2023.9.29 – Saxe Weekly – The Saxe weekly

September 29, 2023

Dear Saxe Family,

As we round out our fifth week of school, and the last week of September, we celebrate the great learning and experiences that took place around and within our learning community. This week in the Saxe Weekly, we take a look at Science, PE, Peer Buddies, Yearbook, Sustainability Club, the NC Combine, Portrait of a Graduate, Open Houses, Picture Day, Math, Social Studies, Pickleball, outdoor learning, library, a rainy dropoff, and much more. Enjoy and have a wonderful weekend!

Be Well,

Dave Gusitsch

Principal, Saxe Middle School

Upcoming Noteworthy Dates:

10/6 Saxe Walk to School Day

10/6 – 13 Celebrate Saxe Campaign 2023!

10/9 *Columbus Day – School in Session

*A friendly reminder that Monday, October 9, 2023, is a regular school day. Columbus Day/Indigenous People Day will be observed in 2024. Please see the 2024-2025 school calendar for more information.

*Quotes that resonated with us this week:

“In order to write about life first you must live it.”– Ernest Hemingway

“It is only when we take chances, when our lives improve. The initial and the most difficult risk that we need to take is to become honest. —Walter Anderson

“People begin to become successful the minute they decide to be.” – Harvey MacKay.

“If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of.” —Bruce Lee

Walk/Ride to School Day

We look forward to our fall “Walk/Ride to School Day” next Friday, October 6th! Be sure to join in the fun and experience the best way to start your morning – with a little fresh air and movement! Stay tuned for more information next week and we look forward to seeing another terrific turnout…

Science Workshops

Students in 8th grade Science Workshop apply their design-thinking skills and mindsets in order to collaboratively design solutions. Seen here, students were rapidly iterating various designs in order to build a “penny bridge” that could support the most weight. Multiple designs were able to support more than 250 pennies!

Science

Students on 8 Red were practicing the processes of transcription and translation using chalk markers. Students generated their own unique DNA sequences, transcribed these DNA sequences into mRNA, and then used codon charts to translate the mRNA sequences into amino acids.

Saxe PE

It’s been a great start to the school year in Miss Goodman’s PE classes across all grades 5-8. September has been filled with students working on getting to know each other, learning names, moving safely through the gym space, lots of teamwork, and applying the charter words in class (safe, respected, comfortable, happy, and especially included). We also began learning how to find our pulse, get in our target heart rate zone, doing dynamic and tabata warm-ups to start class and learning about the 6 components of health-related fitness.

Throughout the first month of school, students in Mrs. Hendry’s PE classes have been working on building relationships, working together and identifying what good team work looks, sounds and feels like through a variety of games. Students have also been learning what the 6 components of health-related fitness are, how to find their pulse and calculate their heart rate. Up next is Ultimate Frisbee and Football!

Peer Buddies

Peer Buddies have paired up with Mrs. Hendry and been getting to know each other by cooperating, communicating and interacting through games such as the Cha Cha Slide, Macarena, Kickball, Pindemonium, and other social activities. Students come together to work with others in different settings in this inclusive program.

Adapted PE

Adapted PE has been working with Mrs. Hendry to practice our dynamic stretching, coordination, throwing and rolling through different modified activities such as dancing, Flip the Hoop, and Bowling.

Saxe Yearbook

Meet the Yearbook crew for 2023-24! This week, Ms. Murray from our yearbook company, Jostens, stopped by and gave the students a lesson on how to take great photos. The students practiced outside and a few great shots are below!

Treble Choir

The Saxe 5th and 6th Grade Treble Choir is off to a fantastic start! Within the first rehearsal these singers have shown their dedication and talents that will continue to grow. We look forward to making more great music together!

Saxe Sustainability Club

The Sustainability/Garden Club is up and running! The upper division students in the Sustainability Club visited the Saxe greenhouses and brainstormed ideas for how to put these spaces to better use. The students came up with an action plan to clean up, reorganize and research potential plants for the greenhouses. One of Lower Divisions’s first projects is to get Saxe’s new (to us) hydroponic tower garden growing. After some research, they learned how it works and how to use it. Step 1: a good cleaning. Check back in a few weeks to see what we grow!

Saxe in the News

Thinking about checking out the NC Combine on Sunday? Check out this recent story in the New Canaanite:

How Sunday’s ‘New Canaan Combine’ Will Work [Q&A]

We will also have some of our very own Saxe staff members participating!

Come and watch the New Canaan Police and Fire Departments facing off at Dunning Stadium to win bragging rights and the 2023 Combine trophy. Events include Incredible Dash, Brady to Moss, the Angry Commuter and others. New Canaan’s own Chris “Mad Dog” Russo will be master of ceremony. Entrance to the New Canaan Combine is free and everyone in the community is invited to attend and cheer on their favorite officer such as our very own SRO Matt Blank and 7th grade teacher Ben Young. This all happens on Sunday, October 1 at 9:30am.

Twitter/X

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

Terrific turnout for the first two ncps_ct “Portrait of a Graduate” sessions at NCHS_CT. Grateful for our Saxe staff who participated & beyond proud of our 20+ students who joined & contributed in a wonderful way!

Welcome to our Saxe 8th-grade parents who came out to join in our grade 8 Open House! Looking forward to a wonderful evening of sharing, learning, & even some fun along the way!

Grade 7 rounded out the Saxe “Open House series” over the past week. Great turnout each night and a hugely positive response by parents – thanks to all who came out to attend!

Picture day was a big hit at Saxe this week! Lookin’ good!

Love seeing our Saxe students up & out of their seats working through problems collaboratively & making their thinking visible!

Students building 3-d models of cubes to begin their unit on volume! #fifthgraderocks

Launching our SS unit with one of three essential questions… “how can diverse communities work together?” #fifthgraderocks

The newly resurfaced floors at Saxe turned out great! Thanks to all involved!

What better backdrop for the new #CeleSaxe “Just Play” banners than the ever-motivated #SaxePickleBall Club! Awesome turnout & great things to come! #SaxeClubs

Love to see our outdoor learning spaces in use around Saxe! Thanks to our amazing Saxe PTC for their ongoing support! #SaxeOutdoors

So thankful to see our parent volunteers back in the Saxe library!

The latest Saxe postcards are in and ready to be deployed… Spreading positive messages to students, parents & staff never gets old!

Flood warnings all around today? No problem – Ms. Kleis has got you covered! Having some fun & making the best of a rainy morning at Saxe!

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 Melissa DiMeglio for the continuous stream of positive, optimistic quotes!

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