Academy Adventures Midtown
-Building on Strengths-
Campbell's Corner
I hope January has started your year off wonderfully!
Thank you to all of our families who joined us for Movie Night! The 2019 version of the Lion King was a huge hit! Everyone had a great time and the snack bar did a booming business. We would like to have another Movie Night in March. Please let your child’s teacher know if you have a suggestion for a movie.
We have more events coming in February. Parent-Teacher Conferences are Wednesday, February 12, through Friday, February 14. Conferences are required so please watch for sign up flyers and be ready to come see how your child(ren) are doing. Love of Reading is Friday, February 14 and we would love to have you come read with and to the students. We will spend the day reading and learning about the authors who write some of our favorite books. We will end the month with Rodeo Break on the 20th and 21st.
Kindergarten & 1st Grade Class
Academy Adventures Midtown has had a great start to a great new year!
Though the Winter Break was relaxing, I missed your Kinders and First Graders GREATLY!
On January 6th, 2020 our class made our New Year Goals. Each of the students set an academic and personal goal, and set a plan to meet the goal. During this time, your students identified what they needed from themselves and myself to ensure success in meeting their goals. Our individual goals are posted in the classrooms as a vision board and daily reminder to work hard for what we want! Please feel free to stop by to look at your students goals!
Throughout the month of January, your students have already started meeting goals!
Kindergarten continues to increase their letter recognition and beginning letter sounds. We practice this recognition daily through identifying pictures that start with the letter of the day! Kindergarten continues to receive PERFECT scores since returning from break! Kindergarten has met the new Super Kid – Sal. Sal is super great at sports, and has taught us some words to sound out through reading about his adventures. All of your students increased in reading comprehension scores, identification and decoding. To say I am proud would be an understatement!
First Grade continue to practice to become professionals at ELA! We have studied fact versus opinion, identifying, recognizing and defining nouns and verbs. Your First Graders have become experts in recognizing the different -ed and -er endings, and how it changes the base word. We will be focusing on prefixes in the upcoming weeks. In the month of February, First Grade will become skilled authors and illustrators of their own short stories. I cannot wait to see what their beautiful, wild and creative minds come up with!
Over the last month, Kinders have been using a lot of brain power to add two numbers with sums up to 10! After each lesson, Kinders work in small groups to complete the written portion of the math lesson, and spend about 20 minutes of math time utilizing individual work time on our new Splash Learn/Math! Splash Learn/Math provides a positive and engaging approach to practice the state standard taught that day, as well as opportunity to master learned skills.
Your First Graders continue to meet or master math skills this year! While learning and mastering the associative property, we continue to practice our skills with Rocket Minute Math and Splash Learn/Math. As a whole class, we have MASTERED 3 sections of math!
As a whole class, we continue to grow our minds through learning and implementing friendly communication skills! Our creativity is practiced multiple times a week through cognitive and sensory stimulating centers/rotations. What seems silly to some, but we have used shaving cream for math, play dough for letters, and Pom-Poms to allow the creativity to flow freely.
I want to continue to thank the parents of Academy Adventures Midtown for ALWAYS supporting the school, staff and the most absolute beautiful atmosphere I have had the privilege to work in!
2nd & 3rd Grade Class
Best Wishes for a wonderful brand-new year to all parents, guardians, and families. We are off to a great start this year. January passed quickly. We are working on learning about Van Gogh in Art. The students made their own version of Van Gogh's Sunflowers, with a cross section of the flower magnified. I put those up in the hallway for us to enjoy. The students enjoyed learning about an interesting artist. This month, we will try to follow-up with another Van Gogh lesson, and our version of a Starry Night.
Thank you, parents, for helping students complete their homework. A few students are doing their homework from the weekly text messages. Anyone whom still needs to sign up, please sign up for text messages to receive the messages, and the homework. I also make copies of them weekly, for any student who wishes to complete the homework and does not currently have access to it. The students receive a Buck certificates to be redeemed for rewards. I know the students are excited about earning bucks, because when the bucks were offered, the homework participation in my class doubled. The students are "Earning Their Way Through Learning."
