Academic Games at King School in 2006-07

I'm happy to announce that the King School PTO will sponsor an Academic Games team for 4th and 5th graders this year--for the first time ever! This exciting addition to our offerings is largely due to the efforts of the Vanek family. Please thank them for their efforts.

The text of an informational flyer from Mike Vanek shows below:

Dear Parents of 4th and 5th Graders,

We would like to invite you to an informational meeting about the new Academic Games program being offered for 4th and 5th grade students at King Elementary School. The meeting will be held Monday, September 11th from 7:00 to 8:00 PM in the King Multipurpose Room. This first meeting will be for interested 5th grade students and their parents. We will hold a separate informational meeting for 4th grade students and parents at a date to be announced later this fall. If your child attended King School last year and you were on the King PTO email list, you should have already received a message containing some basic information about the program.
At the beginning of the meeting, we will discuss our expectations with the students and introduce them to the game of Equations. Kids will then be dismissed to the playground, supervised by Mrs. Vanek, while Christy and I answer questions and distribute the tournament schedule to parents.
Practice times have been set for Monday and Thursday evenings, from 7:00 to 8:00 PM, and will be held in the King School Music Room. We look forward to meeting with you on Monday the 11th.

Sincerely,

Mike Vanek

What is Academic Games?

Academic Games (AG) is a group of games designed to test and improve a student's knowledge in several different subject areas. There are games that cover math, English, social studies, and logic. The primary purpose of AG is to make learning fun for students. All too often it seems, students turn off to Math, English, or Social Studies because they are bored or not challenged by the material. AG helps to solve that problem by making learning about the subjects more interesting and fun. There is also the added motivation to do well in order to succeed in competition.

Which games do students play in AG? *

The first game students learn is Equations, a mathematics game created by University of Michigan Law Professor Layman Allen in the mid 1960's. Players use numerals and mathematical symbols on special dice to create a goal, and then try to come up with a solution before their opponents.

Similar to the popular card game, "Set", On-Sets is a game that involves Set Theory, where students must find groups of colors using set operations.

Linguishtik is an English Grammar game, where students must find a word, and place it into a particular type of sentence.

On-Words is a word game involving spelling, counting, grammar, phonetics, word roots, inflectional endings, prefixes and suffixes

Presidents is an American History game that tests students' knowledge of the American Presidents, and the events that happened during their presidencies.

In Propaganda, students learn to recognize and understand different techniques of persuasion

Wff N' Proof is a game of symbolic logic where students must construct proofs to prove logical arguments that they create.

In World Card, students must research a particular topic and create a reference book to be used in competitions.

(These brief game descriptions came from the Michigan League of Academic Games website: mlagonline.com, where more information on games and rules can be found.)

* Our King Elementary students will be learning Equations, On-Sets, Presidents, and Propaganda.

Back To School Guide Available

The Ann Arbor Public Schools has mailed out a back to school guide to all families. It give a lot of information that will be helpful to new and old King families.

You can also download the guide at: http://www.aaps.k12.mi.us/aaps.forparents#bts

Lunch prices for 2006-07

Lunch will be served the first day of school in the cafeteria. The prices are as follows:
Regular lunch: $2.50
Reduce lunch: $0.40
Note: reduced price lunches are available for qualified students. If you wish to apply, please complete the application that was mailed to every household or request an application from the King office. Please fill out the application completely. The District uses family applications so only one application per household is needed. A new application is required every school year. Students who received free or reduced meals in the 2005-06 school year are eligible to receive free or reduced meals on the first 10 days of the 2006-07 school year. Students who qualify for subsidized lunch automatically qualify for subsidized breakfast also.

Instructional Hours at King

A typical school day at King will run from 8:48 - 3:42 this year. Please note the ending time for each day is now six minutes later than last year.

More at: http://www.aaps.k12.mi.us/aaps.forparents/bell_schedule

Monitor lunch accounts with ParentOnline

A breakfast and lunch payment program offered by the Ann Arbor Public Schools

Convenient Pay for student meals using your credit card from any computer with internet access Pay-as-you-go or setup automated payments Combine payments for multiple students Access student accounts anytime, anywhere Navigate easily with user-friendly screens

Safe and Secure Eliminate need for children to carry cash or checks Password protected account to keep information secure Receive immediate confirmation via email Ensure that funds are deposited accurately Offers printable verification of transaction

Peace of Mind Ensure sufficient funds are in student account Receive low account balance reminder View and print student activity and purchases Access funds posted to cafeteria account within 24 hours

To register, please visit http://www.parentonline.net/. Please note that you will need your child's student ID number to register; if you do not know their student ID number, please contact the secretary at the school he or she attends.

For detailed directions on using the system, you can download a brochure about ParentOnline by clicking here.

School office opens for 2006-07

The M. L. King School office will open on Monday, August 14. Parents who are new to the school community are encouraged to come to school after 1 P.M. to begin the registration process. Please click here for more information about registration.

Existing King families may be interested in looking over the AAPS Back To School Guide.