WEDNESDAY,
NOVEMBER 21– MINIMUM DAY - 1:30 DISMISSAL
THURSDAY
AND FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22 AND 23 - THANKSGIVING - SCHOOL CLOSED
HAPPY THANKSGIVING! - NO
FRIDAY LETTER NEXT WEEK
******************
DATES
TO REMEMBER
Sat, Nov 17 - 7:00-10:00pm - SMASH Arts
and Letters Sale. A
fun-filled, “grownups-only” evening of art, friendship and fundraising benefitting elementary
visual arts throughout SMMUSD. Tickets $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
NEW CREST ELEMENTARY ENRICHMENT CLASSES
BEGIN JANUARY 14
Info: 310-458-8540 Website:
www.smgov.net/crest Register online: recenroll.smgov.net
******************
DOWNTOWN
SANTA MONICA HOLIDLAY EVENTS
Nov 17 - 6pm - Community Tree Lighting,
Santa Monica Place, Center Plaza
Nov 17 - 24 - 11am-8:00pm - Photos with
Santa, Santa Monica Place, Center Plaza
Nov 23 & Dec 22 - Noon-3:00pm - Holiday
Kids Crafts, 3rd Street Promenade
Nov 27, Dec 4 & 11 - 6:00-8:00pm -
Paws and Claus” Pet Photos with Santa, Santa Monica Place, Center
Plaza
Dec 8 - 9:30-11:00am - Breakfast with
Santa, Santa Monica Place, Food Court
Dec 8, 11 & 12 - Sundown - Chanukah
Menorah Lighting, 3rd Street Promenade
Dec 9 - 10:00am-Noon - Chanukah
Celebration, Santa Monica Place, The Market, Level 3
Dec 15 - 11:00am-1:00pm - Cookie Making
and Story Time with Mrs. Claus, Santa Monica Place, Center Plaza
For more holiday event information:
WinterLit.com; SantaMoniaPlace.com or SantaMonica.com/Holidays
Now until Jan 25 - Need room for friends
and family? - Hotel discounts www.SantaMonica.com/Extra Bedroom
******************
PAL BEST GIFT EVER GIFT DRIVE - November
12 - December 14
Donate a new unwrapped gift at: Santa Monica PAL at 1401 Olympic Bl or ICE
at 5th St and; Arizona Ave
******************
Westside
Ballet of Santa Monica presents The
NUTCRACKER
Wadsworth
Theatre, Brentwood
December 7
at 7:30pm and December 8 and; 9 at 1:00 and 5:00pm
SMASH’s
Olivia Sparling and Anastasia Grigorian will be performing
Friends
& Family Discount! 50% off Children & Students - $15 and 20% off Adults
- $25
Purchase
Tickets: at Westside Ballet Studio at 1709 Stewart St,
or online
at www.ticketmaster.com. Use promo codes adultballet12 or childballet 12
For more
information: www.westsideballet.com
******************
Hello Smash community!
First of all we wanted to acknowledge the good news for
education in California and in Santa Monica with the passage of Proposition 30 and Measure ES. Some of you may not be ready to imagine your children
ever going to high school, but it will happen faster than you can believe. And
when your family arrives at Samo High you'll be happy that Measure ES paved the
way for significant structural improvements that will benefit students for
years. We'll keep you posted as information emerges about how Measure ES will
directly impact improvements at the Smash/Muir campus.
Congratulations to our own Ted Winterer on being elected to
the Santa Monica City Council.
YOU
GOTTA HAVE ARTS AND LETTERS
As you know PTSA does many fundraising events throughout
the year. Some of them like Super Smash have been around for years drawing alumni from decades ago,
while other events are relatively new.
The SMASH Arts and Letters Sale is among the newer events
that has been growing significantly with
each year. It's an amazing evening that generates a lot of
community support from local artists and amazing
restaurants. To put the final touches on this beautiful
gathering, we need you to and come be part of it!
If you don't already have tickets, you can purchase them
online right now: www.smashartsale.com (space is limited) OR, purchase your tickets at the
door!
TOMORROW: SATURDAY NOVEMBER 17 from 7-10 PM,
YAHOO! 2401 Colorado, Santa Monica
MORE TASTY
DETAILS:
-This is the only all-school, adults-only event of the
year.
