Team Paramaribo

Attendance and Absences

DCPS is transitioning to a new system for tracking excused absences. Starting September 8th, parents and caregivers must submit excuse notes for attendance through Aspen GO—a mobile friendly version of Aspen Parent Portal, and the same platform used for school enrollment and reenrollment. Please visit the DCPS Attendance webpage for guidance on how to submit an excuse note.

Save The Dates!

October 21st: Youth Risk Behavior Survey (in advisory, information below)
October 31st: Halloween!
November 6th: Smithsonian Museum of Natural History Field Trip

Field Trip

Permission slips will go home this weekend for an upcoming geography and science field trip to the Smithsonian NMNH on Monday, 11/6. The geography department will focus on the “Africa Voices” exhibit, and science will cover fossils and geologic history.

There is no cost for the trip and students will only need to bring:

Lunch
Water bottle
Coat
Comfortable walking shoes
Kids ride free card (if they have one)

Unfortunately, we will not know the operating statues of the museum based on the government shutdown and may need to cancel – this will be communicated once we know more. For now, we will be collecting permission slips in the hope of being able to go!

Please sign and return both sides of the form to Ms. Wesselhoft no later than Friday, 10/24.

Halloween Costume Guidance

Students and teachers/staff may wear a school appropriate costume on October 31. Costumes may not interfere with learning. This means no masks or costumes that restrict movement or vision, prevent sitting at desks, or prevent participation in physical education class. Additionally, costumes must not obstruct movement in the hallways.

· Costumes may not promote violence or have accessories or props that could be used as a weapon.

· Masks are not permitted.

· Make-up or face-paints are permitted.

· You must be able to sit, walk, breathe, see and hear (no masks that cover the face).

· Costumes cannot promote use of drugs, alcohol or weapons of any kind.

· All school rules will be enforced (i.e., no bikes, skateboards, roller blades, etc.).

· Students should not wear costumes that make fun of others.

We are asking students to only bring 5 or fewer pieces of candy to school. Large bags of candy will be confiscated and returned to students after school.

DC Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS)

Deal students will take the Youth Risk Behavior Survey on October 21 during advisory. This survey provides important information on the types of supports and interventions the District of Columbia provides for our youth. Information about the content of the survey can be found by going to the OSSE site linked here - DC Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) | OSSE .

Families are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the type of questions being asked so they can anticipate some student reactions ahead of time. The six topic areas that are covered through this survey are: behaviors that contribute to unintentional injuries and violence, tobacco use, alcohol and other drug use, sexual risk behaviors, unhealthy dietary behaviors, and physical inactivity.

Families may elect for their student NOT to participate in the survey by completing/returning an opt-out form to the student’s 1st-period teacher on Monday and completing this FORM. Physical copies of opt-out forms were sent home with students on Friday. Electronic versions are available here - https://osse.dc.gov/node/1107132.

Classroom Supplies Wishlists

We are so incredibly thankful to everyone who has sent in supplies so far - you are all truly appreciated!

If you would like to donate to your student's classrooms, here are the Amazon wishlist links:

Ms. Wesselhoft's Wishlist

Mx. Gomez's Wishlist

Mr/x. Winston and Ms. Clark's Wishlist

Ms. Patsalos' Wishlist

Ms. Sagan's Wishlist

Ms. Sun's Wishlist

Any donations can be sent to the school with this format:

Teacher Name

3815 Fort Dr NW

Washington, DC 20016

And a huge thank you to everyone who has checked in with their student to ensure that they have enough pencils - you rock!

English and Language Arts with Mr. Winston

We’ve finished reading all texts from Unit 1! Next week, we will conclude the unit with a Socratic Seminar where we will connect the secondary character types that we’ve learned about this week to the Unit’s texts. In the unit’s culminating literary analysis essay, scholars will respond to a writing prompt, analyzing the theme of one of the unit’s stories.

Common Lit Unit Skills Assessments

If your scholar has a WS for Unit Skills Assessment, please have them come to me for tutorial after school on Monday or Wednesday (3:30 p – 5:00 p) to submit the assignment. The final deadline to submit both Summative Assessments is next Wednesday, October 22.

As always, please encourage your scholars to read at least 20 minutes each night! All scholars should have a book that they are independently reading outside of our time together in class.

World Geography and Cultures with Ms. Wesselhoft

Unit 2: Sub-Saharan Africa has begun! Next week, students will have a review and a quiz on the region. A Nearpod will be assigned over the weekend for review purposes.

After the quiz, we will conduct a brief investigation into the impact of colonialism on Sub-Saharan Africa. Students will then complete a district-assigned RCT.

Math with Mx. Gomez

6th Grade Accelerated Math

Next week, we’re diving into double number lines and ratios! Students will explain and create double number lines, explore unit rates like speed and price, and learn how to recognize when situations happen at the same rate. We’ll wrap up the week by building equivalent ratio tables.

7th Grade Math

We’re applying our percent skills to real-world situations! Students will calculate tax, tips, discounts, and markups, and practice finding original prices. We’ll end the week with a review and Summative D for Unit 4.

📎 Follow Along at Home

Families and students can explore the curriculum, preview lessons, and access resources using the link below:
🔗IM Accelerated Math Curriculum

🔗IM Grade 7 Math Curriculum

Earth and Space Science with Ms. Sagan

Hello Scientists!

I hope you enjoyed the long weekend and got a chance to get outside! During this short week, students prepared for and completed their Term 1 Roots summative. We now have a few weeks with no roots - Term 2 roots will start in November. We wrapped up the week with a Gizmo simulation about tectonic plate boundaries.

Next week in science, students will prepare for their Plate Motion summative on Wednesday 10/22 by completing the Amplify post test and reviewing plate motion content.

Students will receive paper study guides to prepare for the summative and can also study using the Blooket, which is an online quiz game posted to Canvas.

After completing their Plate Motion summative, students will be introduced to their next unit - Rock Transformation!

Notes from MLL Support

Last week we reviewed speaking data for ACCESS and continued with our station schedules. On Friday, students took a vocabulary quiz to review all the vocabulary they learned from unit 1 of their READ 180 books. Next week, we will continue our rotations.

Ms. Sun’s Amazon Wishlist

World Languages Newsletter

Read the weekly Deal World Languages newsletter to find out more about the happenings in Chinese, French and Spanish classes, including units of study and upcoming assignments and assessments.

https://app.smore.com/u/emily.bullock5

Library Corner

Mr. Reichlen has created a new web collection of school and public library links to support the novel lists for independent reading texts from the CommonLit 360 ELA curriculum. Here students can find access points to all of the catalog records for recommended texts that support each of this year's unit themes organized by grade level and unit. Students can checkout and place items on hold. The collection will be updated throughout the school year to provide access to recommended titles as units change. See the link below for more information:

https://bit.ly/ADMSLibraryLibGuide_ELA_Resources

Learn about the great things happening this month at Deal's library. Check out great books and media, read about events at Deal and around the city, and stay connected with Deal's Library:

https://secure.smore.com/n/rnz0a

Past IB Learner Profiles

Each month our school community celebrates one of our IB Learner Traits. The team teachers discuss who to nominate and chooses two students from Team Paramaribo who have demonstrated this characteristic in all of our classes. Stay tuned as we continue to celebrate all year, and make sure to shout out our past learners!