Chelsea Intermediate School

Dear Parents/Guardians,

We have lots to be excited about in October! On Friday, October 4th, we will be celebrating Mix It Up Day at Chelsea. The purpose of Mix It Up Day is simple - “mix up” your day by trying something new. Students will be mixed up and sit with different students at lunchtime. This is a great chance for our Tigers to make new friends or get to know a current friend a little bit better. We will also be doing some fun activities that will mix up our teachers as well.

This month the FSP will be hosting a Scholastic Book Fair for Chelsea Tigers from October 21st through the 25th. Each class will have an opportunity to explore the fair and purchase books throughout the week. In addition, we will have a Family Literacy Night on Thursday, October 24th from 5:30 until 7 pm. Teachers are busy preparing games and activities for this evening of literacy-based fun! We hope that you will come and check it out. During Literacy Night, the Book Fair will be open for shopping and will remain open until 7:30 pm. This is a great opportunity to shop as a family!

During the week of October 28th, we will be celebrating Red Ribbon Week across the District. Our theme is “Life is a Movie. Act Bully and Drug Free.”

Last but not least, we will be celebrating Autumn with our Fall parties on Thursday, October 31st. We are excited to welcome parent volunteers to our parties! More information about the parties can be found within this newsletter.

As always, please take an opportunity to view all the exciting things happening at Chelsea through our social media platforms. Follow us on X and Instagram at @Chelsea_Tigers. You will see our students are thriving!

Sincerely,

Rachel Newcomb

Principal

Paula Paymaster

Assistant Principal

Ricky Innocenti

Dean of Students

Autumn is on its way and we couldn’t be happier! We are excited to announce that Chelsea will be having class parties in celebration of Fall on Thursday, October 31st. All parties will be held from 11:00-11:45. As a reminder, October 31st is an early release day. All Chelsea Tigers will be dismissed at 12:05 pm.

Students are welcome to wear costumes as part of our Fall celebration. If your child would like to wear a costume, please keep the following in mind:

• Students should come to school dressed in their costume.
  
• Costumes must be school appropriate. This means costumes should not depict any form of violence or gore. This includes make-up depicting blood, etc.
  
• Makeup and hair enhancements must be done at home prior to school.
  
• Any covering over the eyes will not be allowed for safety reasons. This includes football or other helmets. Hats will be allowed.
  
• Props – please leave props at home. We would hate for anything to be left behind at school or get lost!
  
• If you would prefer your child does not participate in the party, please contact your child’s teacher and we will be happy to provide an alternate activity.
  

We are looking forward to celebrating at our Fall parties on October 31st!

If you would like to participate in our “Adventure Awaits” slideshow, please email Ms. Newcomb (rnewcomb@fsd157c.org) a photo of your Chelsea Tiger (and family) on one of your travels. It does not have to be from this year – it could be any trip your family has taken.

We look forward to seeing all the amazing places our Tigers have visited!

Thank you to all of our drivers who regularly comply with our "Right Turn Only" sign at Chelsea's main exit on to 80th Avenue. We continue to notice increased speed and efficiency in our car rider line as a result of your cooperation.

Thank you!

Let’s work together to have a healthy school year. Here are a few tips for staying healthy:

• Wash your hands frequently and thoroughly.
• Cough and sneeze into your sleeves.
• Keep hands to yourself and away from your face.
• Please do not send students to school if there is:
• A fever of 100 degrees or greater
• A rash of unknown origin
• Suspected conjunctivitis “pink eye”
• Vomiting
• Uncontrollable diarrhea

Before returning to school, students must be:

• Fever free for 24 hours without medication
• No vomiting in the past 24 hours
• No diarrhea in the past 24 hours
  

Students began using the library in September. Over 1,275 books were checked out during the first week of library. The most popular books were the graphic novels and chapter fiction. Take a look at the difference between the graphic novel shelves from the start of the week to the end of the week!

Every week, students visit the library with their class. Everyone can borrow a maximum of two books and keep them for up to 2 weeks.

The Bluestem Reading Challenge begins soon. Thanks to a grant from FSD 157C Education Foundation, students will be able to use the Beanstack app to track progress and participate in other challenges throughout the year. A letter with more details will be going home with students.

The theme shelf is back! September’s theme celebrated National Hispanic Heritage Month and Back to School while October’s theme will continue National Hispanic Heritage Month and include spooky stories.

