CLAY ACADEMY

OCTOBER 2017

Greetings! It is great to have everyone back again. We have a few new faces at Clay. Our new art teacher, Mr. Roloff, has done an incredible job step-ping into his new position. We also have a new associate in Ms. Cant-well’s classroom. Her name is Ms. Smith and has also done a great job in her new position. We need to send a fond farewell to Ms. Gubbe who was the associate in Ms. Stewart’s room for several years. She will be missed by staff and especially students. Ms. Gubbe will still come and visit, but has decided to stay at home with her new addi-tion “Teddy Bear”, her new puppy. I wanted to make sure that all parents are aware of the new changes to food service this year. When a student gets to -$10, parents are notified by Food Service. When it reaches -$15, Food Service will send a voice message and I will be calling. By -$20, students will be suspended from breakfast and lunch until bill is paid and more money is added to the account. The only exception to this is for elementary students, they will receive a sack lunch. Please make sure that your child knows the importance of going to school on a regular basis. When students chronically miss a lot of school, the impact on academics and behavioral growth is huge. For some reason, we at Clay have seen an increase in student absentee-ism this school year. Please make sure that your child comes to school unless they have a fever or are vomiting.

MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL, Dawn Cook

Calendar of Events:

√ 10/4/17—Noon Dismissal for

students

√ 10/4/17—4 pm—9 pm—Parent/

Teacher Conferences

√ 10/5/17—No School for Stu-

dents

√ 10/5/17—9 am—9 pm– Parent/

Teacher Conferences

√ 10/6/17—No School

√ 10/9/17—No School—

Columbus day

√ 10/18/17—Late Start—School

Starts 1 Hour Later at 9:15 am

√ 10/24/17—Noon Dismissal for

Students

Dawn O’Herron, School Nurse

October 15th is fast ap-proaching. I would like to remind all parents that physicals and im-munizations for Kinder-

garten, 6th grade and 9th grades are due. Please remember to send the paperwork to school.

I also want to remind parents that all medications must be brought in to school by you. Please do not send any medication with your son/daughter. Also all medi-cation, even over the counter medication, must have a medica-tion sheet completed and signed by your doctor.

CLAY ACADEMY

Reading/LA Block 1 (Oslovich) What a fantastic group of readers! They have been completely engaged in reading class and definitely love reading. The 5th grade group is currently reading Deep, Dark, and Dangerous by Mary Downing Hahn. The 6th grade group is reading The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen by Susan Nielsen. Both groups are do-ing a great job working together and seem to be enjoying their books. Reading/LA Block 2 (Hall) The 5th graders who moved up from the ele-mentary wing have been a welcome edition to this group! Our 5th grade group is currently reading The Night of the Spadefoot Toads by Bill Harley as part of the 5th grade ReadyGen curriculum. The 6th grade group is doing a nov-el study with the book Helen Keller by Margaret Davidson. They are all doing a fantastic job! Life Skills In life skills class we began with a mini technol-ogy unit. Students are currently in a unit about money management. We have discussed many terms such as: savings, allowance, bank ac-count, deposit and withdrawal.

Brittany Hall Middle School Teacher

Trevor Mack, Middle School

In room 4 students are working hard as the new school year continues. In math class, students are learning pre-algebra skills as they are translating word prob-lems into mathematical expressions. Students will build on these skills as they learn to solve for variables in one and two step algebra problems. Students in science class are applying the scientific method to complete fun and challenging labs, including the Dirty Bread Lab. In this lab students will test what methods of handling will result in bread showing signs of mold the quickest. Finally, in Life Skills students have been working on a money management unit. In this unit stu-dents will learn the basics of completing a resume, opening a bank account, creating a balanced budget,

and other important money manage-ment skills.

Theresa Pedersen— Middle School/High School

High School English This year, I have joined forces with Mrs. Kraneman, our social worker, to co-teach high school English classes. We are working on a book right now called The Teens Guide to World Domination. This book allows various skills to be taught and reflected upon by the students to recognize what types of people they are and what types of people they interact with on a daily basis. They will be able to identify “villains” in their lives and learn how to shut down those negative villainous things which en-croach their lives. So far we have discussed ghosts, pi-rates and ninjas….ask your child to tell you about the “mission statement” of each and how to keep them at bay! Middle School English We are currently reading two novels in the two classes I have. One novel is Number the Stars, which walks the stu-dents through Jews trying to escape the German Nazi Soldiers, by reading about personal ac-counts of one particular family. The other class is reading Taking Sides, which is about a personal challenge a boy is facing when leaving one school and moving to another. His heart belongs to his old basketball team, yet he has formed new friendships and plays on a new basketball team. Both teams will play against one another….what will Lincoln do? Ask your child to share their thoughts!!

