Chelsea Intermediate School

Dear Parents/Guardians,

We have lots to be excited about in October! On Friday, October 3, we will be celebrating Mix It Up Day at Chelsea. The purpose of Mix It Up Day is simple - “mix up” your day by trying something new. Students will be mixed up and sit with different classmates at lunchtime. This is a great chance for our Tigers to make new friends or get to know a current friend a little bit better. We will also be doing some fun activities that will mix up our teachers as well.

This month the FSP will be hosting a Scholastic Book Fair for Chelsea Tigers from October 20 through 24. Each class will have an opportunity to explore the fair and purchase books throughout the week. In addition, we will be rolling out the red carpet for Family Literacy Night on Thursday, October 23 from 5:30 until 7 pm. Teachers are busy preparing games and activities for this evening of literacy-based fun! We hope that you will come and check it out. During Literacy Night, the Book Fair will be open for shopping and will remain open until 7:30 pm. This is a great opportunity to shop as a family!

During the week of October 27, we will be celebrating Red Ribbon Week across the District. Our theme is “Life is a Puzzle. Solve it Drug Free.”

Last but not least, we will be celebrating Autumn with our Fall parties on Thursday, October 31. We are excited to welcome parent volunteers to our parties! More information about the parties can be found within this newsletter.

As always, please take an opportunity to view all the exciting things happening at Chelsea through our social media platforms. Follow us on X and Instagram at @Chelsea_Tigers. You will see our students are thriving!

Sincerely,

Rachel Newcomb

Principal

Paula Paymaster

Assistant Principal

Ricky Innocenti

Dean of Students

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Has your child had a special event or accomplishment outside of school? A performance, competition, or recital? If you would like to have your child's team, troupe, or company celebrated at school, please fill out the form linked below. We are happy to celebrate with you!

We will do our best to be timely in our recognition, but please know there may be a slight delay due to the volume of requests on any given school day.

In addition to appearing below, this "Family Shoutout” link will be posted on the Chelsea webpage so that you can access it at any time. We look forward to celebrating your child’s wonderful accomplishments with our Chelsea learning community!

Chelsea Family Shoutouts

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We have joined HCMS in doing paperless reporting! We will no longer be printing paper report cards for students and sending them home at the end of each quarter. Instead, you will be able to access your child’s grades, and teacher comments, through PowerSchool. Ms. Newcomb will email all parents when quarterly grades are finalized in PowerSchool. In addition, we will print one report card at the end of the fourth quarter that contains your child’s grades for all four quarters and send that home at the end of the year.

Thank you to all drivers who comply with our "Right Turn Only" sign at Chelsea's main exit on to 80th Avenue. Your cooperation to turn right during arrival and dismissal significantly improves the speed and efficiency of our drop-off and pick-up lines.

We respectfully request that all drivers turn right out of the Chelsea parking lot during arrival and dismissal. We know this may be a minor inconvenience, but when drivers turn right, it has a major impact on our car rider lines in the best possible way.

Hello Families,

My name is Nurse Maria, and I’m excited to join Chelsea as your new school nurse! October brings colder weather, the first full month of school routines, and lots of seasonal activities. With the change of seasons, here are a few reminders to help your child stay well:

Colder weather: Please make sure your child comes to school with a jacket or sweater, as mornings can be chilly.
Cold and flu season: Encourage frequent handwashing and remind your child to cover coughs and sneezes with their elbow. If your child has a fever, vomiting, or diarrhea, please keep them home until they are symptom-free for 24 hours.
Healthy habits: A good night’s sleep, balanced meals, and regular physical activity all play a big role in keeping students strong and focused in class.

I’m here to support your child’s health and well-being so they can thrive in school. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have questions or concerns!

Warmly,
Maria Murphy, RN, BSN
Chelsea School Nurse

MMurphy@fsd157c.org

Students began using the library in September. Over 2,000 books were checked out during the first weeks of library. The most popular books were the graphic novels and chapter fiction.

Family School Partnership will be hosting a Scholastic Book Fair in October! During the book fair, Chelsea will celebrate Literacy Night. Families are invited to enjoy planned activities and browse the book fair. Purchases earn new books for our school! Thanks to last year’s sales, the library acquired over 100 new books as well as new bean bag chairs for quiet reading. Thanks to FSP and shoppers!

