VIDEO: Michigan Makers at Mitchell School

For the second year at Mitchell School, we are happy to partner with the UM School of Information to offer Michigan Makers.  So far over 100 Mitchell students have participated in this after-school enrichment class for students to learn and experience STEM related curriculum connections.

Please check out the video below showcasing Michigan Makers.

PHOTO: Parent Writing Workshop at Arbor Meadows Clubhouse

Lots of parents learning about helping their children with writing. Thanks to the Eastern Michigan Writing Project for presenting tonight!

Kindergarten Round Up at Mitchell School – 2/24 @ 6:30 PM - Enroll at Future IB School Now

We are excited to announce that Kindergarten Round Up at Mitchell School will be on February 24, 2015 from 6:30 – 7:30 PM.  Children who turn five on or before September 1, 2015 are eligible to attend kindergarten for the 2015-16 school year.  Children who turn five between September 2 and December 1, 2015 are eligible to enroll if parents wish for them to enroll early AND they fill out a kindergarten waiver form.

Mitchell School will be the only school in Washtenaw County to become an International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme school.  Our work has started and will extend the excellence Mitchell is known for.  Families who live in Ann Arbor or in Washtenaw County are eligible to enroll.  Click here for more information.

At the round up presentation, we'll share information about the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme and important information about preparing for the kindergarten year including registration information and information about the kindergarten curriculum. 

Please bring your child as we'll have an activity for them in the kindergarten classrooms with the teachers.

If your child falls into the eligible age range, please do two things now:

1. Call the Mitchell School office at 997-1216 to give your child's information. This will let us know to expect you for the presentation.

2. Put Kindergarten Round Up on your calendar. It will be held in the multipurpose room at Mitchell.

Also, if you know of a family who will have a kindergarten aged child for next year, please share this information with them. We'd love to get to know them.

If you have questions or if you would like to schedule a separate meeting with us, please call the school office at 997-1216.

Sincerely,

Kevin Karr
Principal

Matt Hilton
Assistant Principal

Continuing The Conversation - Dr. Swift, Superintendent of Schools

You're invited! Please join Dr. Swift as she continues to engage the community in a conversation around improving the Ann Arbor Public Schools. She will visit Scarlett Middle School on Tuesday, February 10 from 6:30-8:00. Other dates and locations can by found by clicking HERE.

MLK Celebration During Parent Involvement Day - Monday, February 9

This past Monday we had the day off in celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King. As a way to celebrate Dr. King at Mitchell we will have an all school assembly on Monday, February 9 from 2:30-3:00 in connection with NAAPID. All Mitchell families are invited to attend and shadow your child in school. 

Mitchell School Food Distribution

Free food is available for Mitchell families on Saturday, February 7 from 9:30-11:00. All Mitchell families who need food are invited to come to Mitchell school for a free food giveaway. This free food distribution will happen one Saturday each month. The dates are:

February 7, 2015

March 7, 2015

April 4, 2015

May 2, 2015

June 6, 2015

July 11, 2015

August 1, 2015

September 5, 2015

October 3, 2015

November 7, 2015

December 5, 2015

 

Thank you to Food Gatherer's and Community Action Network of Ann Arbor for their partnership on this new service to the Mitchell community. If you have questions please call the Mitchell School office at 997.1216.

 

Note: To be clear, this is only available to Mitchell School families at this time.

Parent Writing Workshop

Every family should attend the parent writing workshop at least one time. This is an important event. The next workshop is at the Arbor Meadows Clubhouse on Tuesday, January 27 from 6:00-7:30 pm. Spanish translation will be provided. Every family should attend! If you have not signed up, you can sign up HERE.

Science Olympiad - Last Call!

Have you been thinking about signing up your student for Science Olympiad but still not sure what it is? This is the last opportunity to come learn more and sign up your 2^nd – 5^th grade student(s). 

 

The Mitchell Science Olympiad Meeting will be Tuesday, Feb 3 at 6:30 in the Media Center.  All families who have signed up (or are still considering signing up) should attend this meeting for: Meet & Greet, finalize practice times, pass out materials and to work out any last minute concerns or issues. 

Mitchell PTO Scholastic Book Fair

Mitchell School will host a Scholastic book fair February 4th– 6th. Children will preview the book fair and have an opportunity to buy books as well. We are in need of parent volunteers. You can sign up HERE.

