Team Kathmandu: Week 37

Thurs. June 11: Field Trip to Air & Space Museum (see Science section below for more info.)

Mon. June 15: Cameron Run Water Park 6th Grade Field Trip

Tues. June 16: NO SCHOOL, Election Day

Thurs. June 18: NEW LAST DAY OF SCHOOL*

*Change due to missed snow/weather days

Congrats!

Congrats to Ingrid, True, Katherine, Frances and June for representing Team Kathmandu and Deal, winning first place in the DCLA Battle of the Books middle school competition!

Congratulations to Ha and Jahir for being named students of the month. In IB, a "Communicator" is a learner who expresses ideas and information effectively and creatively, both in their own language and in at least one other language, across various forms of communication. They are also good listeners and collaborators, understanding and responding to the perspectives of others.

Our end of the year trip, as an entire 6th grade class from Deal, is to Cameron Run waterpark in Virginia. Please see the letter and permission slip sent home on Tuesday. All permission slips and money are due on Friday, May 29. to Ms. Trenkle. Students should return the permission slip and money to Ms. Trenkle—it is collected daily in class. Any parent/guardian with concerns, please reach out to Ms. Trenkle at amy.trenkle@k12.dc.gov

Thank you to the parents and community members who have contributed to our EOY celebration! We need a few more shirts if possible! 😊 THANK YOU for all shirts we have received! AND.....We all will have 3 flav-or-icees each---so appreciated! Thank you for the wonderful markers for our shirt signing! Much gratitude for everyone being awesome!!!!

We will have Team Kathmandu’s End of Year Celebration on Friday, June 12 during periods 4 and 5. We will spend the time signing t-shirts and having popsicles outside. Students are asked to bring in a white t-shirt to sign, but we know we will need to have some on hand for children who might forget or not have a white t-shirt. Please consider contributing to our EOY activity by sending us t-shirts, fabric markers, or popsicles to celebrate our year together! Each child will bring home their own t-shirt on that Friday. T-shirts should NOT be worn to school that day (we do not want anyone actively signing while on a person). To help out, please visit this Amazon link!

This week in Geography we started our final unit of the year: Oceania and Antarctica. This week we completed our maps and the map quiz is on Monday, June 1. There are no retakes on Monday. Canvas has the maps to study, a Nearpod for vocabulary, a list of what countries/locations to know, and practice links.

Next week we will begin our Interdisciplinary unit with science about natural disasters and Oceania. We have a great unit planned out and students will present in science and geography class the week of June 8.

Congratulations to Periods 2, 4, and 5 who all earned their incentive this week. By close margins in all classes, they voted to not have their final two CEAs of the year. Today, Friday, May 29 was the last required CEA for periods 2, 4, and 5. CEA numbers 29 and 30 will still be posted in Canvas for Periods 1 and 7 and will be due June 5 and 12 respectively.

Thank you for the awesome postcards—both virtual and via snail mail! We are continuing to read them and post them on our map! So fun and impressive! Thank you for sharing the project with your family and friends and bringing the world to us!

Pictures that are on our Kathmandu Can Do Attitude board can also be found here.

Amy Trenkle

amy.trenkle@k12.dc.gov

Classroom Wishlist

This week 6th grade students worked on representing and comparing proportional relationships with graphs and equations in preparation for an RCT Assessment. Seventh graders worked on calculating missing angles and angle relationships to create equations and solve real world problems and finding volume and the surface area of 3-dimensional shapes in preparation for their upcoming RCT.

Summer Math Acceleration Camp (SMAC):

As you may know, Deal offers an in-person math acceleration program each year for students who are currently taking Math 6 or Math 7. Students who demonstrate mastery of standards on the Middle of Year (MOY) i-Ready and the End of Year i-Ready (EOY) i-Ready by earning the required score will be invited to participate in SMAC 2026.

We will also offer a summer online asynchronous opportunity for students who will not be available for SMAC. To be invited to participate in the online asynchronous acceleration program students must earn the required score on the MOY i-Ready assessment and share the reason why they are not available for SMAC.

