Team Chefchaouen

Ms. Stacey Gathers, 6th Grade Assistant Principal: Stacey.Gathers@k12.dc.gov

Mr. Marcus Brown, Math 6 and 7: marcus.brown@k12.dc.gov

Ms. Katlyn Clark, Multi Language Learning Specialist: katlyn.clark@k12.dc.gov

Mrs. Alease Medlock, Special Education: alease.medlock@k12.dc.gov

Ms. Ellie Sagan, Science: Ellie.Sagan@k12.dc.gov

Ms. Trenkle, World Geography and Cultures: Amy.Trenkle@k12.dc.gov

Please send notes to the attendance office when a child is absent. Emails should be sent to dealattendance@k12.dc.gov . Thank you for your support!!

Hello all, and welcome to 6th grade and Team Chefchaouen! We’re thrilled to have your child on our team, and we look forward to spending a fantastic year of learning together. This newsletter will be your guide to upcoming activities, important dates and assignments, special announcements, and more.

All Deal students are expected to be in class and ready to learn promptly at 8:45 AM daily. To help build strong, healthy habits and ensure that students do not miss instructional time, the 6th grade team is assigning tardy hall to students who arrive to school after 9 AM without an excuse or who have established a pattern of late arrivals that are resulting in lost learning time. Students who are assigned tardy hall will stay after school with Ms. Watson, 6th grade dean, until 4:15 PM.

Parents and guardians, please check with your student to review the contents of the red folder and their agenda. We use both in 6th grade to keep track of assignments, study materials, and due dates. Please set aside dedicated time once or twice a week, with your student, to review this folder and clean it out as necessary. It is a great way to hear what your student is learning about and to plan for daily and upcoming activities and assignments. We are actively working to build strong routines now that will help your student be set for success in middle school and in life.

• Wednesday, May 22nd: SAAM Reception (info under the geography section)
  
• Friday, May 24th: International Museum Day at Deal
• Monday, May 27th: Memorial Day, No School
  
• Friday, May 31st: Embassy Adoption Program Mini UN
• Tuesday, June 4th: No School
• Friday, June 7th: German Embassy VEP (info under geography section)
• Monday, June 17th: Last Day of School

This has been a very full and productive week! This week in Geography students have been working on their project for our International Museum. All students are researching a topic, and four subtopics, about an aspect of German Culture (because Germany is our Embassy Adoption Partner). In class students have: Chosen their topic and subtopics, researched their topic using at least three different sources—citing, annotating the source, and taking notes!, and chosen their format. Each of these steps have been checked by me along the way. Please ask to see your child’s packet with directions and sheets on it. Their format was approved with my initials in pink, their topic approved by me in blue, they should have their planning sheets signed off in green, and their formative grade for ONE of their notes in orange. Students will have Monday and Tuesday to work in class, but projects are due at the start of class on Wednesday! Students should be finished with their research today (Friday). They should get any materials needed this weekend and work on their project!

Due to the Museum project due date, there will be NO CEA next week.

I am in the process of inputting Unit 6 summative grades, flipgrid grades, and NPG grades. I hope to have these updated in full by Monday.

Please support our 8th grade community project students! Hello, we are a group of 8th grade students working on our Deal IB Community Project and are looking for non-perishable food items. We plan to donate this food to an organization called Capital Area Food Bank which distributes food all over Washington D.C. to those in need; such as people suffering from homelessness and those without jobs. Feel free to drop off food at your homeroom classroom from 5/17/24 through 5/21/24 to help our cause. Thank you very much!

All Team Chefchaouen students, parents, guardians, family, and community are invited to celebrate the creativity and partnership with the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Students will have a reading of selected pieces and then enjoy an after hours reception in the Courtyard at SAAM with their peers. An e-book of all students’ writing will be shared (revealed!) at the reception!

I am thrilled to share that all of the students who volunteered to read will be able to! Our student readers are: Violet A., Sathvik DG, Orla V, Sebastian GL, Luke R., Iris C., Lenox S., Tristan E., Tucker G., Luke T., and Zippy S. Students readers will need to arrive to the museum by 4:30 pm on 5/22 (please note that this time is 30 minutes EARLIER than previously stated!).

