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www.smash.smmusd.org
November 9, 2012
MONDAY, NOVEMBER
12 - VETERANS’ DAY - SCHOOL CLOSED
WEDNESDAY,
NOVEMBER 14 - PUPIL FREE DAY - SCHOOL
CLOSED
DATES TO
REMEMBER
Fri, Nov 16 - 6:00-8:00pm - Upper School Dance
Fri, Nov 16 - Last Day to order your ICE “Skate
Bucks”. Each card is for $20 to be
used like cash at the ice rink.
Sat, Nov 17 - 7:00-10:00pm - SMASH Arts & Letters
Sale. A fun-filled, “grownups-only”
evening of art, friendship
Tickets prices go up on November 10 from $15 to $20.
www.smashartsale.com
Mon, Nov 19 - Picture Make-Up Day - Forms available in
the SMASH office.
Pay ahead of time at
with credit card mylifetouch.com or with cash (exact amount) or check made payable to LifeTouch
on picture day. If retaking photo - return the entire photo package
Wed, Nov 21 - MINIMUM DAY - 1:30 DISMISSAL
Thurs, Fri, Nov 22, 23 - THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY - SCHOOL
CLOSED
Wed, Nov 28 - 4:00pm - Site Council Mtg
Wed, Nov 28 - 6:30pm - PTSA Mtg
*********************
UPPER SCHOOL DANCE!
Nov 16 - 6-8pm
$5.00 suggested donation
Hang out with your friends & have a great time!
*********************
ICE
At Santa Monica
Skate Bucks
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Dear SMASH Families,
Every year we eagerly
await the return of the Downtown Santa Monica ICE skating rink.
This year, the season
runs November 8 through January 21, and we have an amazing
opportunity to have fun and raise funds for
SMASH trips scholarships.
ICE will create a SMASH punch card that you can purchase for $20. It can be
used like cash for
Admission, Skate Rental and/or Concessions. Admission and skate rental
at ICE is $12, and t he
additional $8 left over ca n be used at the concession/food stand or
'saved' for the next
trip to ice where it can again be used toward admission or for food and
beverage. T he cards can
be used all season long (except New Year’s Eve) so stock up!
It’s safer than sending
cash with your kids to the ice rink.
For every $20 card sold, the SMASH Trips Scholarship fund will
earn $8.
What an easy way to help
fund our kids’ adventures with their classmates and teachers at
SMASH.
If you want a card (or a
dozen!) email me at halexmills@gmail.com; or sign up in the
SMASH office ASAP (deadline Friday, November 16) so we can let our fine
city
know how many cards we
need.
Thank you for supporting
our students!
Heather Mills
Core 4 Representative
*********************
SMASH
ARTS and LETTERS SALE
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 7:00-10:00PM
YAHOO! at 2401 Colorado at Cloverfield, Santa Monica
Benefiting visual arts for all elementary schools in Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District through the Santa Monica-Malibu Education Foundation.
Enjoy a fun-filled, "grownups-only" evening of art, appetizers, wine, and of course, fundraising. The SMASH Arts & Letters Sale features original postcard-sized art, each to be sold for $40 on a first-come, first-served basis. come trust your creative instinct and walk away with a master piece! Each 4" x 6" work is signed on the back and artist identities are revealed only after purchase. Arrive early for best selection, viewing starts at 7pm, and the exciting check-out process begins at 8pm.
BUY YOUR TICKETS TODAY: www.smashartsale.com
Tickets only $15 before November 10 ($20 after Nov. 10)
Appetizers and Refreshments
Free underground parking available
for more information visit www.smashartsale.com or email info@smashartsale.com
*******************
Virginia Avenue Project presents. . . Off The Cliff
8
project kids improvise with a rotating band of professional adult improvisers
ArtWorks Theatre at 6569 Santa Monica
Blvd, Hollywood (just east of Highland)
Fri and Sat, Nov 16 and 17 at 7:30pm
and Sun, Nov 18 at 3:00pm Reservations: 310-264-4224. Pay what you can!
SMASH student Robbie Kitzler and alums
Kaitlyn Flynn, Melodee Piper and Jenny White are among the players!
*********************
Recycle It! Textiles
Recycling Event
Saturday, November 17 - 9am-2pm - Santa Monica City Yards at 2500
Michigan Ave
You can drop off any dry, used clothing or
other textiles for reuse or recycling (clothing, linens, shoes, scarves, hats, bags, belts, rags). Yes, even those yucky
rags and stained clothing can be recycled into things like compost or
insulation. Please take reusable goods to donation
centers. This year’s clothing/textile recycling event will also feature a mini workshop
on constructing no-sew t-shirt bags and how to reuse cloth instead of
purchasing new wrapping paper. Bring your own used t-shirt for the workshop. Drop in between
10am and 2pm for the workshop.
