It's that time of year again. Students all around the fort transform into their favorite book character. Students are encouraged to dress up as their favorite book character on October 31st! They can also bring in the book that their character is from! Check out our video from last year to get some ideas.
Music and the Brain
Music and the Brain
It has been proven that playing music in particular strengthens the motor, auditory and visual areas of the brain, as well as the connections between the right and left hemispheres. Also, “studies have shown that assiduous instrument training from an early age can help the brain to process sounds better, making it easier to stay focused when absorbing other subjects.” (Scientific American, “Hearing the Music, Honing the Mind”)
In class we watched a Ted Ed video regarding the scientific discoveries of how music impacts the brain. Take a moment to watch this incredible TED video below.
Coffee And Conversation November Book Announced!
Join Mrs. George on Friday, November 17th @ 9:00 am. We will discuss the book Laughing Allegra by Anne Ford. This beautifully written story will be sure to resonate with readers! Be sure to mark your calendars and join us!
BACK OF THE BOOK
When Anne Ford, great-granddaughter of Henry Ford, learned that her four-year-old daughter Allegra’s “differences” were the result of severe learning disabilities, she faced a challenge that neither money nor position could ease. Desperate for answers, Anne sought out doctors, teachers, counselors, and others who could help her build a support network for herself and her daughter, while fighting the many common misconceptions and myths about learning disabilities.
Now, in this fiercely honest and compelling memoir, Anne tells her story, writing movingly of her feelings as the mother of a learning disabled child. “I grew to accept that life is filled with uncertainty and that answers to the most simple, yet profound, questions such as ‘What is wrong with my daughter?’ can be elusive. I learned to be self-reliant in ways I never had before. I learned that every spark of optimism and hope was something to be nurtured and treasured because sometimes they were the only comfort available. And I learned that worry had entered my life.”
In time, Anne Ford saw her daughter grow into a vibrant, loving, and independent adult with a passion for ice skating and a commitment to help other disabled children. Allegra Ford, now 32, lives independently and supported this book’s publication so “it could help other kids.” Anne’s experience led her to become a tireless activist on behalf of children and families faced with LD, including her service as Chairman of the Board of the National Center for Learning Disabilities from 1989 to 2001, and the writing of this book with John-Richard Thompson, an award-winning playwright and novelist.
H.C. Andersen Blvd. Tales
H.C. Andersen Blvd. Tales
Our fall production is underway, so we thought we'd give you a glimpse into the story of H.C. Andersen Blvd. Tales - an original script from Julie Pappas.
Miss Z takes her students to Denmark to visit the famous Hans Christian Andersen statue on HC Anderson Blvd. George, who could care less about this educational opportunity, has a bad attitude, so Hans takes him on a virtual tour into the stories. Where will these adventures take us?
More about H.C. Andersen Blvd. Tales performance
Performances: December 13 at 7:00 PM and December 15 at 9:00 AM
Location: Theater at the Fort, 8920 Otis Avenue
Performers: Take ONE Performing Arts Company after school group and All students in Grades 2-8 will be a part of these performances. Please have your student wear ALL BLACK, shirt and pants or skirt for the performances.
Fun Activities That Develop Rhyme and Alliteration Awareness
FUN ACTIVITIES THAT DEVELOP RHYME AND ALLITERATION AWARENESS
October is Dyslexia Awareness Month. Today we're back with the next part in our series of posts that have fun activities that support learning for all of our kids, but are particularly helpful for our students with dyslexia. If you find this article helpful, please share on social media and let's help raise awareness for dyslexia together!
Rhyme and Alliteration Awareness
Rhyme and alliteration both involve words that share a common feature or sound. Hearing rhyme requires attention to the ending sound in words, while alliteration requires attention to the beginning. Activities that develop rhyming and alliteration help children develop an ear for sounds. They enable them to begin thinking about the sound properties of words as separate from the word’s meaning. For example, a pig is not only a farm animal, it is also a word that rhymes with wigand dig. With both rhyme and alliteration activities, children learn to first recognize, and then produce, words that end or begin the same way.
