E.A. Young Academy is a not-for-profit, private academy created to generate transformative changes to meet  the needs  of the K-12, gifted, talented, and high ability scholar.

The Source for Firehawk News and Information
Vol. 5 Issue 3 - October 1, 2016

A Look Ahead
Mark Your Calendar:

Oct 7         No School - Faculty/Parent Conferences
Oct 10       School Holiday
Oct 14       FLARES Book Swap (more info below)
Oct 15       Running Club Race: Running Scared
Oct 28       Halloween Event
Nov 17      Early Release
Nov 24      Running Club Race: CRC Thanksgiving Day Run

To access the General School Calendar, click here. This calendar is downloadable/uploadable to your smart phone, as well.  iCal: http://bit.ly/EAYAOfficialCalendar  
Spirit Assembly

We celebrated our first Spirit Assembly of the year on Friday, Crazy Socks Day! This month, we recognized scholars who displayed the Core Value of Curiosity! Next was our kick-off of the initiative to celebrate scholars displaying the attributes of our Core Values. Every EAYA scholar received a pokeball to hang on backpacks to remind us of who we are and how we should act as EAYA scholars!
K-3 Field Investigation
Brenda Edins, BEd; Mimi Turbeville, BA



Our K-3 group was able to have a great day at the Henrietta Creek Apple Orchard! We arrived at the apple orchard ready to learn! We met with Farmer Sue, who told us all about the parts of an apple and then all about bees, butterflies and beekeeping! We learned that bees and butterflies are vital for the success of the orchard! Next, Farmer Sam took us on a tour of the whole orchard. We learned something new at each and every stop! What a fun and educational day! Thanks to all of the parents who were able to come along!
ELA C
Kerensa Prostek, BS MEd


In ELA, we are reading  Hatchet . Based on the plot of this book, the scholars have developed a survival backpack. They have evaluated which item would be the best to use for survival. The scholars are also developing their writing skills for paragraph writing. W e also spent time outside evaluating sites that could lend themselves to a shelter.
Math Lab C
Kerensa Prostek, BS MEd
In Math Lab C, we are working on decimals and percents. Scholars are determining if a sample budget can work for the given example. The next step in our project is evaluating loans on our sample person.
4/5 Advisory/Science & Social Studies/QUEST
Kerensa Prostek, BS MEd


In Advisory, the scholars are planning their fundraising ideas. They have joined one of three groups: Bake Sale, Fun Run with Bake Sale and Arcade-style Gaming. The scholars are deciding how to plan the event and then how to implement it!

In SSS (Social Studies/Science), the scholars have finished presenting their projects on how to describe a cell in terms of a city and its government. They did an amazing job and are improving their presentation skills, as well!

In QUEST, our scholars are starting their research journey. We have brainstormed different topics to start with for the projects. The next step is critically looking at these topics for a good research question.
Algebra II
Carol Raymond, BM BMEd MEd
Scholars are solving absolute value functions from graphs and investigating their real-world implications in games such as pool and in reflections.
Maker Labs
Evan Fuchs, BS
In our MakerLab classes, we've been busy soldering, researching, and exploring. Our CNC kit arrived a few days ago, and we're working hard to get it running. Also, thanks to very generous donation, we've acquired a brand-new dual-extrusion 3D printer! We've using it to print various additions to our CNC mill (and some Mario mushrooms).
AP Research
Carol Raymond, BM BMEd MEd
Sooooo many sources! Scholars collected at least 50 sources on their topic of interest and began  reading through them to determine which ones will work best in their literature review. The scholars also began creating their annotated bibliography which will guide them into the creation of their literature review. You'll have to ask them their new acronym for checking their sources.
Destination Imagination


