ACADEMY ADVENTURES MIDTOWN
BUILDING ON STRENGTHS & FILLING BUCKETS!
We have completed our first 40 days of school! That means we have less than 140 days left of school! The year is flying by with all the fun and excitement happening around campus! With Fall Break the second week of October, this month will also fly by quickly!
September was an exciting month with many fun events such as Literacy Day/Book Tasting, Parent/Teacher Conferences, Magic in Motion field trip, Museum of Contemporary Art field trip, Unruly SPLATS Go Bananas International Competition and Family BINGO Night! We love the opportunity for parents to come and have fun! Check out some of the photos towards the end of the newsletter! And watch for information on a new, fun family event the end of October!!!
We continue to see great improvement in our students! They work hard every day to show their teachers what they know. Each child is building on their own strengths and their progress is showing! Students are pushing themselves out of their comfort zones and not letting anyone or anything stop them from being successful! We could not be more proud!
October brings Fall Break and a much needed break for everyone. Due to low interest and enrollment, we will not have a Fall Break Camp. School will be closed Friday, October 7 - Friday, October 14, 2022. School will resume on Monday, October 17th. We encourage you to have your child read at least 15 minutes a day so they continue with their learning. If you would like some work for your child to do during the break, please reach out to your child's teacher through Class Dojo.
December Baking Days are just around the corner. We hope to be able to continue our tradition of tamales, lasagna and cookie decorating, but we will need your help, especially for tamale day. If you would like to help with any of those events, please contact your child's teacher.
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!
We continue with the same health protocols we have had in place: frequent handwashing; sanitizing high touch areas throughout the day; deep cleaning at night; new HVAC system for better air flow; encouraging staff and students not feeling well to stay home; taking temps twice a day; social distancing when possible; and encouraging the use of masks when in the building.
Keeping a healthy environment is not the only priority. Safety is also a high priority at Academy Adventures Midtown. Being a small school campus with a small populations, we are lucky that all of our staff knows all of our students and families. If someone we do not recognize arrives on campus, especially to pick up a child, blue cards are checked and photocopies of ID are taken. Security in schools is at the forefront for many, including Academy Adventures Midtown. The front gates and door remain locked at ALL times, unless a staff member is at the gate for arriving students in the morning or at dismissal time. Bars on the front windows keep anyone from being able to break and enter through a window. Students are never outside without adult supervision.
In addition to the precautions already in place, we are looking into installing cameras and an audio/video doorbell. This will allow staff to monitor the campus more closely, as well as know who is at the front door before opening it.
We have never had any issues on campus and will do what it takes to make sure that continues; students feel safe when they are here; and parents feel safe to have their children here. Your child's safety and your peace of mind is very important to us. If you have any questions or concerns about the health and safety at Academy Adventures Midtown, please do not hesitate to talk to your child's teacher, Mrs. Angela or Mr. Jack.
Students continue to explore our new SEL Program, Cloud9 World and are having a lot of fun learning about the traits and how to apply them to their every day life.
During the month of September, students finished up the character trait RESPECT . The students learned that we show respect by speaking and acting with courtesy. We treat others with dignity and honor the rules of our family, school, and community. When you respect yourself and others, others will respect you. RESPECT OUR EARTH.
In October, we will be focusing on a new character trait, MINDFULNESS. "Mindfulness is being aware of your environment and the feelings of others around you. Mindfulness helps you make wise decisions and maintain self-control. Mindfulness involves using all of your senses to understand your environment and the people in it. Mindfulness also helps you better understand the feelings of others and how to be kind and loving towards them."
Check out the home connection materials and guide that you can use at home with your child and practice Mindfulness 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.
"How much good inside a day? Depends on how good you live 'em. How much love is inside a friend? Depends on how much you give 'em”. Shel Silverstein is my all time favorite author, and I have been privileged to share this love of his poems this year with students. Students have demonstrated unmatched “good” and “love” everyday they are at Academy Adventures Midtown, and the staff and myself are lucky to experience it with them.
September was a face-paced, highly motivating month. We were able to reintroduce past traditions and continue some amazing events! I am humbled by the turnout of our last two Family Events that we hosted. Back To School Night/Curriculum Night was so much fun, as we got to let the parents in on what and how we support students as a whole child (not to mention the awesome Olive Garden dinner). Promptly after that, we were able to host our second Book Tasting. This was such a fun event to have families join students to taste the foods based on books that were read by the students. Food and books…not much can make this teacher happier! As we continue to have more family nights, my excitement builds for each coming month!
This past month has been such a pivotal turning point for not only myself, but for the students in English Language Arts. We have shaken things up a bit! During ELA, we have incorporated student lead groups, teacher lead groups, individual assistance and a lot of fun writing assignments! In doing so, students are able to take charge and accountability for their learning path to meet their goals. It is a firm belief that each student learns in their own way and we are here to meet them where they are at, as well as guide them to success.