As part of the Embassy Adoption Program, we will participate in a United Nations mini sim about natural disasters at the Ronald Reagan Building on Friday, May 31. This will be a field trip that will take place during the school day. The delegates representing Germany are:

• Eden I.

• Luke T.

• Rebecca H.

• Hannah F.

• Iris C.

• Ben CR

Students will join Ms. Trenkle and someone from the German Embassy for lunch the week of May 13 to learn more about Germany’s natural disaster preparations. Students should bring their lunch to Ms. Trenkle and they will receive information to prepare, including a letter home and a permission slip!

Save the date! Parents and community are invited! Students will be introduced to the project by Friday, May 10. Come see what students will have researched and illustrated about German geography and culture!

Thirty students will visit the German Embassy on Friday, June 7, from 9 am to noon, to celebrate our Virtual Exchange Program with our Berlin School partners. Students will have a final virtual exchange in the Embassy and then enjoy a tour of the Embassy!

I’ve created an Amazon wishlist of supplies for our classroom. Any donations support all students on Team Chefchaouen in our daily activities. Thank you in advance for your continued support! https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/FKRNR7Q6JU6?ref_=wl_share Thank you for kind and generous gifts that have been sent—they are already being put to use!!!

Math 6

This week Math 6 students compared and organized fractions. This week students will discuss solving problems involving percent increase and decrease, analyzing quadrilaterals and triangles, and integer operations as well as begin reviewing concepts in preparation for their EOY Assessment.

Math 7

This week Math 7 students solve two step equations with variables on both sides and working on the concept of probability This week students will begin reviewing the concepts of percent increase and integer operation in preparation for their EOY Assessment.

To ensure that all students are on the same page, students are asked to have completed 32 iReady Lessons by Monday, May 20, and have passed one iReady Lesson every week thereafter. Students should complete iReady Assigned Lessons unless Teacher has assigned specific topics. Any issues should be reported immediately.

In an attempt to provide extended help outside of the classroom I am making the Virtual Classroom available after school from Monday – Wednesday 6pm to 8pm for students to take additional notes and get extra help from the teacher with the following scheduled days: Mondays –Math 6, Tuesdays –Math 7, Wednesdays –Both. Students will be supervised while in the Virtual Classroom during these sessions and the Virtual Spaces will remain closed during all other hours unless announced otherwise, as students are not permitted to be in the virtual spaces during school hours nor unsupervised.

iRecess is an opportunity for students to have a designated safe space to work on Math HW, Classwork, and Makeup Work, as well as work from of the content areas. Due to the fact that students have been disruptive in the hallways in transitioning from recess, students will have to get a “iRecess pass” prior to lunch in order to attend. There will also be a 15 person limit to attendees where “iRecess Passes” will be returned. If not returned, then the attendee limit with be adjusted according to the available number of “iRecess Passes”

REMINDER - When Mr. Brown is not present, i-Recess is cancelled.

Congratulations on a fantastic project week, scientists! You all made some incredible Space Trash Cleanup Machines, and I was thrilled to see your engineering skills at work. Any presentations that did not happen this week will take place on Monday, so thank you all for your participation.

Next week we will work on discussions of correlation vs. causation and Carbon footprints. This will lead into our Carbon Footprint Formative on Wednesday, where students will reflect on the concrete steps that can be taken to reduce their carbon footprints. We will finish off the week with our Roots Summative on Friday, May 24th.

Our Roots Summative will be on Friday, May 24th. To ensure that students are prepared, we will be having a study day on Thursday, May 23rd to review. Students will be given paper copies of the study guide in class, but there are copies on Canvas for those who lose theirs/forget theirs. The Blooket links have been posted as well under Canvas -> Science -> Modules -> Roots Q4.