Mark Tschappat P.E. & HS Health

BOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! It’s scary to think that the high school classes are going to be participating in Flag Football. We hope to master the skills and rules of football and hope to not have the yellow flags flying around like ghosts of football legends past. Mr. Roloff will be joining us and playing the National Anthem on his guitar for our championship con-test between second hour classes.

The Social Work Corner

Beth Sarich- Elementary, Kady Jakubik-Middle School,

Dawn Kraneman- High School

Reminder:

Parent Teacher Conferences are Wednesday 10/4/17 (4:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.) & Thursday, 10/5/17 (9:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m.).

No School – Friday, 10/6/17 & Monday, 10/9/17 (Columbus Day)

Tips for Parents on Parent-Teacher Conferences from the National Educational Association (NEA): - Show up, please!

“We know parents are busy, but it is important to carve out time to invest in your child’s education and ensure success at school,” said National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel. “To get the most out of parent-teacher conferences, parents need to take an active role in their child’s education year-round and come prepared to discuss how their child can reach their full potential.”

- Get Ready!

Do your homework prior to parent-teacher conferences. Prepare by writing notes to yourself concerning:

Any questions about the school’s programs or policies.

Things you can share with the teacher about your child and his life at home.

Questions about your child’s progress.

- Ask Important Questions!

Don’t be afraid to engage in a frank conversation with your child’s teacher. Your goal is to develop an action plan for your child’s success at school. Good questions to ask the teacher include:

What are my child’s strengths and weaknesses?

How does my child get along with classmates?

Is my child working up to her ability? Where could he/she use improvement?

What can we do at home to support what you are doing in the classroom?

- Initiate the Action Plan.

Start immediately on the action plan you and the teacher put together. Discuss the plan with your child and track his progress. Stay in touch with your child’s teacher throughout the year to keep the communication lines open.

“Parents are the best resource for a child to make the grade,” said Van Roekel. “When teachers and parents work together, we can help a child have a successful school year.” http://www.nea.org

Math Welcome back!!! Students began the school year taking a placement test for Mobymax and began to work on concepts through Khan Acade-my. Some of these concepts include: per-cents/decimals/percents, measuring and compar-ing quantities, understanding algebraic concepts and procedures to represent and solve problems, using geometric methods used to analyze and solve areas and perimeters of composite shapes. Biology This month in Biology students began to explore the different themes of biology. We looked at how biologists today face some of the most significant challenges and controversial issues in the world today. A few of these chal-lenges include finding resources to sustain the growing population, fighting deadly dis-eases, using genetic engineering and cloning responsibilities. The latter part of the month we began to look into the chem-istry of cells. Middle School Life Science Students began the year in Life Science exploring the world of bacteria and viruses. They looked into the characteristics, types, and bacteria's role in the world. The latter part of the month students began to learn about protists and fungi. We be-gan to explore what characteristics unite the organisms in the kingdom Protista.

Michael Lewis—Middle/High School

Constitution: The students have done a great job in class so far and are working very hard. We have talked about our important dates leading up to idea of the Constitu-tion, the convention, Preamble, Article I, and are currently learning about Article II. U.S. History: We have discussed the Industrial Revolution and it’s importance in our History. We have learned about famous inventors, the growth of railroads, and industries. Middle School Social Studies: We have been learning about the beginning of our country. We learned about the first Americans, nomads, and how they were finally able to settle down and create villages. Now we are currently learn-ing about Colonial America. Economics: We have been focused on learning about sup-ply and demand and how that drives our economy. We have also learned about profit and profit margins. We have also discussed production possibilities and also taken a look at production possibilities graphs.

Emily Pemrick-Middle/High School

I am very excited to be the new art teacher at Clay Academy. I recent-ly graduated from NIU for art edu-cation and am absolutely thrilled to now be teaching art at Clay and Woodstock North High School. It has also been a great experience meeting all the wonderful staff and students. I believe that art stimulates creativity and imagination while using problem solving techniques and I am looking forward to see what students at Clay create throughout this school year. For the first week of classes, I had all the grade levels draw pictures of things they liked or that represented them. This allowed me to get to know the students better and get an understanding of their enthusiasm for art. I am also excited to introduce a wide variety of materials to all the art classes at Clay. All grade levels have been working with scratchboards so far, and I plan on starting ceramic projects in the upcoming weeks, which the students seem very en-thused about. High school students have been practicing many different drawing techniques so far, and just finished up their chalk pastel land-scapes. Art History students finished the ancient unit and are wrapping up their sculptures that were inspired by ancient Egyptian, African, or Native American art-work.

