2023.12.15 – Saxe Weekly – The Saxe weekly

December 15, 2023

Dear Saxe Family,

Amazingly, this was the last full week of school for the 2023 calendar year. Time flies and each day at Saxe is filled with exciting learning experiences and opportunities to explore, collaborate, design, succeed, fail, and try again while growing in the cognitive, social, emotional, and physical domains. We appreciate you exploring with us through the snapshots that are shared each week in the Saxe Weekly!

This week, we take a look at Science, design thinking, prototyping, French, Spanish, STEM, PE, Art, Math, Toys for Tots, Music, Sustainability Club, Theatre, an amazing basketball shot, an eSports Champion, spreading positivity, Dogs of Saxe, and much more. Enjoy and have a wonderful weekend!

Be Well,

Dave Gusitsch

Principal, Saxe Middle School

Upcoming Noteworthy Dates:

12/19 7:00 pm 7/8 Winter Choir Concert

12/22 Spirit Day: Ugly Sweater

12/22 Last day of school for 2023 (half day)

12/25 – 1/1 Holiday Break

*Quotes that resonated with us this week:

“Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.” -Alexander Graham Bell

“The beautiful thing about learning is that nobody can take it away from you.” ―B.B. King

“The more that you read, the more things you will know, the more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” —Dr. Seuss

“Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” —Aristotle

“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.”-Benjamin Franklin

The Weekly Humor Highlights!

“What do French fries do when they run into each other? They ketch-up.”

“My snowman threw a temper tantrum. I’m talking about a complete meltdown.”

“Did you hear about the restaurant on the moon? Great food, no atmosphere.”

“How do trees access the internet? They log on.”

“I recently started reading a book about antigravity. I can’t seem to put it down.”

Science

Students in 8th-grade Science classes are learning about how genes determine an organism’s traits and how mutations can lead to beneficial, detrimental, or neutral changes depending on the environment. Groups were testing how different types of locomotion, color vision, and finger dexterity impacted their ability to collect food (beads).

Workshop

Students in 8th grade Science Workshop continue to apply design thinking skills and mindsets in order to solve various problems and/or challenges. Seen here, students were working in small groups on the marshmallow tower challenge – using 20 pieces of spaghetti, one yard of string, and a yard of tape, construct the tallest possible structure that can support the weight of a marshmallow in just 18 minutes. Try it for yourself at home! On average, who performs the best on this challenge? Watch this video to find out – you may be surprised!

Students in 8th grade Science Workshop designed hats for people in various roles (student, fisherman, cowboy, firefighter, etc.). They started by doing some research and coming up with a needs statement before brainstorming ideas for design elements. Students then brought their ideas to life by creating prototypes in the design lab. Some very creative designs on display!

World Language

Eighth-grade French students have been creating their café/restaurant skits this week, and they began presenting them for their classmates.

Spanish

Fifth Grade Spanish classes learning bachata as part of their unit on Spanish in the United States in Ms. Levine’s Classroom.

STEM Workshop

Students in Q2 8th grade Robotics workshop completed their first design challenge: create the fastest dragster. After mastering VEX robot parts and code, the students designed their own dragsters and edited their codes to design the fastest robot. Students used creative problem-solving, collaborative investigations, and teamwork to innovate their designs. Our next challenge: have their robots navigate a maze to find color patches. Check back to see what’s innovating!

Physical Education

In the last 6 weeks, students in Mrs. Hendry’s PE classes enjoyed playing football outside before it got too cold. Students in 7th and 8th grades, designed and executed playbooks while working together; 5th & 6th grades worked on understanding the rules of football and focused on working together as a team.

Next up was our team handball and broomball units, where students in all grades worked on throwing, catching, stick skills, moving to open space, and making sure to include all team members.

Art

Ms. Duncan’s sixth graders are studying American Pop Artist, Wayne Thiebaud. He was famous for painting cakes and pies with colorful shadows. Using his work as inspiration, students are using temperas to create their own delicious paintings!

Math

Using Area, Volume, and Perimeter to build a house! Math Fun!!

Grade 5 Leadership and Grade 8 Toys for Tots Toy Drive

Thank you to all of our families for donating to the 5th-grade leadership toy drive! With your help, we were able to collect over 200 toys and were able to support 4 families in New Canaan, Kids in Crisis, and Toys for Tots!

Student Spotlight

Fifth-grade student, Claire Gillon, has created an education YouTube channel to share and extend her knowledge and learning in the areas of science, social studies, and travel. Claire shares that her motivation for creating the channel was so that others could learn more about the things she knows and so that people can learn new information that may not be taught in their daily life at school.

Here is Claire’s Youtube Channel link… Check it out!

