Hi All,

Come one, Come All, it's our Traditional Marine Biology Fundraiser at Lloyd Center Applebees On Saturday, the 26th of January from 8 to 10 am!

8th grade students from SES will be serving an all you can eat breakfast! (yes, that's right, our 8th graders are going to serve YOU!)

Tickets are $10  each and SES gets 5 dollars of it. Our goal is EACH class sell 100 tickets - 

That means about 3 tickets per student!  -

It would be best for students to collect the money first and turn it in, then I can send the tickets home with them..Once I sign tickets out to students, they are responsible for getting them to the right party and NOT LOOSING THEM! The tickets are as good as money!

However, if students take responsibility for the tickets - say they want to go door to door in your neighborhood, or take them to your favorite holiday party to sell to friends, then I'll sign specific tickets out to your child.

Don’t delay! Buy early! Make it a stocking stuffer for your favorite Auntie, buy one for your soccer buddies (I've heard that they can eat a lot!), or invite your book group out for Saturday breakfast! The ideas are endless, and know you are supporting wonderful, educational, memorable marine biology trips. 

If you would like to make a donation and sleep in on Saturday, we think that sounds like a great idea too! Or if Grandma lives far away but just wants to support you, yeah!

This is a fun community event-invite your friends and the whole family! It's not every day that 8th graders dote over you on an early Saturday morn :)  

Thanks for all of your support!

Cori and SES team

Forest Festival!

Hello Families,
Time flies when your working hard! We have been preparing the classroom for the forest festival where all our learning will be on display. This is a wonderful opportunity to come see all the classrooms and our wonderfully diverse curriculum. It is a time for celebration of our amazing young people who are growing up! (they might tell you they don't want to go and don't want you to go...they are pubescent...I encourage you to come anyway!)

On another note: We drew names for Secret Snowflake today, it's a Sunnyside tradition up in the middle school to show our love and thoughtfulness to each other by bringing in a small wrapped secret present each day of the week for their secret snowflake. Please do not spend more than $5 on any one gift. We had lots of great ideas: gently used favorite book, a great handmade card or picture made by kids, a candy bar!, $2.50 gift card for a slice of pizza or to cosmic, handmade something or other (hat, burned CD of fun music...) you get the idea. If all else fails - candy. So each day we will find many little presents in our classroom for each student. If you forget a day, bring 2 the next, but remember to leave your snowflake an IOU...

The quote of the week "You have Puberty Brains!" - Our lovely lovely students cannot remember their own names these days. Thank you so much for the support at home to keep them moving in a forward motion. Next week we have Math/Spanish/Studio daily (actually until Spring Break), Mini-classes on Tues/Thurs and Late Opening on Wednesday. Then we are off for Winter Break!!!

A heads up about vacation - I believe in a break when we get one. I do not assign homework or projects over break. The only think I ask is that kids read, preferably 1 whole novel at least. I will be out of the country for the entire break and will not be reachable, so ask me your questions now! I'm taking my son to southern México to visit family.  I'll come back with great stories about our time spent at Chichen Itza for the Mayan New Year.

Take Care and I look forward to seeing you at the Forest Festival!
Cori

November 30th

¡Saludos Familias!

We have made it through a week of many many lessons, topics and activities...along with quite a few sicknesses! If your child was out this week, please support them in getting caught up. I prefer that they work on what's due now and try to catch up bit by bit on the absent work. That way they can fully participate in lessons of the day!

I apologize for not updating the blog this week - I have been busy! There is a lot going on at school right now and I'll do my best to get you up to speed.

Class work/projects:

1. Writing - Metamorphosis working draft - preferably typed, double space, 12pt font. - should have character development edits worked in. (due mon)

2. Reading - Personal Choice Novel #3 (read up to 3rd section, 35 word synopsis and 1 journal question entry - 1 full page total) (due mon)

3. Core 

     - Animal Adaptations - Synthesis questions & graph (mon)

     - 3D Project - Project & write up -(due Thurs) = please support your child in going deeper, find out more about their topic, make project interactive, write meaningful information etc. It is VERY important that they are complete on Thursday. They will be on display and graded on Friday at Forest Festival.

SERVICE PROJECTS

6th - Home service project (done in friendship) - (due Mon)

7th - By winter break should have solid idea of what their project is (check in with me and Karen)

8th - Working in Cohorts developing projects weekly....check in with your child, they are all in different stages.

SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES

 Forest Festival - Please join us on Fri Dec 7th 5-8.

This is a culmination of all our hard work! Students will be hosting in classrooms, serving delicious lasagna dinner, telling stories at the "fire side", running craft rooms such as animal face painting, mask making and more! Please encourage your child to participate and you too!

Ways to serve:

1. Make a lasagna for the dinner - please email amy/rebecca to let them know you are making one and what kind (students earn hours for making it!)

2. Earn all 3 hours - sign up for shifts next week!

- hosting in our classroom (showing 3D projects, playing or performing yours, keeping

   things tidy, telling people about things we've done this fall etc.)

- serve/bus in cafeteria

- work in one of the classrooms

- tell your metamorphosis or other stories written by you at the "campfire" (really cool

  fake one at the end of the hall)

- help out in the craft rooms

- present forest poems at the sing along

Wow, I hope this is enough for you for this weekend! I will do my best to keep homework down next week so students may fully engage in their 3D project and complete their really cool metamorphosis stories!

I am looking forward to meeting with you all next week.  If you haven't signed up for a conference time yet, please do so...or contact me about an alternate time.  Students were sent home with a little homework assignment for you -- a series of questions to think about before attending your conference.  I have attached a copy of it to this email in case the copy meant for you got lost in the middle school fray.  Here's the link again for the conference schedule http://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E0844A4AC22A20-2012

Students have been assigned a project that will be displayed at the Forest Festival on December 7.  They turned in their plans for their projects yesterday and I came in to meet with them about it.  Everyone has a solid idea of what they want to work on and how they are going to display it.  Their goal is to highlight a SECRET of the forest.  The 'little people' have been revealing the SECRETS to us this fall -- each letter represents a concept important to forest ecology.  Here is a link to the google doc that explains the projects  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zSdOQArzDEq_9SJMBt9Zw8qr1V6bJfot0NH_sbMWHH8/edit

It is due December 6.  So students have plenty of time to make extraordinary projects.  I encouraged students to challenge themselves with the content and with their design/construction. Please read over the assignment and brainstorm ideas with them. Challenge them to go beyond "the food chain"! Please let me know if questions or needed help arise as these projects come to fruition. 

In addition, we will start a student choice novel assignment as we return on the 26th. Please have your child have a book on Monday, it should be one that they can successfully complete between the Nov 26th and Dec 14th. Of course they can read more than just one book in that time, (I know we have some voracious readers amongst us!)