Earth Day

Sunset Elementary celebrated Earth Day the week of April 22, 2009.  The students participated in many events to honor our planet.   Every student in the school planted a seed. This project required the students to care for the seed and watch it grow.    During the “Making Our School Beautiful Campaign” students were encouraged to participate by cleaning-up an area around the school.  The students had the opportunity to visit the “Outdoor Classroom”, there they visited several stations.  The stations were designed to engage students in hands-on activities and to observe food chains, life cycles, and colors in nature.  To culminate, a miracle tree was planted in the “Outdoor Garden”.  Students, parent volunteers, teachers, and custodians helped make Earth Day at Sunset a memorable event; one which provided authentic environmental experiences for life long learning.

To view pictures from Earth Day at Sunset, please click on photo gallery. 

Career Day 2009 was a success! Our PK-2 grade students participated in “hands-on” environmental presentations with calm, people friendly animals hosted by Safari Edventure Camp! Also, we had guest speakers from all lines of work who opened a world of career information to our students. We are extremely grateful to our supportive parents and all guest speakers who volunteered their time. Our students had an amazing learning experience!

To view pictures from career day please click on photo gallery.

      Ms. Concepcion and Ms. Lincey's class decided to celebrate Black History Month by doing a play titled Abe and   the Runaway Slaves. This play honors Abraham Lincoln as well as the African-Americans that he helped. It reminds us of the horrible suffering and the mistreatment that the slaves went through. It also depicts how Abraham Lincoln helped the slaves at every stage of his life, even when he was just a poor farm boy. The students really enjoyed the preparation and production of this play. We congratulate them on a "Job Well Done!"

To view pictures of the play please click on Photo Gallery

Kids for Kindness creates team for JDRF Walk

We are happy to announce that Kids for Kindness will be participating as a team once again in the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) Walk at Metro Zoo.  The walk will take place Sunday, March 21st at 8:30 a.m. 

We hope you are able to join us on this great day.  If you can't join us, but would like to sponsor one of our team members, we welcome that too. A $1.00 donation will receive a JDRF "shoe" which will be displayed outside of the International office with the name of the donor.

                                            Bricks for Sale!

Right now, SEED is offering a unique opportunity for Sunset families. SEED will be collecting donations for  bricks which will grace International Plaza, at the entrance to the new building, now under construction. Donations will be accepted throughout the year, but space is limited. Do not miss this unique opportunity! You can fill out the order form and mail it to SEED. T-shirts for those who purchased a brick are also available.

Order Form

View the SEED website for more information: http://sunsetseed.net/default.aspx

Kids 4 Kindness Event

This quarter our global question is: “Why is it important for a global citizen to become aware of other cultures?” As we study about cultures around the world we are learning that not all children are as fortunate as we are.

 Last week, 4^th and 5^th grade students in the Kids4Kindness club collected shoe boxes which were filled with items for students in impoverished countries.  This holiday season Kids 4 Kindness is participating in the world’s largest distribution of holiday gift boxes.  Last year alone more than 7.6 million shoe boxes were collected and distributed to hundreds of thousands of children all around the world!  From the floating villages of Cambodia, to the rural villages in Africa, over the Andes Mountains of South America, these shoe boxes are carried by boats, planes, llamas, motorcycles, and camels to reach boys and girls who live in the most isolated places.  By participating in Operation Christmas Child, our students are making a difference in our world no matter how old they are. 

Presidential Elections

Students in 4^th grade at Sunset participated in voting for President on November 3^rd. Each student was required to take their voter’s registration card in order to cast their vote at the polling place in the gazebo. Thank you to Ms. Gonzalez for putting this activity together for our students.

The results: Barack Obama/Joe Biden won the popular vote!

View pictures by click on photo gallery.

German Students answer essential question

Fifth grade German students established fun and interesting power point presentations in reference to the Global Curriculum. "What are the roles and responsibilities of a Global citizen?" is a question that definitely applies to the classroom environment and its students. Therefore, students composed a "class motto, class pledge, a class song, and class rules" using tools like i-tunes, video, and animation. If you want to enjoy the German fifth graders' presentations, please, use that link: http://msbrown.wikispaces.com/Our+projects

Have fun, Frau Infante & Frau Brown 

In preparation for the study of the classic French novel in children literature,  L'Oeil du loup,   which deals with the relationship between an African boy and an Alaskan wolf, some fourth grade students in M.Driss's class went about researching the wolf  and making presentations in French that offered a wealth of information from where the name came from to the way of life, to endangered species...etc.

