Coming soon to Arno….

Nov. 12

Ad council

Book Fair Week Begins

Nov. 13

BF

SIP meeting 7:45

Stanley obs 9:30

Nov. 14

BF open until 6:30

PBIS Meeting 7:45

Steve in Lansing conf.

Nov. 15

BF

Picture Retake Day

Title I parent night 6:00

Nov. 16

BF wrap up

Nov. 19

No events

Nov. 20

Early Dismissal 11:30

Teacher PD p.m.

Nov. 21

No School

Nov. 22

Happy Thanksgiving!

Nov. 23

Shop ’till you drop

Arno Vision

Arno Elementary will provide a system of support to empower

and inspire students to become collaborative learners

that strive for academic excellence

Congratulations Sandy Bennett!

While attending the annual Michigan Association of School Social Workers State Conference in Kalamazoo, our very own Sandy Bennett was awarded the Career Achievement Award at the banquet last evening – it was a complete surprise to her!

The Career Achievement Award is a prestigious honor, not annually awarded by MASSW.  In fact, there have been only 5 in the last 70 years and our Sandy is now one of the elite!

This award is reserved for recognizing an individual who has demonstrated exemplary services as a School Social Worker over a significant period of time, has developed creative programs, services, and/or interventions to improve or enhance the lives of children and families in the State of Michigan.

Sandy Bennett has contributed significant time and effort to advance the visibility and viability of School Social Work throughout the State of Michigan through involvement on MASSW local and state level Boards, political action and advocacy and teaching, instructing and mentoring School Social Work interns and School Social Workers.  Sandy’s career spans 4 decades and she has been with Allen Park Public Schools for over 20 years.  Sandy’s professional contributions have been significant and far reaching, spanning across the State of Michigan and extending throughout the entire Midwest Region; devoting innumerable hours in support of her beloved profession of School Social Work.

It is with a tremendous amount of pride that we congratulate Sandy on this prestigious and well-deserved honor.  Please join the Allen Park Board of Education on Monday, November 12, 2018 at 7:00 p.m. at the Allen Park High School, Large Group Instruction Room, as we honor and celebrate Sandy Bennett!

OPEN ENROLLMENT FOR 2019 IS HERE.

STEPS TO TAKE IF YOU HAVE NOT DONE SO YET:

Directions:

4701_001-132rdbr

Christmas Story Time

I would like to once again come around to all of your rooms to give you a holiday 30 minute break, and read Christmas stories to your kids.  Please stop by or send me an email when you would like me to come in starting after Thanksgiving.

Christmas Luncheon

Please mark your calendars for Dec. 6th as we will be having our annual Staff Christmas Lunch.  We will do the one hour block again and will have a schedule when we get close.

District-wide Holiday Toy Box Drive

The annual district-wide toy drive for local families, as in the past we are looking for donations of new or gently used clothing and toys.  The box for drop off is in the main office at our school until December.  Please consider donating something if you are able.

The Book Fair is Coming! The Book Fair is Coming!!

From the Scary Halloween Cougars

Parade

Creepy Underwear… in Media 

Techie time

Supercharge Student Self-Editing Skills with this Writing Checker for Google Docs

Analyzing your own writing with a critical eye can be hard to do. I know, I try to do it every day and I still miss things that a fresh set of eyes quickly picks up. Like me, students often struggle to critically analyze their own writing. Peer editing is one solution to that problem. Another solution is to use an online writing checker the one that JoeZoo offers as a Google Docs Add-on. JoeZoo’s Monkey Checker is a customizable tool that students can use to evaluate their own written work and teachers, of all subjects, to save a lot of time assessing student work.

Five Key Features of JoeZoo’s Monkey Checker

• • JoeZoo’s Monkey Checker is a part of the JoeZoo Google Docs Add-onthat you can get right here. Once it is installed you can begin customizing how it works for you and your students.

• • You can pick the spelling, grammar, and punctuation rules that you want the Monkey Checker to identify. Many services will identify all errors, but if you want students to be responsible for self-identifying small errors and let Monkey Checker identify the bigger errors, you can have it do that. Or you can use the customizations to set different rules for different classes. For example, I might have Monkey Checker flag all errors for my ninth grade students and only have it flag bigger errors for my eleventh grade students.

• • Many grammar, spelling, and punctuation checkers will automatically fix errors for students. Monkey Checker only suggests corrections. I like that because it forces students to look at their mistakes and make corresponding corrections.

• • Errors are color coded within Google Docs. Errors of the same type are color coded and grouped for easy identification by students and teachers. This makes it easy to quickly identify the type of mistake that a particular student makes most often.

• The Monkey Checker tracks students’ self-editing progress and reports that information to teachers in a word cloud format.

Want to see these features in action? Watch this short video to see how you and your students can benefit from using JoeZoo’s Monkey Checker for Google Docs.

Bonus item!

• An originality checker is built into JoeZoo’s Monkey Checker. Sometimes students don’t intend to do it, but they end up including too much of another person’s work in their own papers. The originality checker lets teachers instantly check if a student copied any part of their work from other students in the class

13 Alternatives to Google Image Search – Chart

I’ve seen and you’ve seen it too many times; a student or colleague needs a picture for a project so goes to Google Images and right-clicks to save the first picture she likes without any consideration of copyright. Even though Google Images does have a usage rights filter there are still better places to find images that are either in the public domain or have a Creative Commons license.

In the chart that is embedded below I feature thirteen alternatives to using Google Image search. All of sites in the chart offer images that are either in the public domain or have a Creative Commons license.

If you cannot see the embedded chart, click here to view it as a Google Document.

Coming soon to Arno…

Oct. 29

PBIS Reward

Oct. 30

PTA Membership Drive Class reward

Metro Parks Schultz

Oct. 31

Halloween Parade 10:00

Early Dismissal 11:30

Nov. 1

Principal for the Day winner- Nina Hegedus

PTA Meeting 6:30

Nov. 2

NCI Refresher- Steve

Nov. 5

Cervantes obs 10:30

Nov. 6

DiCarlo obs 9:30

Higgins obs 10:30

Nov. 7

Johnson obs 9:30

P/T Conf 5:00-7:30

Nov. 8

Early dismissal 11:30

P/T Conf 12:45-3:15/5:00-7:30

Nov. 9

Reflections entries are due

Arno Vision

Arno Elementary will provide a system of support to empower

and inspire students to become collaborative learners

that strive for academic excellence

Arno has been awarded MIHeart Safe Designation

This is awarded to schools that have completed criteria such as

AED and CPR training and a cardiac emergency response plan.

Arno is one of only 211 schools with this designation

in the state and it is issued  for the next three years.

Congratulations to our staff on maintaining a

safe environment for all students, staff, and visitors

OPEN ENROLLMENT FOR 2019 IS APPROACHING. 

STEPS TO TAKE IF YOU HAVE NOT DONE SO YET:

Directions:

4701_001-132rdbr

Conferences

All links have now been sent out to parents- please share your link as well to your classroom parents.  We will once again provide dinner on Wednesday so please let Cathy know if you will be partaking.  Also, please let me know if there are any conferences you would like me to attend.

Building up to Kindergarten

We had a terrific turnout for our second annual Preschool meeting with parents and their preschooler.  This is an event that is open to all of our local preschools in the area and is designed to give parents a better understanding of the skills that their child will need as they enter kindergarten next fall.   We had amazing 41 families from various preschools attend the event, more than double the amount over last year.

A huge thanks to our Kindergarten staff , Nickie Stanley, Cristina DiCarlo, and Megan Johnson, for an excellent job on helping our future kindergartners be better prepared for next year.

The presentation slides can be seen below- there will be Part 2 of Building up to Kindergarten in the winter.

Building Up to Kindergarten Part 1 Night Fall-1om8pkb

 From the PTA

The next PTA Meeting is on November 1st, in the Arno Cafeteria at 6:30 p.m. As always, free childcare for school aged children will be provided. Spirt wear will also be sold (cash, check and credit card is accepted). 

NEW spirit wear options are coming! Watch for flyers to come home soon!

Our “Get The Scoop” Membership Drive has wrapped up! We are happy to announce that the following classes have won……… Martinchick’s class is in first place with 23 members, Smalley’s class is in second with 22 members and Wesley’s class is in third place with 19 members!!  These classes will be enjoying an ice cream social on October 30th and the teacher’s will have book fair money to spend for their class! As of right now we have 157 PTA members. Our goal for the month of November is to recruit at least 10 more business memberships, public official memberships, or outside/community members. Can you help us reach our goal?

Holiday Fever is almost here! Join us on Saturday November 3rd at the Allen Park High School from 9am-3pm. There will be a craft and vendor show, mom 2 mom sale, tin can raffle and concessions. Admission is $1 (over age 12). Proceeds go to the PTA Council scholarship fund. This is a perfect time to start your Holiday shopping!

Reflections is well underway. Entries are due on November 9th to your teacher. Get Creative!
This is your chance to tell a story about “Hero’s Around Me” through one of the following :
Dance Choreography
Film Production
Literature
Music Composition
Photography
Visual Arts

Just a reminder that our Carnival themed book fair is coming soon! Look for more information starting next week and a signup genius link to go out soon! Volunteers receive 20% off their purchase for each full shift they work!!

Limo and Lunch

Congrats again to all of our Top Sellers for this year’s Fun Run- we had a great time with our limo ride to Red Robin’s and then an ice cream at Mickey D’s!

Therapy dogs start in Mrs. Jensen’s room

Fire Safety Assembly

Thank you our Allen Park fire Department for coming out to Arno for another excellent fire safety assembly!

Cougars go for a Scary Skate….

A Good Site for Vocabulary Lists and Practice Activities

Vocabulary.com is an excellent vocabulary study service offering thousands of vocabulary practice lists and activities for students in elementary school through graduate school. In addition to lists of SAT, GRE, and other test prep words, you can find vocabulary lists that are attached to novels, historical documents, famous speeches, and current news articles.

When you sign up for Vocabulary.com you will be given an assessment quiz in order to give you suggested lists with which to start your practice. After completing the assessment you can use the practice lists suggested by Vocabulary.com or choose your own lists from the huge gallery of vocabulary lists.

