Jaguar Journal Vol 3
September 2, 2022
Welcome Back Merrill Jaguars
Hello Merrill Community,
Thank you for a wonderful Back-To-School Night! We enjoyed being able to meet all our families and have you experience your student's schedule. We would love to receive feedback from our community about Back-To-School-Night, please fill out this google form-Here.
After spending the first week getting to know our students, we have jumped into academics. We encourage you to ask your student what they are learning about at the start of the school year.
We hope everyone has a wonderful long weekend!
-Merrill Leadership
Principal Underwood, Assistant Principal Zick, Dean Franklin, Dean Foust
School Hours
Field Trip to Meow Wolf
Field trips to Meow Wolf are approaching:
Sept 12th and 13th - 6th grade
Oct 10th and 11th - 7th grade
Nov 14th and 15th - 8th grade
More parent chaperones are needed. Please sign up
Here to volunteer for any grade.
Back-to-School Night
Home Conversation Starters
Ask your student what superpower they would like to have and why?
OR
Ask your student to tell you their "high" (best thing that happened to them) today or this week.
Ask them to tell you their "low" (something that made them upset) today or this week.
Finally, have them tell you their "buffalo" (which is something random from their day or week).
Merrill Athletics
Early Fall Sport
Jaguars,
We hope you had an amazing summer and enjoyed time with family and friends. Thank you all for trying out for our early fall sports
Early Fall Sports
Boys Soccer
Coaches -Mr. Smedes and Mr. Heath
Softball –
Coach - Mr. Franklin
Cross Country – Information
Coaches - Mrs. Steph Graves, Mrs. Jackson, and Mrs. Foust
Season dates 8/23 – 10/14
Late Fall Sports
Registration will open closer to the start of the season
Volleyball, Flag Football, and 6th Grade Volleyball – Season dates 10/3 – 12/2
Here is the link to the Physical Form – all students trying out must have a physical.
Please send all athletic questions to vincent_franklin@dpsk12.net or call 720.424.0621
www.Merrill.dpsk12.org under Athletics/Fall sports
Thanks,
Mr. Franklin
Parent and Community Expertise in the Classroom Wanted
Classrooms are Ready!
Merrill Market Opening Soon!
Thank you, Ms. Salwa for getting our Merrill Store ready. We will open soon.
Parents, please donate to the Merrill Store using this link.Jaguars Are Fully Back!
Wonderful Merrill PTSA
Merrill Dine Out Fundraiser and Meet Other Families
September 13 is our first social dine out
fundraiser. Mingle with other Merrill
families & staff. Bull & Bush will
give 10% back to Merrill. Dine in only @
4700 E. Cherry Creek South Drive.
Meow Wolf!
Fieldtrips to Meow Wolf are approaching:
Sept 12th and 13 th - 6 th grade
Oct 10th and 11 th - 7 th grade
Nov 14th and 15 th - 8 th grade
More parent chaperones are needed. Please sign up
Here to volunteer for any grade.
Info from Merrill PTSA
This Year's PTSA Board Members:
President Lisa Cervantes-Glynn
Vice President Zulemma O’Bryne
Secretary Christine Spraker
Treasurer Natalie Nove
Comms & Admin Liaison Erika Sabatos
Merrill has a Coffee Bean Club. Buy one bag or subscribe monthly here. Get in your order in
September and your beans will be delivered to your Merrill student on Thursday, October 6th .
Use code LOCAL for free shipping https://www.topofthelakecoffee.com/merrill
Quick links to update your shopping benefactor to Merrill Middle School:
Social Emotion Team Corner Announcement-
Denver Public Schools believes that assessing social, emotional and academic functioning of children is important to identify strengths and challenges for our students. As a part of our effort to support the Whole Child we will be implementing a universal social and emotional screening for our students. The screener is NOT an assessment or an evaluation. It is a questionnaire that is used to help identify students who may need extra social or emotional support. Please keep an eye out for a passive permission slip coming home with your student. If you DO NOT want your child to complete the questionnaire, please fill out, sign the slip and send it back to the school by 16.
