Jaguar Journal Vol. 28
March 17, 2023
Hello #FAMILY,
Only 4 more days until Spring Break. Can you believe it?
Our Black Student Alliance, More Than Music, Ms. G, Mr. Heath and Ms. Rhianna created a wonderful celebration for our school. Thank you for the positive messages and a beautiful production.
CMAS begins on Monday. Please ensure your students charge their Chromebook, sleep well, eat a good breakfast, and are on time. Encourage them to do their best and show what they know. We can't wait to celebrate their growth!
PLEASE GIVE US FEEDBACK. Merrill appreciates your partnership to be the best we can be. This student and parent feedback will drive our next collaborative parent evening on April 18th from 5:30-6:30. Survey here. We will provide this link for the next few weeks to ensure we receive as much feedback as possible.
Have a great weekend!
#FAMILY
BSA LED ASSEMBLY AND AT THE TABLE WITH DR. KING -
We’re Black and We’re Proud Speech Given at the BSA Assembly:
"Our commitment as Black Students is to pursue excellence, uphold high standards, and like Martin Luther had a Dream, we also have a Dream. Our dream is that we at Merrill will come together and celebrate our Blackness along with everyone else's culture as well!
Today, we are excited to give you a taste of our history, culture, and heritage. We hope you enjoy this experience!"WAY TO GO, ORCHESTRA!
THANK YOU SPEECH
#FAMILY
HOPE TO SEE YOU TOMORROW - MARCH 18th @ 1:30 PM FOR THE MUSICAL
We have been working so hard on the musical and tickets are on sale NOW! Please come and support our wonderful and talented thespians! Runtime is approximately
60 minutes with no intermission. Friday’s show will be streamed!
BUY TICKETS HERE OR at the door.
See you at the show!
WE HAVE A PENNY WARS WINNER! THANK YOU FOR CARING ABOUT YOUR NEIGHBORS AND THE WORLD!
Ms. Botello's class was the winner of Penny Wars,. They brought in 50 rolled pennies and almost no one countered them. They will get Noodles catered when we return from break.
Patterson's and Franklin's classes made the most money, about 100 dollars each. AVID will be sponsoring a doughnut breakfast for them.
Merrill students and staff brought in over 700 dollars in change on Friday.
And between Ice bucket and penny wars the last three weeks students/families/staff have donated over 2,000.00 to help others.
How cool is that!
MAKE UP PARTY
Congratulations to Merrill's Destination Imagination (DI) Teams!
Teams were:
3rd place: “The Awesome Cookie Bois” Colin Aron, Ezra Kiefer, Zaric Ramirez-Walters
1st place: “No Test Runs Required” Andrew Salis, Jack Pereira, Lily Meehan
Rocking Our Socks for World Down Syndrome Awareness Day - Tuesday, March 21st.
Merrill will be rocking our socks to support World Down Syndrome Awareness Day on March 21, 2023.
AVID FIELD TRIP
MERRILL AUCTION POWERS UPDATE!
EARLY BIRD PRICING ENDS TONIGHT!
UPCOMING EVENTS FOR MERRILL THAT NEED YOUR SUPPORT
UPCOMING DATES:
CMAS 3/20-3/22
Auction - 4/14 - Get Your Early Bird Tix Tonight
Conferences Coming Soon - 4/26-4/27
One Campus Party - 4/27
SOUL NIGHT -5/25
DINE OUT AT BIRDCALL, TUESDAY AND EARN 25% FOR MERILL!
Dine out for Merrill ALL DAY Tuesday 3/21 at Bird Call (1535 E. Evans Ave, Denver, CO 80210.) Birdcall will donate 25% back to Merrill! Guests must provide code mms0321 at the beginning of placing the order.
Can You Help Us Get Donations?
Get your Auction Powers tickets HERE and join us for the event on April 14th. Even if you can't make it, there is a ticket to bid on some groovy items in the on-line auction!
DONATION FORM IF YOU ARE STILL SECURING DONATIONS- Donations of products and services help us reach our auction goal! Here is the donation form:
HOW PARENTS CAN SUPPORT THEIR YOUTH WITH SUBSTANCE PREVENTION- WATCH THE VIDEO WEBINAR
If you have any questions, please contact Nahal Khalatbari, and school health professional at 720-424-0626
Please watch the video here.
