January 24, 2014

Dear SMASHing Families,

Please add your SMASH voices to the District homework conversation and participate in the Homework Survey. 

It took me three minutes to complete mine as Micah’s mom and three more minutes to do so as Eli’s mom. 

Go to www.smmusd.org and click on “Parent Homework Survey” on the left side of the screen. 

The district-wide results of the survey (by school level) will be posted on the district website after the survey closes.  SMASH results will be shared at the 5/7/14 Site Council meeting with minutes posted in the Friday Letter.

At SMASH we believe, homework should never be a source of family stress.  Please respond to the survey so that we may see if this goal of low intensity homework is being achieved.   If homework ever becomes a source of contention between you and your child, please contact your teacher so we can create a smoother homework agreement with your family. 

Thanks for taking 3 minutes to give your thoughts about the type and amount of homework your kids experience at

SMASH.

Jessica

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**Time to Sign Up for Spring SMASH Bashes!**

Spring SMASH Bash sign-up day is next Friday, January 31.

Please join us for coffee in the small yard from 8-9am or at pick-up from 1-2pm.

All events are FIRST COME, FIRST SERVE...and you must pay when signing up. No spots will be held without payment. NOTE: SEVERAL EVENTS SELL OUT RIGHT AWAY - so come early, if you can.

We accept checks, credit cards and cash.

See the 5th Annual Spring SMASH Bash Catalogue (in today's Friday Letter)

to plan ahead for the events your child and/or you want to attend. SMASH Bashes are family-hosted fundraising parties and events. Some are for Families, some just for Kids, and some are just for you – our SMASH Grownups who just might need a night (or day) out for some good conversation and food. We have something for everyone! And ALL funds go directly to our school!

Marni Ayers Brady and Andrea Kahn (SMASH Bash Co-Chairs)

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DATES TO REMEMBER

Mon, Jan 27 - 9:00-10:30am - SMASH School Tour

Fri, Jan 31 - 9:45am - Yosemite Assembly

Fri, Jan. 31 -6:00-8:00pm  -  Roberts Art Gallery at Samohi  - come see Core 3’s Claymation exhibit

                                         as well as other student art from our School District

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The SMASH Jog-a-thon t-shirt needs you!

Deadline:  February 7^th            

T-shirt sponsors make it possible for all students and teachers to take home a Jog-a-thon t-shirt.  Sponsorship is tax deductible to the extent allowable by law.  Sponsor names adorn the back of the t-shirt.  As a token of appreciation for their generous support, t-shirt sponsors receive a complimentary t-shirt.  Fill out the form below and drop off in the office by the deadline above.  Make your check payable to SMASH PTSA.

Become a Corporate Sponsor

(donations of $150, $200 or $250)

or

Become a SMASHing Sponsor

(donations of $25, $50 or $100)

Questions?

Contact Lillie Schlessinger (213) 742-3394 – lillie.schlessinger@transamerica.com

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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.)

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Sustainable Works First 2014 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 Wednesday Meetings: February 26^th, March 5^th, 12^th, 19^th & 26^th, April 2^nd, 7pm-8:30pm
Where: Santa Monica Main Library Community Room, 601 Santa Monica Blvd. SM 90401

Your friends, family and neighbors are becoming sustainable, why not you?

Attend 1 meeting or all 6, whichever fits your schedule.

•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.

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MUSEUMS FREE-FOR-ALL

FREE ADMISSION DAY - SATURDAY, JANUARY 25

Free Admission to 20 museums in Sothern California

Participating Museums:

· Annenberg Space for Photography

· Armory Center for the Arts

· The Autry National Center of the American West

· California African American Museum

· California Science Center

· Fowler Museum at UCLA

· The Getty Center

· The Getty Villa (timed tickets required at www.getty.edu)

· Hammer Museum

· Japanese American National Museum

· Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) - free general admission only

· Los Angeles Fire Department Museum and Memorial (Hollywood and San Pedro)

· The Museum of Contemporary Art

· Museum of Latin American Art

· Orange County Museum of Art

· The Paley Center for Media

· Pasadena Museum of California Art

· Santa Monica Museum of Art

· Skirball Cultural Center

· USC Pacific Asia Museum

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Tidbits From SMASH PTSA

The SMASH Alumni site is now up and running

Anyone that wants to stay connected to SMASH and upcoming events, including the 40th Anniversary Celebration

is encouraged to sign up so you can get the emails and updates! Hope to see you all in May for the family event at

SuperSMASH and then the adults only celebration on Main St! Please share with everyone that you are in touch with that are alumni! Cheers! www.smashalumni.com  

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We have lots of great SMASH events coming up this year, but we need your help to pull them all off!

