GO
GET THOSE PLEDGES!
ONLY 2 MORE WEEKS UNTIL THE JOG-A-THON FRIDAY, MARCH 15
Ask your
neighbors, call family and friends, pledge your whole Core
(penny a lap anyone?),
(penny a lap anyone?),
email
those faraway relatives. Is your teacher or parent running?
They can
get pledges too!
We have
extra pledge packets in the office.
Pledge
Packets are due Thursday, March 14!
***********************
STATE
TESTING
The 2013 California
Writing Standards Test
will be administered to
4th and 7th grades on Tuesday, March 5.
If you wish to opt your
child out -SMASH office MUST receive your request by MONDAY, MARCH 4.
Your request letter MUST contain the following:
- Child’s full legal name,
birth date and grade
- That you wish to opt your
child out of the 2013 California Writing Standards Test for March 5
AND the 2013 California Standards Test (CST) English
Language Arts for April 15-May 2.
(Opting out of just one of
the English language tests will affect the results as a whole.)
- Contain the
parent/guardian name, signature and be dated no later than March 4
The 2013 California
Standards Test - CST - (English language, Arts and Math multiple choice)
will be administered 2nd
through 8th grades from April 15 through May 2
You may choose to opt out
of both English language arts and math, or choose one area.
Your opt out letter for
these tests must contain the information listed above and
be dated and received in
the SMASH office NO LATER than FRIDAY, APRIL 12
THE DISTRICT WILL NOT
ACCEPT LATE OPT OUT LETTERS
***********************
DATES
TO REMEMBER
Tue, Mar 5 - State Writing Test - 4th and 7th
grades
Any opt
out letters MUST be received in the SMASH office on Monday, March 4 and MUST
contain
your child’s full legal name, birth date,
grade, that you are opting out of the 2013 California Writing Standards Test
for
March 5 and be signed and dated by parent.
Any letter not containing full information or turned in late is not valid.
Tues, Mar 5 - 5:30pm - SMASH Board of
Education presentation.
Wed, Mar 6 - 4th & 7th grade writing
test make-up
Wed, Mar 6 - 3:30pm - Site Council Mtg
Wed, Thur, Fri, Mar 6, 7, 8 - Stairway of
the Stars
Sun, Mar 10 - Daylight Savings - Spring
Forward!
Mon, Mar 11 - 9:00-10:15am - SMASH school
tour
Wed, Mar 13 - 6:30pm - SMASH PTSA Mtg
SMASH
JOG-A-THON!! Friday, March 15
Pledge
Packets are due Thursday, March 14! (Additional packets available in SMASH
office)
Fri, Mar 15 - 6-8pm - Core 3 Art Exhibit
at SAMOHI Roberts Art Gallery
***********************
SMASHingParents!
If you make purchases on Amazon.com, you
can make money for SMASH each time you hit the "buy" button.
Here's how:
1. Open this link:
http://tinyurl.com/AMAZONSMASHPTSA
2. Bookmark the
page.
3. Each time
you go to Amazon, be sure to go through this link.
4. Pat yourself
on the back for putting your dollars to work, supporting the SMASH Community.
***********************
405
FWY CLOSURES
Beginning today, Friday, a 2.4-mile
stretch of the freeway between Montana Avenue and Getty Center Drive will be reduced
from five lanes to two as part of the Sepulveda Pass Improvements Project. The off-ramps will be closed during the
55-hour period. All northbound freeway lanes and ramps will reopen to the
public by 5 a.m. Monday, according to Metro. If it rains, the work will be
delayed by about one week.
Drivers will be able to bypass the closure
by taking Westbound Wilshire Boulevard to Northbound Sepulveda and entering the
northbound 405 again at Skirball Center Drive, according to the Los Angeles
County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
During the closure, crews will realign the
freeway to incorporate a carpool lane that will eventually extend 10 miles
between the 10 and 101 freeways.
Lane Reductions:
· 10
p.m., Friday: Lane No. 1 on northbound I-405 will be closed from Montana to
Getty
· 11 p.m.
Friday: Lane No. 2 on northbound I-405 will be closed from Montana to Getty
· 12 a.m.
Saturday: Lane No. 3 on northbound I-405 will be closed from Montana to Getty
· Full
northbound I-405 closure:
1 a.m. to 6 a.m. Saturday
· 6 a.m.
Saturday to 2 a.m. Sunday: NB I-405 reduced from 5 lanes to 2 lanes
· Full
northbound I-405 closure:
2 a.m. to 7 a.m., Sunday
· 7 a.m.
Sunday to midnight Monday: northbound I-405 reduced from 5 lanes to 2 lanes
· Full
northbound I-405 closure:
midnight to 5 a.m. Monday
For more project information and detour
maps, visit metro.net/405.
For real-time traffic conditions, visit the
Caltrans website at quickmap.dot.ca.gov.
