February 27, 2023

A message from Principal Vinten

Good afternoon, STEM families!

This week is full of events for our campus! Monday begins our TELPAS testing in grades 2-8. For Monday, Feb 27 and Tuesday, Feb 28, our campus will be closed to visitors during the testing times due to needing to keep the testing environment as distraction free as possible. Please make sure your scholar(s) arrive to school on time each day, but especially on these testing days. Within the newsletter is further information regarding TELPAS testing.

We are looking forward to seeing all families on Tuesday afternoon for our Family Fun Event from 4:00-5:30. The PTO will be selling nachos for $2.00, so you can snack on some yummy nachos while viewing all of the work & activities our staff and scholars will be presenting for our Black History Celebration!

Please view the newsletter for further information of items coming up! Let us know if you have questions, as we are always here to serve! Two weeks until Spring Break!

#MAWAY!

Principal Vinten

The mission of Manara Academy is to provide students with a creative, adaptive and ethical environment to become knowledgeable inquirers and future leaders in a diverse and evolving global society where we master languages, honor cultural heritages, and respect diversity.

TELPAS Testing

Please read this link regarding the upcoming TELPAS testing. We will be assessing scholars in grades 2, 3, 5, & 6 on February 27th and scholars in grades 4, 7 & 8 on February 28 within the domains of reading and writing. The week of March 6 scholars will continue testing, focusing on the listening and speaking portion of the exam. If a student is absent on the day of testing, a make-up test will be administered before March 24, 2023.

The assessment components for grades K–1 and 2–12 differ in the following ways:

Grades K–1: Holistically rated listening, speaking, reading, and writing assessments based on ongoing classroom observations and student interactions.
Grades 2–12: Online reading, listening, speaking and writing tests.

If you have any further questions, please reach out to our ESL teacher, Ms. Stoker (ahayesstoker@manaraacademy.org) or our Director of Special Populations, Ms. Chamri (cchamri@manaraacademy.org).

Closed Campus to Visitors Feb 27 & 28

Due to TELPAS testing in grades 2, 3, 5, & 6 on February 27th and scholars in grades 4, 7 & 8 on February 28, the campus will be closed for visitors during our testing window times to keep our testing environment as distraction free as possible. Please make sure all scholars are on time to school every day, but especially these specific testing days. Thank you for understanding and for helping us to make sure our testing environment for our scholars is the best possible!

Black History Month Family Fun Event

This Tuesday, February 28 we will have our next Family Fun Night from 4:00pm until 5:30pm featuring Black History Month. The Black History Month staff committee has been working extremely hard getting all the events together for this amazing event. Come out to our campus to experience some of the wonderful events below!

Divine Nine - The College Experience
STEM Activities (lower & upper grades)
Motown Sounds (Karaoke)
I AM… Black History Stories (videos)
Famous Black Inventors
Student work displays
Art Activities/Color Wall/Many Faces of Black History
Poetry Presentations
Nachos ($2.00 each)

PTO will be selling nachos for $2.00 a serving! Bring your cash and enjoy some nachos while you view all the activites above!

All families will be given a flyer upon entry to be able to locate all the fantastic events! We look forward to beautiful evening!

Student-Led Conferences

Student-led conferences will begin this week. Please see the Sign-Up Genius link sent from your scholar's teacher(s) to sign up for a time to come in and listen to your scholar present their work. Student-led conferences will continue through the month of March, so if you are unable to sign up for a time this week, please check with your scholar's teacher a different time to sign up within the month. All scholars are looking forward to presenting their work with you!

100% Intent to Return Completion!

A big thank you to all of the families who filled out your scholar's Intent to Return for the 2023-2024 school year! We had 100% of our families fill out the Intent to Return! Because we had 100% participation, ALL SCHOLARS WILL RECEIVE A WEEK'S WORTH OF FREE DRESS DOWN DAYS THE WEEK BEFORE SPRING BREAK (March 6-10)!!! Great job, STEM families! We are so excited about our numbers for the 2023-2024 school year! If you know of any families who would like to enroll their scholar for next school year, open enrollment is underway! Let them know to come on in and Ms. Smith can help them enroll their scholar for next year! YAY!!

Paper Tutoring App for Grades 4-8

Paper is a program our district has purchased to help assist scholars in their academic progression within grades 4-8. Click on this link to learn more about Paper and how it can assist your scholar in their nightly homework. Scholars will be utilizing this daily within their classroom as well. Teachers and the adminstrator is also able to view the scholar/tutor interaction and dialogue so that we can support at school also. Please reach out to your scholar's teacher if you have any questions regarding Paper! All scholars in grades 4-8 should be using the Paper app on Clever at home with homework support.

PAPER Missions Contest!

Manara Academy has entered into a PAPER Missions Contest!

The Rules are SIMPLE.

1. Between Monday, February 27th and Sunday, March 12th (right before Spring Break) scholars in grades 4-12 can complete as many Paper Math Missions as possible.

The scholars completing the most Paper Missions between Monday and the 12th of March will win a bunch of Paper SWAG. (Maybe a little something extra from the superintendent if any of our Manara Students are declared Paper Math Mission Champs!)

Reach out to your scholar's teacher for further information!

ESL YouTube Channel & Newsletter

Below is our Manara ESL YouTube Channel link, as well as the ESL Newsletter link! Please view the links below for great information pertaining to our ESL department.

Manara Academy ESL Department - YouTube

https://www.manaraacademy.org/article/948697

Autism Awareness Advocacy

Our district will be hosting an event to support Autism Awareness within the month of April. National Autism Awareness day April 2. To help celebrate the event we will be hosting, there is an opportunity to also purchase shirts for this event. Please share this ordering link below with friends, family, and students who are interested in purchasing a shirt to support this event. All ordered shirts will ship to the district office and will be distributed them once they arrive. Here is the link to order shirts if you are interested. The t-shirt order form closes on March 10. More information on the event to come!

Snack Cart this week & updated information!

Snack Cart will take place this Thursday, March 2. Snack cart prices will now range from $.025 to $2.00. Please send in money with your scholar that day, or if dropping it off for them, please make sure it is given to Ms. Smith before 1:30pm. Scholars will not be allowed to call home to request for snack cart money to be brought in if a scholar forgot their money, as this is taking away from class work time. Thank you for your understanding!

American Muslim Cultural Celebration on March 4

On Saturday, March 4 from 2pm-6pm, the city of Arlington is hosting an American Muslim Cultural Celebration! Click on the link to learn more about this event. This looks like an amazing event for all families to be a part of! I will be going and hope to see you all there!

Grade Level Newsletters

Below are links to grade level newsletters (continued from the week prior due to the snow days last week). Please reach out to your child's teacher with any questions!

5th/6th ELAR/SS/Math/Science

7th & 8th Grade ELAR/SS

7th/8th Math/Science

Specials