2022.12.2 – Saxe Weekly – The Saxe weekly

December 2, 2022

Dear Saxe Family,

Happy December! It was a full week following our return from Thanksgiving break with lots of excitement around the building. Over the next few weeks leading up to the holiday season, we have a full schedule with 5th-grade conferences, music performances, team celebrations, spirit days, and of course, lots of learning in each content area. We look forward to sharing all that makes Saxe Middle School truly a special place to be, learn, and grow.

This week in the Saxe Weekly, we take a look at Mathematics, English Language Arts, Special Education, Art, Lost & Found, Theatre, 6Blue Town Hall, a “compliment mural”, STEM, staff meetings, sights around Saxe, Dogs of Saxe, and much more… Enjoy and have a wonderful weekend!

Be Well,

Dave Gusitsch

Principal, Saxe Middle School

Upcoming Noteworthy Dates:

12/5 – 2:30 – 3:30 – 7th/8th Grade Musical informational Meeting on Seussical

12/6 – Grade 5 Early Dismissal at 1:15 pm – Parent Conferences

12/7 – Grade 5 Early Dismissal at 1:15 pm – Parent Conferences

12/8 – Grade 5 Early Dismissal at 1:15 pm – Parent Conferences

12/9 – Grade 5 Early Dismissal at 1:15 pm – Parent Conferences

*Quotes that resonated with us this week:

“Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it.” — Charles Swindoll

“Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.” – William Arthur Ward

“Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.“ – Malcolm Forbes

“What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.” – John Steinbeck

“The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction, not a destination.” -Carl Rogers

Mathematics

Students in Mrs. Hubbard’s Math 7 classes are reasoning about solving equations. They are collaborating with a partner to solve “hanger” problems, in which a balanced hanger is like an equation and moving its weights is like solving the equation.

Students used an online platform to practice solving equations of varying levels of difficulty. They worked to find the value of the variable using strategies such as “subtract the constant from both sides” and “multiply both sides by the reciprocal” or “isolate the variable”. While some students matched equations to hangers, others challenged themselves to write equations to coincide with the hanger diagrams. Still others extended their thinking by drawing the hangers to model their thinking.

Students in Mr. Santoro’s Math 7 class are spending time writing and solving equations algebraically. Students use manipulatives such as Hands-on Equations to help support their understanding of equations and to reason through the steps of solving for an unknown value.

Students in Mrs. Pelatowski’s 8th Grade math classes continue to work on collaborating with their peers. At the beginning of the year, students created posters of what “good group” work looks like and sounds like. Students continue to model these practices in their everyday learning. Collaborative problem solving is part of our daily practice in math class.

English Language Arts

Grade 7 students are “book tasting” today to choose books for their upcoming unit of study: Dystopia and Utopia. Lots of energy is in the air as kids peruse these great titles!

Grade 8 students are working in book clubs to trace complex and universal themes and ideas across texts in the current unit “Power in Literature.”

Special Education

Students in the Access program came together with their peer buddies to create snowmen for the New Canaan YMCA’s Winter Wonderland event happening this Sunday, December 4 from 4 to 6.

Students in Ms. Hines’ class played “pin the pom-pom on the algebraic expression to review math concepts!

Art

In 6th Grade, we are learning a lot, and having fun in the Art Department! Ms.Duncan’s sixth graders are studying American Artist, Wayne Thiebaud. Thiebaud had a fascinating career, and was best known for his paintings of desserts! Students selected desserts to paint and are focusing on repetition and colorful shadows, both hallmarks of Thiebaud’s work.

Lost & Found

It’s that time of year again! Our Lost and Found is overflowing with wonderful items that may belong to your child(ren)! If you have noticed a jacket, sweatshirt or water bottle missing, please send them to look in the Lost and Found which is in the hallway next to the cafeteria. We will keep everything until December 21st. If items are not claimed by that time, they will be donated on December 23rd.

Saxe Theatre

We are very excited to announce the 7th/8th Grade Musical, SEUSSICAL! Now one of the most performed shows in America, Seussical is a fantastical, magical, musical extravaganza! There will be a Student Info Meeting on Monday, December 5th from 2:30 – 3:30 in the Saxe Auditorium with a Parent Info Meeting at 5:00pm. Auditions will be on Monday, December 12th from 3:00- 5:30 and Thursday, December 15th from 3:00 – 6:00 pm. Check out the Seussical Website for more information! If you have any questions, please contact Matt and Lauren at SaxeSeussical@gmail.com!

Tweet Street

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

6th Grade Blue Team being #connected as they celebrate our students exemplifying our CHARTER.

Good morning and welcome back, Saxe! We hope everyone had a wonderful break and we are excited to see everyone back in the building. What a beautiful way to start the week!

Photo credit: Ms. Rosen

Great daily reminder along East Ave. as we returned from Thanksgiving break this week – Be Thankful…

On Giving Tuesday, close to 65 Saxe students had volunteered to help run a food drive for Filling in the Blanks; a local non-profit that provides meals for children in surrounding counties.

Consider donating food items today!

Compliment mural c/o Green Team 2! What a great way to celebrate our talented students Saxe!!

Great staff meetings at Saxe discussing our upcoming TriState visit. Looking at Approach, Implementation, & Results of ongoing school & district work. We are excited to continue the work and are proud to share out all the ways we serve our entire school community!

Caught some nice artwork outside Ms. Iwanski’s classroom!

Students in Vivian Birdsall’s STEM class were busy building some amazing plexiglass birdhouses. Here is one fine example – nice work!

Thanks for your service to our entire learning community, Mike Tiscia! We’ll be wishing you the best from “across the street!”

“I was very lucky and fortunate to get my career started as a Health teacher at Saxe and met some amazing people. Today was my farewell but I’m only going across the street. Excited to start Monday at NCHS for PE/Health.” ~ Mr. Tiscia

(note: stay tuned as we welcome new Health Education teacher, Mr. Hautau, next week)

Dogs of Saxe

One of our Dogs of Saxe dropping off their human at arrival 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!

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