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 10 - January 28, 2017
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A Look Ahead
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Mark Your Calendar:
Feb 3 FLARES Meeting
Feb 4 MATHCOUNTS Competition
Feb 14 Cupid's Auction (Please send in donated items!)
Feb 16 Curious Minds 6:00
PM
Feb 20 Presidents' Day Holiday
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Curious Minds - February 16
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Please share our new Curious Minds event with your friends who have preschool and elementary-aged children! More to come!
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2/3 ELA
Erin Austin
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Ms. Austin's second and third graders wrote, directed and performed their first production for the rest of the Lower School last week! Way to go, Firehawks!
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Visual Arts
Julie McGhee, BA MEd
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For the past several weeks, scholars in grades 4-8 have been learning about compositional elements in art and have each completed a piece demonstrating at least one of the elements presented and discussed. We are taking this knowledge of composition to our next art adventure! Scholars in 7
th and 8
th grade are creating vinyl album covers based off original band concepts created by the scholars in the classroom. The idea is that each scholar is being commissioned to create an album cover based on its originator's ideas and concepts for the band and album. So, in addition to creating an album cover, artists are also meeting with the band/album originator to get input on the design. Each design must also have one of the compositional elements we have been discussing in class. I am so excited to see how these turn out! It has been neat to watch the scholars create their band and album concepts, and to then work in the role of the commissioned artist.
Scholars in 6
th
grade are creating movie posters based on a lesser known movie title. Scholars randomly chose a title of a movie and then decided what this movie could be about based on the title. Using this information, they will be creating a movie poster for this movie.
In addition to several details in their posters such as who is starring in the film, who directed the film, the rating, release date, etc., scholars are also challenged with having at least one compositional element in their final poster. They are also learning about the overall design on a movie poster in terms of what catches the eye.
Our 2nd and 3rd grade scholars have been learning about international pop artist, Romero Britto, who uses vibrant, bold and colorful patterns to reflect his optimistic view of the world around him. They will be completing their art pieces, based on his style, next week. Everyone has put much time and such care into these projects, and their artwork is turning out to be
truly colorful and fun!
Finally, scholars in our Studio Art class were treated to a mandala workshop with Tammy Garcia (Raquel's and Katarina's mom). Mrs. Garcia spent three days sharing her skills and knowledge of creating mandalas with us. During her visit, we completed several activities to help loosen up the group so that our minds were ready to relax and explore this form of artistic expression. During our final practice, scholars drew concentric circles across four index cards. These cards were then divided up among the class to be individually designed. Once all cards were decorated, the scholar who originally drew the concentric circles on the four cards was given his/her original cards back with the various designs. We then put the cards together to see these unique mandalas created by many hands! Such a great activity with stunning results!
Mrs. Garcia generously offered to join our 6
th
grade class as well last week, and introduce these scholars to mandalas as well.
We are genuinely thankful to Mrs. Garcia for sharing her time and talents with us, and for helping us to create unique mandalas!
Thank you so much, Mrs. Garcia!
Scholars in our 4
th
and 5
th
grade classes will have a mandala workshop with Mrs. McGhee next week!
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ELA B
Brenda Edins, BEd
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Scholars are anxious to read more of our new novel
Between Shades of Gray, which tells a previously-unheard perspective of WWII. The book centers around a young Lithuanian girl whose family is sent to a concentration camp in Siberia.
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Math Lab C
Kerensa Prostek, BS MEd
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Scholars are designing their backyards using different types of shapes. These shapes are then put onto different quadrants. The scholars need to label each point and identify what shape it is.
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Performing Arts
Brenda Edins, BEd; Jeremy Edins, BS
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In sixth grade Performing Arts, scholars have been rehearsing for impromptu folk tale performances directed by Nicky and Ryder.
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Algebra I
Brenda Edins, BEd
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Algebra 1 scholars have been showing their mastery of slope and linear equations by solving a CSI Whodunnit "Clue"-like activity or a Choose-Your-Own Journey story. The class had a lot of fun racing to see who could solve the mysteries first.
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Eighth Grade QUEST
Mattie Oveross, BS
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In QUEST, we recently finished our picture books. Scholars were separated into two groups and each group was tasked with writing and illustrating a picture book that would teach young children the basic concepts of either qualitative or quantitative research. We hope to read the completed picture books to younger scholars in the coming weeks! Stop by Miss Mattie's desk in the front office if you are interested in seeing the completed books!
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Honors Biology
Carol Raymond, BM BMEd MEd
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The eighth grade scholars have been exploring genetics through Harry Potter. For instance, did you know that Molly and Arthur Weasley HAD to have had homozygous recessive alleles to have red hair? (Which also guaranteed that ALL of their children would have red hair). Since all of their children have freckles, it is most likely that one of them has homozygous dominant alleles for freckles. (Both Molly and Arthur COULD have a pair of dominant alleles.)
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AP Research
Carol Raymond, BM BMEd MEd
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What Do You Hear in Others' Voices?
As part of the AP Capstone diploma program, scholars must complete an AP Research course. This course requires the scholars to complete a year-long research project and then write a 4,000-5,000 word research paper on their findings.
Below is a link to a survey that one of our scholars created. Please consider completing it and sharing it with other adults! (The scholar is particularly interested in having women ages 18-25 complete the survey, so if you happen to have some friends and relatives in that age range, that would be fabulous! However, all ages are needed, so please complete this yourself and send to anyone that might enjoy being involved!) Thank you!
Follow this
link
to fill out a quick survey about your personal perception of others' voices!
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101 Donations Initiative
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Have you selected and removed a Dalmatian from the 101 Donations board in the main hallway? Be sure to help us out by doing so!