Family Movie Night

Please join us for a fun family movie night at Mitchell School! We will be watching the movie, How To Train Your Dragon 2. It's a great family event and the kids love it. Note: Children may only attend with a supervising adult. Please do not drop them off unsupervised. 

World Language Update

Hola!

I can't believe January is nearly over!  This month was fast, and full of Spanish!  In each of my classes, students practice listening, speaking, reading, and writing!

The students in grades K-2 have been working on fruit vocabulary this month.  We are reviewing our number and color words as we do this!

In grade 3, we are working on weather words.  We just finished up our unit on days, dates, and birthdays.

In grade 4, we are beginning a unit on family vocabulary.  We are using these words to help us create our personal family tree!  We just finished up our unit on pets.

The fifth grade students have finished up their unit on emotions.  We are currently working on prepositions and locations in the school.  With the combination of these vocabulary words, we are able to give directions to places around the school! 

If you want to impress your students with your Spanish knowledge, here are some words to know:

K-2                                 3                                          4                                     5                                                                      

Apple- manzana             Cold- frio                             Grandma- abuela           School-escuela                            

Grapes- uvas                  Hot- calor                            Mom- madre                  Library-biblioteca                             

Pear- pera                      Snow- nieve                        Brother- hermano           Left-izquierda         

Banana- platano             Rain- llueve                         Uncle- tio                       Right-derecha                             

 

Please let me know if you have any questions, concerns, or ideas.

Thank you,

Sarah Kairis             kairiss@aaps.k12.mi.us

 

Dear Parents,

Happy New Year! We are back at work establishing new learning goals and working hard to attain them. This month we are focusing on reading and writing as part of the skills that students need to improve. At this time, students are able to recognize many different letters, sounds and the forms of letters.

In writing, students continue to work on applying their knowledge of the Arabic language to their writing. For example, writing from right to left, recognizing vowels and identifying some familiar words. We also learned the days of the week song in Arabic.

We will continue to explore the Arabic language and culture.  Students will be reading more to build their vocabulary and understanding. We are focusing on how to ask about things by using "I want" in Arabic " Ana Oreedh" through variety of strategies and games.

It's great teaching your sons and daughters a new language so they can communicate with other people! If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at:

Mrs. Basuni               basuni@aaps.k12.mi.us  

Mitchell Participates In Academic Games Michigan State Tournament - First Time Ever

Congratulations to the following Mitchell students who plan to participate in the Michigan League of Academic Games state tournament in early March:
Anna Tuinukuafe
Braden Vibber
Jevon Wilson
Kevin Payne

Ted Lee

Our Mitchell students will participate with hundreds of other students from across the state in the following academically oriented games:  Equations, Set Theory, Presidents and Propaganda.

A very, very special thanks to King School parent Vivian Lin for her leadership and coaching of our Mitchell team. 

You Are Invited: Video Premiere Night @ Mitchell - The Coolest School on Earth

Dear Mitchell School Community and Friends (including the International Baccalaureate Teacher Leadership and Advisory Groups),

Please join us for:
"Mitchell is the Coolest School on Earth!" Video Premiere Night
Thursday, January 29, 2015, 6:30 – 7:30 p.m.
Mitchell Elementary School Multipurpose Room

In connection with writing goals ofthe Mitchell School Improvement Plan, the 4th graders at Mitchell Elementary School, working with the University of Michigan School of Education ELMAC teaching interns, have created Mitchell School promotional videos. Join us to see how 4th graders learned to write persuasively and create videos that reveal what they love about Mitchell school.

We think you'll find this event enjoyable and informative in understanding why Mitchell School is the "Coolest School on Earth!"

Questions? Please e-mail Dr. Cathy Reischl from the School of Education (creischl@umich.edu) or 4th grade teachers Beth McCready
(mccreade@aaps.k12.mi.us) and Bernard Bell (bellca@aaps.k12.mi.us).

More at:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3FLenwvd2mDUnpiNFFGMWhqVEJKQXhZY2hlcGdfUVhNNjVB/view?usp=sharing

PHOTO: Fun Hats At Mitchell!

Everyone is lined up outside and ready for class this morning at Mitchell School!