Questions Please reach out to-
- Emily Hill-Social Worker-emily_hill1@dpsk12.net
- Jeff Bayard-Counselor-jeffrey_bayard@dpsk12.net
- Dr. Rachel Michelson-School Psychologist-rachel_michelson1@dpsk12.net
6th Grade September Newsletters
Language Arts:
Students will be introduced to our first book study, “Heroes, Gods and Monsters” as well as participate in group literacy circles. Students will be introduced to our paragraph structure format. We will be doing a project based learning unit centered around narrative writing. Homework for all 6th graders will be assigned on Mondays and due that Friday. All students should also be reading for a minimum of 30 mins every night. Teachers have books at their level they can borrow and all students have accounts for “Sora” where they can look up and read books online.
Math:
After a fun week of team building and getting to know you activities, the 6th grade math classes are excited to start their first unit of study on Ratios. We will launch the unit by introducing our first project!! Throughout the unit of study, the students will learn different methods for finding equivalent ratios, rates, and unit rates. They will use these applications to help create a class recipe book!
All students will be using a 1-inch binder to take class notes and homework will be assigned on the days new lessons are taught. Lastly, the 6th grade math classes will be utilizing IXL to assist in differentiating students' math needs to practice specific skills.
Science:
Thanks to all my Merrill students, parents, and families for making Merrill a school of choice. It has been an exciting week so for and students and students are acclimatizing well. To initiate our science lessons, students will begin learning about how to think scientifically, understand the importance of lab rules before learning about our first major topic, weather and climate.
Social Studies:
Welcome to Merrill! It has been an absolute pleasure getting to know your students and starting to build a classroom community. Our first unit will begin the 1st week of September and is all about geography! Students will be learning how to read and interpret different types of maps and hone their geography skills. See below pictures of students on our first days together making a free-standing marshmallow tower out of only 20 pieces of spaghetti and a yard of tape. The tallest tower was 27 inches!!!7th Grade September Newsletters
Grade Level Announcements:
Every teacher uses Schoology to record grades and share assignments. Please set aside a time each week for you and your student to look at their progress and grades together. Having this routine of your student showing you their work, learning, assignments and grades each week will give you both an opportunity to discuss what is happening in the building and identify any areas in which your student may need more support as well as areas for success and celebration. These little check-ins will only take about 5-10 minutes a week, but can make a world of difference when it comes to their education.
Parents can access Schoology by going to myportal.dpsk12.org and choosing “Schoology” from the options on the left
Language Arts: (Reid / Smith)
Welcome back to school and to 7th grade. We are so happy to see you and we are excited for all of our cool literature and units we will be reading this year. Our first unit explores the idea of how events shape our identity. Night by Elie Wiesel is our mentor text. Students will be checking this out in class through SORA (DPS online digital library-links provided to students in Schoology). The Holocaust is an important event in world history and we are fortunate and grateful to have a speaker to share their experiences as a survivor with our students. Students will be constructing their own narratives about a significant event in their own lives and how that has shaped their identity up to this point.
Homework: We expect students to read their independent reading books for 30 minutes each night. They will also engage in AR quizzes during the school day. We are asking that students read Night on their own and we will discuss priority passages in class. Students will also be asked to choose one Holocaust novel to read. We have some novels for check out as well as novels for SORA at a wide variety of reading levels.
After Labor Day, we will begin our HW cadence. Each week students will be given an assignment to work on throughout the week with it being due on the last day of the school week- usually Friday, but not always.
Ideas for discussion at home:
What event or events do you think are shaping your life and why?
What is happening in Elie Wiesel’s story and how are you feeling about it?
What characteristics do you think you would need to survive in challenging environments and do you think you possess those qualities? Why?
Contact:
Mr. Reid: thomas_reid@dpsk12.net
Ms. Smith- dsmith10@dpsk12.net
7th Math (Wilkin / Samaras):
We are thrilled to have our 7th graders back in class and ready to roll! To kick off the year students will explore our first unit, Scaled Copies. Have you ever wondered about the process an artist uses to create giant murals of wall art graffiti around Denver? Or have you seen blueprints carpenters and architects use to scale up their floor plans when constructing a building. In this unit, students will learn how to proportionally stretch and shrink drawings drawn to scale to life size images. We will have a project where students will use a scaled image to create and construct a life-size kite that can fly if scaled proportionally.
As a reminder, please stay up to date on Schoology and do weekly or biweekly check-ins with your student on their assignments/grades. Everything will be posted in the folders on Schoology under the course “7th Grade Pre-Algebra”. On a typical day students will have an “Exit Ticket” which consists of a few short problems based on that day's lesson. Students will complete their Exit Ticket on Schoology and their grade should appear right away. Students will also typically have Khan Academy everyday. This assignment will be linked in the Schoology folder as well. We will follow a schedule of weekly quizzes on Fridays so, as a suggestion, the best time to do grade checks would be Thursday nights.