*********************
21st Annual PALLOWEEN At PACIFIC PARK!
Get an
unlimited ride wristband for just $5.00 with a Palloween 2012 Coupon (available
in SMASH office)
Must
present original coupon (good for up to 4 people)
*********************
CONGRATULATIONS SMASH
8,538
batteries were collected from us by the City of Santa Monica’s
Office of Sustainability and the Environment.
Office of Sustainability and the Environment.
Please
bring in used batteries, cell phones, MP3 players, PDAs and
other handheld electronic devices for recycling.
other handheld electronic devices for recycling.
SMASH and
John Muir collected over 500 pounds of candy for
Operation
Gratitude to send candy to US troops overseas
*********************
WHERE IS YOUR FAMILY FROM?
If you have artifacts, maps, coins, photos, costumes, food, music, or yourself
we would like you to share with us for
MULTICULTURAL NIGHT
Please contact us:
Lori Nafshun: gettalife1@gmail.com
Barbara Williams: liamjack1@mac.com
*********************
CORE 1
NEWS
Reading
with Your Child at Home
During fall conferences, many parents were
interested in new ideas of how to read with their child at home.
Experts in child literacy are unanimous in
their belief that parents should read with their children. The power of the parent-child
bond has a positive effect on a child's attitude toward reading and his ability
to read. Try the suggestions below to help make reading with your child
both a pleasure and a learning experience.
1. Choose the right book using the
"five-finger rule." Have your child open the book to any page in the middle of the
book and read that page. Each time she comes across a word she does not know,
she should hold up a finger. If she gets to five fingers before she finishes
reading the page, the book is too hard. If she doesn't hold up any fingers, the
book is probably easy for your child and can be used to build reading fluency.
If she holds up two or three fingers, the book is likely to be at a good level
for her reading to grow.
2. Use sound strategies to tackle a new
word.
- Ask your child to sound out an unknown word. Look at the letters
in a difficult word and have your child pronounce each sound, or phoneme.
Then see if he can blend the sounds together to pronounce the word.
- Help him memorize irregular words. Explain that words like where, hour, or sign are hard to sound out since they don't follow normal sound patterns. Point these words out when you're reading to help your child learn to recognize them on his own.
- Use suffixes, prefixes, and root words. If your child knows the
word day, guide him to define new words like yesterday or daily.
Similarly, if he knows what pre- means, it's easy to learn new
words like prepare or preschool.
3. Use the story to help your child learn.
- Ask your child what word or idea would make sense in the plot of the story when she gets stuck on an unfamiliar word.
- Encourage your child to look at illustrations, pictures, titles,
or graphs to figure out the meaning of new words.
4. Give support and encouragement.
- Challenge your child to figure out new words, but always supply
the word before he becomes frustrated.
- After your child has read a story, reread it aloud yourself so
that he can enjoy it without interruption.
5. Be a good role model. Let your child see you reading, and share
your excitement when you enjoy a great book of your own.
6. Make reading a priority. Whether it's 10 minutes every night before
bed or an hour every Sunday morning, it helps to set aside a specific time for reading.
This kind of special "together time" can go a long way toward getting
your child interested in books.
7. Create the right atmosphere. Find a quiet comfortable place to listen
to your child read. While you don't need to build a special reading nook, it helps to
ensure that, even in a busy home, there's a quiet place for reading.
8. Make reading fun. Kids may not get excited about the idea of
quiet time spent curled up on the couch. Why not make it fun by turning reading sessions
into impromptu theater
performances? Play around with
funny voices to impersonate animals or unusual characters in stories. You'll
get to release some tension, and your child will learn to think of reading as
fun rather than work.
9. Keep reading aloud to your child. Don't stop reading aloud to your child
once she learns to read by herself. When you read to her, you let your child
enjoy books that are beyond her independent reading level and build her
vocabulary by exposing her to new words. Reading aloud is also a chance for you
to model reading smoothly and with expression.
10. Introduce new books. Each year there is one book that seems to
steal the hearts and minds of all children. While it may seem like the only
book your child wants to read, it's important to remember that there are
millions of books that will suit your child's interests and capture his
imagination. Greatschools.org
HAVE A
GREAT 3-DAY WEEKEND & HAPPY READING!!
Candis,
Chrysta, Graciela, Nadja & Laura
Candis: cberens@smmsud.org
Chrysta: cwyse@smmusd.org
Graciela: gbarba-castro@smmusd.org
*********************
CORE 2
NEWS
So much going on in Core 2 right now! Please look for the important dates that
are embedded in this letter. We have Field Trips, Sharings, and a Math Morning
all coming up soon!
Literacy: Core 2 is currently reading and writing
Fantasy stories.
