Team Kathmandu: Week 8

🟠Wednesday, Oct. 22: Unit Day, Wear Orange

💓Friday, Oct. 24: Breast Cancer Awareness Day, Wear Pink

⏰Friday, Oct. 31: Last Day of Term 1, last day to submit work

✌🏻Monday, Nov. 3: No School for students (records day)

📷Friday, Nov. 7: Picture Day Make-Ups

✌🏻Tuesday, Nov. 11: No School, Veterans Day

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.

This week in Geography we began Unit 2: Sub Saharan Africa (SSA). Our first stop was to learn the Five Themes of Geography since we will use the 5 themes to explore each unit. On Friday, we started to study the political and physical geography of this region, as well as adding five key words to our vocabulary. Students will have a quiz on this on Thursday, 10/23. All links for studying are in Canvas—this includes the thematic maps, links to practice maps, and a Nearpod with the vocabulary. We will also review in class on 10/22.

The CEA (Current Events Analysis) is our ongoing homework. Templates are provided on Monday and a soft copy of the template and article can be found in Canvas on Sunday before the week starts. It is due on Friday and will be accepted on Monday for 80% credit. Students just turned in CEA #3 on 10/17 and CEA #4 is due on 10/24.

As we are having a map quiz, I wanted to share some tips on how to study for these quizzes. On Friday, in class I will message that students should study for their quiz 10-15 minutes per night. Unlike elementary school, students will need to start to budget time to review notes or practice material to provide opportunities and time for the material “to stick.” Recommended ways to engage with the material for Geography:

• make flashcards for the vocabulary and have a family member quiz students

• practice the Seterra map links in Canvas

• have students pick up extra blank maps from class and practice filling them out at home, checked by themselves and/or family members.

On Thursday in class students received a permission slip for an upcoming Geography and Science field trip to the National Museum of Natural History. Students should return the signed permission slip to Ms. Trenkle during Geography class. If the government doesn’t reopen, we will not have the trip and will have a regular day of school. Fingers crossed! A soft copy of the letter and permission slip are attached here.

We have finally finished our giant map and started to post the amazing postcards we have received on our map! We have had a great time reading postcards sent to us by so many family, friends, and YOU! Thanks for sending us postcards and keep them coming!!!!

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:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7nWMWui4YoJ5WUxe9zqWIY?si=hV7LhQaNSu2SzPI6k58-QQ

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.

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

https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B1gGmitydG4Qz1l I will continue to add pics to it throughout the year!

Amy Trenkle

amy.trenkle@k12.dc.gov

Classroom Wishlist

This week in Accelerated 6th Grade Math

This week, students worked on This week students will take assessments on our current concepts and will begin working on equivalent ratios. It is imperative that students continue to master and strengthen their basic multiplication facts. This week This week students will use diagrams to explain speed and find unit price Students 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. 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 calculating percent given various factors. Students this week will continue to work on calculating percent increase and decrease in real world settings. Please converse with students about the following terms and where they can be seen in their day-to-day lives: discount, markdown, mark-up, tips, commission, and sales tax. As we will be discussing percent, percent increase and decrease in upcoming lessons. Please encourage your child to 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) and all resources available to students outside of their normal class periods to help towards success. Students should see me about any makeup opportunities. 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.

Thank you for your support

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

Hello Scientists!

I hope you enjoyed the long weekend and had a chance to spend some time outdoors!

This short week, students prepared for and completed their Term 1 Roots summative assessment. We now have a few weeks without roots instruction—Term 2 Roots will begin in November.

To wrap up the week, students engaged in a Gizmo simulation focused on tectonic plate boundaries.

Looking ahead to next week in science: Students will prepare for their Plate Motion summative assessment, scheduled for Wednesday, October 22. Preparation will include completing the Amplify post-test and reviewing key plate motion concepts.

Students will receive paper study guides and can also review using the Blooket posted on Canvas, an online quiz game designed to reinforce learning.

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

shanishka.johnson@k12.dc.gov

Ms. Johnson's list SY25-26

Book time to meet with me

After working on theme and reviewing how to structure literary analysis paragraphs, students took their second summative assessment. The multiple-choice reading comprehension questions were scored as a PA (practice & application) grade. This grade is in Aspen now. If your child earned less than 75%, they are welcome to join me during lunch recess on Tuesday and/or Thursday to complete test corrections. We will work together to better understand the mistakes made. With this work, students can earn up to a 79% to replace their original grade.

Today (Friday) students completed the writing portion of the assessment which is graded as a Summative Assessment. Those scores will be in Aspen by Monday afternoon.

Next week, students will have time in class Monday to reflect on the many texts we read over Unit 1 and prepare their answers for next Friday’s Socratic Seminar Unit 1 discussion. Mid-week we will get to do something a bit different as students work with partners to analyze short movie clips and learn about 4 different character archetypes and how they impact the protagonist and plot.

We have more very creative Term 1 reading projects. If your student rather complete a digital option, they can include all the same information on a PPT/Canva/Google slide. If you are able to print at home, that would help my ink reserves here in the classroom. 😉

Katy Byrns

katy.byrns2@k12.dc.gov

Amazon Wishlist

Politics & Prose Wishlist

This week we began our investigation into ratios with diagrams and real world applications. Next week we will continue with equivalent ratios and use tables and double number lines to explore ratios and solve problems. We also completed our Fruit Salad assessment this week.

As a reminder, all students have one iReady lesson due every Monday. By 10/20 students should have passed 7 total iReady lessons. Please reach out to me if there is any issue with students completing the iReady lessons at home. Pear assignments are opened on Mondays and Wednesdays and due Wednesday and Friday.

Please note that I’ve also uploaded a document for all the notes for our first unit to the class Canvas page and I will continue to periodically upload future notes as we progress.

brandon.shufelt@k12.dc.gov

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.

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.

Is your child looking to meet some new friends? Or maybe they just want to join an afterschool activity. You can find the current list of Deal Clubs in the document below.

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.

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

Stephen Reichlen

Library Media Specialist

Deal MS – DC Public Schools

stephen.reichlen@k12.dc.gov

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.