The Silverhawk's Nest

Silverhawk Families,

Happy February!

Our students have been working hard on showing Safety, Ownership, Achievement and Respect on our campus, and will continue to for the rest of the school year. It has been a great, but busy 2nd semester so far. Our teachers and students have been ramping up their teaching and learning preparing our students for state testing, and providing our younger students with a strong foundation to their learning.

Open Enrollment for Kindergartners and new students has begun!! Please click on this link to complete Open Enrollment for next school year, or pass it along to those who would like to enroll at our campus. Open Enroll

February events are listed below for your convenience.

• February 5th-13th - Scholastic Book Fair
• February 6th - Early Release
• February 12th/13th - Parent/Teacher Conferences, Half Day of School
• February 13th - "A" rating celebration!!
• February 16th - President's Day - No School
• February 21st - Early Release
• February 24th - Student Council Meeting/Science Fair/Evening Under the Stars (5:30-7:30)
• February 26th - Dress Out of Uniform for $1
• February 27th - Early Release

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 February!!

Warm regards,

Principal Fitzsimmons

• February 12th and 13th
• 1/2 Day School hours - Kinder - 8:30-11:55, 1st-6th - 8:30-12:05
• Teachers will be sending out conference dates/times this week

• BOOK FAIR DAYS/HOURS

  MONDAY FEB 9th 9:00am – 3:45pm

  TUESDAY FEB 10th 9:00am – 3:45pm

  WEDNESDAY FEB 11th 9:00am – 3:45pm

  THURSDAY FEB 12th 9:00am – 5:00pm

  FRIDAY FEB 13th 9:00am – 1:00pm **LAST DAY**

• If you would like to add money to your child's EWALLET please use the QR code attached.

• Pictures w/ our "A" rated banner
• Cupcakes for all to celebrate
• "A" rated group picture on field (Please email me if you can help with creating the "A" on the backfield!!)
• Enjoy free time walking around our field talking to your friends or family members!!

TAX CREDITS - Last Opportunity to Help Us

Silverhawk families,

If you are interested in donating Tax Credit money we would appreciate you donating it to our campus. We are in need of replenishing our recess and gym equipment. If you donate please make sure to mark GENERAL TAX CREDIT so we can use it for more than field trips. Thank you in advance for your help and support.

The Arizona tax credit program (A.R.S. 43-1089.01) allows a tax credit of up to $200 for individuals and up to $400 for married couples, filing jointly, in support of extracurricular activities. The tax credit reduces your tax burden to the state of Arizona, dollar for dollar.

HOW TO MAKE YOUR TAX CREDIT DONATION:

ONLINE at: K-8 & High School Online Donations

Your tax credit receipt will be mailed back to you. Your tax credit goes directly to the school you choose, not to the state or district.

Preschool has been super active and busy, studying different types of exercise! We have learned about endurance, strength, flexibility, and balance. Inside our classroom we are sharpening our fine motor skills with lots and lots of cutting and writing practice. Many of our students are preparing for kindergarten this coming year, so we believe you will see just how hard they have been working. We have many fun crafts in the works for Groundhog Day and Valentine's day, so our classrooms will be extra colorful during our upcoming conferences and school events. We hope to see everyone at our upcoming events like the Science Fair, and Literacy Night!

Happy February, SPARK/Sage families!

Spring Gifted Testing is almost finished!

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 some SPARK/Sage classes have been and will be canceled during our "spring" gifted testing window, which is from January 6th - February 20th.

2nd Grade Blanket Gifted Testing

We completed 2nd grade blanket testing (using the CogAT) right after our winter break in January! We had very few makeups, so that was great news! We should hear back about results prior to spring break. More news to come on that in our next newsletter.

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

We are currently finishing up our testing for these grade levels. I've been pulling registered students during times that work best for their classes and minimized missed instruction time. My hope is to be completely finished with testing by conferences. Here's hoping! 😀

In SPARK & Sage, we will start up again using our new district resources from William & Mary and Jr. Great Books for grades 4 - 6 once our testing window is completed.

In grades 2 & 3, I plan to work with students and complete some more reading activities along with some critical thinking and STEM challenges.

More details to come as we begin our regular schedule again after testing is completed!

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

Best,

Brittany Balog, M.Ed.

Gifted Specialist

Traditional Academy at Bellair

3rd Quarter Awards Assembly for 3rd-6th graders will be on Friday, March 27th @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 3rd 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