The first through third class has focused on the following topics: nouns, verbs, compare and contrast and phonemic awareness. In whole group instructions, each student is exposed to the topic; dependent upon the daily formative assessment (student’s understanding of the content), students are grouped to use his/her own exploratory strategies to continue their knowledge of understanding and/or a teacher led group to reinforce the content to assist in further understanding. By doing these centers, I have witnessed each student meet their own academic successes, with smiles and pride. Along with structured daily groups, we incorporated the use of Nearpod. This site allows for content to be explored through the whole group, then individualized for students to answer. It has been a fun way for increased engagement and various media exposure for the students. One of the most successful student lead activities is Write The Room. Each week’s content manipulatives (mainly charts) are posted around the room, and students are asked to complete tasks based on these charts. Once completed, the student is provided immediate feedback! It is a great way to incorporate the content, be active as well as writing and spelling skills (which increase student’s ability to be comfortable in reading). Over the next couple weeks, students in the 1-3 class will be hyper focused on reading skills and strategies with efforts to increase reading and comprehension. I cannot wait to see them continue to mature, grow and use the learned confidence!
Many of the same practices are explored in the 4-5 grade ELA classes. Throughout the past month, the fourth and fifth graders have taken their confidence and have skyrocketed! These awesome students have shown so much growth in spelling and oral fluency. We have been using the short novel Island of the Blue Dolphins to explore many parts of ELA, such as nouns, character understanding, compare and contrast, as well as figurative language. Students have conducted peer interviews, paragraph writing and poster making as a fun outlet to demonstrate their understanding of each week’s topic. Daily, we have been reading together outloud and exploring what the author wants us to know as we read. This allows us to explore each week’s content, and make text connections to further personal connections. During this class, we utilize Nearpod and Kahoots. These technology based resources allow the whole group to be engaged, with a fun and competitive aspect that furthers content knowledge. We have some awesome writing goals coming up, as well as the continued goal of becoming confident and motivated readers!
Each month, I get to allow myself time and reflect as I write newsletters about students. During these moments, I smile as I remember the times we have had in class, think of innovative ways to teach, and acknowledge each student’s success. As we plan for the upcoming month, I know our students at Academy Adventures Midtown will continue to succeed.
As always, please keep a lookout on Class Dojo with our awesome upcoming Family Events, Field Trip info and all the fun we plan to have! If you ever have questions, comments or concerns, please reach out on Class Dojo and I am always happy to chat! Thank you for choosing Academy Adventures Midtown!
Students have had an amazing start to this year and continue to show how great they are every day! I feel as though time has been flying by because we are already into October. Students have been completing a lot of group work and have built amazing teamwork skills. Through our SEL program, students have been focusing on Respect. We have covered how to be respectful not only to our peers but to the environment, our property and ourselves. Your students have shown such a great understanding and application of respect and how it can constantly be a part of their lives.
In the math classes, I have implemented the use of centers to help students explore the topics and to keep them engaged. All grades are working on geometry and the different attributes associated with the shapes. Because students have been working so well together in their groups, I have been trying to keep the centers and activities more interesting and fun so that the students can really let themselves explore what they are comfortable with. The format of the math class starts with an overall explanation and introduction to the topic as a whole class. Students participate in an activity to gain vocabulary and content information so that when they head to the centers and activities, they have a basis to go off of in their explorations. Once the students have been introduced to the rotations and center work at the beginning of the week, they have an idea of what is expected in those activities throughout the rest of the week. The activities change based on the content we are focusing on but the process the student carries out in the activity remains similar as the week progresses.
First, Second and Third graders have been explored 2D and 3D shapes during September. The first week, we focused on 2D shapes, their names, how many sides and corners they have as well as ways we can apply them to real world situations. The centers incorporated for the first week were: Write Around the Room, Shape Templates and Geoboards. Students were put into groups and rotated between the different centers every 20 minutes. Throughout their center work, I would prompt the students on the vocabulary terms and content information to assess understanding and application. Students would name the shapes I pointed to and tell me the attributes of those shapes. Write Around the Room consisted of cards posted on the walls that had images of the shapes with the shape’s name on it. The students would go up to each card, draw the shapes to the best of their abilities and write the names. Shape Templates consisted of images and pictures made up of the 2D shapes, and students filled the templates with the appropriate shapes. The Geoboards center was a plastic board with tins, where the students were given images of shapes and had to use a rubber band on the plastic board to form the given shape. All students responded really well with these activities, so when we dove into the topic of lines, I kept most of the same activities. I adapted the centers to fit better with our current topic of 3D shapes, where the students can investigate the attributes by using actual 3D manipulatives.