RW: In Tamara’s advisory, while listening to Coraline students
are taking note of how the author uses descriptions to make the setting come alive and enable the
reader to make a movie in their mind. In Jayme’s advisory, students are thinking about how the reader can get to
know their character by what they do and say. We are focusing on using evidence from the text to support our ideas. In our
read aloud, Clair said, “Coraline is adventurous because everyday she goes outside and explores around the house.” Esai also thinks Coraline is
adventurous because, “She goes through an old, creepy door and fights her fears.” Sydney told the group that, “Coraline is curious because she
loves to find new things and explore.” Shai G. noticed that Coraline is
self-sufficient and stated, “She is prepared because if her parents don’t come home, she can make pizzas and take care of herself.”
RW HW: Can you use this same evidence to
get to know your characters and visualize what’s happening in the books you are reading for homework?
WW: We are taking note of what published authors do to describe
their characters and “show not tell” what they are like. We are trying to apply this
technique to our own Fantasy stories. Shai C. tells his readers about
Milo when he writes, “Milo’s feet started trembling while looking at
the dog named Jim.” Alana
tells her readers that
her character Donut is plotting some silliness when she
writes, “’I should prank that guy!’ Donut thought.” Myles shows
that his character (name to be determined) is out
to get the world, but also has a funny side, when he writes, “’I should destroy the world…after I finish these baked beans!’” Core 2 will be ready to share our
published Fantasy stories on Tuesday, Nov 27 at 2:00pm. Please
join us!
Math: Jayme and the 3rd Grade Mathematicians have just finished our Data Unit and are off to start our 2nd Addition and Subtraction unit of the year. Please
refer to the attached Family Letter to see what this unit is all about and how you can practice at home. Tamara
and the 4th Grade Mathematicians are wrapping up their Data unit. More multiplication coming up next.
Math HW: Complete and return the attached
homework by next Friday, November 16. No need for homework stress! Do what you can and bring the packet
back in to class if you need any help!
Core 2 is also planning our first Math
Morning of the year! Parents
are encouraged to join us as we practice and explore math in grades 3 and 4. There will
be a student workshop portion as well as a parent-only Q & A time on Monday, December 17, 8:30-9:30am.
Art: Core 2 Puppeteers have worked so hard on their puppets and
will continue their work for just 1 more session before our sharing on December
12 from 11:30-12:15. We will be sharing our work process and parading
our puppets through all the Cores. We need a couple of volunteers to photograph
this special puppet parade. A huge THANK YOU to the parents that have
come and worked with us during Art.
Upcoming
Events
FIELD TRIPS
California Science Center - Thursday, November 29--all day
Broad Theater - Friday, December 7--morning
Santa Monica Pier Aquarium - Friday, December 21--morning
SHARINGS
Fantasy Writing - Tuesday, November 27, 2:00 – 3:00 pm
Puppet Parade - Wednesday, December 12, 11:30 – 12:15
Math Morning - Monday, December 17, 8:30 –
9:30 am
Have a
great 3-day weekend!
Tamara,
Jayme, & Nadja (Yay!)
Jayme: jwoldflorian@smmusd.org
*********************
CORE
3 NEWS
- Upper School Dance for Core 3 and 4 Friday, November 16 from
6:00-8:00 in Cafetorium.
$5.00
entrance donation. Trip fundraiser. Raffle. Food, music, dancing and lots of
fun!
- P icture Make-up Day is
Monday 11/19! Have your child bring in their photo packet!
- If you are interested in a Catalina iMovie slideshow DVD, please
have your child bring a $15 donation to Core 3.
- Visual Arts with Julianna: We
are busy sewing and hot gluing details and arms onto our puppets. We
are still looking for a photographer parent to take portrait shots of the
puppet maker and their puppet any time from now until March. Please
contact Genie if you are interested. Dec 12th 10:30-11:25 Arts Share. We
will, however, keep the puppets at school for our dramatic arts unit
with Kristy where we will learn to animate them & become puppeteers.
If you can't make this share, you'll see the puppets in action in the
spring Art Share.
6th Grade Math with Mimi: This week, we continued working with
fractions and their relationship to decimals. We also extended our
understanding to include place values to ten-thousandths. HW is due Thursday,
11/15.
6th Grade Math with Erin: Project Time! This week we introduced our
second Geometry unit. The students will be embarking on a project to design
their dream room. Through this project students will learn about area,
circumference, perimeter, ratios, and proportion, as well as use their problem
solving skills to figure out the costs of furniture, wall paper, rugs, building
materials, etc. This week students participated in mini-lessons surrounding
proportion and ratio. To get inspired design-wise, they also watched a clip of
Extreme Makeover - Home Edition. This episode tied in nicely with one of our
Social Studies "issues" in that it's about designing a home for a
veteran with PTSD.
