February 8, 2013
Dear SMASH Families,
Take the opportunity to help improve
walking safety in our SMASH neighborhood. “The City of Santa Monica wants your
ideas on how to make sure walking is safe and enjoyable for everyone: propose
ideas, second ideas you support and leave feedback. Posts will be used to shape
a Pedestrian Action Plan and make sure everyone in Santa Monica can continue to
walk the walk.”
Bailey Field has been leading efforts to
contact the city about the Pearl/Lincoln intersection specifically.
for Bailey’s post and http://pedplan.santamonicatownhall.org/pedestrian-safety
the pedestrian concerns link
Some possible suggestions include:
Zebra Stripes on side walk-- in yellow if
possible
Blinking lights at intersection
3) Longer crossing time for Pearl
4) A crossing guard
5) Increased police officers watching for
drivers not stopping before turning right on red or entering cross walk with
walker
and bikers in it
Thank you for taking 5 minutes to post
your ideas to make walking even safer for our students and families!
Jessica
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DATES
TO REMEMBER
Sat, Feb 9 - 8:00am-noon - Dental Health
Fair - Simms/Mann Health and Wellness Center
Mon, Feb 11 - 9am - SMASH School Tour
Tues, Feb 12 - 6pm - Jonathan Mooney,
Author, Public Speaker - SMASH Library
Wed, Feb 13 - 3:30pm - Site Council Mtg
Thur, Feb 14 - 6-9pm - Valentine’s Day
Kids’ Craft Night—SMASH auditorium
Mon, Feb 18 - Presidents’ Day - SCHOOL
CLOSED
Wed, Feb 20 - 8:30am - PTSA Mtg
Wed-Fri, Feb 20, 21, 22 - 5th grade AstroCamp
Thur-Fri, Feb 21, 22 - Core 2 Tesmescal
Canyon
Fri, Feb 22 - 1:30-3:30pm - in Auditorium
- John Muir 1st Annual Black History Community Event
SMASH
JOG-A-THON!! Friday, March 15
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Santa
Monica Celebrates Ocean Park Boulevard
Saturday,
February 9 at 2:00pm - SMASH/John Muir Parking Lot
A year-long project to beautify and
improve a stretch of Ocean Park Boulevard so it's friendlier to cyclists and
pedestrians will officially end this
weekend with a grand opening party. City officials and community leaders will celebrate 2 p.m. Saturday in front of
SMASH and John Muir schools. Bike valet will be available. There will be live jazz, bicycle
demonstrations and bicycle-made ice cream. Santa Monica Spoke will lead a bike
ride down new green bicycle lanes.
The $4 million "complete green
street" concept, partly funded by Measure V, Santa Monica's "Clean
Beaches and Ocean Parcel Tax,” also includes wider
sidewalks; more than 100 new trees and new landscaping; new marked crosswalks with overhead flashing beacons; bright
green bike lanes, new striping and bike racks; 75 new light poles, benches, trash cans; and traffic signal
improvements.
The project also includes new systems and
drip irrigation designed to "significantly" reduce the amount of
urban
run-off that flows into the Santa Monica
Bay, city officials said.
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Santa
Monica High School Theatre presents
Into
the Woods, a Musical
Barnam
Hall
February
8, 9, 15 & 16 at 7:00pm
Matinees:
Feb 9 at 2pm and Feb. 17 at 4pm
Tickets at
SamohiTheatre.org. Tickets $15 - Students $10
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AAU
African American Union
John
Muir 1st Annual Black History Community Event
Investigating the
Future-Remembering the Past
Friday, February 22.
1:30-3:30pm - SMASH/John Muir Auditorium
The
community is invited to join in celebrating the lives of those who have made an
impact
from past
to present—and now our future!
Educational
inter-active participation for all. Food, fun, dancing, arts and crafts, raffle
and more!
