feb 21 2014 21 2014.pdfdoor knob man, outdoor lighting, please sign up on the sheet in the office...
TRANSCRIPT
ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL
Pulling Together801 E. Arctic Ave. Palmer, AK 99645Call us at (907)746-2358 or Fax us at (907)746-2368 or visit us at www.matsuk12.us/accPrincipal, [email protected]
1. Calendar
2. job Corner
3. Classroom News K-2
4. Classroom News 3 & 4
5. Classroom News 5
6. Notes from K-5 Labs
7. Classroom News 6 & 7
8. Classroom News 8
“On time” Winners for the week ending are: Connor, Jakob, Wyatt, Jake, Logan, Chris, Joseph, Abraham, Sasha! Classroom winners will receive a subway meal on the following Monday.Winner of $50 Gas Card: Family of Chris Randall
February 21, 2014
DRESS for RECESS The weather changes each day. It was 5 degrees today at noon lunch
Date to Mark Time Field Trips and More
Feb 24 -28 Teacher Appreciation Week
Feb 25 8:05 Duck Derby Meeting
February 26 10:30 and 12:30
NOALS Wilderness training6-8 graders first, then 3-5 graders
February 26 6:30-10 Middle School DanceFeb 28 Lifetouch Spring Pictures
March 6 1:00 Early Release
March 7 No School for students.work day for teachers
March 10-14 Spring Break
March 28 Ski Alyeska
Congratulations to Brianna Reyes who will represent Academy at the
state wide Spelling Bee on Feb. 28th.
WE STILL NEED MORE VOLUNTEERS to HELP on February 26th with NOALS Wilderness training6-8 graders first, then 3-5 graders10:30-2:00. WE NEED 10 more parents to help out please wear winter gear you will go outside.
Duck Derby Meeting (for thosethat are able to attend) Tuesday, February 25th, 8:05am inthe staff lounge.
Please do not park in the pick up drive thru. If you have to get out of your car, pull in to the parking lot on the right and park. Thank you.
DRAMA ELECTIVE
Cinderella Out Grows the Glass Slipper!
Cast: Connor, Eva, Lev, Hannah, Ilse, Zoe, Khyla,
DATE: Friday, February 28, 2014 WHERE: TEA KWON DO room TIME: 2pm
Job Corner Get your hours now!
1 All teachers put items on the Parent Help Shelf every day. These are things like copying, laminating, sharpening pencils etc. If you are able, just check the shelf to see if there is work. (There is stuff there now.) Thank you.
2 Play ground Maintenance, Lunch Room/Play ground monitor, Office Work, Building Maintenance, Photographers, Door Knob Man, Outdoor Lighting, PLEASE SIGN up on the sheet in the office if any of these jobs are what you would like to do.
3 Join the: Yearbook/ Pam Collier, 841-1247
Need Library helpers call Melissa Clark to sign up. 631-4987
4 2nd grade needs their windows washed inside and out.
5 The boiler room needs a sweep and a dust
7 Need a parent to head-up the middle school dance decorating.
8 Need a parent to head up the graduation decoration.
5th grade science fair: April 7 - no parent help needed4th grade frog dissection: May 5 - parent help needed5th grade fetal pig dissection: May 6 - parent help needed8th grade shark dissection: May 6 - no parent help needed
EXTRA! EXTRA!Read all about it!Beginning February 24, I will meet
after school on Mondays and Wednesdays with 6th grade
students who are interested in writing articles about current events for a monthly Middle
School Newspaper. We will meet from 3:00 - 4:00 each Monday and
Wednesday.
Ski Alyeska
is scheduled for March 28th. The information/registration packets are ready to print. We are going to hold off sending them home till Feb. 28 due to snow conditions. (If there is snow); packets will be due on March 7th. Prices are similar to last year. If you are new to our school this year and want to know what the ticket/rental or lift costs are; just ask in the office and we will give you a run down on the whole day.
Special Thanks goes out to Shayne and Tricia Herr, who now have made and installed 7 coat racks for the new wing hallways. Way to go!
Dear Mrs. Gerard, Advisory Board, and Parents:
RE: Brain Conference !
