Zia Art Room
In the Zia art room the goal for each student is to learn elements of art and principles of design and apply these to their artwork. Students engage in fine art activities, create crafts, learn about art history, and (hopefully) develop an appreciation of art. Math, social studies, science, and literature are incorporated into everyday lessons as appropriate. Once a year, there is a Six Pillars of Character school-wide calendar illustration contest. The winning pieces of art are featured in the school calendar the following year.
Hello!
Welcome to the Zia Physical Education webpage. My name is Tisha Young, the physical education teacher for Zia Elementary. I just wanted to take this opportunity to share with you what I focus on in my classes. I promote healthy living and fitness to children through many forms of exercise with the intent that everyone can find enjoyment in it.
I enjoy teaching children the importance of, as well as the excitement found in, living an active lifestyle. I work with them on individual and team skills through a variety of sports, games and activities. I concentrate on cardiovascular health, strength training, and flexibility skills in several fun, entertaining ways so that all students can identify multiple ways they enjoy being active.
For the younger students, I also reinforce some of the skills they are learning in their homeroom classes such as patterns, rhyming, math, and spelling by incorporating those into games and activities. For the older students, I stress the importance of teamwork, sportsmanship, responsibility and respect while explaining the life long benefits of exercise.
Through the year, I discuss with all the students how important a healthy diet is to their physical and mental health. My hope is that my students will naturally make good food choices when they realize the benefits of feeding their bodies and minds what they need.
To accomplish these tasks, I ask for assistance from parents. First, the safety of your child is of the utmost importance. For this reason, I do want all children wearing closed-toed shoes (preferably tennis shoes) in P.E. I ask that students put tennis shoes in their backpacks on days they are not wearing them. That way they can change their shoes if they are coming to my class. Also, I send home nutritional handouts and worksheets throughout the year and ask that parents please take 5-10 minutes to discuss this material with children. Finally, I also ask parents to please make sure their students are well rested, fed a good breakfast and will be eating a healthy, tasty snack and lunch. This helps them form wise eating habits along with giving them the ability to function at their highest potential in all of their classes during the day.
The students will receive two grades each time they attend P.E. class. One is for their skills level and the other is for their character during class. These are weighted the same in my class, each are 50% of their daily grade. I then average both at the end of the nine weeks and use a letter scale to determine their report card grade.
Here are some (not all) of the things I am looking for each class period.
Skills (depending on the activity, sport, and/or game we are working on during class):
- Age Appropriate Motor Skills – walking, running, skipping, jumping, etc
- Age Appropriate Non-motor Skills – twisting, balancing, dodging, etc.
- Age Appropriate Manipulative Skills – kicking, throwing, catching, etc.
Character
- Respect/Tolerance
- Leadership
- Attitude/Kindness
- Teamwork
There are amazing kids at Zia Elementary. I truly enjoy working with them, and I am honored to be their P.E. Teacher.
Tisha Young
Zia Library
The Library is an integral part of the curriculum at Zia Elementary
School. Students come to the library on a three-day rotation,
alternating with P.E. and Music. In addition to checking out
materials to read which supports the school’s Accelerated
Reading program, the students learn a variety of library skills
that will enable them to use any library
Zia Music Room
Music is an important part of the curriculum at Zia Elementary
School. Students attend music on a three day rotation, alternating
with P.E. and Library. Zia students take part in a variety of
activities in music class. These activities are designed to
help children develop musical skills and to recognize and appreciated
many different styles of music.
SuccessMaker Enterprise Computer Lab
The SuccessMaker Enterprise Lab is an innovative, balanced educational program that incorporates curriculum, management, and assessment into a powerful results-based learning system. The software offers hours of interactive learning activities in reading, language arts and mathematics for students in grades 1st through 6th. Teachers are able to monitor and direct the progress of each student on an individual basis. There are two types of courses, Foundation courses and Explore Ware courses. Foundation courses offer instruction in fundamental skills and strategies where ExploreWare courses provide opportunities for exploration and open-ended instruction. Together they provide a balanced approach to learning. Students attend lab on a regular basis. The teacher monitors the individualized computer instruction.
After children obtain performance levels, the program gradually moves them up as they learn new skills. This is a fabulous opportunity for students who are working below grade level or for the student who needs more of a challenge in math or reading.
What are The Programs in SuccessMaker Enterprise?
Reading Readiness
This program develops children's readiness skills in preparation for formal beginning reading instruction. The readiness skills include letter identification, visual discrimination, auditory discrimination, vocabulary building, comprehension skills, and other special activities. The program offers audio instruction, positive reinforcement, immediate feedback to student responses, individualized skill practice and review, colorful graphic illustrations, and animated reward sequences.
Initial Reading
Initial Reading develops early reading skills through vocabulary, word attack, and comprehension skills. The skills primarily focused on are letter identification, patterns, sight words, word comprehension, sentence comprehension, and passage comprehension. The program offers the features of audio instruction, positive reinforcement, immediate feedback to student response, tutorials, colorful graphic illustration, and animated reward sequences.
Readers Workshop
Readers Workshop develops basic reading comprehension and vocabulary skills emphasizing higher-order thinking skills. The primary skills are focused on thematic lessons, passage comprehension, interpretive comprehension, literal comprehension, word meaning, word analysis, and reference skills. The program provides individualized practice and reinforcement, automatically tracks and reports student performance, produces practice worksheets for specific skills, and motivates students using graphic illustrations and animations.
Math Concepts and Skills
This program builds skills in numeration, computation, geometry, measurement, fractions, decimals, probability, data analysis, and problem solving. The contents of the program include addition, decimals, division, equations, fractions, multiplication, speed games, subtraction, applications, geometry, measurement, number concepts, probability and statistics, problem-solving, science applications, and word problems.
ExploreWare The ExploreWare courses provide opportunities for exploration and open-ended instruction. These courses are assigned individually based on the needs of the students and the progress in the foundations courses.
