Happy Friday and Happy June! While it was a short week, it was still a busy one. We had our last visit from 4H yesterday and our students made cow masks in honor of National Dairy Month. The wonderful women from 4H who have been working with us also gifted us a quilt that was a collaborative effort between the students, who decorated the fabric squares, and Ms. Robin, who sewed the squares into a gorgeous quilt. Check it out in the attached picture!
Speaking of National Dairy Month, we also had some students participate in the Cortland County Dairy Parade on Tuesday night. The students did a fantastic job performing the Moo Cow song and dance they learned as well as the Truxton Academy pledge. Thanks to the families who brought their children out to participate or to support. Thanks to Ms. Kelly and the classroom teachers for helping our students learn the song and dance. Thanks also to Board Members, Patty Dawson and Krysta Austen for helping to arrange and set up our participation in this event. Our students were featured on the front page of the Cortland Standard article about the Dairy Parade!
As we near the end of the school year, we have quite a few events planned to celebrate this year and all the hard work that students, families, and staff members did to make it a successful year despite the global pandemic. Please read below carefully for information about these events. We need volunteers to help with some of them.
Upcoming Dates:
June 7- 11: Spirit Week- See attached flyer
June 11th: Field Day (Rain date June 18th): Please volunteer if you can using the link found above. Remote students are invited to this event.
June 14th: Board of Trustees Monthly Meeting 7PM
Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/98161711210?pwd=THlYdW5wOGttWnllWE9VU1MvVWxmZz09
Meeting ID: 981 6171 1210
Passcode: SSN9b7
June 16th: Kindergarten Graduation 6PM (All students and their families, including remote learners, are invited to this outdoor event.)
June 23rd: End of the Year Celebration Picnic Lunch and Music Presentation 12PM: Remote learners and all families are invited, full details to come
Updates from the classrooms:
Mrs. Francis' Class
This week in Kindergarten the students had the opportunity to share their reading and writing with the class. They chose to read a book to the class which they had been practicing during independent reading time or to share a writing piece they had worked hard on during Writers' Workshop. With this, we also practiced being good audience members and listening to our classmates. We also read the funny story Ragweed's Farm Dog Handbook. This handbook taught us which jobs a farm dog does and which jobs a farm dog does NOT do.
In math we worked hard at adding and subtracting and knowing when to use each operation. When working with word problems and visual stories we ask do we have more at the beginning or more at the end of the problem? We used the unifix cubes to make a model to help us solve the problems. We also finished our Teen Numbers Books!
We are finishing up our science unit on paper. Our last question in our paper unit was, how can we turn paper into something new? Answer: we can use newsprint and wheat paste to make paper mache bowls. This was a messy, but fun activity! We wrote about the steps in our science journals and the kids will have a chance to decorate them next week after they have had a chance to completely dry. It was another busy week in K. Enjoy the weekend!
Ms. Jess' Class
This week in K/1 we worked a lot on our science PBL on light and sound. In reading groups, we read nonfiction science books about light and sound. We explored different sounds, how they make us feel and how we use sounds to communicate. We played a sound guessing game and read about vibration and pitch. Students investigated different sources of light, how they make us feel and how we use light to communicate. Students made shadows with flashlights, read about light, mirrors and rainbows and investigated materials that can and can't let light pass through. We added many new words to our vocab wall such as reflection, translucent, transparent and opaque.
In math we started learning about coins! We added up to 20 and figured out the missing addend in addition sentences such as 10+___=16. Each student wrote one silly sentence about having a pet frog that we put together to make a whole silly story!
Ms. Smith's Class
This week we have been continuing to strengthen our reading skills and reading comprehension by reading passages, using our phonics skills, and answering questions about the passages we read. We have also been creating funny sentences using our sight words! In writing, our friends wrote a story about, The Day the Ants Stole Our Picnic. We have been working on creating a picture in our heads using words. Settings and character descriptions have been helpful in doing this. The more descriptive words we use the better the picture is in our heads! This Wednesday, we wrote our first draft, next Wednesday we will write our second draft! During snack time, we have been continuing our story of, The Knight At Dawn! Students have been amazing at remembering details and answering comprehension questions! Students have been using the descriptive details from the story to help them identify unfamiliar words like ‘precipice’.
In Math, we have been working on Math problems that highlight key Math vocabulary such as fewer and more than. We have been using graphs to help us answer questions and we have been focusing on fractions!