Integrated I Math (Hunter):
Welcome to Math! In this class students will be challenged to think, discuss, collaborate, and hopefully have fun as well. Students can expect homework Monday - Thursday nights which will be practice in Schoology with the math they learned that day. Ideally students should complete homework each night, but I understand that things happen. Because of this, any missing assignments won’t be marked “missing” (counting as a 0) until Friday of each week.
For our first units we will be covering transformations and exponents. In the transformations unit, students learn to understand and use the terms “reflection,” “rotation,” “translation,” recognizing what determines each type of transformation. They learn to understand and use the terms “transformation” and “rigid transformation.” They identify and describe translations, rotations, and reflections, and can perform each transformation on a coordinate grid. In the exponents unit, students will expand upon learning from grade 6. In grade 6, students studied whole-number exponents. In this unit, they extend the definition of exponents to include all integers, and in the process codify the properties of exponents. They apply these concepts to the base-ten system, and learn about orders of magnitude and scientific notation in order to represent and compute with very large and very small quantities. Transformations Unit Info Exponents Unit Info
Contact info:
Social Studies (Occhiuto):
Welcome to Social Studies or World History! We will explore the Eastern Hemisphere through our history, geography, economics, and civics standards.
For our first unit, we will explore the question, “How does water shape civilizations?” Students will explore the early civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt and compare & contrast this with Colorado.
Contact Info:
8th Grade September Newsletter
Grade Level Announcements:
Thank you to all the parents who came to Back-to-school night, we appreciated meeting you!
Quick Tips:
We know it is difficult to support students in an ever changing environment that is unlike the experiences we all had in school. One simple way to support your student, and deepen your relationship with them by showing that you are clearly valuing their time in school is setting a weekly reminder for students to show you their schoology page. Decide which time works best for your family, and set a reminder to re-occur each week at the same time. Having this routine of your student showing you their work, learning, assignments and grades each week will give you both an opportunity to discuss what is happening in the building and identify any areas in which you may need more support. These little check-ins will only take about 5-10 minutes a week, but can make a world of difference when it comes to their education.
Language Arts:
We will kick off the year simultaneously reading two novels that explore the theme of the “universal refugee experience,” Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai, and Other Words For Home by Jasmine Warga. As we analyze authorial choices and techniques (such as characterization, diction, tone, etc) on a daily basis, we will also “zoom out” in weekly lit circles, in which students compare the two works in small discussion groups. In a few weeks, we will launch a project (we want to surprise the students so will share more details once they know!), in which students will get the chance to learn about the experiences of real immigrants and refugees in our community, honing the skill of synthesizing evidence from multiple sources, and eventually piecing it all together in an argumentative essay that answers the driving question of the project. In addition to the in-class curriculum, please have your student choose an independent reading book (something they enjoy!), that they can be reading nightly at home. They will take quizzes on these independent reading books on Accelerated Reader to track their progress toward their quarterly reading goals.
Math:
8th Grade Algebra
We have just started our first unit in the OpenUp curriculum, “Rigid Transformations and Congruence”. Students will explore how objects and shapes move around a plane, as well as what is being preserved during these movements. Each week there are homework assignments posted on Khan Academy which should be completed prior to Sunday of that week. Weekly assessments will typically be held on Fridays. Here are some questions to help guide your children during this unit: “What are different ways to describe how objects in your household move?”, “What stays the same and what’s different after these objects move?”, and “What does it mean if two objects have the same size and shape?”
Integrated Math II
Integrated Math II aims to formalize and extend the geometry that students learned in previous courses while grounding them in the algebraic and functional techniques that will prepare them for success in the future. Our first chapter serves as an introduction to the “big ideas” of the course. Students will investigate the attributes and properties of polygons, angles, and graphs. There will be weekly assessments that are typically held on Fridays.
Science:
We are beginning our studies of the Physical Sciences with our first unit, Harnessing Human Energy. This unit will focus on the definition of energy, identifying the types of energy present, and determining the effects of transferring and transforming energy. The harnessing human energy unit should last through the second week in September at which time we will move into our second unit focusing on Forces and Motion. In this unit, students will learn how to apply Newton’s three laws when describing the motion of objects. Classwork assignments are due by the end of the week, however students should be able to complete them during class and submit them at the end of class. There is no assigned homework unless a student needs additional time beyond the live class session to complete their classwork.