In Reading the students are reading for comprehension and understanding by reading questions which are directly related to the text. They are learning to go back and reread the text in order to find the correct answers. They also have new opportunities with the computers. Our class is reading three times a week on a computer, Reading A-Z reading program. The students are to take a quiz after reading the story. The quiz will determine their current level status. This will help them reinforce, comprehend, and define what they have read.
In Science the students learned about the scientific method and process, through studying slime. They learned that a chemical change is eminent after mixing ingredients and observing the change in states. The states of matter are ambiguous with this material. Slime moves like a liquid; but behaves like a solid, because it will form the shape of its container. It is behaving as a liquid, and a solid, since it has properties of both. It is a fun material to work with and observe.
In Math the third-grade students are working on learning area, and perimeter. They know the formula for Area and Perimeter, and how to use materials like grids, to find one cubic area measurement. In second grade the students learn number sense with manipulating numbers in the base ten system by placing them and writing them appropriately in their proper place value form.
Just a reminder of a few events coming up on the calendar soon: February
12-14 is Teacher Conference time. This is an important conference to understand where your child is currently, and where they need to be by the end of the year. We will look at some daily schoolwork and some test scores. Please stop by to sign up for a conference time of your choice. Rodeo Holiday is Feb. 20, and 21, NO SCHOOL! Enjoy your break with your children.
I look forward to another wonderful month in Feb. and meeting with you all at parent/teacher conferences soon.
4th & 5th Grade Class
We have new names for the groups in our class. The Lions (formerly known as the 4’s) will continue learning about history and are moving to the Islamic Empires in the Middle Ages. This unit is closely related to our previous unit about the middle ages in Europe. The units are tied by the decline of the Roman Empire and events such as the Crusades. We will be writing informative paragraphs and continue working with root words and suffixes. The Tigers (formerly known as the 5’s) will be reading contemporary fiction and excerpts from various stories. We will be working on comparing and contrasting these stories and reading stories written from different perspectives.
In GoMath, we will be starting new units. The Lions will begin learning about division as well as continuing to practice multi-digit multiplication. The Tigers will move into multiplying decimals and ordering decimals.
The entire class is still practicing multiplication and cursive writing which are both important skills to have.
I look forward to seeing all of you for parent teacher conferences!
Title IVA - Healthy Snack Program
The students continue to enjoy cooking and making their healthy snacks! In addition to cooking, we have added one day a week where the students learn about nutrition and the importance of eating healthy. We encourage you to have your child help you at home preparing family meals and snacks! It provides a fun way for your child to learn about math (measuring ingredients), reading (reading the recipe and following directions) and science (how the ingredients work together).
Here is a recipe the students have enjoyed. Ask your child about it!
ALMOND BUTTER ENERGY BITES
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 0 minutes
Total Time: 15 minutes
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
- 1 ¼ cup old fashioned oats
- 2/3 cup almond butter
- 5 tablespoons Honey
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- ½ Tsp Cinnamon
Instructions
- In a large bowl, stir together all ingredients until well combined.
- Roll into 12 balls** (I used a cookie scoop to get 12 even bites and then rolled them in my hands).
- 3 Store in an airtight container in the fridge.
Title I Parent Participation
We hope you are continuing to enjoy the weekly stories. Reading and discussing that short story with your child will make a huge difference in their academics! You can never read too much with your child!
Thank you to all of our families who attended our Title I Parent Meetings in January. You are an important part of your child's education and your support is essential! We appreciate your feedback, suggestions and continued support!
School Improvement Plan
Thank you to all our families who attended one of the School Improvement meetings in January. We are continuing to improve the program and have seen great results in the students work! We appreciate your continued support.
If you were unable to make one of the meetings, please speak with Mrs. Campbell for additional information and/or any concerns or questions you may have.
ATTENDANCE / TARDIES / EARLY RELEASE
We are seeing an increase in tardies as the year progresses. It is important that students are at school on time! When students arrive late, it could not only easily throw off their day, but also cause them to lose valuable information pertaining to their studies. Every minute counts! Please make an effort to have your children at school on time daily. All students are eligible for free breakfast and can arrive at 7:30 (M, T, Th & F) or 8:30 (W). School begins promptly at 8:00 AM on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Wednesdays school begins promptly at 9:00 AM.
