ASPIRA NEWS

January, 2015

Message From Your Coordinator

Welcome back from a wonderful holiday break. I hope everyone enjoyed a lovely time with their loved ones
and that each of you had the opportunity to build life-long memories with your ASPIRA students. If you
remember, ASPIRA had several amazing events to kick of the holiday season in Decembe ranging from a field
trip to the Liberty Science Center, two opportunities to spend time with Mayor Baraka, and of course, an
ASPIRA Family Holiday Dinner. As we begin our new semester this January you will see a few changes. We are
happy to announce some exciting role shiftes here on the ASPIRA staf and we are even more excited to
announce our participation with Khan Academys Hour Of Code. Our young ASPIRA scholars will be given the
opportunity to learn how to build computer codes, giving them a strong advantage in their future careers of
choice. Our participation in this program will also give each student access to online math lessons tailored to
their ability levels. As parents you will have access to your childs account and you can monitor their progress
in both coding and math skills. Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions about this exciting
new endeavor.
Elena Larranaga, M. Ed.
Program Coordinator

Library trip to see Mayor Baraka

December In Review

January in ASPIRA

The month of December was a very

exciting month with many exciting events:

January is a great time to reflect on what has

happened in the program and to revamp
some of the activities we will use going
forward.

Our kids took a fun-filled trip to the

Liberty Science Center
We sent two groups of students to two
separate events to see Mayor Baraka
We held our second CHISPA Science
Family Workshop
We celebrated and gave thanks with our
ASPRIRA families at the Holiday Dinner
We supported Luis Munoz Marin by
attending the Social Justice Showcase.

1/6 a group of ASPIRA students will

represent ASPIRA at the Three Kings
event event hosted by Luis A. Quintana,
Councilman at Large.
1/8 NO ASPIRA
1/11 KHAN ACADEMY kick of
1/18 - NO ASPIRA
1/29 ASPIRA Parent workshop

CHISPA Science
This December, we did some awesome hands on Science experiments in ASPIRA. One of our
favorite experiments each year around this time is "Sail Away." During this hands on project,
students are able to dream up diferent sailboat designs, then make adjustments to their
designs, only to finally come up with their own conclusions around "Buoyancy," and proper
sailboat design. Until next time, stay tuned for our next CHISPA science experiment highlights.
See you next year!!

Until next time,

Mr. Fernandez

CHISPA Science Class Experiments

Family Life & Sexuality Education
We have been lucky enough to get Mr.
Muhammad to cover the FLSE class while we
look for an amazing staf member to fill the role.
Mr. Muhammad has elevated the curriculum to
include important life skills such as audience
participation and has even expanded his
curriculum to include career education during
this interim time. We are very lucky to have
such a versatile member on our team.
Elena Larranaga, M. Ed.
Program
Coordinator
Lifetime
Individual

Sports

The month of December was exciting and

competitive in the gym! Thispast month the
students learned to play baseball. It was a
great way for the students to build their
social, physical and emotional health. We all
know that 1,2,3 strikes your out, but how do
you turn double plays? What is tagging up?
Ask our Aspira students who have become
pros in the game! When our MVP Danny
Pichardo was in the outfield you knew you
were in trouble!

Job Club
The fifth and sixth grade students are still
working on the Community Service Project.
We just finished working on advertisement.
We are working on identifying a shelter in
our area. Our seventh and eighth grade
students are working on researching high
schools and beginning to fill out applications
as well. We are very excited!
Ms. Devvon Crawford
MAB Consultant/South Region

Creative Expression

ASPIRA students have been busy with new

art projects each week. First we created
small paintings with crayons and watercolor
paints since the wax of the crayon resists
the water of the paints. This was followed
by learning how to create bubble and block
letters. The final week of December in
ASPIRA had students creating collage holiday
cards with diferent geometric shapes. It has
been a pleasure getting to know your
children in 2015 and wishing all ASPIRA
families a Happy New Year!

English Language Arts

Mathematics

It is truly a beautiful time of the year, when our

students can come together in the spirit of the
season. This month we had the opportunity to
engage in meaningful discussions about why
it is important to spend time celebrating or
observing the holidays. Many students
expressed that they saw this time of year as
one where they can come together to spend
time together with their family. It was moving
during our discussions to see that for many of
my students it was not the material things that
had the greatest meaning in their lives, but
just having the opportunity to spend time with
family members. With that in mind, students
were able to express their feelings for the
holidays in writing by creating cards to share
with their family. As we continue our journey to
develop our thinking and express ourselves
through our writing, I look ahead with great
anticipation to having my students continue to
discover the possible excitement of the literary
world.

