Dear Students and Families,
How is it possible that January has already come and gone! Time is flying this school year! This week was National School Choice Week and we are so very happy that you have chosen us to educate your children! As we approach spring we also have to start thinking about state tests for grades 3-5 and benchmark testing for ALL students starting next week. We benchmark test all of our students 3 times per year to allow us to look at data which drives our instruction and instructional strategies. Please talk with your children about the importance of these tests and the seriousness of these tests. Not only does all of this testing help us to educate your children, but it also carries weight in our status as a charter school. Simply put: if we are not performing at a satisfactory level we can be shut down. We know that you have chosen our school because you support the work we are doing and I would ask you to have this serious conversation with your kiddos and support us through this time of testing. There is some evidence that students don’t take the testing seriously and this will have adverse effects on our school community.
We also wanted you to know that the program, Amazon Smile, is being ended. We are listed as a 504 with this program so when you are ordering your own products, a portion will be sent to us as a donation if you have chosen us as your charity choice. We urge you to choose us as your charity and I urge you to check out the teacher’s wish lists to provide things for our school.
I am excited to announce that a group of 5th grade students is working on the Valentine’s Day Dance on February 10th! More details will be coming soon.
Enjoy your long weekend!
Mrs. S
Upcoming Dates
1/30 No School for Students-Professional Development Day for Teachers
02/06 Truxton Academy Charter School Open House 6pm
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 6pm-8pm
02/13 Coffee with Kerryanne 10am-11am
02/13 Coffee with Kerryanne 5:30pm-6:30pm
02/13 Board of Trustees Meeting 7pm
02/20-02/24 No School-Winter Recess
03/11 Truxton Academy Pancake Breakfast 9am -11am
03/11 Open House & Registration 9am -1pm
Updates for the Classrooms:
Kindergarten
This week in kindergarten we:
*Learned how to use a new math tool: the number line!
*Learned when to use "is" or "are" in a sentence
*Described the characters, setting, and plots in our fiction read alouds
*Began reading the first few stories in our readers with partners
*Created and designed a boat using a single piece of paper :)
First Grade
This week in first grade we:
-met our new student teacher Alaina!
-learned the a_e and i_e trick when reading words
-practiced our ee sound
-practiced our new reading strategy of flipping the vowel when words don't make sense or we are stuck
-practiced finding how much longer objects are
-started learning about fractions
-did a fun activity with Ms. Jaime about fractions
-started a new unit about fairy tales and how they change when they are retold so many times
-read the story Cinderella and The Girl with the Red Slippers
-discussed our new habitat, the Arctic, and learned how some animals can stay warm with no fur! Ask your students how!
-practiced being dependable
*Please continue to send your students in with all winter gear everyday!
Second Grade
Ask your Second Grader about...
-doing a non-fiction text feature hunt,
-their text feature flip book,
-playing the math game Get to 100,
-solving addition and subtraction story problems,
-using their tens and ones "stickers,"
-doing word ladder activities that Kenzie taught us,
-writing friendly letters,
-investigating liquids,
-how we are all dependable in Second Grade!
Third Grade
Ask your Third grader about:
*words which have 'or' in them and where we find that letter combination in words
*getting our information organized and our rough copies of our nonfiction pieces started
*starting our new math on data and how they sorted responses to the question "Where do we eat?"
*their experience with practicing for the state tests
*the main idea of the paired texts we read from Storyworks and how hamsters became so popular in the US
*the cooperative job they did reading about owl pellets in small groups and then sharing out about the exciting scientific find made in Homestead Cave outside Salt Lake City
*the cool rodent bones they found and identified while dissecting owl pellets
*it was a rodent-tastic week in 3rd grade!
Fourth Grade
This week the fourth-grade read the biographies of Brave Girls by Michelle DuFrense. Students continue to read our class novel, The One and Only Ivan.
In math the class is working on identifying angles in various polygons. We have started using protractors to measure angles.
The class is working on a group project using BOOKS instead of the computers to find information about the Revolutionary War. Students are learning how to navigate books by looking in the Table of Contents, The Glossary and the Index to help them find information.
In science the class has started learning about energy and circuits.
Fifth Grade
Ask your 5th Grader about:
- What a synonym is.
- Our spelling rule- the long /a/ sound- and how to spell it when it comes at the beginning and end of a word. (Spelling words: gate, grape, ape, bacon, haven, raven, stingray, vacay, highway, Beethoven, filet, great, fascinate, procrastinate)
- Spanish and Vocab Blooket! (This week's vocabulary words: unabashedly, monotone, significantly, immaculately, dejected, coerced, indifferent, symmetrical, appalled, impeccable, dearth, reverie, rapturously, bedraggled, and critically. )
- Subtracting fractions with unlike denominators.
- Finding the simplest form of a fraction.
- What the R and A stand for in "RAGE!" (Restate and answer. RAGE! is a mnemonic we use to recall how to answer open response questions.)
- The most exciting moments from "The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street" so far.
- Our new student teacher, Ms. Trass! :)
Spanish
This week in Spanish we learned a version of Little Red Riding Hood, "La Caperucita Roja" and read a story about a little curious mouse who traveled to Buenos Aires, Argentina. We also learned a song that teaches the sounds of the alphabet in Spanish.
Art
In Art class, we are analyzing artwork and exploring collaboration by creating art together in preparation for a future presentation.
Kindergarten created their own version of Claude Monet's "Water Lilies" by making lilly pads with flowers out of tissue paper and glueing them onto prepared canvases that looked like water.
1st grade created an installation sculpture called "The Loving Tree." They decorated hearts and wrote things they loved to hang on the tree to contribute independent work to the finished collaboration.
2nd and 4th grade explored positive and negative space with an introduction to the artist M.C. Escher who combines math with art in visually interesting way. We used black construction paper to cut out images and glued them strategically on color paper to create visually interesting designs.
3rd grade explored creating independent collages, looking for interesting images, cutting them out and arranging them in new visually interesting ways. The individual collages were then combined into a larger, collaborative collage.
5th grade explored Vincent Van Gogh's "Sunflowers", each creating their own sunflower with permanent marker and watercolors. The Sunflowers were then cut out and used to create a collaborative work in which 3D elements will be explored.
PE/STEM
This week in PE Ms. Travers our student teacher has joined us! We have been practicing our dances and even enjoyed the snow with some sledding!
In STEM 2-5 were introduced to our sphere bolt robots!
K & 1 - played a Lego math building game!
Rural Life Lab
This week during Rural Life Lab time, Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade used their imaginations to draw pastures in the snow and transport themselves through the seasons of being a sheep farmer. The older grades had a visit from a local craftsperson - ask them about how wool fleece becomes yarn, and how our visitor dyes their finished product!
Donation request - we need full-sized round point shovels for the upcoming garden season - new or used would be fine. Hand tools also need to be replenished after 3 years of heavy metal-bending digging. Reviews on this product look reasonable if you are in a position to provide such a donation: https://a.co/d/4vKY65X . Thank you!
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"There are seven days in a week but SOMEDAY is not one of them." -Unknown
Kerryanne Schenck
Head of School
Truxton Academy Charter School
pronouns: she, her, hers Office: (607) 842-6252 Ext. 109
Cell: (607) 218-2268