December 30, 2021
Dearest AOS families,
I hope everyone is having a joyous Christmas break filled with lots of love, joy, and laughter! We are excited to continue our educational journey with our scholars when we begin the second semester on Tuesday, January 4th.
As the first semester comes to an end, we can celebrate all the accomplishments of our hardworking scholars and staff. We started the school year with Beginning of the Year assessments, identifying both gaps and gains to be addressed. Fall conferences in October provided an opportunity for teachers to highlight each scholar’s strengths and areas for improvement in Reading, Math and Social/Emotional Competence.
As the months of the first semester progressed, parents, scholars and teachers were engaged in our daily rigorous curriculum as well as grade level projects. These projects allow scholars and parents to connect, have fun working together and give parents the opportunity to partner with teachers in demonstrating how scholars can show what they have learned in creative ways.
In the lower grades, scholars showed their creativity with an “All About Me Cereal Box” in Pre-Kindergarten and “A Turkey in Disguise” project in Kindergarten and 1st grade. In 2nd and 3rd grade, scholars completed culminating novel studies projects, such as a “Shiloh Book Bag” and a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) “Charlotte’s Web” project.
In the upper grades, 4th grade completed a “Who Am I” Social Studies project, 5th grade created an “Earth Systems Geospheres” Flipgrid and historical fiction PowerPoint journal of the Columbian Exchange and 6th grade demonstrated their science knowledge with an “Energy Transformation Toy Creation” project.
The hard work, diligence, and effort your scholars displayed was remarkable. We are always rewarded to see the way scholars can synthesize their learning, create amazing projects, and expertly present them. Being able to use math, writing, and presentation skills in a project help our scholars develop as 21st century leaders.
Parents and grandparents, we appreciate your support of our academic community. The pandemic has created many challenges and our scholars have succeeded despite these obstacles. Thank you for partnering with us in providing a top-notch educational experience for your scholar!
As you celebrate the New Year with family and friends, think about this question; How can you “invest” your time as opposed to “spend” your time this year? Childhood is short and precious. We would like to remind you of one way that you can “invest” your time that will be beneficial to your child’s academic success. Are you able to drop your child off at school at 7:30 a.m. instead of 8:00 a.m.? When scholars are in their classrooms at 7:30 a.m., they are engaged in academic activities practicing math facts, handwriting and cursive writing. These academic skills are ones that we encourage our scholars and parents to work on daily, at home, to build competence. However, if you “invest” your time by getting your child to school by 7:30 a.m. each day, the classroom teacher can provide your child with two and a half hours of additional instruction each week. This is an example of “investing” as opposed to “spending” your time. I truly hope that you are able to take advantage of this opportunity in 2022.
As we embark on a productive and engaging second semester, parents and scholars can look forward to our mid-year, student-led conferences on January 28th, Black History projects for all grade levels in the month of February, SAT-10 Testing in late March, Spring novel studies in March through May, Career Week activities in April, and end of the year celebratory activities in May. More in depth information regarding these events will be included in each teacher’s weekly informer in Canvas. We look forward to an exciting and busy second semester as we continue to work together to provide an exceptional learning experience for our AOS scholars!
Please tune in to our next Scholarly Speaking Live on Thursday, January 6th at 12:01 p.m. We will be discussing “How to Help Your Child Set Goals”. Thank you for entrusting your beautiful, brilliant scholars to us. Have a happy, blessed, and prosperous New Year!!
Blessings,
Dr. Johnson