September 16, 2022
Dear Saxe Family,
It has been another great at Saxe Middle School and we have much to be grateful for. This week in the Saxe Weekly, we take a look at Social Studies, School Counseling, Mandarin, 5th-grade Open House, 6th-grade lunch, Saxe Spirit, School photo day, club & extracurricular activities, The Dome, PTC Welcome Back Coffee, STEM, ELA, Math, a visit from a bald eagle, EI, Science, Art, recess, outdoor learning, dogs of Saxe, and much more. Enjoy and have a wonderful weekend!
Be Well,
Dave Gusitsch
Principal, Saxe Middle School
Upcoming Noteworthy Dates:
9/20 Grade 5 Open House (6:00 p.m.)
9/22 5th Grade Fun Run
9/23 Spirit Day – Red and Black Day
*Quotes that resonated with us this week:
“I never wake up in the morning and wonder why I am here. I wake up and wonder why I am not making here better.” – Jeffrey Fry
“You never really learn much from hearing yourself speak.” ― George Clooney
“Don’t sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them.” – Madam C.J Walker
“If you have an opportunity to make things better and you don’t, then you are wasting your time on Earth.” – Roberto Clemente
“We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone.” – Ronald Reagan
Grade 5 Social Studies
Happy Constitution and Citizenship Day to all! In our launch to social studies this year, 5th graders are learning about our state government and the role of the CT Kid Governor. Students are currently researching issues that matter to them and preparing platforms. Interested students will use the platforms to run in a primary to be the Saxe CT Kid Governor nominee. Regardless of running or not we are so proud of all the wonderful ideas and solutions this group has! Here are a few pictures of these hard-working 5th graders.
CT Kid Governor is an award-winning statewide civics program created by The Connecticut Democracy Center.
School Counseling
School Counselors spent the last few weeks getting to know their students. Pictured here are Mrs.Nettleton (left) and Mrs. Beltran (right) asking students to guess “Who is Who” from the school counselors’ own middle school photos!
Mr. Lepisto shares his own family story, including a daughter going off to college this year!
Mandarin
7th graders celebrated The Mid-Autumn Festival also known as the Moon Festival. Mid-Autumn Festival(Zhongqiu Jie 中秋节), is the second most important festival in China after Lunar New Year. Mid-Autumn Festival is a celebration of the rice harvest and many fruits. Ceremonies are held both to give thanks for the harvest and to encourage the harvest-giving light to return again in the coming year. It is also a reunion time for families, a little like Thanksgiving. Chinese people celebrate it by gathering for dinners, worshiping the moon, lighting paper lanterns, eating mooncakes, etc.
Grade-Level Info
5th-grade Open House
Please see the note below that went out to 5th-grade families in preparation for our first Open House, next Tuesday:
Good afternoon and Happy Friday 5th Grade Families,
We have made it through the first three weeks and our fifth graders have done a wonderful job transitioning to Saxe!
Next week we are looking forward to welcoming you to Open House. Open House will be held on Tuesday, 9/20, starting at 6pm, with our official welcome beginning at 6:15. Attached to this message is the schedule for the evening.
Please be sure to watch Mr. Gusitsch’s welcome video for the evening here:https://youtu.be/ig2n1EJ07Wc
Another exciting event next week will be our Fun Run. The Fun Run is a 5th grade bonding event with a rotation of activities. Please look for a shirt to come home with your child next week to wear at the event on Thursday, 9/22 from 2:10-3:45pm (rain date 9/29).
We’re looking forward to welcoming you into Saxe next week for Open House and to celebrating a successful start to the school year with our Fun Run!
6th-grade Lunch
Our 6th-graders are doing a great job getting acclimated during lunch in the cafeteria this year. Please review the cafeteria calendar below that shows which Team is called first in the lunch line each day. This rotation also allows students to transition to recess more efficiently.
Helpful Tip for all grade-levels: Please remind students to bring their Student ID badge if buying lunch as this helps the line move more quickly.
Saxe Spirit
Saxe Spirit Day is Next Friday! Please join us next Friday, September 23rd in celebrating our First Spirit Day by wearing Red and Black!
