Hello Families and Supporters,
Happy New Year! We hope that you all had a wonderful holiday season and enjoyed the extra time with your families. This first week back to school was a doozy with staff members and some students being out, but our instructional team did a great job of making sure that we were able to teach all of our students, even today when we had to switch to remote learning. We should be good for returning to in-person learning on Monday, but please check your email for any updates over the weekend should things change. With the snow we got today, we know that our students will have a blast next week at recess. Winter outdoor play is always a favorite at the beginning of the winter.
It was so nice to welcome students back this week and hear them share about their holidays. As you can see from the classroom updates down below, our students and teachers jumped right back into learning. They are starting some really interesting projects, units, and topics! I can't wait to see the learning that comes from them!
Messages for Families
Staffing Changes:
We have some sad news to share. Mr. C will be leaving us at the end of this month. He was given an opportunity at his other job to increase his hours and teaching responsibilities. We will miss him and are thankful to him for providing an awesome music experience for our students for the first half of the year. We are currently looking for a Teacher of the Arts (could be music, visual arts, drama, or a combination) to fill his position when he leaves. Please feel free to spread the word if you know of anyone who would be a great fit for our school in this position.
3rd and 4th grade Ski Club:
Ski Club will hopefully start next week on January 11th. If you didn't sign up and still want to, please do so ASAP. This ski club will take place on Tuesdays afterschool. If you are interested in the ski club for your 3rd or 4th grade child and have not already done so, please send an email to myself and Tom Brown (tom.brown@truxtonacademy.org) so we can get you the appropriate documents to sign your child up.
NYS Charter Association Parent Council
There will be an online meeting for the NYS Charter Association Parent Council on January 12th. See the attached flyer if you are interested in joining this group which advocates for charter school families throughout the state.
Winter School Closures:
In the case of school closure due to inclement weather, we will post on Spectrum (https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/weather/closings) when our school is closed. For the most part if Homer Central Schools are closed, we will be too since we fall within their district's geographical boundaries, but there may come a time when we need to close and they do not.
If your local district of residence is closed, there will be no bus transportation provided for your child on that day. If we are still open and it is safe for you to transport them, please do. If it is unsafe or you are unable to transport them, please keep them home. It will be an excused absence
Remote Learning Preparations:
Should we have an abundance of snow days this winter, we may choose to make some snow days remote learning days. Information will be sent out via email if this is the case. All teachers are preparing for the possibility of us having to go remote either due to an abundance or snow days or due to COVID quarantines. Please reach out to your child's teacher if you do not receive information about how to access their google classroom.
COVID Vaccination Information:
Now that there is a vaccine available for children ages 5- 11, some families are choosing to get their children immunized against the COVID-19 virus. This is not a required vaccine, however, it is important that we know if you are choosing to have your child vaccinated for contact tracing and quarantine decisions. Please send an email to Mrs. Leaf (leaf.carmer@truxtonacademy.org) and Mrs. DeHart (tdehart@homercentral.org) if you choose to have your child vaccinated after they receive each of the shots. You do not need to send in copies of the cards at this time, as Mrs. DeHart is able to look it up once she is notified.
Nutrition Tips with Ms. Taylor:
Winter calls for cozy activities at home, and what's cozier than baking something delicious and nutritious with the ones you love?! One of our household favorites has been banana bread these past few weeks. There are 2 great things about this banana bread: 1) It's easy and quick 2) It's the perfect recipe for your kids to help or even do most of it! The recipe calls for blanched almond flour and tapioca flour, but these can be swapped 1:1 for whole wheat or white flour, as well as any gluten free flour mix. If you do have almond flour but not tapioca, simply add extra almond flour in as a sub and the bread will still come out just fine! If there are any egg allergies in your home then swap for an allergy friendly option you can find here: https://www.thepioneerwoman.com/food-cooking/cooking-tips-tutorials/g33584750/egg-substitute/ Don't forget to add in dark chocolate chips at the very end before baking! Enjoy this yummy recipe: https://bakeitpaleo.com/almond-banana-bread/
Thank you to our 3rd & 4th Grade STEAM Team
Thanks to all of their hard work and support from the community, the 3rd and 4th Grade STEAM Team earned over $200 on their Dog Treat Fundraiser this holiday season. The team also learned just how demanding it is to design and market a product, as well as learning how much work goes into creating healthy, natural snacks for their furry friends. We are so pleased that our hard work paid off!