Applications for Education
One of the aspects of the Vocabulary.com activities that I like is the instant feedback for every practice question a student attempts. As you can see in the image above, if a student answers incorrectly on his first attempt, he will see the definition and the word in context.

From the District

Great for quick formative assessments

Plickers Brings Back Individual Student Reports!

Back in September the folks at Plickers, a popular student-response service, released a bunch of updates to their mobile apps and website. Some of those updates, like easier display of questions have been popular. Some of those updates were panned by teachers. Fortunately, the Plickers team has been responsive to the voices of their users and is making adjustments accordingly. To that end Plickers once again has individual student reports.

To generate individual student reports in Plickers you do have to assign each card to each of the students on your classroom roster. After you have done that you can poll your class at any time by having them hold up their assigned cards then scan the room with the Plickers app open your phone or tablet. All of your students’ responses will then be available in your reports.

The Basics of Plickers
Plickers is a free polling service that I started using back in 2014. It is unlike any other polling system because only the teacher needs a phone or tablet to make the system work.

To use Plickers you have to give each of your students a card or piece of paper that has a large, unique QR code on it. Each edge of the QR code has an “A,” “B,” “C,” or “D” printed on it. When you ask your students a question they all hold up their cards with their answer choices (A,B,C, or D) on top. Then you scan the room with your phone or tablet while you have the Plickers app open. Plickers will quickly tally all responses and put them into a report for you.

You can print the QR codes directly from the Plickers website. If you use that option, I recommend printing on card stock. You can also purchase laminated Plickers code cards on Amazon.

Applications for Education
Plickers is a fantastic polling system to use in classrooms that don’t have computers or tablets for every student. The advantage of Plickers over just having students raise their hands is that Plickers can be used for anonymous polling. To conduct an anonymous poll have all students hold up their cards at the same time. Because each card has its own unique pattern students don’t know how their classmates are answering a question.

Plickers can also be a good option in classrooms in which taking out a tablet or laptop for a quick activity can be a bit of a hassle (I’m thinking of a couple of 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms that I recently visited).

Coming soon to Arno…

Oct. 15

3rd grade BAS

Ad Council 9:00

Oct. 16

PTA Angelinas Fundraiser

2nd Grade BAS

Steve @Riley 9:00

4th grade DTE 12:00

Oct. 17

1st Grade BAS

SIP Meeting 7:45

Steve @RESA 8:00

District PBIS meeting 1:00

Oct. 18

No events

Oct. 19

No events

Oct. 22

Kinder BAS

Oct. 23

Steve/Sandy in Lansing

Oct. 24

Data Dive per schedule

Preschool Title 1 event 4:30-5:30

Oct. 25

Data Dive per schedule

Conf Links Due

Oct. 26

Conf Links out to Parents

Darga at Arno

4th Grade to Parade Company

Arno Vision

Arno Elementary will provide a system of support to empower

and inspire students to become collaborative learners

that strive for academic excellence

Self-Efficacy 

This was one of the key notes from my conf.  Although this is just a small portion of it, look at the effect size of teacher (Hattie’s new number 1) and student self-efficacy.  Please take a look at some of the slides below and check out the article for more information.  I’ll have more on building self-efficacy next time.

Collective Teacher Efficacy (CTE) according to John Hattie

From the PTA

The Membership Drive is still going on. Register today by going to http://arnopta.memberhub.store
Currently Mrs. Martinchick’s class is in the lead, followed by Ms.Smalley and then Ms. Watson. This contest ends on October 25th and the winning class will receive an ice cream social on October 30^th.

Our Angelina’s Fundraiser will be taking place on October 16th at all 3 locations Allen Park, Wyandotte and Southgate from 11am to 9pm. This fundraiser includes dine in, carry out orders and drinks!   Arno PTA will receive 20% of all proceeds. Come enjoy Taco Tuesday with us!

Calling All Artists! For 50 years the PTA reflections contest has given students the opportunity to express themselves through the arts. Please join us as we celebrate this golden anniversary. This year‘s theme is “Hero’s Around Me” It’s free to enter and students can choose from six categories which include: Visual Arts, Photography, Literature, Dance Choreography, Film Production, and Music Composition.  Reflections kick off is today! Watch for more information to come home with your child.

Join us on October 25th from 6pm-8pm at the Lincoln Park Skating Center for our Halloween Skate Party!!  A prize for best dressed boy and girl, so wear your best costume! Tickets are $10 each and include admission, skate rental, pizza, pop and glow stick. Reserve your spot today by purchasing tickets at: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0F4CA4AA2AA4FE3-Halloween

The Fun Run was a huge success!  The PTA held the FUN RUN on September 28^th and the weather turned out to be in our favor!

We made $18,092 total and after approximately $3,500 in expenses, the ARNO families will net over $14,000!  This was all made possible by the countless parent volunteers, generous donations, The Get Movin Crew team, and the ARNO teachers and staff for making the event an enormous success!

The kids enjoyed a popsicle the day of the event and all kids that donated they will receive a Zoo Themed Stuffed animal and zoo stickers.  Random students will be chosen for an additional prize as well. 

The top student winner is Nina Hegedus and she will have the opportunity to be the principal for a day, on November 1!

The top grade winners will be going out to lunch with Mr. Zielinski in a limousine to celebrate their success on October 22!  The top class was Mrs. Martinchick’s 1^st Grade class.  They earned over $2,400 and they will enjoy a pizza party on October 18!

Thank you to EVERYONE that made this possible and together we are amazing Caring Cougars!

Our TOP grade winner are as follows

PTA Reflections Contest Kickoff

Please the attachments for information on this year’s exciting theme for the PTA Reflections contest

reflections entry form-u6kpjy Reflections PDF-wshid2

Picture retake day is Nov. 15th

Food Drive

Please see the attached flier for information on a food drive that be will be occuring at Arno from Oct. 22-Nov. 9th.  Boxes will be brought in, and collected by the coordinator.

Mimi’s Mission Food Drive Flier (1)-16qt8g0

SKATE PARTY

Mark your calendar for the Arno Skate Party on October 25, sponsored by our awesome PTA!  Be sure to dress up!!

Halloween Parade

Time to get those costumes on the kids and come on down to Arno on Oct. 31 at 10:00 for our annual Halloween Parade.  Our route will take us out of the 4th grade doors that morning, making a loop on the inside perimeter of the playground.  It is a district PD day with an 11:30 dismissal that morning.

PBIS Smencils for Sale

Smencils sales will begin again starting Oct. 9th!  Smencils will be sold on Tuesday afternoons at 2:30p.  The proceeds from Smencils benefits the PBIS program at Arno.  With the funds, we are able to have great monthly incentives such as pizza lunches for Super Cougars and Zumba.  The prices for items are as follows:

Smencils: $1

Smens: $2

Smencils Pouches: $8

Happy Smelling!

Tech Time

Remove Distractions from YouTube

When you’re showing a video in your classroom you can remove distracting sidebar and “related” materials from YouTube with the following tools.

ViewPure is one of my longest standing recommendations for viewing YouTube videos without distractions. At its basic level to use View Pure just copy the link of a video into the “purifier” on the View Pure website and then click purify. Your “purified” video will be displayed on a blank white background. You can password-protect links to videos that you share through ViewPure (click here for directions). In the last year ViewPure expanded to offer curated collections of educational videos.

Watchkin is a service that provides a few ways to watch YouTube videos without seeing the related video suggestions and comments. You can enter the direct URL of a video into Watchkin to have the sidebar content removed. You can search for videos through Watchkin and have family-friendly results displayed (if a video appears that is not family-friendly Watchkin has a mechanism for flagging it as inappropriate). Watchkin also offers a browser bookmarklet tool that you can click while on YouTube.com to have the related content disappear from the page.

Seven Good Places to Find Writing Prompts

Anyone who has ever taught language arts has heard, “I don’t know what to write about” from a student or two. If you’ve ever heard that from a student, take a look at the following sites and apps to find writing prompts.

Emoji Prompts uses emojis as writing prompts. To generate a prompt just go to the Emoji Prompts site and click the blue “and then” button to add emojis to the screen. Students can write stories inspired by the combinations of emojis that are displayed. Emoji Prompts was created by Ian Byrd and I learned about it from one of Tony Vincent’s recent Tweets.

Story Dice for iOS is a free app that lets you select up to ten dice from four story categories. The dice feature pictures that are intended to prompt you to write about them or include them in a story. You can roll the dice by shaking your iPad or by just tapping the roll icon. Want to write your own Star Wars fan fiction? Story Dice has a Star Wars category.

Scholastic Story Starters is a great tool that students will enjoy using to create short, creative fiction stories. Scholastic Story Starters offers four story themes; fantasy, adventure, sci-fi, and scrambler. To create a story on Story Starters a students picks a theme, enter his or her name, chooses his or her grade, and spins the big wheels of prompts. The student can spin the wheels until he or she finds a prompt he or she likes. After the prompt is selected the student can write his or her story using the letter, postcard, notebook, or newspaper format provided by Scholastic Story Starters. When the story is finished it can be printed.

StoryToolz offer a nice collection of useful tools for writers. Writers who are struggling to come up with ideas for fiction stories will like the story starters featured on StoryToolz. StoryToolz has three tools that you can use to get story ideas; Random Conflicts, Half Title Generator, and Story Idea Generator. To use any of these three tools just select the tool from the main menu then look at the randomly generated idea. If you don’t like the options, run the tool again until you get options that you like.

Toasted Cheese is a daily writing prompt site that publishes prompts on a monthly calendar. The whole month is laid out for you with a different prompt each day. Don’t see anything you like on the current calendar? That’s okay, click through the previous months to find old prompts. Periodically, Toasted Cheese holds writing contests which you can learn about by clicking on the links on the calendar. The writing contests are based on one or more of the prompts from the calendar.

Make Beliefs Comix is a multilingual comic strip creation service that offers more than 300 comic templates. These printable templates are in addition to the online Make Beliefs Comix creation tool. The templates are divided into dozens of thematic categories including history, holidays, and civil rights. There is even a category of templates titled Emotions which is designed to help students express how they are feeling through comic characters. The printable templates from Make Beliefs Comix could be excellent resources to use as creative writing prompts. You could have students start a simple story by using the templates then expand the story into a longer narrative.

