The Silverhawk's Nest

Silverhawk families,

We are in need of a Crossing Guard and Lunch Monitor. If you, or someone you know, are interested please fill out an application online at www.dvusd.org. The position is only needed for a few hours a day.

We have a lot of events happening on our campus in this short December month. The teachers and I will make sure to keep you updated through Dojo and Blackboard Messenger. Please reach out to us if you have any questions about them.

As we head into Winter Break, I want to take a moment to express my sincere gratitude for each of you. Your continued support, hard work, and positive energy help make our school community a truly special place.

I hope this break gives you time to relax, recharge, and enjoy the company of family and friends. May your holiday be filled with warmth, laughter, and meaningful moments.

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 December and safe Winter Break!!

Sincerely,

Principal Fitzsimmons

Thank you so much to all of the families who donated items for the sixth grade "Feed the Need" food drive. We surpassed our goal and collected 752 items which were donated to St. Mary's Food Bank today. Your generosity made the food drive a huge success and will help many families in our community.

Preschool has made it nearly halfway through the school year. We wrapped up our study on trees, which included a story and craft from a beloved book, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom! We enjoyed our own Turkey Trot and fall feast before we went on break.

This month we look forward to more festive crafts and stories to welcome the winter season. Here's to another month full of learning, playing, and holiday fun!

Happy December, SPARK/Sage families!

IMPORTANT

Testing, testing, and more testing in our gifted corner...

For "spring" gifted testing, we are using the CogAT - The Cognitive Abilities Test - which is a multiple-choice test designed to measure a child’s academic aptitude as well as to identify gifted students.

*Note that SPARK/Sage classes may be canceled during our "spring" gifted testing window, which is from January 6th - February 20th.

1st Grade Blanket Gifted Testing

Blanket gifted testing (using the NGAT - Naglieri General Ability Tests) is complete for all of our first grade students here at Bellair. This universal testing ensures ALL students have access to gifted and talented services that meet their needs, among other reasons. You should be getting the results by December 19th from our district gifted services team. If you have any questions regarding the test results, please reach out: https://www.dvusd.org/departments/cia/gifted-servicescia/gifted-services-home

EMAIL:

GiftedServices@dvusd.org

PHONE:

623.445.5588

2nd Grade Blanket Gifted Testing

We will begin 2nd grade blanket testing (using the CogAT) right after our winter break! Opt-out letters will be sent out by the homeroom teacher at the beginning of December and closes out December 12th; however, we are encouraging ALL 2nd grade students to complete testing. So, if you do want your child tested, you don't have to do a thing! :-)

Spring Gifted Testing (CogAT) - Grades K, 1st, 3-6th

You are encouraged to register your student! Teachers may NOT register your student for you.

Parent registration ends January 9th. Registration information is available on our DVUSD Gifted Services website: https://www.dvusd.org/departments/cia/gifted-servicescia/gifted-testing-early-entry-testing

Here is the direct link for registration: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/113I4RCCVylczxWcN0vAV_t1MJtCJ3XiyUz5exBWwVXY/viewform?edit_requested=true

As mentioned in previous months, In SPARK & Sage, we continue using our new district resources from William & Mary and Jr. Great Books for grades 4 - 6. In grades 2 & 3, after our "Morning" or "Afternoon" meetings, we have been doing some fun SPARK challenges completing the STEM design process and learning to work together in groups. It is my plan to continue this throughout the school year.

SPARK

Grades 2&3 - We planned and designing a catapult in November. We had a great time with this challenge, and thankfully, it wasn't too crazy! In addition, we also created a "Thanksgiving table" made out of paper that could hold all of our "food" - pennies attached to traditional thanksgiving dishes. It was a fun challenge!

In December, we will look at our Arctic unit of study to complete some fun cold weather challenges such as learning about and building igloos.

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). Furthermore, I am trying to incorporate reading into our "Morning/Afternoon Meeting" along with our Jacob's Ladder William & Mary curriculum to help develop their (reading) skills.

Sage Reading:

Grade 4 - We've still been enjoying a literature study of the book, From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Bail E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg, and will continue to read through December. At this point, we are more than halfway through the novel. On top of our shared inquiry, vocabulary development, and enriched reading strategies, students have been planning, designing, and are now creating a "mini museum" based on the Metropolitan Museum of Art as described in the book. Each student got to pick a topic of interest to study for their space in the museum. Students are enjoying this project as we relate what they're building to information in the book and outside nonfiction sources.

Grade 5 - During our "safari" time away from the classroom during Tier II instruction, we will continue reading short stories in our Jr. Great Books series as we maximize our reading skills using the depth & complexity framework. Our shared inquiry skills are getting much more refined as we experience the process. We've completed a vocabulary web from William and Mary curriculum with a challenge word of our choice (from Jr. Great Books). Students learned a lot about the analysis of different parts of a word with this activity. We haven't had too much time for Stories with Holes but hope to fit that in during our time together in December.

Grade 6 - We have been reading the William & Mary 6th grade novel of choice, The Wednesday Wars, by Gary D. Schmidt. 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 also going to be required to complete a research hands-on project for this novel. It is quite extensive, and due to our limited reading time together, we will be starting this project in December and build on it into the new year. This task will be chunked as we learn more information about the characters, setting, plot, etc. while reading. I will be working closely with Mrs. Michelski to give a grade based on this in quarter 3.

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

Brittany Balog, M.Ed.

Gifted Specialist

Traditional Academy at Bellair

Families are invited to come join us on our "Jingle Jog" this school year!! Please make sure that you sign-in at the Front Office and wear your Visitor sticker while on campus. The Jingle Jog will be on our backfield by the gym from 9:15-10:15.

2nd Quarter Awards Assembly for 3rd-6th graders will be on Friday, January 9th @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 2nd 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