Destination ImagiNation: At this time, we have a few scholars interested in each of the K-2, 3-5 and 6-8 grade levels, but not quite enough to make a team at any of the competition levels. This week, Mrs. Raymond went around to the classes to lead them through an Instant Challenge-type activity, to give them all an idea of what fun DI can be! We are still in need of managers and/or co-managers. If you are interested in volunteering or if your child is interested in participating in DI, please complete this form by TUESDAY, October 4 at the very latest! Thank you so much!
Impound Lot is Open!
Now that we've hit our pace for the year (sorta) and to simulate real life experiences within our Fiery Hills Microsociety, we are now converting the Lost and Found table into an Impound Lot. A retrieval fee of 9HE will be assessed to retrieve items that have been delivered to the Impound Lot. The Impound Lot fee will be increased incrementally as the year progresses. If items are in the Impound Lot longer than one week, they will be circulated into the uniform closet or donated. The Impound Lot is conveniently located in the front office and is open weekdays from 7:30 am until 4:00 pm. Parents, please help us by grabbing a Sharpie and labeling items as well. Thanks so much and please let me know should you have any questions.
Upcoming FLARES Events
FLARES Book Swap - Friday October 14
1. Donate books to the school on October 12th and 13th.
2. Log the number of books in your donation to receive credit and pick up a charitable donation receipt. The classes with the largest percentage of books donated will get the first shopping times! 
3. The scholars will have shopping time on Friday, October 14th during the school day. For $10 students will get unlimited shopping credit for each book donated OR pay just $2 per paperback and $3 per hardback.
4. We often get board books, early readers and other books for younger kids as well as books for adults, so make plans to swing by and shop for the rest of your family too! All books remaining at the end of the day will be donated to our classrooms or to a local charity.

$2 paperbacks and $3 hardbacks AND/OR $10 Unlimited Swap Pass allows you to take home as many books as you donated! Contact Kimberley Davis at  kbdavis@mac.com if you have any questions or would like to volunteer to help!

FLARES Clothing Drive
We're partnering with  Schoola.com, an online resale shop, to raise funds for EAYA. Donate your gently used women's and children's clothing to EAYA. We will send it to them and they sort, spiff and sell in their online store where shoppers can filter by item, size, and even "new with tags!" Items that originally retailed for more than $30 sell best, and when they do, Schoola will send us 40% of the proceeds! 
 
Drop a bag with your donations at school when you donate your books Oct. 12th-13th OR on Friday, October 14th at the FLARES meeting, at the Book Swap, or before/after school. Of course you can request a postage paid donation bag anytime or shop for yourself at  Schoola.com. Contact Kimberley Davis at  kbdavis@mac.com if you have any questions or would like to volunteer to help!
Community Fundraising Info
AMAZON SMILE:   Be sure to connect EA Young Academy to your Amazon account by going to Smile.Amazon.com.
TOM THUMB: EA Young Academy participates in Tom Thumb's Good Neighbor Program. Our school ID is 13241.
KROGER: EA Young Academy participates in the Kroger Community Rewards Program. Visit this link and apply the school's ID number to your Kroger Plus Card. The school ID is 47813.
Please also continue to collect Box Tops. You can submit them in the office.
SHUTTERFLYWhen you purchase at Shutterfly through the storefront link, the school receives 13% of the sale (which is much higher than the Amazon Smile percentage)! Customers can still use Shutterfly's coupons! Check it out here!
North Texas Giving Day 2016: WOW!

We are so incredibly grateful for the donors who gave to EA Young Academy on North Texas Giving Day! We were blown away that by midnight, we had received $10,000 in donations! Absolutely amazing. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
EAYA Running Club
The new school year has started and our running club has hit the ground running! EAYA's Running Club is open to scholars in grades 4-12. We encourage all our scholars to be active but the physical demands of running club merit the decision to limit participation. Our scholars will have an opportunity to run with their classmates during their HP classes in addition to our new Saturday morning runs. Coach Mike invites all scholars in grades 4-12 to join him at Bear Creek Park for an early morning run. These Saturday morning runs are listed on EAYA's online calendar and they are listed below on the volunteer form as well. In order to have these runs we need several parent volunteers to join us each week. Please follow the link below to sign up as a running club volunteer. All volunteers will need to be background checked. A background check form is attached to this email. EAYA Running Club t-shirts are available for purchase - use the link below to order your shirt. Shirts are $15 each and are made of a dry wick/fit athletic material that will stay dry throughout a run.   Volunteer and T-shirt ordering  link .

Running club participants are encouraged to join their fellow Firehawks at a few community fun runs & races. We have several planned in the coming months.  Information for each run is listed below. Participants can choose the distance they are comfortable running in each race - each run offers a mile fun run and 5K while others offer even greater distances.

