Students continue to explore our new Social Emotional Learning (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 February, students finished up the character trait COMMUNICATION. Communication is the sharing of information between a sender and a receiver. Communication includes speaking, listening, reading, and writing, as well as nonverbal clues. Good communicators use empathy to listen, and greet others with a respectful handshake and by looking the receiver in the eyes. Good communicators speak clearly with confidence and courage. They also listen with patience and an open mind so they can provide accurate feedback.

Students will be focusing on the character trait SELF-CONTROL, during the month of March. Self-control is when you are in charge of what you do and what you say. You use self-control to listen and follow directions. You keep calm and speak to others in a kind way at all times. Self-control helps you not do things that may be harmful to yourself and others. Self-control helps you stay safe, be successful, and create peace.

Check out the home connection materials and guides that you can use at home with your child and practice SELF-CONTROL 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.

Shel Silverstein, one of my all time favorite authors, asked his readers in one of his poems…”How much good inside a day? Depends on how good you live 'em.” Shel nailed this answer, and the students at Academy Adventures Midtown are living them good days! February was such an amazing month with a lot jammed in it! We celebrated love with our Love of Reading Day, where we explored community and giving with Stone Soup (yes, the soup was delicious) and dressing up as our favorite book characters! We were fortunate enough to have an Act One Field Trip to have the students exposed to different cultural music and dancing. I want to thank all the parents for attending the Parent/Teacher Conferences. Not only are these conferences a place to discuss students' academics and behaviors, they also allow time for the teachers to brag on the students.

I could not wait to put in the newsletter the amount of reading progress the K-3 class has accomplished in the past month. The class has focused on root words, with prefixes and suffixes. Being able to identify the root word and then determine if there is a prefix or suffix has helped the students fluency in reading. We have explored the prefixes ‘un’, ‘re’, ‘pre’and ‘mis’. With each prefix, we made lists of twenty or more words. It was so cool to watch students collaborate with each other to identify as many words as they could! Following the understanding of prefixes, we quickly moved into the suffixes of ‘less’, ‘ful’ and ‘ly’. We used the same process in making as many words in the list as possible. It was a fun experience watching them light up when making the connections! Students used an art and craft activity to reinforce the learned concept to make a Prefix and Suffix Garden! The K-3 class explored Folktales, Fairytales and Fables. In learning the differences, students are becoming experts in identifying the story elements of each. Our class wrote their own fable where they needed to identify a moral and have talking animals. I was amazed at the innate generosity and problem solving skills that these students have!

The fourth and fifth graders are very well versed in understanding story elements that make up the overall structure of the story. Students explored chronological order, cause and effect, comparing stories and identifying the problem within the story. Learning these story elements allow students to understand what the author is communicating which leads to increased comprehension, needed for test prep. Students practiced comprehensive responses in essay form encouraging creativity and demonstrating their understanding.

Students continue to practice their cursive to support their ability to read and write in various formats.

The fourth and fifth grade students continue to show immense growth in spelling and understanding the direct connection between reading, writing and spelling. Our fourth and fifth class has a goal to meet their individualize spelling goal, earning a special lunch of their choice!

Watching students become happier, confident and successful is truly a blessing and a motivator to continue to push myself as a teacher in new and exciting ways to learn. Students are ready to become owners of their learning, and proud of themselves! I am beyond thankful for the time that I get with your children. I love watching them explore the world of academics and behaviors and their ability to build on their strengths! Thank you for your continued support in Academy Adventures Midtown. I am always here to chat about how amazing your student is!

And just like that, February is almost over. This year has been flying by and the students are constantly growing! Ending January with the Chili Family Movie Night and having the opportunity for the kids to enjoy making the chili and watching Ice Age has shown how much our school has grown as a community and it truly makes me heart happy and I hope the same goes for you and your students. This month has been full of fun activities for the students, especially with the Love of Reading where the students could dress up as their favorite book characters. It was exciting to see how enthusiastic they were when sharing their books with the other students and getting to make and taste their Stone Soup.

Math has been an adventure this month. We focused on finishing content in decimals and place-value so that the rest of the year, we can focus on the State Testing and making sure the students are as comfortable as possible. The students have had a lot of fun with the math activities and have done an amazing job in completing their bellwork and homework assignments. With the State Testing coming up in April, I wanted to make sure that the students were confident in all topics covered throughout the year, so the review questions vary from addition and subtraction, to measurements and shapes. I feel that this has helped the students’ retention and I am seeing more confidence in operations and topics throughout all grades.