Writing Sparks. Writing Sparks offers timed writing prompts to share with your elementary school students. Students can respond to the prompts by writing on paper, in a word processing document like MS Word, or by writing on the Writing Sparks website. The Writing Sparks website provides students with templates to complete as they respond to each writing prompt. In the video that is embedded below I provide a demonstration of how to use the free Writing Sparks service.

 

Vocabulary Focus

As we continue to start our high focus on vocabulary this year- take a look at this great vocab site:

A Good Site for Vocabulary Lists and Practice Activities

Vocabulary.com is an excellent vocabulary study service offering thousands of vocabulary practice lists and activities for students in elementary school through graduate school. In addition to lists of SAT, GRE, and other test prep words, you can find vocabulary lists that are attached to novels, historical documents, famous speeches, and current news articles.

When you sign up for Vocabulary.com you will be given an assessment quiz in order to give you suggested lists with which to start your practice. After completing the assessment you can use the practice lists suggested by Vocabulary.com or choose your own lists from the huge gallery of vocabulary lists.

Applications for Education
One of the aspects of the Vocabulary.com activities that I like is the instant feedback for every practice question a student attempts. As you can see in the image above, if a student answers incorrectly on his first attempt, he will see the definition and the word in context.

The picture speaks it all- Arno staff is always willing to do whatever it takes…

Coming soon to Arno…

Oct. 1

Fire Drill 1:30

Oct. 2

Steve out at TC

Oct. 3

Steve out at TC

Oct. 4

Steve out at TC

PTA meeting 6:30

Oct. 5

Half-day dismissal 11:30

P.M. PD

Oct. 8

No events

Oct. 9

5th Grade BAS

PBIS Pizza lunch

Oct. 10

4th Grade BAS

PBIS Meeting 7:45

Oct. 11

Staff Meeting 7:45

Oct. 12

Reflections Kick-off

Arno Vision

Arno Elementary will provide a system of support to empower

and inspire students to become collaborative learners

that strive for academic excellence

Committees Meet

The Chairs of the Instructional and School Improvement Committees met this week to discuss the integration of Journeys into the SIP and vice-versa.  There were some great discussions on how these activities, along with Journeys, will help bolster the instruction at Arno.

Summer Reading Log reward info

The reward for extra recess and popsicles will be on Oct. 10th  K-2 will be at 10:30/3-5 will be at 1:30 for 30 minutes each

Food Drive

Please see the attached flier for information on a food drive that be will be occuring at Arno from Oct. 22-Nov. 9th.  Boxes will be brought in, and collected by the coordinator.

Mimi’s Mission Food Drive Flier (1)-16qt8g0

From the PTA

IT’S FUN RUN TIME!!! This is our biggest fundraiser of the year! Come cheer on the students today as they run/walk to some awesome music! Last year the FUN RUN donations allowed us to purchase a new Playscape, provide multiple assemblies, weekly readers for the students, staff appreciation week, computer class robots and gifts cards for the Allen Park food pantry. Donations can still be submitted until October 5^th so please keep sharing it on social media and emails! Cash donations can also be turned in to the school office.

The next PTA meeting will be held on October 4^th at 6:30 p.m. Spirt wear will be sold that night, come see our new designs and new colors! We hope to see you there!

Don’t forget, if you haven’t signed up or renewed your PTA membership you can still do so! You can sign up/renew online and also buy extra ice cream scoops for your child’s class! The membership drive is still in high gear! We currently have 113 members and our goal this year is 300! Ms. Watson’s class is currently in the lead with 23 scoops and Ms. Smalley is in 2nd place with 19 scoops and Mrs. Martinchick is in 3rd with 18 scoops. Our membership drive will end on October 26th and the top three classes will be rewarded on October 30th. https://arnopta.memberhub.com/dues

Halloween skate party is coming up on October 25^th from 6-8 pm at the Lincoln Park Skate Center. Have your kids put on their costumes and come skate with us!!! There will be a Halloween costume contest with prizes for the top boy and girl! Watch for the flyer to come home soon! Thank you Corey Osinski for chairing this event, without your support this event wouldn’t happen!

 Reflections kick off is October 12^th and the theme this year is “Hero’s Around Us”. Encourage your little artist to submit a piece of his or her artwork! More details to come. Thank you Jenn Yuhaz for chairing this event, without your support this event wouldn’t happen!

 Last but definitely not least is our Angelina’s Fundraiser on October 16^th! Come visit for Taco Tuesday and support Arno PTA! 20% of your bill (dine in, carry out and drinks are all included) will  be donated to our PTA to help out our amazing caring cougars! All three locations (Allen Park, Wyandotte and Southgate) will be participating. Watch for the flyer to come home for more details.

Picture retake day is Nov. 15th

Halloween Parade

The annual Halloween parade will be on Oct. 31 @10:00.  We will once again make our way from Kindergarten- to 5th grade then outside and around the playground back to the main office.

PBIS Smencils for Sale

Smencils sales will begin again starting Oct. 9th!  Smencils will be sold on Tuesday afternoons at 2:30p.  The proceeds from Smencils benefits the PBIS program at Arno.  The prices for items are as follows:

Smencils: $1

Smens: $2

Smencils Pouches: $8

From the District

Lots of fun events going on in the area this fall… info below/attached.

Also, please consider dining at the Chili’s in Allen Park on September 26 – 20% off your ticket will be donated to the Allen Park Barracudas Swim Club!

Attachments:

1. Good Eats for a Cause – Chili’s supports AP Barracudas Swim Club

2. City of AP Touch a Truck event tomorrow – reminder!

3. AP Hockey Association – Learn to Skate & Play Hockey – 1^st session begins Oct. 3

4. City of AP – Public Open Ice Skating Schedule

5. Fall Harvest October Weekends at Heritage Park Petting Farm

https://www.intouchk12.com/IntouchPortal/DesktopModules/Edulink/DownloadFile.aspx?did=f371927e-108b-4e07-90d2-7d71e41e3c7f&/AP%20Barracudas%20Swim%20Club-CHILILS%20FUNDRAISER.pdf

https://www.intouchk12.com/IntouchPortal/DesktopModules/Edulink/DownloadFile.aspx?did=3deb2e28-1a33-437a-b8e1-0dc97d996b01&/Touch%20a%20Truck%20&%20Fall%20Events%20in%20AP.pdf

https://www.intouchk12.com/IntouchPortal/DesktopModules/Edulink/DownloadFile.aspx?did=dd74ea73-4b97-4340-ba1c-2b3e76c09fd2&/AP%20Hockey%20Association-Learn%20to%20skate-Play%20hockey.png

https://www.intouchk12.com/IntouchPortal/DesktopModules/Edulink/DownloadFile.aspx?did=c517aeed-0887-4ad9-a664-71aac6cee2db&/Public%20Skating%20October%202018.pdf

https://www.intouchk12.com/IntouchPortal/DesktopModules/Edulink/DownloadFile.aspx?did=b61c78d2-8ceb-43b9-878a-29172d64ee85&/Fall%20Fun%20Farm%202018.jpg

Reminders:

o   National Walk & Bike to School Day on Wednesday, October 3

o   ½ Day for all APPS students on Friday, October 5

Vocabulary Focus

As we continue to start our high focus on vocabulary this year- take a look at this great vocab site:

A Good Site for Vocabulary Lists and Practice Activities

Good Review Tool with Games

Blended Play – A Blend of Online and Offline Review Games

Blended Play is a service for creating educational games to use in your classroom. Unlike the game creation tools featured in my previous post, all of the games on Blended Play have to be played in your classroom. They have to be played in your classroom because Blended Play games are designed to be projected in the front of your room and students answer questions aloud to progress through the games.

To use Blended Play you first have to create a free account on the site. Once you have created your account you can use any of five game board templates. All games use the same question and answer format. It is just the presentation of the questions and the progress display that changes between games. For example, you can use the same ten geography questions in multiple games. When you are ready to play a game in your classroom simply log into your account, open a game, and select your questions to use in the game. You then project the game on a screen in front of your classroom and when students answer a question correctly, you mark it correct and their game pieces move forward on the digital game board.

Applications for Education
Blended Play is essentially a set of digital board game templates that you can project in your classroom to use for group review activities. It’s a nice alternative to the standard Jeopardy or Bingo review activities that have been around since the dawn of time for decades. Using Blended Play isn’t going to radically change your classroom, but it could provide a nice way to engage kids in a review activity.

From Lisa’s room “What is your word?”

Coming soon to Arno…

Sept. 17

No events

Sept. 18

Fire Drill 12:15

Sept. 19

No events

Sept. 20

Hearing Screening K-2, Mrs. Jensen

Sept. 21

Hearing Screening K-2, Mrs. Jensen

ALICE Drill 2:00

Sept. 24

Band Instrument Rental Night 6:00

Sept. 25

Tornado Drill 1:30

Sept. 26

Hearing Screening K-2, Mrs. Jensen

Sept. 27

Hearing Screening K-2, Mrs. Jensen

PICTURE Day

Sept. 28

FUN RUN

M-STEP scores sent home

Arno Vision

Arno Elementary will provide a system of support to empower

and inspire students to become collaborative learners

that strive for academic excellence

Thank you to everyone for a smooth start to the school year.

Please continue to share your photos throughout the year so we can tell our story

of all the great things happening here at Arno!

Focus Walls

There is a new trend around that centers on the idea of a Focus Wall to detail the “Focus” of the lessons will be, including Essential Questions and vocabulary.  Some examples are below, feel free to speak with the numerous members of our staff that have already implemented.

From the PTA

Fun Run is coming up on September 28! Here is the link to register your student(s) https://www.thegetmovincrew.com/ and Flyers have been sent home! You are all invited to come cheer on your Caring Cougar the day of the Fun Run! Times your student will be running will be posted in the next few weeks, so you can put it on the calendar!  Students may also accept cash and check donations. Simply place donations in an envelope with Child’s name and Teacher’s name and send it with your student or drop it off in the office. All checks should be made out to Arno PTA.

