Students of the Month

Upcoming Events

Early Release at NOON

NO ASP All transportation

changes must be made

by 10am

Thursday, December 21 May wear jeans and ugly

sweater!

End of 1st Semester

Thursday, December 21

NO SCHOOL

Winter Break

Friday, December 22—

Friday, January 5, 2018

Teacher Work Day

Friday, January 5, 2018

Students Return to School

2nd Semester Begins

Monday, January 8, 2018

Parents Lunch and Learn

Health and Wellness

In Mayerberg

Friday, January 12

NO SCHOOL

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Monday, January 22

December, 19 2017

DECEMBER NEWSLETTER University Academy Lower School

Cold Weather

Reminder

It is hard to believe that

we are into the winter

season and the cold

weather is all around us.

We need your help to make

sure your children have on

appropriate clothing for

outdoor

recess.

Please make sure you are letting the lower school office know about afternoon

transportation changes before noon

816-412-9230

Or

816-412-9282

Please leave a voicemail

if we are not able to answer

~ Thank you ~

Kindergarten - Kaiden Stone ~1st Grade - Aila Abernathy ~ 2nd Grade - Ke’Vionah Martin

3rd Grade - Nyla Doyle ~ 4th Grade - Lar’Rya Cooper ~ 5th Grade - Quincy Boykins

The first semester is coming to a close very quickly as the holidays

are upon us. We hope that you all have a happy and restful

holiday and get an opportunity to spend time with friends and

family. We know that the students, teachers, and staff are ready

for a little break. The teachers and students have been working

hard to make sure that every student is learning and excelling. We

have appreciated getting the opportunity to meet with most of you

in conferences and activities throughout the semester. Education

is a partnership and we appreciate your involvement in your child's

education. Please encourage your child to read over the break to

keep their skills sharp for the next semester. We look forward to

an awesome 2nd semester as we work together. Happy Holidays!

Lost and Found

Reminder

Since it has become a

health hazard, items

will be donated on the

15th and 30th of every

month. Please label

jackets, hats, etc.

since items are

checked for names

and returned to their

owner.

Art

Advanced Studies

Creative Movement

Computers

PE

Please visit my website to read my full newsletter to get info on how you can check in with your students progress from almost anywhere you are.

http://www.universityacademy.org/schools/lower_school/teacher_pages/jordan_hadjian.

Seasons greetings! I wish you a safe and happy

holiday! Again, if you would like to view my

upcoming class details or syllabus, please see

my webpage on the UA website.

Thanks! Mrs. Slater :)

In first grade high reader pull-out guided reading

we looked at Pourquoi Stories – traditional stories from

around the world that explain natural phenomena,

like why it stays twilight to dark in the arctic for 6

months of the year, why butterflies bob when they fly

and so forth.

Second grade: worked on engineering ideas – how

to build a structure using construction toys that would

withstand a high wind.

Third grade: talked about ecosystems – how plants,

animals and their environments work together to

make a sustainable community.

Fourth grade: solved a tricky cube puzzle and other

math adventures, then began talking about DNA and

heredity of traits.

Fifth grade: same cube puzzle as fourth grade, vol-

ume and rectangular prisms, spatial reasoning, a brief

introduction to DNA and heredity.

During the month of December, PE classes are

participating in scooter activities while learning

about the muscles of the legs. Then starting in

January, we will do some fitness testing and start

our basketball units! Fun times!

Have a happy holiday!! Coach Gassen

What a great month to be in Kindergarten Art. Let's call it

Kinder Art, shall we? They have really been exploring

textures, stencils, shapes and color to prepare for the new

year, when they will begin their exploration of painting and

collage.

First Grade is beginning the Kandinsky

project where we put visual art and music

together to create expressive creations full

of color and movement.

Second Grade will soon begin their Cubism projects, while

Third Grade is finishing up their fantastic cityscape paintings

which can be seen in the halls outside the Art room. We hope

you all have a wonderful holiday season full of love, laughter

and relaxation with family and friends.

Mr. A

December Newsletter

Greetings from Lower School Music!