Family School Partnership will be hosting a Scholastic Book Fair in October! During the book fair, Chelsea will celebrate Literacy Night on Thursday, October 24. Families are invited to enjoy planned activities and browse the book fair. Purchases earn new books for our school! Thanks to last year’s sales, the library acquired over 100 new books as well as new bean bag chairs for quiet reading. Thanks to FSP and shoppers!

Parents are encouraged to volunteer in the library with advance notice.

Please contact Mrs. Schubert at kschubert@fsd157c.org to learn more.

Students are completing their first round of fitness testing. The tests measure student’s muscular endurance, cardiovascular endurance, and their flexibility. The four tests are the pacer, sit and reach, curl up, and pushup test. Students will have a pretest score for the four different fitness tests. They are encouraged to set goals and work on them throughout the year. We then hope they see improvement on their fitness test at the end of the school year.

Students also had the opportunity to develop their baseball/softball skills. We really focused on working on proper form when throwing. Students also worked on catching, fielding, and batting. After practicing their skills, we played mini games of bench ball, castle ball and blastball.

Students will soon begin working on soccer and football skills. They will continue to work on their physical fitness through various exercise routines and games.

Box Tops and Pop Tabs

Many food labels have started using box tops that need to be scanned. If you would like to continue to support our school, you will need to download the Box Tops for Education app. Make sure you select Chelsea Intermediate School before you begin scanning your box tops!

Pop tabs are collected in any amount and sent to the Ronald McDonald House each year as Chelsea shows its support for a worthwhile cause. Thank you for your continued support with both programs.

In the music room, October is going to be filled with song! All grade levels will be learning patriotic songs as we prepare for our Veteran’s Day Assembly.

Third graders will also continue to learn about the different types of rhythmic notation. They will play rhythms on percussion instruments like hand drums, rhythm sticks, triangles, and more! Students have learned to read quarter notes, quarter rests, beamed eighth notes, half notes, and half rests. In October, we will be meeting beamed sixteenth notes, the whole note, the whole rest, and the dotted half note. Third graders will continue a unit on timbre and learn why band and orchestra instruments are classified into families.

Fourth grade students have been reviewing rhythm patterns using quarter notes, quarter rests, beamed eighth notes, half notes, whole notes, and half rests. Students began studying pitch and the notes of the treble clef staff. All fourth-grade students will play the recorder during the last three weeks of Quarter 1. If you have a recorder at home, feel free to send it in to music at any point! This is such an exciting unit for the fourth-grade students. An email was sent home in September with information about recorder ordering. Contact Mrs. Zito at dzito@fsd157c.org if you did not receive that information.

Fifth grade students have been reviewing rhythm patterns using quarter notes, quarter rests, beamed eighth notes, half notes, whole notes, sixteenth notes, and half rests. Students were introduced to syncopation in rhythm and have been reading rhythms of various difficulty using rhythm sticks, glockenspiels, metallophones, and xylophones. Students even learned a folk song and dance. In October fifth grade students will be introduced to dotted quarter note and sixteenth and eighth note rhythm combinations.

A lot has been happening in STEM! All students are continuing to follow the Engineering Design Process to complete some exciting challenges.

Fifth graders tested their air powered jet toy car on three different surfaces and compared the speeds. Then they packaged a Pringles chip with a variety of different packaging materials to test which materials protected the chip the best. The lightest package in which the chip does not break will be sent through the mail and that will be the true test! Next, we are engineering catapults to launch projectiles the farthest distance so we can create a cool carnival game!

Tech in STEM is tons of fun. The students explore maneuvering and coding Sphero Bots and Ozobots.

Fourth graders did some product testing. Students tested three brands of diapers to determine which one held the most liquid without leaking and which one held the most and stayed dry to the touch. Huggies was the overall winner! Then the fourth graders attended the Dental Fusion Association and were asked to test the pH of a variety of foods found in your refrigerator. Students researched the pH of candy to realize that candy is very acidic. The next activity will have the fourth graders solve the mystery spill on the bridge and test the pH of powders and how they react to vinegar.

Third graders have been sanding blocks of wood to create an aerodynamic dragster race car. Students are testing them by recording the distance and time they travel from the air powered launcher. Wow! We have some fast cars!

If you have any craft items, dowel rods, wood scraps, cardboard, caps, etc. please feel free to donate them to our Maker Space. The final project for fourth and fifth graders will be to create a product that will fulfill a need or solve a problem. Students will be allowed to select their own materials and create their own design!

