Category: 2023-2024

Hello friends and family!

I hope you are all enjoying the end of the cold weather and the start of Spring. The flowers will are starting to bloom and soon the trees will have leaves. As usual, the NC students at Clark Street have been busy learning English, reading, writing, and math. Here are some highlights of some of the “fun” learning activities that the students did over the past weeks:

1. English Language Games

Every morning, students spend 20-30 minutes playing games that teach them English with their friends. For example, they build words with letters, build sentences with words, and try to guess words from pictures. Here are some photos of the students’ work:

2. The layers of the Earth

Students have been learning about what the Earth is made of. To remember what they learned, students made models of the Earth’s layers using clay. Here are some photos:

3. Rocks and Minerals

To learn about how rocks are formed, students first found rocks in our school, then grouped the rocks based on the size, hardness, color, and shape of the rocks. Here are some photos:

4. Fossils

Fossils tell us the story of life on Earth, but they can be hard to understand. To help students learn how to find, clean, and identify fossils, they actually dug into bricks of clay with real fossils inside. Students then tried to figure out what fossil they found and presented their fossils to the class.

Upcoming Events

Please continue to make sure our students are reading at least 15 minutes every day, and practicing their English as much as possible. I will be calling each of you to schedule progress meetings in a month. Our class will also be holding a family even in May. Until then, please do not hesitate to use parentsquare, talking points, or to call me with any questions or concerns.

Hello friends and family!

I hope you are all enjoying some time away from school and work this winter. As usual, the NC students at Clark Street were busy learning English, reading, writing, and math in December. Here are some highlights of some of the “fun” learning activities that the students did:

1. Learning More About Small Things

Students used microscopes to find out what our world looks like when you make small things very big. Students discovered that plants and animals are made up of small parts called cells, and were surprised to find out that even things like soap and paint were a mix of all kinds of other materials!

2. Ice-Hockey Game

To learn more about American culture, the students went to a Railers game at DCU center. They enjoyed a chance to learn about a new sport, and enjoyed the new sights and sounds.

3. Winter Concert

This year, the students sang two songs at the winter concert. Many of you came to see them sing (thank you for your support!). The video below shows the students practicing for the concert:

4. Old Civilizations

This year students are learning about how people lived long ago. To understand how people made writing systems, the students learned how to write their names using old Egyptian and Mesopotamian writing systems.

Other updates

• In January, students will take the ACCESS tests to measure their speaking, listening, reading, and writing in English.
• In February, the school will hold a dance for all families – I will send more information as the date approaches.

Thank you for making time for our student conferences. I will continue to call and text you with updates or questions – please call or text me as needed as well.

Sincerely,

Anek Belbase

To learn more about American culture, on Tuesday, November 14th, our students went to Polar Park for a Thanksgiving lunch. Students first got a tour of the whole baseball park. Then, they ate a traditional American Thanksgiving meal and met the team mascots. The owner of the park even played the piano and sang songs for the students!

I hope you enjoy the pictures – I will be contacting each of you over the next few weeks to set up a progress meeting on December 5th (in school). As always, please contact me with any questions, concerns, or comments.

Hello all!

The New Citizen students at Clark Street have been busy learning English, reading, writing, and math. But they have also had time to participate in some “fun” hands on learning activities. Here are some highlights:

1. Pumpkin Palooza

To celebrate fall, students participated in a pumpkin science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) program. They measured and weighed pumpkins, described pumpkins with words and pictures, and built structures to hold up pumpkins:

2. Human Body Systems

To learn how human body systems work together to help us live, students built models of human bodies with accurate organs:

3. Meet a Police Officer

To better understand the job of a police officer, students met with a real-life officer. The officer showed the students how she used her tools, and gave students a chance to wear some police-clothes:

4. Cinderella

To better understand fairy tales that they learned in ELA, the students practiced and performed Cinderella in front of Miss Gonzalez’s class last week. All students did an amazing job and gained confidence from the play.

Upcoming events:

• Report cards will be mailed in the middle of November – please pay attention to the ESL and behavior sections, but disregard the ELA, science, and social studies sections because most new citizen students cannot be compared to grade-level standards in those areas.
• We will be going on a field trip to learn ice-skating at Polar Park on November 14th. Please remember to send back signed permission forms this week.
• Student progress conferences will take place on December 5th this year. Please watch out for an invitation.

Hope you all enjoyed the update, and please keep asking the students to read at home – we have lots of books at school if you need them!

Sincerely,

Anek Belbase