Academy Adventures Midtown
-Building on Strengths-
SCHOOL NEWS & UPDATES!
Winter Break (beginning on December 18th) marks the end of the First Semester! Amid all the challenges and changes this year, it has been a very productive First Semester. We have seen so much growth and perseverance from our students! Distance Learning is not easy, but with the help of our teachers and the support of families at home, the students showed continued growth and excitement to learn! We are so proud of them!
Distance Learning Program with Support Services will continue when we return on January 4, 2021. We will still be providing instruction online and students who would like to be on campus can be, as long as they sign up so we can ensure all precautions are in place for their safety and the safety of others. If your child is struggling with learning at home, we strongly encourage you to consider sending them to campus where they can receive additional assistance and support.
We do not know what 2021 will bring for education, however we continue to be hopeful that we will all be back safely in the school for in-person learning before the end of the school year! We miss having a campus full of students! We are grateful they join us daily on Zoom, but there is nothing like having them here in person!
Thank you for all you do for your child and the school! We wish all of our families a safe and happy holiday season and we look forward to seeing everyone again in January! If you have any questions during Winter Break, please reach out via ClassDojo or REMIND! We will have staff available to answer any questions you may have!
NOTES FROM PAPA JACK
The holiday season gives us some time to reflect about the past year and look forward with hope towards the next. We may acknowledge that all of us have shown remarkable resilience and parent new levels of patience and understanding in the days of COVID. The support that you your children will continue to be a support to their teachers in this new adventure in learning. The challenge of learning and growing is always easier with all of us working together. Should you see that your child is finding difficulty with learning at home, contact the school and we can make room for them at the school using our safe harbor policies. We have staff to support your child's distance learning at the school.
Many thanks to you and our teachers as we move into the next year. Enjoy the holiday time!
During Social Emotional Learning (SEL) students are learning how their attitude, behavior and their actions towards others affects not only other people but themselves. We have been discussing the difference of filling and dipping into our invisible buckets, as well as others around us. It has been amazing to watch how quickly the students have caught on and watching them work so hard to fill each others invisible buckets, even before their own! They have made us so proud!
The positive response from the students and filling each others buckets has lead the school to adopt the concept as part of our school culture! We are very excited to build on this concept of positive behavior with the students. It will be incorporated into our School Pledge, the theme in the school and an emphasis on how behaviors are addressed. Staff and students will work together on filling each other's buckets through behaviors and academics.
Ask your child about their invisible bucket! Ask them what makes their bucket full and how you can contribute to filling their bucket. Also share with them how they can help fill your bucket!
Mrs. Gilbert's Class
November is the month to remind us to be thankful for the many positives that are happening in our life. I am reminded everyday to be thankful, as your children are the reason I choose to be a teacher. When starting my journey to become a teacher, I knew I would be thankful and inspired daily by the brilliant minds of children, I just never knew I would be this THANKFUL for your children. When times are trying, may it be societal or personal, I remember certain sayings, quirks and the faces of each of my students, and I am humbled. Over the past month, we continue to explore our Social and Emotional understanding. We have explored PERSEVERANCE, and I am amazed how strong-willed your children are! Your child has been introduced to their invisible buckets- and are challenged daily to fill their buckets. It is amazing to hear the pureness of the students and how they want to fill each other’s buckets before theirs! It is truly magical.
Over the past month, your Kindest Kinder students have been able to continue their practice in the See It, Say It, Sign It to learn the letters and sounds of the alphabet. This helps us when we meet our New SuperKid friends! We practiced the letter D, upper and lowercase, handwriting, beginning and ending sounds and how to identify in the alphabet. By letter-writing practice, we have become stronger in writing our numbers! We were introduced to addition during November and will continue to practice this with our counters.
During November, first grade has been killing it in different ways to add and subtract to find solutions for math concepts! I am impressed everyday when I see completed Class Dojo assignments that demonstrate the knowledge in math! Our FANTASTIC first graders are working hard in writing complete sentences with capital letters and the correct punctuation! If you want to have your students have a SuperKids book for home, please ask me and I can make that happen!
SUPER second grade has been SUPER with SUPERkids! Their reading is getting stronger and stronger every time we practice reading! Our spelling is also getting stronger, and I am starry-eyed watching it happen! Throughout math, your students can add three two-digit numbers within 100! If that isn’t impressive I do not know what is!
I want to take extra time to express my thankfulness to each student, and his/her parent(s)/guardian(s). Your job is not easy, I acknowledge that. I am grateful that you chose Academy Adventures Midtown as a safe and loving educational environment. Thank you for your efforts to get your student on Zoom and checking to ensure work is getting done. Thank you for your patience during testing, and thank you for keeping up with our school as we continue to mend and nourish a trying time. I am thankful for my opportunity to be your child’s teacher. Please look out for a special THANK YOU from us to you!
Mrs. Campbell's Class
Hello and Welcome to December! Even though we cannot be together as we would like, know that my thoughts are with you all during this holiday season.
