Dear SMASHing Families,
Throughout this first week
back after Break, I’ve enjoyed hearing from students about fun family moments,
special celebrations, sports events,
satisfying Spring cleaning, relaxing pajama play time, and interesting
trips. I appreciated the Spring Break
time with Micah, Eli and my nephew (who was in from New York). The boys did lots of swimming and Bey Blade
play. I got to cook some new recipes and
learned to play Mah Jong. I read a
memoir, historical fiction, educator newsletter and several magazine articles
and took away a similar message: Manage my energy, not my time.
As we enter these last 31
days of school full of state testing, SuperSMASH/40th anniversary
celebration, music concerts, graduation, beach day, and preparations for Summer
and next school year, it is easy to feel rushed to fit all the “to dos” into our calendars. Let’s be intentional as an adult and student community
to focus our energy on well-being and continual learning through doing,
playing, experiencing, celebrating, and reflecting!
Enthusiastically yours,
Jessica
*********************
SMASH
SITE ADVISORY COUNCIL
It’s time again to select the
parents to represent you at the SMASH Council for next year. This group of
parent, staff and students meet once a month.
We will be electing 1 parent to serve a two-year term.
Statements of interest are below.
My name is Ben Colvin, father to Ryan Colvin who is currently a Core 1 big,
and I am a SMASH alumnus from the last high school graduating class of
1986. I hold an elementary multi-subject
teaching credential, which allowed me to teach art for LAUSD for the past seven
years. I was born and raised in the
Ocean Park area of Santa Monica. My time
at SMASH taught me what it was like to be truly woven into the fabric of my
community. I owe a debt of gratitude to
my SMASH family and am so happy to be back sharing the experience with my son.
*********************
DATES TO REMEMBER
APRIL
Mon, Tues, Apr 28-29—State
Testing for grades 3-8
Wed, Apr 30 - 6:00-7:30pm -
Kindergarten parents orientation meeting in Core 1
MAY
Fri, May 2 - 1:30pm - John
Muir Cinco deMayo celebration
Tues, May 6 - 6pm - Channel
Island trip parent meeting
Tues, Wed, May 6, 7 - Rosti
Restaurant Night
Wed, May 7 - 8:30am - PTSA
Mtg
Wed, May 7 - 3:15pm - Site
Council Mtg
Thurs, May 8 - Bike It Day
Thurs, May 8 - Core 4 Parent
Aquarium Night
Mon, May 12 - Last day for
prepayments for Meal Deal.
Tues, May 13 - 6pm - Middle
School Choir , Band and Orchestra
SATURDAY - MAY 17 -
SUPERSMASH
Mon, May 19 - Last day for
lunch payments by check. Cash only after
today.
Mon, May 26 - Memorial Day—School
Closed
Wed, May 28 - 6:00-7:30pm -
Core 1 Parent Education night - Evening two
Wed, May 28, 29, 30 - 8th
grade Channel Island trip
*********************
Tidbits From SMASH PTSA
Come party with us!! The Santa Monica Ed
Foundation is throwing a
HUGH PIER PARTY on APRIL 27 from 10am to
2pm
to benefit all
the children of the Santa Monica School District, and we are all invited.
Tickets will be sold prior to the event and they are limited - so get your
tickets now! To make things easy, we are selling tickets at SMASH every morning
and afternoon next week - so why not drop by and pick up some tickets for your
family? You can also buy tickets online at: http://smmef.org/pierparty.php?cat=102#Ticket%20Info
And, if you think you might
be able to volunteer at the Pier Party, we are reaching out to our volunteer
community to help out on this amazing fun filled day! There are lots of great
volunteer spots available.
To register as a volunteer,
go to www.pierparty.org and click on the "Volunteer" tab.
See attached flyer for more Volunteer info!
PTSA Meeting - Wednesday, May
7- 8:30am in the Library featuring a special guest; Josephine Moerschel from
Elemental Strings and Band.
If you currently have a 2nd, 3rd or 4th Grader, this is your
opportunity to get all your questions answered about the program for next year.