-There will be complimentary wine, and food from some of
the best restaurants in town: Border Grill,
Fairmont Miramar, JiRaffe, La Vecchia, Lobster, Locanda del
Lago, Michael's, MisFit, Ocean and Vine at Loews, and Tiato
-You'll see works by Cher,
Mark Stock, Dav Pilkey, Marla Frazee and many other amazing artists.
Eat, drink and buy art!
-Jamee Tenzer and David Saltzman
PTSA Co-presidents
GREEN
TIP
Ways to Reduce Food Waste:
1. Make a weekly dinner menu plan so that
you only buy the fresh ingredients you'll need for the week.
2. Inventory your fridge and freeze
produce and other food that you will not use during the week to maintain
freshness.
3. Make one night a week "Clean Out
The Fridge Night". Be creative and make dinner from whatever is in the
fridge.This helps to prevent wasting extra
veggies and leftovers that tend to get overlooked and noticed only after it's
too late...
4. Reuse scraps, citrus fruits and even
banana peels to infuse teas, make soup stock, and even polish shoes
(http://earth911.com/news/2011/08/17/10-reuse-ideas-for-food-scraps/).
******************
MEN'S PANTS DRIVE
Please clean out your closet!
Every year, hundreds of needy guests come to the SM Civic Auditorium for the Westside Thanksgiving Dinner
There is a great need for new or gently used mens' pants and jeans
and any other good clothing you might like to donate
Please drop off your donations to:
655 Ashland Avenue by Wednesday, November 22
You can leave the clothing on the front porch.
We will bring the clothing to the Civic Auditorium on Thanksgiving Day.
Thank you for giving thanks by helping others less fortunate than us.
The Nafshun-Bone Family
Questions: 310-452-5700
www.westsidethanksgiving.org
*****************
Winter Break Youth Tennis Clinic
Santa Monica Tennis offers a clinic for youth tennis players of all levels, ages 6-17. Instruction focuses on learning proper strokes and movement that promote optimal physical fitness and fun!
www.recenroll.smgov.net
CORE
1 NEWS
Independent Study – It’s that time of year when families are
planning to spend quality time traveling with their children to visit extended family or to see new
places. We value the importance of these trips. If you plan for your child to be absent from school for 5 days or
more we request that you complete the Independent Study process. Here’s how to do it:
1. Notify your child’s workshop teacher of the dates your child will miss school. She will appreciate advance notice to prepare assignments.
2. The teacher will write an Independent Study plan that you will and your child will sign before the trip.
3. Before leaving on your trip, pick up the materials. We promise to keep it light for travelers.
4. Complete the assignments while on your trip.
5. Return the completed assignments to your child’s teacher for “grading.”
1. Notify your child’s workshop teacher of the dates your child will miss school. She will appreciate advance notice to prepare assignments.
2. The teacher will write an Independent Study plan that you will and your child will sign before the trip.
3. Before leaving on your trip, pick up the materials. We promise to keep it light for travelers.
4. Complete the assignments while on your trip.
5. Return the completed assignments to your child’s teacher for “grading.”
Your child’s grade, “complete,” will be
recorded by Wende in the office and the school will receive attendance credit for your child’s absence. Your child’s
absence will not be marked as “unexcused” and the school will receive funding accordingly.
We appreciate your communication and cooperation in this process.
Math Game Kits – Order forms were sent home in last week’s
Friday Folder. Please let us know if you need another form. Math Game Kits are
a convenient resource to have in your home. They contain materials that extend
the math games played at school. This kit will be useful to have while your
child is in Core 1 and beyond. It includes laminated
Primary Number Cards, counting cubes, play
coins, dice, 100 Chart, 10 Frames, and game instructions inside a cardboard
box. All families will receive the game instructions, so if you do not purchase
the kit, we recommend you assemble one. Playing math games with your child will
help develop number sense.
Birthday Bash – Friday November 30 at
11:45 in Candis’ Room
If your child has a birthday in November,
she or he is invited to bring his or her favorite fresh fruit or vegetable (only) to prepare, serve, and share with the Core
1 community. Below is a schedule of the festivities.
8:30 The
birthday children arrive to school with a fresh fruit or vegetable as
purchased.
