Team Kathmandu: Week 16

Dec. 22-Jan. 2: No School, Winter Break

Mon. Jan 19: No School, MLK Day

Fri., Jan 23: Last day of Term 2

Mon., Jan 25: No School, Records Day

Congratulations to all Team Kathmandu students who attended our Three Religions Trip on Tuesday. Students represented themselves well and asked great questions and were very participatory! For students that were absent, they should take the virtual trip of the three sites by going to Canvas>Geography>Modules>Virtual 3 Religions Trip. The virtual visit should be submitted at the start of class on Tuesday, 12/16.

This week in Geography we bridged our study of the three Abrahamic religions to Jerusalem. Students were introduced to their summative which is writing an essay with evidence about why and how Jerusalem is a holy space for all three religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In class, students are reading the article, finding textual evidence to use, and writing three CER paragraphs, including a short introduction and conclusion.

Next week students will finish their writing, type their essay, and submit it by Thursday. On Friday of next week we will conclude our unit with a viewing of the video Jerusalem, by National Geographic.

Wednesday CEA Reading and Completion (W104): Ms. Trenkle is hosting students on Wednesdays to read, start, and hopefully finish, their CEA summary during recess. Student should get a pass before going to lunch, so they can return to my room for recess. Shout out to this week’s group—we had a full house of almost 30 students!

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! 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. I will continue to add pics to it throughout the year!

Amy Trenkle

amy.trenkle@k12.dc.gov

Classroom Wishlist

Check out this video Mr. Brown made of our field trip Tuesday. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1af_2Mklv-RbmX_guzOCiFzzhfRd6_aXR/view?usp=drive_link

This week in Accelerated 6th Grade Math

This week continue to work on simplifying expressions and begin working on evaluating expressions containing decimals and fractions as well as the distributive property. This week students will begin evaluating expressions with exponents and writing and solving one step equations. 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 and those behind on iReady assignments are STRONGLY encouraged to complete multiple lessons weekly. 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 Math

This week students worked on working on measuring and calculating circumference and area of circles and shapes containing circles in preparation for upcoming assessments. Students this week will begin interpreting integers. 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.

WEEKLY PARENT/STUDENT MEET UP
Every Monday I will be in the Virtual classroom (link above) from 3:30 to 4:30 for any parent who would like to discuss their child's progress.

Summer Math Acceleration Camp (SMAC) Information Session | December 9

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.

We will hold a virtual meeting on December 9 at 6:30 pm to share information about SMAC and the virtual/asynchronous option for math acceleration this summer. Please join using this link - https://bit.ly/2026SMACINFO

• 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.

Thank you for your support

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

Hello Scientists!

This week students continued their exploration of the Sun, Earth, and Moon system by exploring why we have different moon phases. This tied nicely into our Three Religions field trip to understand why different religions use a lunar calendar. Students also were able to show their knowledge of moon phases during their Oreo lab. Thank you again to everyone for your contributions to this fun activity!

Next week is our last week before our Winter Break. Students will dive into scale and distance in our solar system and will begin exploring direct and indirect sunlight with a lab. This will prepare us to learn about how the tilt of Earth’s axis makes seasons! We’ll wrap up with our Amplify Critical Juncture test and a video before we head off for the break.

Roots Quiz 2.6 (our last before our Roots summative) will happen on Friday 12/19. Students should study the following words:

thermo = heat (think: thermometer, thermos)

eco = house, home (think: ecologist, ecosystem)

omni = all (Latin) (think: omnivore, omnipotent)

lingu = tongue (think: bilingual, linguist)

techno = skill, art (think: technician, technique)

Keepers: inter, peri, multi, equi, geo, vacu, ce

shanishka.johnson@k12.dc.gov

Ms. Johnson's list SY25-26

Book time to meet with me

This week students created their Unit 2 "Ingredients to Success" presentations on Canva. Students will present to their classmates next week. This is a Summative grade, so if your child will be out for break early, please let me know so they can present earlier in the week. Please encourage your students to practice delivering their presentation to you.

Next week, in addition to the presentations, students will take a grammar quiz on pronoun usage and read Matt De La Peña's "How to Transform an Everyday, Ordinary Hoop Court Into a Place of Higher Learning and You at the Podium."

As a reminder, students should be reading at home daily. In addition, students should have a book (same or different from the one at home) that they bring with them to class. Many have fallen out of this habit and so with many reminders, I'm also throwing in a few "do you have your book??" checks which you can see as an Engagement grade in Aspen. If your child has a WS for that, they simply need to remember to bring their book to class in the future. It's very difficult to read a book that is in a locker or on your bed at home. ;)

Our December reading focus is Realistic Fiction (a broad category)! Students may use the subject of their November biography or the protagonist of their Realistic Fiction book to complete Term 2’s reading project.

Katy Byrns

katy.byrns2@k12.dc.gov

Amazon Wishlist

Politics & Prose Wishlist

This week, we began our unit on Algebra by introducing variables, coefficients, expressions, and basic equations. We practiced substituting the variable for known values and solving equations. We also learned what “like terms” are and practiced simplifying expressions by combining like terms.

As a reminder, all students have one iReady lesson due every Monday. By 12/15 students should have passed 15 total 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.

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

International Night-Saturday January 24, 2025

6pm – 8pm

Students and families from all grades are welcome and encouraged to join us for International Night!

This time-honored event brings together the Alice Deal community as we celebrate the many cultures and nations represented among our student body. The event includes "Taste of the Nation" tables where families share sample size offerings of foods from around the world. Wear your dancing shoes - we will have a DJ! And of course, Deal merch will be on sale.

Join us for this festive night of celebration! Buy your tickets here: https://e.givesmart.com/events/KIw/

****International Night is our number one fundraiser for important scholarship dollars for the upcoming 8th grade foreign language trips!

Questions: anastasiakhoo@gmail.com

Last week, families should have received a notice of any library materials that students have checked out from the library this year and are now overdue by 30 days or more. Please return these materials to the Deal library as soon as possible in order to allow other students to borrow these items. I will be away for the week of 12/15-12/19. Please return items to the library in January if the door is locked. Please remind students not to leave library returns in the hallway outside of the library. All materials should be returned to the bin just inside of the library door. Items may also be returned to the main office if the library is locked. I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday break! See you in 2026!

Thanks,

Stephen Reichlen

Library Media Specialist

Deal MS – DC Public Schools

stephen.reichlen@k12.dc.gov

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.

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.