Spirit Wear will be sold at every Arno Elementary Event and PTA meeting in 2 brand new designs! The boy’s shirt has Marvel Comic Book Hero’s and the girl’s shirt has Disney Princesses! Check out our Facebook page to see what they look like!

Reflections is coming up soon on October 12! The theme this year is Hero’s around us. Encourage your child to show their special talent in Art with the rest of the school!

HELP WANTED!!We still need a chairperson for Halloween skate party! If you are available and want to Chair this event please let our PTA know either by email or through Facebook!!!

If you haven’t joined the PTA do it today! You can sign up online at arnopta@memberhub.com/dues and while your their add an extra scoop or two for your Cougar! Help their class win an ice cream social party! The 1^st place class gets an ice cream social, the 2^nd place class gets ice cream sandwiches and the 3^rd place class gets popsicles!  Come join Arno Caring Cougars PTA!

PBIS Meeting

The PBIS group had their first meeting, which was very well attended on Wednesday.  Stay tuned for an update on the monthly rewards.

We are also changing the Golden Tray.  This year will will only award one per lunch/per month to make the competition greater.  The winning class will get their choice of the playground activities first.

Vocab Program

Arno Elementary is taking on a new innovative angle on learning vocabulary words. In addition to their classroom work on vocabulary, students will also watch a vocabulary segment on Arno’s Morning Broadcast. However, these segments feature not only students, but highlight teachers, staff, parents, community and business members, government officials, and friends of Arno, both new and old. The students will enjoy visually learning from a new guest speaker teaching them Marzano’s English Language Arts Vocabulary words while utilizing graphic organizers to cement learning.

Journeys

Thus far I have heard some very positive comments from staff regarding Journeys and how they feel this will really bring up the literacy here at Arno- many are already into the Workshop Model and guided reading.  Remember that we have not taken away the book room- there are still opportunities to do additional interventions through guided reading during workshop where you can also use our resources.

Even though there is not currently another training scheduled, please feel free to share your questions/concerns with me and I can attempt to get the info needed.  Just a few snapshots of it in action below.

MIF Clarification

Questions continue to arise on MIF vs. supplemental.  The bottom line we must stick with the guaranteed curriculum, which in this case is MIF.  HOWEVER, we know that students will need support surrounding any curriculum, so while you need to be sure you are making it through your daily lesson with fidelity- intervention is still what we do above and beyond- that is where the supplemental comes in.

• Full implementation of the pacing guide will set the students up for success next school year, many did not get to the second workbook- I assure you if we are to experience any success those volume 2 books must be part of the year or we are not providing the building blocks for success across the grades.

• Intervention/supplement can be done in a variety of ways- implemented through Math Workshop (which can combo both worlds), bell work, Exact Path (you will be trained on Oct. 5), etc.  If there is simply nothing else you can get to in a given day- then MIF is the first thing.

I hope this clarifies on the curriculum direction- any question just let me know.

Mad Science

We are happy to be partnering with Mad Science to bring an after school experience to Arno students who wish to dive deeper into the fun of science.  A flyer will be sent home detailing the specifics of this class- which is tuition based ($85 early, $90 later) and will be held at Arno after school once a week- for 6 weeks.  Mad Science did provide for us a free science assembly to which was a lot of fun and motivating towards science!

M-STEP Parent Scorecard

The parent report for M-STEP will be going by Sept. 28.  If you wish to look at certain kids, let me know

Instructional/SIP Committee Meeting

The Chairs of the two committees will be meeting this month to align our addition MSTEP programming, the SIP plan, and Journeys to help focus our efforts better.  The staff will be updated at the Pct. staff meeting of the aligned expectations.

Tech

ReadWorks Now Integrates With Google Classroom

ReadWorks is a free service that provides standards-aligned reading lesson plans for K-12 classrooms. In addition to lesson plans ReadWorks offers a huge libray of fiction and non-fiction literature that you can search according to topic and grade level. All articles in ReadWorks are listed with a lexile score and suggested grade level. ReadWorks has some new features for the new school year. The headliner of those new features is a Google Classroom integration.

ReadWorks now lets you use import your Google Classroom rosters to create class rosters in ReadWorks. You can also now share ReadWorks resources directly into your Google Classroom stream.

Other updates to ReadWorks for the new school year include an expanded library of ebooks that offer narration. Much of the narration is done with human voice instead of computer-generated voice. You can refine searches for articles and ebooks according to those that do or do not have human voice narration.

And now all ReadWorks articles have an audio narration option even if that narration isn’t done with human voice.

Three simple noise meters you can use in your classroom:

Bouncy Balls is a free online noise meter that I have been using for a couple of years. It shows the volume of the noise in a room by displaying a set of colorful bouncing balls on your screen. The louder your students are, the higher and more frequently the balls on the screen bounce. To use Bouncy Balls simply go to the website, click “begin bouncing,” and then click the microphone icon to allow the site to access your computer’s microphone.

Calmness Counter is similar to Bouncy Balls. The difference is that Calmness Counter displays a dial meter to display the decibel level in your classroom. You can adjust the microphone input sensitivity directly on the Calmness Counter screen.

Zero Noise Classroom is a countdown timer and a noise meter into one convenient Chrome app. When you launch Zero Noise Classroom you can set the countdown timer and adjust the goal for the volume of noise in your classroom. You will also set a goal for a percentage of the time that can exceed the maximum volume. When the countdown timer expires a chime sounds and the percentage of time spent above the volume limit is displayed.

Create Printable Story Cubes on Storyboard That

Storyboard That started out as simple tool that anyone could use to create good-looking storyboards for a variety of purposes including explaining historical events, plot lines, and even business plans. Over the years Storyboard That has evolved to provide more than 40,000 pieces of artwork and dozens of templates for making everything from simple comics to timelines to complex flowcharts. The update to Storyboard That features a new templates and artwork for making worksheets and story cubes.

Storyboard That’s new worksheet templates can be customized with any of the artwork that Storyboard That offers. To make your worksheet start by selecting one of the page layouts and then a template for the page. After making those selections you can customize the template by adding any of the shapes, text boxes, and artwork that Storyboard That provides to your worksheet. To add items to worksheet simply drag them from the artwork menu onto your worksheet page. You can then customize the color, size, orientation, and spacing of the elements that you added to your page.

Storyboard That’s new story cube template lets you and your students design printable, foldable story cubes. The process of customizing a story cube is the same as that for customizing a worksheet. The only difference is that you have to select the story cube template instead of a worksheet template at the start of the process.

Applications for Education
You can use the template to make a story cube to make story starter dice that your students roll to generate a combination of words to use as the impetus for writing a fiction story. If you decide to try this method, make a cube that has verbs, a cube that has adjectives, and a cube that has nouns. Then have your students roll all three to come up with a combination to start their stories. You can drag and drop any of Storyboard That’s free artwork into your story cube before printing it.

Storyboard That wants teachers to use the worksheet templates to make great-looking handouts for their students. And they encourage entrepreneurial teachers to use the templates to make materials that they can sell through services like Teachers Pay Teachers and Gumroad. In fact, that process will be explained in next week’s free webinar Making Great Handouts With Storyboard That Templates.

Welcome Back!!

Coming soon to Arno…

Aug, 27

Intervention Parapro interviews

Aug 28

Journey’s Training 8:00 Bennie

DNA updates (Steve) 9:00

Aug. 29

Medical Meetings

Ad council 1:30

Aug. 30

Welcome Back Breakfast at Arno 9:00

New Family tour 1:00 (Need Volunteers)

Aug. 31

Lunch Para meeting 1:00

Sept 3

Labor Day- No School

Sept 4

First Day of School

A.M. Classes only- DISMISSAL 11:30

Teacher PD in p.m.

Agenda for September 4 2018-1ugzmqm

Sept 5

Full day of school

Sept 6

PBIS stations

PTA Meeting 6:30

Sept 7

Fire Drill 10:00

And Beyond…

Sept 10

Mr. Peace Assembly 9:00

Sept 11

No events

Sept 12

PBIS Meeting 7:45

Sept 13

Meet the Teacher 6:30

Title I Annual Meeting 6:00

Sept 14

No events

Arno Vision

Arno Elementary will provide a system of support to empower

and inspire students to become collaborative learners

that strive for academic excellence

Meet the New Folks…

Staff Changes for 2018-2019

It is my pleasure to welcome Megan Johnson and Sara Bleau to Arno Elementary.  Sara will be filling our ECP preschool program and Megan will be joining our dynamic kindergarten team this year.  These teachers come to us with multiple experiences and bring with them the skills necessary to provide Arno students with an excellent education.  Please read  and  biography below for more on our new additions.

Also in a new role this year- Kim Dowd, former Parapro working with at-risk students at Arno, is now our new student advocate, joining Cathy Anderson in the office.  we are very excited to welcome Kim to this new role at Arno and congratulate her for her new position. You can also find out a little more about Kim below.

Mrs. Sara Bleau, ECP Classroom

Hello, my name is Sara Bleau, I am the new ECP teacher this year at Arno. I recently graduated from Baker College with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education. In addition to being a certified K-5 teacher, I have an early childhood special education endorsement. Prior to my student teaching at Arno I was a math interventionist for a neighboring school district. When I am not teaching I am most likely enjoying the great outdoors with my family. I am so thankful for the opportunity to be part of the Arno community! I am looking forward to building lasting relationships with my students and their families throughout the year!

Ms. Megan Johnson, Kindergarten

Hello! My name is Ms. Johnson, and this is my first year teaching at Arno Elementary. I graduated from Eastern Michigan University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Education this past spring. I have been substitute teaching, volunteering, and coaching with Allen Park Schools for the past 7 years.  I enjoy helping students become successful learners and feel proud of their accomplishments.  I am excited to teach in the elementary school that I went to as a child.

Mrs. Kim Dowd, Student Advocate

Hi, my name is Kim Dowd and I’ve worked with children for several years throughout my Allen Park Schools career.  I have been a one on one aide to several different special needs children, had experience working in the PPI classroom as a parapro.  In 2012 I was became part of the Arno family working as an instructional aide. I’ve gotten to know and love all of the teachers/staff as well as the children and their families.  I’m not completely new to the office as I’ve enjoyed filling in when needed and look forward to seeing everyone this fall!

