Dear Students and Families,
Can you say busy? Our students have been busy taste testing different types of cheese, making cheese and creating their own Mac-n-Cheese recipes. There are trout growing up in our aquarium, crayfish growing up in 3rd grade, meal worms in second grade, strawberries growing in our grow towers, applesauce being made by students and served in the cafeteria and the list goes on! Our after school enrichment program has begun in art and plans for a music program are underway. Our staff goes above and beyond each and every day to make education relevant and keep students engaged.
As we see on the news each day, flu, RSV and Covid numbers are up. Please keep children home when they are ill and stress the importance of washing our hands, using sanitizer, and covering our mouths with our elbow to sneeze or cough. If you are inclined, we would suggest wearing a mask while indoors but please - this is not a mandate.
Upcoming Dates
12/14 5th grade trip to Syracuse Stage
12/16 Cortland Performing Arts visits all grade levels
12/22 November Student of the month breakfast
12/23 December Student of the month celebration
12/26-12/30 Holiday recess
1/3/23-School Resumes
Kindergarten
This week in Kindergarten we:
*Had a wonderful music lesson with Mrs. Carr and discussed how different types of music makes us feel
*Reviewed similarities and differences between evergreen and deciduous trees
*Practiced reading using our letter sound knowledge
*Played 'quick images', where students used pennies to reproduce the quantity on their ten frames after viewing an image for only 4 seconds
*Learned a new tricky word (The) and discussed why we can not sound out tricky words
First Grade
This week in first grade we:
-created a bulletin board and a slogan for our Mac Cheese contest! See our creation in the attachment below!
-started learning about digraphs! Ask your student what sh, ch, and th say! What is special about the TH?
-learned new math games that help us find out how to find different ways to make a number and how to track what we find so we can find all the combinations!
-we played dot addition to help us find ways to build numbers with two and three numbers!!
-worked in groups to come up with ways we can teach other grades about the human body!
-collaborated and learned different ways to teach or share information from the second grade!
-listened to a Magic School Bus read aloud called, Inside the Human Body!
-learned what an adjective is!
-learned a new song to help us remember what nouns, adjectives, and verbs are.
-practiced writing sentences with capitals, spaces, and punctuation!
Second Grade
Ask your Second Grader about...
-completing their project for our mac and cheese competition,
-how our mac and cheese tasted,
-doing a cheese taste test and investigating the different qualities of cheese,
-publishing their descriptive dairy writing pieces,
-working with words that end in -ed,
-noticing author's crafts in their reading to use in their writing,
-sorting polygons and the names of polygons with 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 12 sides,
-the relationship between angles and vertices,
-how to identify a rectangle and using double addition facts to describe a rectangle,
-playing the math game "Double Arrays,"
-an update on our adopted calf Livie!
Third Grade
Ask your 3rd grader about:
*our field trip to Rogers Nature Center and what they learned and wonder about their macroinvertebrates
*the spelling pattern er and where we can find that pattern in words
*what they learned about area and how we measured the area of rectangles
*making our final entry to the Mac-n-Cheese contest outside on the propane stove
*what they enjoyed/didn't enjoy about the mac-n-cheese making/marketing process
*who Ernest Shackleton was and why he was a trustworthy leader
*what happened in our Storyworks story "Escape from the Ice"
*what specific structures crayfish use for getting food, sensing the world, moving, and protecting themselves
Fourth Grade
This week the fourth-grade worked on writing a holiday narrative. We continue to read our novel, Because of Winn-Dixie and are doing a great job of reading deeply and having some very poignant discussions about the characters and content of the story.
The class continues to strengthen their multiplication and division skills.
Everyone completed their food web projects that are now displayed on our hallway bulletin board.
We spent time learning about Pearl Harbor on December 7, and the class is starting to realize how important it is to learn about history.
Fifth Grade
Ask your 5th grader about:
- The formula for volume (length x width x height) and the different ways they investigated finding cubic units.
- When you should use estimation as a strategy for making sense of problems (Before, during, and when checking your word!)
- Strategies for coming up with estimations that are close to the actual answer and simple to compute mentally (Using numbers that are close to the original numbers and are either benchmark numbers or compatible [i.e. 370 divided by 60 is *sbout* 360 divided by 60].).
- About what defines a solar system and to share some information about the objects that orbit our star.
- The importance of using evidence to support a claim, and what evidence we found to support the claim that a solar system is a star and all the natural objects that surround it.
- The three quick writes from this week.
- Practicing vocabulary words by playing Blooket!
Rural Life Lab
Delicious homemade applesauce was served in the cafeteria again this week, thanks to Kindergarten and 5th grade's hard work!
2nd grade studied their hatched trout (they're alefins now!), while 3rd grade participated in scavenger hunt cleanups in the garden and pheasant pen.
Spanish
In Spanish we read the story "Diego esta enfermo" about a boy who was sick and didn't feel like eating any food. We also reviewed several fun songs.
PE/STEM
This week in PE we continued our dodgeball-like games! Ask your child which was their favorite!!
STEM update
K-2 - learned about symmetry in a snowflake building challenge, using different building materials to make snowflakes! (Warning: we wished for snow!)
3-5 - Used the fishing poles they created last week to play another math fact fishing game!
Art
In ART class this week, we utilized the 8 Habits of mind: develop craft, engage and persist. This week's projects were a practice in creative problem-solving, persistence, and patience. We shared our successes and helped others through collaboration.
We explored weaving in grades 3 - 5 by creating God's Eyes, also known as Ojo de Dios. We will be finishing this project next week.
We explored fibers in K - 2nd Grade by creating mini-sculptures by wrapping sticks with yarn. This week, we got to bring home our mini-sculptures.
Last week in K - 5, we finished our Pheasant Field Guides by designing the covers and adding drawings of pheasant chicks and eggs.
Notes from the Kitchen
The salad bar has gone over great! It has been so fun to see what sort of lunch the kids build for themselves.
Please go to myschoolbucks.com to check on your student’s account.
Notes from the Office:
We are in need of tissues and antibacterial wipes donations. Tis the season of joy, sickness and germs. Any donations would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
--
"If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person's point of view and see things from that person's angle as well as from my own"-Henry Ford
Kerryanne Schenck
Head of School
Truxton Academy Charter School
pronouns: she, her, hersOffice: (607) 842-6252 Ext. 109
Cell: (607) 218-2268