In addition, it is important that your child is in school the entire day so they do not miss out. School is dismissed at 2:15 pm (or 11:30 on Early Dismissal Days). Please try to make appointments on days school is not in session, or after 2:15 pm.
A reminder that a child must be 24 hours fever free, with NO medication before they can return to school after being ill.
If you have any questions, please speak with Mrs. Campbell.
If you park to come into the school, please pay attention to where you are parking and be respectful of the surroundings, including:
- Do Not Block the neighbors driveways
- Do Not Block mailboxes
- Do Not Block the school's three (3) drive ways so people cannot get out of the parking lot
- Do Not Park in front of the school door
- Do Not Block the roadway
We appreciate your attention and cooperation in making the area safer.
- Every Wednesday is Late Start! School begins at 9:00 AM. Students can arrive at 8:30 AM for breakfast. Please do not arrive prior to 8:30 AM, we do not have anyone to monitor your children.
PERFECT ATTENDANCE AWARD!
Congratulations to all the students who had Perfect Attendance! To qualify for Perfect Attendance, students cannot miss a day of school, including “no lates” or “no early outs”.
Iris White
Xavier Camacho
Santiago Carbajal
Brian Lujan
Antony Montano Larios
Evelyn Nguyen Spitler
Erika Veloz Herrera
Gabriel Arenas
ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS!
Congratulations to all the students who received an Academic Achievement Award! The Academic Achievement Award may be given to a student in each class that exhibits excellence in the quality and/or quantity of their school work. Recipients are selected by each classroom teacher. There is one student per month selected from each classroom.
Eli Rico Valencia -
Eli has applied himself to his studies, wanting to ensure he is earning his top scores through increased focus and request for one-to-one differentiation. Eli has improved in all subjects and has reached mastery achievements on Splash Learn!
Piper Kuhn -
Piper works diligently and happily completes her work.
Gabriel Arenas -
Gabriel has been working very hard to understand the concepts he is learning in class and how the things he is learning related to other things he has learned!
ATTITUDE AWARDS!
Congratulations to all the students who received the Attitude Award! A student is selected for an Attitude Award based upon their demonstration of a “want to do” and “can do" academic attitude, along with being positive and having the courage to be imperfect. “If you don’t try, you don’t get!” Recipients are selected by the classroom teacher. There is one student per month selected from each classroom.
Ezekiel Jaramillo -
Ezekiel has presented much growth and improvement in himself over the month of January. Ezekiel is getting the attitude award for his increased positive engagement with his peers and his personal effort in completing his work!
Hindi Dinow -
Hindi is a bright student that loves sharing and helping her family and friends when she is at school.
Aden Dinow -
Aden has been very determined and is working very hard to learn concepts presented in class and he shares his positive attitude with others!
- February12-14, 2020 - Parent/Teacher Conferences! Parent/Teacher Conferences are mandatory for all students. Watch for the sign-up sheet to be sent home.
- February 12-14, 2020 - NO After School!! Due to conferences, there will be no after school program on Wednesday, February 12 thru Friday, February 14, 2020. We apologize for any inconvenience.
- February 14, 2020 - Love of Reading Day! Join us for a day of Literacy Fun! The entire day will be focused on Literacy Activities and Reading! Come read with your child, read to a group of student and/or volunteer to help with activities!
- February 19, 2020 - Early Release & NO After School! Wednesday, February 19, 2020, will be a Late Start (9:00 AM) as well as an Early Release (11:30 AM). There will be NO after school program!
- February 20-21, 2020 - Rodeo Break! School will be closed for Rodeo Break on Thursday and Friday.
Academy Adventures Midtown
Email: info@academyadventuresmidtown.com
Website: https://academyadventuresmidtown.com
Location: 3025 North Winstel Boulevard, Tucson, AZ, USA
Phone: (52) 777-3757
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Academy-Adventures-Midtown-sponsored-by-Ed-Ahead-601505409905965/