Plus, we will receive updates on SuperSMASH, Smash Bashes and all the
activities that PTSA is involved in. The meetings are no longer than one hour
and packed with great information - so please come along before this school
year ends!
It's right around the corner
people! We need your enthusiasm, volunteerism and support. There are many ways
to help with both events, please contact:
Last Call for POKER and RACE CAR Bashes!
Most SMASH Bashes have SOLD
OUT. But there are still spaces remaining for the following two SMASH bashes happening next weekend, May 3rd
and 4th. Please sign up in the office (and bring payment) if interested in attending:
POKER BASH
The SMASH Poker BASH is
back! WHO will take home the Trophy THIS year???
Sign up yourself AND friends
(who do NOT have to be from SMASH).
DATE: May 3rd (Sat) 2pm-6ish
LOCATION: Lichterman
Residence, West Los Angeles
COST: $40 Buy In (Multiple
Buy Ins Allowed)
HOSTS: Mitch Lichterman and
Matt Lombard (Core 1, 2 & 3 Families)
DETAILS: Join our 4th Annual
Poker BASH Tournament! All levels welcome - and the winner takes home the SMASH
Trophy (for one year ;-). Chili,
cornbread and drinks provided. Bring friends!
RECYCLED RACECAR RACE!
Join Core 1 and Core 2
friends for an afternoon of DIY family fun! Come make rubber band, balloon and
mouse trap powered race cars out of an enticing assortment of recycled
materials. Build a sleek racer or a glamorous hot rot. Then hit the raceway to
see whose creation is the fastest!
DATE: May 4 (Sun) 2pm-4:00
LOCATION: TBA
COST: $15/child
HOSTS: Rachel Ginnerty and
Andy O'Connell (Core 1 Family)
DETAILS: The fun will happen at a local park - so no drop-offs, please.
Light refreshments served.
To sign up to attend a
SMASH Bash, please do the following:
1) Look
through the SMASH Bash folder in the office and pick the events you want to
attend (that still have space)
2) To claim your spot, write your name on the page of
the event(s) you will attend.
3) Take a "Registration Form and Receipt"
from the front of the SMASH Bash folder, mark the events you will attend and total your payment.
4) Leave payment (check or cash) with Janice.
5) Take the yellow copy and leave the while one in the
folder-- along with the necessary signed waivers
QUESTIONS? Please email SMASH Bash Co-Chair Mari Ayers
Brady (marniayers@gmail.com)
*********************
SAVE THE DATE
For
SMMUSD COMMUNITY CONVERSATION
We will be holding the first
SMMUSD Community Conversation and we are inviting leaders throughout the
school district to participate in this
event, which is being organized by the district’s Intercultural Equity and
Excellence District Advisory Committee (IWW-DAC).
The purpose is to discuss who
to expand and diversify family engagement in our school communities. There will be four working groups and the
discussions will be oriented toward generating actionable recommendations.
If you have any questions or
ideas feel free to share them with us as we are still in the planning stages.
Please save the date -
details will follow.
Tuesday, May 27. 5:30-8:30pm
Location is to be determined.
*********************
SuperSMASH 2014
NEEDS YOU!
Hello Smashing Families,
Super Smash is only 3 Weeks Away and it is time for us to
come together to make it another amazing and successful day for the kids, the
school and for all of us who do so much for the place we love.
We will need volunteers throughout the day at the various
activities, game booths, slides / inflatables, food stations, ticket and prize
tables, auction etc. Please take a look
at the google-doc sign up sheet and pick one of many great places to lend a
hand. Giving just a little of your time
goes a long long way.
We need everyone’s continued efforts to solicit items for
the silent auction and a team of people who can help distribute our wonderful
fliers and post cards throughout our community (also a good time to get auction
items!). PLEASE HELP OUT WHERE YOU CAN
AS IT MAKES THE DAY EVEN MORE SPECIAL KNOWING WE ALL DID THIS TOGETHER!
Here are the links to the GOOGLE-DOC sign up sheets.
