Our blog
Food Drive and Family Volunteer Opportunities
Hello AFIA Families, We have some announcements, in case you didn't see the notice that was sent home with your child on Friday. As we have in the past, our community is working together to provide Thanksgiving baskets to families. If you are able, please donate items for this. The flyer can be found here: thanksgiving-food-drive-flyer. We also invite you to [...]
Family Letter October 20, 2016
October 20, 2016 Dear Families, Thank you for attending your child’s parent teacher conference. We appreciate the opportunity to discuss your child’s strengths and collaborate with you to set goals for future learning. Please read on to learn about other ways you can play a role in our school community: We are conducting a parent survey to help us understand [...]
Honoring Young People Through the Arts
In honor of National Arts in Education Week, I am finally revising and sharing a blog entry that I drafted over the summer. Happy Arts in Education Week! For two days in July, I had the great opportunity to spend time with other educators across the state of Missouri who are integrating art across the curriculum and attend the Center of Creative [...]
Bus Communication
Dear Families, We want to write a note to apologize for the bus difficulties that happened today. We know that both morning and afternoon routes were difficult. The administrative team did stay at AFIA until we had confirmation that all children were delivered home safely. If you are able to bring your child to school tomorrow, we ask that you [...]
Academy for Integrated Arts to begin 2016-17 school year with new pledges, new building
We are thrilled to share the news of AFIA's new building. Please see below for the Press Release. KANSAS CITY, MO, March 28, 2016 – Academy for Integrated Arts (AFIA), a Kansas City charter school, recently purchased a building in Kansas City, Missouri, after receiving more than $3 million in pledges over the past 6 months. AFIA closed its real [...]
Building Resilience at AFIA
Click here for the Press Release We are excited to announce that we have hired local artist and trauma-informed resilience educator, Beth Sarver, to be our Resilience Coordinator. This innovative position is an important addition to our school community as it supports the school’s student-centered, arts integrated approach to teaching and learning. Sarver comes to AFIA from Truman Medical Center [...]
Resilient AFIA
Ms. Beth teaching mindfulness in Ms. Davis's class Dear AFIA Community, My name is Beth Sarver, aka Ms. Beth. I am thrilled to be a member of this school community and to help create a new staff position focused on our collective resilience, mental health and well-being. As the Resilience Coordinator it is my job to proactively work [...]
Building with Teamwork
We practice the skill of working with a team as we practice using kind words that encourage each other's ideas for building structures with cards and Legos. The scholars have viewed short videos on YouTube to learn new techniques for building card and Lego structures. The 2nd grade class has been doing an amazing job engaging in teamwork! In these [...]
Introduction to “Team Enrichment”
My name is Mrs. Aranda. Of the jobs I have at AFIA, leading your child(ren) during his/her Enrichment time is one of them. I have enjoyed this opportunity to get to know the classes and each individual child. I have made it a goal to incorporate 3 ways of movement into their Enrichment time with me: 1. Physical Body Movement [...]
Kindergarten and Art
By Eliana Hudson, UMKC communications intern In the art room, about twenty kindergartners crouched on the floor. Mrs. Clayton, the arts coordinator, stood above them with her arms wide and said, “Now, it’s raining. What happens to plants when it rains?” “Grow!” The kindergartners replied. “Rise little seeds!” Mrs. Clayton said in a booming voice, twinkling her fingers over her [...]
Baking = Science + Math
By Eliana Hudson, UMKC communications intern For many people, baking can be a hobby, a way to relax after a stressful day, or to satisfy a craving for sweets. At AFIA, baking is a learning experience. A few days ago, Mrs. Davis’ third/ fourth grade class baked chocolate and lemon cupcakes. Mrs. Davis wanted her class to [...]
Cardboard Arcade
By Eliana Hudson, UMKC communications intern In Mrs. Moore and Ms. Owen’s fourth/ fifth grade class I noticed that the students were viewing a video. It was of nine year old Caine Monroy as he proudly shared the surprise flash mob of his intricate cardboard arcade games. Located in his father’s auto shop in East L.A., Caine’s arcade takes over [...]