June 4, 2021
Dear Saxe Family,
I hope you had a great week! This week in the Saxe Weekly, we take a look at Science, Math, the Library, some safety reminders, NCPS on “the socials”, Challenges in Art, Emotional Intelligence, Certificates of Gratitude, our Saxe SRO, the Rubik’s Cube Club, a couple of Dogs of Saxe, and much more. Enjoy and have a wonderful weekend!
Be Well,
Dave Gusitsch
Principal, Saxe Middle School
Upcoming Noteworthy Dates:
6/7: Grade 8 Grab and Go Bagel Breakfast – Purple/Blue
6/8: Saxe: Grade 8 Grab and Go Breakfast Red/Green
6/9: 1/2 Day for students, Professional Learning for staff
6/10: Saxe: 8th Grade Class Picnic Red/Green
6/11: Saxe: 8th Grade Class Picnic Red/Green
6/14: 8th Grade Promotion Parade (more details below)
*Quotes that resonated with us this week:
“To make progress you have to learn to be comfortable being uncomfortable” – Unknown
“Everyone should have an opportunity to learn in a positive environment, to enjoy the learning process, and feel comfortable and content within it.” -Barry Saide
“I take a lot of pride in being myself. I’m comfortable with who I am” -James McAvoy
“Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit” – E.E. Cummings
Grade 8 Celebrations
We look forward to our 8th graders finishing their time at Saxe in style! They will be treated to a bagel breakfast early next week, a picnic later in the week, our Promotion Parade on Monday the 14th, the 8th grade celebration on the 16th, and much more! Below are a few details…
Promotion Parade
The event will take place between 9:15 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. on Monday, June 14th. Students will not report to school and families will be “invited” to drive through the route, by team, at the following times:
9:15 a.m. Blue Team
10:05 a.m. Green Team
10:55 a.m. Purple Team
11:45 a.m. Red Team
To avoid backups, please stay within the above listed team timeframe. Thanks for helping this run as smoothly and efficiently as possible!
Please note: the above times have been updated slightly from original messaging to include as many people in the celebration as possible! Detailed information will be sent to 8th-grade families early next week.
Science
Seventh grade science students created their final models to explain what happened in the phenomenon. Students applied the information they learned throughout the unit to show both the macroscopic and microscopic views of what happened inside the human body.
Students participated in a gallery walk to provide feedback to their peers on their final models. Students were asked to write one Glow (positive feedback) and Grow (suggestion for improvement) on each final model.
6th Grade Science students check out their classroom ecosystems by testing oxygen levels, Ph, nitrate levels, & more… The correlation between these levels and the life in each tank was observed and evaluated. Really impressive!
Math
Who says Math review is not exciting?! Ms. Paradise’s students were invigorated, and prepared, for their assessments this week!
Students in Ms. Palazzo’s sixth grade class are currently working on their Statistics and Probability unit. In class, students conducted an experiment to test their reaction times. Working with a partner, students collected data on both of their reaction times over 20 trials and recorded their findings in a spreadsheet. Students will be looking at the data from their experiment to create dot plots and box and whisker plots. They will calculate mean, median, mean absolute deviation and interquartile range to determine the center and spread of their data. Through analyzing these measures, students will determine who had the fastest and who had the most consistent reaction times!
In Mrs. Thompson’s 5th grade class, students are preparing for the end of the year spring trimesters. Using notebooks to review concepts as well as devices to access instructional videos and resources, students chose a study method that meets their individual needs and style.
Saxe Library
It’s been a busy year at the Library! From September to June the Saxe Library delivered over 14,000 books to classrooms around our school. Indeed, this number helps to illustrate that reading is at the core of personal and academic competency as we build and elevate our unique culture of readers at Saxe Middle School. Thanks for all your support throughout the year.
Our final due date for the year is Wednesday, June 9th. Please continue to support the library by returning any materials to our nearest book drops near the main offices. If a book is lost, please contact the main library circulation desk at 594-4529.
Pick Up/Drop Off Reminder
A.M. Drop Off
- Cars may only enter the Farm Road entrance and proceed to the main doors into the Lower Division.
- The South Avenue entrance is closed to cars from 7:00 – 9:00 a.m. each day.
- All students, grade 5 – 8, are to be dropped off in the back of the building at the main doors. All other doors are closed to students.
- Cars are not permitted to enter from South Avenue. No cars may drop off in the front of the school.
P.M. Pick-Up
- Cars must only enter and exit the South Avenue entrance.
- Cars are not permitted to use the Farm Road entrance in the afternoon.
- Students are to be picked up at the main doors in front of the school.
- All students in grades 5 – 8, waiting for pick-up must report to the front of the school.
- No pick-up is allowed at the back of the school by the media center. Please do not park your car and wait in the back lot.
Thank you for helping keep everyone safe!
NCPS on the Socials
New Canaan Public Schools is now on Instagram and Twitter! NCPS is pleased to share that we have launched our Official Instagram and Twitter accounts that will feature important news and updates about our schools and community. Follow us at @NewCanaanPS.
Challenges in Art
Our Challenges in Art Exhibition is now online! Thank you to our students for hanging in there and to Ms. Bennett and Ms. Sailer for keeping the program up and running (via remote) during the school year! Here are just a few samples, but please feel free to check out the video below…
You can watch the entire amazing slideshow here!
Emotional Intelligence
8th grade teachers facilitated a “Stand Up” lesson with students to discuss issues of mean behavior and harassment, and to teach specific strategies that can be used to stand up to unkind behavior and to be allies to others.
Around Saxe
Thank you to George Wang (and, his family) for sharing these wonderfully played pieces of art. Hopefully they will bring you as much joy as they did us!
Solfeggietto by Carl Bach
Sonatas op 49 no2 in G Major by Beethoven
Certificates of Gratitude
One of our favorite moments each month is handing out our Saxe Certificates of Gratitude to members of our learning community who have truly gone above and beyond. These students and staff members have been recognized by a teacher or colleague and I have the honor of thanking them and letting them know they have made Saxe Middle School proud!
Saxe SRO in Action
Our Saxe SRO, Officer Deak, led a discussion today with Mr. Cox’s 8th graders on student First Amendment (free speech), Fourth Amendment (search & seizure), 5th-6th Amendment rights (Miranda rights), & the difference in their rights within school and off-campus. We are grateful for our Saxe SRO!
Rubik‘s Cube Club
Students did an online competition, and the race will continue next week. Big thank you for Grade 5 Luca sharing the beautiful patterns that he created!
Dogs of Saxe
We saw many more of our favorite four-legged friends dropping their humans off at work, but only caught a couple on camera. We will do our best to capture as many as possible for our upcoming final Saxe Weekly! Thank you to everyone who shares the joy of their dogs with us at Saxe each morning.
Have a great week!
* A special thanks to Lauren Sherwood for the continuous stream of positive, optimistic quotes!
Saxe Resources (live links)
Website: https://www.ncps-k12.org/saxe
Saxe Middle School
Celebrating Our Learning Community Through Caring, Communication, & Commitment
The Saxe weekly 
can you send a picture in of your dog?
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Yes, of course! We welcome all Dogs of Saxe even if we don’t see them at dropoff 🙂
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