Science Fair Pick Your Project Night

We are offering two opportunities for Mitchell students to receive help deciding on a project idea. Session #1 will be at Mitchell on Tuesday, January 20th; session #2 will be at the Arbor Meadows Clubhouse on Tuesday, January 27th.  Both sessions will run from 5:00 to 6:00 pm. The actual science fair will be held on March 26^th. 

Parent Writing Workshop

In partnership with Eastern Michigan University, we are offering a parent-writing workshop titled, How To Help Your Child With Writing at Mitchell School on January 22 and a workshop at Arbor Meadows on January 27. We would love all Mitchell families to attend on one of the nights! More information and to sign-up can be found HERE. 

Students Eat More Healthy Foods When Recess Is Held Before Lunch - NYTimes.com

A number of years ago, many Ann Arbor elementary schools - including Mitchell School - began holding recess before lunch instead of the more traditional course of the other way around. Of course we did this for a lot of good reasons including a set of research and information from schools that were experiencing success with this model encouraging students to eat what was in their lunch box or on their lunch tray.

Turns out a recent New York Times article continues to validate this as a good school practice. The article in linked below.
http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/01/14/students-eat-more-healthy-foods-when-recess-is-held-before-lunch/?emc=eta1&_r=0

PTO Notes - 1/12/15

PTO Meeting - Jan 13^th – 6 PM in the Media Center

We will begin discussing the transition to the next PTO leadership and continue our conversation about the Family Fun Night & Silent Auction.

This is the last of a two year term for our PTO Board.  Many of us have been on the Board for over 4 years.  We would love to turn the leadership over to the next generation of Mitchell parents and would like some time to have you learn the ropes.  Please join us.

 

Chuck E Cheese Fundraiser Night - January 15th

Spend some time with the family at Chuck E Cheese, January 15th from 3-9pm.  Mitchell receives 15% of the proceeds!

Little Caesar's Pizza Kits – Orders are due Jan 21^st.

Pizza Kits will be delivered on Jan 28 and will be available for pickup after school.

Don't forget to donate your gently used items to the PTO Thrift. And be sure to look around for some great deals!

Thank you,

Mitchell PTO

Transfer To The Future Ann Arbor IB Schools: Space Available In-District Transfer Application Window Begins January 15

In-district space available for students residing in the Ann Arbor Public Schools attendance boundaries will be accepted January 15 through February 27, 2015 for the 2015/2016 school year.

This is an important step for AAPS families who want to enroll at Mitchell, Scarlett and Huron but do not live in the Mitchell, Scarlett, and Huron attendance boundaries.

What families who live in the AAPS boundaries should do to enroll in our developing International Baccalaureate schools:

- Follow the guidelines and procedures at http://www.a2schools.org/aaps/ins.child_accounting/space_available_transfers 

If you have questions or want to visit Mitchell, Scarlett or Huron, please email or call us using the information at the bottom right of this page.

Space Available In-District Transfer Application Window begins January 15

In-district space available for students residing in the Ann Arbor Public Schools attendance boundaries will be accepted January 15 through February 27, 2015 for the 2015/2016 school year.

Available schools and grades will be posted early next week on the AAPS website – a2schools.org. This year we have an online application that is being accepted as well as hard copies available starting next week at the schools.

Applications will be accepted for Kindergarten through 10^th at various schools across the district with enrollment availability

Mitchell PTO Notes - 1/7/15

Good morning and welcome back!

We hope you had a great holiday and enjoyed some time off with the family.

PTO Meeting - Jan 13^th – 6 PM in the Media Center

We will begin discussing the transition to the next PTO leadership and continue our conversation about the Family Fun Night & Silent Auction.

This is the last of a two year term for our PTO Board.  Many of us have been on the Board for over 4 years.  We would love to turn the leadership over to the next generation of Mitchell parents and would like some time to have you learn the ropes.  Please join us.

 

Chuck E Cheese Fundraiser Night - January 15th

Spend some time with the family at Chuck E Cheese, January 15th from 3-9pm.  Mitchell receives 15% of the proceeds!

 

Little Caesar's Pizza Kits – Orders are due Jan 21^st.

Pizza Kits will be delivered on Jan 28 and will be available for pickup after school.

Don't forget to donate your gently used items to the PTO Thrift. And be sure to look around for some great deals!

Thank you,

Mitchell PTO

PHOTO: Theater Games Teacher Workshop at Mitchell School

Thanks to Wild Swan Theater for their help sharing energizing theater games for Mitchell teachers today!