Levers, Pulleys, and Gears, Oh My!

Reminders and Important Dates:

Thursday Folders & Reading Logs Due Tomorrow

Friday, August 31 - Early dismissal - 12:00pm

Monday, September 3 - Labor Day - No school!

Tuesday, September 11 - Picture Day

Friday, September 14 - Early Dismissal - 2:10pm

Life in Division III is picking up steam!  Students began transitioning to World of Math and Art of Language classes this week, and have started working on projects in those core classes as well as started exploring mechanisms and simple machines.  

Dr. Ricotta's students have named the African Dwarf frogs who reside in her classroom "Merlin" and "Gandalf" after characters in their current read-aloud, "The Hobbit.  

Students in her classroom are earning pebbles to fill a jar based on social behavior per day.

Students chose pajama day, treats, movie, game day, and crafts as class incentives.

So far, Dr. Ricotta's students have earned 12 pebbles this week!

Ms. Brown's class began working toward similar goals with a "virtual" marble jar that is housed within our SMART Board software.  Students earn marbles by going above and beyond, demonstrating good leadership skills and practicing the FISH! Philosophy.  

LifeSkills

In LifeSkills this week, we've discussed how we often have the same feelings as others when we find ourselves in similar situations, sometimes experiencing multiple feelings at the same time.  We're not as different as we think we are, and we can empathize with one another.  We've created social contracts in our homeroom classes as well, and are working to create our contracts in other classes this week and next.  Dr. Ricotta has successfully completed the social contracts for all three of her classes--homeroom, math and language arts!

World of Math

Students have jumped headfirst into World of Math, reviewing both procedures and concepts.  Unit 1 Family Letters will be sent home in the second section of each student's binder along with any home links or other practice needed.  Look for these letters as new units begin every few weeks. 

Dr. Ricotta sent home emails on Wednesday afternoon providing additional information to families and introducing herself and giving an overview of her year in World of Math This letter can also be found in the forums on the AcademyACL website under her name. 

If you have questions about goings on in the World of Math, please email your child's math teacher.

Art of Language

In Ms. Brown's Art of Language, students are beginning a research and writing project to highlight both non-fiction reading skills and academic writing.  The big topic is "nutrition."  Right now students are focusing on developing skills to help them locate and comprehend information in informational text using specific text features and structures.

Students will choose a nutrition topic they would like to explore and will be reading to locate information using multiple texts and articles and then turning that information into a piece of academic writing to be included in a book about nutrition created by AcademyACL students for other children!  Students are already excitedly discussing what topics they want to explore and considering where to find resources.  More information on this will be provided to families shortly explaining ways they can support their student during this project.

A first quarter syllabus will be emailed to Ms. Brown's Art of Language families this weekend and will be posted in the forums under her name.

Dr. Ricotta's class is currently focusing on non-fiction writing. Students have started exploring the writing process by "writing what they know!"  They are composing five-paragraph essays on animals on which they consider themselves to be experts.  A note from Dr. Ricotta for her Language Arts class went home Wednesday afternoon and can be found in the forums under her name.

Ms. Burns' class is also studying informational text features, locating them in newspapers and magazines, creating reference pages for themselves.  

Words Their Way spelling will begin coming home in the third section of students' binders soon.  Please cut these out and keep them at home for practice.  In Ms. Brown's class, several students will begin studying Greek and Latin roots as part of their word study, while others continue to master spelling patterns and derivational spelling. 

Daily two-minute edits and four-level sentence analyses using the Michael Clay Thompson analysis framework have started as well.  Students are quickly learning the eight parts of speech, to identify the parts of a sentence, types of phrases, and clauses, as well as how all of these things work together to improve our writing.

Inquiry

Students are exploring mechanisms and simple machines on a deeper level, determining how they work together so that everyday objects do their jobs.  They've created a model of a mechanism on a 1:3 scale!  This project has been amazing to watch.  It required teamwork, planning, and perseverance, as well as exceptional levels of creativity as students were using very basic materials to create this particular mechanism!  

On Friday before they go home for the day, students will be introduced to the Rube Goldberg Project, which will be the culminating event for this unit and be featured in our Mechanisms Fair to be held on the 28th of September.  Paperwork and more information, including rubrics, will go home with students on Friday in their binders as well as posted in the forums for download.

Planners

Please continue reviewing planners with your students nightly.  At the beginning or end of each class period, students are recording the lesson's objective, and should be able to provide you with additional details about what they are learning.

Knightly Reading Logs

Knightly Reading Logs went home on Monday with students and must be returned with Thursday folders on Friday morning.

Thank you for your continued support of Division III students!

~Ms. Brown, Mrs. Burns, Dr. Ricotta, and Miss McDonough

Getting back into the swing of things...

Important Reminders:

Friday, August 24, 6:30 p.m.  - Academy ACL's Third Annual Sock Hop

Come dance the night away to the oldies and learn some new moves, with DJ services and dance lessons provided by Division V students!  Bring your best guy or gal--it's bound to be a great time! (Be on the lookout for your Division III teachers who will be dressed to impress!)