10/15/16 - Running Scared
11/24/16 - CRC Thanksgiving Day Run

This race offers a $200 prize to the school with the highest number of participants!  Feel free to reach out to Coach Mike directly at with any questions about running club (mpetruso@eayoungacademy.com).
Kindergarten/First Grade
Mimi Turbeville, BA

We had a very special this week: Mrs. Lyda! Not the Mrs. Lyda that heads our school, but Mr. Lyda's MOM! She is going to be our class's special "grandfriend" this year! We call her M2! M2 is a former principal, and she LOVES children! How lucky we are to have her come share our space! She will be visiting with us weekly! This time, she shared one of her favorite books with us, about a little owl who was not afraid.
K/1 Math/Science
Mimi Turbeville, BA

K/1's inquiry into life cycles led us to the discovery of a new concept that is often seen in nature: symmetry! This week in math, we learned that symmetry happens when something is the same on both sides of a line (the line of symmetry) and that something is asymmetrical when it is not the same on both sides. We have been studying butterflies' life cycles, and we discovered that butterflies' wings are symmetrical! We illustrated this discovery with some paint and some folding.


We have been exploring SHAPES in math! We've talked about triangles, squares, circles, hexagons, ovals, rectangles, pentagons, trapezoids, octagons, and rhombuses. We've discussed numbers of sides and where we might see these shapes in our everyday lives. We took a shape walk and looked for these 2D shapes in our school! We recorded what we saw and labeled each shape with where we saw it!
ELA D
Evan Fuchs, BS
In ELA, we've been investigating the theme of Heroes through our class reading of Matthew Cody's  Powerless. We have also started our read-aloud,  The Neverending Story. Recently, we spent some time writing reviews of the CompSci students'  Zork  maps. This will prepare us for an exciting upcoming writing activity.
Pre-Algebra
Evan Fuchs, BS
In addition to our regular classwork with integers, we've been learning about economics. Specifically, we are looking at how the stock market works, as well as different ways to grow our money. We each engaged in a bit of paper trading, setting up portfolios to see who could garner the highest returns. After this practice round, we'll move towards longer-term holdings with a bigger (fake) budget.
Middle School Visual Arts
Julie McGhee, BA MA

After viewing and discussing several famous artists' self-portraits, scholars began working on creating their own. It has been so interesting to see the various ways each scholar has chosen to express part of who he/she is through this artistic expression! Once the self-portrait is complete, scholars will also be writing (or sharing) a short reflection on the artistic choices they made, as well as discussing the experience of creating a self-portrait.


Honors Biology
Carol Raymond, BM BMEd MEd

Scholars explored the properties of water through multiple lab investigations. It's amazing how we take such an important molecule for granted! They then moved on to learning about three of the four main biological molecules.
9th Grade Honors Humanities and AP Humanities
James Bishop, BA MA
This week in ninth grade Honors Humanities, we had a stellar discussion on philosophical realism and anti-realism. We also worked on a persuasive essay on Kurt Vonnegut's short story, "Harrison Bergeron," and wrote our own short stories, which we will share via readings over the course of Friday and Monday. We continued our reading of the novel Sirens of Titan . Finally, we explored the role of war and government through human history.

In the AP Humanities classes, we staged a fantastic debate this past Wednesday on Federalism and Anti-Federalism. The class was divided into debate teams, each of which made a strong case for their positions. In the end, the Anti-Federalists won. We also took our second unit test, and watched "The Crossing," a movie about Washington's army crossing the Delaware.
Health Promotion
Michael Petruso, AOS CPT; Amy Klein, BS MS; Chris Glenn, BS MBA

Thanks to the Firehawk families who were able to come run at Run in the Dark! It's always good to support the Community Storehouse! Thanks for organizing, Coach Petruso!
FLARES News
If you are a Firehawk parent and haven't yet joined FLARES, please go to this link to pay your dues, get involved and purchase spirit wear!
You can sign up for reminders from FLARES to be sent directly to your phone by following these directions:
1. If you want to receive notifications on your phone, go to this link. Follow the instructions to sign up for Remind. (You will be prompted to download the free app.)
2. If you don't have a smartphone, or would just prefer to receive a text, you can sign up by texting @hbh83 to 81010. If this doesn't work, try texting @hbh83 to 817-310-8427.
*Your FLARES membership includes an associate parent membership in Texas Association for the Gifted and Talented (TAGT), our state's gifted organization, and a Firehawk directory!

All parent volunteer hours should be recorded on the Track it Forward   website. This information is needed for grant applications that are processed during the year. Please log your hours ! You can also download the Track it Forward app!
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