Ways to Help Our School
Sign up for and use Amazon Smile with Truxton Academy as your chosen charity
Amazon Smile is a division of amazon that donates a portion of sales from many items to a variety of charities and nonprofits. Truxton Academy is one of those nonprofits. If you are purchasing items from amazon, please go to https://smile.amazon.com/ and choose Truxton Academy as your charity of choice. Purchases you are making anyway will benefit our school.
Donations Needed:
Shoes- We are in need of young men and women size shoes for students to have the opportunity to borrow when they forget theirs. We have many small sizes in sneakers, but are in need of size 3 and up.
Disposable Masks- We have run through many of our child sized masks and have ordered more. In the meantime, if anyone has child sized disposable masks to donate to the school, we'd appreciate it.
Upcoming Dates:
1/10/22: National Law Enforcement Day- Students are invited to wear blue in support of the law enforcement personnel who serve our community.
1/10/22- Board of Trustees Monthly Meeting- Rm. 105 or via zoom
https://zoom.us/j/91567143586?pwd=cGM3bjZlemxGTGVtUmMwRk5WdG5iQT09
Meeting ID: 915 6714 3586
Passcode: 9ia1fw
1/17/22- No School: Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Updates from the classrooms:
Ms. Elliott (K):
This week our Kindergarteners:
*Recieved a new compost bin with worms
*Learned all about worms and why they are important to our environment
*Learned new vocabulary words while reading 'Museum cat'
*Practiced using different methods for adding during math
Mrs. Francis (K/1):
Ask your K/1 student:*to sing the vowel sound song and to sing Where is Thumbkin?
*what they have learned about otters so far
*the different ways to make 10
*how we made things move in science class (pushes, pulls, and gravity) and our field trip to the moon to see what would change in our drop the ball experiment!!!
*making Spacemen and Spacewomen and how they will help our writing
*what their goal is regarding our Classroom rights and responsibilities
Ms. Smith (1st):
In first grade we:
*started our unit on R blends
*have been learning how to construct and deconstruct different shapes
*learned that good readers reread to remember details from their non-fiction books
*started a student requested unit learning about germs
Ms. Jess (2nd):
Ask your Second Grader about...-how astronauts grow vegetables and flowers on the International Space Station
-our grow towers
-all the new things they learned by reading non-fiction books this week
-the book fairy
-the names of different polygons and to find a right angle
-the rabbit rule in spelling
-what has brought them joy in January
Ms. Madysen (3rd):
Ask your third grader about…-the word they have chosen as their theme for 2022.
-creating a 1,000 chart and how to use landmark numbers to fill it in.
-about playing the game Go Collecting.
-the non-fiction story, Racing through Danger, and how sled dogs helped save the people of Nome, Alaska.
-the four forces that act on airplane as we begin investigating motion.
Ms. Sara/ Mrs. Hull (4th):
This week the 4th graders learned that they are the first place winners of the Top Cut Beef Contest sponsored by NYS Ag in the Classroom. (See the attached Press Release) They humbly accepted the honor and acknowledged the hard work of the other teams that entered, including our third grade peers, who won second place. 4th Graders took on the challenge of creating another award winning beef recipe, while deepening their understanding of the beef industry and the life cycle of beef cattle. We hope to enjoy their creation of Roasty Toasty Pizza sometime this year in our school cafeteria.
In math, the students have been learning strategies for multiplying and dividing with larger two-digit numbers. Seeing the students apply different strategies and explain their mathematical thinking has been very powerful! Way to go 4th graders!
Señora H (Spanish):
In Spanish, we learned about Ratoncito Perez. a little mouse version of the Tooth Fairy. In 3rd and 4th grades, the students enjoyed playing Bingo to review numbers.
Mr. C (Music):
This week in the K, K/1, 1 and 2 classes, we learned about different orchestral families and the life and music of Mozart.
In grades 3 and 4, we learned how musical patterns exist in groups of 2 and 4, and students created and presented their own musical compositions that used these groupings.
Mrs. Boyden (PE):
3rd & 4th Graders have been working on floor hockey skills and learning to play the game!
K-2 has been learning gymnastics moves like balance beam, poses, jumping/landing and rolls and making their own routines!
Mrs. Boyden (Makerspace):
3rd & 4th Graders had a blast playing a game called "Ready, Set, Draw!" They were given random things to draw and how they needed to draw them and even though we all had to draw the same things all of our pictures looked so different!
K-2 were given the paper chain challenge, they were given one sheet of paper and asked to make the longest paper chain in the time given. They did great figuring out how they needed to do this while working in pairs!
Check out our facebook and instagram pages for pictures of our students' learning throughout the year: https://www.facebook.com/truxtonacademy
- Sara and the Truxton Academy Team