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Dear Families,

We are excited to announce that our annual district Science Odyssey will take place this year 'in person' at Junction K-8 School on March 8th and 9th. We encourage your young Scientists to register their projects now! Science Odyssey is a wonderful learning experience and an opportunity for all students in Grades 1-5 to showcase their love of science and excitement for engineering!

Explore our Science Odyssey webpage with your student and register your projects here. Students can register a project as an individual or work together as a team on a project.

Special awards will be presented in certain categories after all projects have been judged on March 8th.

Science Odyssey Registration will close on Friday, February 5th at 4pm.

We are excited to learn from our young scientists and look forward to seeing their projects!

This month is the fourth in my recurring theme: social emotional learning competencies. The five areas are: self-awareness, social awareness, responsible decision making, self-management, and relationship skills.

The area of social awareness is the focus for February.

Social awareness is "the ability to take the perspective of and empathize with others, including those from diverse backgrounds and cultures. The ability to understand social and ethical norms for behavior and to recognize family, school, and community resources and supports." -CASEL 2017

Here's how you can support your children in developing this competency at home.

In order to support our TK-2 students with developing and growing their social awareness, you can describe characteristics of two people that are similar and different. Another great way is to use attention and listening skills to assess facial expressions, body language, and tone of voice. Both of these can be done while reading a book, watching a TV show or movie, or during interactions with others either in person or virtually. Modeling respect and awareness of a variety of cultures and groups is also a powerful way to build social awareness in our younger students.

In supporting our older students in grades 3-5, the same areas of focus is appropriate. Social awareness skills can be further developed by talking about the impact of one's own behavior on the emotions of others (each of our households are perfect for this) and recognizing multiple points of view or perspective in a situation. This allows for compromise, problem solving, and a better understanding of how each of us plays a part in creating and nurturing our relationships with those whom we interact.

Like all the social emotional skills we have been exploring for our students, there is a lot more to this competency. Investing in our children through deliberate practice and interaction with social awareness will pay huge dividends in their overall development.

Next month I will discuss our final competency of self-awareness . . .

Jackson Avenue's AVID (Advancement Via Individualized Determination) focus includes inquiry this year (in addition to goal setting, organization, and note taking). As a staff, we recently finalized the alignment of our beginning approach to inquiry across grade levels. Here is what we are integrating in English Language Arts. This is specific to literature, but as students become more skilled and confident over time, we will build on that foundation, adding non-fiction questions. You can support at home when you read aloud from a picture or chapter book with your children.

Kindergarten: Notice and Note Signposts Strategies

*Contrast and Contradiction

Why is the character doing that?

First Grade: Notice and Note Signposts Strategies

*Contrast and Contradiction

Why is the character doing that?

*Aha Moment

How might this change things?

Second Grade: Notice and Note Signposts Strategies

*Contrast and Contradiction

Why is the character doing that?

*Aha Moment

How might this change things?

Third Grade: Notice and Note Signposts Strategies

*Contrast and Contradiction

Why is the character doing that?

*Aha Moment

How might this change things?

*Again and Again

Why does this keep happening again and again?

Fourth Grade: Notice and Note Signposts Strategies

*Contrast and Contradiction

Why is the character doing that?

*Aha Moment

How might this change things?

*Again and Again

Why does this keep happening again and again?

Maybe:

*Word of the Wiser

What is the life lesson and how might it affect the character?

Fifth Grade: Notice and Note Signposts Strategies

*Contrast and Contradiction

Why is the character doing that?

*Aha Moment

How might this change things?

*Again and Again

Why does this keep happening again and again?

*Word of the Wiser

What is the life lesson and how might it affect the character?

*Tough Questions

What does this make me wonder about?

*Memory Moment

Why is this memory important?