Jaguar Journal Vol. 22

Our 8th Grade Field Trip to attend Broadway's To Kill A Mockingbird was incredible. Thank you to everyone who made seeing this production possible. We appreciate those that contributed for other students, and appreciate that PTSA is helping to apply for grants/ make up the difference.

We will be sending home information for families next week regarding health and safety conversations. These resources will be aligned to our upcoming Advisement lessons.

Please note students will not report to Merrill on February 17th, 20th or 21st. Enjoy your upcoming extended weekend.

8th Grade Families, please remember the Round 1 Choice Window closes on February 14th.

Next week, Stu Co is selling Candygrams during lunch.

Have a great weekend!

Parents of 8th Graders, Here are a few questions to ask your student:

Did To Kill a Mockingbird hold your interest?

What parts of the play held your interest most strongly? Why?

What parts seemed less interesting?

What is your takeaway after reading the book and seeing the play?

Thank you everyone who participated in voting for Bryant! He was the top vote getter for the week. It is awesome to give recognition to someone out of the box!

Here is the link if you are interested in watching it. His clip is on at 2:05!

https://www.9news.com/article/sports/high-school/hs-basketball/prep-rally-january-29/73-995fdbb9-ae0c-4f52-b964-71630458da84

From 5-7pm on Thursday, March 2nd, we will be hosting a Merrill Social-Emotional Parent Night in the auditorium and virtually via Google Meet or Zoom (tbd). Please use this form to provide the Mental Health Team with suggestions on topics you wish to be covered during the event. Thank you!

Contact Merrill's School Nurse with any questions: jennifer_schmidt@dpsk12.net

Dental Health Services will be provided at Merrill Feb 21-24 for 6th-7th graders who sign up. Please sign the consent form that you can find by scanning the QR code.

Services Provided (all free):
⦁ Dental Screening
⦁ Dental Sealants
⦁ Fluoride Varnish applications
⦁ Referral for dental care (for those children who exhibit oral disease which requires the immediate attention of a dentist).
⦁ A follow-up screening for referred students with another application of fluoride
⦁ Take home oral hygiene kit

Atención padres de 6º y 7º grado:

¡El programa de selladores dentales de Denver Health estará pronto en nuestra escuela! Mediante este programa, se ofrecen exámenes, barniz de flúor y selladores dentales sin costo para usted. Los selladores y el barniz de flúor son una forma rápida y sin dolor de prevenir las caries. ¡Haga clic aquí para inscribir a su estudiante!

Is Your Child On Track in Math?

IvyMath is providing all Merrill Middle families with a free online math tutoring session and an in-depth parent conference to discuss your child's strengths and weaknesses and how they compare to grade level.

IvyMath will also create a custom learning plan that maps out the exact areas your child should be focusing on in math. You'll have the opportunity to ask questions, and understand what your child needs to feel confident and stay on track in math this year.

The IvyMath tutoring session, parent conference, and learning plan are free for all Merrill Middle families. Popular times fill up, so please register quickly! Signup now at: IvyMath.com/Boost

Thank you for continuing to encourage your student(s) to be responsible with their chromebooks. Please remind them to bring their fully charged chromebooks to school every day. And please remind students to return any library books that they've checked out and have them return them to the library. This allows other students the opportunity to check out those books and your students to check out new books. Please look through backpacks, cars, and homes to find library books from our library. Did you know that every Thursday during recess your student is able to go to the library? There they can check out books, read, play chess, do a puzzle, or draw.

Click this link to Submit photos:

Beginning on January 9th, Multilingual Learners (MLLs) in grades K-12 will participate in the ACCESS for ELLs state assessment. This assessment measures a student’s English language skills in the areas of speaking, listening, reading, and writing. ACCESS is used by classroom teachers to determine the level of language support that a student may need during instruction. With this information, we are able to monitor student progress on an annual basis and determine when a student is ready to be placed in mainstream instruction.

Merrill Middle School will be administering the assessment between January 17 - February 10, 2023.

If you have any questions about the testing schedule, please contact Ellie Foust, ellie_foust@dpsk12.net.

Please be sure that your student arrives on time for their scheduled day(s) so that they do not miss sections of the test, as this would require a make-up session. We will continue to follow all health protocols during testing as required by the district at the time of the test.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1VsRYMe70-2IOrheYpIvWgBcI9oFAjjWX

We wanted to share community resources provided to Denver Public School students and families. Please see the links below for more information-

• Denver Community Resources-Here
• Virtual English Classes from the Denver Public Library-Here
• i-Ready-Here
• Sora (DPS digital library)-Here
• DPS Community Hubs-Here

If you have any questions, please reach out to Kathy_Swigle@dpsk12.net

Kingsoopers.com

BOX TOPS

Shop for Merrill Spirit Gear

Coffee Club Orders:

Basketball-

Thank you for the continued support of our Jaguars on the basketball court.

Good luck to both the girls' and boys' teams today @ Merrill vs Grant Beacon.

Girls at 3:45 and Boys at 4:45

Thanks~

Coach Wilkin and Coach Franklin

Link to sports schedules

Coach Anna Wilkin anna_wilkin@dpsk12.net

Coach Vince Franklin vincent_franklin@dpsk12.net

Please send all athletic questions to vincent_franklin@dpsk12.net or call 720.424.0621

Students in Ms. Rozo’s Spanish class engaged in teaching C3 students Spanish. See what MS. Keglovits had to say!

I wanted to take a moment to shout out to Alejandra! Last week, we had Curiosity Crews at C3. Several students (15 in grades 3-5!) expressed interest in learning some Spanish.

I facilitated the Spanish Curiosity Crew and in December chatted with Alejandra about collaborating during this time. She was so excited about partnering and offering some of her 6th-grade students an opportunity to visit the Spanish Crew and work with small groups of students on learning the calendar. They practiced months, numbers, and days of the week! As a thank you, the C3 students sang an alphabet song (in Spanish) with our 6th-grade Merrill friends!

It was such an amazing experience and C3 the students loved every minute of it!

Thank you so much for your willingness to partner, Alejandra! Alejandra and I are already talking about starting a C3 & Merrill Spanish Group once or twice a month!

~AJ Keglovits

Ask your child who wore the craziest socks at school today?

What were the peaks and valleys of your day today (the best and worst part of your day?)