2022.5.20 – Saxe Weekly – The Saxe weekly

May 20, 2022

Dear Saxe Family,

This week in the Saxe Weekly, we are excited to share all that went on around our school as we take a look at Physical Education, World Language, some Science VR, Rowing Club, end of year events & dates, a rainbow over Saxe, kinesthetic learning, a birthday, outdoor learning experiences, an amazing Orchestra concert, a terrific Art exhibit, Walk/Ride to School Day, some tropical spirit, some grade 6 spirit, Dogs & Cats of Saxe, and much more. Enjoy and have a wonderful weekend!

Be Well,

Dave Gusitsch

Principal, Saxe Middle School

Upcoming Noteworthy Dates:

5/26 – Incoming Grade 5 Orientation – 6:00pm

5/30 – No School – Happy Memorial Day!

*Quotes that resonated with us this week:

“I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning to sail my ship.” – Louisa May Alcott

“The man on top of the mountain didn’t fall there.” – Vince Lombardi

“Don’t be pushed by your problems, be led by your dreams.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“It took me quite a long time to develop a voice, and now that I have it, I am not going to be silent.” – Madeleine Albright

“Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.”– Soren Kierkegaard

Physical Education

“Belayer(s) ready?”, ” Ready”, “Ready to Climb”, “Climb Away”! Students in Miss Goodman’s PE class are working on getting out of their comfort zone while learning how to put on a harness, be part of the team belay system and climb the rock wall.

World Language

Saxe and the Spanish department is so excited to welcome a student intern from NCHS, Katie Cota. Katie is fluent in Spanish and has taken the AP Spanish and UConn classes offered at the highschool. She is a wealth of information and resources for our students. Katie has dived right in and students are enjoying applying their knowledge to listen to a heritage speaker and respond to her questions. She will be making her way around the various 6th-8th Spanish classes for the next few weeks and it promises to be a memorable experience for our students. We are so lucky to have one of our own former Saxe students return and give back to our community.

Grade 6 Spanish

The 6th Grade Spanish classes have just completed a unit titled, En qué aspectos de la vida observamos la belleza (In What Aspects of Life Do We Observe Beauty). One of our culminating activities was to create our dream house, through which students practiced their new vocabulary about the home and our town/city surroundings.

7th Grade Spanish

The 7th Grade Spanish classes have completed a unit titled, En el restaurante (At the restaurant). These students learned how to describe foods, how to order at restaurants, and how to write reviews about their favorite (and not so favorite) places. One of our culminating activities was creating a script that would take place at a restaurant, which allowed the students to play the roles of both servers and customers. Here are some pictures of their performances:

8th Grade Spanish

8th Grade Spanish has been working on the past tenses, and are wrapping up a unit titled, Mi ninez (My Childhood). The students have presented an oral project called, Una bolsa sobre mi, where they bring in photos and objects that represent different people and events from their childhood. We have enjoyed learning new details about one another’s past activities and interests.

French

The Saxe French Department is pleased and excited to welcome Mia Wells as our student intern. Mia is a Senior who is taking AP French at NCHS. She has a passion for the French language and its culture. Mia is thrilled to be assisting in our 6th-8th grade French classes and collaborating with others. She has begun her 1st week with enthusiasm and energy as she is getting to know our students and offering support to them around the classroom. This is a wonderful opportunity for our French Department and for our French students to have one of our former Saxe students join us for the next few weeks.

Science Workshop

Students in Science Workshop were testing out Virtual Reality applications that connect to the work we are doing in the classroom. Students used the Oculus headset to take a virtual tour of our solar system and learn more about each of the planets. This also allowed them to get a better idea of the size and scale of our solar system. Thank you to Mr. Petrakopoulos for bringing these STEM experiences to 8 Red students!

Saxe After School Rowing Club

The Saxe middle school rowers went down to the NCHS boathouse on the Norwalk River this last Saturday. They had a chance to row in the barge and experience the fun of rowing on the water instead of on their rowing machines at school. They plan on making one more visit to the boathouse in June.

John Grosghal, Erica Ma and Ollie Forrest are pictured with Coach Hank Ellett. Also rowing were Dan Sabo and Stef Kromidas.

2021-22 to 2022-23

We look forward to welcoming our “newest members” to the Saxe community!. For anyone with a 4th-grade student, lease feel free to check out all of the details in the “Grade 4 to 5 Welcome Letter“.

8th-Grade Important Dates

6th-grade Spirit

Our 6th-grade students are “all in” when it comes to spirt as they celebrate the last couple of dozen school days in style with an A-Z countdown! Here are a few pics from “Fancy Day” and “Game Day”.

Tweet Street

Below are photos and phrases that were included on our Saxe middle school Twitter page (@SaxeMS) this week. Enjoy!

Cool shot captured over @SaxeMS this week! (photo credit: C. Crabill – great shot & thank you!)

Some kinesthetic learning taking place to start the day today – beautiful morning!

Love hearing a parent yell, “it’s their birthday!” at morning drop off… Hope it was a great day, Julianna!

Thanks to our Saxe PTC for supporting this order of tables for this school year. A couple have been relocated to the recess area and were immediately welcomed by our students!

So proud of our Grade 5 Student Leadership Team who are in the throws of planning our upcoming transition events! Incoming 4th graders…we’re excited to meet you next week!

Great to have a packed house again! Good luck to all in this evening’s orchestra concert!

The 5th-graders did an amazing job, congrats! Now, it’s the 6th-graders time to shine!

Some amazing art on display to accompany the orchestra concert! Good luck and congrats to all!

Thanks to Mr. Whitlock for running the operation in the Saxe auditorium! Always top notch!

8th-grade wraps the evening with some music from “Encanto”! Bravo to all involved and thanks to all who came out to enjoy this wonderful concert!

Thanks to the NCHS students who joined our Saxe orchestra this evening! What a special treat and thank you for serving as such positive role models for our students!

The fog is burning off and the sun is peeking through… Should be a great morning for the Saxe & South School Walk/Ride to School Day! Look forward to seeing the students and families start their day with a nice, healthy community event!