Team Kathmandu: Week 2
September 5, 2025
Save the Date!
Tuesday & Thursday, Sept. 9 & 11: 6th Grade Family Workshop Nights (see below for more info.)
Wednesday, Sept. 17: Back to School Night
Tuesday, Sept. 23: 6th Grade Picture Day
Thursday, Sept. 25: FIRST FIELD TRIP: Sandy Spring Adventure Park
Saturday, Sept. 27: 6th Grade BBQ (11-1 @ Deal)
Thursday, Oct. 9: Parent Teacher Conferences
Friday, Oct. 10: No School, Prof. Development Day for Teachers
Monday, Oct. 13: No School, Indigenous People's Day
Sandy Spring Field Trip
This week students received a letter to take home and a permission slip sharing our upcoming 6th grade Team Kathmandu’s trip to Sandy Spring. The purpose of the trip is for students to get to know each other and to have some team building and bonding time. Team Kathmandu will go on their adventure on Thursday, September 25. We will be gone all school day. Permission slips and money should be turned into Ms. Trenkle; she will collect it during Geography class. Any questions about the trip should be directed to Ms. Gathers, our assistant principal, or Ms. Trenkle.
There are three parts to prepare for this trip:
- Sign and return the permission slip (needed for DCPS) (this is paper only and return to Ms. Trenkle)
- Complete the waiver tinyurl.com/Kathmandu2526 (needed for students to get in a harness)—this is online only.
- Return the $50 (cash, check, or Money Order) (there is not electronic payment location at this time, please turn in only to Ms. Trenkle)
Geography with Ms. Trenkle
We are off and running in Geography! This week students set up their Geography Binders, took their Oceans and Continents Quiz (and received their score back), set up and logged into their Aspen account, and helped to make our giant world map for the classroom!! Phew! We have been busy!
Binders: For Geography, we set them up together and all students will leave their binder in the classroom on their class period shelf. Students may take any papers from their binder at any time and put them in their green folder to take home, to share with parents/guardians, or to study.
First Quiz: Our class averages were outstanding for our first quiz of the year on the oceans and continents. The lowest class average was 93% and the highest was 100%. Way to go! All quiz scores were shared with students the day of the quiz and the scores have also been entered into Aspen.
Giant World Map: Geography class wouldn’t be complete without a world map! Students are helping to create our world map. We will use it as a resource for our class and to share postcards sent to us! Ask your student which tile they made for our map and what three facts they included for their specific map tile!
Next week we will dive into our Geography curriculum with vocabulary and map skills, particularly the use of cardinal directions, using a legend, scale, and longitude and latitude. They will have a formative next week on vocabulary. Students will work on the skills on paper copies in class and can take them home to study and practice.
On Orientation Day students shared a song they would like to add to our class playlist. This Spotify playlist can be found here.
A final request—if you, or anyone you know is traveling, and can send a postcard to our class, or post a picture with description from their travels, it would be greatly appreciated! Please see the adjoining flyer.
Amy Trenkle
Math with Mr. Brown
During this week, students participated in their Beginning of the Year Assessment (BOY) which will determine their Mathematics placement. Students also worked on adding, subtracting, and multiplying decimals.
This week, students will receive their Mathematics placement based on their BOY assessments. Students may receive new schedules depending on their current schedule and placement based on the Math Acceleration Policy (Attached) Students will also work on multiplying and dividing whole numbers, powers of 10, and decimals, as well as converting and simplifying decimals.
Students should take advantage of iRecess, our Virtual Classroom, and our Parking Lot which are resources available to students outside of their normal class periods to help towards success.
On Tuesday /Thursday we will have 6th Grade Family Workshop where we will review the structure of our math program in grade 6.
Marcus Brown
Science with Ms. Johnson
Hello families!
This week students practiced classroom procedures and wrote a letter to their science teacher reflecting on their experiences with science. Next week, after taking the Nature of Science pre-test, students will begin learning about the scientific practices and the scientific method, with a focus on observations and what it means to be a scientist. Later in the week we will learn about independent variables, dependent variables, and controls. Students will participate in an engaging activity involving mystery envelopes. In this activity, they will use their observation skills to identify the contents of the envelopes, creating an interactive and educational experience.
Students should submit the final draft of their Letter to a Science Teacher by Monday, September 8. They will take the Unit 0: Nature of Science pre-test on Monday, 9/8 followed by Roots Quiz #2 on Friday, September 12.
We’re looking forward to a productive and engaging week!
Roots week #2 words:
Meter = measure (Think: thermometer, diameter)
*Cent = 100 (Think: century, percent)
*Graph = write/draw (Think: geography, telegraph)
*Helio = sun (Think: heliocentric, heliographic)
Terre = land (Think: terrestrial, territory, terraform)
Keepers (words from last week that will be on this week’s test): uni, bi, tri
shanishka.johnson@k12.dc.gov
English Language Arts with Ms. Byrns
This week we started our first Common Lit. Unit. In addition to reading about personality traits and how our personalities can change over time, students composed organized paragraphs in response to a prompt.
Next week students will take the beginning of year MAP reading assessment during extended first period classes (Mon & Tues). These scores do not impact student class placement as there is one and only English 6. 😊 Instead, we use these assessments to track progress and identify where additional supports are needed.
In class we will read Hena Khan’s short story “Home” and “The Scholarship Jacket” by Marta Salinas. Our focus for these two texts is the role secondary character players have in influencing the protagonist (main character). We will work on annotating the text and writing literary response paragraphs for each text.
It has been wonderful to see so many students engrossed in their reading. Most students have now finished a graphic novel and are on to the next challenge- a chapter book of their choice. When they finish reading, each student will explain if their book was a window, mirror, or sliding glass door for them.
“Books are sometimes windows, offering views of worlds that may be real or imagined, familiar or strange. These windows are also sliding glass doors, and readers have only to walk through in imagination to become part of whatever world has been created or recreated by the author. When lighting conditions are just right, however, a window can also be a mirror. Literature transforms human experience and reflects it back to us, and in that reflection we can see our own lives and experiences as part of a larger human experience. Reading, then, becomes a means of self-affirmation, and readers often seek their mirrors in books.”
Finally, enjoy four reading recommendations from Summer Reading assignments in the picture to the right. :)
Katy Byrns
Math 6 Resource with Mr. Shufelt
Greetings, Deal families! This week in our resource Math 6 class we spent time getting to know each other, setting expectations, practicing classroom routines, and brainstorming our classroom compact. The students emphasized our class community should be a kind and respectful environment where everyone supports each other.
We’ve just begun our content material, and this week we reviewed addition and subtraction of decimals. Next week students will take the Beginning of Year assessment and we’ll move on to practicing multiplication and division of whole numbers and decimals.
I look forward to continuing to work with the wonderful students on Team Kathmandu!
Brandon.shufelt@k12.dc.gov
Attendance
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.
According to DCPS, the system will go live on September 8. In the interim, students must bring a paper excuse note (tardy and/or absence) to the Welcome Center.
Library Corner with Mr. Reichlan
Meet Deal's librarian Mr. Reichlen! 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/ep68k
Thanks,
Stephen Reichlen
Library Media Specialist
Deal MS – DC Public Schools