Upcoming Parent Webinar: Tools to Support Youth Navigating Anxiety- April 5, 2023 at 12:00 pm
Listen to this great talk about anxiety in children. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKB7GZ0KAwo
CMAS INFORMATION - PLEASE READ!
Starting on March 20, 2023, Colorado students begin taking CMAS, the Colorado Measures of Academic Success. CMAS measures student proficiency on the Colorado Academic Standards. These standards provide clear and consistent guidelines on what students should know and be able to do at the end of the year, across grade levels and subject areas.
Grades 3-8 will take English language arts and math assessments. 8th graders will also take a science assessment.
Content Tested: Grade Levels
English Language Arts (ELA): 6th, 7th, 8th Grade
Math: 6th, 7th, 8th Grade
Science: 8th Grade
Calendar: The calendar below was created to communicate to you when the state assessments, Colorado Measurement of Academic Success (CMAS), are occurring. We believe that communicating these dates will help us by ensuring your child gets plenty of sleep and a good breakfast everyday, but especially the day of assessments. If there are doctors appointments or other appointments that need to be made, we hope this calendar will help you to make those appointments on non-assessment days. Going forward, the best place to see the most up-to-date calendar is on the school website at http://merrill.dpsk12.org/.
Attendance: We also want to communicate that all students should be in school on-time, all day and everyday, regardless of whether assessments are occurring or not. Important teaching and learning happens in-between testing, so it is imperative that students are here. Our expectations remain around vacations and we expect parents to continue to plan vacations around the DPS Calendar.
Make-Ups: Students do best when they are in their classroom environment for testing. In the event that your child has to miss a test session, they will have to make-up the test another time and will be pulled during their instructional time to do so. To prevent disruption to your child’s day and other students’ day, please make sure that your child is at school everyday and limit their absences to only when they are sick.
Student practice resources can be found here: https://coassessments.com/practice-resources/. More information about assessments in DPS can be found here: https://assessments.dpsk12.org.
If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me. Thank you, and go Jaguars!
The following are additional resources from the Colorado Department of Education: http://www.cde.state.co.us/communications/cmaspurposeandvalue22-0 http://www.cde.state.co.us/communications/resourcesforparents
HOW IN THE WORLD DO I GET INTO SCHOOLOGY?
HAVE YOU TAKEN SOME GREAT PHOTOS DURING EVENTS AT MERRILL?
ONLINE BOOKS AVAILABLE 24/7/365
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MORE RESOURCES IN OUR COMMUNITY
MERRILL JAGUAR ATHLETICS
Congrats to those that made the soccer team! You can get some Merrill Soccer Swag right HERE before Spring Break. Pop up store ends 3/27!
6TH GRADE BOYS AND GIRLS BASKETBALL OPPORTUNITY:
Below are the links to register your student for 6th grade basketball. We have not decided when students will practice, games will be on Saturdays in a round robin format at different host schools.
We are wanting to see how many students are interested as we move forward.
Boys 6th Grade Basketball Registration for Boys
Girls 6th Grade Basketball Registration for Girl
Soccer Coach Kirk Heath kirk_heath@dpsk12.net
Coach Vince Franklin vincent_franklin@dpsk12.net
Please send all athletic questions to vincent_franklin@dpsk12.net or call 720.424.0621
Sign Up For Gold Crown Basketball
Sign up Here to focus on the Fundamentals, a clinic series that runs multiple times a year. Each event will feature a guest clinician, including collegiate coaches and players. These clinics are a great opportunity for players to get extra skill and repetitions in a competitive setting. Players should come ready to be work hard and stay moving!
- Open to 3rd – 8th grade boys and girls
- Recreational - Competitive skill level
- Held at the Gold Crown Field House
- Participants will be divided onto courts based on age and ability
- Clinic includes skills/drills/stations, small group competition (1on1, 2on2), and scrimmaging
Wednesday, March 15, 2023
5:45 pm - 7:00 pm
REGISTRATION FEE:
$25 per player
CONTACT:
Cool Classroom ~Leprechauns spotted at Merrill!
AT HOME CONVERSATION STARTERS
What did you learn or discover at the assembly today? It was called, "At the Table with Dr. King."