9 -10 The
birthday children will prepare the fruit or vegetable by washing it and
cutting it during Projects Time.We invite you
to help.
11:45 The
whole core gathers in Candis’ room for a story, a poem, and a song. Each
birthday child is celebrated in this ritual.
12:00
The fresh fruits and vegetables snacks that were prepared by the birthday
children are served with their lunch.We could use
your help to set-up the buffet tables on the small yard, to serve the food, and
to help us clean up.
12:30
Our reusable dishes will need to be taken home with a birthday child and washed
in a dishwasher.
Enjoy
the weekend
Candis,
Chrysta, Graciela, Nadja & Laura
Candies: cberens@smmusd.org
Chrysta: cwyse@smmusd.org
Graciela: gbarba-castro@smmusd.org
REMINDER:
MINIMUM DAY - 1:30
DISMISSAL WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 21
NO SCHOOL THURSDAY and FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22 and 23
HAPPY THANKSGIVING! - NO
FRIDAY LETTER NEXT WEEK
******************
CORE
2 NEWS
Core 2 continues to be busy, busy, busy—and the there are lots of SMASH events,
such as the Arts & Letters sale this weekend and the upcoming Book Fair
and Holiday Boutique in addition to Core 2 Field Trips, Sharings, and an interactive Math Parent Education Morning
on the Horizon! We know you are busy this time of year, as well. Our good
friend, Margaret, who has worked closely with SMASH on our Responsive Classroom
social curriculum, has addressed the stress and exhaustion that is typical for
teachers at this time of year, and giving us some great ideas for keeping
things fresh and fun. Enjoy…
November Blues by Margaret Berry Wilson November 11, 2012
What teachers
have to deal with at this time of year (in addition to teaching, of course) can
be daunting— writing report cards, meeting with families at conferences,
grading papers, adjusting to a time change, and in some cases, even dealing
with the aftermath of a hurricane. It is natural for you and your students to
feel overwhelmed and tired. Do the optimism and promise you felt at the
beginning of the new school year seem like distant memories? If so, you may
have a case of the November blues. Last year I wrote a post called "Need
a New Mattress?” that's about reconnecting with the sense of fun and
purpose you felt at the beginning of the year. That could be an antidote to
your November blues. Plus, here are some other free resources from Responsive
Classroom's Resources for Educators that might help rejuvenate
you and your class during this often stressful time of year:
Our website has several articles about what to
do if the routines and procedures you so carefully taught earlier in the year
start to deteriorate. "Keeping Routines Crisp," is one—it
offers some concrete ways to keep routines from slipping as well as suggestions
for bolstering students' success with these tricky times of the day.
Do you have a
particularly talkative group? Read "Do You Have a Chatty Class"
Mike Anderson offers practical strategies you can try immediately to help
channel your students' talkativeness in positive ways and help them stay on
track with their learning.
Teaching takes
remarkable resilience and determination. I hope some of these resources help
you
hang in there!
These resources will help us get through
the holiday season, but students and parents need to “hang in there” too! At this time of year, we notice students start to slow down
on their homework, punctuality, and attendance.
Core 2 Homework (C2 HW): We encourage you to help your child
maintain their routine of reading for pleasure at home every day, doing their math packets
on their own schedule, and writing for fun!
Punctuality: Not only is being late to school
disruptive to the work in progress on campus, but we notice it sets the tone for the tardy student all day. Help
your child have a great start to everyday by allowing enough time for morning routines and getting to school on time.
Attendance: With all the days off, holidays, and
family visits common at this time of year, it can be hard to come to school. Core 2 does not take days off—and
we have new units, great activities, and lots of learning planned for every day between now and winter break. Please
understand how important it is for your child to be here.
Visual Arts with Julianna: We will be sharing our work process and
parading our puppets through all the Cores December 12 from 11:30-12:15.
. We need a couple of volunteers to photograph the students with their
puppet creations
3rd Grade Dance Performance: Friday, December 7. Parents, please
arrive at 11:15.
Campus Trash Pick-Up - Friday, November 30. If you want to help make our campus
beautiful, please sign-up with Lucca.
Have a great weekend!
Tamara, Jayme, & Nadja (Yay!)