Social Studies:
This year your student is going to be analyzing early American history from the French and Indian war through Reconstruction. The theme we will be focusing on throughout the school year is power. Who has it and how are they using it? We will examine this through primary and secondary source evaluation, project based learning, and book study. (more info to come in future newsletters) The academic learning begins with examining the grievances the Colonies had with the British Empire. Your student will evaluate the point of view from people involved in the war and those who experienced the war outside of direct conflict. We will research using primary and secondary sources compiling our learning and analysis into a podcast your student will share with you and the Merrill Community.
Elective September Newsletter
Art:
Our journey begins with some intentional maneuvers meant to build confidence, and increase creative courage to actively participate in a high energy art studio. We will be practicing transferable techniques connected with the elements of art (line, shape, form, value, texture, color and space) to develop better art control, and also to begin using art terms and ideas as our shared language. During our opening weeks, all grade levels will practice transferable art techniques and begin learning about materials and strong art practices. We are also developing our culture so that we can share our work, and our opinions to better critique the work of others in a respectful and intellectual manner. For most of September we are building our beehive art studio and doing the prep work needed for a solid and enduring semester in art.
Please ensure that your student artist is well-supplied with #2 pencils and working erasers. Those pencils should be brought to class daily. A supply of pencils are the only required materials- along with bringing a charged Chromebook every day.
Students may bring their own rulers, scissors, pens, glue sticks, coloring pencils, art markers, drawing pencils and/or sketchbooks, but none of these items are required.
I am always accepting unlined copy/print paper for donations. We use it regularly.
GT:
6th Grade- Hey team we have two groups of 6th graders taking GT this semester. Our first group in the philosophy and debate class are gearing up for their first week of Oxford style miniature debate, they will tackle complex topics and settle them through debate and rhetoric rather than argument and yelling. Our 2nd 6th grade group will be working alongside the 6th grade language arts team on a class called “Deeper Literacy” that blends themes from our 6th grade language arts units while combining the class with members of our newcomer center to cover all levels and lexiles in one classroom as one community! Very exciting!!
7th Grade- Our 7th graders are stopping off the year right with a brand new retooled project based sociology through sports course. Does the course still deal with messy sticky intersections of politics/pop culture? Yes. Does the course now involve much more project based learning and student ownership? Oh yes! Be prepared to have interesting conversations with your 7th graders and please model an inquisitive nature while your 7th graders begin to figure out their place in the world.
8th Grade- Our 8th graders will start the year strong back in familiar territory of advanced reading. The 8th graders haven’t chosen their first genre yet but as the only course engaging with advanced reading they will have the whole of the GT library at their disposal. Parents of advanced reading students please keep an eye on your inbox, several titles in the GT library have been deemed mature and you will have to give a positive consent for your child to have access to these materials if they select these particular books. I like to use a movie style rating system to help parents understand the level and severity of the mature content.
PE:
Physical Education units this year will undergo some changes this year as we aim to bring a balance of teaching and learning styles within our class sessions to accommodate all types of learners. Therefore, each year level will be working on separate independent units.
Grade 6 - Cooperative Challenges/Invasion Games. In this unit, students work together in a variety of group sizes to undertake team challenges which focus on communication & collaboration etc. Students also get to create their own challenges for other groups to try.
Grade 7 - Movement Composition. In this unit, students will learn new movements and create their own routine in a sport of their choice. Traditionally, dance and gymnastics units were popular to teach, however we want students to make their own choices and learn skills that are relevant to them.
Grade 8 - Game Creators. Students in this unit will be working in small groups to create a new or an adapted game of some type The idea is to include all the elements of a game (start, rules, objectives, ending) and work through any teething problems along the way before presenting the game ida in public
Spanish:
¡Hola parents!
We are so excited to start this year with your students! We are looking forward to starting on 9/1 with a Cognates unit in Spanish 1A with our 6th graders; Unit 12 in Spanish 1B with our 7th graders; and an Olympics throwback unit in Spanish 2A with our 8th graders. We are so excited to jump into reading our library books with our 7th & 8th graders - thanks to the PTSA, some grants, some amazing Merrill parents, & some private/personal donors we have grown our classroom library from around 40 titles to close to 80 titles in Spanish in each classroom! This is an amazing step in the right direction for our students to have a wide variety of book topics and levels of books to read throughout their 3 years here at Merrill in the Spanish program!