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Santa
Monica’s Morgan-Wixson Theatre presents
A
Midsummer Night’s Dream OR The Night They Missed the Forest for the Trees
February
2—17
Reserved
Seats: $10 adults, $7 Children 12 years and under For tickets:
www.morgan-wixson.org or 310-828-7519
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ROSIE’S
GIRLS Of Santa Monica Spring Challenge
2013
NEW
Participants:5th grade girls who are interested in challenging activities and
finding out how much they can achieve
RETURNING
Alumnae: Girls who have participated in Rosie’s Girls for a least one summer
who are
interested
in leading and being role models for incoming Rosie’s Girls
SESSION:
April 1-5 (session #4513.101, with extended care #4513.102) at Stewart Park
Monday-Friday
8:30 - 5:00
FEES:
Residents $380 +$25 for supplies and Non-Residents $485 + $25 for supplies
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The City of Santa Monica's Office of
Sustainability & the Environment,
the
Santa Monica Disabilities Commission and Sustainable Works are very excited to
announce the
5th
Annual Sustainable Santa Monica Student Poster Contest
open to
all K-12 students that attend school and/or live in Santa Monica!
This
year, students will investigate sustainability and accessibility through art,
answering the question,
"How
do people with disabilities access and enjoy nature in Santa Monica with their
friends and family?"
Rules and Guidelines
· Only original artwork will be accepted.
· Only one poster submission per student.
· Open to all K-12 students who live or attend school in Santa
Monica.
· Posters must be hand drawn in ink or crayon using bright colors on
white paper.
· High School (grade 9-12) students may also submit posters created
in Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop.
· Poster dimensions MUST be 11”x 17” (landscape /
horizontal).
· Include your Name, School, Grade, Mailing
Address, Phone Number and Email on the back of your
submission.
· All entries will become property of the City of Santa Monica,
which will hold publication rights for the winning entries.
· Entries may or may not be returned.
Submission
Submissions may be dropped off at:
Sustainable Works
Attn: Samantha Sommer, Poster Contest
1744 Pearl Street; Santa Monica CA 90405
Deadline: Friday, March 22, 2013 by 5:00pm
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Valentine’s
Day Kid’s
Craft Night
Drop your
kids off at SMASH and
enjoy a
Valentine’s Day Date Night
while your
kids are having fun!
8th
graders will provide babysitting and fun activities,
with adult
supervision. Pizza available for purchase
at drop
off and healthy snacks provided.
Proceeds
go to the 8th grade graduation trip!
Thursday,
Feb. 14, 6pm-9pm
in the
Cafeteria
Suggested
Donation for Admission:
$5 per
child
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CORE
1 NEWS
Valentine’s Day
Core 1 traditionally showers their friends with valentines
in a celebratory Magic Circle on February 14.
Each child will sit in the center of the circle while the
circle group sings:
Will you be our valentine, valentine, valentine?
Will you be our valentine?
We love you!
The child in the center receives valentines from the group
to put in his or her bag. If you wish, your child may
bring 25 Valentines for all of the children in his/her
circle group on the 14th. Please don’t address the valentines
to specific children. This can get extremely confusing at
our celebration.
Your child is encouraged to write From: ________ or Love,
_______,
but please DO NOT write To: ________.
Remember: No sweets, please! Your children’s love and
kindness are sweet enough!
Parent Dialogue on Reading
Do you have questions about supporting your young reader? Do
you have ideas to share with other parents?
Join us for a dialogue on reading on Tuesday, February 26
from 5:45-7:00 pm. Please RSVP to gbarbacastro@
smmusd.org so that we
can plan to make enough copies of materials and offer childcare.
Wishlist
Band-aids
Hand Sanitizer
Brooms
Enjoy The Weekend!
Candis, Chrysta, Graciela, Laura and Nadja
Candis: cberens@smmusd.org
Chrysta: cwyse@smmusd.org
Graciela: gbarba-castro@smmusd.org
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CORE
2 NEWS
Experts
say a child's connection with nature is essential for their development,
but how
can a parent get kids involved in more outdoor play?