Activities to try at home to support rhyme and alliteration awareness
Read
Reading books with rhyming words and then talking about the words that sound alike or rhyme or books with alliteration and discussion what sound they hear, is the best way to begin practicing these skills at home.
Odd Man Out
Help your child identify the word that does not rhyme or sound like the others. Present the words orally or using picture cards and have them identify the word that does not belong.
Community Education Night with Dr. Jennifer Horn
"What do kids have to worry about?": Dr Jennifer Horn, a clinical child psychologist in private practice specializing in anxiety disorders and neurodevelopmental disorders such as learning disorders, will provide an overview on what anxiety is/why people experience anxiety, and how anxious responding can magnify into anxiety. Dr Horn will focus exclusively on how anxiety presents in children and teens, and she will provide practical strategies that parents can do to help their child reduce than anxiety.
There event is totally free, so invite your family and friends!
Register for the event today
A Sneak Peak At the Week
Comer
English II
We will continue reading The Old Man and the Sea and studying vocabulary from the novella.
English IV
We will continue our study of The Importance of Being Earnest and vocabulary from the play.
Digital Arts
We will be starting a new assignment: Thankful Hands which will be displayed in November on the bulletin board by the front door.
Math Lab
We'll be reviewing how to find taxes, tips and discounts.
Tulbert
Biology and Anatomy/Physiology
Dissecting rats and completing lab write up
Psychology
Finishing an experiment, writing up results, and completing research paper
O’Donnell
Geography
We will be studying Canadian Culture and Provinces.
Government
We are building our own Constitution.
Career/College Planning
We will be working on Career Interests.
Ahearn
Pre Calculus
We are solving for an unknown side of a triangle using trig functions and the trig table.
Algebra II
We are going over converting numbers to scientific notation, and how to combine them using multiplication and division.
Algebra I
We are working on solving two step equations and how to check your work.
Geometry
We are finishing up our lesson over the different types of angles and how to classify them.
Dust
Communication and Public Speaking
Putting final touches on our ‘Show me what YOU know’ speeches on Monday. The students have each selected a portion of the second unit and will be presenting it to the class on Tuesday the 3rd. In doing so, they will be helping one another prepare for the Unit 2 test on Thursday the 5th.
Carroll
LA Lab
We will continue using text evidence to find the main idea.
Studio Arts
We are finishing up our watercoloring unit with nature inspired watercolor paintings.
Sheehy
L/A Lab I, II
We are continuing our review of suffix addition rules, negative prefixes, and adding some common adjective suffixes.
Test next Thursday, 10/5 on suffix addition rules.
English 1
Label and Diagram sentences with Direct Objects test on Tuesday, 10/3.
Continue reading The Old Man and the Sea.
Practice writing sentences with imagery. Introduce Indirect Objects.
Simon
Health
Introduction to sexual health class, setting up resource binder, initial assessment.
Christman
English 1
Choose a current article to read and summarize in the 11-sentence paragraph format.
Review simple and compound sentence types as well as fragments and run-ons.
English 3
Choose a current article to read and summarize in the 11-sentence paragraph format.
Review compound and complex sentence types as well as comma placement.
English 4
Choose a current article to read and summarize in the 11-sentence paragraph format.
Review compound and complex sentence types as well as comma placement.
Visual Arts
Students continue working on cubism paintings using tints and shades of their chosen set of complimentary colors.
Photojournalism
Continue working on Photography Types and Techniques and Elements and Principles slideshows. Take photos and add them on Friday.
Fun Activities That Support Phonemic Awareness At Home
October is Dyslexia Awareness Month. Today we begin a series of posts that have fun activities that support learning for all of our kids, but are particularly helpful for our students with dyslexia. If you find this article helpful, please share on social media and let's help raise awareness for dyslexia together!
What Is Phonemic Awareness?
Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in words. Children must first understand that words are made up of separate speech sounds that can be blended together to make words before they functionally use the alphabet to spell or read words. It is a foundational skill that makes learning to read easier, and often one of the best indicators of reading success in the coming years.
