Sunshine STEM Academy Newsletter

Dear Sunshine Community,

I would like to share another outstanding achievement we have received at the national level. One of our First grade students, Varun Gadi has received 1st place in National Chess Championship in K-1 category.

Congratulations to our National Chess Champion!

MAP Testing Winter Term is now completed. We will close testing window today. Reports will be sent home this week.

One of our Robotics teams, GreenBots FLL robotics team will be competing this weekend at Walton FLL Regional Robotics competition. I wish good luck for Greenbots!

I wish you a wonderful week!

Sincerely,

Murat Cetin, Head of School

mcetin@SunshineSTEMacademy.org

One our 1st grade students, Varun Gadi has received 1st place in the Nationwide Chess Championship in K-1 Category.

Congratulations to Varun Gadi!

Sunshine STEM Academy is exciting to host the 2016 National Geographic GeoBee preliminary competition on January 22. The National Geographic GeoBee is a school, state, and nation-wide competition created by the National Geographic Society. Each year, thousands of students throughout the United States participate in this exciting contest, which is designed to motivate students to learn about the world and how it works.

Students in grades four through eight are eligible for this entertaining and challenging competition. With a top prize of a $50,000 college scholarship—plus other prizes—the contest is designed to encourage teachers to include geography in their classrooms, spark student interest in the subject, and increase public awareness about geography.

Sunshine STEM Academy students in fourth and fifth grade will participate in the preliminary competition on January 22. Students will be presented with a variety of geography related trivia questions. The top-performing student from the preliminary competition will be presented with a medal and certificate. As the school-wide champion, this student will represent Sunshine STEM Academy in the state-level competition, April 1.

For more information on the 2016 National Geographic GeoBee, including practice questions, please visit www.NatGeoBee.com or check out the app at www.nationalgeographic.com/geobee/apps

If you have any concerns regarding participation in the 2016 National Geographic GeoBee, please contact our GeoBee coordinator, Ms. Hewett at ahewett@sunshinestemacademy.org

Our School-wide Spelling Bee competition will be held on Friday, January 15th.

MAP Winter Term has been completed. Results will be shared with parents after this week and uploaded to Portal by end of this week.

We would like to share some Study Island reports below.

FLL or (First Lego League) is the opportunity for kids to have fun with programming and learn Core Values that they will use forever. It’s a fun club where kids like us can work with our creativity. The topic for this year is Trash Trek. In this challenge, you are supposed to be able to represent how to find uses for trash. Our school, Sunshine STEM Academy is one of the schools that have a Robotics club.

We are one of the FLL teams alongside another team in our school. Our team members are Zain Ghazanfar, Viswas Sreenathan, Mohana Malapati, Ansh Shah and Akshaj Shajeev. To select our team name we had many suggestions, such as Botcyclers, Ecotronic, and Green Bots etc. But in the end we voted for the name Green Bots, and we decided our motto is, “Stop pollution with our solution.” We learnt that there are two types of recycling (source separating and single stream recycling).

We also learned an important lesson, “Recycle whatever you can, but recycle what is right”. We went on many field trips, like to the Roswell Recycling Center, and Senator John Albers office. These field trips are a small part of all the fun we have been having in Robotics. Our problems were not that people would not recycle, but it was that many people didn’t separate correctly and put their recyclables in the right bins. And also, people don’t know where the nearest recycling centers are. The last thing that they do wrong is that they recycle food contaminated items such as greasy pizza boxes, those items cannot be recycled.

But in the end, for our solution we made an app called “Where to Recycle”. It helps you find the nearest recycling center to you so that you can recycle some unknown recyclables such as oil. This app will be available in two weeks. Spread the word about us to everybody. And don’t forget, “Stop pollution with our solution!”

As we are getting into that time of year when wintery precipitation can cause school cancellations or delayed school openings, we’d like to remind you to listen to local radio or TV stations for any advisements. Sunshine STEM Academy will communicate school closing information via Sangha App about the school closing due to inclement weather. Parents, please download Sangha App to follow up our announcements and school events.

Please mark your calendar for 1st Semester Award Ceremony! All students in all grades will attend an awards ceremony Friday, January 18th in the gymnasium at the following times:

Award certificates will be issued for Principal's Honor Roll (all A's), Honor Roll (A's & B's) and Perfect Attendance. Parents are invited to attend.

2nd Round MOEMS Math Competition will be held on December 15th at 8:00 AM.

There will be no Clubs-Tutoring-Academic Team Meetings on the week of December 14-18. There will be only one carpool from 3:20 PM to 3:45 PM every day on the last week of 1st semester.

We would like to host our parents at our annual Donut with Dads and Muffin with Moms event. Please see schedule below. We would like to see at this special event. Please RSVP if you would like to attend.

