th and 31st.

Here is how it will work:

Monday, January 30th – ALL MENTORS AND SOME PARTNERS
(this group will receive a yellow permission slip)

Tuesday, January 31st – ALL BIGS AND SOME PARTNERS
(this group will receive a green permission slip)

Both groups will leave school as early as possible (before 9:00) on the BIG BLUE BUS #8. We will eat snack before our program (which starts at 9:30). We will also have time to play at the park, eat lunch, and walk back to school. Please pack enough food and water for your child for the entire day. We will return to school around 1:00.

Please complete your child’s permission slip and return it with your child’s $1 bus fare in an envelope with your child’s name.

If you’re available, please sign-up to chaperone. Parents’ assistance is essential to keep our trips safe and fun for all.

DRAMA UPDATE:
Our drama teacher, Kristy, joined us again this week to lead us in fun drama games and theatrical performances. We continue to approach our performances holistically, where the children are constantly changing characters, revising the “script”, and fine-tuning the story. In Reading Workshop, we are also knee-deep in studying these stories in more depth and comparing their various versions.

Our stories are named “The Three-mendous Tales!”

The Mentors are performing Three Billy Goat Gruffs, the Bigs are performing Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and the Partners are performing The Three Little Pigs.

This week we also installed a life-size shadow screen in Graciela’s room. Thanks to Kaila’s mom, Devorie, for sewing it together!! We will be performing shadow plays of our stories beginning next week, using video to help us reflect on our performances and revise our plans.

SAVE THE DATE! Our Drama Sharing is scheduled for March 28th in the morning. All three shadow shows will be performed LIVE. More details to come…


HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!!!
Candis, Chrysta, Graciela, Nadja, and Jackie
Candis: cberens@smmusd.org
Chrysta: cwyse@smmusd.org
Graciela: gbarba-castro@smmusd.org

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CORE 2 NEWS
Advisory News: Here we are in mid-January, with Winter Break becoming a distant memory. The students are adjusting to their new advisory groups and revisiting CARES and our Core 2 guidelines & consequences. Some of us came back from break raring to go, while others among us needed a bit more time to readjust to the routine and structure of school. With some gentle (and some not-so-gentle ;-) reminders, we are setting the course for a busy and productive winter trimester. Tamara and Laura are busy writing the Mid-year narrative report cards. You can expect them sometime in February.

Theme: In Theme, where we focus on nonfiction reading and writing, Laura has been working with the students on a body systems unit. Ask your child what body system he/she is researching with his/her small group. Through this research, the students are learning to find information in nonfiction texts, cite the resource, and report the information in their own words. With Tamara, the students are learning about the development (due in part to the Gold Rush, the Transcontinental Railroad, and the building of the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro) of important early communities in California, such as San Jose, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. They are comparing/ contrasting these communities with Santa Monica and our classroom community, as well as utilizing skills from other units (such as map-making) to study and write about Santa Monica history. Thank you to Eli’s Nina for sharing her resources and passion about Santa Monica with us.

Literacy: In Readers Workshop, we started Mystery book clubs. The students are reading and discussing mystery books--such as Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, A – Z Mysteries, and Encyclopedia Brown--in small groups. Because we spend most of our class reading time in our book clubs, you and your child’s commitment to reading Just Right books at home is very important. Thank you for supporting your child’s lifelong reading habits. In Writing Workshop, we are working feverishly on a realistic fiction unit. Our read-aloud book, Because of Mr. Terupt, by Rob Buyea, is providing an engrossing example of the genre, as well as some heavy discussions. The students have been collecting ideas, fleshing out those ideas, and planning a few possibilities for their stories. They will be planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publish-ing their realistic fiction stories over the next few weeks. We look forward to sharing our stories with you. We know many students love this writing, while others are longing to do more free writing. WW homework is an excellent opportunity to do that and more. We hope the list of writing ideas will help students enjoy writing at home. Thank you for pledging to support your child’s commitment to writing more.

Math: Laura’s 3rd graders continue Collections and Travel Stories, the second addition and subtraction unit.
Tamara’s 4th Graders are wrapping up Multiple Towers and Division Stories, our second multiplication and division unit, with an emphasis on division with remainders. These foundational skills, along with the ability to memorize some facts and apply logic to manipulate the numbers to solve problems in a variety of ways is KEY to successful mathematical thinking.

Wednesday Visual Arts with Julianna and Tamara is going well. With Julianna the students dove right into some clay exploration. They will be focusing on 3-D art in this class. The students experimented with a variety of lines, shapes (geometric and organic), and patterns to make a small design. They will be using 2-D tools and techniques, such as watercolor, pen & ink drawing, and mixed-media collage with Tamara. We will be sharing this work with you on in March.

Media Center: Both groups visit the Media Center twice a month on Thursdays (alternating with visits from our Core 1 Reading Buddies).