Thank you Cathy Gorski- We will miss you!

Cathy Gorski, although not retiring will be sorely missed here at Arno as Cathy takes on a new role as Reading Coach over at Lindemann Elementary.  Cathy has served Arno with distinction in her Title I program serving our at-risk youth.  Her efforts with our kids has made such a tremendous impact on their lives, and our building and we are proud to call her an Arno cougar.  We will miss you Mrs. Gorski- Good luck in your new role!

Thank you Mrs. Desjardins- We will miss you!

Michelle Desjardins, a fixture at Arno for over three decades, made her decision to retire this summer.  Michelle’s presence in our office was a comfort to our many students who needed assistance, a band-aid, or just needed someone to talk to.  She was such an asset to our whole staff, stepping in where needed, helping out a co-worker, or going out of her way to make someone’s day.  Her relationships with our staff, students, and parents will be missed!  Congratulations Mrs. Desjardins., we will always be proud to call you a Cougar forever!

NEW FAMILY OPEN HOUSE

Thursday, August 30, is our New Family Open House at 1:00 p.m.  At this time, our new Cougar families will be coming to check out our wonderful school.  If you are around and are able to help guide our new families as they check out our building, I would really appreciate it.  In the past, families have loved spending a little time with our great staff and learning all about Arno!  Please let me know if you think you’ll be able to help out so I can plan accordingly!

Journey’s Training

Please make every effort to attend the Journey’s training next week.  Although things may seem very scripted- learning how to join everything together as a cohesive program may need the expertise of those who know it best.  Even many of our pilot teachers are attending as they have important questions you may want to hear about implementation.  The training will take place at Bennie, 8:00-3:00 that day.  Let me know of any questions you have.

New Flex Assessment Creation in DNA

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gSx3Wza2JRIq7OImONtp5VWKlUXjK2Qe/view

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

NEW FOR THE 2018-19 SCHOOL YEAR

UPDATE MiSTAR PARENT CONNECTION – CONTACT INFORMATION

As our district continues to build towards more and more digital communications in the future, it is important that you take a moment to update your contact information in MiStar.  Under the “My Information” tab at the top right, you will now be able to update:

• Email address for parents/guardians
• Phone contacts for parents/guardians
• Primary phone number – “Under Student Demographics”

o   This is the phone number used for automated phone notifications. 

• Add Text Messaging

o   If you wish to receive text messages from the district, please select “SMS Cellular” as the “Telephone Type” for your primary phone number or other parent/guardian phone contacts.

• Emergency Contact Updates (Authorizing release of your student)

Info on Parent Connect from the district website:

You must have a PIN and Password to log into ParentConnection. ParentConnection is a web program that allows parents to view information about their child.
To receive a PIN and passwords for ParentConnection contact your child’s school.
If you have more than one account to view your children, please contact the school office.
Make sure to insert your email after logging into ParentConnection.  Inserting your email will allow you to access the automated password reminder system.

PBIS Beginning of the Year Stations and Follow-Up Activities

Thursday, September 6, 2018

There will be 10 minutes spent at each station which includes the discussion and travel time between stations.  You will rotate in sequential order.

Start Times and Station

8:45a–Trionfi (1), Smalley (2), Kalis (3), Pushman (4), Watson (5)

9:35a–Warneck (1), Guyot (2), Wesley (3), Schultz (4), Martinchick (5)

10:25a–Hool (1), Creutz (2), Higgins (3), Cervantes (4), Amonette (5)

11:50a–Haskin (1), Johnson (2), DiCarlo (3), Stanley (4), no station 5

1.Office Expectations

Staff: Cathy Anderson

Location: office

2. Assembly Expectations

Staff: Sandy Bennett

Location:  Gym

3. Bus Expectations

Staff: Steve Zielinski

Location: bus located in parking area

4. Cafeteria Expectations

Staff: Kristin Melidosian or Heather Manson

Location: Cafeteria

5. Hallway Expectations

Staff: Michele Sbonek

Location: hallway outside of Media Center/Computer Lab

**Not part of the last rotation.  This station is completed at 11:15a.**

Follow-Up Activities

~Posters for the hallway

~Individual positive messages

~Write about it in your journal

~Review classroom matrix and expectations

~Watch a PBIS video clip 

Remind

Please be sure that you have been added to my Remind account for any emergency contact needed.  Please enter 81010 and text this message @arnostaff to join our Remind group

Groupme

Please remember to make sure I either have your cell phone number, or an updated cell phone number to enter you into Groupme.  This is the service I can use in an emergency that will allow staff to communicate back and forth should it be necessary (different capabilities than Remind)

Flipped Staff Meeting

Please be sure that you view the flipped staff meeting so you are prepared with any question during the F2F staff meeting on Sept. 4.

by Kimberly Tyson, Ph. D.

Vocabulary and its strong relationship to comprehension has been verified over and over again. Vocabulary plays an important part in learning to read as well as reading to learn. We also know that increasing vocabulary knowledge plays a large part in overall school success and has a direct impact on comprehension.

Effective vocabulary instruction is a key foundation to helping students acquire a wide and diverse vocabulary. Students need both direct and indirect instruction in vocabulary and word meanings as well as multiple exposures to words. It is through multiple exposures and repetition that students begin to understand the nuances of words and how to use them when speaking and writing.

Additionally, active engagement helps students take part in the learning process and begin to “own” the words and understand word meaning in multiple contexts. Independent reading, intentional read alouds, and wide reading all encourage students long-term vocabulary development and growth.

Teachers need a variety of instructional strategies for teaching vocabulary. Unfortunately, there remains a gap between what we know are effective strategies and what often takes place in the classroom. In Building Background Knowledge, Bob Marzano laid out a six-step process for building academic vocabulary. It includes direct instruction, linguistic and nonlinguistic definitions, recording word learning in a notebook or journal, talking about words, and playing with words. Multiple exposures are at the heart of the process.

Vocabulary Instructional Strategies: Marzano’s 6-Step Process

The six-step process includes the following steps:

1. The teacher provides a description, explanation, or example of the term.
2. Linguistic definition – students restate the description, explanation, or example in their own words.
3. Nonlinguistic definition – students construct a picture, pictograph, symbolic representation, or act out the term.
4. The teacher extends and refines understanding of the word by engaging students in activities that help them add to their  knowledge of the terms in vocabulary notebooks.
5. Periodically ask students to discuss the terms with one another.
6. Involve students in games that enable them to play with the terms and reinforce word knowledge.

Add a Tech Twist to Marzano Six
Knowing that vocabulary provides essential background knowledge and connections to comprehension, one cannot overstate its importance. Dr. Robert Marzano’s research stresses that direct vocabulary instruction follow a six-step process. The technology tools mentioned below provide students opportunities to work with a word in each of the six, researched steps.

STEP 1: Explain
Provide students with a description, explanation, or example of the new term.

• Reveal photos and videos to introduce a new term. Search the site Pixabay for copyright friendly images and video clips.
• Convey kid-friendly definitions with stunning photographs from Inside Story Flashcards.
• Using QR Codes, create an audio clip of you pronouncing and defining a new term.

STEP 2: Restate
Ask students to restate the description, explanation, or example in their own words.

• Consider using free audio capture tools like AudioBoom and Quick Voice  when having students restate.
• Have students demonstrate their understanding of a term by adding meaning to music with the app Songify.

STEP 3: Show
Ask students to construct a visual representation of the term.

• The SketchpartyTV app is a Pictionary style game with the ability to create custom word banks for students to work on representations of terms.
• Give students a digital sketchpad to construct appealing visual representations. (Web Whiteboard works with computers and Paper 53 or Draw and Tell are apps for smart devices.)
• Faces I Make is an app that enables students to create visuals with real life objects similar to illustrations in the book My Dog is as Smelly as Dirty Socks.
• Students can snap photos of visual representations and create a virtual picture collage using Pic Collage (app) or Canva (computer).

STEP 4: Develop
Engage students in independent activities that help them add to their knowledge of the terms.

• Consider having a digital vocabulary notebook for students to compile vocabulary knowledge throughout the year.
• Breakdown parts of words with the Roots to Words app.

STEP 5: Refine
Ask students to discuss the terms with one another, further deepening their understanding.

• Today’s Meet, Padlet and Google Docs provide opportunities for peers to engage in online discussions about vocabulary. These may include brainstorming new examples or applications of the word, noting similarities or differences to other terms, and sharing tips and tricks to avoid common confusions.
• Teachers can moderate ensuring the discussions go beyond the surface to truly deepen meaning. Incorporating a rubric is another way to let students know upfront expectations of online discussions.

STEP 6: Play
Involve students periodically in games that enable them to play with terms.

• Quizizz and Kahoot are effective tools to integrate for whole class vocabulary practice. Teachers can start by creating one , then kick it up a notch by having students create the reviews for the class. Check out these vocabulary examples of Kahoot and Quizizz to generate ideas for your classroom.

Room Configuration

In order to address the need for student collaboration as part of best practice/turn and talk- please make sure you have students set up in table groups as opposed to rows.  This will continually give you the ability to facilitate collaboration within your room.

MATERIALS

All material orders have arrived and have been delivered to your grade level.  If you feel as though you are missing something that was ordered, please let Cathy know.

Teacher Professional Development Dates

This year, the district calendar reflects 7 half-days of teacher PD plus 1 Full day that is required by the state.  Those half-day PD dates feature no school in the afternoon, 11:40 dismissal.  The dates for this school year are as follows:

10/5, 10/31, 11/20, 12/14, 1/21 (FULL DAY), 2/15, 3/08, and 3/29

Tech Time

Hard Working Cougars on Planting Day

Coming soon to Arno…

May 29

5th grade Health program

Art for the Sky assembly 1:15

May 30

5th grade Health program

May 31

Art for the Sky @Lindemann

**Lunch will be from 11-12.  The entire school will be at Lindemann from 12:15-1:45

June 1

Art for the Sky wrap up assembly 10:00

Senior Walk 1:30 (Line up in hallways)

Kids Hope end of year party 2:00

***June 2

Color Run 10:00

June 4

Field Day

June 5

Field Day

3rd grade to Greenfield Village

June 6

Super Cougar pizza

Data Dive per schedule

June 7

AP Library assembly

K to zoo

Data Dive per schedule

Staff Meeting 7:45

June 8

IRIP go home

June 11

1st grade to bowling

PBIS Reward

PTA Board Meeting 7:00

Ad Council 9:00

June 12

Super Cougar Ice Cream

Warneck and Kalis to park

**Early Dismissal 11:40 

June 13

5th Grade Celebration

**Early Dismissal 11:40

Class Lists per schedule

June 14

**Early Dismissal 11:40- LAST DAY for Students

June 15

NO SCHOOL- Last Day for Teachers- Please complete check out list

We did it!