We had a wonderful 1st and 2nd grade performance on December

12th! Our students sang beautifully and the performance was well

received by family and friends in attendance. 3rd, 4th, and 5th

grades are working hard to get ready for their performance

on February 27th. In addition to concert music, 3rd and 4th grades

are working on recorders. We are really enjoying learning how to

play instruments and read music on them. 5th grade is working on

their woodwind instrument family, practicing how to play a

woodwind mouthpiece with a cross-over instrument

called a DooD. These instruments were purchased

last year for the Lower School Music room as a grant

from Friends of UA. I hope everyone has a safe,

happy, and merry Winter Break!

See you in 2018!

Page 3

Music: Winter Concerts

Counselor’s Corner

Happy Holidays!

In the month of December we had the Bully Lady back in all

classrooms! With K-1 she read "The Sneetches" by Dr. Seuss

and talked about exclusion, which is a form of bullying. In 2-3

she read "We're all Wonders" by Raquel Jaramillo and

discussed empathy, uniqueness in the

world, and strategies for stress. With 4-5

she read "Confessions of a Former Bully"

by Trudy Ludwig and defined bullying and

discussed strategies for targets of

bullying.

The website for Synergy Services has many great resources

regarding bullying:

http://www.synergyservices.org/?page=Main_Our_Services_

Stop_Violence. We are so happy to partner with Synergy and

the Bully Lady to help educate our students further on

bullying!

All the best,

Mrs. Hagan—K, 4 & 5

Haganc@universityacademy.org

816-412-5973

Mrs. Sanders—1-3

Sandersk@universityacademy.org

816-412-9260

Title I

The upcoming gift-giving season is a perfect time to

support your children whether they are new readers

or very experienced readers! Encourage family

members and friends to give books to your child as

gifts. You might also consider buying a subscription

to a favorite children’s magazine. Words games

such as Scrabble (or Scrabble Junior), Boggle,

Rhyming or ABC Bingo, and Probe are just a few

examples of games

that use language,

words, and make

great gifts!

Sincerely,

Mrs. King: Reading Specialist grades K-2

Winter break is the perfect time to read aloud to your

children! Experts say that even older kids enjoy being

read aloud to at school and at home. Reading aloud to

children allows them to be able to fall in love with the

story! Sometimes it is difficult for students to work

on understanding the story when they are spending

the entire time trying to decode words. Reading aloud

to your children allows them to hear good readers

model how to use expression while reading. There are

so many benefits of reading aloud to kids so take a

few minutes this winter break to sit and escape into the

wonderful world of books.

Sincerely,

Ms. Redmond: Reading Specialist grades 2- 5

Older readers 2nd-5th graders

1. Ask students what the author’s theme or message is in the book.

2. What background knowledge do you have that relates to this book?

3. Write a summary including a beginning, middle, and end.

4. Why do you think the character did _________________?

5. Talk about all the parts of a non-fiction book like the diagrams, charts, photographs, glossary, etc.

6. Compare and contrast ideas in a story or between books.

7. Make personal connections to events in the story.

8. Ask questions that aren’t entirely answered in the book. Beyond the text questions make readers think

deeper about books they are reading.

Beginning Readers: Kindergarten thru 2nd Grade

1. Help your child learn sight words by using flashcards, posting the words around your house, or even

having students trace the words in sand!

2. Help your child visualize the story in their heads by telling them to create a movie in their mind while

you are reading aloud to them.

3. Ask questions before, during and after reading. Have your children look at pictures and make

predictions, ask them to think about what may happen next, or what was their favorite part?

4. Don’t immediately tell your child an unknown word. Ask your child to stretch out the sounds in the

words to help them decode.

University Academy Lower School

The mission of University Academy is to prepare students to succeed in an institution of higher learning and to become leaders in society.

6801 Holmes Road Phone: 816-412-5900

Kansas City, MO Fax: 816-410-0322

5th Grade Water Cycles

Each year in 5th Grade Science we round out our unit on Earth’s Systems with a

3-dimensional model of the Water Cycle. This project is a lot of fun for the kiddos

because they get to be creative in constructing a model of something they’ve

gotten to know well. It’s a big deal to get to show off that creativity. I’m very

proud of the projects turned in this year! The 4thgraders each year look at the

projects with excitement knowing their turn is coming soon! Congratulations to

this year’s 5th graders for a job well done!

The second grade went to the Nelson Atkins museum of Art for

a field trip. We learned about symbolism in ancient

communication. Each student got to see an area of the

museum and make their own metal embossment! This group

was studying symbols in ancient Egyptian art.

2nd Grade Field Trip