Whether you  volunteer 2 hours or 100 hours - everything is appreciated. Click here to volunteer!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?fromEmail=true&formkey=dFRJQU9sNTBEQ3poNnc0YTJlTXMtWVE6MA

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40th Anniversary of SMASH, SUPERSMASH and SILENT AUCTION

You may not believe it, but we are already working on putting together SuperSMASH and the SMASH Silent Auction - May is just around the corner!

            Plus, we are going to be inviting all SMASH Alumni to attend the event this year to celebrate our

40TH  Anniversary - which means lots of people and lots of fun.

            To pull it all off, we need you to help in any way you can. There are many small and large tasks that can be done off campus, leadership roles, and ways you can help during the actual event. Please contact the Chairs for these 3 events to see which jobs are available and if there is one that is a good fit for you.

Silent Auction Chair: The fabulous Sabine Werk visionwerk@mac.com

SuperSMASH Chair: The marvelous Naren Desai narendesai@icloud.com

40th Anniversary Co-Chairs: The awe-inspiring Summer Germann summergermann@aol.com

STORAGE SPACE NEEDED:

We are looking for some space close to school to use for Silent Auction Storage. If you have space available or know of someone who might, please contact me: jameetenzer@gmail.com. We might even be able to pay a small rental fee!

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There is so much going on!

This weekend, please consider attending the Santa Monica Ed Foundation Event at TAG Gallery in Santa Monica (flier enclosed)

State of The City taking place on Monday morning, January 27th. Register asap and learn about the business of Santa Monica (flier enclosed)

Lincoln Middle School Theatre's production of "Peter Pan" this weekend!
Show Times:
Friday, January 24 -7pm
Saturday, January 25 - 2pm and 7pm
Sunday, January 26 - 2pm
Where:  Lincoln Auditorium, 1501 California, Santa Monica, 90403
Ticket Prices:  -  $5 Students, $10 Adults
Come see "the boy who won't grow up", flying over the streets of London as he leads Wendy, Michael, and John on a journey to Never Land, a magical world of Fairies, Pirates, and Indians. Watch as he battles the infamous Captain Hook aboard his ship, the Jolly Roger, and as Hook meets his demise with a giant Crocodile. For the entire family!

Malibu  High School’s Arts Angles Production of  “ALICE IN WONDERLAND”

Show Times: February 20, 21, and 22 at 7:00pm ;  February 23 at 2:00pm (meet the cast)

Ticket Prices:  $10 Seniors/Students; $15 Adults.  Tickets available at malibuhigh.org

Tumble into the Malibu High School Theatre for a whirlwind Wonderland experience! The well-known nonsensical characters live up to their reputation in this perfectly peculiar adaptation of Disney's musical film. Join Alice as she chases the White Rabbit, gets tangled up with the Tweedles, celebrates her un-birthday with a mad tea party, and beats the Queen of Hearts at her own game.

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CORE 1 NEWS

Developing a Sense of Social Activism: Celebrating Martin Luther King Jr.

Almost 50 years ago Martin Luther King Jr. passed away, leaving behind an incredible legacy of tolerance, equality, and empathy. For the last week and a half, Core 1 has been spending time acknowledging the crucial work of Mr. King. In our studies, we have been reading texts and holding whole class discussions to acknowledge the importance of his actions and the role that we play as social activists--noticing inequalities in the world around us and working to make positive changes. We will continue to refer to Mr. King's story as a springboard for future activism.

Magic Circle

Each afternoon, Core 1 students participate in Magic Circle. For twenty minutes we delve into issues that connect with the social, emotional, or academic needs of our students. This week, depending on your child's group, we explored issues of equality and "fairness," grief and separation, understanding what makes a "good friend," and the importance of delayed gratification. We are fortunate to have this time to address such critical themes that we believe will help develop thoughtful, empathetic, and critical young minds.

Other Announcements

Core 1 is excited to announce a number of upcoming field trips. On Thursday, February 20, students will further their study and exploration of Monarch habitats, life cycles, and challenges to survival by attending the Flight of the Butterflies (in 3-D) at the California Science Center. Stay tuned for more information on how you can join and support us on our studies. Other opportunities to work with Core 1 include upcoming trips to the Santa Monica Farmer's Market, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and a visit to our local beach. 

On a related topic, Core 1 is looking for a parent volunteer, or volunteers, to help organize and plan future field trips.   If you are interested in helping enrich our curriculum in this way, please contact any of your child's Core 1 teachers.

Distribution of the Core 1 Art Share DVD will be sent home late next week. Thank you for your contributions to the amazing art program that our students enjoy!