Our overnight field trip to Temescal
Canyon is right around the corner (please turn in your trips slips asap)!
We are so lucky to be able to participate
in these overnight, out-of-town, outdoor learning activities at SMASH—and it’s exciting to see these trips trickle
down from Core 4 into Core 3, and now Core 2!!! For today’s busy working families, kids spend more and more time
indoors plugged into television, computers, video games, and handheld devices. Most time outdoors involves team sports,
rather than nature exploration and play. Read on for ideas for how parents can offer fun, exciting alternatives to indoor
play from Children on a Nature Walk by Diane Laney Fitzpatrick: Outdoor play and nature activities are
good for kids. But
dragging them away from TV, computer and video game screens long enough to enjoy the great
outdoors is a parent's challenge. In his recent book Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, author Richard
Louv claims that according to recent research, a lack of direct contact with nature is
leaving our children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, performing poorly in school and more stressed than a
generation ago. Breaking a child’s habit of time spent watching TV, playing video games and using a computer is not
easy and doesn’t have to be done suddenly. Turning off electronics cold turkey and pushing a child out the door won’t
allow him to enjoy the outdoors to full potential. Parents can offer fun, outdoor alternatives to an electronic screen and gradually
increase the time spent outdoors. Here are some ways to get your children to spend more time outdoors.
Walk Instead of Drive. Instead of driving to your child’s
extracurricular activities, errands and shopping, make the journey getting there part of the outdoor
fun. Leave early, wear sneakers or good walking shoes and walk to the things you normally drive to. If all of your
errands are too far from home, park your car several blocks away and trek over to where you’re going. Even city or suburb
walking can be a nature walk or outdoor adventure. Point out interesting architecture, flowers, landscaping and
insects to your child.
Take Indoor Activities Outdoors. Who says breakfast has to be eaten at the
kitchen table and crafts have to be done indoors? Set up a picnic table in your
back yard and start enjoying meals, snacks, arts and crafts, and other projects outside.
Plant a Garden. When children get interested in something
that simply must be done outside, they’ll want to get out there, regardless of what’s on TV. Turn
over a corner of the yard to your child to plant with whatever he wants – flowers, herbs or vegetable plants. Help
him learn how the plants should be cared for and encourage him to tend to his garden every day. Kids’ gardening
projects are a great way to teach about the science of nature.
Start a Neighborhood Outdoor Playgroup. There’s strength in numbers. Parents
having a tough time dragging their kids outside might have an easier time if
all the other kids are outdoors. Start a neighborhood play group in
which a group of children and parents meet in a
back yard, playground or neighborhood park once a week or more.
Play Some Nature Games. Give your child a list of things found in
nature - an ant hill, a spider web, pine cone, reddish-brown rock - and see how long it
takes him to find everything on the list.
Wish list: Keep that scratch paper coming! 2 large
refill bottles of hand sanitizer (so we can do our best to keep cold and flu season out of Core 2), band-aids
in assorted sizes
Enjoy a
little nature this weekend!
Tamara,
Jayme, and Nadja
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CORE
3 NEWS
Running
Club: Orange will be going on Wednesdays and Blue will be going on Fridays
Thanks to
Nina Furukawa for taking on this project and getting more exercise in the Core
3 curriculum!
Valentines
in Core 3! Please know we don't do a big party for Valentine's Day.
Students
are welcome to pass out cards to their friends or to everyone in the Core. We
have 52 students.
We as a
Core will offer special notepaper to leave words of kindness
and share
them with each other and encourage nice deeds for each other.
Please
keep the candy and treats at home. Thanks!
6th Grade
Math with Mimi: We
continue our journey learning how to multiply fractions with the brownie pan
and number line method. We began multiplying mixed fractions as well. In real
life situations, we estimate as much as, if not more than, we calculate exact
answers. For each mathematical skill, we focus on estimating answers FIRST and THEN
finding the exact answer to verify the estimate. Students use their knowledge
of benchmark fractions, decimals, and percentages as well as visualizing
fractions strips and number lines to help them estimate.
