ACADEMY ADVENTURES MIDTOWN
BUILDING ON STRENGTHS & FILLING BUCKETS!
We are approaching the end of the first semester of school! This year has been busy with family events, field trips and most of all students learning! We are proud of how hard the students are working to build on their strengths and become learners!
November brought a lot of fun events such as Taco Tuesday and Pumpkin Palooza! Check out some of the pictures below!
December is always one of the busiest months and an exciting time of year. We have our annual December Baking Day (Enchiladas, Lasagna and Reindeer Bark); our annual Cookies & Cocoa Performance (Nightmare Before Christmas Play); and benchmark testing to see how much our students have improved academically. This year, we are also putting on a performance at the Cascades of Tucson Retirement and Assisted Living Community as part of our efforts to be more involved in the community!
We are always looking for parents to help, especially on Enchilada Day. Baking Days are a tradition we have done since we started! This year, due to small enrollment and many of our families working, we changed from tamales to enchiladas! We are excited to be able to try something new! We would still love for you to come and join us! Each child will get to make their own personalized pan of enchiladas to eat. We are also changing up the Cookie Decorating to Reindeer Bark! The Halloween chocolate bark was a huge success so we thought this would be a fun change! We will also be selling pans of lasagna, watch for the order form!
As we closeout the first part of the school year, we want to thank all of our families! Thank you for giving Academy Adventures Midtown the opportunity to teach your child! We value each and every child and will continue to build on each of their individual strengths as the year continues. If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to your child's teacher. They are always available to speak with you (when they are not in the classroom!) and can be reached through Class Dojo and/or by phone (520-777-3757).
We wish you all a very safe, fun and happy holiday season and Winter Break!
2022-2023 ENROLLMENT
Do you know anyone looking for a safe, secure, supportive K-5 school environment for their children? Look no further! Academy Adventures Midtown is still accepting registration. Don't forget that we have a referral program! Tell your friends and family to come check out the school!
There is no better students to fill the school with than friends and family!
As winter approaches, we are seeing more students becoming ill. If you child has a fever, cough, is vomiting and/or has a runny nose, please do not bring them to school! If you child is sick, they must be symptom free (without medication) for a minimum of 48 hours. You can request work from your child's teachers so your child does not get behind. Let's work together to keep everyone healthy by doing our part and staying home if we do not feel well.
We will continue to clean high touch areas throughout the day and deep clean at night. Our new ventilation system will also help with air flow. We have had many parents request that their child wear a mask at school and asked the teachers to help remind them. We are more than happy to do so at your request, but as of now, masks are still not required.
For the safety of your child(ren), please do not drop off your child(ren) prior to 7:30 AM and please do not leave until your child has had their temperature checked.
If you will be having someone new and/or not on the Blue Emergency Card pick up your child, please be sure to let the school know. We will NOT release a child to anyone not on their Blue Emergency Card (exceptions are biological parents unless we have court documentation that the parent cannot have contact with the child). Anyone new picking up your child must provide proper ID before we will release them. If you have any questions, please contact the school.
Students continue to explore our new SEL Program, Cloud9 World and are having a lot of fun learning about the character strengths and traits and how to apply them to their every day life.
During the month of November, students finished up the character trait CONFIDENCE. "Confidence is trusting that you have what it takes to handle whatever happens. You feel sure of yourself and enjoy trying new things without letting doubt or fear hold you back. When you have faith in yourself you are a confident person. The horse represents the power of self-confidence, the reward of dedication, and the importance of believing in yourself."
Students will be focusing on the character trait RESPONSIBILITY, during the month of December. "Being responsible means others trust you to do things that you say you’re going to do. You are accountable for your actions. Responsibility is the ability to make intelligent choices based on good values. When you make a mistake, and you offer to make amends instead of blaming others or making excuses, you are showing a strong sense of responsibility." The squirrel represents the value of responsibility, the benefits of saving, and the importance of planning ahead.
Check out the home connection materials and guides that you can use at home with your child and practice RESPONSIBILITY with them. We have both English and Spanish versions! Ask your child(ren) questions each day about what they learned during SEL and how they can apply it to their day. It is a great opportunity to be involved with the SEL curriculum!
If you have any questions on the SEL program, please speak with Mrs. Gilbert.
In J.M.Barrie's novel of Peter Pan, Peter tells a little secret: "It is not in doing what you like, but in liking what you do that is the secret of happiness”. Believing this as an adult is one thing, but watching the students start to like reading, writing and math has been magical!
November is a time for reflecting and giving thanks. The students consistently provide me the opportunity to do so. I am thankful for the time spent with the students, I am thankful for the students' growth, I am thankful for the students’ smiles and struggles. It has been a fun-filled, fast paced and short month. I hope holidays are spent together, safe and full of light.
During November, all grades focused on writing and the writing process.
In the first through third grade class, we spent a couple days on review, which included sentence structures and punctuation. After becoming comfortable with writing sentences, the students moved into writing complete paragraphs. Students were able to pick their individual topics, write a topic sentence, three supporting detail sentences, and a closing sentence. The students were able to remember these parts of a paragraph, and like Peter Pan, the students found happiness in writing.