To view all the books in our collection, including the newest arrivals, students can log into their Classlink page, then select Destiny Discover to search our shelves from home.

The Bluestem Reading Challenge begins soon. Thanks to a grant from FSD 157C Education Foundation, students will be able to use Beanstack app to track progress and participate in other challenges throughout the year. A letter with more details will be going home with students.

The theme shelf is back! September’s theme celebrated National Hispanic Heritage Month and Back to School while October’s theme will continue National Hispanic Heritage Month and also include spooky stories.

We were excited to kick off the school year in PE with some fun activities! We started with baseball/softball skills including throwing, catching, fielding, and batting. After practicing, students played a modified game called Blastball—a fast-paced, exciting way to build confidence and skills.

We are also focusing on fitness activities to get students moving and activating their muscles. We even discussed how physical activity improves brain function! In September all students completed their first round of fitness testing for the school year. Testing will take place in both the fall and spring, giving students the chance to set personal goals and work toward them throughout the year.

The four fitness assessments include:

Pacer Test
Sit and Reach
Curl-Up Test
Push-Up Test

Looking ahead, students will have opportunities to develop their teamwork skills. We will be discussing what it means to be a good teammate and how we can work together throughout the year. Upcoming activities include Benchball, Rivercross, Parachutes, and Four Square.

We’re looking forward to an active, fun, and successful year in PE!

Box Tops and Pop Tabs

Many food labels have started using box tops that need to be scanned. If you would like to continue to support our school, you will need to download the Box Tops for Education app. Make sure you select Chelsea Intermediate School before you begin scanning your box tops!

Pop tabs are collected in any amount and sent to the Ronald McDonald House each year as Chelsea shows its support for a worthwhile cause. Thank you for your continued support with both programs.

At Chelsea, we believe every student is a musician, and our music room is their stage. We embrace the process in music: making mistakes, trying again, and growing with every note and rhythm we create. Music class is a place where students can explore, express themselves, and discover the joy of making music together.

Here’s what our 3rd through 5th grade musicians have been working on so far this year:

🎵 3rd Grade
Third graders have been diving into rhythm! We're learning to analyze, read, write, and perform patterns using eighth notes, quarter notes and rests, half notes and rests, and whole notes and rests. Through singing games, movement activities, and percussion instruments, students are developing their inner sense of beat and rhythm while having lots of fun making music together.

🎵 4th Grade
Fourth graders are sharpening their rhythmic skills and learning to read music on the treble clef staff as they prepare for one of our favorite units: Recorder Karate. Students are working hard to earn "belts" by performing progressively challenging songs and building their skills step by step.

🎵 5th Grade
Fifth grade musicians are taking it to the next level. After reviewing advanced rhythms and studying musical form, students are now deep into their composition projects. They are using classroom instruments to create original 3-part pieces, drawing inspiration from their own ideas and experiences. Each composition is notated and performed for the class, providing an exciting way to showcase their creativity and musical understanding.

I am so proud of the growth in each student, note by note and beat by beat. Be sure to ask your musician what they’re working on in class, and don’t hesitate to reach out if you ever have questions. Thank you for supporting music education at Chelsea!

Welcome to STEM! We are working the red carpet to become independent, confident, and resourceful students. We gather together to go over directions, then students are off to their workstations to collaborate and engineer. At the end of class, we gather back together to reflect and discuss what worked well and what could be redesigned. Students are working towards listening attentively to directions, being safe in the lab, and caring about their peers.

Our first team building challenge was "Don’t Rock the Boat”. Students had to balance shipping containers on the barge without the barge tipping over and all the products tumbling into the ocean. It required teamwork, communication and balance. Students brainstormed, planned, designed, engineered, tested by comparing, and redesigned. Students will follow this design process for all challenges in STEM.

Fifth graders started off the quarter engineering ski jumps that allow a steel skier to jump the farthest distance possible and creating a fun roller coaster with big drops, turns, and loops! Then fifth graders engineered catapults to create a carnival game for all to play. Then they jumped into balloon powered Jet Toy cars to test their speed on 3 different surfaces.

Fourth graders jumped into learning about density and compared object’s density to water density. They also learned about water surface tension and how to make a boat that holds weight. They also tried to create a sailboat that could move with wind in a straight path without tipping over. Fourth graders then did some product testing to see which name brand diaper was the best out there. Huggies is the winner!