School Photo Days
School Photo Days are right around the corner. 🍂 For Grades 5 & 6, photo day will be held on September 28th and for Grades 7 & 8, September 29th. You should be receiving an email from Legacy Studios in the next few days about how to order photos online. And we will be sending information home as we get closer to the photo day. Stay tuned for more!
Saxe Club Information
Saxe Clubs will run a little differently this year than in the past due to the changes in School Start Times.
| School Day | Clubs | |
| Upper Division | 8:00 – 2:30 | 2:45 – 3:45 |
| Lower Division | 9:15 – 3:45 | 8:15 – 9:00 |
Lower Division Clubs will run 45 minutes and Upper Division Clubs will be one hour. There will be a late bus available for students in Grades 7 & 8 at 4:00 pm. Parents will have to provide transportation in the morning for students in Grade 5 & 6 who would like to participate. We will be gathering information on what clubs teachers would like to offer during the upcoming week and plan to have clubs begin the second week of October. Please be on the lookout in early October for an email with directions on signing up.
The Dome
Tweet Street
Below are photos and phrases that were included on our Saxe middle school Twitter page (@SaxeMS) this week. Enjoy!
Welcome back coffee at Waveny Castle. Amazing turnout. Thanks to our Saxe PTC and all of our parents who came out today!
Principal Gusitsch provides valuable information and connects with parents through personal experiences.
If you would like to see the slides that include the message from Mr. Gusitsch, you are welcome to do so, here. The videos that were referenced may also be accessed below. Enjoy!
Inspirational Video- Be a Mr. Jensen: https://youtu.be/4p5286T_kn0
2,421,445 views May 4, 2017
‘Cat Herders’: https://youtu.be/m_MaJDK3VNE
2,958,660 views
Big news for local NDFootball fans at Saxe today as Drew Pyne was recently named the starting QB for the Irish. We even had a custom Drew Pyne jersey – these hometown fans are pumped!
6th Grade STEM Robotics Workshop is underway! Students are creating 3D name tags using @Tinkercad and building robots with @VEXRobotics kits in the Design Lab
Saxe ELA teachers using Design Thinking strategies in their team meetings.
Sunny days = full bike racks! Love seeing our students “commuting” to school in this healthy manner!
Saxe is excited about the NCHS Dome project. It will be a great resource for our entire community – thanks to all involved!
Saxe students participating in Ms. Hubbard’s integer activity to reinforce some necessary skills and recent learning!
Students in Ms. Nelson’s Social Studies class are eager to share their responses for the timeline discussion…
Nice collaborative approach in Ms. Taylor’s ELA class. Students were engaged in some meaningful discussion as they moved about the room…
We see some neat things around Saxe, but this was a first for me! We had a surprise visit from the real-life mascot of our friends at East School. What a majestic sight seeing this bald eagle circling our campus! (click to see video)…
Our 5th graders are working on self awareness and determining the strategies that work best for them when having a big emotion! Red- angry, Blue- sad, Green- worried, Yellow- fidgety/busy body!
Beautiful morning for a “bounceability lab” outside at Saxe.
Seen in Ms. Johnson’s 8th grade learning center. #growthmindset
Some impressive “name art” in Ms. Iwanski’s Art class!
More progress on the walkway & patio out in the front of Saxe to create a warm, welcome environment and another area for some outdoor learning. Thanks to our awesome PTC, New Canaan DPW, & our Saxe custodians!
Beautiful day at for some fresh air and free play during recess!
Dogs of Saxe
We love all of our Dogs of Saxe! It takes a lot to take Ms. Orlando’s focus away from morning arrival duty, but a newly arrived (the evening before) English bulldog puppy proved to be too irresistible…
Some Dogs of Saxe love the camera more than others, but we still enjoy seeing them all every morning at drop off!
Some more Dogs of Saxe wishing their humans well as they depart for school!
Lots of Dogs of Saxe this week!
Have a great week, see you next Friday!
Thank you to all of our Saxe Weekly contributors! Each weekly edition is an example of collaboration in action. 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 
Dr. G
Thank you for yet another great Saxe Weekly. We loved everything you said at the open house and thank you for sharing the videos. We all agree that you are the absolute best. My kids say you are fun and funny… boy, am I jealous.
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