Sprinkled in the days, the first through third graders dabbled into the realm of poetry. The poems that this class liked the most were sensory - where the students explored the season fall through their five senses.
Continuing into the upper class of fourth and fifth grade, the brainstorms for writing can really motivate anyone to want to write! Over the past month, the fourth and fifth graders dove deep into poetry. These little poets wrote Rhyming, Cinquain, Haiku and Acrostic poems. After learning the rubrics of each, students were able to write poems of their choice, and practice speaking and listening skills as presenters of their poetry. Students smoothly transitioned into a research project of their choice. Students used their understanding of the writing process, conferences with myself and typing skills to ensure they had their best version of their research ready to present to the class. To round off the month, the fourth and fifth graders have been confident enough in themselves to freely write narratives. This has been a time to release their fun and magical imaginations, along with the space to be creative and enjoy the writing process.
I cannot get over the excitement I get from these students, and to be able to reciprocate their energy back to them, and have this constant and consistent flow of energy for learning is almost unexplainable.
I want to thank the staff who continually support every student in the way they need to be supported, and pull off some of the best paloozas a school can do! These times of Movie Nights, Taco Tuesday and Turkey Palooza are incredibly important to many facets of our Mission and Philosophy at Academy Adventures Midtown. I look forward to the family support during the Holiday Baking Days and Bake Sales coming up! It will be a magical time.
As always, I am thankful for the students and their families who choose our school, to ensure the whole child is being supported.
November has been such a fast paced month, it feels like we just started and yet it is almost already over. The students have been enjoying the fun activities throughout the events. These students of yours have been putting in such hard work and have shown immense amounts of motivation to improve and do their best. Every single one of them have made me smile and laugh, and I am so incredibly proud of all the work and effort they have put in this year so far. With this month being filled with so many exciting days, I decided in the math classes to focus on reviewing rather than pushing new topics. I decided this so that the students have a solid foundation for the rest of the new topics we will cover when we come back from Winter Break.
Pumpkin Palooza was an energy filled half day. The students not only made pumpkin beads and a paper plate jack-o-lantern but were able to carve into a pumpkin and investigate it! Mrs. Gilbert, Mr.s Angela and I planned the activities to incorporate ELA and Math topics, and part of the investigation involved math. We had the students estimate the amount of seeds, count the seeds, count the lines, and feel and talk about the weight. For Taco Tuesday, the students did a math activity where they ran a taco truck, created a budget and set up a plan so that they could sell tacos within their budget! For Turkey Palooza the students worked on a really fun STEAM project where they built a turkey trap, and disguised a turkey in order to avoid the Thanksgiving feast! All of these events and activities have made this month zoom by!
For the younger students in first through third grade, we have been focusing a lot on place-value and understanding how to expand and break down the different values so that we have a solid foundation for when we begin adding and subtracting. This will help a lot with the topic of regrouping in addition and subtraction. They have shown great improvement throughout the month, especially this past week. We have focused so much on our place-value skills and have used manipulatives daily to help reinforce that one-to-one correspondence. The students have even memorized a place-value song that explains how 10 groups of one place-value allow us to move into the next. If you ask your students to sing the place-value song, they all would do great at repeating back to you! The manipulatives have been a great tactile tool for students to grow in their counting skills, and be able to visualize and physically handle the numbers and change them. We have used base-ten blocks, dice, counting tokens, and foam circles to represent the numbers and aid in counting.
For the older students in fourth and fifth grade, we have focused a lot on fact-family knowledge and building our strengths in multiplication and division. The students have been using long division problems to break the steps down and connect the dots to their fact family knowledge. We have connected our knowledge from our morning slides and have used riddles, task cards, fact family tables, and games online to help memorize the steps to solving long division problems. With the repetition of these steps, the students are not only building comfortability but confidence and are able to complete the problems almost 100% on their own! The students have not only worked independently and as a whole class but have worked with partners and in small groups during rotations. In some of the partner work, I have them share the steps and “teach” the other students how they solved their problems to continue building on that comfortability and confidence in their math skills. They continue to impress me every day with how much they have grown! I know that they will keep up their hard work and will be ready to take on the new obstacles coming up in the months ahead.
I am so amazed by all the hard work you all have put into this year, and the amount of participation we’ve had in all the events this upcoming month. These students truly enjoy getting to participate in all the events Academy Adventures Midtown has, and I love to hear their feedback! We are lucky enough to be able to put on these events and I am so grateful to be a part of it and that all of you are able to as well. Your students have been doing amazing and I know they will continue to do so. Again, if you have any questions or concerns please feel free to reach out to me on Class Dojo or call the school or shoot me an email!
Lots and lots of learning took place over the past month in our Social Studies and Science classes. In Social Studies, the younger students spent a lot of time talking about their life stories and writing and illustrating booklets with their autobiographies. We discovered that many of them don’t know their birthday or the year they were born – a great discussion to have with them at home.