***********************
Some great SMASH Bash
events are coming up that still have space!
Please email SMASH Bash Coordinator Marni
Ayers Brady ASAP (marniayers@gmail.com) if you or your child is interested in
attending.
- Improv Theatre Party with Kristy Pace (For Core 1 and 2) March 2nd (Sat) 2-4pm $25
(Tenzer Residence)
- Pancakes and Smoothies with the Principal (for everyone - but NO DROP OFFS. All kids must be supervised by parents) March 13 (Wed) 7:45am - 8:30 $7 per person (SMASH Cafetorium)
- SMASH Poker Party (Adults
Only) March 16 (Sat) 4pm to ? (location and time tbd) $40 Buy In
Marni Ayers Brady at marniayers@gmail.com
***********************
Sustainable
Works Green Living Workshop
Did you know it takes more than 2,400
gallons of water to produce a pound of beef? You save more water by not eating a pound of beef than by not
showering for 6 months!
Join a FREE Sustainable Works Green
Living Workshop and learn how information like this will help you save money
and positively impact your family, community, and ultimately the planet!
When: 6 Tuesday Meetings: March 12th, 19th
& 26th and April 2nd, 9th & 16th, 7pm-8:30pm
Where: Santa Monica Main Library Multipurpose Room, 601 Santa
Monica Blvd. SM 90401
Encourage your friends to join you for
this fun, educational opportunity.
•Reduce your Water & Energy usage
•Save $ on Utilities
•Cut landfill Waste
•Reduce your Family's Exposure to Toxic Chemicals
•Reduce your Transportation Impact
•Make more sustainable Shopping &
Food choices
Receive FREE resource saving tools
Water saving hose nozzles, Energy saving
light bulbs, Reusable shopping bags, safe cleaning supplies, healthy energy
bars, and more... Visit www.sustainableworks.eventbrite.com
to reserve your space at an
upcoming workshop.
***********************
SUMMER ADVENTURE
Elementary
School
Five
affordable weeks of non-stop fun, exploring and creating.
June
17-July 19 - (5 weeks, closed July 4)
8:30am -
12:30pm daily
WILL
ROGERS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
2401 14th
Street
$525 for
full morning program
Childcare
available for an additional fee.
Scholarships
available for qualifying students enrolled in SMMUSD for August 2013
Discounts
Available! -Sign up by April 15 and pay $500 for the full morning program
Registration
Starts on March 18
Online at
www.smmpta.org or www.smmef.org
In person
at the District Office
March 18
& 19, 8:00am-2:00pm
And
10:00am - 2:00pm thereafter
***********************
CORE
1 NEWS
Field Trip
The Museum of Flying Field Trip for the Yellow Group has
been rescheduled for Friday March 8th. The children will need to
bring their snack and their lunch. Please sign up to chaperone this trip on our
Google
key=0AvVnCh4_XSOCdGhwS3FyRDhETG1rX1RWd2U5S2t2NlE#gid=0. We appreciate having chaperones to help us keep children safe and engaged.
Small Yard Garden Party
The small yard is ready for
it's Spring Makeover!
Please help us make the
small yard a beautiful place and a learning garden, too
.
Our Garden Party will be
Saturday, March 9th at 9am
We have big plans that
include installing a drought-tolerant butterfly garden; building a new/larger
raised
bed for vegetables; and
prepping the existing garden for new flowers, veggies and herbs.
How can I help? you say, enthusiastically. Come help us!
We know some of you are
green thumbs, but that is not required to help.
Bring your tools, your kids
and some snacks.
We will work and play and make everything
ready for the kids to plant the following week.
We are looking for
donations of redwood for our planter,
seedlings, and of course money to make it all happen. There will be donation
cans in the classrooms for those who wish to help fund the project.
We know that not everyone
can attend the event, but that we all wish to help somehow.
Contact Mazi (mazi.lombard@gmail.com)
or Molly (molly.media@verizon.net) to tell us you'll be there!
Lost and Found
We have found many sweaters and jackets on the small yard.
They are hanging from hooks outside of Chrysta’s classroom window. Please help
your child find his or her sweater. It can be difficult for them to recognize
them.
HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!!
Candis, Chrysta, Graciela,
Nadja & Laura
Candis: cberens@smmsud.org
Chrysta: cwyse@smmusd.org
Graciela: gbarba-castro@smmusd.org
CORE
2 NEWS
Thank you, thank you, thank you to all the
parents who were able to join us as chaperones on the Temescal Canyon overnight
trip. Jayme and Tamara had it easy, and the kids had a fantastic time. We
weren’t exactly roughing it thanks to Temescal’s sweet cabins and yummy food.
