Hello Families and Supporters,
Happy Friday! I hope everyone has had a great week. The Olympics started last weekend and continue this week and next. This international sporting event can be a great way for children to learn about sports, world cultures, and world geography. While watching the opening ceremonies last weekend with my kids, we looked for the countries on a map of the world, as they entered the arena in the Parade of Nations. You may be able to still see a video of this part of the Olympics online. If not, and you are watching sporting events, you can use a world map (on your phone or computer or on paper) to find where the athletes are from on the map. If you have older children, you can have them read the times for the athletes in the speed based events and help teach or reinforce how to read numbers and compare numbers with decimals. With all ages, you can look up weather information about Beijing or the countries the athletes are from and compare it with our weather here. There are so many wonderful ways to incorporate learning into watching these games. Enjoy!
This week we welcomed practicum students from SUNY Cortland into our building. These college students are studying to become teachers and learning from our staff and students. We have one student who will be with Mrs. Boyden 2 days per week. We also have students in Ms. Elliott, Mrs. Francis, Ms. Smith, Ms. Jess, and Madysen's classrooms. Please ask your children to welcome them. We are glad to have this partnership with SUNY Cortland which benefits both their students and our students.
Valentine's Day is next week on Monday. This is a day to show love (of all kinds) and appreciation. At school, we focus on it being a time to show caring and appreciation for your friends. Families of students, please see the section below about valentine's day cards if you are wanting your child to send cards in for their classmates. We send love and appreciation to all of our school community during this season of love!
We are Hiring:
We currently have openings for the following positions:
- Teaching Assistant
- Social Emotional Specialist (Social Worker or Social Emotional and Academic Intervention Teacher)
- Substitute Teachers
- Teacher of the Arts
All positions are posted on indeed.com.
If you know anyone who is interested, please ask them to send a resume and cover letter or letter of interest to sara.petitmcclure@truxtonacademy.org
Messages for Families
Valentine's Day
We welcome students to show appreciation of and kindness to their classmates by giving them Valentine's Day cards if they choose to do so. If your child is sending in Valentine's day cards, please make sure you adhere to the following guidelines:
- Make sure your child gives a card to every child in the class. They either give a card to everyone or no one. If you need a list of students in your child's class, please reach out to your child's individual teacher.
- Please do not send food items (candy, pretzels, etc.) in with the valentines as we currently do not allow outside food from home to be sent in for celebrations in order to keep those with food allergies safe.
Note from the Main Office: Today we sent home information for this upcoming 2022-2023 school year with your student(s). The Intent to Return form allows the administrative team to assess availability for incoming students. The transportation request is due annually in order to have local district transportation for your student(s). Please complete the paperwork and return it to Mrs Leaf in the office ASAP so we can prepare administratively for the 2022-2023 school year. Please email Mrs. Leaf (leaf.carmer@truxtonacademy.org) with any questions.
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, if you choose to have your child vaccinated, please send an email to Mrs. Leaf (leaf.carmer@truxtonacademy.org) and Mrs. DeHart (tdehart@homercentral.org) 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. At-Home COVID Testing Kits: We received more at home testing kits today. If your family would like a testing kit, please reach out to Mrs. Leaf if you'd like to receive one. Families who have already received some, may reach out for additional ones as long as supplies last. 