5th grade Math Workshop with Genie: We shared different subtraction
strategies. A favorite is finding the difference by adding up (4,575-987 can be
changed to 987 + ___ = 4,575). We use the math tool, number lines, which is a
great way to see the chunks we add up or subtract. You can subtract chunks or
add up chunks. Some like to add small numbers to get to a friendly number and
others like to add big chunks first and then find the little chunks at the end.
We also learned the US algorithm—the way we all learned when we were in school.
Ava and Nick also found modified versions of the subtraction algorithm—ask your
child what Ava and Nick did that was a little different. (clue: Nick used
negative numbers and got the same answer. Ava borrowed just enough from the
previous place value.)
Science with Mimi: Students have begun teaching each other
about their body system specialities Working in small groups continues to
challenge our interpersonal and cooperative work skills. Students continue to
take notes which they may use during the Physiology Test next Thursday. They
will need to know the functions, main body parts/organs, and pathways of all
six systems for this test.
Social Studies with Erin: What an exciting week with the 2012
election. Your children continue to surprise me with their knowledge and
interest in current events and politics. On Monday we reviewed the California
propositions and students made signs to support a "yes" or
"no" on one they cared about. A good number of the students knew
about most of the propositions beforehand. They have strong views about the
death penalty, three strikes laws, genetically modified food and, of course,
taxes to support our schools. On Wednesday we debriefed about the election
after watching both Obama's and Romney's speeches from the night before. We
took a look at the final Electoral College map as we reviewed what Simeon and
Caleb taught us last month. Thank you all for including your children in your
obviously intelligent and insightful dinner table conversations. They bring so
much knowledge and excitement about current events into the classroom!
Homework: Completed Interview Notes - Due Friday, Nov. 16 (new due date).
Interview may be done in person, on the phone, or by email.
Reading and Writing Workshop with Genie: We have moved into book clubs focusing on
our conversation hopes and dreams and beginning by reading short story texts to
practice good conversation. Kids reflected that it is hard to ask questions if
you are a quiet person or to talk less if you are a chatty person. They also
noted that it's hard to keep a conversation growing. Often our conversations
start with, "I liked that part…" Yeah, me too." Yeah…"
"Yeah…" Try to grow a conversation in your family and see what helps
in making it grow into new thinking. We are busy writing literary essays
quickly in Writing Workshop, but since we just wrote personal essays and read a
lot of just right books, they are pretty easy to write. Literary essays are due
Wed, Nov 21.
Homework:
5G math: packet #12. Due 11/16/12
6G math: due Thurs 11/15/12
RW: read every day for 30-40 minutes (100 pages a week) and at least
a paragraph of non-fiction every day
WW: write 3 pages in your writing notebook per week!
SS: Completed Interview Notes - Due Friday, Nov. 16 (new due date)
Interview may be done in person, on the phone, or by email.
CORE
4 NEWS
This week, in Humanities writing the 7th
graders turned in their second draft for the Line of Political thought essay.
It included a cover, graphs and charts, cited
information in the essay, as well as a bibliography, the first page of 3
articles we read, as well as a folder containing our essay along with the first
draft. In math we worked to complete chapter 3. Darwin did some lessons to help
catch people up, so that we are on the same page next week. Later in the week,
the 8th graders went to Hess-Kramer on so we did some fun activities with Kurt.
Overall, we had a great fun filled week and learned a lot.
By Lydia Night
and Kate Zemke
CORE 4 STUDENTS AND PARENTS
If you would like to be in our Core 4
Holiday Boutique Project “Nature in Santa Monica Art Greeting Cards” then please send me your artwork at
holljessicawright@gmail.com or put them in the Art Drop Box in Core 4. Our
theme is ‘Nature in Santa Monica’ - this is about
what you see, it’s your chance to share what nature you see near you and what catches your eye. We also want a positive
outlook, this is a chance to show what you find interesting and happy in nature around you.
Plants, trees, a local dog, flowers in a
window box, shadows on the pavement, the ocean...the sky is the limit really.
If you do go out and about to make
pictures please be aware of your surroundings; cars, other people, etc.
Photos, Drawings, Paintings, even
anime(!), all these will work. Make them clear through as we will most likely
be scanning them to reproduce for greeting
cards. I’d like to aim to have art work in by November 20. The Holiday Boutique is in the second week of December so we
will have a couple of weeks to get the cards together. Have fun! Parent contributions very warmly
welcomed too!
Thanks,
Holly
424-645-9392
UPPER
SCHOOL DANCE!
November 16 from 6:00 to 8:00 pm
$5.00 suggested donation
Trip Fundraiser
Raffle
Food,
music, dancing, and lots of fun!
Hang out with your friends and have a
great time!
ENJOY THE 3-DAY WEEKEND!
Kurt: kholland@smmusd.org
Darwin: dmendinueto@smmusd.org