! Last week several Academy teachers were given the opportunity to go to the Learning and the Brain annual conference.! It was one of the best, most informative conferences that I have attended. Here is a little of what I learned, and how it is applicable to our educational experiences here at Academy.! First the walk away message from this conference was, “HOW to learn is more important than WHAT to learn”. Many speakers discussed how the erroneous focus on NCLB, high stakes testing, and mass produced curriculum has negatively impacted our educational system. Instead, brain researches from Harvard to Stanford are linking attitudes, resiliency, and well being to ability to process information. Thus the ability to learn is driven by one’s internal environment, which can be (and is) supported by schools, teachers, and parents.
The practical application of what we learned is vast, from class room instruction techniques to suggestions for parents and students. Brain scans prove:
• learning is increased by positive interactions and decreased by negative interactions
• neuro-pathways are created by introducing novel information in interesting ways
• synapses fire more rapidly after physical movement • calm, meditative moments are essential for focus and
clarity (quieting the “brain blab”).
! Brain research also proves a variety of beliefs. Multi-tasking is a fallacy. Students should study away from the distractions of media, homework is essential for learning self discipline, and self discipline is one of the biggest predictors of success. As parents and teachers, it behooves us to encourage self esteem- which grows from a sense of competence and control, rather than from an avoidance of failure- and a sense of personal responsibility. Brain researcher suggest strengthening interpersonal connections, using specific praise, and allowing for opportunities to fail to build “grit”.It seems brain based research gives teachers and parents the science to justify what we intuitively know are best practices. It also reinforces much of the Academy culture of excellence: our emphasis on community, individualized instruction, and extra curricular activities.! Thank you for the opportunity, ! Mrs. Real
ClassRoom News K-2
Kindergarten Notes [email protected]! Star light, star bright and other star rhymes were our focus this week. We also enjoyed some pastry poetry with Hot Cross Buns and Pat-a-cake. I would love to hear what your child is reading at home. Our students continue to make great strides in their fluency and reading ability. All students brought home books they have been working on in their small group. Rereading these books to you and anyone else who will listen increases reading fluency and student confidence. ! In math we jumped around a bit. We have continued to add numbers to our individual math books and are now up to teen numbers. As we began these numbers it was a great time to review our base ten counting system. Students were introduced to a new game with special 2 layered dice. Solid shapes were also introduced this week. We learned about cones, cubes, cylinders, pyramids and spheres. We will work on these shape names and attributes more next week. Lastly we did a review of time to the hour and half hour. ! Our class is in need of some supplies. Please send in at least one of our needed items: tissues, napkins or 5 ounce paper cups.! On March 6th our class will celebrate Dr. Seuss’ birthday by making green eggs and ham for snack. Please sign up to send supplies or help with this fun event. The sign-up sheet is on the board across from the front office. I have several parent homework projects if you are interested, please let me know.!! Thank you for all you do to help your student and our class run smoothly—we really appreciate it!!! Ronni Berg
Mayer [email protected] Daily 5 has a lot of newness to it and by Thursday the class was grooving! They continue to embrace writing sentences each day with the assigned spelling word, and it has become a journal between me and the students. We have a new sort for contractions and then a completely new one which involves figuring out which words are nouns, verbs and adjectives. I don’t know if you sense the reading pride but it’s all over first grade! I sure hope they bring their reading excitement home to you! We have spent three days on the first topic in chapter 12 for math, haha. Slowly but surely . . . 1 more, 1 less, 10 more and 10 less than a given number is sinking in. We’ve had dice, 100 charts and tens and ones out with a lot of oral chanting! Whew . . . but it’s finally coming together with visible light bulbs and smiles! Thanks for the communication with homework . . . vital! COMING UP NEXT on Thursday, March 6th . . . Green Eggs and Ham day to celebrate Dr. Seuss’ birthday! Sign-up for that day will be by the office next week and bring in those Dr. Seuss books to share (with names on them) next week! Contact me anytime with questions or concerns. ! Mrs. Mayer
Art intensive explores clay.