6th Grade Math with Erin: Most students have moved on to the
building stage of their dream room project. Students are using found materials
such as cardboard, felt and other fabric, popsicle sticks and an assortment of
other things to create their scale models. We have also been reviewing our
understanding of area and perimeter through story problems.
5th grade
Math Workshop with Genie: We
have been looking at multiplying fractions with whole numbers and fractions
with fractions. We noticed that fractions get smaller when you multiply
fractions because we are looking at a part of a part. Ask your child if they
can explain why when multiplying fractions, they become smaller.
Science with Mimi: This week, we took notes about Type I
Diabetes. Ask your student for a couple of important facts
about the disease. We also performed our
last experiment using yeast as an indicator of sugar content. You can ask your
student about the food samples they used as well as the results in regards to
the amount of carbon dioxide.
Social Studies with Erin: This week students took time to reflect on
their amazing social studies "election issues" presentations.
Students reflected individually as they answered questions such as, "What
was my role in the group?" and "What was the most interesting thing
that I learned?" and "What will I do differently next time?"
After that students met with their groups to read all of the compliments and
constructive criticism from the audience. In their groups they created a chart
of positive comments and a separate one of ways to improve. We proceeded to
chart these as a class.
On Friday we introduced our next unit:
Food and Culture. This will be a shorter unit to go until spring break and
match
up nicely with what they are learning in
science. Students will choose a country or region and work in a group to answer
the question, "What do they eat in _____________ and why?" Students
will look at culture, religion, climate, geography, topography, history,
economics and other things to think about why people eat certain things in
certain places. We will hopefully have a field trip or two to various
eating/cooking establishments or diverse markets. Please let us know if you have
any connections. Our project will culminate in a full group presentation and
tasting before spring break.
Reading & Writing Workshop with Genie:
We had a great
celebration! Please come in and see the beautiful illustrations that go with
the fantasy pieces. The pieces will soon be put in their working portfolios if
you haven't had a chance to read your child's piece. We have moved onto our
Brochure project as we think about sophisticated ways to say simple things like
'SMASH teaches kids.' to 'SMASH works to provide stellar academic and social
curriculum based on the developmental needs of children.' In Reading we have
begun new book clubs with new members. Ask your child what
book club they are in and what book they
are reading!
Dramatic Arts with Kristy: Kristy cast the puppets and we are in full
rehearsal of our scripts! The kids said their hands were tired from the short rehearsals
having to keep their arms up and animate their puppets. They are learning how
to keep their hands up so their puppets don't sink into the ground on the
screen. Please have your child practice keeping their arms up for a few minutes
each day to build up those muscles.
Homework:
5G math: packet #22. Due 2/15/13
6G math: homework due 2/14/13
RW: Please remind your child to do some
nonfiction reading!
WW: Your child should be back into their
writing notebook collecting entries on whatever they want to write.
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CORE
4 NEWS
8th Grade
For the next two weeks in Algebra, we will
focus on chapter 7 - exponents and polynomials. We will learn how
about powers of ten, scientific notation,
multiplication and division properties of exponents, and operations involving polynomials.
Two weeks ago in science we concluded our
egg baby project. The journal had many different entries, pictures, as well as an interview with a mom. Every
single place the 8th graders went, they should have a picture documenting it. Some of the journal entries include how
they got pregnant, risks of drugs and alcohol during pregnancy, and puberty. They also had to write entries on topics
such as high school, the three main categories of drugs, and when our babies want to date older teenagers. All of these
entries had to be printed and put in a booklet.
Upcoming Events
February 19, 20, & 21 - Aquarium
Visits (Volunteers needed)
February 20, 21, & 22 - Darwin is off
to AstroCamp with the 5th graders
Darwin Mendinueto - dmendinueto@gmail.com
Kurt Holland - kholland@gmail.com
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