Field trips: We are so lucky to have Audrey’s April helping us secure opportunities to get out into the world. Today’s concert at Royce Hall was great. Upcoming: M 1/30—STAR Ecostation, W 2/1—Santa Monica Bay Aquarium. Look for details, trip slips, and sharings (Camp Josepho sharing W 2/1) in future letters. The learning we do outside of the classroom is very powerful. Thanks for your support!

T.T.F.N.
Tamara, Laura, Jayme & Karin
Laura: lsherman@smmusd.org
Tamara: tmugalian@smmusd.org

Pony League at Los Amigos Park has spaces available for 9 and 10 year olds. If you are interested, please contact Jeff Jarow at jeff@parcommercial.com
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CORE 3 NEWS
6th Grade Parents,
On January 27 at 9:15, the 7th Grade Core 4 students will be running an assembly, to share their Yosemite experience. We encourage all 6th grade parents to attend this assembly, since your kids will be going on this trip next year. This sharing will include a lot of valuable information. We hope you will be able to come! Thanks so much! From, the 7th Grade

INSTRUMENTAL/CHORAL MUSIC CONCERT TUESDAY, January 24 AT STARTING AT 6:00 AT SCHOOL!

6th gr Math w/ Carrie: We are getting better at going back and forth between decimals and fractions. On Thursday we took a quiz to see how well we are understanding the material. Ask your child how he/she did on it. Next week we will add percents to the mix!
5th gr Math w/ Genie: We started looking at adding fractions. We are starting with using what we know about the common fractions and their percents to understand how fractions are added. Later we will talk about the algorithm procedure of the lowest common denominator and adding the numerators and then reducing. For now, it's important for your student to understand if 1/4 + 1/3 would equal 25% + 33.3% so it's more than ½, 58.3%. And to use tools like the clock and its friendly 12 sections to see 1/4 of the clock + 1/3 of the clock would get us to 7/12 which is just 1/12 bigger than ½. Ask your child to share with you.

Science w/ Carrie: Our technology study continued this week with a look at "key words" when searching for information and learning how to evaluate websites to determine how trustworthy they are.

RW/WW w/ Genie: Our words of the week is bias and pilot from an article inspired by last week's district discussion on Race hosted by SMASH/John Muir. One of the key points I got from the discussion is that it's important to talk about race as a way to help understand and grow a community. One of the first questions asked of the people who attended was, "How often do you think about race?" Talk over this question with your child and ask them about the article we read in class which is available under the Reading Workshop page on the Core 3 website. (sites.google.com/ site/smashcore3/) Science Fiction Short Stories are due and will be celebrated Fri, 27th--10:30 blue; 11:30 orange.
Families are welcome to join us!

Organization 101 w/ Carrie: The percent of students who had the basic supplies (pencil, HW binder, book, writing journal) with them increased from last week. Yay! These items should be with the kids at all times. We also looked at backpacks this week and kids cleaned them out if they needed to be. We are aiming to avoid having tons of stray papers shoved in the bottom of the backpacks. Next week we will tackle some of the in-class binders.

Homework:
6G Math: Assignment 9B is due Thursday, January 26.
5G Math: Packet #17 due Fri 1/27.
Writing: We are done with class time to work on the science fiction short stories. Please check with your child and see if they are done. If not, they need to work on this at home to make the due date Friday, 1/27.
Reading: read every day for 30-40 minutes! Do you know if your child is reading every day?

Genie: ghwang@smmusd.org
Carrie: cferguson@smmusd.org
Erin: ehaendel@smmusd.org
6th grade boys interested in Boy Scouts and their parents are invited to the Boy Scouts Troop 2’s Open House on February 6 at 7:15pm at Lincoln Middle School Cafeteria (1501 California Avenue)
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CORE 4 NEWS

Upcoming Events:
Instrumental Music Concert Tuesday, January 24th at 6pm.

Assembly Friday, January 27th at 8:45am.

Core 4 Parent Ed Meeting Wednesday, February 1st at 6:30pm.

7th grade happenings:
Last week we were in Yosemite, we had a really fun time. We hiked around the beautiful park, we had team building activities, and learned about taking care of the park. For 7th grade in science we have our Yosemite boards due on the 27th. In math, we are finishing chapter four and it will be due on the 27th.

8th grade happenings:
The week the 7th graders were gone in Yosemite, the 8th graders had a sub. His name was Tom and he was a very good substitute and followed all guidelines in the classroom. We took a math quiz on chapter 6-2 in the math book. We are planning to finish chapter 6 by the end of next week. In science, we did some scientific research on the teenage brain. We also had a test on Wednesday the 18th.

Language Arts/Humanities
In language arts we are working on our book club projects and our skits for vocabulary list 9. In philosophy we are working on a paper on the inner workings of our own personal philosophy. The personal philosophy first draft is due in about a week and a half.

Written by Seb C. and Eamonn R.


Please make plans to join us on a very important Parent Education meeting on February 1. We will continue to discuss the teenage brain and exit strategies in risk taking situations in middle school.

Darwin: dmendinueto@smmusd.org
Kurt: kholland@smmusd.org