 Others went about researching the prejudices in the literature against the wolf and the stereotypes that are passed on from generation to generation about the wolf, and that are told to us in children's story books. The novel will attempt to dispel such prejudice and stereotypes.

Two 4th grade students, Diego and Jonah are only too eager to go to primary French classes such as first, second and third grades to make their presentations. If you are interested, please let me M.Driss know. 

Play Area Makeover

Over the weekend, parents from Mrs. Chica's pre-k class created a play area right in front of the pre-k portable… it was done totally with donations…Parents made an enclosed mulch area that has a covered portion and includes two playhouses, a sand box, basketball area, hopscotch, cars and trucks. The kids already love their new area, and having this area gives the teachers and students a lot of flexibility and not to mention a safe area to play. 

The Fairchild Challenge Award Ceremony took place on May 13th.  The entries were Art: Nature's Design, Creative Writing: "If I were a seed", School Garden and Environmental Actions. 

Sunset Students did wonderfully, the following students were recognized.

Nature's Design (PreK-2nd): 1st Place: Ximena Puig

Honorable Mentions: John Ballard, Raphael Uribe

(3rd-5th): 1st Place: Sebastian Thiem

Honorable Mentions: Dorothy Morgan

Creative Writing (Pre-K-2nd Grade): 1st Place: Adriana Baumann

(3rd-5th): Honorable Mentions: Robert Curtis

School Garden: Honorable Mention

Environmental Action: Honorable Mention

3 Top-Scoring Elementary Schools: Third Place overall and a check for $250.00

Thank you to all the teachers who participated including Ms. Soltz, Ms. Pou, our Art Teachers for their work and judging the entries, Ms. Millares, Ms. Hoytink, Ms. Ramirez, Ms. Rodriguez and Ms. Sandoval for their contribution to the Outdoor Classroom gardens. 

• Teams were given $100,000 to play for 10 weeks in the fall of this year
• Teams bought and sold stock on the NYSE, AMEX, and NASTAQ
• Sponsors were Merrill Lynch and the SIFMA South Southeast District

 One Sunset fifth-grade Pangea team competing in the Elementary / Middle School Category came in FIRST place for the highest equity value of all portfolios

 The students, and their teacher, Ms. Soltz, were recognized at a luncheon at the Bonaventure Country Club in Weston, FL.

Congratulations!!

 Sebastian Salathe

Nicolas Brunk

Steven Stallings

Johnathon Perez

Kenny Amor

Diego Garcia

DCCTM Math Bowl
8 students from Sunset participated in the DCCTM Math Bowl this Saturday.

Click on photo gallery to view pictures from this event!

All of our students did well, but our Primary Team did exceptionally well!   They were in the finals for the Math Relay which qualified them for competing on stage which was very exciting!!!

 They also earned FIRST PLACE in the Problem Solving Category

and SECOND PLACE in the Brain Teasers category.  WOW!!!!

We are very proud of these students and the way that they all represented our school!  Thank you to all teachers for the work you do to prepare our students to be so well rounded and confident.  It shows.  :-)

2008 Math Bowl Team Members

  Primary                   Intermediate

Diego Coviella            Andrew Allen

Matias Junghan          Camille Dulin

    Jackson Lamb             Reuben Joseph

     Henry Santer              Karine Kaufman

Superintendant's Honors Music Festival

14 of our Sunset students made the cut for the Miami-Dade Honors ensembles!!! They attended tryouts and had to compete with students from the whole district. We have students participating in the ensembles for chorus, bells and orchestra!

Congratulations to Ms. Finol for an outstanding job preparing our students!

Sunset Elementary was awarded the 2007 Goldman Sachs Foundation Prize for Excellence in International Education. Only one Elementary/Middle School is awarded this prize each year!

The Goldman Sachs Foundation Prize for Excellence in International Education is a national competition first launched in 2003, which recognizes outstanding achievement by those in the education sector who promote cultural awareness, world history, and an international studies curriculum as essentials in the development of the next generation of young Americans.