2014 SuperSMASH - Campus Set-Up/Break-Down:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AiamPMbeg_6rdDVCSm9lUTMyMzU2UGEzTld1OVB6bmc&usp=sharing
2014 SuperSMASH - Silent/Live Auction:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AiamPMbeg_6rdFljcThHSXJQREl5LVVEQVZDN3o5UGc&usp=sharing
2014 SuperSMASH - Food Court Shifts:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AiamPMbeg_6rdFB3a0xEc0ZiY2VYMHdFay1MQWo2OFE&usp=sharing
2014 SuperSMASH - Field Games & Rides:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AiamPMbeg_6rdExldnRHT1A1VXpHWTlPa0JDVG04UUE&usp=sharing
2014 SuperSMASH - Arts & Activities:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AiamPMbeg_6rdENkdWs2TmZ6MmxsaTBxZm9zTVIxUUE&usp=sharing
There are several areas we are looking for special
assistance and long term training:
Tye Dye Booth: After 12
amazing years Mike Bone is looking to find someone to train and take over this
booth that has provided SMASH wonderful memories and keepsakes.
Splash Attack: Morgan Night
is also looking to train someone to take over this extremely popular and fun
water booth!
Spin Art: Our Alumni DJ Holly Adams will be at it one
more time in between sets but we would love for someone to train under her
expert guidance to learn the ropes to keep this great booth going.
*********************
SANTA MONICA’S HEAL THE BAY ANNUAL EARTH DAY
CELEBRATION
SATURDAY, APRIL 26
BEACH CLEAN-UP - 10am-Noon
DESIGNER SANDCASTLE CONTEST - 9am-Noon
(Open Entry Noon - 2pm)
FREE ADMISSION TO THE AQUARIUM - 11am-5pm
FREE CHILDREN’S
CONCERT ON THE PIER - 10am-Noon (Ages
1-8)
Tom Freund & the Hug Tree
*********************
The Annenberg Community Beach House 5th Anniversary
Weekend
Saturday, April 26 and Sunday, April 27
This weekend-long community open house features a
variety of free, family-friendly programs including beach activities and games,
ballroom-style dance classes, music and dance performances, tours of the Guest
House and more.
Parking
is extremely limited. Free bike valet will be provided. Additional
public parking lots are located to the north and south of the Beach House.
Annenberg Community
Beach House
415 Pacific Coast Highway, Santa Monica, CA 90402
For more information, please visit annenbergbeachhouse.com or call Guest Services at 310-458-4904.
415 Pacific Coast Highway, Santa Monica, CA 90402
For more information, please visit annenbergbeachhouse.com or call Guest Services at 310-458-4904.
*********************
CORE
1 NEWS
3 tools that Build a Child’s Confidence from Tinkerlab.com
Young children are full of their own ideas, confidence, and enthusiasm
for the new. As much as we hope
they’ll retain this strong sense of self, as they get older it’s possible that
their confidence can diminish with the influence of peers or self-doubt that
comes from not being able to bounce back from failure. I hope that my kids can retain a strong sense
of self as they grow older. Given that
my kiddos are girls I’m acutely aware of how easily they can lose themselves in
the face of strong personalities. The
rise of books such as Raising Confident Girls: 100 Tips for Parents And Teachers,
The A to Z Guide to Raising Happy, Confident Kids, and how girls THRIVE
demonstrate just how critical this issue is for children, and perhaps girls
more so than boys.
Tool #1:
Trust. Children
put an enormous amount of stock into what their parents or teachers think, and
it’s our role to show them that we believe in them. My 4-year old loves, loves, loves my sewing
machine. I don’t let her use it
unsupervised, but when she does use the machine all I do is help her guide the
fabric. She presses the pedal, lifts the
foot, and cuts the thread. The same can
be said for the hot glue gun, electric mixer and cooking at the stove. We don’t do these things all the time, but I
try to find ways to build these moments of trust into our days together.