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FLARES News
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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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K/1 Math, ELA & QUEST
Mimi Turbeville, BA
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We've had a couple of really fun fairy-tale themed STEM challenges! Last Friday, to end our study of the Three Little Pigs, K/1 scholars built shelters to house one of the pigs. The challenge: to build a structure strong enough to withstand the Big, Bad Blowdryer!! Scholars utilized both their creativity and their engineering skills to accomplish this task! Both groups were successful in making a house sturdy enough to pass the blowdryer's test! Then, in wrapping up our focus on Little Red Riding Hood, K/1 faced another challenge. Their task was to create a basket (like Little Red might have carried) that was strong enough to hold 50 Unifix cubes! And as if that wasn't hard enough...the basket also had to withstand carrying those 50 cubes...100 steps!! Both groups were successful again! And not only did their "baskets" hold, but scholars weighed them down with MORE Unifix cubes to see just how sturdy their creations were! The boys' basket could carry 104 cubes; the girls' basket successfully transported 65! What innovative thinkers we have in our K1 cluster!
We had our first banking experience since before the winter break, which meant an opportunity to finally DEPOSIT our Market Day earnings! Counting the Hawkeyes proved quite challenging! We applied the strategies of skip counting as well as some of our "big kid math" of adding with regrouping! When we had totaled our Hawkeyes, we recorded the amount for some discussion about which businesses were the most profitable. Then it was off to the Fiery Hills bank to make our accounts grow! What a wonderful learning experience our whole Fiery Hills micro-society is! So very many "life skills" are learned and practiced; it's one of my most favorite things about our wonderful school!
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4/5 Advisory, QUEST, SS/Science
Kerensa Prostek, BS ME
d
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In QUEST, scholars continue to review the research on their topic. They are narrwoing down their research to a specific question to start their own research.
In Advisory, scholars continue to brainstorm fundraising ideas. The next fundraiser is scholars having fun games to play on their laptops. Donations will be collected as scholars direct the participants to the choices of different video games.
In ELA, scholars are comparing the book version to the movie version of Indian in the Cupboard. Our final project is to create a scrapbook page as a summary for a chapter.
For Social Studies/ Science, scholars are sending their recommendation letter to Honored Dragon (Mr. Lyda) and Flaming Eagle (Mrs. Lyda) on how to best preserve land for the future.
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Health Promotion
Amy Klein, BS MS
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Please remember to adhere to the school's health and wellness policy: any scholar who has gone home with a temperature of 100 degrees or greater and/or has been prescribed antibiotics must be fever-free and have been on antibiotics for twenty-four hours before returning to school. We have had several students who were unable to participate in HP because they said they had had a fever the day before. Thank you!
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Botanists
Student Article by Katarina G.
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Life could not go on without our botanists. They care for all of the school's beloved plants. One of the botanists said he applied for the job because it sounded relaxing. When asked what the best part of the job was, Collin H. replied, "Knowing that, if you water the plants, they look really nice." The majority of botanists said that they would not recommend their job to just anybody. To do this job well, you can't spill lots of water. When they were asked what they needed to learn to improve at their job, answers included learning how to use a watering can more efficiently. The botanists come from several different departments, but they each take time to care for our plants.
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MATHCOUNTS
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Our MATHCOUNTS team encountered a different type of challenge yesterday, when there were four donuts and five team members. Solution: each person gets precisely 288 degrees of donut. Genius! The team will compete on February 4th!
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Fidget and Midget
Student Article by Raquel G.
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No school is complete without pets, and no collection of pets is complete without a good helping of our scaly friends. This week, we shine the spotlight on that dynamic duo, Fidget and Midget, the geckos. They spend most of their time relaxing in the shade of their homes in Ms. Edins' room, but every so often, scholars take them out of their nap times to have some fun! Even playtime involves a lot of responsibility, according to Olivia A. of the wildlife department at Young. She works with Jayden S. to care for Fidget and Midget. "He's really small, so he doesn't know he could fall and get hurt," Olivia says about Midget, "He's just like a baby." Jayden and Olivia are quite qualified to take care of the lizards; Olivia herself has extensive experience with cats, fish, chinchillas, and rats. Lizards are particularly cool, Olivia says, "because they're not snuggly; they're more wild, like birds and frogs." One thing others may not know about taking care of the lizards is that they can bite if not handled properly. The wildlife workers advise using your sleeves to hold Midget "in case he's in a bad mood." The most important thing to remember about taking care of Fidget and Midget is that the job entails a lot of responsibility, and Olivia says this responsibility has impacted her to take more initiative herself. We are lucky to have such enthusiastic scholars taking care of our prestigious pair of geckos.
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FLARES Scrip Program
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We are using
Scrip, a gift card fundraising program to raise funds for the school! Basically, you buy gift cards through Scrip for places where you know you'll spend money. When you buy the card, the school gets a cut. You spend the gift cards by having your phone scanned at checkout. It is pretty cool and easy!
If you haven't created an account yet, go to www.shopwithscrip.com, select REGISTER at the top of the page and then "Join a Scrip Program." Use enrollment code 3E73163F53175 when prompted. Once your enrollment is complete, select the SHOP menu option to browse gift cards available from hundreds of retailers. Select the DASHBOARD menu option to manage your account, including setting up PrestoPay (debits your checking account for all purchases). All purchases must be paid for by either PrestoPay or by check (made out to FLARES). If you are purchasing physical gift cards and paying by check, please be sure to drop your check in the FLARES box (located in the front office of the school).
Thank you for your support and happy shopping!
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