Hello Families and Supporters,
Happy Friday! It's hard to believe we are halfway through the school year already. Our second marking period ends today. Report cards will come home next week.
This week, our students have had a lot of fun outside sledding during PE and playing in the snow at recess. In classes, our teachers have been doing assessments in math and reading. It's so nice to see the progress that students have made. These assessments, for the most part, have been one on one with a teacher.
Next week, we will begin our MAP Growth Assessment. This computerized test is a nationally normed standardized test. It gives us good information about student's progress over time as well as specific information about how they perform on particular standards. Most of our students find this test to be fun, particularly our younger ones, because it is on the computer. This test adjusts the questions so that if a child gets one right, the next one on a similar content is harder and if they get it wrong the next one is easier. In this way, our goal is to find the right area where students understand so we know what to teach them next. We did this test at the beginning of the year and look forward to seeing the growth towards the middle of the year and even more growth when we take it again at the end of the year.
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 Art 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
PTO Update:
The Truxton Academy Double Good Popcorn Fundraiser is now live! Mark your calendars, the pop-up shop will only be open from 1/27-1/31 and you won’t want to miss it. Popcorn can be purchased here: https://popup.doublegood.com/s/hqg0904e. Please pass this website on to friends and family who might want to support TA and get some special snacks too! Be sure to let them know that TA gets 50% of all sales. Double Good has indicated that current estimated shipping is 7-10 business days – just in time for Valentine’s Day! Help the Truxton Academy Charter School PTO support our community with supplies, learning materials, field lessons, and events such as field days. These funds allow the school community to create fun and memorable experiences for students, staff and families. We thank you in advance for your help and wish you happy snacking!
Enrichment:
We are currently running an afterschool enrichment program for grades 2- 4. If your child is in one of these programs, please arrive at 4:20 so that everyone can be dismissed by 4:30. Thank you.
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.
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 one, may reach out for an additional one per child at this point in time.
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.
Upcoming Dates:
Popcorn Fundraiser Open (1/27- 1/31)
1/28- Second Marking Period ends
1/31- 2/11- NWEA MAP Growth Winter Testing- All grade levels
2/4- Report cards sent home
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
2/21- 2/25- Mid-Winter Recess: NO SCHOOL
Updates from the classrooms:
Ms. Elliott (K):
This week in kindergarten we:
*Did a phenomenal job subtracting numbers one through ten. Next week we will subtract with numbers one through 20.
*Checked on our compost bin full of worms and studied how quickly they'll eat broccoli
*Learned more about the American Flag and practiced saying the Pledge of Allegiance
*Added 10 more words to our sight word list
*Practiced looking for words we know while reading
Mrs. Francis (K/1):
This week in K/1 we:*learned the sounds sh and wh make and practiced all of the digraphs ("H brother")
*using sticky notes to write down unknown words during independent reading
*practiced weighing classroom items with nonstandard units (pennies and beans)
*started our persuasive writing unit
*learned about rockets and made a rocket in our classroom! (Ask your child how to make one.)
*checked in on our plants and saw some sprouts
*on Friday we celebrated the strong, kind choices the kiddos have made with a Warm Fuzzy Party. We wore Pjs and played many different fun games all day! Some were even educational
Ms. Smith (1st):
In first grade we: *worked on identifying CH and SH digraph sounds
*had some fun with a SH and CH scavenger hunt
*classified and sorted shapes with different attributes into different groups
*had some fun with pom poms and black lights learning how germs travel
*learned that good readers remember more information when they make the sentence pop!
*celebrated what we learned from our non-fictions book with a party!
*celebrated a birthday!
*Started our new unit on writing personal narratives that have a first, next, and last.
Ms. Jess (2nd):
Ask your Second Grader about...-their job at the Sticker Store and how they counted using tens and ones
-how our grow tower seedlings are doing and how they will help them grow
-the nine major plants and animals our food and drinks come from
-the importance of farms
-how they earned a Stuffed Animal Day
-the story of Ruby Bridges.
Ms. Madysen (3rd):
Scholastic Book Orders are due by February 1st. Our online class code is: YCWKJ.
This week in third grade we...
-read the fiction story "My Rows and Piles of Coins" and talked about the setting and geography of the story.
-we began practicing telling and writing time using an analog clock.
-continued to practice reading and solving problems involving subtraction and finding the difference
-we finished writing our opinion pieces deciding whether Balto or Togo was the more important dog during the 1925 Serum Run
-continued to practice what it looks and sounds like to be respectful to adults and peers.
Ms. Sara/ Mrs. Hull (4th):
This week, we started a unit on fractions. We explored equivalent fractions. Our 4th graders also learned about how fractions and decimals relate to one another and are learning to represent pieces of a whole in two ways. Fourth graders did a deep dive into multiple texts that centered around people facing speech difficulties like stuttering, and synthesized information from these sources to draw their own conclusions about facing challenges and accepting others for who they are. We spent most of our project time continuing our research on topics of choice, once again synthesizing information from multiple sources. We hope to be ready to present our informational essays to each other by the end of next week. Have a great weekend!
Señora H (Spanish):
In Spanish we learned about opposites, los opuestos, and worked on memorizing a poem about the seasons, las estaciones.
Mr. C (Music):
A huge thank you to the students, teachers, staff, and families of Truxton Academy. It's been a bittersweet week and I'm very sad to no longer be working with your students, but am very grateful for the opportunity to have worked with them the first half of this year.
Mrs. Boyden (PE):
This week in PE students were able to go sledding on the warmer days and we played some fun new tag games on the days that were too cold to go out! Check out my instagram mrs.boyden_pe to see photos of your wonderful children during PE class!
Mrs. Boyden (Makerspace):
This week in Makerspace we tried to build catapults out of popsicle sticks, rubber bands and plastic spoons to launch "snowballs"(cotton balls and styrofoam balls . Our students are so creative and dedicated to completing these fun challenges to create and build something awesome!
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