Third graders engineered Maglev Cars after learning that sometimes magnets attract and sometimes they repel. They are ready to test them to see how fast the levitating cars can travel. Then third graders started the Air Powered Dragster Race Car. Each of them was given a block of wood to sand an aerodynamic car that will speed across the floor the fastest.

Friday is technology day and that’s so much fun. Students learn to code with Scratch Coding and learn keyboarding skills on Typing Club. Students color code Ozobot robots and fourth graders learn about block coding with Ozoblockly. Fourth graders also learn how to use Makey Makey to create a new kind of controller for game playing. Fifth graders have some additional fun driving and coding Sphero Bots.

“Embrace the mistake!” “Celebrate failure!” “It never gets easier. You only get better.”

Take a minute to read those three quotes and let them sink in. Do they make you feel like you can do anything? These quotes we live by in the art room. When students know it’s okay to fail, make mistakes, and persist through challenges, anything becomes possible!

Our choice-based curriculum allows students to be artists and the classroom to be their studio—a place where they can learn, work, create, and grow like professional artists out in the world. Every day, I see how this approach helps our students grow and improve—day by day, grade by grade, year by year.

Already this year, we have been learning, exploring, creating, thinking, drawing, collaging, painting, sculpting, and so much more! We’ve completed drawing, painting, and collage boot camps and are beginning WOW projects (Wonderful Original Works).

We have so many more amazing things to do! Be sure to ask your Tiger what they are learning and creating in art. Also, don’t forget to follow us on Instagram to see what’s happening in our room.

If you ever have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

A huge thank you to all the families who have so generously donated supplies to the art room. Because of you, our students have an incredible variety of materials to create with. We appreciate all you do to support the arts here at Chelsea!

During the month of September, students in Spanish class learned greetings, introductions, farewells, numbers and the Spanish alphabet. Students have been working on different strategies to learn more vocabulary and practicing their listening skills in Spanish.
From September 15 through October 15, we are observing Hispanic Heritage Month, identifying the 21 Spanish-speaking countries, and recognizing important people and events in Hispanic countries. Students have been brushing up on their coloring skills and color vocabulary to identify the 21 Hispanic countries’ flags.
In the month of October, we will be learning vocabulary for celebrations, foods, weather, clothing, and more. We will be learning about the Mexican celebration of life, Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). We will talk about popular misconceptions regarding this memorial holiday (for example, Day of the Dead is NOT Halloween in Mexico). Please be aware that some students may be sensitive to the topic as we talk about the meaning behind the holiday: it is a time to celebrate the lives and memories of loved ones who have passed away. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out to Mrs. Smerz at gsmerz@fsd157c.org.
Our final day of Quarter 1 will be Friday, October 24. Students in Spanish will be starting STEM on Monday, October 27. Students who had Art Quarter 1 will taking Spanish during Quarter 2.

The 2025-2026 school year is off to a great start, and the social workers at Chelsea have enjoyed welcoming students back to school and supporting their social-emotional needs! October is a busy month for the social work team, as we’re recognizing Anti-Bullying Month, World Mental Health Day, and Red Ribbon Week!

Throughout the school year, all students participate in grade-specific anti-bullying lessons. Taught by the social workers at Chelsea, these lessons are part of the Second Step program and aim to teach students ways to recognize, refuse, and report bullying.

World Mental Health Day is celebrated every year on October 10th. This day serves as an important reminder for everyone to take care of their mental wellbeing – just as they would their physical health. Encouraging children to use positive coping strategies is one way to support their mental health. These may include deep breathing, practicing mindfulness, taking breaks during overwhelming moments, or talking to a trusted adult.

Red Ribbon Week (October 27th – October 31st) is intended to promote healthy lifestyle choices among children and teens while raising awareness about the dangers of drug and alcohol use. This year’s theme is “Life is a Puzzle: Solve it Drug-Free.” Throughout the week, students will have the opportunity to participate in themed spirit days. Additionally, through planned lessons and activities that will be taught within their homeroom and during Tiger Time, students will gain a deeper understanding of the meaning behind Red Ribbon Week.

As a reminder, don’t hesitate to reach out to your child’s grade-specific social worker if you have any questions or concerns! (3rd Grade: Ms. Hannah Michalczak, 4th Grade: Ms. Marisol Juarez, and 5th Grade: Mr. Eric Pistek)