Jayme: jwoldflorian@smmusd.org
Tamara: tmugalian@smmusd.org
MINIMUM DAY - 1:30
DISMISSAL WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 21
NO SCHOOL THURSDAY and FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22 and 23
HAPPY THANKSGIVING! - NO
FRIDAY LETTER NEXT WEEK
******************
CORE
3 NEWS
Upper School Dance tonight! 6:00-8:00pm!
Picture Make-up Day is Monday 11/19! Have your child bring in their photo
packet!
1:30 Dismissal on Wednesday!
Field trip to Skirball Center—Creating the United States. Friday, 11/30
9:15-12:30. We are looking for chaperones if you are available. Permission slips
will be sent out on Monday the 26th.
If you are interested in a Catalina iMovie
slideshow DVD, please have your child bring in a $15 donation to Core 3.
Visual Arts with Julianna: We are looking for a photographer parent
to take portrait shots of the puppet maker and their puppet. Please contact Genie if you
are interested.
6th Grade
Math with Mimi: This week
we got in some valuable work time to catch up and ask questions. We took a quick
quiz on Thursday as well. HW for the next two weekends will be to play card
games, board games, and math puzzles like Sudoku and Yubotu. Everyone received
a sheet with some Sudoku and Yubotu puzzles on them. All 6G must attempt to
solve these as part of their HW.
6th Grade Math with Erin: Only one day of math this week. We spent
it thinking about similar figures for our geometry project.
5th grade
Math Workshop with Genie: We
are continuing our subtraction strategies in story problems and began playing
Close to 7,500. It is a step more challenging than Close to 1,000. We still use
the basis of our combinations of 10 to help us and from that use our
combinations of 9 and therefore 90. So if I have 30 and 60 and a 2 and 8—I can make
32+68 or 38+62 to get 100. So for 7,500 I may look for a combination of 7,000,
400, 90 and 10.
Science with Mimi: Students continued to teach their peers
about their body system specialties using diagrams and models in order to
prepare for the Physiology Test they took on Thursday. On Tuesday, students
will be able to help each other correct answers on their tests to make sure
they get a passing score.
Social Studies with Erin: Students only had one day of social
studies this week. We continued to work on our “issue” research projects.
Reading and Writing Workshop with Genie: We have begun book clubs and depending on
book sizes and the readers in the club, some book clubs will finish next week
and others the week after. After the initial book club created by Genie, each
student needs to find another book club of their choice—members and book. Our
focus in this unit is on rich conversation and discussion. We will be video
taping conversations and watching them and analyzing them as a group. We will
also work on how using post-its and our writing notebooks are places to leave
traces of our thinking which helps grow our conversations as well. Try a family
book club at home over Thanksgiving break! The text could be a short article,
picture book (being read to counts), or listening to audio books. Pick a date
and time the text needs to be read by and everyone can come ready to talk!
Literary essays are due Wed, 11/21! Ask to read your child's on My Big Campus.
They should have an introduction that draws the reader in, their idea about the
book (thesis), a short summary of the book, the book title underlined or
italicized and the author. And then they need the 3 reasons that support their
idea in 3 different paragraphs and then their last paragraph, the conclusion.
It's their 2nd round with essay and they are working on
independence and using the rubric as a guide.
Homework:
5G math: packet #13. Due 11/30/12—NOTE THAT THERE ARE 2 WEEKS TO
WORK ON THIS PACKET
6G math: play games and attempt to solve the Sudoku and Yubotu
puzzles
RW: read every day for 30-40 minutes (100 pages a week). This can
include their book club reading!
WW: write 3 pages in your writing notebook per week!
MINIMUM DAY - 1:30
DISMISSAL WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 21
NO SCHOOL THURSDAY and FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22 and 23
HAPPY THANKSGIVING! - NO
FRIDAY LETTER NEXT WEEK
******************
CORE
4 NEWS
Fulcrum at Camp Hess Kramer
On Wednesday,
November 9, the 8th grade class set out on the adventure that would change us
all. Excited to discover what the next three days would have in store, we
shoved all of our bags under the bus and set off for Camp Hess Kramer. The bus
ride seemed to last for hours, but eventually we pulled into the driveway of
the beautiful Hess Kramer where we were greeted by our amazing counselors, Leo,
Miles, and Margareta. We unpacked the bus, and headed down to one of the
fields. Once we were there, we played some games to get to know each other, and
some just for fun. One of the games was the “monkey game” where we attempted to
use teamwork to hide the monkey from the counselor, whose ultimate goal was to
recover the stuffed monkey from our group. We lost every round. After the
monkey game, we went to lunch. Then we were split into three groups with three
rotations. The first rotation was a trust walk. One person would be blindfolded,
while the other leads the person on a short hike. The next rotation was a 65
foot rock wall, where we all cheered each other on. The third and final
rotation consisted of two team building activities. In the first activity, we
had to balance our weight evenly on a board that rocked (like a huge see-saw).
