Team Kathmandu: Week 26

Thur., Mar. 12: REGULAR SCHOOL DAY* (No Student Led Conferences)

Fri., Mar. 13: No School

Mon. Apr. 6: No School

April 13-17: Spring Break

Thurs., June 18: NEW LAST DAY OF SCHOOL*

*Changes due to missed snow/weather days

Congratulations to our Principal’s Honor Roll and Honor Roll Students for Term 2!

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

This week in Geography we have been exploring population growth. Students have been using their vocabulary to read and analyze political cartoons. On Wednesday, students made their own political cartoon about one of our population vocabulary words. Check out some of their messages in the pictures below. On Thursday students took their formative and also mapped MegaCities. Students finished their Megacities mapping on Friday and reviewed for their test on Monday. A study of guide of what to study is in Canvas and has been reviewed with students in class.

Next week in Geography, after their summative on Monday, students will begin our new unit—Unit 6: The Americas. We will explore The Americas through the Five Themes of Geography, political maps, a physical map, and thematic maps in our short week. Students will have their Americas Map Quiz on Tuesday, March 17. All review links will be in Canvas next week, and students should have their maps and thematic maps graphic organizer in their green folder to study.

Two requests for Geography class! We are out of pencils and Kleenex. If possible, please send Kleenex or pencils in for the class to use OR please check with your student that they have a pencil before leaving the house. We have gone through more than 2000 pencils alone in Geography class this year!!!!!

Be sure to check out our GeoNewsletter, written by our own GeoScribes! Follow along and see the class through your students’ eyes! https://secure.smore.com/n/nbc3t

On Orientation Day students shared a song they would like to add to our class playlist. This Spotify playlist can be found here.

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 in Accelerated 6th Grade Math

This week students continued to worked on integer computation and graphing and analyzing coordinate on (and wiithout) a coordinateb grid. This week students will preview and prepare for their RCT Assessment on current concepts. Please encourage your child should take advantage of iRecess (a quiet space to work and get help during recess MWF), our Virtual Classroom (www.framevr.io/brownmath after school help available upon request), and our Parking Lot (an in class means to submit requests, reminders, and questions) which are amongst various resources available to students outside of their normal class periods (and Advisory) to help towards success. Students should see me about any makeup opportunities. and those Students more than 4 lessons behind on iReady assignments (or multiple grade levels behind at MOY testing) are REQUIRED to report to iRecess to complete multiple lessons weekly (Mon/Wed voluntary on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Those not reporting will have the parents contacted to make them aware. Students reporting with receive incentive opportunities. Students and Resources available from Illustrative Mathematics to assist families with the curriculum we are following can be found at https://im.kendallhunt.com/MS/index.html.

This week in 7th Grade

This week students worked on solving two step inequalities and with rational number coefficients. This week students will continue to work on solving two step equations and inequalities
Please encourage your child should take advantage of iRecess (a quiet space to work and get help during recess MWF), our Virtual Classroom (www.framevr.io/brownmath after school help available upon request), and our Parking Lot (an in class means to submit requests, reminders, and questions) which are amongst various resources available to students outside of their normal class periods (and Advisory) to help towards success. Students should see me about any makeup opportunities. and those Students more than 4 lessons behind on iReady assignments are REQUIRED to report to iRecess to complete multiple lessons weekly (Mon/Wed voluntary on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Those not reporting will have the parents contacted to make them aware. Students reporting with receive incentive opportunities. Students and Resources available from Illustrative Mathematics to assist families with the curriculum we are following can be found at https://im.kendallhunt.com/MS/index.html..

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

Hello scientists!

This week, students came back down to Earth and grappled with the three types of heat transfer: convection, conduction, and radiation. They completed a reading, created a comic strip about heat transfer, and conducted a lab about specific heat to explore how much energy it takes to heat different materials. We wrapped up by exploring the phenomena of El Niño.

Next week students will apply these concepts to the ocean and the atmosphere with an ocean currents simulation and a lab about prevailing winds. We will also complete our Amplify Critical Juncture assessment to show student growth partway through the unit.

For one of our labs, we will need straws. If you’re able, please send your student with a package of straws. Compostable or paper straws work well! You can check our Wishlist here > Science's Wishlist

Our root words for next week (Roots 3.6) are:

• gon= having a number of angles (think: polygon, pentagon)

• *semi = half (think: semicolon, semifinal)

• angle = corner, point of view (think: triangle, angular)

• term = end, word (think: terminal, terminology)

• MACRO = LARGE (think: macroscopic, macroorganism)

Keepers: dyn, mis, re/retro, bio, hydro, gram, astro, luna, grav, milli, centi, deci, photo, cirrus, aqua

shanishka.johnson@k12.dc.gov

Ms. Johnson's list SY25-26

Book time to meet with me

This week we returned to The Giver, reading Chapters 14-16. Next week, we will read 17-20. On Friday, some students worked to complete narrative revisions after getting feedback on their work in Class Notebook. Others worked on creating Blackout poems, found poems, and “I am From” poems inspired by the first 2/3 of the book. These serve as examples and perhaps a warm up for the Term 3 Reading Projects due March 27.

Mr. Reichlan also visited each class to tell students more about how Battle of the Books works here at Deal. Meetings and team forming for BOTB does not begin until April, so for now students are just reading these books based on personal interest. Students are not required to participate in Battle of the Books.

Katy Byrns

katy.byrns2@k12.dc.gov

This week we learned about the coordinate plane and learned how to reflect points over both the y-axis and the x-axis. We continued to practice ordering rational numbers on a number line. Next week, we will take our next RCT (Summative Assessment) on Rational Numbers, Coordinate Planes, and Integer Operations and on Thursday 3/12 we will celebrate Pi day!

By Monday March 9th students should have passed 26 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. Pear assignments are opened on Mondays and Wednesdays and due Wednesday and Friday. Please check Pear to see students’ missing assignments.

brandon.shufelt@k12.dc.gov

The National Cherry Blossom Festival, in conjunction with Events DC, presents Blossom Kicks for Kids! We invite young designers residing in the District of Columbia in grades 5-8 to submit unique soccer cleat designs inspired by the National Cherry Blossom Festival springtime celebration. The top selected designs are then transformed into artistic creations on a cleat by the youth artists themselves, culminating in in a special showcase of the designs. Join this vibrant art initiative today!

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

Hello 6th Grade Families! 😊

We’re planning a 6th Grade Career Day and would love parent volunteers to join us! If you’d like to share what you do for work and help students learn about different careers, this is a great chance to get involved. Presentations can be simple, fun, and student friendly. Let me know if you’re interested via email (Tysha.morris@k12.dc.gov) by March 2nd we’d love to have you!

Read the library newsletter for February! Check out great opportunities for reading challenges, using DCPL databases, Black History Month resources, and more at the link below:

https://app.smore.com/n/x3k0a

Thanks,

Stephen Reichlen

Library Media Specialist

Deal MS – DC Public Schools

stephen.reichlen@k12.dc.gov

Deal students will have the opportunity to sign up for our Deal Battle of the Books team in April this year. Until then, they can read the books! They have learned about the program from Mr. Reichlen during ELA library visits. They can borrow physical copies of the 10 books from ELA teachers and the library. They can borrow e-books and audiobooks from SORA and Libby (DC Public Library) or purchase personal copies. More information about the district competition and a list of the books can be found at the following link:

https://dcla.org/DCLA-Battle-of-the-Books

We meet once a month in my room, afterschool.

Learn more here: tinyurl.com/bcy5wea7

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 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.