Dear Students and Families,
I hope this finds you enjoying your winter break and staying safe during this brief period of inclement weather we had yesterday and today. We had a busy 2 weeks before break. We celebrated Special Persons Day, 100 days of school and Valentine’s Day! Special thanks to Mrs. Boyden for organizing Special Persons Day and making it such a fun activity! Our Valentine’s Day dance was a success too and there are so many people to thank! First to all the families that came out! We estimate that we had 50-60 students and families. Thank you to Mr. Petit-McClure for providing us with the music and all of the staff, PTO and Board for providing the decorations, the organization, the food, the prizes and the fun! We’ve welcomed Mr. Brian Gabak (Mr. B.) to our team as the new student achievement coordinator and on Monday we will welcome a new 4th grade teacher, Mr. Jeffrey Lewandowski. I urge you to reach out to me if you have questions about what's going on at the school. I have hosted "Coffee with Kerryanne" since my arrival as a forum for parents and the community to come and ask questions. I encourage you to become active in your student's education and that includes partnering with the administrative team as well as teachers and the Board and I look forward to seeing you.
~ Mrs. S.
Upcoming Dates
2/20-2/24 No School-Winter Recess
2/27 School Resumes
2/27 4th Grade Field Lesson to the sap house
2/28 Art Field Lesson for grades 1,4 and 5
3/2 Art Field Lesson for grades K, 2 and 3
3/3 February Student of the Month Celebration and Breakfast
3/7 Coffee with Kerryanne 10-11am and 5:30-6:30pm
3/11 Truxton Academy Pancake breakfast 9am-11am and Open House 9am-1pm
3/13 Board of Trustees Meeting 7pm
3/16 Town Hall Meeting about Truxton Academy 7pm
3/19-3/25 NY AG Literacy Week
3/28 Administrative Review of our School Lunch Program by New York State Department of Education
3/31 March Student of the Month Celebration and Breakfast
Updates for the Classrooms:
Kindergarten
This week in Kindergarten we:
*Learned 3 new digraphs - /CH/ /SH/ and /TH/
*Used our knowledge of letter sounds to learn 4 and 5 sound words
*Learned how to show our thinking process on paper when adding and subtracting
*Practiced reading our stories about 'Kit' to our book buddies in 5th grade and worked together with them to build a funny story using silly nouns, adjectives and verbs
*Began reading about Christopher Columbus and the pilgrims and discussed what problems they faced while planning the journey from Europe to Asia.
First Grade
This week in first grade we:
-read the story "The Tape" in our Gran readers
-learned what a cassette tape is
-learned what Jazz is and listened to a bit of Jazz music
-practiced writing in full sentences and checking for our beginning, middle, and end
-learned two new games for practicing how to make ten
-practiced our double drills where students practice adding their doubles
-celebrated our 100th day of school!
students measured how far it takes for 1st graders to walk 100 steps! (1,133 inches)!!!
made 100 cheerio necklaces and practiced making groups of ten and then counting by tens to get to 100
made a chain 100 links long!
-celebrated Valentine's day by making valentines for our family members and valentine's about what we love about our classroom! Then we had a valentine's day party with ice cream!
-made our own instruments with Ms. Carr!
-earned our 2nd marble jar reward party! A Blanket Fort Party!
-read the folktale, "Little Red Riding Hood" and learned about following directions and how important it is to never talk to strangers
-learned about our new habitat, The Desert! Ask your students about our Desert creature that we created!
Second Grade
Ask your Second Grader about...
-their non-fiction reading on what animals are red and pink (everyday, not just on Valentine's Day) and why,
-the red and pink animal they created and what adaptation it had,
-engineering their Valentine's Mailboxes,
-their Valentine's Day party,
-their letter from Ms. Kay,
-their persuasive letter to a farmer explaining why groundhog's need food to eat,
-what they earned for their marble jar reward,
-solving story problems,
-finding a missing addend or a mystery number in a story problem,
-using their cubes to model story problems with missing addends,
-what skills they are practicing on Zearn,
-reading "The Extraordinary Life of Jackie Ormes" and what character traits we noticed she had as the first black woman cartoonist,
-creating their own comic!
Third Grade
This week in 3rd Grade we:
*worked with ch in the beginning and middle of words. We also continued to revisit old spelling patterns which also use ch
*FINISHED our first attempt at expository writing. Look for our Nonfiction teaching books outside our room after break. What can 3rd grade teach YOU?
*continued to analyze graphs and answer questions about the information the graphs provide using pictographs, bar graphs, and double bar graphs
*went into K-2 classrooms and asked the survey question, What is your favorite sweet treat? Candy topped the charts on our Valentine's Day survey
*used our Storyworks article, "The Man Who Saved Millions", to explore problem/solution
*finished James and the Giant Peach, another 5 star book according to most of our classmates
*looked at the three different basic patterns fingerprints have, arches, loops, and whorls and got a chance to classify our own fingerprints
*enjoyed learning about percussion and string instruments with Mrs. Carr during Music class
*celebrated 221 awesome choices when we had our Fort Day/Valentine's Day Extravaganza!
Fourth Grade
This week the fourth-grade finished up their class novel, "The One and Only Ivan" by Katherine Applegate. So much to learn about justice and the integrity that is owed to all of the world's creatures!
We have finished up our studies of measuring and classifying shapes and are moving on to Unit 5, Large Numbers and Landscapes....
The class learned about the Constitution and how it is the "Greatest Law of our Land" and how "We the People" benefit from the wisdom of the works of our Founding Fathers!
The class was amazed to see how a bar magnet was turned into a very accurate compass as it aligned with the earth's magnetic forces to show us true North and South.
Spanish
In Spanish we reviewed numbers by singing songs and playing Bingo. We also read a couple of stories about a superhero elephant.
PE/STEM
This week in PE we wrapped up our basket ball unit! Ask students about the term “beef” and different kinds of passing!
In STEM this week We did a 100 hearts challenge!
Rural Life Lab
This week flew by in Rural Life Lab!
Kindergarten’s sprouts went on the salad bar menu after observing their growth and tasting. Ask them how they like sprouts and what sprouts need to grow!
4th Grade started learning the science of how trees produce maple syrup, while 2nd grade began learning about how we identify trees and shrubs in the winter.
Finally, our 1st, 3rd, and 5th graders became Citizen Scientists this week, as they participated in the Great Backyard Bird Count! Ask them about the different ways we observe birds, and check out the Merlin app for easy help with identification. The Great Backyard Bird Count runs through Monday and you can participate in as little as 15 minutes per day. More information: https://www.birdcount.org/participate/
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"The only place SUCCESS comes before WORK is in the dictionary." -Unknown
Kerryanne Schenck Head of School Truxton Academy Charter School pronouns: she, her, hers
Office: (607) 842-6252 Ext. 109 Cell: (607) 218-2268