June is here!  This school year went by so quickly, and it was another great year to be an Arno Cougar.  I am just so proud of all the things that went on here over the course of the year, Readers Workshop and Guided Reading have certainly become the norm in all of our rooms and our building data is on the upswing once again as you continue to transform our building in the best ways.  Although we still have a few weeks left in this year, be proud of everything you have accomplished, the things you have done to better yourself as an educator, the kids you made feel special, or all of those extra acts of kindness we do for our students everyday.  Have an awesome summer- stay safe and enjoy the break you so truly deserve!

Final Blog of the 2017/18 School year

Please look for our first blog as we head towards the end of August.

Supply Lists

Here once again is the link to register you grade supply list by June 1

https://www.teacherlists.com/

Class Lists 

We will be doing the final review of class lists with Sandy, Michelle, Barb, and Andrea.   Please come with your lists in hands for review.

Schedule:

1:00-1:20 K

1:25-1:45 1

1:50-2:10 2

2:15-2:35 3

2:40-3:00 4

M-STEP

Spring 2018 Administration and Technology Surveys Available.

The Michigan Department of Education would like to THANK YOU for your part in another very
successful assessment administration! We ask you to take a moment to provide feedback regarding
your administration experiences in our 2018 M-STEP Administration Survey

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2018M-STEPAdministrationSurvey

Final Evals

Walkthroughs are almost complete, and your student assessments for your goal areas should be complete soon, please be sure that your STAGES information is updated and we can plan to have our year-end goal meetings.  You can start by making sure your Self-Assessment is complete and submitted, your Results for Professional Growth Goals are complete (just a narrative), and you have uploaded any evidences you would like to be considered as a part of your final evaluation for the year.

EVAL Final Checklist:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_1XbTEDwNNunyBxh0AkptLN1cH_7gnmTGMRE0b7Hmhs/edit?usp=sharing

School Improvement

Please remember to complete you grade/class SIP dic of activities for this school year.  This must be finished before you leave for summer.  They are housed in the “First Staff Meeting” folder -> School Improvment

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByBcxrtSW_W4SFAwYkRKNTdET28

PD LOG

Please log your PD in your MOECS account to be sure that your certification stays current!   Please remember that you must print and sign your PD log as part of your final evaluation process.  That can be done as soon as you have finished entering it!  Stay tuned!

Office closes June 22

Be sure to let us know of any needs prior to that date

Supplies

If you have special requests for supplies, please get them to Cathy by Friday, June 15

PBIS Stations

Please see below for the plan for the first Thursday of school in the fall for our new PBIS learning stations.  Let us know what questions you have, or ideas moving forward.   Thank you to our chairs Lisa and Katie and all who have participated this year on the PBIS team for the hard work to maintain a positive climate for kids and teachers at Arno!!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OWAfRZl2k_lk0vJNMIuqpIqw1LJQWIecakFj4-86qAU/edit?usp=sharing

Rovers in 5th grade action

Color Run 2018 Info

Arno Color Run 2018.docx-2b8wbkc

2018 Color Run T-Shirt Order Forms copy-udxkx0

Arno Planting Day

Class Lists- Important Changes- on parent blog

It is very important that you are sure your email address is updated in our system as class lists will not be posted this year, instead they will be emailed out via MiStar Parent Connect on August 31.  Paper copies will be available the first day of school to be sure everyone gets to their correct classroom.

From the PTA

️SUMMER VACATION IS COMING!️

️First: THANK YOU! Thank you so much for all of the support and patience we have received from the Arno Community during our tenure as PTA Board Members. Your patience through our transition and “growing pains” and with all of the new things we implemented from Spirit Wear to FINALLY accepting online payments for our events cannot be more appreciated! We would also like to thank those that stepped out of their “comfort zone” and helped us Chair/Lead Events because without you, events would not happen! THANK YOU!

️Second: Thank you to all of the Staff that has supported us throughout these past 2 years. We threw a lot at you and know that even though it may not always be ideal what we have in store, we knew we could count on you to help us build good relationships and bring new and exciting things to Arno like: our new Kindergarten Play Structure and our Play Works Recess Program! We appreciate all you do and give to the students at Arno!

️Finally: Daddy/Daughter Pictures will be distributed at the end of next week! Thank you for your patience!!!

️Congratulations again to our 2018-2019 Executive Board Officers! We look forward to your success and ideas!

2018-2019 Executive Board

2016-2018 Executive Board

Senior Walk

This year’s Senior Walk will be at Arno @1:30.  Our proud graduates will be walking our halls for some final memories.  It’s a great moment for all!

5th Grade Celebration

We are looking forward to another wonderful 5th grade graduation ceremony on June 13th at 9:00.  Following the ceremony there will be “picnic” for all the students with lots of yummy treats.  Please contact the office with any questions.

No Backpacks please…

Please note that students may continue to carry backpacks through Monday, June 12.  They will no longer be allowed for the next 3 half days leading up to the last day.

Safety Town Program

Who: 2018-19 Kindergarten and 1^st Graders

When: June 18 thru June 28 – AM & PM Classes Available

Where: Lindemann Elementary, 9201 Carter, Allen Park

Safety Town is an interactive safety awareness program for children from 5-6 years of age.  Each day the children will be introduced to various safety issues in a fun and safe environment.  The program is taught by a Police Officer and a retired Allen Park teacher, with hands-on topics led by community guest speakers as well as visits from the AP Police & Fire Departments.  Please see attached for more information and sign your child up today!

Safety Town Program – June 2018-1pxtjoz

Tech Corner

ClassDojo Introduces a New Digital Portfolio Option

For the last couple of years ClassDojo has offered a digital portfolio feature called Student Stories. This summer ClassDojo is introducing a new portfolio option called simply ClassDojo Portfolios.

The new ClassDojo Portfolios will be student-led portfolios. Students will choose the items that they want to include in their portfolios. They can include pictures, documents, videos, notes, and drawings in their portfolios. Just like in the current Student Stories teachers will have to approve all submissions before they are shared. Parents will be able to see only the work of their children and not of other children in the class. And parents will be able to see the portfolio from the same ClassDojo app that they already use to stay informed about how their children are doing in your classroom.

ClassDojo Portfolios will be available to use on iPads and Android tablets. Students will be able to log-in without a username and password. Students scan a QR instead of using usernames and passwords.

The new ClassDojo Portfolios will be available in July. You can learn more and register for early access here.

Nine Fun and Challenging Geography Games

Yesterday, I shared the City-Guesser geography game. That game was just the latest in a long list of online geography games that I have tried over the years. Many have come and gone over the years but the following are still going strong.

GameOn World is a multiplayer geography game developed by a high school teacher and his student in Portland, Maine. The game is similar in structure to that of Kahoot. In GameOn World the teacher selects a game category (cities, places, and timeline are three of the nine categories) and starts the game. The students join the game by going to GameOn.World and entering a game pin. In the location and timeline games, students answer the questions by moving a placemark on a map or selecting a date on a timeline. In some of the other games students answer by choosing a number on a sliding scale.

WikiWhere is a neat map-based trivia game. The goal of the game is to identify cities based on their descriptions. The descriptions come from Wikipedia entries. You can get up to three clues before you have to answer by clicking on the map to identify the city that you think is described by the excerpts. When you click on the map you’ll be shown the correct answer and how far away you were from the correct answer.

Outline Maps offers a free set of geography games. The site contains games about Africa, South America, Europe, the United States, and the world. There are two basic types of games on the site. The first type, “find by name,” displays a state, country, or city name and you have to click the map to identify that place. The second type of game, “find by feature,” highlights a location and you have to type the name of the highlighted location.

GeoGuessr shows you a Google Street View image and a clue to try to guess where in the world the imagery was captured. Playing GeoGuessr is a fun way to get students to look at all of the visual and text clues they have in order to form a good guess as to where in the world they think the imagery came from.

Quizzity is an online geography game that uses a familiar concept. Quizzity presents you with the name of a city and you have to click on the map where you think that city is in the world. Quizzity quizzes you on cities all over the world. To increase the accuracy of your guesses you should zoom-in on a region before clicking the map. Each round of Quizzity presents you with six city names. Points are awarded for accuracy and speed.

Spacehopper is a game based on Google Maps Street View imagery. Spacehopper shows you a Street View image and you have to guess where in the world the image was captured. You can click the clue button to have the country identified before making a guess. After three incorrect guesses the correct answer will be revealed to you. You can play Spacehopper on a global level or you can specify that you only want to see images from a particular continent.

Smarty Pins is a Google Maps game develop by Google. Smarty Pins presents players with a trivia question that they have to answer by placing a pin on a map. Players earn “miles” for correctly placing a pin on the map. Players can lose miles for answering incorrectly and or taking too long to answer. Games are available in five categories; arts & culture, science & geography, sports & games, entertainment, and history & current events.

Capital Toss is a free geography game from ABCya. The game has a state capitals mode and a country capitals mode. In both modes of the game works the same way. The name of a state or country appears at the bottom of the screen and three rows of capital names scroll across the top. When the correct capital name appears players virtually toss a ball at it. After ten correct answers players can choose a new ball. Three consecutive incorrect answers ends the game.

City-Guesser is a challenging map-based game. The game shows you a section of a map centered over a city. The labels are removed from the map so you have to guess the city’s name based on other clues like bodies of water and orientation. City-Guesser gives you four answer choices to choose from. If you choose correctly, you move to the next level. If you choose incorrectly, the game is over and you have to start again from the beginning.