Tool #2:
Iteration. For a child
to truly understand how things work, he or she needs to test it out multiple
times and in various ways. Think of the
child who just learned to write his name and how he’ll write it in various
sizes, on different kinds of paper, vertically and horizontally, all in an
effort to understand the written word and his particular place in the
world. In [an] image taken of my
daughter last year, she was painting with watercolors. She paints with watercolors frequently and
had experimented with brush painting, dipping paper in the paint, and squeezing
paint with droppers. On this day, she
wanted to test the results of blowing paint with two different straws. One worked far better than the other, and she
only figured this out because we dedicated time to iteration.
Tool #3:
Tinker. Pulling
things apart to understand how they work helps children grasp the bigger
picture of the world around them. We had
an old computer monitor that was scheduled for a trip to the dump, and decided
to pull it apart (carefully) so that my daughter could get a close look at some
circuit boards and wires that live behind the computer. Another, safer, way to go about this is to
give children some small tools and an old clock, and a fair amount of time to take
it all apart.
THANK YOU
to everyone for getting our field trip slips in quickly, and to our
parent volunteers for helping to make it a day full of learning and fun.
WISH LIST
we can still use your CORKS, PAPER ROLLS & TAPE.
PLEASE keep track
of your child’s sweaters, jackets and sweatshirts. You can help by making sure their name is
marked in their belongings. To better
manage our overwhelming outerwear situations, unmarked items will be donated on
Fridays.
SAVE THE
DATES:
Birthday
Bashes! May Birthday
Bash – May 2
June Birthday Bash – May 9
July Birthday Bash –May 16
Farmer’s Market: Bigs go on
May 14
Mentors on
May 28
Partners on
June 4
Have a wonderful weekend!
Christian,
Chrysta, Graciela, and Nadja
*********************
CORE 2 NEWS
Welcome back, and let the countdown begin…six and
one-half weeks of school ‘til summer!
The students are settling
in to their new Advisory groups –
working together to come up with Advisory names, create group art pieces, and
share responsibilities for classroom jobs.
Malaika, Tamara, and Jayme are revisiting CARES and Freedom with
Responsibility to help the students be cooperative, assertive, responsible,
empathetic Core 2 community members who use self-control as they work toward
individual and whole-group goals.
In Theme, we are putting
our Social Curriculum front and center
– exploring ways to demonstrate random acts of kindness, examining successful
strategies for working with others, and sharing the people, places, things, and
animals we treasure.
In Reading Workshop, we’re
getting back into independent reading. The only way to become a stronger reader is
by reading Just Right Books at school and at home every day.
In Writing Workshop, we’re
practicing writing “on demand” pieces from writing prompts. We are
learning about writing structure and format through poetry, essays, letters,
and free-writing.
In Word Work, we will be
studying grammar and punctuation:
possessive apostrophes, contractions, and plurals.
In Math, the Fourth
Graders are starting a unit on fractions and decimals and Third Graders are
starting their third addition/subtraction unit. Please read
the parent letters included with your child’s homework packets at the beginning
of each unit for more information. When
it comes to Math Homework, 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!
We have a Field Trip
5/5/14 to Tanaka Farms for a Strawberry Tour. We will be leaving at 9:00 and
coming back by 2:00. Look for more info next week.
Tamara has an exciting
trip planned, too! My step-daughter is getting married back
east, and it’s a family affair.
I will be out for roughly two
weeks between April 30 – May 12. The
students will be in Leah’s very capable hands.
4th grade families
Don't forget to turn in your Catalina overnight field
trip form and deposit by Friday, May 2nd!
Have a nice weekend!!!
Tamara, Jayme, and Malaika
jwoldflorian@smmusd.org
tmugalian@smmusd.org
*********************
CORE
3 NEWS
2 weeks
to get in the Overnight Field Trip blue or green form with your deposit! Due
May 2nd! We need to send in the deposits and give them a headcount
on how many will be participating.
Field trip
to the California Heritage Museum on Friday, May 2nd to see the
exhibit, Awkward Family Photos! We will
be leaving at 10:30 and returning at 1:15.
If anyone is interested in chaperoning, please contact Genie or Erin.
6th gr
Math with Erin: This
week we finished working on our dream room projects. If your child has does not
feel their home is as good as it can be, they are welcome to complete it at
home over the weekend. We need to use our class time to move ahead to our next
unit on fractions, decimals, and percents.