Western Regionals

Twenty-eight Saxe band and orchestra students (listed below) auditioned this past Saturday, December 9th, for the Connecticut Music Educators’ Association Western Region Middle School Music Festival. These students worked incredibly hard to prepare for the auditions and we are very proud of them! Students will find out if they were accepted later this month and, if they are, they will participate in a 2-day festival with other musicians from across Western Connecticut in the spring.
Congratulations again to our auditionees:

Charlotte Diyzyn, Charlie Tate, William Ely, Abigail Greenhut, Ella Catherwood, William Duffee, Anca Jordan, Michael Cantu, Olivia Seo, Erika Denning, Payce deMarco, David Emeagwali, Emma Biegel, Tyler Suh, Jason Lin, Joseph Diamantis, Arlo Cohen, Yuqing Jiang, Emily Meng, Luis Felipe Fuentes, Kaleb Tan, Emma Wang, Mariia Nestertseva, Adam Maklad, Mary Jordan, Anvi Gupta, and Daniel Schwedel

Sustainability Club

The Lower Division Sustainability Club has been very busy. Most recently, we are getting ready to harvest some of our fresh lettuces and herbs from our hydroponic garden. The kids also made festive bird feeders out of biodegradable materials which we hung on the trees in Waveny. Take a walk on the trail and check them out.

Upper Division Sustainability

Students in the Sustainability Club propagated jade and holiday cacti and have been taking care of the plants over the past few weeks. This week, the students transplanted the plants into individual pots so that they can be sold. The funds they raise will contribute to other sustainable initiatives at Saxe. Stay tuned for more info on how to purchase one for yourself (or as gifts for others)!

Ugly Holiday Sweater Day – December 22!

Do you think you have the worst holiday sweater? Let us be the judge! Wear your sweater proudly on Friday. We may even include it in the Weekly!

Saxe Theatre News

The Callback List and Materials for Bye Bye Birdie will be posted on the website after 6pm tonight. Thank you to everyone who auditioned! Callbacks are next Tuesday, December 19th and the cast list will be posted by the end of the school day on December 22nd. We are looking forward to working with everyone!

Twitter/X

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

The Saxe Art Department has hung their winter show that coincides with the winter music concerts. The artwork that is presented is created by students in grades 5-8 showcasing projects worked on since the beginning of school. Now, our hallways are filled with fresh creative student artwork… Thanks to all involved in creating & displaying these fine pieces for all to enjoy!

Alright, this is pretty awesome… After seeing this student drain 2 “reverse shot” 3-pointers in a row, I mentioned it would be neat if she could do it a 3rd time with the video rolling & BOOM (CLICK THE LINK TO WATCH!)💥 – first shot! Very impressive, Emma!

Gorgeous week to get outside for some fresh air, socializing, & activity during #SaxeRecess!

While visiting the #SaxeEsports tourney, saw this neat 3D printed creation in the #SaxeDesignLab. Great design & very sturdy as well!

After several weeks competing against teams from multiple states along the east coast, Peter T came out #1 in the Smash Bros eSports tournament! Congrats to Peter & all who participated! #SaxeEsports

Some action shots of our #SaxeEsports Champion – congrats to all who participated!

Some “in-progress” animal portraits, with a focus on adding elements of shadows &/or expressive colors in Ms. Lashendock’s Saxe Art class. Looking good!

Another week of growth for the vertical planter at Saxe. Almost ready for harvest!

8 Green has their hallway display updated & looking ready for the season!

A great daily reminder along East Ave. on the drive in each morning – “What are you thankful for?”

The latest round of “Saxe Postcards” have arrived to share special/positive moments that take place within our school community. Staff love sharing examples of the many great experiences our students are part of each day. It’s a small piece of a terrific positive culture loop!

The latest order of Saxe spirit wear arrived this week. Our caring parent volunteers help our staff “feel the spirit” & we look forward to seeing all this gear being worn around the building. Thanks to all involved! #SaxeSpirit

Got to hand out our December “Certificates of Gratitude” to Saxe students & staff this week. It is a nice way to recognize those who have gone above and beyond… Thanks to each member of our school community who helps make it the special place that it is!

Thanks to Ms. Granite & the G5 Student Leadership Team for their tremendous contributions to Toys for Tots! You all have made a difference in the lives of over 200 kids/families!

Happy Holidays (click to view video!) from the Saxe grade 5 Student Leadership Team! They did an amazing job gathering presents for Toys for Tots! Great contribution to the larger community & leading by example!

Love hearing parents yell, “Happy Birthday!” as their child gets out of the car at Saxe arrival… Hope it was the best bday, yet!

Bo, Jerry, Janis, & Maggie are just a few of the #DogsOfSaxe who bring a smile to our faces at Saxe drop-off each morning!

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!

Saxe Resources (live links)