The older students took a dive into broader history with a mini unit on How America Was Discovered. We all learned new facts about Christopher Columbus. We used to be taught that he was the only one in his day and time that believed the world was round. It turns out that’s not true! Most people during the 1400’s believed the world was round! Ask your child to tell you more about the new facts surrounding the discovery of America.
Both classes finished up the study of plants for now and moved on to the study of forces and motion. We are learning how to build strong bridges with just paper! Also, in the younger classes we are working on how and why new things are invented. Do you know how Post It notes were invented? Your first, second and third graders might.
On the 15th & 29th, the people from SARSEF came and led lessons in friction and motion.
Can you believe the holidays are already here?! In Social Studies we have started looking at different holidays around the world – Diwali, Hanukkah, and lots of others. Ask your child if they remember what they are. If they don’t remember, it is a great opportunity to look it up on Google together.
Coming Attractions – Native Americans, Arizona, continuing with Personal Finances, Engineering and More!!
Academy Adventures Staff is so proud of our students and how much effort they have been putting into their work. This year, we want to share student work with our families in the newsletter! We have some samples from ELA and Math this month. Check out how well all our students are doing and make sure you tell your child how proud you of their efforts!
We are looking forward to continuing our annual December Baking Days! This has been a tradition since the school started. In the past, we made Tamales, Lasagna and Decorated Cookies. This year, we are changing it up a bit.
Tamales require a lot of time and hands! With such a small school population and many of our parents working, this year we are making something that is a little less labor intensive. In place of tamales, students will be making little individual pans of enchiladas! They will have a choice of meat and fillings so they can customize it to their taste. We encourage families to join us to make their own enchiladas! We would love some help, if you can volunteer please make sure to return the form or contact your child's teacher.
We will continue our lasagna tradition! We have already have requests from people who want to buy pans of our lasagna! Parent volunteers are always welcome and appreciated! Watch for volunteer forms and order forms to be going home soon.
Finally, we will be making Reindeer & Melted Snowman Chocolate Bark instead of decorating cookies! The Halloween Bark during the Hocus Pocus Palooza was such a hit we thought it would be fun to change it up a bit and do some Reindeer & Melted Snowman Bark in place of the cookies! We will continue with our holiday movie and pajama day.
We will be sending home information as well as posting information on Class Dojo if you would like to volunteer. We are also in need of donation of ingredients. If you are able to help please complete the forms going home and/or speak with your child's teacher.
ANNUAL COOKIES & COCOA PERFORMANCE
We are so excited for you to join us for our Annual Cookies & Cocoa Winter Performance! This year, our students worked hard on the Nightmare Before Christmas play under the direction of Mrs. Gilbert!
Students tried out for their parts (check out the official cast below), have been diligently practicing their lines and will have many rehearsals! Students will also do an official dress rehearsal on December 6th for the residents at the Cascades of Tucson Retirement & Assisted Living! You won't want to miss the show on the 21st!
Save the date...December 21st @ 2:00! Come support our amazing students!
Students are learning to become musicians and dancers in this new Splats Challenge!
Also check out the pictures of our goodies from the Go Bananas Competition from September! We have a new special Splat and Banner! Students got banana stress balls and stickers!
BE AN ACTIVE PARTICIPANT OF YOUR CHILD'S EDUCATION!
Parent involvement is so important to your child's success! Academy Adventures Midtown encourages family participation with our open door policy and providing many opportunities for parents to join us for fun events at the school.
We are always open to ideas from you on things we can do as a school to help keep you involved in your child's education.
Here are a few suggestions on how you can be involved:
- Use the SEL Home Connections and Guides with your child in the evenings and weekends
- Volunteer for the December Baking Days
- Help with or donate to our Bake Sale
- Attend our annual Cookies & Cocoa Performance
- Read nightly with your child for at least 15 minutes
- Cooking and baking with your child at home is a great way to practice reading and math skills
- Volunteer in your child's classroom
We have an open door policy! You are welcome to stop by anytime, just make sure you sign in at the door and wear a Visitor Sticker!
Thank you to all of our families who participated in our November events! We had so much fun on Taco Tuesday! We had fun Taco themed activities and then ended the day with a taco lunch! We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did! Watch for more opportunities in December to participate!
NO AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAM --> TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2022
FIELD TRIP TO CASCADES --> TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2022
ENCHILADA DAY! --> THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2022
NO AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAM --> THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2022
LASAGNA DAY! --> THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2022
COOKIES & COCOA WINTER PERFORMANCE TITLE I FAMILY EVENT --> WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2022
NO AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAM --> WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2022
REINDEER & SNOWMAN BARK & MOVIE DAY --> THURSDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2022
EARLY RELEASE @ 11:30 AM --> THURSDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2022
NO AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAM --> THURSDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2022
WINTER BREAK/SCHOOL CLOSED --> FRIDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2022 - FRIDAY, JANUARY 6, 2023
ACADEMY ADVENTURES MIDTOWN
Email: info@academyadventuresmidtown.com
Website: https://academyadventuresmidtown.com
Location: 3025 North Winstel Boulevard, Tucson, AZ, USA
Phone: 520-777-3757
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/academyadventuresmidtown