5th
gr Math with Genie:
The Power of 10 is very much a part of decimals! We have been using our money sense to help us. If we are multiplying 24 x 10, 24 x 1, 24 x
.1, 24 x .01 how do the answers
differ? Money helps because if we have $10 bills, $1 bills, dimes, and
pennies that changes the amount.
Students were grappling with how much money is 24 dimes? $.24?
$24? or $2.40? If you have a jar
of change, take time to add a pile of dimes or a pile of pennies.
Your children need practice understanding the value of tenths (.1) and
hundredths (.01). A homework packet went
out on Tuesday this week and was due today.
And another was distributed today, due back next Friday.
Science/Social
Studies with Erin: This
week we jumped right into our physics roller coaster making unit.On Monday we
watched a video about Roller coaster design. We also started familiarizing
ourselves with the following physics terms: force, momentum, distance,
vectors, time, acceleration, speed, mass, gravity, and inertia.
Students spend a few days creating illustrated cards to better understand these
words. Late in the week students met with their new roller coaster groups to
talk about team norms. We are looking forward to learning more about physics
and roller coaster design!
Writing
Workshop/Reading Workshop with Genie: We have been looking
at song lyrics for our poetry unit. We
immersed ourselves in the genre, thought about the meaning of lines, stanzas,
and the whole song. Students were also
invited to write on My Big Campus what songs they want to study and we studied
some student choices. We know that often in poetry and in lyrics we have to
figure out what the writer meant and that it can mean different things for different
people. We will continue to look at song
lyrics to help mentor us into collecting ideas and begin to tinker with our own lyrics. In Read Aloud, we have been continuing with From
the Notebook of Melanin Sun. Mel's
mother has told him she is gay and he is having a hard time accepting this
news. We have been looking in our discussions
of characters and people (including ourselves) about how we describe
individuals—do we use facts "He's 14 yrs old.", opinions, "He's
homophobic." or descriptions of actions, "He isn't talking to his mom
now." What are the best ways to discuss individuals?
Homework:
5G math:
packet due 5/2/148th Grade
Nonfiction
sheet due Wednesday!
Reading 30
minutes every day!
WW: collect
2 entries (full pages) in writing notebook each week.
Genie, Erin, & Laura
Genie:
ghwang@smmusd.org
Erin:
ehaendel@smmusd.org
*********************
CORE 4 NEWS
8th Grade
Humanities -
We have started our
background work for Red Scarf Girl.
Bee Action
Research Project: Research Writing Continues.
There will be a culminating event - TBA.
Science - We started our final unit on human body
systems.
Math - The Algebros are working on the
Quadratic Functions unit. The Variables are working on the Exponential
Functions. The GUFs are working on the
Functions unit.
Important
Reminders for 8th Grade Parents
SAMOHI Tour is scheduled for May 1st at
11 am.
The Channel Islands Trip is scheduled
for May 28, 29, and 30. We have
fundraised most of the money. Please
send in any outstanding jog-a-thon pledges.
3.
We will be having a parent meeting about the Channel Island Trip at 6pm
on Tuesday, May 6th.
7th Grade
Humanities -
The Giver/Divergent:
The students are
finishing up their work in this unit. Most of the students have completed and
read their found poetry to the class. We also have started our background work
for Red Scarf Girl.
Take Action
Project:Research Writing Continues.
There will be a culminating event - TBA.
Science - We started our final unit on human body
systems.
Math - “The B.L. Broskis” and “The 42%
Mathecols” are working on Data, Statistics, and Probability.
“The Mathemagicians” are working
on geometry.
Important Dates
April 28
- Last Testing Day for Core 4
May 1
- 8th Grade SAMOHI Tour
May 28, 29,
& 30 - 8th Grade Channel Islands Trip
June 6
- 8th Grade Graduation
June 10
- Beach Day
Darwin Mendinueto - dmendinueto@smmusd.org
Pam Dresher - pdresher@smmusd.org
*********************