Kindergarten through third graders continued their journey in place-value including addition and subtraction. Students can build on their skill set while being exposed to new content. Third grade has moved on to 4-digit numbers and learning how to regroup from each place-value when adding or subtracting. Second grade has been incorporating 3-digit numbers, making sure to focus on each place-value and recognizing what they represent. Building that strong foundation will help students when they solve more complex operations. First grade has been focusing on 2-digit numbers and being able to recognize and build those numbers using ones and tens blocks. They have started adding the numbers but are mostly putting the emphasis on building and breaking down the 2-digits. Kindergarten focused on recognizing, writing and representing numbers up to 20. All of kindergarten through third graders have been working extremely hard and have consistently been improving their skill sets and confidence through the use of manipulatives, base ten blocks, task cards and worksheets.

Fourth and Fifth grade continued their journey of decimals while continuing to focus on the steps for multiplication. The students have broken down the steps; wrote posters to help teach the other students; completed task cards; games; and worksheets to help build their confidence on each step of the multiplication process. With this being the last unit for the fourth and fifth graders, I plan to focus on preparing the students for State Testing. Often the wording on the tests can get confusing so I want to make sure that the students are as comfortable and confident as possible. Students have been working incredibly hard and I am always blown away by how much effort they put in and the progress they have made this year.

It makes me so happy to see the progress and achievement these students are making this year, it truly has been an amazing thing to not only reflect on but build on. I want to give a huge thank you to all the staff and families here at Academy Adventures Midtown because you truly make a difference at this school and it is extremely exciting to see how much this school has grown this year! As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out on Class Dojo.

Social Studies has been primarily focused on Arizona and Black History. We have learned about Ruby Bridges, George Washington Carver and other famous Black Americans. In our Arizona studies, students have explored more about the state they live in and how it’s different from other states and very unique in its history.

In Science, all students studied the Earth, fossils, erosion and much more about the processes that make up our world. The upper grades started studying the Solar System. Mr. Gilbert is asking them to look in the night sky from home. Thanks to a local ordinance that strictly limits artificial-light pollution, Tucson supposedly has the darkest night skies of any city its size in the country. That’s a great reason to become more familiar our night sky!

The younger grades started a new Unit on Life Cycles and will be trying to grow some plants, again. We tried it in the Fall with little success so we’ are going to give it another go! If any of you parents have green thumbs, we would love to have you share your expertise with the class!

Thank you for supporting your child’s learning by asking questions and showing interest in what they are learning every day.

We are excited to announce that we will be providing our students with a FREE three (3) day Spring Break Camp (Easy as Pi), Monday, March 13-Wednesday, March 15, 2023, 8:00 AM - 2:00 PM. Please note there is NO After School Program during camp.

We must have a Spring Break Camp registration form completed for your child to attend. Please carefully read the attendance expectations for camp. Students who come late more or leave early more than once and/or miss a day will not be allowed to return. This is a short, voluntary, three (3) day educational camp, not a daycare.

During camp, students will be building on their strengths with fun hands-on activities to reinforce what they are learning in school; small group and/or individual sessions with their teachers; and test prep for students preparing for the state testing (grades 3-5). Breakfast, snack and lunch are included.

If you have any questions, please contact your child's teacher.

Thank you to everyone who joined us for the Title I Love of Reading / Stone Soup family event! We had a lot of fun celebrating reading with fun activities and read alouds! Seeing the students and staff dressed as their favorite storybook characters and hearing why they chose the character was inspiring to all! To end the day with some yummy Stone Soup was just the icing on the cake!

Thank you to the families who donated items and gift cards to help with the soup! The students have so much fun cooking for their families!

Positive parent involvement is key to your child's success! Academy Adventures Midtown encourages family participation with our open door policy and providing many opportunities for parents and family members 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. Please share your idea with Mrs. Angela or your child's teacher.

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 weekend
• Join us for our Title I Family Game Night
  
• Help with or donate to our Bake Sales
  
• Read with your child for at least 15 minutes each night
  
• Cooking/ 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!

We will be offering Spring Break Camp "Easy as Pi" during Spring Break. It is not mandatory but we highly recommend and encourage all students to attend! Camp will run 8am-2pm. See the information above and/or contact your child's teacher for details.