Holiday Math: Take advantage of math

in the world
The New Year is a great time to learn how
math relates to the real world. Math is
everywhere!
Help your child prevent Holiday learning
loss by taking advantage of the many
great opportunities to practice math
naturally!

ESL

Ms. Martin
ASPIRA
Ha sido English
un buenLanguage
mes paraArts
nuestra clase.
Hemos tenido varias actividades centrado en
aprender ingles y concer mas sobre las
tradiciones de los Estados Unidos. En el mes de
Noviembre, aprendimos mucho sobre la
celebracion de Thanksgiving atravez de
peliculas y manualidades. Este mes de
Diciembre, vamos enfocarnos en Navidad pero
tambien en practicar el ingles atravez de
juegos.
Espero que su hijo/a le haya gustado el
programa hasta ahora!
Mucho amor,
Ms. Alecon

Ms. Martin
ASPIRA English Language Arts

Below are a few ideas to get you started:

Cooking can involve weighing, measuring,
ordering, estimating, adding, multiplying
Restaurants and shopping can involve
money, number identification,
estimating, adding, subtracting, division

Parties can involve matching numbers of

people to plates, cutlery, area of tables,
estimation,
multiplication
Trips can involve time, distance,
budgeting, speed, evaluating various
routes, license plate games (e.g. adding
or multiplying the numbers on the plate)

Home projects can involve estimation,

measuring, multiplication
Gardening can involve measuring,
counting, area, division
These ideas all demonstrate how much
math is involved in our daily lives and
will support your child in his or her basic
computation and problem-solving skills
in natural, fun and real ways.

The only way to learn mathematics is to

do mathematics. Paul Halmos

Dear parent or guardian,

This year, well be using Khan Academy in class to personalize learning for all
students!

Khan Academy is a free online resource that allows students to learn anytime,
anywhere, with material that is uniquely appropriate for them. Students can
explore new topics and strengthen their math or computer coding skills by using
interactive practice and tutorials. As students learn, their activity feeds into
reports that show important information such as strengths and weaknesses in a
particular concept. By using Khan Academy, Ill be able to provide a more
personalized learning experience for your child.

If you approve of your child participating in this program, please provide the
information below.

Student name: _____________________________________________

If you want to see how your child is learning on Khan Academy, I encourage you
to create your own Khan Academy account as well. Youll be able to see what
your child is working on, and theres plenty of material on the site for you to
learn anything you want, too. Simply go to www.khanacademy.org and click
Sign Up to get your own account.

Check out the links below to learn more:

Khan Academy: www.khanacademy.org
Terms of Service: www.khanacademy.org/about/tos
Privacy Policy: www.khanacademy.org/about/privacy-policy

Please sign below to give your child permission to use Khan Academy in my
class.

Parent Signature: ________________________________ Date: ___________

Warmly,
Elena Larranaga, M.Ed
Program Coordinator

Estimado/a padre, madre o tutor/a,

Este curso vamos a utilizar Khan Academy en clase para personalizar el

aprendizaje de todos los estudiantes!

Khan Academy es un recurso en lnea gratuito que permite a los estudiantes

aprender en cualquier momento y lugar, con materiales individualizados para
cada alumno/a. Los estudiantes pueden explorar nuevos temas y practicar sus
habilidades matemticas mediante ejercicios interactivos y tutoriales. Mientras los
estudiantes progresan su actividad se recoge en informes que muestran datos
importantes, como las fortalezas y debilidades en el aprendizaje de cada concepto
concreto. Mediante el uso de Khan Academy, vamos a ser capaces de proporcionar
una experiencia de aprendizaje ms personalizada para su hijo/a.

Si usted aprueba que su hijo/a participe en este programa, por favor proporcione
la siguiente informacin.

Nombre del estudiante: _________________________________________

Si desea ver cmo su hijo/a est progresando en Khan Academy, le animo a crear
su propia cuenta de Khan Academy. De este modo usted podr monitorizar el
aprendizaje de su hijo/a, y adems hay un montn de material en el sitio para que
usted mismo aprenda todo lo que quiera. Simplemente vaya a
www.khanacademy.org y haga clic en Registrarse para obtener su propia cuenta.

Eche un vistazo a los siguientes enlaces para obtener ms informacin:

Khan Academy: www.khanacademy.org
Trminos del servicio: www.khanacademy.org / about / tos
Poltica de privacidad: www.khanacademy.org / about / privacy-policy

Por favor firme abajo para dar permiso a su hijo/a para usar Khan Academy en mi
clase.

Firma del padre, madre o tutor: _________________________ Fecha: ___________

Atentamente,
Elena Larranaga, M.Ed
Program Coordinator