I cannot believe how quickly the first quarter is flying by and all the great things we have already accomplished! All of our Tigers have worked hard to create wonderful original works of art, and I couldn’t be prouder of their creativity, risk-taking, and experimenting. Our Tigers have been learning to create as artists do using the Studio Thinking philosophy as they envision, develop their craft, engage and persist, express, and reflect with their art. When your students bring home their artworks at the end of the quarter, here are a list of questions to ask them about their work:

1. What can you tell me about your picture?

2. What materials did you use?

3. Where did you get your idea?

4. What is your favorite part of the picture?

5. What title would you give this picture?

6. If you were doing this picture again, what would you change or do differently?

7. Why did you use the color… (insert color)?

8. What if…. (you had used the color red instead of blue or painted instead of a pencil)?

9. How did you….(make these lines, decide on these colors, or create that shape)?

10. What would you add to your artwork if you had more time?

Encourage your child to elaborate on their answers or use the artwork as a starting point for telling a story.

Below you will also find the fall art challenge to help encourage your student’s creativity at home. If they complete any challenges at home, please send them to school or share them on Instagram. Please do not hesitate to reach out at any time with any questions or concerns.

During September and October, students in Spanish class are recognizing Hispanic Heritage Month by learning about geography of Spanish-speaking countries, notable artists, athletes, scientists, writers and more. Students are learning vocabulary for colors within the Hispanic flags, occupations of inspirational Hispanic people, and using numbers for dates. We will talk briefly about the holiday Day of the Dead (Nov. 1 & 2) as a happy time we remember loved ones who have passed.

Please reach out to Mrs. Smerz at gsmerz@fsd157c.org if you have any questions.

Quarter 1 ends October 25th. Students in Spanish class will travel on to STEM. Students currently in Art will be joining our adventure in Spanish on October 28 to start Quarter 2.

The Chelsea School social workers are so glad to be working with your children again this school year. We are fortunate to have a social worker for each grade level: Ms. Juarez for third grade, Mr. Pistek for fourth grade and Ms. Michalczak for fifth grade.

In addition to the activities planned during this week, Chelsea also provides anti-bully lessons for third, fourth, and fifth grade students through our Second Step program. Each grade level has four lessons that teach students to recognize, report, and refuse bullying. These lessons are taught by our Chelsea School social workers throughout the school year.

Red Ribbon Week is a week dedicated to educating children/teens about the dangers of drug use. Red Ribbon Week was started as a way to support our local police departments in their fight against drugs. A drug is defined as any substance that affects our mind and body. October is also Bullying Prevention Month. The purpose of this month is to educate and bring awareness to the prevention of bullying.

To encourage students to make healthy choices and spread kindness, the district will have themed days that spread the message to our students in a fun and positive way.

Please take a look at the flyer linked below.

During the months of October and November, schools across the district will be holding popsicle sales to support our troops. Our sales will take place on October 18, October 25, and November 1. All of Chelsea's proceeds will help offset the cost of postage for care packages sent to servicemen and women both overseas and domestically. Please take a look at the flyer attached below for more information.

October 1 - Hot Lunch (Athletic Boosters)

October 1 - FSP General Meeting @ 9:30am

October 1 - Bus Evacuation Drills

October 2 - Custodian Appreciation Day

October 4 - Mix It Up Day

October 4 - Fastbridge reports sent home

October 8 - Hot Lunch (Band Boosters)

October 11 - No School - Teacher Institute Day

October 14 - No School - Holiday

October 15 - Hot Lunch (FSP)

October 15 - Board of Education Meeting @ 7:00pm

October 15 - 17 - Fifth Grade Field Trips to Lake Katherine

October 16 - Third Grade Field Trip to Naper Settlement

October 18 - Popsicle Sale

October 21 - October 25 - Fall Book Fair Week

October 21 - Picture Retake Day

October 22 - Hot Lunch (Education Foundation)

October 24 - Book Fair Family Night 5:30pm - 7:00pm

October 25 - End of Quarter 1

October 25 - Popsicle Sale

October 28 - November 1 - Red Ribbon Week

October 29 - Hot Lunch (Chorus Boosters)

October 31 - SIP Day (Dismissal @ 12:05pm)

October 31 - Fall Parties 11:00am - 11:45am