• SMAC Boost | June 22 - 25; 9:00 - 12:00 noon (must attend all dates)

• SMAC Dates | June 29 - July 23; 9:00 - 12:00 noon (must attend all dates)

• Asynchronous Math Acceleration Program (Zearn) | June 22 - July 23

Please direct all questions to DealSummerMath@k12.dc.gov.
Attached is Deal’s Math Acceleration Policy

Thank you for your support

-Mr. Brown marcus.brown@k12.dc.gov

This will be updated weekly:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1dlKT87dltchVgOxxhaxD9eaRYbNpu2isofxLnvk3opA/edit?usp=sharing

Hello scientists!

Congratulations on the successful completion of your final Roots Summative of 6th grade! It’s been a wonderful year of scientific vocabulary exploration, and I am looking forward to seeing you all continue to grow your arsenal of root words and terminology.

This week, we began our interdisciplinary project with Geography, where students are researching how governments and organizations in Oceania can enact policy change or engineer solutions to address the effects of climate change. From painting roads white in Australia to building sea walls in Fiji, from proactive wildfire management to fishery conservation, your student will explore how we can build a more resilient world through our actions and policy decisions.

The packet that students will complete along with the presentation of their project to the class will be a summative in both Science and Geography. Please make sure your student is working on their packet mindfully and diligently to ensure that they finish the year strong!

Field trip: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

We are so excited to be heading to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum for our field trip on Thursday June 11, 2026! Permission slips have been sent out in class, and also you can find it here in English, and in Spanish.

Please ensure that your students bring

• A string backpack or tote bag
• A bagged lunch
• Sunscreen
• Water bottle
• A pencil
• Kids Ride Free card if they have it

• Comfy walking shoes (this is not the day for their most breakable flip flops)
• Appropriate attire (it’s still too far out to forecast the weather, but the museum is air conditioned)

Students are NOT ALLOWED to bring:

• Money

• Their phone or watches

• A giant backpack

Please return the signed permission slip by Friday, May 29th. Thank you!

Shanishka.Johnson@k12.dc.gov

Ms. Johnson's list SY25-26

Book time to meet with me

This week, students had a chance to look at all the super creative informational posters their classmates made at the end of Unit 4. They also took their LAST Unit Skills Assessment!! Yahoo. A few students presented their Term 4 Book Projects in class (see below).

Next week, students will take the End of Year MAP Reading Growth assessment. I will have students record their scores in Class Notebook so they can share this information with you at home as well. In addition to MAP testing, we will have the shortest ELA unit of the year---one I've boiled down to about 4 days! In this unit students will learn about why students have recess and debate what recess should like like in a middle school setting. Questions you might discuss at home include:

• What are the benefits of recess?
• Do middle schoolers still need recess?
• How should recess look in middle school? Inside? Outside? How long? Organized activities?
• Should recess be taken away as a consequence? Under what circumstances?
• How long should recess be?

Katy Byrns

katy.byrns2@k12.dc.gov

This week students took their EOY iReady diagnostic assessments. We continued to review equivalent ratios and learned about the constant of proportionality. Next week they will take their last RCT on proportional relationships.

By Monday June 1 students should have passed 38 iReady lessons. Please reach out to me if there is any issue with students completing the iReady lessons at home; students always have the opportunity to work on iReady during their recess. Pears are opened on Mondays and Wednesdays and due Wednesday and Friday. I am able to print out paper copies of Pear assignments. Please encourage students to request a paper copy if they need. Please check Pear to see students’ missing assignments.

brandon.shufelt@k12.dc.gov

Hi all,

We are at that time of year when students need to return library books. Notices will go out to families this week. Students should reach out to Mr. Reichlen about missing, damaged, or any books that may have been checked out by mistake. There are no fines, but students can only have items removed from their accounts if they reach out to Mr. Reichlen. Please reach out with additional questions.

Our local Tenley / Friendship teen librarian will be visiting Deal this week to talk to kids about programming, summer reading, and to checkout/ exchange public library books. Stop at the table in the gallery to say hi to Brandon during lunch/ recess on Tuesday, June 2nd!

