2024.1.5 – Saxe Weekly – The Saxe weekly

January 5, 2024

Dear Saxe Family,

Happy New Year! It is my hope that you had a restful holiday break, a smooth transition back into a “regular routine”, and that your 2024 is off to an amazing start. Our students and staff returned and hit the ground running. It was fun to welcome everyone back, hear so many stories from break, and see the engaging activities and lessons in classrooms throughout the building all week. It is clear that our Saxe Hawks are “ready to soar, into 2024”!

This week in the Saxe Weekly, we take a look at a potential snowstorm, Reading, Art, Mandarin, Salmon Club, Sustainability Club, EI, Yearbook, scenes around Saxe, and much more. Enjoy and have a wonderful (snowy?) weekend!

Be Well,

Dave Gusitsch

Principal, Saxe Middle School

Upcoming Noteworthy Dates:

1/9 9:30am 8th to 9th Grade transition coffee @NCHS Wagner Room (Snow date 1/11)

1/10 9:30am Saxe PTC Meeting @ NCHS Wagner Room-Supt. Budget

1/10 7:00 pm Saxe 5 /6 Choir Concert – No Homework

1/11 7:00pm Saxe 5/6 Choir Concert (snow date)

*Quotes that resonated with us this week:

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”― Winston S. Churchill

“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.” — Anne Lamott

“There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.”–-Aldous Huxley

The Weekly Humor Highlights!

“My teachers told me I’d never amount to much since I procrastinate so much. Told them, “Just you

Wait!”

“They say New York City has the best New Year’s celebration, but I say it’s overrated. Every year they drop the ball!”

“You should not iron your four-leaf clover, you know why? Because you shouldn’t press your luck!”

“I just saw the coach yelling at a vending machine; Why? He wanted his quarter back.”

Fun in the Snow (hopefully)

It’s been a while since we’ve had a good ol’ fashioned snowstorm! If things shape up as they are predicted to, we may finally get one. For those snow lovers who plan to venture out and play in the snow, we want to see some pictures! Whether you are building a snowman, sledding, making a snow fort, or any other winter fun, please snap a picture and send it into Ms. Jarosik and Mr. Gusitsch and we will be sure to include it in our January 12th Saxe Weekly!

Reading

Mrs. Adrian’s 5th-grade Reading classes are traveling on “quests” to find multiple themes with evidence in the Theme and Symbolism unit in the fantasy genre! Their evidence is demonstrated on group visual “one pagers” to make thinking visible and showcase symbols in the texts.

(Mrs. Adrian sported this nifty hat while students were on quests)

Art

Some of our sixth grade Art students are studying the work of iconic artist, Wayne Thiebaud. He was known best for his oil paintings of desserts which featured colorful shadows. Students had a great time selecting desert photos and abstracting the colors using tempera paint. Very impressive!

World Language

Mandarin students practicing calligraphy to ring in the New Year!

Salmon Club

The Saxe Salmon Club is beyond excited to have received their newest batch of eggs to hatch, grow, & release! Unbelievable learning opportunities, for classes & clubs, from “tank to river”!

Sustainability Club

The Lower Division Sustainability Club has been busy before the December Break and after. Our tower garden was ready for harvesting right before vacation, yielding a plethora of lettuce species and herbs. Each student was able to bring home a sample of the cuttings. Hopefully, another harvest will be ready in a few more weeks. We also refilled the water tank and calculated the precise amount of nutrients needed to sustain our plants over break.

This week, we visited our bird feeders on the Waveny Trail to see if they survived the weather. The only one left: the replica of Ms. Collins, our club advisor. In the next few weeks, we will go back to the drawing board to rethink bird feeder designs to be more durable.

Emotional Intelligence

Thanks to the 6th grade teachers who worked with students to spread the word on the importance of being an Upstander! They made persuasive information posters that will be hung in the hallways for all to see.

Yearbook

Have you purchased your yearbook yet? If not, now is the perfect time to do so! You can use the QR code below or visit Jostens.com. The last day to personalize your yearbook is January 16th. If you have any questions, please reach out to the Yearbook Advisors Ms. Pabon or Ms. Jarosik.

Twitter/X

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

Happy New Year to our Saxe community! Wishing everyone the best for a healthy, wonderful 2024!

Happy New Year/2024! Our Saxe students were excited to be back in the building! It was great to see our school community come back together today…

Beautiful day at Saxe! Our students are fortunate to be able to get outside to get some fresh air, movement, & unstructured social interaction each day!

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)