Phonological awareness is the ability to divide spoken language into units, such as words and syllables. Before diving into individual sounds within words (phonemic awareness), the goal is to teach children to pay attention to more obvious sounds. A good place to start is environmental noises, then move into sentences, whole words, and then syllables. Only after a child can divide words into syllables do we start teaching the phonemic awareness part of our curriculum.
Activities to try at home to support an increased awareness of sounds and syllables:
Tapping Syllables
Using different items such as hand clappers, drums, or tennis rackets you can have children determine the number of syllables in a given word. For example, you would tap a drum two times for the word "sister" because it has two syllables. For increased difficulty, tap the drum (any number of times) and have your child think of a word that contains that same number of syllables.
Home Syllable Search
Help your child find items in different rooms in your home. Sort them by syllables. Write words (or draw pictures) for each object.
Things Will Look A Little Different In October
Things Will Look A Little Different In October
Words can fail the dyslexic brain. Sometimes our students have difficulty finding the words that properly express what they are trying to say. This is why we believe so strongly in our visual arts program. It creates an outlet for our students to express themselves in brilliant and often unexpected ways.
In case you haven't heard, October is Dyslexia Awareness Month. But it's also National Arts and Humanities Month as well. Every day throughout the month of October, we will be updating our homepage to showcase student art work through the years. We will be celebrating the many ways our students have used visual art as a way for personal expression. We hope you check back often and enjoy new pieces every day!
But that's not all we are doing for Dyslexia Awareness Month. Join us on social media as we will be sharing more from our community to help spread awareness. You can "like" or "share" these posts to get the message out! You'll also find new blog posts right here on our News page.
Jr. High Camp Tecumseh Trip
Jr. High Camp Tecumseh Trip
With the leaves changing and the temperatures cooling, it's that time of year where our 7th and 8th grade students are getting excited about this year's trip to Camp Tecumseh! Students, staff and volunteers will be gone October 24th and 25th for an adventure at the camp.
Camp Tecumseh is a YMCA Outdoor Center located in northwest Indiana. The Tippecanoe River borders the camp. Camp Tecumseh is located in Brookston, Indiana. We participate in an outdoor education program called, The Foundations for Success. This program focuses on team building through the use of "life skills" - Trust, Problem Solving, Leadership, Self-Confidence, and Communication. Our students have had such an incredible time in year's past, and we expect this year to be no different!
FILL OUT PERMISSION SLIP HERE
Learn more about Camp Tecumseh
American Folk Music and Folk Tales
American Folk Music and Folk Tales
The Performing Arts in America have evolved over the last 400 years. It is fun to remind students that ONCE UPON A TIME, we didn’t have any form of electronic entertainment. So how did people fill their time, other than with back breaking work? By getting together to share traditional music and stories passed down through generations. In fact, music in America evolved from three distinct genres brought by groups of immigrants in its formative years: Irish/Scots folk music, traditional African music, and European Christian Hymns.
We are exploring the development of these forms through singing songs like “Boil them Cabbage Down”, and “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands”, as well as creating percussion patterns for accompaniment.
In Drama students are learning about the author Joel Chandler Harris and his Uncle Remus tales. Once again, these folk stories were handed down through an oral tradition brought to America by Africans. Students listen to the stories, evaluate the emotions expressed by each character, and then act them out in pantomime form.
These opportunities develop skills in identifying rhythmic patterns and notation, analyzing the playability of created patterns, and consistency in production of beat patterns. In addition, students are experimenting and observing how to act for an audience with expressive facial expressions, and precise hand and body movements.
Julie Pappas
DEAL: 40% Off At Land's End
Fortune Fam! Land's End is running a Friend's and Family promotion where you can save 40% on regular priced items off their website. Now's the time to snatch up any uniform items you need. Those new high school gym shorts? Yep, 40% off! That cardigan you've been checking out? Yep, 40% off. To take advantage of the deal, at checkout, use coupon code: LESUFRIEND and PIN: 4911.