Team Abuja Newsletter

WinterFest 2024 - (Friday, December 20) – Team Abuja will come together to celebrate WinterFest on Friday, December 20th during lunch. Students should bring in their normal lunch and will be able to purchase their cafeteria lunch if they need to do so. Students are asked to bring one of the following based on their 1st period class to share with their friends as we celebrate the Winter Season with Ice Cream and Cookies:

• Kirschenbaum/Daboh - Ice Cream (nut free)

• Wesselhoft – Icing (for cookies)

• Sagan – Toppings (for cookies and ice cream) (nut free)

• Gomez/Patsalos – Cookies (store-bought, nut free)

This week, we will finish our reading of Tuck Everlasting. Students should continue reading their independent books. If you are interested in adding to our classroom collection, please visit our Amazon Wish List.

Please remind your scholars to bring their math notebooks to class! This is essential to their note taking skills and for students to have, as their notebook check is a part of their grade. I will be grading them next week. As a reminder, I offer math tutoring after school on Wednesday’s however this upcoming week, we will have a staff meeting so I will be pushing tutoring to Thursday. I also offer recess tutoring on Monday’s and Wednesday’s, students simply need to grab a pass from me before lunch in order to attend.

In Math 6, we are wrapping up with multiplying and dividing with fractions. We will be focusing on the decimal system, which is the base ten arithmetic system we use in everyday life. This unit will help students understand and work with numbers more effectively.

In Math 7, we have been working with Proportional Relationships and Percentages. Students will have a teacher assigned iReady lesson to assist them in this unit. We had a formative this past week and students will not have their next assessment until after we return from the break. For any students who may be out the 2 days after the break, I will post our review on Canvas.

*See information about summer math programs below.

We are learning so much about religion and R.A.C.E. paragraphs! We ended this week doing a model paragraph about how the Old City of Jerusalem is important to Jews. Next week, we will use that model to complete a formative assessment paragraph about the importance to Christians. Students will use the feedback from that formative to understand and complete their summative assessment paragraph on the importance of the city to Muslims. We will end the week submitting these assignments and completing a reflection for the unit.

Congratulations on finishing up our Rock Transformation unit, Scientists!

This past week students took their final summative assessment for Rock Transformation, and were introduced to the planet Mars. Next week we’ll continue our mini unit on Mars, comparing the similarities and differences between geology and geologic processes on Earth and Mars and exploring the question “could Mars support life?”

Roots Quiz 2.6 (our last before our Roots summative) will happen on Friday 12/20. Students should study the following words:

thermo = heat (think thermometer, thermos)

eco = house, home (think ecologist, economics)

omni = all (Latin) (think omnivore, omnipotent)

lingu = tongue (think bilingual, linguistics)

techno = skill, art (think technician, pyrotechnics)

Thank you to everyone who has donated to my amazon wishlist so far – and an especially big shoutout to those who donated printer paper! My amazon wishlist link is here https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/dl/invite/gkYQSIk?ref_=wl_share if you would like to contribute to our classroom. Thank you for your generosity!!

Link to World Languages Newsletter https://secure.smore.com/u/patricia.balestra4

Deal will continue to offer an in-person, Summer Math Acceleration Camp (SMAC) and an Online Asynchronous Math Course (Zearn) for our current 6th and 7th graders during July of 2025 (July 7 - July 31; 8:45 am - 12:00 noon).

SMAC Math 7

This intensive course is for 6th graders currently taking Math 6 who become eligible based on the iReady MOY and EOY Assessment. Students who successfully complete this in-person course and the final assessment will be placed in Math 8 in the Fall of the 2025 - 2026 school year.

Zearn 7

This online asynchronous course is for 6th graders currently taking Math 6. Only students who qualify based on their MOY i-Ready score will become eligible. Students who successfully complete the course and the final assessment will be placed in Math 8 in the Fall of the 2025 - 2026 school year

SMAC Math 8

This intensive course is for 6th & 7th graders currently taking Math 7 who become eligible based on the MOY and EOY iReady Assessment. Students who successfully complete this in-person course and the final assessment will be placed in Algebra I in the Fall of the 2025 - 2026 school year.

Zearn 8

This online asynchronous course is for 6th or 7th graders currently taking Math 7. Only students who qualify based on their MOY i-Ready score are eligible. Students who successfully complete the course and the final assessment will be placed in Algebra I in the Fall of the 2025 - 2026 school year.

We will host a Virtual SMAC & Zearn information Meeting for families on Teams at 6:30 pm on Thursday, January 9 - bit.ly/DEALJAN9

Students and families from all grades are welcome and encouraged to join us for International Night!

This time-honored Alice Deal event brings together the Alice Deal community as we celebrate the many cultures and nations represented among our student body. The event includes "Taste of the Nation" tables where families share sample size offerings of foods from around the world. Please sign up as a host Deal International Night Volunteer Host Tables

Wear your dancing shoes - we will have a DJ! And of course, Deal merch will be on sale.

Join us for this festive night of celebration! Buy your tickets here https://DealInternation.givesmart.com

****International Night is our number one fundraiser for important scholarship dollars for the upcoming 8th grade foreign language trips!

Questions: shannonharrisbehm@hotmail.com

As the year goes on, we want to ensure that students are able to access help when they need it! Team Abuja teachers are available by appointment, and there is a dedicated Tutoring Time in either Mx. Gomez's room or Ms. Sagan's room on Wednesdays from 3:30 - 4:20. Here We Grow!

Library Corner

Check out these great resources that the library is offering for the month. Links are available in this month's Library Newsletter below:

DEAL MS LIBRARY NEWS! | Smore Newsletters

Library overdue emails will be sent out next week for any student who has not returned books for over 30 days. Please be on the lookout to help us get those precious books back!

The latest library newsletter has arrived! Check it out at the link below:

https://secure.smore.com/n/9vs8z

Stay up to date with the complete list of clubs and activities by going to the Deal website: https://www.alicedealmiddleschool.org

Adam Kirschenbaum, ELA adam.kirschenbaum@k12.dc.gov

Lauren-Ashley Gomez, Math lauren-ashley.gomez@k12.dc.gov

Naeemah Wesselhoft, Geography naeemah.wesselhoft@k12.dc.gov

Ellie Sagan, Science ellie.sagan@k12.dc.gov

Connie Patsalos, MLL Geography - constance.patsalos@k12.dc.gov

Ameera Daboh, MLL ELA - ameera.daboh@k12.dc.gov

Devin Watson, ISS Coordinator devin.watson@k12.dc.gov

Ellen Barr, Social Worker ellen.barr@k12.dc.gov

Tysha Morris, School Counselor tysha.morris@k12.dc.gov

If your child will not be in school, please email DealAttendance@k12.dc.gov .