• Donut with Dads December 15 - 7:00 AM to 7:45 AM
  
• Muffin with Moms December 16 - 7:00 AM to 7:45 AM
  

Add RSVP Form

Holiday class parties will be held on December 17 and December 18. Your homeroom teacher will contact parents on which day students will have the holiday party.

Sunshine STEM Academy Student Council organizes school-wide Food Drive at our school. Collected items will be donated to Atlanta Community Food Bank. Please encourage your child to give back to their community by donating non-perishable food to our Food Drive.

The food drive is held on between November 17th and December 15th.

Please find list of the most needed items below. We appreciate your donation.

Sunshine STEM Academy offers College Mentorship Program for our 5th grade students.

Administration invites all 5th grade parents to the parent meeting. We will provide information about the College Mentorship Program, structure, and expectations.

5th grade parents, please join us on December 15th to discuss about our College Mentorship Program.

Sunshine STEM Academy will offer middle school grade starting 2016-17 school year. We would like to invite our 5th grade parents to Middle School Presentation which will be held on January 14th, 2016.

APOOGEE is now accepting tax credit applications for 2016. Please take a moment to re-direct your tax dollars in order to provide much-needed scholarship funds to help academically qualified, mission-compatible students afford a Sunshine STEM Academy education.

Please watch the video below to get a quick overview of the Apogee Tax Credit Program.

You are already paying income taxes – why not direct those funds to Sunshine STEM Academy. By contributing to APOGEE for a tax credit, you will provide opportunities for Georgia families desiring to attend Sunshine STEM Academy. Our school is then able to:

• increase the amount of tuition assistance that can be offered to new students
• preserve more of our existing tuition assistance to help families already enrolled
• increase enrollment
• increase tuition income
• increase the funds available to improve educational offerings
• enable the school to further its mission by reaching more families desiring a STEM education

What is the Maximum Amount I Can Contribute?

• Single individual or head of household – up to $1,000
• Married couple filing joint return – up to $2,500
• Married couple filing separate return – up to $1,250
• C Corporation – 75% of Georgia income tax liability
• S Corporation shareholder, LLC member, or partnership partner – up to $10,000

We all have an opportunity to redirect a portion of our Georgia State Tax dollars, (money we are already paying), to Sunshine STEM Academy.

How Do I Participate?

• Go to apogeebase.com/donate
• Please select new donor and provide the information requested after selecting “filing type”
• Hit submit and you will receive an email confirmation Apogee that your request has been received and will be submitted to the DOR on Jan 1, 2016 for approval.
• Click here to complete APOGEE’S Online Paperless Process, or
• Click here for the APOGEE Contribution Form; print the form and mail or bring to Sunshine STEM Academy.

Once you receive notification of your approval, please make a check payable to “Apogee Scholarship Fund” in the amount of your contribution and mail to Apogee Scholarship Fund, 3330 Cumberland Blvd, Suite 400 Atlanta, GA 30339, or simply Click here to pay online.

APOGEE will send you the required paperwork to claim the credit on your tax return.

Please see upcoming important days below. Please mark your calendar for our upcoming events.

• December 1-7: MAP Test Winter Term
  
• December 6: Open House
• December 15: Apogee Tax Credit Application Deadline
• December 15: MOEMS Math Competition - 2nd Round
• December 15: College Mentorship Program Introduction - Presentation for 5th Grade Parents
• December 18: Last Day of First Semester
• January 5: First Day of Second Semester
• January 14: Middle School Presentation
• January 15: Schoolwide Spelling Bee Competition
• January 22: Schoolwide National Geography Bee Competition

Robotics FLL Teams Ecobots and GreenBots visited Senator John Albers in effort to present their projects and to receive feedback.

One of our Tech Fair teams prepare a 3D Game for the Tech Fair Competition which will be held in January.

We update our social media channels frequently with the news and happenings at our school. You may follow/like/subscribe us to stay connected. Please share our social media channels with your friends.

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sunshine-STEM-Academy/683495445106457
• Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/sunshinestem
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6upaG6AO7KCueMm_4hfbIw

Sunshine STEM Academy strives for success and continued desire to provide a quality education to all students. With a strong administration, passionate teachers, and enthusiastic support staff, Sunshine STEM Academy as one of the top private schools in Atlanta is pleased to continue offering exciting learning environments to foster the growth and development of young scholars.

Email: info@sunshinestemacademy.org
Website: http://sunshinestemacademy.org/
Location: 1675 Hembree Rd, Alpharetta, GA 30009
Phone: 770-674-0010
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sunshine-STEM-Academy/683495445106457
Twitter: @SunshineSTEM

Our doors are open! Sunshine STEM Academy Open House information.