January and February Birthday Bash

If your child has a birthday in January or February, we‘d love for you to join us for a celebration on Friday, January 31 at 11:45. Your child is invited to bring a fresh fruit or vegetable to share with the Core 1 community. The birthday children will prepare the fruit or vegetable by washing it, cutting it, and presenting it during Projects Time from  9:00-9:45. Families are invited to help at that time. Before lunch, we will ask you to set-up the buffet tables on the small yard. At 11:30 we will all gather in Graciela‘s room for a story, a poem, and a song. At about 12:00 the children will snack on the fruits and vegetables that were prepared by the birthday children. We will ask you to serve the food and to help clean up. The festivities will end by 12:15. Our reusable dishes will need to be taken home by a birthday family to be washed in a dishwasher. Please let Graciela know if you can help or if you have any questions. Her e-mail address is gbarba-castro@smmusd.org. We hope you can join us.

Wish List

Core 1 is looking for figures--Lego figures, Playmobil figures...any plastic figures! If you have any, or know of anybody who does, we would appreciate this contribution.

Have a great weekend!

Graciela (gbarba-castro@smmusd.org                                               Chrysta (cpowell@smmusd.org)                                                      Christian (ccarter@smmusd.org) and Nadja

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     CORE 2 NEWS

Thank you for your generous donations – Thanks to you Science is (almost) up and running!

Grey Advisory Theme update from Tamara: Early American Geography and History. The real purpose of this unit is to help students understand that there are multiple ways to learn information (lecture, group discussions, books, internet research, videos, songs, etc.) and multiple ways to demonstrate what you learned with others (written or oral report, skit, song, poster, model, historical fiction story, etc.). And – most importantly – there are multiple perspectives to all historical events.  For example, America’s fight for independence looks very different from the points of view of the Colonists – rich, poor, men, women, landowners vs. the British/King George. The Civil War had a North and a South. And Westward Expansion meant different things to the Native Americans than it did to the Pioneers.

We started by making maps of the world, labeling the continents and the oceans. Students learned that different groups of people came, from Europe mostly, to claim parts of the Americas (Ohhh…So that’s why they speak Spanish in Mexico, French in Canada, and Portuguese in Brazil!!!). 

The students are currently learning about the “Fifty Nifty United States from Thirteen Original Colonies” from a variety of resources. Many of them had no idea what “original colony” meant, but they sang the song with glee. They are using a map to label the colonies/states and follow the action of the late 1700’s. They worked in small groups and partnerships to read/learn facts to teach each other about the geography, people, lifestyles, leaders, events, and conflicts of our country’s beginning.

Next they will be expanding the lines and labels on their USA maps to reflect the Underground Railroad/Northern Migration, the Civil War, the Louisiana Purchase, Westward Expansion via the Oregon and California Trails, and Native American “migration”. We will continue exploring multiple perspectives, adding the idea of push vs. pull when we look at why people moved during these exciting, tumultuous times.   

Along the way, the students are learning a variety of nonfiction reading and writing skills: reading for information, determining importance, taking notes, putting related information together, comparing information, determining accuracy, detecting bias, creating introductions, angling ideas, paragraphing, etc.

In our Science unit, students will be exploring electricity and magnetism. The focus will be on developing, testing, and reporting on their ideas during a variety of hands-on investigations. We will be reading a variety of biographies about inventors who tinkered with electricity: Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, Lewis Howard Latimer, et al. Before we even started our experiments, we had a very serious discussion about the real dangers of lightning and electricity.  Please continue this discussion at home to emphasize personal safety with electric appliances, cords, outlets, and light fixtures at home, the dangers of coming into direct or indirect contact with electrical wires outside, and what to do in the event of an electrical storm.  Thank you for your support. 

Library:  We are lucky to have a fabulous library full of great books and a wonderful librarian (who happens to be a working illustrator of children’s books!). We go to the Library Mondays after lunch. Please help your student remember to return their books to school every Monday. It might be helpful to designate a special place to store school library books at home so that it is easy to keep track of them. 

Have a grrreat weekend!

Mimi: mimilichterman@yahoo.com                                     Tamara: tmugalian@smmusd.org

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CORE 3 NEWS

~Natural History Museum is rescheduled for March 17! We will remind you when we get closer to the date but most   of you have your slip and bus money in!  Please turn in those slips/bus donation if you haven't along with our next  upcoming trip to Pepperdine to see Spirit of Uganda dance troupe Thurs Jan 30! Thanks to all the chaperones who have volunteered—we are set with chaperones on that trip!

~Also if you haven't turned in your $6.00 Rules book donation, we are still accepting!

~District Middle School Visual Art Show!  Like our puppets which were discussed and admired at last year's district art show, Core 3 will be representing SMASH's middle school with our Claymation videos.  Please join us at the Roberts Art Gallery at Samohi on Friday, Jan. 31 from 6:00-8:00pm.

