Dear Students and Families,
Happy Friday! Sometimes 4 day weeks seem longer than 5 day weeks, however, I have a lot to share! Recently, I was approached by a member of our community and was told that they feel as if we (the school) are not always forthcoming with information. I want to encourage you to stay up to date on your child’s education here at Truxton Academy. Board of Trustees meeting dates and times are always posted here in my letter and can also be found on our website. In addition, Board Meeting Agendas and Minutes are also posted on the website and contain vital information. Oftentimes, there are things that are presented at the Board of Trustees meetings that are interesting, important and relevant to your children’s education. Please attend if you can or at the very least, look at the agendas and minutes on the website.
There is a new student cell phone policy that is going into effect immediately. I have included it on the bottom of this email. Please fill it out and send it back to the office if your child brings a cell phone to school. In addition, it has been added to our family handbook.
Many of you have heard, but I want to make an official announcement that Jenny Hull has turned in her official letter of resignation as Student Achievement Coordinator. She has stated that she has decided to go in a different direction with her career and has accepted a position elsewhere. Her last day will be February 28, 2023.
We are very appreciative of all her work as a Founding Teacher here at TACS. Her absence will leave a large hole in our hearts as well as the hearts of our students. Her knowledge and guidance has been invaluable. Thank you Jenny and best wishes on your new endeavors!
Finally, Homer and Cincinnatus have half days on Friday 1/27/23. Please let Leaf know the following ASAP:
1. Does your child dismiss to an authorized pick up at 3:20pm? Who will be picking up the student?
2. Does your child dismiss to Cincinnatus or Homer Transportation at 11:30am? Who will be at the bus stop to receive your student early?
Have a safe and happy weekend and I hope you enjoy the upcoming week!
Mrs. S
Upcoming Dates
1/27 January Student of the Month Celebration and Breakfast 8:50AM
1/30 No School for Students-Professional Development Day for Teachers
02/03 Buffalo Sabres to visit and teach hockey (tentative date)
02/07 Special Person’s Day
9:30am - Kindergarten Dance
9:50am - 1st Grade Dance
10:10am - 3rd Grade Dance
10:30am - 2nd Grade Dance
10:50am - 4th Grade Dance
11:10am 5th Grade Dance
Once Classes finish their dance, they then will take their people to the Makerspace to show them their art gallery and then will transition to the classroom with the one person they selected to do an activity in your room.
Please be sure not to walk through when dances are going on, performances are only going to be about 5 minutes long.
02/10 Valentine’s Day Dance 6-8pm
02/13 Coffee with Kerryanne 10am-11am
02/13 Coffee with Kerryanne 5:30-6:30
02/13 Board of Trustees Meeting 7pm
02/20-02/24 No School-Winter Recess
Updates for the Classrooms:
Kindergarten
This week in Kindergarten we:
*Discussed how the letter 's' in plurals is sometimes sounded /s/ and sometimes sounded /z/
*Used our knowledge of 3-D shapes to recreate them with marshmallows and toothpicks
*Learned about Kings and Queens and everything in their kingdom
*Discussed the difference between valuing relationships with people and valuing wealth
*Saw Ms. Bri and met her newborn baby Haylee
*Learned about Chinese New Year and made paper lanterns
First Grade
This week in first grade we:
-learned the a_e rule! Ask your kiddos what they do when they see this team together.
-reviewed our reading strategies of flipping the vowel sounds!
-read another story about Grans Trips using our readers and answering comprehension questions!
-learned about tricky words like their and there!
-started learning about measurement and comparing objects that are longer and shorter!
-started working on how much longer and shorter objects are when we compare them!
-finished our unit on the human body and reviewed all of the things that we have learned!
-played Taboo using our knowledge of the human body!
-learned about a NEW habitat! The Arctic! Students asked great questions about how penguins keep warm in the frigid temperatures! Stay tuned next week for the answer!
-celebrated our students of the month for December! Way to be leaders in Cooperation and hard work!
Second Grade
Ask your Second Grader about...
-non-fiction text features such as headings and sub-headings, bold print, diagrams and labels, fact boxes, and captions,
-how text features help us read and learn new information,
-what non-fiction topics they wrote about this week,
-playing the math game Close to 20,
-how they use their double facts to help them solve addition and subtraction problems,
-how they use their tens and ones to solve addition story problems,
-what they learned about the Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year,
-making paper lanterns,
-their scientific observations in our microscope!
Third Grade
Ask your Third grader about:
*how they know whether to use ckle or kle to make the k'l sound at the end of words and what letter combination can be used to make the s'l sound at the end of words (stle)
*how a graphic organizer will help them organize their long write "throw away" copy and what subtopics they are thinking about having in their nonfiction piece
*the mid year math assessment
*how visualizing a math story problem helps them get a clear idea of what they need to do to solve a word problem
*the "Story of Awww" and what the main idea and the key details of the paired texts were
*the vocabulary words adorable and rare
*the exciting new characters James has met in James and the Giant Peach and what are the character traits of the Centipede
*the One word they selected to describe them
*what the function of the skeletal system is
*learning how to use the learning site Booklet to answer questions about the skeletal system
*having fun with Mrs. Carr and learning why music (and art) are so important to us as humans
Fourth Grade
The fourth-grade is busy wrapping up Running Record reading assessments this week. The class has started reading and writing about a new class novel,
The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate.
The fourth-graders have started studying geometry and have learned about polygons, points, lines, line segments, rays and quadrilateral shapes.
The students have successfully completed making their cast fossil models and can't wait to bring them home!
Our Grow Tower herbs have germinated and the seedlings are growing very nicely on the classroom radiator!
Fifth Grade
Ask your 5th Graders about...
- Adding fractions with unlike denominators by playing the fraction tracks game.
- Simplifying fractions and playing "Simplifying Fractions Bingo"
- The importance of being able to provide a *retelling* of something you've just read.
- Generating a summary of a fiction text by using this pneumonic: Somebody, wanted, but, so, then....
- What green, yellow, and red questions, and the importance of asking them while you read.
- The first third of The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street and which character they focused their character study on this week. We looked at quotes from the text and analyzed what that told us about that character's personality, and then named character traits that were supported by the text.
- The nachos that my "very enthusiastic mother" brought for myself, Ms. Raina, and Mr. John (My Very Enthusiastic Mother Just Served Us Nachos is a mnemonic for the order of the planets in our solar system.)
- What conjectures they were able to make about the distance between the planets based upon the 1-meter paper model we created.
- Our new PBL project- transforming our downstairs hallway into a scale model of the planets and other objects in our celestial neighborhood and educating passersby about each planet as they walk the length of our model.
Spanish
This week in Spanish we learned a song to learn the alphabet in Spanish. It's a pretty catchy tune!
We also learned a song about 5 little mice, cinco ratoncitos, that are trying to escape the cat, el gato!
Kerryanne Schenck
Head of School
Truxton Academy Charter School
pronouns: she, her, hers Office: (607) 842-6252 Ext. 109
Cell: (607) 218-2268