Summer Readers Club 2012 Announced

TAL is excited to announce that our annual Summer Readers Club will continue in 2012!

New for this year, we are encouraging children to read books recommended by the MENSA for Kids reading program.

Reading lists are located here: http://mensaforkids.com/ReaderAward/all.pdf

Students of any age can participate, from kindergarten through 12th grade.  In order to meet everyone’s needs, the reading lists are grouped by reading level, not by age or grade in school.

Reading level groups are as follows:

Kindergarten through 3rd grade (Fountas/Pinell level A-N; DRA level 1-30)
4th through 6th grade  (Fountas/Pinell level O-Y; DRA level 34-60)
7th through 8th grade (Fountas/Pinell level Z; DRA level 70-80)
9th through 12th grade

 How it works:

• Students and parents determine which reading level group is most appropriate for them (Farmington schools teachers can provide your student’s current reading level, if needed)
• Students select from the list of books for their level, and come to the group prepared to discuss whichever book they’ve read that week.  [Not all students will read the same book during the same week]
• If a student finishes ALL the books on their list, he/she will be eligible to receive a certificate from MENSA and a free MENSA for Kids t-shirt!

To accommodate schedules, we will offer two meetings each week:  Tuesday and Wednesday, both 5:30 – 6:30 pm, at the Heritage Park Nature Center.  Our backup site in case of rain is the Farmington Hills Library on 12 Mile Road.

To sign up for each session, please go to the Sign Up Genius link below.

www.SignUpGenius.com/go/30E0A4EA8AB28A20-summer

If you are away for summer and still want your kids to participate, or for any other questions, please contact Triman Jagdev, triman_jagdev@yahoo.com.

[Note: This information will remain available at the Summer Readers Club link in the top navigation bar of our website.]

Summer Camps and Programs

We are happy to announce that we have a new list of links to educational and/or gifted-oriented summer camps and programs for 2012!  Click on Links –> Summer Camps and Events to check out all the exciting opportunities!

Talk to legislators about gifted education

From our friends at Gifted in Michigan:

Please sign up ASAP for our upcoming Community Conversation on Gifted Education at the Farmington Branch Library on May 23rd at 7:00 PM! This is your chance to get your voice heard about K-12 Gifted Education in Michigan! Please sign up by Friday, if possible, as this is the date details will be released to the general public. Details are on the Rochester SAGE website at: http://rochestersage.org/2012/05/09/community-conversation-on-gifted-education/

STARS Debate Program Featured on EMU Website

 Autumn Harris, who founded the STARS Middle School Debate Program along with TAL, is featured on the website of Eastern Michigan University.  She is a social work student there and created the program that has reached nearly 200 Farmington and Detroit middle school students, empowering them with confidence, professionalism, and speaking skills.  Read the article here: http://www.emich.edu/univcomm/releases/release.php?id=1334693636

Empowermind reaches more students

April 5, 2012 — Kimberly Kassner led a  group of over 20 elementary students in a workshop designed to increase their awareness of learning methods. They experimented with imagery, narrative, word association, kinetic learning, and aural learning. Here, the kids play musical chairs with a memory game.

Book Club – March 21

Wednesday, March 21st 6:30 PM.   Book Choice: Heroes or Ancient Civilzations

Ideas include sports figures, entertainers, people who have made a difference at any age, or favorite characters .  The biography section of the Youth library area is a good start.   Also will introduce a few ancient civilizations with some examples from the Aztec civilization.  Native American, Asian civilizations, Greek/Roman and Nordic are other cool ideas.

New readers always welcome.  Also, with Spring upon us, we’ll discuss ideas for the next few months of Book Clubs (time, place, volunteers, etc).

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The TAL book clubs currently take place in the Program Room (Kids section of Main Farmington Library on 12 mile road) every third Wednesday, 6:30-7:30.  New ideas and volunteers always welcome! 
 
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STARS Middle School Debate Program is Back

STARS MIDDLE SCHOOL DEBATE PROGRAM is back! This program helps students gain confidence in public speaking and also helps them find their hidden talents. Debating encourages reading and promotes research skills. Kids also have fun with learning new things, as well as strengthen core academic subjects.

 
Parents and students are invited to attend the registration Kick-Off Middle School Debate meeting, to be held March 30th, 7:00pm-8:00pm in the Dunckel cafeteria. The Debate program is lead by Autumn Harris, a senior Social Work student at EMU who developed a debate program curriculum especially for Middle School students and Orlando Harris a current college student and Director of Coaching for the program. These students will debate various issues that are important in our society and age appropriate. The Beginner/Intermediate debate program is 5-weeks. The advanced program will be 8-weeks. Students will meet once a week on either Saturday or Sunday only, with a Grand Finale Debate held at EMU in Ypsilanti on Saturday during the last week.  The final debate will be judged by elected officials and/or EMU staff. The program is set to start the third week in April. The deadline to register is the first day of the program; registration will begin at the Kick-Off Meeting. Spaces are limited so early registration is encouraged.

 
The cost including materials will be $65 per student for the 5-week program and $95 for the 8 week. More information will be provided during the Kick-Off meeting. If you are unable to attend the Kick Off, please contact STARS Debate directly at (734) 365-7298. Hope to see you there!

 
Quisha Brown

Is your child bored?

TAL is meeting with FPS administrators on Thursday and we need current data to discuss. Please give us your brief feedback at this link:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ZBKCT6V

TAL/PTSA Debate Program Featured in Farmington Observer

The newly created middle school debate program was recently featured in an article in the Farmington Observer:

http://www.hometownlife.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/201112220650/NEWS06/112220486

Reminder: Book Clubs January 18

Book Choice: US Presidents (1 or more) 
Select a book on a US President.  If possible, bring something (a coin, a dollar bill, a photograph, a fun fact) to showcase your ‘President’.  We’ll be building a puzzle with the answers to our discussion questions and also have snacks provided.

The Kindgerten-Fourth Grade book clubs take place in the Program Room (Kids section of Main Farmington Library) every third Wednesday, 6:30-7:30.