~Jr Great Books is on campus for 5^th graders focusing on Mythology this year!  Wednesdays, Jan 29-March 5, 3:00-4:00, Ms. Griffin's Room (John Muir room).  Please contact Amy Hopper if you are interested (amyhopper3@mac.com).

~District makes typing program available for our students!  Your child can log on with their first and last name (use full first names and not nicknames) with the passcode 123456.  The district is trying out this program because typing is a good life skill and for the future state test which will be online and require some short answer typing.  Any free online typing game or program works.  This is another one available to our Core:   https://smmusd.typingclub.com/  (If there are issues logging on, don't fret!  We'll get the kinks out. We're already aware that logging on is not always working 100% for everyone.)

6th gr Math with Erin: This week in math we continued learning about ratios. Students completed multi-step problems about how an animal’s weight and activity level corresponds to its diet. Students have a hearty homework packet to work through and help them review for next Monday's assessment. This has been our most challenging unit so far and I strongly suggest students use the homework packet for additional practice.
5^th gr Math with Genie: We have continued to play with Fraction Traction and looking at the problems as subtraction as well as addition.  Please ask your child how to subtract and add some basic fractions and they can show you the different strategies they use.  Here are some suggestions to ask:  1/4 + 2/3 = ,  1/2 - 1/8=, 8/10-1/2 =, 1/3 + 5/6 =  .

Interdisciplinary Project:  Medical Issues: Knowledge of Diseases, Conditions, and Syndromes and their Inclusion within Society:  In reflection on the great work of Martin Luther King and others like him, this week we talked about equity in health care. Students looked at the LA County Health Data to look at inequities by area. We then looked at the data to see who lives in these areas. What areas have the most people with a college education? What areas do people report feeling unsafe outside? What areas do people report having a hard time accessing health care? We will continue to grapple with these challenging statistics and ask ourselves why these inequities exist. We also did a little research into accommodations and the American Disabilities Act and mental illnesses. 

            On Wednesday, we had a wonderful visit from Andre's mom Leslie who works as a hospice social worker.        Students had many questions about end of life care. How does one qualify? Is it free? What do people act like when they are dying? What training do a need to be a social worker? How can I volunteer? And many more great questions. Thanks, Leslie, for volunteering your time and expertise! On Friday, we had a visit from Chelsea from Days for Girls Organization. She expanded our discussion of healthcare inequities to the entire world, with a focus on women's issues. Thanks, Chelsea for sharing about this wonderful organization.

Reading and Writing Workshop with Genie: Our Nonfiction sheet led us to a discussion on how electricity is created and how batteries, gas and steam engines work, and the vocabulary around the science of electricity.  Please encourage your child to look up more information on how these energy sources work.  We are also looking carefully at Rules again and using the writing of the author to help us in our Science Fiction pieces.

Dramatic Arts with Kristy:  We began to learn the format of a script.  There are lots of strict rules!  The students have been focused using their story boards and character development as they try to write the script in their own words yet telling the story that is written in Rules.  We will read through what we wrote next week in front of the group to see how it sounds and use the read through to help us write out more of our script.

Homework:

5G math: packet #17—same packet. Due 1/31/14

Nonfiction Reading sheet due Wednesday, 1/29/14

Reading 30 minutes every day! 

WW: collect 2 entries (full pages) in writing notebook each week.

Genie, Erin and Laura

Genie: ghwang@smmusd.org                                                                               Erin: ehaendel@smmusd.org

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CORE 4 NEWS

Humanities

· Reading - Students are completing their book club project.  Due date is January 31st.

· Writing - We are starting our Yosemite essay.  First draft is due on January 30th.  Final Draft is due on February 6th.

· Social Studies - Students are working in small groups researching the early history and historical significance of a specific religion.

Science: We are continuing our focus on Genetics.

7th Grade Math - We are learning about applying percents, graphs, and functions.

8th Grade Math

One group is learning about:

· Integer Exponents (Review)

· Powers of 10 and Scientific Notation (Review)

· Multiplication and Division Properties of Exponents (Review)

· Adding, Subtracting, and Multiplying Polynomials

· Radical Expressions

Another group is reviewing

· Equations, Proportions, and Formulas

· Simple, Multi-Step, and Compound Inequalities

· Function Concepts and Applying Functions

· Characteristics and Using Linear Functions

Reminders:

We are going to the Ballona Wetlands on Monday, January 27. We will leave after we take attendance, so please don’t be late.  Please have your child bring a sack lunch and wear comfortable shoes.  If you could volunteer on this trip, please email us.

Important Dates

Monday, January 27- Ballona Wetlands Field Trip

Friday, January 31 - Yosemite Assembly 9:45 a.m.

February 3, 5, & 7- Aquarium Field Trips

Darwin Mendinueto - dmendinueto@smmusd.org       

Pam Dresher - pdresher@smmusd.org

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