Band Concert Excellence

Coming soon to Arno…

 May 14

Ad Council 9:00

May 15

Dr. Hall reads to 4th

K screeners

May 16

Jazz Band 10:30 Grade K-3

SIP Meeting 3:45

May 17

No events

May 18

Arno Planting Day

Cub Scouts Reps to talk to kids

May 21

5th Grade transition meetings

District SIP meeting

ICC 4:00

May 22

5th grade Counselors at Arno 9:00

Smalley boat trip

May 23

No events

May 24

MTSS meeting 7:45

May 25

PBIS reward

Senior Walk

Supply Lists

Here once again is the link to register you grade supply list by June 1

https://www.teacherlists.com/

Final Evals

Walkthroughs are almost complete, and your student assessments for your goal areas should be complete soon, please be sure that your STAGES information is updated and we can plan to have our year-end goal meetings.  You can start by making sure your Self-Assessment is complete and submitted, your Results for Professional Growth Goals are complete (just a narrative), and you have uploaded any evidences you would like to be considered as a part of your final evaluation for the year.

EVAL Final Checklist:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_1XbTEDwNNunyBxh0AkptLN1cH_7gnmTGMRE0b7Hmhs/edit?usp=sharing

School Improvement

Please remember to complete you grade/class SIP dic of activities for this school year.  This must be finished before you leave for summer.  They are housed in the “First Staff Meeting” folder -> School Improvment

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByBcxrtSW_W4SFAwYkRKNTdET28

PD LOG

Please log your PD in your MOECS account to be sure that your certification stays current!   Please remember that you must print and sign your PD log as part of your final evaluation process.  That can be done as soon as you have finished entering it!  Stay tuned!

Thank you PTA!

All of Arno joins me in thanking our PTA for their dedication and hard work in raising the bar on what this group can do.  What our PTA has accomplished over the past two years is nothing short of remarkable.  Their willingness to do things different, and bring the digital age into the mix has allowed our PTA to bring in funds to do amazing things, as well as amazing events.  Please check out their post below, Thursday’s PTA meeting vote has given us a brand new kindergarten playscape! Amazing!  Thank you Jenny Sauve, Shannon Mihalik, Nicole Atkinson, and Julie Hegedus for all your service.

Congratulations to our new Board as well, whom was sworn in for the upcoming 2018-19 school year.  Our new Board includes Stacey Sisson, President, Sascha Mansfield, Secretary. and Julie Hegedus continues as Treasurer.  There were no candidates for VP of Fundraising, the Board is actively looking for someone who is willing to step forward and help out.

PTA Board delivers Robots used for coding lessons to Carrie Solak, Tech Teacher.  Julie Hegedus and her husband Gary received a combined grant from Consumers Energy that paid for the entire purchase.  As you can see, there were many smiling faces.

Congrats to our new Board at their swearing in!

President Stacey Sisson, Secretary Sascha Mansfield, and Treasurer Julie Hegedus are sworn into office by Shannon Mihalik.

From the PTA

Happy Friday! Let’s hooe the weather this weekend is kind so all of us mothers can enjoy a wonderful, sunny Mother’s Day!! Happy Mother’s Day to all the hard-working, wonderful moms!

A BIG THANK YOU to Stacey Sisson and her mom, Jill, for chairing our Daddy/Daughter Dance that was held at the Prestige Banquet Hall on Friday, April 27th! The girls and dads had a great time dancing to the music played by Scott Piestrak! This event would not be possible without ALL of our wonderful volunteers that helped to make it so successful!

✅Our last PTA Meeting was quite eventful! Our members voted in a new Executive Board, to replace the older, orange playscape with a brand new one (coming this Summer!), two of our PTA Members (Julie and Gary Hegedus), gifted Mrs. Solak with coding robots and mice from a grant they earned from Consumers Energy for all of their volunteer work, the PTA was able to donate 10 Books about ALICE to the school, a new wheelchair and foot rest for the school, and we have our chair for the Fun Run next year!!

Please help us congratulate our 2018-2019 Executive Board Members:

President: Stacey Sisson

VP of Fundraising: Tricia Moore

Secretary: Sascha Mansfield

Treasurer: Julie Hegedus

️Last week also kicked off a fun week to for our staff: Staff Appreciation Week!

This years theme was Tigers Baseball! The Fin started the week before on April 21st with a FREE Tigers Game courtesy of the Detroit Tigers commission and then continued the full week of April 30th! That week started with a catered breakfast by our wonderful resident Caterer: Mr. Kyle Kalis! Kyle dishes out homemade muffins, eggs, fruit, bacon, sausage, and biscuits and gravy. The staff also enjoyed juice, water, coffee, and Larabars! We were also able to share with them some the homemade cookies from Yah-ki-doc Bakery! Thursday was a catered Lunch from Brass Kitchen! Homemade sandwiches, bags of chips, fruit, pop, and water! It was a delicious spread that Kyle was able to obtain for us and everyone enjoyed it so much!

The week was also filled with lots of treats in the lounge and a gifts that were distributed to the staff on Thursday at the luncheon from many of the parents! Some of our teachers received headphones and gift cards from our Sign Up Genius link! For a full list of all of the goodies, check out our Facebook Page!

If you are looking to help out with 5th grade and Kindergarten Celebrations please contact Mrs. Hool (for the 5th Grade Celebration) and Ms. Stanley (for the K Celebration).

Thank you to everyone who helped to make these past two weeks so fun and successful! We appreciate all that our members do for our school community!

Update from the District

Arno Gardening Club

Twenty 3rd-5th graders have been meeting on Tuesdays for 25 minutes after school to attend Garden Club and beautify the courtyard.  On our first meeting, we created some goals for the area which included planting some food plants and flowers, weeding, and doing experiments.  We weeded last week and are getting our garden boxes ready for a salad garden.  A salad garden is a garden that grows salad produce (think different lettuces, radishes, etc.) at a faster rate allowing us to enjoy some of our fresh produce before summer vacation.  We are also one of this year’s MSU Tollgate Education Center and MSU 4-H Children’s Garden Cool Kid Plants collaborating classrooms to determine which plants (petunias, geraniums, pentas, and marigolds) attract butterflies.  While we are collecting data through June, Garden Club has requested that the classrooms that are studying butterfly life cycles release their hatched butterflies in our courtyard to encourage butterfly attraction to our plants and add to our data.  Happy Spring!

Safety Town Program

Who: 2018-19 Kindergarten and 1^st Graders

When: June 18 thru June 28 – AM & PM Classes Available

Where: Lindemann Elementary, 9201 Carter, Allen Park

Safety Town is an interactive safety awareness program for children from 5-6 years of age.  Each day the children will be introduced to various safety issues in a fun and safe environment.  The program is taught by a Police Officer and a retired Allen Park teacher, with hands-on topics led by community guest speakers as well as visits from the AP Police & Fire Departments.  Please see attached for more information and sign your child up today!

Safety Town Program – June 2018-1pxtjoz

4th Grade Inquiry based learning using cupcakes…

How are earth’s layers formed? How. An geologists view what is underground?

Students predicted, took core samples of their cupcakes, drew models of their findings, and shared with the class.

4th grade photos from our stormwater drain stenciling with Arch Environmental Group. 

Smart Money Magic Show

Arno was treated to some Smart money advice via magic at an assembly last week.  Great tips were given to students, while having a fun time.  Arno students also received a free book with similar money lessons.

Arno Planting Day

2018 Arno Planting Day -1urt1p0

Want to Sign up?  Click on the link below

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0d4eaaac2ea4f94-arno

Tech Corner

Book Creator Now Offers “Read To Me” Mode Online

Last summer the Book Creator team launched a web-based version of their popular iPad app. The web-based version, called Book Creator for Chrome, has been a hit with teachers and students.

The latest update to Book Creator for Chromeincludes a feature called “Read To Me.” Read To Me is a text-to-speech function that reads the words on the pages of any book created in Book Creator. Read To Me highlights each word as it is read aloud. The pages of the books automatically turn when the end of a page is read aloud.

Read To Me works in Chrome, Safari, and Edge. It also works within the iPad app.

Book Creator’s Read To Me includes the option to change the speed at which the text is read aloud. You can also specify whether or not words are highlighted and whether or not multimedia elements are played within the book when Read To Me is enabled.

5 PowerPoint Features Often Overlooked by Students and Teachers

About ten years ago I started to notice a lot of alternatives to PowerPoint popping-up on the web. Some of those presentation tools like Google Slides and Prezi are still going strong while others have faded away. Through it all, PowerPoint kept chugging along even though it wasn’t a darling of Web 2.0 users. Today, PowerPoint has all of the features students and teachers need, including collaboration, but often those features are overlooked. If you haven’t taken a look at PowerPoint in a while, here are five PowerPoint features that you should try.

Screen Recording
Making a presentation about your favorite software or websites? Try using the screen recorder that is built into PowerPoint. Your recorded video is automatically inserted into the slide that you have open at the time you make your recording. Of course, you can use that video in other slides too. Find the screen recorder in the “Insert” menu in PowerPoint.

Sound Recording/ Sound Upload
Add your voice to your slides through the audio recorder built into PowerPoint. This is particularly useful if your slides will mostly be viewed independent of your presence.

Have music or sound effects that you want to add to your slides? In PowerPoint you can upload those recordings directly to your presentation and play them on the slides of your choice.

The sound recording and sound upload options are found in the “Insert” menu in PowerPoint.

Add-ins
Google Slides has Add-ons, PowerPoint has Add-ins. Add-ins offered by third parties can provide additional functions in PowerPoint. In my video embedded below I demonstrate how to find and install PowerPoint Add-ins. The video features the Pixabay Add-in that provides access to thousands of images that are in the public domain.

Word Art
Tired of the same old Times New Roman, Georgia, or Comic Sans (gasp!), use Word Art to create custom fonts. You’ll find Word Art in the “Insert” menu in PowerPoint.

Morph
Morph is a PowerPoint feature available to Microsoft 365 subscribers. Morph allows you to create animations by combining two similar slides into one display.