In Science, we are finishing up round two of our engineering egg drop experiments! Students have taken what they made and added changes to their contraptions to try and make it better! We did our final egg drop on Friday! Yay engineering! We were also visited by 4H for the final time. 4H has done some awesome projects with us and we are so grateful to have had them this year!
Ms. Sol's Class
This week 2nd/3rd graders continued with math review , reading and writing practice. We finished our MAP testing for Math & ELA. We are doing end of the year assessments to see how much growth and progress we have made this year.
We had our last 4H visit. Yesterday we decorated our masks with cow patterns with 4H mentors.
We are writing story drafts for a final writing project and we are planning some hands-on activities for the end of the school year.
Mrs. Hull's Class
Third graders had a lot of fun on this busy yet short school week. We had the opportunity to act as ambassadors for our school at the Cortland Dairy Parade on Tuesday night. Students spent time learning the Moo Cow dance and performed it on Truxton Academy's very own float during the parade. On Thursday, we learned all about bees on a virtual field trip to Kutik's Apiary sponsored by Ag in the Classroom. You can learn more about the apiary athttps://www.kutiks.com/ We learned more about character this week as we developed our characters for Chicken Little. We began taping scenes this week and hope to release the play by the end of next week. Also, our COVID stories have been published on Phillip's Free Library's Behind the Mask collection of stories. You can find the stories at https://covidstories.phillipsfreelibrary.org/ Have a great weekend!
PE
During the first week in June, P.E. students have been enjoying our new unit, FRISBEE!
We have been going over the fundamentals of throwing: stepping, wrist flick, and aiming with their pointer finger as they release the frisbee.
I encourage you all to get outside and practice as a family this weekend and check out their new skills!
*Since sandals are being worn with the warmer temperatures, please make sure sneakers are in backpacks everyday for P.E.
Thank You,
Ms. Ashley
Spanish
In K/1 this week, we began to add in el tiempo (the weather) to our estaciones (seasons) unit! K/1 learned a new song with gestures to help us remember the different types of weather. We also made little booklets as well picture dictionaries to take home to practice!
In second grade, students spent all week practicing our comidas y bebidas vocabulary! Students practiced by drawing each word and writing about whether they like that food/drink or not with the phrase “Me gusta!” (I like it!) and “No me gusta!” (I don’t like it). We finished up the week with a drawing game to test our knowledge on how well we remembered our words.
In third grade, students spent all week practicing insectos vocabulary! Students practiced by drawing each word and writing about whether they like that food/drink or not with the phrase “Me gusta!” (I like it!) and “No me gusta!” (I don’t like it). We finished up the week with a drawing game to test our knowledge on how well we remembered our words.
In virtual 2/3, students started up their last unit - insectos! They worked on their grammar - perfecting their knowledge in present tense verbs. They played a memory game to test their knowledge of the vocabulary, as well as visited Señorita Jasmine’s Bosque(Forest) to identify all the insectos we see.
Continúa con el buen trabajo, niños y niñas!
Music
Kindergarten
This week in music class kindergarten focused on keeping a steady beat, moving to music and learning about the ukulele. This week's class was vegetable themed! We learned a new song about pumpkin stew and chanted about chopping vegetables for soup. Overall, the most exciting part of music class was learning about the ukulele and hearing the sounds it can create. The students thoroughly enjoyed hearing a ukulele song and were so respectful that they earned a game of freeze dance.
First Grade
First grade music class was full of singing this week! We took advantage of the outdoor pavilion to practice our game about a fish and learn two new songs. We sang "Hello, Hola" by Janice Buckner and practiced saying "Hello!" in different languages (English, Spanish, Hebrew, French, Swahili, Japanese, and Italian). The group also sang Ella Jenkins' song "You'll Sing a Song" and came up with their own lyrics/movements to go along with it. There were many smiles in music class this week and we all were thankful that the rain let up enough for us to sing outside!
Second and Third Grade
Second and third graders continued working with the Japanese song and game called "Nabe, Nabe." After reviewing the song, lyrics and translation, students put their heads together to figure out the rhythmic notation for the entire piece. Students took turns writing the notation on the chalkboard underneath the lyrics to the song. Once this was complete we rehearsed the rhythm while students took turns being the conductor in front of the room. With the time that was left in class, I brought out my ukulele and students came up with their own percussion part to a simple song. Second and third graders worked hard in music class this week and are doing a great job with musical notation!
Musically yours,
Miss Kelly
Thank you for your continued support of our school family! Have a great weekend! - Sara and the Truxton Academy Team