Friday, August 31, 12:00pm - Early Release

Monday, September 3 - Labor Day, No School

LifeSkills

Just like any other traditional contract, Division III classes are preparing for the formalization of their Social Contracts in homerooms on Friday. Discussions have been centered on the four essential questions:

1. How do I want my teacher to treat me?
2. How do I want to be treated by others?
3. How does my teacher want to be treated?
4. How do we want to be treated when there is a conflict?

On Friday, students will then agree to what elements are included in their contract, sign it, and will adhere to their peers' expectations.

We have also been discussing listening with attention and how to identify passive, aggressive, and assertive behaviors.  The concept of being assertive is a difficult one for many of our students, because they fear coming off as bossy, or fear reprisal from others. We have role played in the classroom as well--continue this practice at home with your child, presenting scenarios in which assertive behavior is needed to help them develop this skill. 

World of Math and Art of Language

While math and language arts groups are not yet finalized as of Thursday, Division III students broke out into some initial groupings while we continue to assess both math and literacy levels school-wide to ensure proper placement.  Students are learning procedures and routines in each classroom and getting familiar with academic expectations at new levels. 

Students in Dr. Ricotta's math class have been collecting class data to create a bar graph this week. Students chose their topic ranging from favorite color to the different alphabet letters in a bag of blocks. From their data, students then identified the maximum, minimum, range, and mode. Each graph was unique to its creator and turned out expertly! Reading and interpreting graphs are skills that will be assessed throughout level four math curriculum.

Ms. Brown's math students spent the week learning foundational math games to help them practice basic math facts such as Addition and Subtraction Top-It, practice naming numbers using place value language in Number Top-It, and challenged them to formulate equations using all four operations while playing Name that Number.  These games will help students continue to build their math fact knowledge and think like mathematicians.

Students who went to Mrs. Burns' room this week also learned math games used to solidify mathematical concepts into which they will delve deeper this year.  Many of these students will be dispersed among other classrooms beginning next week, as other Division classrooms were still testing, and transitions will begin next week.

Poetry is an integral genre that students need to read, interpret, and create. Using a generic template, Division III students are using their voice to create a personal poem about themselves. The writing process begins with a sloppy copy, then revision and editing, with the final copy published on the computer. Students' creativity has been evident and encouraged throughout the process.

We are working with students to promote seeing writing as a process, rather than a finished product.  While some pieces may go to publication, as in the case of the poem, often, even the published pieces will be revised or re-used again later.  Students are being encouraged to think of themselves as writers in all areas, not just language arts.

Inquiry

Our study of mechanisms is underway!  Division III scientists have defined the term "mechanism" and determined characteristics common to mechanisms, as well as observed them to understand inputs and outputs and are working to understand the "law of the lever."  It's interesting to see students observing everyday items in new ways!

If you have the game "MouseTrap" please send it in!  We'll be using it shortly!

Reading Logs

We'd intended to begin sending them home this week.  There are many new procedures being learned right now, so we have put them off for now so as not to overwhelm our students.  Please continue to have your child read at home.  When we are ready to send them home, we will let you know!

Planners, Binders, and Thursday Folders

Please continue reviewing your child's planner nightly and signing off on them.  The great majority of our students have done a wonderful job, being responsible for bringing them back each day and having you review them.  If your child forgets to share them, please remind them until it becomes a nightly habit.  

In addition to remembering to bring back their binders and planners, students are also responsible to return empty and signed Thursday folders each Friday morning.  These must be returned, otherwise students will need to call home and spend our assembly in another classroom, which would be a big bummer--assemblies are fun!

Have a great weekend!

Week one--check!

It's been a lot of fun this week getting to know your children!  We're enjoying building a sense of community within our Division. New students have found friends and are making connections in each classroom. We are still working through various assessment pieces during the next week and plan have groups prepared for math and language arts to begin on Monday, August 27. 

Supplies
Thank you so much for providing student supplies so promptly.  It's really made getting organized easy for us!  We were able, from the first day, to introduce basic procedures with regard to writer's notebooks, binder use, and planners.  

There are two items we will need, and realized they'd been left off of our supply list:  a set of 4 thin expo markers and a flash drive.  We'll be using whiteboards quite a bit and students will need their own expo markers.  The flash drive will be used to save computer generated work in later projects.  Please purchase these while they are still on sale this weekend and have students bring them in on Monday.

Planners
If you have not already purchased a planner, please do so in the office for $4.  Student planners should have covers decorated soon--Dr. Ricotta's class needs theirs completed by tomorrow, Friday the 17th.  Mrs. Burns and Ms. Brown are due to be completed on Monday.

Please review planners with your child nightly and initial that you have seen them.  We'll be doing random binder/planner checks each week.

We'd like to thank you all so much for helping your students remember to bring back their binders, notebooks, and planners each morning.  Doing so allows them to be prepared.  Know that if a student arrives without these items, expect a telephone call from your child asking for what was forgotten.

"Knightly" Reading Logs
On Monday, "Knightly" reading logs will come home.  They are due back each Friday morning.  Students are expected to read for 20 minutes each night and write a short summary of what they read.  