Tim Roloff, Art Teacher

John Oslovich—Middle School

Welcome to Room 6 Middle School Social Stud-ies! As we begin the school year, the students are first becoming familiar with geography terms. We have introduced our Daily Geography as a way to teach these skills. We will then move along into the 5 Themes of Geography and learn about how the environment around us shapes our lives. Following that, we will learn about how the first humans lived and how our lives compare to theirs. As an entire middle school, we have had a very fast and exciting start to the school year. All of the students have done an amazing job in transi-tioning and adjusting to the expectations re-quired by our middle school team and rotating from class to class. We all look forward to what should be an exciting and engaging rest of the school year!

We have had a wonderful start to the school year in Room 1! This month we will be going to the pumpkin patch and the Woodstock Opera House. At the Opera House our students will have the opportunity to have their stories per-formed in from of all attending the perfor-mance! We will be starting to work with multi-plication and division in math. We will also be progressing with our task of becoming re-searchers in literacy and independent writing. The students will be starting a research project on an animal and will be writing a short piece on their findings.

Catherine Cantwell Elementary (Grade 3 & 4) Nicole Wesolowicz ,Floater Teacher, K-8

Elementary Life Skills The elementary students have started life skills this year by focusing on health and technology. We will be learning about the human body systems by following the “Your Health!” cur-riculum during the first trimester. We began by learning about the sensory system, the skeletal system, and now we are focusing on the muscular system. The students have been reading the textbook, researching information, and completing projects based on the content we are studying. They have been drawing and labeling the different parts of each body system and describing what each part does and how they work together!

Middle School Science The middle school students have been learning about the scientific method, the six steps they need to follow, and what each step involves. They created a rainbow in a jar project and formulated their own science question to test using what

they made.. They will be doing a google slides presentation with a partner that al-lows them to follow the scientific method, write about each step as they do the experi-ment, and present what they created. This project is designed to get them ready for the science fair and FOSS Kit experiments that we will be doing in the future!

Elizabeth Donato—Speech Therapist Speech Language Ideas We’ve had a good start to speech therapy this year. The speech therapy room has moved to the middle school hallway alcove. It has taken several days to get all settled in, but I am ready to go again! We will be focusing on fall/autumn activities and vocabulary. The occupational therapist and I co-treat many of the students so they are increasing language and fine motor skills together. Fall is a great time to take a walk outside and look and listen for changes in the environment that signal a new season. A great way to en-courage communication is to take pictures while outside and when back inside look at them again and talk about what you saw on your walk. Enjoy the fall season!

Primary At Clay (Grades Pre K-1) Cara Krzeski

We have had a great start to the year in Room 3!

One event coming up this month is the field trip to Goebbert’s Pumpkin Patch on October 19th. Please note, that the students on level red are not eligible to attend field trips. We also ask that on October 31st students wear a costume that is a character from their favorite book.

We will continue to work on our numbers, adding, subtracting, and place value in math. In reading, the students will be learning more about animals. With that, we will be writing an informative piece and work on adding proper capitalization and punctuation to our sentences.

The students in my class are allowed to bring toys for Fun Friday if they earned it. We are looking forward to a wonderful, exciting school year!

Mary Stewart Elementary Grades 2 & 3

Oh my goodness, is it really October already? Room 2 has been busy, busy, busy learning, establishing routines and planning fun activities. This month we will go to the pumpkin patch on October 19th and celebrate our favorite story characters on October 31. I have been enjoying getting to know my new stu-dents and watching new friendships blossom. Remember, your child is welcome to bring sugar free gum and chew it during the day. In addition, Scholastic book orders are due on the 25th of the month. I look forward to seeing you all at conferences on October 4th and 5th.

Travis Mohr

K-8 Physical Education The beginning weeks of the school year have gotten off to a good start. We have wrapped up our soccer unit and our fitness testing. I will have your student’s report from the fitness testing available for you at parent teacher conferences in October. We will now transi-tion into flag football for our 5th- 8th graders, flying discs for 3rd-4th, and manipulative activi-ties for our K-2nd graders. These units will fo-cus on student throwing and catching skills as well as positive peer interactions in a team or group setting.