Coming soon to Arno…

April 30

Staff Appreciation Week

PTA Staff Breakfast 7:30

May 1

Evaluation Team meeting 4:00

May 2

Staff Meeting 7:45

May 3

PTA Staff Luncheon 11:00-12:10 modified schedule

Money Matter Assembly

PTA Meeting 6:30

Bid Pool 4:00

May 4

No events

May 7

Kinder Round up 6:00

May 8

No events

May 9

PBIS Meeting 7:45

5th Grade Band concert

May 10

Safety Committee Meeting 9:30

May 11

Happy Friday!

PBIS Survey

If you have not yet taken the PBIS survey, please be sure and do so.  Thanks

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PBIS-A-D-2018

APHS puts on show for Arno

Carrie recently partnered with Mrs. West from APHS to put on a production of “Winter According to Humphrey”, which was the book that we did in March for our One Book, One School program.  The student were fantastic and all of our kids really enjoyed the performance!  The high school students had a big job- know the book, interview students, write a script, build a set, and of course, star in the play.  Thank you to all who were involved!

4th Grade Stream Table Experience

ALICE Wrap Up

Thank you again to all staff for a well done job in implementing our final ALICE drill of the year.  It was so amazing to walk into a space that had over 500 children in it to be so quiet and ready to hear important instruction.  I believe we are well prepared for any emergency at any point, including cardiac, a true testament to your commitment to our students and staff!  Next fall we will practice “Stay Out”

Playworks Survey

Thank you for bringing Playworks to your school this year! Each year, Playworks asks staff to complete a survey about the changes they see as a result of Playworks. We use the information to learn more about our program and improve our services.

Click here to take the survey

The survey will remain open until May 15th and will take about 10 minutes to complete

From the PTA

M-STEP Encouragement from all of our “Miracles” from Mr. Peace

Tech time

Now You Can Include Google Slides In a Google Document

Inserting charts from Google Sheets has been an option in Google Documents for quite a while. This week Google added the option to add a slide from Google Slides into a document. Your chosen slide essentially appears as an image within your document. Once it is inserted into your document you can resize your slide and text wrap just as you would an image.

To insert a slide from Google Slides into your Google Documents select the “copy” option on the slide that you want to insert and then use the “paste” option in your document.

As with almost all new features, Google is rolling this one out over the course of a couple of weeks. If you don’t see the new option today or it doesn’t work as you expected, give it a day or two and then try again.

Applications for Education
I can see this new option being useful to students who have used Google Slides to create charts and diagrams for a presentation. Those charts and diagrams from the presentation could also be useful in writing a corresponding paper.

APPS Limited Schools of Choice Program Approved for 2018-19

The Allen Park Public Schools Board of Education approved the continuation of a limited Schools of Choice option for the 2018-19 school year for grades Kindergarten through 8^th Grade.  Application forms will be available starting Monday, April 9 through Friday, April 27, at the Riley Education Center between the hours of 7:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.  For your convenience, applications will also be available on our website – www.allenparkschools.com

Completed applications may be presented in person at the Riley Education Center or emailed to schoolofchoice@appublicschools.com from April 9 through April 27 at 4:00 p.m.  No late applications can be accepted.

A random draw selection will be held on May 1, 2018 at 9:00 a.m. at the Riley Education Center if you wish to attend.  The draw will determine numerical selection for acceptance of candidates.

We ask that you help us by sharing this information with friends and/or family members who may be interested in having their children become a part of the Allen Park Public Schools Family.

For more information about the Schools of Choice Program, please see the attached FAQ’s, visit our website at www.allenparkschools.com or call (313) 827-2105

Let me tell ya, New Arno PBIS Dynamic Duo Team coming to a classroom near you…

Coming Soon to Arno…

April 16

Ad Council 9:00

District coaching and building teams PBIS meeting 4:00

April 17

Penny War Movie- 1:30

Dr. Hall reads to 4th

April 18

SIP Meeting 3:45

Honor Choir concert 6:30

April 19

Safety Committee 9:30

District PBIS meeting 1:00

April 20

ALICE Drill 10:00

April 23

Earth Day Celebration

April 24

Fire Drill

April 25

No events

April 26

SIP Team meeting Full Day

April 27

PBIS Reward

Daddy Daughter Dance

PBIS Survey

Please take a moment to fill out the annual PBIS survey that is a requirement for all schools receiving the PBIS grant money.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PBIS-A-D-2018

Title I Parent Workshop Information

title 1 ws-2n8iwzq

Camp Pics

Mr. Peace motivates Arno

This past week, Arno invited Mr. Peace for an assembly at our building.  In addition to academics, helping students believe in themselves and building their self-confidence in doing their best in life is just as important.  Mr. Peace came in with that message to positively impact the mindset of our students.  You can see more at www.mrpeace.org

K-5 Yoga is here!!

Yoga was kicked off again this week to a good crowd.  Enjoy some pics below

Video-2delqzg

M-Step is coming…

 The M-Step window is now open for 5th grade,  schedule is as follows:

April 17- English Language Arts

April 19- Science (Field Test, this is new to 5th grade this year)

April 25- Math

There is a new doc under the motivational folder that contains quotes to use in your classroom where appropriate.  

I will publish the 3rd and 4th grade dates soon, with their window starting the first week of May.

State of Michigan Emergency Preparedness 

As part of helping keep Michigan families safe, the state has a web page with many different resources, please take a moment to review some of them.

http://www.michigan.gov/msp/0,4643,7-123-72297_60152_68558—,00.html

From the PTA

Happy Spring! Looks like the season is trying to move in! I think we’re all ready to enjoy some of that warmer weather!

A few of things:

**Our April Meeting has been cancelled. We will hold our Elections, Voting on our Proposals for our Surplus, Swearing in of our New Executive Board Officers, and the wrap up of Daddy/Daughter at our May 3rd Meeting. We will send out reminders closer to the meeting date.

**May brings one of our favorite events: Staff Appreciation Week (April 30th-May 4th)! This is a week dedicated to showing our staff just how much we support and appreciate all they do for our school community. If you would like the opportunity to contribute to Staff Appreciation Week and to partner with other parents to gift teachers and improve classroom technology, the sign up link and information is below!

Thank you for all your support!

Tech Time

Poetry Lesson Plans Incorporating Word Mover

April is National Poetry Month. This is a great time to remind you of Read Write Think’s Word Mover app for iOS, Android, and web browser.

Word Mover from Read Write Think is a free app that helps students develop poems and short stories. When students open the Word Mover app they are shown a selection of words that they can drag onto a canvas to construct a poem or story. Word Mover provides students with eight canvas backgrounds on which they can construct their poems. If the word bank provided by Word Mover doesn’t offer enough words they can add their own words to the word bank.

Applications for Education
Read Write Think offers free, detailed lesson plans that incorporate the Word Mover app. There are lesson plans suitable for students in grades 3 through 12. In all cases the lesson plans incorporate students constructing some type of poem from the words displayed within the app.

How to Quickly Create a QR Code for Almost Anything

Over the weekend I shared the news that Google is shuttering the Goo.gl service. In that post I shared a handful of alternatives to Goo.gl. This morning someone emailed me to ask about an alternative to Goo.gl for creating QR codes. My suggestion is to use QR Droid Zapper. With that tool you can create QR codes to direct people to websites, to share contact information, to share files, or to just share a chunk of text. In the following video I demonstrate how to create QR codes with QR Droid Zapper.

Applications for Education
QR codes are useful for getting all of your students on the same page at the same time, provided they all have an iPad, an Android tablet, or are allowed to use their mobile phones. While the name QR Droid Zapper might imply that you need an Android device, it works on all operating systems. Once your QR code is created you can project it for students to scan and or print it and post it in your classroom for students to scan.

APPS Limited Schools of Choice Program Approved for 2018-19

The Allen Park Public Schools Board of Education approved the continuation of a limited Schools of Choice option for the 2018-19 school year for grades Kindergarten through 8^th Grade.  Application forms will be available starting Monday, April 9 through Friday, April 27, at the Riley Education Center between the hours of 7:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.  For your convenience, applications will also be available on our website – www.allenparkschools.com

Completed applications may be presented in person at the Riley Education Center or emailed to schoolofchoice@appublicschools.com from April 9 through April 27 at 4:00 p.m.  No late applications can be accepted.

A random draw selection will be held on May 1, 2018 at 9:00 a.m. at the Riley Education Center if you wish to attend.  The draw will determine numerical selection for acceptance of candidates.

We ask that you help us by sharing this information with friends and/or family members who may be interested in having their children become a part of the Allen Park Public Schools Family.

For more information about the Schools of Choice Program, please see the attached FAQ’s, visit our website at www.allenparkschools.com or call (313) 827-2105

Young Fives

Early learning is a key component to the success of each and every child – the earlier we can provide solid educational opportunities to our younger learners the better.  With that being said, we are very proud to announce that the Allen Park Public Schools Board of Education approved the expansion of the Young 5’s Program held at Lindemann (currently for the district) to Arno Elementary and Bennie Elementary starting with the 2018-19 school year. 

Please share this information with friends and neighbors in the APPS boundaries with young children getting ready for school this fall!

Registration is still open for screening for the district’s Young Five’s Program.  Ideal candidates for the program are turning 5 years of age between July 1 and December 1.  (December 2 and later are not eligible and consideration will not be given to students born before July 1).  The Young Five’s Program is currently open for residents of Allen Park Public Schools.

WHO IS A GREAT CANDIDATE FOR YOUNG FIVES?

The Young Five Program is intended to be a bridge between preschool and kindergarten

Ideal candidates include children who:

• Turn 5 years old between July 1st and December 1st.
• Live in the Allen Park Public Schools district
• Could benefit from an extra year of social and emotional growth.
• Have made significant progress in preschool, but are not yet ready for the demands of Kindergarten.
• Have attended preschool (not a mandatory requirement, but strongly encouraged)
• Have a basic understanding of academic concepts
  • Able to identify several letters, letter sounds, shapes, and colors.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q: Is the Young Fives Program full day?

A: Yes, the children start and end school with all other K-5 students.

Q: Where will my child go after completing the Young Fives Program?

A: Your child will advance to kindergarten.

Q: Do students in the Young Fives program attend gym, art, music, media and technology?

A: Young Five students attend these classes as well as lunch with our Kindergarten students.

Kindergarten Registration Information 2018-19

Kindergarten Enrollment Flyer 2018-19 School Year-xy45zu