Second Grade [email protected] Hope everyone is enjoying the snow. Sure makes it look pretty out. It was going to be busy in our room for the next couple of weeks. Our Green Eggs and Ham Day is on March 6th in the morning. A sign up for the cooking portion will go home on Monday. We will need helpers from 8:15-9:45 to help with cooking. Also since we will be celebrating Dr. Seuss 's birthday we will be reading his books in class. Your child is more than welcome to bring in Dr. Seuss books from home. Please make sure their name is in the book or books that you are sending. I have some, but not enough for the activities. They can start sending them in on Monday. We will return them on March 6th before the kids head out for Spring Break.World fair will be here before we know it. The first parent meeting will be March 4th right after school. We have the theme, Insects and Arachnids of Alaska. We have done this before and a lot of the ground work is already set. We already have some plans in motion. Almost 90% of the work will be done at school and during labs. The kids love this working and learning about all of these creatures. If you can come that would be great! Thank you for all of the kind words and quick healing prayers for our son. He is doing well. It has been been busy! Whew!! Have a great weekend! Mrs. Booth
New from Mrs. Liebing’s [email protected]! We started this week with some readings about George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and President’s Day. Our other readings this week were two fun stories by well known children’s authors. “Dragons and Giants” by Arnold Lobel and “Just Plain Fancy” by Patricia Polacca. We also did a Mad Libs type of page with adjectives and practiced writing sentences with adjectives ending in “er” and “est.”! In math we took our quiz over time and are now working our way through many types of graphs. Telling time and especially elapsed time (how long an activity took, for instance) are difficult concepts for second graders and occasional practice at home would be a good idea. From time to time have your child read the time on a clock, and make sure some of them are not digital. For the graphing this week the students enjoyed doing their own in-class surveys to gather data.! Reminder! Everyone needs to bring their book share books to school on Monday, so they can take notes for their presentations.! Enjoy your weekend,! Mrs. Liebing
ClassRoom News 3 & 4
Third Grade [email protected]! We had a nice week working on spelling words. The class seems to be more comfortable sounding out the words. We will have a spelling list next week, but not the week after because of early release.! We are finishing up chapter 6 in math. We will spend a few more days practicing all the factors before we have a test next week. I can not stress enough how important it is to practice these multiplication facts at home. I have taught them the how’s and the why’s of multiplication, plus several tricks, now it is time to get them memorized.! Mrs. Weetman
Fourth Grade [email protected]! Well we are back to normal this week. If you talk to the teachers who went to the Brain and Learning Conference, you will know that we were just overwhelmed by the information we learned. It was a very inspiring conference. In fact, we will be learning about our brains in the next few weeks.! In math the students are charging ahead with mastering their division facts. We also started learning about perimeter and area.! Mrs. Ambrosius
BenBow [email protected]! Thank you for your patience with my absence last week. It was a very engaging and informative conference, and I learned so much about learning and how the brain works! I have begun to apply several of the strategies I learned already, and will continue to add more as time allows. ! Language Arts – This week, we created both four-person and two-person groups that will be used for different activities throughout the year. For example, students met with their groups to prepare for presenting Spalding spelling words to the class and to read The BFG by Roald Dahl. Being in small groups allowed opportunities for discussions that led to better understanding and comprehension. The discussions while in the group are designed to help students review and summarize information in order to better answer comprehension questions. ! Math- We have begun working with partners during guided instruction time to increase the learning of material through discussion. Please know that the group discussion time is not replacing the time I use for direct instruction and that I am circulating throughout the room to ensure that the discussions are remaining on topic and that the correct information is being conveyed between students. We reviewed perimeter before jumping into area, and then began determining both area and perimeter for various shapes that we drew ourselves. Please help your child find time every day to practice multiplication facts, as we will continue to do timed tests every day. ! Have a great weekend and, as always, feel free to contact me with any comments or concerns!
Mr. Reilly Rally’s [email protected] We are working on our six times table this week getting it dialed in by using and seeing groupings of six. Students are becoming fluid with their six times table. They have had a lot of practice this week and will be moving on to the seven times table. Parents, please work at home with your children reinforcing their times tables by quizzing them and also have working with flashcards that they make up themselves.! Thank you! Have a great weekend with your families! Mr. Reilly
ClassRoom News from 5th
The Real [email protected]! Thank you again, Ms. Moffit, our fabulous substitute teacher, for helping out while I am teaching intensives.
LA-! This week students continued reading Don Quixote, and they are loving it! They are exploring vocabulary and taking notes, which will be turned into a 5 paragraph essay. On Thursday, they researched and created a personal crest- Come check them out-they are really creative.
Math- This week students took a break from division to learn Geometry. Ms. Moffitt has used a variety of hands on activities (geo-boards, slates, and journals) to help the kids really master these topics. This was a fun filled and full week- One of my favorites (so I was sad to miss it).
DON’T FORGET TO USE ALEKS at home.
HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND.-MRS. REAL
Mr. OLSON’s [email protected] arts. This week we have been busy at work starting our next writing project. We have begun the outline and conversations about our first narratives. We will be talking more about setting, characters, and plot next week.
Math. Math class is in the middle of variables and expressions. They are getting more comfortable with it and are probably a week and a half away from another test.
Reports from our Labs
World of WritingBy Mrs. [email protected]! All three groups are working on non-fiction (informative) writing. The focus of our writing is Alaska’s three different species of bears. This week we explored the lifestyle of the polar bear. Next week we will compare black bears and grizzly bears.!
From Around the WorldBy Mrs. [email protected]!! The Kindergarten class learned about our National Symbols. They put together a symbol puzzle. They really did a great job! The first graders are finishing their National symbol shape book. Wow! The kids have worked hard and the books look great. The second graders just finished learning about the Star-Spangled Banner. They are now working on land forms. We had different types of maps out and were looking what was needed to make the land form. Was it land or water? Or was it both? Next week we will be creating each one on paper and with play dough.!
ExperimentsBy Mrs. [email protected]! Third grade is deep into their astronomy unit with a review of the planets and planetary facts. Fourth grade explored rocketry while learning about propulsion, thrust, and escape velocity. Fifth grade spent time reviewing the science fair rubric that can be found on Mrs. Tompkins’ web page. We also learned about solar eclipses and reviewed our planetary facts.!
Español.
Spanish Newsby Miss [email protected]
! ComputerBy Mr. Olson [email protected]! 3rd and 4th grade are busy finishing up their country posters on a word processing and graphic design program. 5th is messing with video this rotation making iMovie previews of a sports movie that some of our boys filmed themselves. They should be completed and brought home on thumb drives soon.!
ArtBy Mrs. [email protected]! This week in art the K,1, and 2 students studied shape and line. They talked about how cats are made up of different line and shape and how artists can exaggerate those details to create personality! The students also studied line and shape in architecture. They drew plans for a dream home and studied various types of architectural elements.I hope you have a wonderful weekend!!
PEby Carrie Taylor! Happy Friday! Please help your child to get their healthy futures exercise sheets filled out. They are due by February 28. They get to win great prizes and we ALL need to get out and play. This week in class for grades 3-5 we talked basketball and did some team building games. For the lower grades we played challenging games and talked about the Olympics.Please make sure that your child has PE shoes. Slip on shoes and skate shoes do not work well. They need to fit. I will be having your child call home next week if they come without shoes or they say that they are to small. Have a fantastic weekend!
News from the middle, 6th and 7th grades
6th Grade [email protected]@matsuk12.us! We have been enjoying a week off of normal studies while students are participating in their chosen intensive. Kids are encouraged to use this time to catch up on missing work since no new homework is being assigned. - Gettysburg Address is due by February 26. -Middle school dance Feb. 26-NAOI wilderness survival training Feb. 26 from 10:30-12:00. Bring warm gear.-Market Day Feb. 28
! The Snow Safety intensive would like to thank Renee Havey, Valerie Murphy, and Andy Miller for driving and participating. The sewing intensive group would like to thank Shelly Titus and Lanissa Grogan for helping out as well. Without parent help like this, it would be very difficult to make these intensive a success. ! Mr. Titus and Mr. Schumacher
Anatomy of a Crime Case [email protected]! Thirteen students from all the middle school grades have had the opportunity to create a crime scene; from the evidence collected they were then able to solve the crime. Earlier in the morning they had spent time learning about crime scenes from forensic detective Leonard Wallner with the Alaska State Troopers. Students also had the opportunity to watch arraignment proceedings in Palmer Superior Court. Afterwards Hon. Judge Eric Smith spent time with the students explaining the proceedings in more detail. One of the Academy mothers, Nancy Stroup, arranged all of our agenda to make this intensive come together. Thank you all for this wonderful collaborative effort! Sean Reilly
Teen Media Intensive:
! Thank you, Rick Schleyer from KTUU for the workshop on preproduction. Also a big thanks to Bradley-Reid Advertising and Alaska Teen Media for the tour(s) and inspiration.
The last year
Real’s English [email protected] Language Arts, because of intensive week!➡Progress/missing report went home 2/17➡Night: Edmodo and Art Response was due 2/13➡Persuasive essays: ➡ROUGH DRAFT was DUE-2/13 for peer review. ➡FINAL DRAFT will be DUE 2/24. ! See you after intensives!!! HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND.! MRS. REAL