We’d like to give a special shout out to the naturalists for helping us learn
about our local flora and fauna, showing us how to use the tools of the Chumash
people, teaching us fun campfire songs that we’ll never forget (astronaut
style!!!), and leading us on an amazing moonlit night hike (no flashlights!).
In Advisory, we are a flippin’ and a
floppin’ in the afternoons. The Puffs have been doing Theme with Tamara, and the GB34’s are going to Jayme each
day. There are days when the students only spend 30-45 minutes with their Advisor
- a true testament to the fact that your child doesn’t have one “teacher”,
Jayme and Tamara work with ALL students in Core 2.
In Theme, we are continuing our thematic
units that involve reading, writing, social studies, science, research, and students’ interests. Jayme is working with the GB34 students on
a community-building project involving “random acts of kindness” (The kids LOVE
it!), along with some science-centered reading and writing research activities
on space. Tamara is helping the Puffs learn how to use a variety of types of
resources to practice taking notes about things they already know about
a topic, things they learn as they read/listen/watch/talk about a topic,
and what they wonder or want to know more about related to that topic.
They are drawing inspiration from the book Winter’s Tail, the true story behind
the movie Dolphin Tale. Both groups will use this learning as they
embark upon their first Independent Research Projects next week.
In Reading Workshop, we’ve been learning
about/reading Fairy Tales and Pourquoi Stories. We’ve studied the characteristics of these genres, listened
to a variety of stories, and used the books as inspiration for our own writing pieces.
We also make time to read our Just Right books every day at school. Please
support your child in finding interesting books to bring back and forth to and
from school each day! *RW HW ~ Read for 30 - 45 minutes at home every
day! You should make time to read Just Right books at home every day,
just like we do at school, if you want to see growth in reading!
In Writing Workshop, we just shared the
fruits of out labor with each other (and we look forward to sharing our work
with you soon). Jayme’s
group just published their unique Fairy Tales. Tamara’s group created and
illustrated original Pourquoi Stories. Next up, both groups will be
exploring poetry. These kids love Free writing, so support that
enthusiasm at home by making time and space for writing. *WW HW ~ Write for
fun! Official Writing Homework is just around the corner, so start warming up
now!
In Math, the fourth graders are reading,
writing, adding, and subtracting really big numbers and the third graders are
embarking upon a multiplication unit. Fourth graders are exploring our base-ten number system, place value,
and different ways of thinking about/executing addition and subtraction
problems utilizing multiples of 10 and 100. Third graders are delving
into the concepts that support multiplication: grouping/sets, skip-counting,
arrays, and being able to put groups together (multiply) or break a big
number into equal groups (divide). Advanced math work is dependent on
visual, numerical, verbal, contextual, real-life, procedural, and abstract
knowledge. *Math HW ~ Math packets due Friday, 3/8/13. As always, “Start
with what you know, do what you can, bring it in for help.” Studies have shown
that additional time spent practicing math outside of school improves math
skills!
Wish list: Tissues - cold season left us high and
dry. 2 large refill bottles of hand sanitizer (so we can do our best to keep
colds & flu out of Core 2). Multicolored regular and thin EXPO dry erase
markers.
***Please
return your plastic Friday Folders each week—it makes our jobs much, much
easier***
2013 CALIFORNIA
WRITING STANDARDS TEST FOR 4TH GRADE -
IS TUESDAY, MARCH 5.
PLEASE SEE THE FRONT
PAGE OF TODAY’S FRIDAY LETTER FOR DETAILS.
Happy
Birthday, Dr Seuss!!!
Tamara,
Jayme, and Nadja
***********************
CORE
3 NEWS
~Field
Trip Monday to Grand Central Market Downtown! Permission Slips!—
bring sack
lunch/$5 for bus.
Students
may bring extra money to purchase food and ride AngelFlight ($1.00).
~Running
Club: Blue run on Wednesdays and Orange on Fridays. Helps us get ready for
Jogathon!
~We are
requesting a $10.00 donation for each child to cover the cost of Omnivore's Dilemma.
Please
help cover the cost of our whole class book club book so we preserve
our PTSA
Core 3 funds to subsidize future
field trips and special events
like the professional puppeteer who performed a
show for Core 3.
6G Math with Mimi: This week, we explored different
strategies to divide fractions. For 7/8 ÷ 2/3, an easy way to think of what
dividing the fractions really means is to ask, "How many times does 2/3 go
into 7/8?". This mirrors how we think of dividing whole numbers. You can
think of 10 ÷ 5 as the fraction 10/5. Both represent how many times 5 goes into
10.
6th Grade Math with Erin: The dream room projects are almost
complete! Students will finish working on them next Wednesday and Friday and then share them
on Monday, March 11. Please come if you can!
5th Grade
Math with Genie: We have
moved into our decimals unit which is connected to our fractions and percents unit.