Stephen Reichlen

Library Media Specialist

Deal MS – DC Public Schools

stephen.reichlen@k12.dc.gov

https://app.smore.com/n/uxjamz

https://app.smore.com/n/ftm73

Simeon Bien-Aime, MS, CAS

School Psychologist | Alice Deal Middle School

Simeon.Bien-Aime@k12.dc.gov

I did not learn how to do this until my son was in 8th grade, and man I wish I had figured out this trick sooner. You can change your settings on Aspen to send you an email whenever a grade is input for your child below a certain threshold. My husband and I use this function because we don't regularly check Aspen, but we do check email! So every now and then, we can ask our son what happened with a particular assignment or what his plan is for making up missed work. See attached document.

-Ms. Byrns

Beginning this year, families are required to submit excuse notes for students in Aspen GO—the mobile-friendly version of Aspen Parent Portal. The previously existing online system we used has been disabled.

Instructions on how to submit an excuse note are available below.

Submitting an Excuse Note in Aspen GO (Parent Portal).pdf - 443.2 KB (pdf)

Envío de una nota justificativa en Aspen GO (Portal para padres).pdf - 543.4 KB (pdf)

Soumettre une note d'excuse dans Aspen GO (portail parents).pdf - 489.0 KB (pdf)

በ‘Aspen GO’ (የወላጅ ፖርታልParent Portal) ላይ፣ ፈቃድ-ማግኛ ማስታወሻ (Excuse Note)ን ማስገባት.pdf - 504.7 KB (pdf)

在 Aspen GO（家长门户）中提交请假条.pdf - 507.6 KB (pdf)

Nộp Giấy Xin Phép Nghỉ học Trên Aspen GO (Cổng Thông Tin Phụ Huynh).pdf - 315.5 KB (pdf)

Additional information on how to use the Parent Portal can be found at dcps.dc.gov/page/parent-portal.

Congratulations to the IB Learner Profile Students of the Month, exemplifying KNOWLEDGEABLE: Oliver Green-Simms and Aloysius Kerr! In the IB Learner Profile, a knowledgeable student actively explores concepts, ideas, and issues with local and global significance, developing a broad and balanced understanding across various disciplines. They strive for in-depth knowledge and understanding, going beyond surface-level learning to make connections between different areas of study.

April students of the month, Olivia and Joaquim, are open minded! The IB Learner Profile states that open-minded students “critically appreciate (their) own cultures and personal histories, as well as the values and traditions of others. (They) seek and evaluate a range of points of view and are willing to grow from the experience.”

Congratulations to our IB Learner Profile Students of the Month, exemplifying THINKER: Natasha & Dane. Thinkers use critical and creative thinking skills to analyze and take responsible action on complex problems. They exercise initiative in making reasoned, ethical decisions.

Chloe & Gregory

As reflective students, they thoughtfully consider the world and their own ideas and experience. They work to understand their strengths and weaknesses in order to support their learning and personal development.

Congratulations to our December IB Learner Profile Students of the Month for Principled: Andrew and True. The IB Learner Profile states that a person who is principled is someone who respects the dignity and feelings of others, is honest and accountable, and accepts both responsibility for their decisions and the consequences that accompany them.

Congratulations to our IB Learner Profile Students of the Month, exemplifying CARING: Diosmar and Max. Students who are caring show empathy, compassion, and respect towards the needs and feelings of others. They have a personal commitment to service, and act to make a positive difference to the lives of others and the world around them. From helping a friend, to picking up garbage after lunch, if you care, it will show!

Congratulations to our IB Learner Profile Students of the Month: Inquirers Amelia and Julian. The IB Learner Profile aims to develop students who are inquirers. Students who are inquirers nurture their curiosity, developing skills for inquiry and research. They know how to learn independently and with others. Inquirers learn with enthusiasm and sustain their love of learning throughout life.

Congratulations to our IB Learner Profile Students of the Month. This month Team Kathmandu teachers are highlighting the RISK TAKER learner profile: Matlida and Jairo. Risk takers approach uncertainty with forethought and determination; they work independently and cooperatively to explore new ideas and innovative strategies. They are resourceful and resilient in the face of challenges and change.