The Silverhawk's Nest

Silverhawk Families,

Happy May! As this year comes to a close I would like to thank all of our families for helping to support our students throughout this school year. It truly takes a village to help our students grow academically and socially in the right direction, and I truly appreciate the support you have given to my staff and I.

My teachers and I are already planning for next school year to improve on our processes and communication. Improving communication will be one of my main goals, among many others, with families and staff.

As always, if you ever have any questions or concerns please don't hesitate to email me at christine.fitzsimmons@dvusd.org or you can catch me in the front parking lot at drop-off and pick-up.

Have a great May!!

Warm regards,

Principal Fitzsimmons

Preschool has been busy learning about way to reduce, reuse, and recycle items we use everyday at home and in the classroom. We created a market in our dramatic play center by reusing plastic juice jugs, cereal boxes, and other items we normally throw away or recycle. We used plastic shopping bags to make a large ball, then covered it with masking take and papier mache to create a globe! We use old broken crayons to make new ones, and scrap paper to make new paper as well. In honor of Earth Day, we cleaned up our playground, throwing away any garbage, and planted sunflowers using a plastic egg carton as a mini greenhouse. We are nearly done with our school year, but our learning continues. Next we will celebrate our students and everything they have accomplished this year in our last unit of study, All About Me!

Welcome to the month of May! We've made it to our last month of school before summer break! It's hard to believe that we only have a few weeks left, but we'll be sure to make the most of them. 😀

District Gifted Showcase as SUCCESS!

Attached are a few photos of Bellair's display at our district annual showcase in April. We displayed our 4th grade "mini museums" based on the novel, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg. Thank you to the families that were able to attend. Our DVUSD gifted students are doing incredible things!

What's been happening in SPARK & Sage?

This school year, in SPARK & Sage, we began using our new district resources from William & Mary and Jr. Great Books for grades 4 - 6 and learned a great deal. In grades 2 & 3, after our "Morning" or "Afternoon" meetings, we did some fun SPARK challenges completing the STEM design process and learned some important skills such as working together in groups. Overall, we made great progress in our collaboration skills.

More details…

SPARK

In April, we started an exciting unit based on Rome. Our first challenge in this unit was to design and create a "trunk" that could hold weight. We are hoping to finish a few more of our STEM challenges in the unit, which includes creating a "fishing net," creating a "windmill," and constructing a "solar oven." We will try to complete as many as we have time.

When students are finished early with any challenge, I give them time for brain builders and/or brain flakes as well as time to play Set (3rd grade).

Sage Reading:

Grade 4 -We have continued reading our chosen novels, based on interest, from our gifted curriculum in small groups. We have been incorporating the depth & complexity framework for each chapter answering questions based on the dimensions of our choice in our reading journals. When finished reading and completing the depth & complexity journaling activity, students have been working on a fun project in small groups or individually. This should be completed soon, and students will bring them home to share. If time allows, we will complete a fun SPARK-type project for the end of the school year.

Grade 5 - During our "safari" time away from the classroom during Tier II instruction, we are reading short stories in our Jr. Great Books series as we maximize our reading skills using the depth & complexity framework. As mentioned in our past newsletters, this will continue to look the same for the rest of the school year, but we will explore various genres of literature as we do so. Our shared inquiry skills have gotten much more refined as we experienced the process. We have also fit in time for Stories with Holes as much as possible. If time allows, like I'm hoping for 4th grade, we will complete a fun SPARK-type project for the end of the school year.

Grade 6 - We are almost finished reading the William & Mary 6th grade novel of choice, The Wednesday Wars, by Gary D. Schmidt. Finally! We have taken the approach of enriching our multiple reading strategies using the depth & complexity framework in a "book club" at the end of the school day with this book. As mentioned previously, students are required to complete a research hands-on project (hexagonal book report) for this novel and we are finishing this up right before the end of the school year! Students will take these home to share as we leave for summer break!

As always, please reach out if you have any questions for me.

Let's make the most of these final weeks together in SPARK/Sage!

Best,

Brittany Balog, M.Ed.

Gifted Specialist

Traditional Academy at Bellair

4th Quarter Awards Assembly for 3rd-6th graders will be on Wednesday, May 20th @9:00 in the gym. Your child's teacher will reach out to you to let you know if your child will be receiving an award for the 4th Quarter.

If you would like to volunteer in your child's classroom, or go on any field trips, you must go through Volunteer Training. We will be having Volunteer Training in room 608.

• August 19th @4pm
• November 4th @4pm
• January 13th @4pm
• March 10th @4pm

During our Early Release/PD Dates teachers will be reviewing student data and collaboratively working together to plan how to best support students throughout the school year.

• August - 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th
• September - 12th, 19th and 26th
• October - 10th, 24th and 31st
• November - 7th, 14th and 21st
• December - 5th and 12th
• January - 16th, 23rd and 30th
• February - 6th, 20th and 27th
• March - 6th, 13th and 27th
• April - 24th
• May - 1st, 8th and 15th

Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is an evidence-based, tiered framework for supporting students’ behavioral, academic, social, emotional, and mental health. When implemented with fidelity, PBIS improves social emotional competence, academic success, and school climate. It also improves teacher health and wellbeing. It is a way to create positive, predictable, equitable and safe learning environments where everyone thrives. We use ‘students’ to refer to all children and youth in any educational or therapeutic setting (e.g., K-12 school, early childhood program, treatment program, juvenile justice program). Learn more about PBIS in schools, classrooms, early childhood programs and juvenile justice programs on those topic pages.

Our new PBIS Acronym is S.O.A.R. Silverhawks show Safety, Ownership, Achievement and Respect. Please help us to instill these behaviors at home, so we can all "S.O.A.R. to #Extraordinary Heights Together!"

Email: christine.fitzsimmons@dvusd.org
Website: https://www.dvusd.org/traditional
Location: 4701 West Grovers Avenue, Glendale, AZ, USA
Phone: 602-467-5700
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/The-Traditional-Academy-at-Bellair-109175091218455
Twitter: @Trad_Bellair