It makes sense to us why they wait until 5th grade to
really dive into these math concepts that may confuse younger minds like seeing
.1 and .01 and knowing the clear difference as well as thinking that .245 is
two hundred and forty five thousandths but really that is 24 and a
half out of 100. Please take some time with your child to look at receipts with
tax and see how the percents and decimals work
in our every day lives.
Science with Mimi: An interesting idea for a family activity
is to taste different kinds of food on different parts of the tongue. Ask your
student about the different kinds of tastes and where most of the taste buds
that sense them are located. You can also ask your student about the acidity of
lemons, grapefruit, oranges, and limes. We used baking soda as an indicator of
acid and measured how much carbon dioxide was produced by the chemical
reactions.
Social Studies with Erin: Students are hard at work on their food
projects. This week we talked in depth about how what people eat in a given
place is dependent on history, climate, and geography. Students inquired: what
foods are native to their nation of study? What foods were brought in through
colonization or trade? What impact does the climate have on foods that are
grown and raised? What about being near a river? ocean? in a desert? Students
will continue to work on their food projects next week and hopefully be
inspired by our visit to the Grand Central Market.
Reading and Writing Workshop with Genie: We have been really dissecting and
rearranging sentences for our sophisticated brochure writing. For example we
took one sentence: Cross Core Community Morning Meeting is one way
SMASH builds community across grades by allowing students from K-8 to mingle,
work together, and foster connections. And rearranged it to: At
SMASH, students in K-8, mingle, work together, and foster connections in Cross
Core Community Morning Meeting. And came up with: Community is built
across SMASH by getting the children involved with each other and
allowing them to mingle, work together, and foster connections. We know
that the subject launches the sentence so even though we came up with 3
different ways to say the same thing, one is launched with the Community
Morning Meeting, one with students, and one with community. Which one sounds
the best to you? We have also started Omnivore's Dilemma and have read
up to Ch5 and marked up the text to keep our minds active as we read. One
question we have is: What is so wrong with corn?
Art with Kristy: We are busy rehearsing and filming our
short sketches for our variety shows. We were fortunate that a professional
puppeteer, Kevin, who has worked on stage and tv could come to SMASH to share
his work with us. We have a new found respect for a 40 minute puppet show
seeing knee pads on Kevin, as well as a good amount of sweat as he was holding
up his arms for the whole show. Our sketches last for less than 5 minutes! And
Kevin was quite impressed by our puppet building skills and was ready to
recruit some for the workshop and puppet troupe he works with.
Genie: ghwang@smmusd.org
Erin: ehaendel@smmusd.org
Mimi: mimilichterman@yahoo.com
***********************
CORE
4 NEWS
Core 4 has had an amazing week full of interesting things.
They have gone on adventures, gotten educated in fun ways, and worked as a team
to get things done.
Science- In science
the 7th and 8th graders walked to the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium (February 19 -
21) on separate days and met up with two awesome counselors named Amanda and
Nick. They let them pet the sea animals such as a California sea hare (a sea
slug) and sea stars. Nick talked about the Carbon cycle (how it works), and
showed them how to use cool equipment. For example, the Secchi disk, the Van
Dorn water sampler, the Plankton net, and a thing that measures wind speed.
While the 7th graders were using the equipment on the side of the pier, they
witnessed a Grey whale breach! Everyone was amazed, and their mouths were open
with awe.
Math- In math the 7th
graders have been working on their Pre-algebra, while the 8th graders worked on
their Algebra.
Music/Electives- In
music strings, choir and band are all preparing for Stairway to the Stars,
which is a big
performance where students from many schools come together
to share their talent of music with others. And in electives the students that
don’t play an instrument (an instrument or sing) have a technology class that
helps them understand how to do important things on a computer.
P.E. (Physical Education)- In P.E. the pupils of Core 4 did their push-up test during
P.E. after lunch. But usually on a normal day the girls go with Kurt for a
workout that consists of dynamic and static stretching (and if the girls finish
early, they get free time to play and hang out), and the boys go with Coach
Tony for a lap or two followed by an activity.
Reading- During
reading the young adults got to have independent/silent reading where they
brought their own book and had the opportunity to read what they wanted, and
they also got an article that the class read parts of together and discussed
details about it. They also got time to read the article on their own.
Written by Camille and Olivia W.
2013 CALIFORNIA
WRITING STANDARDS TEST FOR 7TH GRADE -
IS TUESDAY, MARCH 5.
PLEASE SEE THE FRONT
PAGE OF TODAY’S FRIDAY LETTER FOR DETAILS.
7TH GRADE FAMILIES
Please see the email from Jessica about June 4/5 Fulcrum trip. $375 made
payable to SMASH PTSA is due by March 15. For those who indicated another
amount on your survey, please pay that amount by March 15.
Darwin Mendinueto - dmendinueto@smmusd.org
Kurt Holland - kholland@smmusd.org
***********************