Once we were all on, we had to sing three verses of “Row, Row, Row, Your Boat”
while keeping the board balanced. The second activity was to get everyone from one
“island” (a circle in the dirt) to the other “island” by swinging on a rope.
The activities that we participated in on the first day provided an amazing
start to our trip!
Our second day
was spent at upper camp, called Hill Top, where our cabins were located. This
was most likely the most exciting day, because we spent it on the ropes course.
Even though it was raining, we rotated between three activities-the leap of
faith, the high V, and the swing. The leap of faith is a 30 foot telephone pole
that we got to climb. It was slightly more nerve racking because the metal pegs
that we climbed were wet from the rain. The telephone pole also swayed slightly
in the wind. Once at the top, each of us got to jump for a trapeze-like bar
about 5 feet away. This activity gave us the chance to encourage each other as
we faced our fears. The next activity is called the High V. In this activity
partner pairs must use a lot of teamwork to walk across two wires while using
each other's weight to stay balanced. At first this seemed incredibly
unmanageable, but with the support and help of our classmates, we all did a
great job in this activity. The third ropes course activity was The Giant
Swing. This wasn't just any swing. This swing was around 40 feet in the air.
One by one, we climbed a 40 foot pole. Then we walked across a log to a small
platform, where Leo, one of the counselors, attached us to the swing. As he
counted down from three, we would hop off the platform and swing out over a cliff.
Although many of us were a little bit nervous, everyone had an amazing time on
this ropes course. After that some of us did two optional activities, the
Zipline and the Vines. The zipline was about 20 feet long, and we had basket
targets to try to get balls in, but it just turned into who can hit the people
on the ground and who can hit the person on the zipline. The Vines was a wire
that had four ropes hanging about five feet away from each other, and you had
to get across with the help of a partner. We ended our ropes course with an
amazing reflection on what we learned at the ropes course. Zen, a counselor who
was there just for the day, lead us in a relaxation exercise. We all closed our
eyes, and he had us imagine many different peaceful settings. We were all
surprised by how relaxing this really was. A few of us fell asleep, and the rest
of us opened our eyes feeling extremely relaxed. A couple 8th graders described
that they felt as if Zen's voice was a tape recording and that no one was
actually in the room. This was a very cool way to wrap up our amazing day on
the ropes course. That night we had a really fun activity about self expression
and a lot of “pillow play”.
As we woke up
on our third day, we were all sad to be leaving. We finished our stay with a
hike back down to lower camp, where we had our last meal in Hess Kramer. Before
loading the bus we got a second attempt at the "monkey game" from day
one. After having practiced working together, we were able to accomplish this
task. Following the monkey game, we participated in our last activity where we
had to get our entire class over a 20 foot wall, by lifting them up. There were
people at the top who would help to pull them up and over the wall. We were
able to work as a team and
accomplish this as well. Unfortunately,
after this activity, it was almost time to leave. We finished it off with a
closing circle where we said goodbye to our inspiring counselors and reflected
on the last three days. We had all gained so much more trust for each other,
and we worked much, much better as a team. I don't think most of us realized
exactly how capable we were as a team, but this inspiring trip provided an
opportunity for us to become a stronger team.
We want to
invite everyone to an assembly where we will share all of the amazing
opportunities we experienced on this trip. The assembly will be on Friday,
November 30th at 9:45am. We hope you can make it
Written by
Naomi Miller-Altuner and Emma Green
MINIMUM DAY - 1:30 DISMISSAL WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 21
NO SCHOOL THURSDAY AND FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22 and 23
HAPPY THANKSGIVING! - NO FRIDAY LETTER NEXT WEEK
Kurt: kholland@smmusd.org; Darwin: dmendinueto@smmusd.org