We teachers *love* to read, but don't always get to read the fabulous things you children are reading. Through your child's summary, we are getting a taste of what is out there in children's literature and they are learning a very important skill: summarization.  Encourage them to be brief, writing only a few sentences, but to go beyond "This book was about a dog."  We need a little more to ensure comprehension!

When your child tallies how many pages are read, please have them include the NUMBER of pages (22), rather than the range of pages read (5-27).  We will be tallying these in the classroom to determine how many pages we read as a class, and later forward this data on to see whether or not we can read half a million pages as a school.  There is also a place in the planner to note this as well for your child's records.  

Thursday Folders
Thursday folders went home with your children today.  Please review their contents and sign the front, then send it back with your child tomorrow.  Students who do not bring their folders back will not get to attend our weekly assembly and will be doing an alternative activity in another classroom during that time.

Mechanisms
Our mechanisms unit is beginning on Monday.  We are incredibly excited to start this exploration with our students!  Many families have already brought in items for us to explore, but if you have not, please feel free to send those with your child on Monday.

LifeSkills
In Thursday folders, a note regarding our LifeSkills curriculum was sent home.  This is just one small piece of our entire curriculum, but the link in the note will help you understand the lessons we will be using during the first quarter to help students learn to deal with those strong emotions and basic social skills.  

In the coming weeks, we will create Social Contracts in each class for homeroom, math, and language arts.  We encourage students to self-advocate and attempt to problem solve on their own, learning to use their words (I Messages and the Peace Path) to solve conflicts between one another.  We'll definitely help facilitate that, so know that the first question we will ask our students is what they have already tried to resolve the conflict. 

Have a wonderful weekend!

Ms. Brown, Mrs. Burns and Dr. Ricotta

Happy New School Year!

The first day of school is Monday, August 13!  Can you believe it?

Students will need to be ready to enter the building at 7:50 outside of their current homeroom door. That door will close at 8am, and students arriving after 8am must go to the office to sign in and will be marked tardy. They'll then be sent to class with a late slip by the office.  On the first day, you are welcome to come in with your child to see the classroom, but we ask that you honor our time together to build community and say your goodbyes quickly so that we can get started at 8am. Students will have a short get-to-know-you writing assignment waiting for them when they arrive on the first day!

Initial Family Conferences
If you were unable to make our initial conference days this week, please schedule an appointment with your child's homeroom teacher within the next week or so.  We look forward to chatting with you!

Supplies

Many of you have already brought in your school supplies or had them delivered by EduKit.  Thank you!  If you have not brought them by, feel free to bring them by school on Friday or to ODD (Orientation, Divisions, and Dessert) Night Friday evening beginning at 5:30.  Please make sure the bags containing your child's supplies are marked with his or her name--we'll take care of labeling everything else.  

ODD Night

ODD Night is an orientation night that helps families gain a better understanding of Division-specific expectations. Information about projects, homework, field trips and other events specific to each division will be discussed.  If you have a child in more than one division, there are four sessions: 5:30, 6:30, 7:00 and 7:30.  At 6:00, Mrs. Myers will hold a new family orientation in the gym.  

Volunteering

During our initial conferences, many of you expressed interest in volunteering.  Our school is ALWAYS looking for volunteers to help out around the school and in the office.  There is a sign up sheet in the office.  As we get into our school year, classroom teachers will be looking for help with various projects as well.  Please understand that not all of these projects involve being in the classroom with your child.  Because we are project oriented, our needs often include research, trips to the library for research materials, preparation of materials and/or games, copies, etc.  As needs arise for extra hands during more hands-on explorations, we'll let you know, and will set up a time to discuss what exactly will be needed.  As noted in the handbook, we need to have an idea of when you are available to volunteer, and set up something in advance with you, rather than have you just drop in to volunteer. 

Allergies

The gifted population tends to have more food and other sensitivities than others.  We have a number of students allergic to peanuts and peanut products, some with Celiac disease and gluten sensitivities, and some with dairy allergies.  Mrs. Myers has outlined and provided our policies to ensure the safety of all of our children.  Please be familiar with it and direct any questions you may have to your child's homeroom teacher or the office.

Miss Stephanie McDonough, Student Teacher

Division III is proud to introduce Miss Stephanie McDonough who will be joining us during the first eight weeks of school.  Many of you have had the opportunity to meet her this week during our initial conferences.  Miss McDonough will be working with Ms. Brown in her classroom, gradually taking on additional teaching responsibilities as her eight weeks of student teaching experience with us progresses.  She is a native of Iowa City, Iowa, and has relocated here specifically to complete her teaching program.  We're thrilled to have her as a part of our Division III team!

Division III Handbook

The Division III Handbook can be located and downloaded from the following link:

http://www.AcademyACL.org/site/site/forums.html

under Division III, Division III Handbook.  You can also request another copy from your child's homeroom teacher. 

We look forward to beginning the school year on Monday!  Have a great weekend!

~Ms. Brown, Mrs. Burns, Dr. Ricotta, and Miss McDonough