Timber Wolf Times

Dear Trailside Families,

Dear Parents and Guardians,

In our efforts to increase parent communication between home and school, we have developed a pathway for parents and/or students to ask questions of our team. If you have questions regarding anything from learning to school process and practices, please click on the following form. We will publish questions and answers each week in the parent newsletter.

As shared, this form (https://forms.gle/E1JzqWbHTbsgNA4v8)

Thank you for your continued support of our commitment to provide a safe and caring learning environment for our students.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Beichler

Do you like making vehicles, putting together structures, writing, painting, acting, singing, or solving problems? Do you like answering puzzling questions and creating funny and creative plays? Join Odyssey of the Mind! There something for everyone! Millions of students around the world have fun participating in this program, learning to think on their feet to solve spontaneous verbal and hands-on problems and collaborating in a team to solve exciting long-term problems without parental assistance. There are no wrong answers here. In fact, the creative and unique answers are often the best! For more information about Odyssey of the Mind, please visit http://www.odysseyofthemind.com or contact Jen Reif at

odyssey@trailsidemiddleschoolpta.org or 703-409-0568. Ready to register? Please complete the registration form HERE .

SignUpGenius: https://m.signupgenius.com/#!/showSignUp/8050b49adab2aabfd0-toydrive1

GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/toy-drive-2021?utm_campaign=p_cf+share-flow-1&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer

Thanks!

Stone Bridge DECA Toy Drive Team

Ana Burlacu, Riley Jackman, & Megan Simanowith

“Showing gratitude is one of the simplest yet most powerful things humans can do for each other.”
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture

Email: bridget.beichler@lcps.org
Website: https://www.lcps.org/Trailside
Location: 20325 Claiborne Parkway, Ashburn, VA, USA
Phone: 571 252 2280
Twitter: @TrailsideMiddleSchool

Registration for this year’s Step Up Loudoun Youth Competition (SULYC) has been open for about a month, and I wanted to take a minute to thank you for your time and efforts in encouraging students to participate. Some of you have arranged to show our short video about SULYC during your morning announcements. Thank you and please consider showing the video (attached) a few more times to help spread the word.

Trailside has purchased the premium features of Pear Deck again this school year. This tool allows teachers to provide a more interactive learning experience for students. Teachers can transform existing Google Slides, PowerPoint Presentations or PDFs into interactive presentations, or choose to build presentations from scratch. Additionally, there are options for formative assessments, discussion prompts, diagnostics, or exit tickets. You can learn more about this software here: https://www.peardeck.com/active-learning

Pear Deck is designed for use in schools and is currently used at many LCPS schools, and they are committed to the highest standards of protection for student data and personally identifiable information (“PII”) at all times. Their Privacy Policy can be found here: https://github.com/peardeck/policies/blob/master/privacy-policy.md

Please complete the following Permission Click form to indicate whether or not you give permission for your child(ren)’s teachers to use this learning tool with them: https://permission.click/MX1Jp/us

This month we highlighted two genres, Horror and Supernatural. Books that are classified as Horror are made to scare or frighten the reader while books in the Supernatural genre have paranormal characters such as vampires, werewolves, and ghosts. These genres are closely related as many books that fall in Horror genre also contain paranormal characters.

The first library contest of the 2021 -2022 school year is under way! We are hosting a Literary Pumpkin decorating contest. This contest is open to all students in all grade levels. Students are asked to decorate a pumpkin with either their favorite literary character or a scene from a fiction book. Prizes will be awarded to the top 3 vote getters. Students are encouraged to use recycled materials or materials that they can find around the home. Students are expected to complete their submissions at home, and they are welcome to use any type of pumpkin that they would like (fake or real). The library had a small number of Styrofoam pumpkins to give to students at each grade level and they were available on a first come first serve basis. Students will upload pictures of their finished product onto the Trailside Library's Schoology Course which all students enrolled in during their September Library Orientation sessions. The deadline to submit an entry is November 9th.

Library Minions have been selected and have begun working in our library. Our Library Minion program gives students the opportunity to volunteer in our library before school, during Pack Time, or during their resource classes when they do not have tests or other work to complete. Minion candidates must fill out an application, get parental permission, and also get a referral from an adult. This fall we had 93 applicants! Students were selected based on first come first serve as well as times of availability. Because of the large number of applicants, Minions will serve one semester, those that were not selected for this semester get the opportunity to serve next semester. Minions are taught how to shelve books properly using the Dewey Decimal system for non-fiction books, and alphabetically by genre and author for our fiction books. They also help to keep our Makerspace area tidy, deliver locker notes, and help with library displays.

October’s makerspace activity was creating and decorating a sugar skull mask on paper. The Mexican tradition of decorating a sugar skull for Day of the Dead, which is celebrated on November 1st and 2nd, is traced back to over 3000 years. The indigenous people of Mexico, the Aztecs, used skulls to honor their dead long before the Spanish Conquistadores arrived in North America. Once the Spanish conquered the Aztec people, they moved the celebrations to coincide with All Saints and All Souls Days which are celebrated on November 1st and 2nd. Traditionally, Mexicans have decorated skulls that are made from sugar; however, in more recent times people will paint their faces to look like skulls or they will wear skull masks with brightly colored, intricate designs. These masks or facial paintings are not meant to be scary but rather they are a celebration of a person’s life, interests, or passions.

Late Bell: 8:35 AM (students are tardy if arriving after the bell and will need to report to the main office for a tardy pass)

Dismissal: 3:23 PM

Trailside Middle School participates in the National PTA Reflections Program and as parents and guardians, you’re in a great position to encourage your kids to reflect on the theme, create an original work and be recognized. The theme for the 2021 program is "I can change the world by ..." which is such a great theme! Adults can't help the students with entries, but they can ENCOURAGE and SUPPORT them. As a student, thinking about how they can change the world is such a worthy challenge. There are six categories available to choose from (and they can enter more than one) - dance choreography, film production, literature, music composition, photography, and visual arts. In an effort to provide an inclusive program, students who identify as having a disability and may receive services under IDEA or ADA: Section 504 may enter in the Special Artist Division or grade division most closely aligned to their functional abilities.

The PTA website has all of the rules for all of the categories posted here - https://tmspta.ptboard.com/school/cm?mid=4270

Submissions are due 11/8 and instructions are on the Reflections page linked above. Gwen Meehan is the POC and can be reached at reflections@trailsidemiddleschoolpta.org if you have any questions.

Thank you so much for supporting our students and their expression of ideas through the arts!!!