Fourth and Fifth grade students are not only exploring shapes and their attributes but also diving deeper into their characteristics. During the first week, we focused on triangles and the different vocabulary terms used to describe them. Students explored angles and how we can use protractors to find angles within a shape and determine its category based on those angles. Students enjoyed being able to inspect the protractors and dive deeper into manipulating and discovering the traits of triangles. After we were able to determine what different triangles are and how they can be categorized, we started going over other shapes. These shapes included quadrilaterals and any other polygon with 5 or more sides. We not only were able to use the vocabulary from the triangles unit to describe shapes but were able to also add onto it with the names of the other shapes, the sides incorporated with them and determining if they were regular or nonregular. Some of the activities we used to help us in our exploration are Toothpick Triangles, Protractor Exploration, Matching Attributes, Shape Category Posters, and Write Around the Room. During the Toothpick Triangles, students used toothpicks to create triangles of varying side lengths and had to determine whether they were acute, obtuse or right triangles based on the angles they created. The Protractor Exploration involved measuring the angles within triangles and making sure they add to 180 degrees. The Matching Attributes and Shape Category Posters involved the three categories, (triangles, quadrilaterals and polygons) and the students had to separate the different shapes based on their sides and put them in the correct categories. They also determined and explained whether the shapes were regular or irregular. The Write Around the Room center is similar to the one the first through third graders do, but it involves complex shapes and details about the shapes’ characteristics.
All of the students have really enjoyed this creativity and freedom of exploration with the centers. With that in mind, I plan to continue this approach with other units throughout the year to help students not only build confidence in the material, but in themselves as well. I am constantly taken back by how amazing these students are. They have great role models and I want to thank everyone involved, staff and parents, for all you do with them to help get them to where they are today! I am looking forward to the fun filled year and as always, feel free to reach out to me on Class Dojo!
We are well into the school year now and your children are really showing their curiosity and excitement for learning! All grade levels are asking more questions about the world around them and engaging in serious discussions in Science and Social Studies. Most of the students say that they love to watch nature videos at home - thanks to all the parents who know how valuable this exposure is!
Students in grades 1-3, have studied landforms and are now focusing on animals. This week, they learned that they are mammals just like dogs and cats. This surprised and shook some of them but they are over it now! Students are busy researching an animal they chose and will present their research to the older kids and staff next week. Please ask them about what animal they chose. We are moving into the study of plants next.
Students in grades 4 and 5 made landform models along with the younger students. We think they all did a brilliant job painting them! In Science, students have been studying how the human body works and are applying what we have learned to animals. This group is writing a research report on a favorite animal that will include habitat, food, and fun facts. Students will present their projects to the younger students and staff next week. We are also going to be studying plants next and may even make some flowers to decorate the school - stay tuned!
AND THE WINNERS ARE....
ACADEMY ADVENTURES MIDTOWN SPLATTERS!!!!!
Way to go Splatters! This is the second year in a row that we have won the "Most Blocks Coded" in the Unruly Splats International Go Bananas Competition! The most exciting and amazing part is that we are a school of 20 students who competed with schools that had hundreds and some thousands of students in grades K-12! Our students have a LOT to be proud of!
We will celebrate the win with some fun surprises!!
BE AN ACTIVE PARTICIPANT OF YOUR CHILD'S EDUCATION!
Academy Adventures Midtown loves all of the parent involvement we have had so far this year! Thank you for taking time to attend Parent/Teacher Conferences and other family events! Your involvement makes a huge impact on your child's education!
October we have many more ways for you to be involved with your child's education:
- Use the Mindfulness SEL Home Connections and Guides with your child in the evenings and weekends
- Join us for the Family Movie
- Help with or donate to our Bake Sale
- 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!
Academy Adventures Midtown has so many things to be thankful for!
September has been a busy month! Thank you to all the families who participated in our Literacy Day/Book Tasting, Parent/Teacher Conferences and our BBQ/Family BINGO Night! We love having our parents involved and are very thankful for you!
Another thing we are so thankful for is our students! They continue to amaze us each and every day with their bucket filling and their continued dedication to doing their best each and every day! Their hard work is paying off and we are seeing so much growth in every child! We will continue to nurture that love of learning in the classroom! One way we have done that, is to offer more center based activities during ELA and Math. It provides the students with hands-on practice and they really enjoy it!
BAKE SALE!! --> THURSDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2022
EARLY RELEASE DAY --> THURSDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2022
FALL BREAK/NO SCHOOL --> FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2022-FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2022
FIELD TRIP TO BEN'S BELLS --> THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2022
Students will be taking a Field Trip to Ben's Bells! Watch for details and permission slips.
EARLY RELEASE DAY (11:30 AM) --> FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2022
FAMILY HOCUS POCUS PALOOZA!! --> FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2022
FAMILY MOVIE NIGHT --> FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2022
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