The terrific third graders and fantastic fourth graders are learning about the ancient Roman civilization. “Mrs. Teachwell” and her fictional students deliver “reports” on various topics. They will continue working with r-controlled vowels, various spellings of the sound /ee/ such as ‘ee’, ‘e’, ‘ea’, ‘ie’, ‘i’, ‘ae’, ‘y’, ‘ey’, and ‘e_e’. Students are also reviewing verb tenses, the verbs to be and to have, subject-verb agreement. They are working with the suffixes –er, –or, –ist, –ian, –y, and –al and are learning how suffixes change the meaning of root words and change the part of speech of that word.
In GoMath, the terrific third graders are learning how to describe patterns, find unknown numbers, and work with multiples of 10. The next chapter will be all about division: making equal groups, using bar models and arrays, relating subtraction to division, relating multiplication to division, and learning the rules for dividing by 1 and zero.
In GoMath, the fantastic fourth graders are learning about factors, multiples, prime and composite numbers. The next chapter will be working with fractions: equivalent fractions, common denominators, and ordering and comparing fractions.
Fabulous fifth graders continue to read vignettes of contemporary fiction. Titles have included “The House on Mango Street”, “Our Good Day”, and “The Three Sisters”. They are learning to understand who is speaking and creating dialogue for characters, based on the experiences that the characters have had. The fifth graders will continue working with figurative language and understanding how it can make writing (and therefore reading!) more interesting. From our unit on contemporary fiction we will move to learning about Don Quixote and his adventures. The focus will be on characters and plot as well as characterization. This unit will also introduce the students to the Renaissance, a period in European history, our next unit.
In GoMath, the fabulous fifth graders move from adding and subtracting decimals to multiplying decimals. They will practice multiplying whole numbers and decimals, working with a 0 in the product, using expanded form and working with money.
NOVEMBER 2020 AWARDS!
We are so excited to begin our monthly awards again! Each teacher will be giving our two (2) Academic and two (2) Attitude Awards each month! Congratulations to our November Winners!!
Academics:
Dion S.
Kara B.M.
Erika V.H.
Tristan K.
Attitude:
Audriana N.
Mateo C.
Richard E.
Gilberto U.
Even though we are a Distance Learning Program, we still encourage parents to participate! Your involvement is so important to your child's success. How can you be involved:
- Join in on the Social Emotional Learning on Zoom
- Sit with your child during their class Zoom session
- Have your child show you their assignments on ClassDojo, SplashLearn, ReadingA-Z and/or SuperKids
- Watch for special events such as performances, movie nights, cooking/baking kits, etc. and sign up to receive them
- Send us pictures and/or videos of your child doing their class work
- Read with your child daily for a minimum of 15 minutes
- Join in on weekly ART and/or STEM classes (Thursday at 3:00 PM)
As always, you are encouraged and welcome to join your child while they are participating in school! If you have questions or suggestions on ways to be more involved, please do not hesitate to reach our to the school! Your input is always important to us!
THERE IS MAGIC IN LEARNING!!!
We are so excited to announce that Mr. Benny will be doing Magic classes with students monthly via Zoom! Magic requires a lot of skill and he will be able to teach the students magic while incorporating various aspects of academics! It will be a fun learning experience!
Mr. Benny is one of our AWESOME parents! The students absolutely love when he comes and shows them a little magic! We are excited to be able to support him, while giving our students a very special opportunity! Watch for more details!
National School Lunch & Breakfast Programs
Don't forget that if your child is Distance Learning from home, you can request breakfast, snack and lunch for your child, which can be picked up at the school.
If you would like to pick up meals for your child(ren) free of charge, please call the school by 2:15 PM on Friday for the following week and let Mrs. Campbell know how many meals and what day you will pick them up. Snacks will also be included!
SUPPORT FROM OUR COMMUNITY!!
A BIG thank you to Cakes for Causes for continuing to support our program! They have been kind enough to donate the Cookies, Sprinkles and Surprises for all the families who signed up for the Cookie Decorating Kits!
Last Day to sign up for your Cookie Decorating Kit is December 4th!
We are very lucky to have such great community support!
Check out Cakes for Causes and their mission! www.cakesforcauses.org
TITLE I FAMILY ART & STEM CLASSES
TAMALE PIE THURSDAY - December 3, 2020
If you signed up for the Tamale Pie Cooking Kit, we will be celebrating our annual Tamale Making Day on Thursday, December 3, 2020, with Tamale Pie! Watch for the video from Mrs. Gilbert and Mrs. Campbell!
Please share pictures and/or video of your family making and eating their Tamale Pie!
GALILEO TESTING - Week of December 7, 2020
LASAGNA THURSDAY - December 10, 2020
If you signed up for the Lasagna Cooking Kit, we will be celebrating our annual Lasagna Making Day on Thursday, December 10, 2020! Watch for the video from Mrs. Gilbert and Mrs. Campbell!
ALL SCHOOL HOLIDAY ZOOM PERFORMANCE - Friday, December 11, 2020
DECORATING COOKIES & POLAR EXPRESS - Thursday, December 17, 2020
NO SCHOOL - WINTER BREAK!!!
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/