AmeriSchools Academy
Making a Difference Every Day
December 2015 Newsletter
Thank you to our Families!
Research shows that the more parents are involved in the school, the more successful their students are in school and in their future career. Many of our families are working families, so I thank you for making the time to connect with the school or help your child on their homework.
The AmeriSchools staff was able to deliver Thanksgiving meals to many of our families in need this Holiday season and many parents donated to this cause. Thank you for helping to make this Thanksgiving full of wonderful food and love for our AmeriSchools Students.
Warmly,
Mrs. Gordievsky
Upcoming Events:
December 7th - 11th: School-wide Book Fair. Come to campus to see all the newest books for kids! Brought to you by Scholastic. The teachers will take the students for previews. Book purchases can before or after-school.
December 8th All school Community Exploration to the TPC Golf Clinic 9:00 am - 2:00 pm All grades!
December 10th at 5:00 pm - AmeriSchools Holiday Show. The K - 4th levels will different Holiday themed songs. Get your Jingle Bells on and come hear our musical performance
December 15th - Morning, Afternoon, and Evening Scholarly Presentations. Scholars will prove the Big Idea, "Scholars Change Over-time." They will present to a group of students and families using evidence from their portfolio of work, proving they have changed as a scholar thus far! We will send home a sign-up sheet for a presentation time.
Winter Showcase will be on the same day as Scholar Presentations. Cooking Class will make food for the presentations, so stop by the lunch room! Student work from the other specials will line the hallways! Make sure you leave time to walk the hallways before or after your child presents!
December 18th - Ugly Sweater Middle School Game Night 5th - 8th levels, brought to you by National Junior Honors Society
December 21st - January 1st - Winter Break, NO SCHOOL
Students joined in on a traditional Native American Dance before Thanksgiving!
Scholarly Traits for the Month of December
How you can support the targeted behavior at home
How you can support the targeted behavior at home
Readiness, Mrs. Stebor
Foundations 1, Ms. Lockwood
Keep reading first graders!
-Ms. Lockwood
Foundations 2, Ms. Saffron
The students in 2nd level did an outstanding job in their Thanksgiving play. I am very proud of all the hard work that they are doing in all subjects. Our math journal time in the morning has become a time where students are now creating their own problems for others to solve. They are thinking of algebra equations and our math discussions are filled with vocabulary terms when students talk about how they solved the problems. We continue to read about Nature stories during the Walk to Read time period and students are working on nature collages to share with the class. In Science, we are fixing our animal reports and some students are making their own power point presentations. Each student chose an animal to research and learn about to make these reports. Keep up the wonderful work scholars!!
-Ms. Saffron
Foundations 3, Ms. Todosijevic
Dearest Parents/Guardians,
Our class will be focusing on mastering multiplication facts up to 12. We will work on vocabulary such as: multiplication, repeated addition, array, groups, and products. They will learn how to solve word problems using the multiplication property. We will discuss commutative property, associative property, and distributive property of multiplication. Students will review elapsed time as well and continue working on adding/subtracting 4 digit numbers with regrouping.
In reading, we are starting a novel called Shiloh. They will each have the book and will be listening to an audible and reading aloud to practice their fluency and comprehension. Students will work on skills such as drawing conclusions, summarizing, inference, theme, foreshadowing, and cause/effect. This novel will take a couple months for us to finish.
In writing, students will be working on opinion pieces and summarizing. They will be using a response journal and responding to prompts regarding Shiloh and their sem'r book. I encourage your student to continue reading at home and asking them questions to summarize their reading. Students are currently writing an acrostic poem. We have been discussing different types of poems and their elements. We will also develop a haiku poem, discuss stanza, alliteration, simile, and metaphors!
The students will be learning about regular and irregular plural nouns in grammar. We will discuss abstract nouns and review compound sentences along with adjectives to better our writing pieces.
The students are continuing to work on their heritage research reports. Most are finishing up their report and continuing on to the travel log and passport! Thank you for your help on completing the family tree. Please help our classroom by bringing in a poster for your student. It can be a plain poster or tri fold. Students will complete these projects by December 14th. Our scholar presentations are December 15th and I hope to see most of you there! They are enjoying doing research and are really thrilled to share what they've discovered about themselves!
Each scholar is making huge strides and I am so proud to see their growth and share it with you every day! Thank you for your never ending support. Happy Holidays!
Yours truly,
Miss Todosijevic
Essentials 4, Ms. Rascon
Essentials 5, Ms. Starkins
We have combined our efforts on an Independent study project and the upcoming Scholarly Presentations. As part of the presentation students have written sonnets. We have "word smithed" them to near perfection. Now we are hard at work on presentation skills. Diction, expression, and voice projection, eye contact are just a few examples of the students are giving each other. It is amazing to watch the progress the class is making with these skills.
Middle School ELA, Mr. Carlson
Middle School Science, Mrs. Amidan
The Middle School Science class has been working on our creative skills and applying them to our units of study. The 6th level has just finished their STEM project on creating their own self-sustaining ecosystem. They were asked to research what an ecosystem requires to survive, and then create their own in a mason jar. The students also learned about natural disasters. Each completed a project explaining the impact these disasters have on people, and how to stay safe if you ever encounter one! The 7th level completed their research on human impact and interactions between animals. The students picked one impact, positive or negative, and explained what interactions caused them. The students also made their own food web interactions, and creatively played with the replacing and eliminating of different organisms in the chain. 8th level has been working hard on evolution and adaptation. They have researched the importance of adapting to your environment, and made inferences about why some animals have certain characteristics. The whole middle school went on their first field trip together to the Arizona Science Center. The students learned about the body and mind, physical science, and the Earth. I think the favorite exhibit was The Forces of Nature, with a simulation that shows the effects of different natural disasters including water and wind! We are looking forward to moving on to new sections after Thanksgiving!
Middle School Mathematics, Ms. Gomez
7th- Students in 7th level are learning how to find the surface area and volume of several three-dimensional shapes. They have also strengthened their abilities to find the missing variable when provided with an equation. 7th graders are learning at a fast pace and are eager to learn!
8th- 8th graders are learning how to manipulate the point-slope formula and determine the slope and the y-intercepts. They are now able to calculate the slope from the given coordinates. Students are able to change from the standard form of the equation to point-slope formula. 8th graders are gaining more momentum as the year progresses!
About AmeriSchools Academy
Go Bulldogs!
Email: jgordievsky@amerischools.org
Website: www.amerischools.org
Location: 1333 West Camelback Road, Phoenix, AZ, United States
Phone: 602-532-0100