Blooket is a fantastic tool that helps students learn the materials in a series of flashcards mini games. I highly recommend that students make an account - they are free and are a fantastic study resource. Once students make an account, they can click on the links in Canvas . Once they click on the assignment, a gray box will pop up, since Canvas cannot host Blooket games. Please tell your children to click the name of the Blooket (above the gray box) to be redirected to the website. Happy Studying!

My wishlist link should hopefully be working again! Thank you to everyone who has donated - I truly appreciate your thoughtfulness ❤️

https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/dl/invite/0R5ZjVv?ref_=wl_share

Please ensure that your students are working on their systems of organization!

As a reminder, CAPE testing and makeup testing has been going on for some students for almost a month. For some of our MLL students, testing began early. This may have caused them to miss some classes at the beginning of the day. Please feel free to reach out to teachers on our team if your student feels behind if they happened to miss a class, or encourage them to discuss it with their teachers at school. Students who test individually will continue testing next week. .

Want to support my classroom? My amazon wishlist is below!

https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/6RAHMLS3MUIO?ref_=wl_share

Don't miss out on information and resources from the Deal MS Library! Read the library newsletter! The latest edition features reading recommendations, reading lists, and more!

https://www.smore.com/vzaqf2

Each month our school community celebrates one of our IB Learner Traits. The team teachers discuss who to nominate and chooses two students from our Team Chefchaouen students who have demonstrated this characteristic in all of our classes. Stay tuned as we continue to celebrate all year!

Each month our school community celebrates one of our IB Learner Traits. The team teachers discuss who to nominate and chooses two students from our Team Chefchaouen students who have demonstrated this characteristic in all of our classes. Stay tuned as we continue to celebrate all year, and make sure to shout out our past learners!

April students of the month, Shar Bradley and Carl Seidelin, are open minded!! The IB Learner Profile states that open-minded students “critically appreciate (their) own cultures and personal histories, as well as the values and traditions of others. (They) seek and evaluate a range of points of view, and are willing to grow from the experience.” Congratulations, Chaouens!

Congratulations to Team Chefchaouen’s IB Learner Profile Students of the month: Antonio Harrison and Eldana Getahun. This month we are featuring Balanced learners. Balanced learners understand the importance of intellectual, physical, and emotional balance to achieve personal well-being for themselves and others. They are able to assess and understand their strengths and limitations in order to support their learning and personal development.

Congratulations to Orla Ventresca and Pedro Braga who are recognized as Team Chefchaouen's Thinkers for the month of February IB Learner Profiles. Thinkers are people who exercise initiative in applying thinking skills critically and creatively. They recognize and approach complex problems, and make reasoned, ethical decisions.

For the month of January, we celebrate the IB Learning trait of Reflective and recognize Jack Maciocha and Sarem Dawit. Students who are REFLECTIVE know what they are good at and what they’re not. They try to think about these things, and they make changes where they can. They give thoughtful consideration to their own learning and consider their personal strengths and weaknesses in a constructive manner.

For the month of December, we celebrate the IB Learning trait of Knowledgeable and recognize Sathvik Dutta-Gupta and Violet Anello. Knowledgeable learners explore concepts, ideas and issues that have local and global significance. In doing so, they acquire in-depth knowledge and develop understanding across a broad and balanced range of disciplines.

Congratulations to Kayla Perez-Sandoval and Jesse Poehlman for being selected as Team Chefchaouen's Caring students for the month of November! Students who are CARING want people around them to be happy and are sensitive to their needs. They think about the world and work to take care of their community and the environment. They remember to treat others how they themselves would like to be treated.

Congratulations to Tristan Evans and Iris Campbell for being selected as Team Chefchaouen's Inquirer students for the Month of October! Inquirers nurture curiosity, developing skills for inquiry and research. They know how to learn independently and with others. They learn with enthusiasm and sustain their love of learning throughout life.

Congratulations to Wyatt Hartig and Samayah Stephens for being selected as Team Chefchaouen's Risk Taker students for the Month of September! This means students exhibit the IB learner profile of a student who approaches uncertainty with forethoughts and determination; Risk-takers work independently and cooperatively to explore new ideas and innovative strategies. Risk-Takers are resourceful and resilient in the face of challenges and change.

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