Here are a few classroom reminders:
Students should have a charged Chromebook with them daily
Students should have a writing utensil (pencil /pen) & paper daily
Students should have colored pencils / markers / crayons (their choice!) daily
Students should have wired / plugged in headphones daily.
Spain Trips!
Students in good behavior & academic standing at Merrill have the opportunity to join us in Spain after completing 3 years of the Spanish program. See details below:
Current 7th graders (2024 Trip!) can sign up here through 9/6/2022
Current 8th graders (2023 Trip!) can sign up here through 9/6/2022
Current 6th graders will get more information in the Spring!
Novels:
All levels will be reading 2 class novels this year - if your student would like to have a copy to write in / highlight / sticky note / take home, you can purchase a copy through CPLI.net and you can do order pick up and skip shipping! Thanks to the PTSA we have enough copies of all novels for a class set to keep in the room!
6th grade will be reading Esmeralda & Agentes Secretos
7th grade will be reading Robo en la Noche & Mata la Piñata
8th grade will be reading Robo en la Noche & Bananas
We are always looking to grow our class libraries and increase the topics / levels of books available to our students & so many parents have asked us how they can help - so we are including our Wishlist for our library for you :)
¡Gracias!
Profe Rozo & Profe Jackson
Reading Intervention:
Welcome back! During the first few weeks of school, we will be using this time to get to know each other, learn what it means to be a part of the Merrill community, as well as our classroom community, and assessing where each student is at with their reading and writing skills. Students will be reading and writing in class every day and will need a couple of classroom supplies: one folder, one composition notebook, and pencils. I’m looking forward to an amazing year of growth with your student, and I hope to meet everyone’s family on back to school night.
Deeper Math: We will begin the year by assessing students’ math levels using IXL. We will send home a diagnostic report in the next couple of weeks. Our classes will follow the grade level math curriculum while also spending time reviewing skills from previous years that students need to refresh. Students can also use this class to keep up with classwork and homework from their other math class. In 6th grade, we will spend the next month on ratios. In 7th grade, we will be working on scaling and proportional relationships. In 8th grade, we will be working on rigid transformations.
STEM:
STEM students will begin a mini unit, Sensor Immersion, in September. This will expose them to the world of sensors and the possibilities they bring to our everyday lives. We’ll jump into coding and learn how humans use this skill to get the sensors to do what we want. Towards the end of the mini unit students will begin to brainstorm their own ideas on how to use the sensors and create their own projects.
Band & Orchestra:
Our first unit of the year will be developing our sound on instruments. Returning students will deepen their understanding of tone production and technical facility. New students will pick their instruments and learn the first three notes.
All students will need an instrument.
Band instrument choices are
Flute, Oboe, Clarinet/Bass Clarinet, Bassoon, Saxophone (alto, tenor, or baritone), Trumpet, French Horn, Trombone, Baritone/Euphonium, Tuba, Percussion
Percussionists will need their own snare sticks and xylophone mallets, labeled with their own stick bag. Consider getting a practice pad and bell kit for at home practice.
Orchestra instrument choices are Violin, Viola, Cello, Upright Bass.
7th and 8th graders need their instrument by Monday 8/29
6th graders need their instrument by Friday 9/2
We have limited instruments available to rent from the school, so it is highly recommended you rent from one of the local stores. If you are financially unable to rent from a store, please fill out the instrument rental agreement (ask Mx. D) and we will provide one for your student. Local stores that provide rentals and rent-to-own programs are listed on your student’s Schoology page for band or orchestra.
AVID:
AVID Students will be beginning the tutorial process which is a system of peer questioning designed to lead students to problem solve struggles in core classes. Students will also be assembling their AVID binder and planner in order to stay organized for the year. They will also begin the process of researching culture and what is important to them personally as they move forward with researching college and career choices.
Creative Writing:
Students will begin to look at modern writing to better understand all of the ways writing is used in our world. Students will create stickers and memes to warm up their writing skills as we go more in depth with mentor texts and using peer review and revision techniques.
Multilingual Education (MLE):
7th grade MLE will be diving into our first unit titled “The Power of Art.” During this unit we will explore the question of “What is art and why is it so powerful?” During this unit, students will look at how art is used as a tool of expression and resistance/resilience. Students will learn new vocabulary and language forms to explain, analyze and argue what art is and the power it holds. Ultimately, students will be working towards creating their own piece of artwork and writing an artist's statement describing it.