Four prizes of $25,000 are awarded annually to an elementary/middle school; a high school; a district or state; and a media or technology program. All prize participants demonstrated impressive innovation in leveraging existing education resources, in exploring new approaches to teaching about the world, in curriculum, exchanges, teacher preparation and in integrating technology and informal learning methods.

Dr. Sarria accepts the prize check for $25,000!

ELEMENTARY/MIDDLE SCHOOL PRIZE
Sunset Elementary School, Miami, Florida

Sunset Elementary School is an urban magnet and neighborhood school that, for the past 20 years, has offered a unique International Studies magnet program to its diverse student population. The program offers an inquiry-based, global curriculum focused on the topics of civic responsibility, cultural and environmental awareness, and knowledge of the global economy. Coursework includes foreign language programs in Spanish, French and German and instruction in math, science and social studies in these languages. The International Studies program is delivered in alignment with the curricula of the Ministries of Education of Spain, France, and Germany, and students are assessed through both state and international tests of academic achievement and language proficiency. In addition to these languages, Sunset began to offer courses in Mandarin in 2007.

 1,038 amazing Mathletes from Sunset participated in this exciting online global event on March 5th. Together with students from around the globe, we were able to break the world record and solve 182 million math problems in one day!

Due to the overwhelming response, use of www.worldmathday.com has been extended! Mathletes keep it up! How many problems can we solve?

Sunset Elementary's Gifted Program, Pangea, has received a $10,000.00 Grant from the Department of Education to create an 'Outdoor Classroom.  This area is being developed by teachers, students, parent volunteers, and community members to provide a living laboratory in which our students can investigate and appreciate the natural world around them.  It is in direct correlation with or Global Curriculum and engages students within the big idea of 'What can you do to preserve our environment?'Our students are engaged in creating planter boxes for experiments, vegetable raised beds, a butterfly and herb garden, a hardwood hammock, a water garden(bog-pond), a greenhouse, composting station and weather station. 

1^st Place: Jan Andersan, Grade 4, Mr. Truby

2^nd Place: Kevin Ponce, Grade 4, Ms. Curbelo

3^rd Place: Olivia Cabrera, Grade 4, Ms. Hutin

Pangea 1^st through 5^th grade students are bringing the wonder of the outdoors to all Sunset students.  The Florida Department of Education has awarded Sunset Elementary a $10,000.00 Challenge Grant Collaborative Curriculum Project for the Gifted.  The Museum of Science is collaborating with us by providing us resources and professional development. The Challenge is for our Pangea students to build an ‘Outdoor Classroom’, which will include a raised bed vegetable garden, a butterfly garden, an herb garden, a bird’s paradise, hardwood hammocks, the liquid of life (bog-pond) and a greenhouse to experiment under controlled conditions and with a hydroponics system.  The ‘Outdoor Classroom’ will be completed by March, 2008 to be used as a teaching resource by teachers and students.  Please come by and see the work in progress, across the PTA room.

We are happy to announce that we now have Unlimited access for one year to BrainPOP, BrainPOPJr and BrainPOP Espanol! Students and teachers at Sunset will be able to access BrainPOP during school hours and from their homes. The username and password for all 3 sites is, Username: dadesunset Password: miamidade. Brainpop offers animated movies on tons of subjects. Additionally, after each 2-5 minute movie a quiz is offered to help review information. Teachers and kids at Sunset love this site!! 

Grades K-2- www.brainpopjr.com

Grades 3-5- www.brainpop.com

Español- http://es.brainpop.com/

Sunset Ambassador Mural Project

Student ambassador's are working on a new mural for Sunset. To learn more about the ambassadors, click here.

      We're Going Global!

Sunset Elementary School along with Miami-Dade County Public Schools will focus on preparing our students for a “global society”. This summer, a Curriculum Task Force met to develop a Global Curriculum for all students.  We are certain that our students will have the necessary skills to become successful global citizens. Teachers attended a Global Curriculum workshop on Oct. 8th, to view pictures from this event please click on the photo gallery link.

Hands-On Minds-On Science Lab!

The ribbon cutting ceremony for our lab is coming up. Student's will be working in the lab once every two weeks with our Math and Science Coaches.

United Way Student Campaign

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