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. Help up Build our Classroom Libraries: Here is a wishlist of books for each classroom. You can buy the books through this website or elsewhere. Thriftbooks has used books and sometimes that is a money saving option. Check out the books wanted for your child's classroom or any classroom: Kindergarten: https://www.thriftbooks.com/list/share/2beb98c2e6c22338/ First Grade: https://www.thriftbooks.com/list/share/06f1868ff2b6582a/ Second Grade: https://www.thriftbooks.com/list/share/8c00ddcdf9f8956c/ Third Grade: https://www.thriftbooks.com/list/share/21f8fdfdb6f0eed1/ Fourth Grade: https://www.thriftbooks.com/list/share/beda8187236a301d/ Spanish: https://www.thriftbooks.com/list/share/66e046cb2e91fcc0/ Makerspace: https://www.thriftbooks.com/list/share/af7a8e360eb91d94/ Fifth Grade: https://www.thriftbooks.com/list/share/2ec16518e195dde8/ Upcoming Dates: 2/14- Board of Trustees Meeting 7PM- In-person and on zoom To join via Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/91567143586?pwd=cGM3bjZlemxGTGVtUmMwRk5WdG5iQT09 Meeting ID: 915 6714 3586 Passcode: 9ia1fw 2/17- PTO Meeting 5:30 PM via zoom- login information to come 2/21- 2/25- Mid-Winter Recess: NO SCHOOL 3/12- Open House 10AM- 12PM (please see attached flyer and share with interested potential families) Updates from the classrooms: Ms. Elliott (K): This week in kindergarten we: *Met 2 practicum student teachers from SUNY Cortland, Ms. Wolfe and Ms. Kendall *Began working on addition word problems *Learned what responsibility is and how we can be more responsible in our day to day lives *Learned the Truxton Pledge from Mrs. Francis' K/1 class *Learned how to sound out each letter of a word to figure out what it is Mrs. Francis (K/1): Ask your K/1 kiddo about: *meeting our SUNY Cortland practicum student, Ms. Bailey who will work with us on Mondays *how to find the main idea of a nonfiction text *what a final copy looks like *how to "count on" when adding two numbers (ex. 4+3 is 4...5, 6, 7) *what happens to wood when it gets wet and the experiments we did to explore this idea *teaching the Kindergarteners in Ms. Elliott's class our Truxton Academy pledge *reading with 3rd grade friends *how our plants in soil are doing vs. our plants in rock wool Ms. Smith (1st): Ask your first graders about: -their two new placement teachers -the MAP assessments on their chromebooks -the difference between comparing and describing -what readers can do to tackle tricky words -their writing activity about how to make a hamburgers and pancakes Ms. Jess (2nd): Ask your Second Grader about...-our new SUNY Cortland Practicum student Miss Grace who will be with us on Mondays, -what they observed happening with our grow towers, -the MAP assessments on chrome books, -what they will be making to share their learning about the farm web they built, -their Valentine mailbox, -how they can be brave like Ruby Bridges. Ms. Madysen (3rd): This week in third grade we... -met our new practicum student from SUNY Cortland, Mr. Ethan, who will be joining us on Mondays. -started our study of fractions by brainstorming what we already know and what we want to learn more about them. -learned about homophone pairs and the definitions associated with them. -went on a scavenger hunt around the school to find the Greek gods and goddesses that went missing from the play we are reading. -built on our fluency and expression skills while reading The Curse of Winter. -mailed our first letters to our penpals at SPARK Elementary in Atlanta, GA. -looked at maps and globes and began learning about cardinal and intermediate directions. Ms. Chelsea (4th): This week in 4th grade, students...- Met their new teacher! - Identified what they'd like their classroom environment to look, feel, and sound like. - Reset their desks. - Read books together as a class. - Shared with the class information about what they like and who they are. - Learned about multiple meaning words, word parts, cooperation, and assertiveness. - Learned a little about weaving and got to see antique looms up close. Señora H (Spanish): In Spanish we reviewed more opposites. We also watched another episode of "Salsa" and learned a new song, El Baile de los Manos (The Hand Dance). Salsa is a video series created by PBS. If you are interested in watching episodes at home, here is the link: https://ny.pbslearningmedia.org/collection/salsa-spanish-for-children/?student=true Mrs. Boyden (PE): This week in PE we have been snowshoeing all week! learning how to put them on and take them off, relay races, walking our nature trail, playing snowshoe soccer. We also celebrated the 100th day of school on Friday in PE by doing a 100 yard dash, guessing how far 100 steps is, seeing how many jumping jacks we can do in 100 seconds, ran in place for 100 seconds. Check out my Instagram (mrs.boyden_pe) for photos of all of our fun adventures this week! Mrs. Boyden (Makerspace): This week in Makerspace we celebrated the 100th day of school with 100's stations: building something with 100 legos, 100 popsicle sticks, 100 cups, 100 geo blocks, and doing a 100 piece puzzle. 3rd and 4th grade also had the task to try and figure out how many feet is in 100 inches! Check out our facebook and instagram pages for pictures of our students' learning throughout the year: https://www.facebook.com/truxtonacademy
Thank you as always for your support of our students and our school family. Have a wonderful weekend!
- Sara and the Truxton Academy Team