The Innovative Programs Showcase is on Saturday January 7, 2023 from 10-3 at Tates Creek High School. Current scholars do not have to apply to Rise, but any new scholars including siblings need to apply during the window which opens on January 7. Please go too fcps.net/apply to register for the lottery. Select the sibling choice when prompted to ensure your registration.

Presentation of Learning for Quarter 2 will be on Thursday January 19. Please see the flyer for details including times and projects.

Craig

Dear Phoenix Families,

Rise STEM Academy will begin using a Social Emotional Learning Curriculum called Strong Kids. Strong Kids is a program designed to build resiliency skills by teaching students how to handle typical life stressors and difficult, but common, social situations in a positive manner. The curriculum will be taught by me during a new special area rotation called Guidance Connection! The curriculum will entail in-class discussions, activities, and assignments as well as occasional homework tasks. We will begin January 9th and it will continue for approximately 12 weeks.

Resiliency skills are the skills that students use every day to overcome minor problems in their environment. Some of the skills covered in the resiliency program will be:

• Problem-solving
• Positive-thinking
• Goal-setting
• Empathy
• Anger-management
• Identifying and understanding emotions
• Perspective taking

Our school is committed to ensuring that all students get through their school years not only with strong academic skills but also with the skills necessary to foster resiliency and prevent social, emotional, and behavioral problems that can impact success in various areas of a student’s life.

Please reach out to me if you have any questions about this curriculum or the new Guidance Connection class.

As part of the YMCA program we have the opportunity to create sports teams for the YMCA recreational program. This Spring they will be offering soccer. The advantage for this program is that all team practices will be at Rise during the after school program (day of week TBD). We will form as many teams as possible.

March 13 - Practices Begin

March 25 - Games Begin (Saturdays at the North YMCA)

May 13 - Final Games

We will be looking for a coach for each team. If you are interested in mentoring our scholars in this manner please let us know.

If you are interested in your scholar participating, please complete this form by the end of the day January 6, 2023. It is not binding but will give us an idea of how many teams we can form at each level. Currently this is restricted to families participating in the after school program.

Ages: 5-6, 7-8, 9-11.

https://meganhayden.smugmug.com/SiteWebPages/Client-Access

Scroll down to the RISE Academy Dance 1 and RISE Academy Dance 2 albums

Password is: crown22

The KAS Family Guides were developed to help families familiarize themselves with the concepts of each grade level’s standards and include suggestions for how families can reinforce standards content at home. Each guide contains a standards overview for reading and writing, mathematics, science and social studies. Guides are available for grades K-8 and high school and are available in Spanish for Spanish-speaking families.

Check them out on the Standards Family Guides webpage and make plans to share them with families soon!

Science Fair

Our first annual Rise science fair will take place on January 20, 2023. 4th grade scholars who wished to participate, have been working hard with their mentor to design a project, experiment, collect data, and put together a presentation for judging. Scholars in grades K-3 will get to see the projects the day of the science fair as well. The top 10 projects will be chosen to present at the FCSP District Science Fair on February 4, 2023. Can’t wait to see our scholars' hard work.

New Air Filters

3rd grade scholars have been working hard to create new air filters for our classrooms. Mrs. Burns, an Environmental Education Specialist, at the Kentucky Division for Air Quality, spoke with our scholars about the quality of our air and she taught us how to build Corsi-Rosenthal box air cleaners. These were so easy and good for our air. You can even make one at home!

What is a Corsi-Rosenthal Box?

The Corsi-Rosenthal Box is a DIY air cleaner that was originally designed by Dr. Richard Corsi, Dean of Engineering at UC Davis, and David Rosenthal, CEO of filter manufacturer Tex-Air filters. It is useful for lowering the levels of respiratory aerosol particles that contain the virus that causes COVID-19 from indoor air. It is also effective at reducing the levels of other particles in the air, such as dust, mold, pollen, and wildfire smoke. C R Boxes are being used in homes, schools and other locations to improve indoor air quality. They are not HEPA air cleaners, but recent testing at UC Davis and elsewhere has shown that they can be more effective than HEPA air cleaners. Visit cleanaircrew.org/box-fan-filters/ for more info and resources.

Build to Blast Off Winners

Congratulations to 4 scholars selected as a Build to Blast Off Winners! On Friday January 6th Shad Lacefield came dressed as an Astronaut and presented these winning scholars with a LEGO Education BricQ Personal Learning Kit.

Winning Scholars

Peyton Hall

Iyanna Stevenson

Eman Alhourani

Masi Touray

FCPS Minecraft Winners

Recently, our 1st-4th grade scholars participated in the FCPS Minecraft Landscaping a Better Lexington Challenge. 21 Rise scholars submitted their build and the top 5 were chosen for a popular vote. Two of our scholar’s builds, Prestyn Nagel and Grace Gallagher were chosen for the top 5 in the district challenge. Winners will be announced today!!

to the scholars, Layal Ismail (Kindergarten) and Prestyn Nagel (4th grade) for being nominated to represent Rise as the Equity Champions for December! They were selected for their leadership and their desire to always include others! Congratulations to our Rise Interventionist, Mrs. Lee being nominated and selected to represent Rise as the December Equity champions. Thank you for showing kindness and inclusion! Their names have been sent to the District's DEIB team to represent FCPS for December! Scholars selected by the district will receive a DEIB t-shirt and FCPS Equity champion certificate.

This new initiative for DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging) is taking place in all schools! We are so excited to have a team representing Rise. Families, we would love your help in also recognizing scholars and staff for being Rise Equity Champions!

January champion nomination link: https://forms.gle/Zyp9b1tKMDuX3GKR6

A Scholar/Staff DEIB Champion Profile: Someone who, either during their day to day, and/or goes above and beyond on special occasions:

-Celebrates diversity in their classrooms

-Helps others, shows an act of kindness, sharing, including others, goes above and beyond, etc.

-Advocates for fairness and access for all

-Models and leads inclusion efforts

-Helps make everyone around them feel like they belong

Nominations must be submitted to the District's DEIB team by the last school day of every month, which means RISE's DEIB Team must receive your nominations, NO LATER THAN 1/26/23, so the DEIB team can review and select the January nominees and submit to the district by 1/31.

January is Multicultural & Multilingual Celebration Month

Multicultural & Multilingual Celebration Month Information Sheet

The second semester is off to a rocking start!

Kindergarteners, 3rd, and 4th graders have been focused on the core ideas of forces and motion. Kindergarten has been exploring what a push and pull means as well as direction and amount of force applied to an object. We have built "wrecking balls" to test how much force would be needed to knock down a wall. The 3rd and 4th graders had a guest teacher from 4-H and explored catapults. They discussed the differences between potential and kinetic energy as well as tension and arc. They had a great time testing out different variables with the catapults!

1st Grade is continuing to explore light and sound. We've investigated how the vibrations of different materials make different sounds as well as making our own sound instruments. We're beginning to explore light and how it allows us to see by illuminating an object. They loved making stained glass windows to decorate our campus.

2nd Grade is continuing to study landforms and how water can shape the land. We've mapped out regions that may be susceptible to flash floods as well as investigated cornmeal canyons to model how water can shape the land over a long period of time.