Happy Friday and Happy first week of June! We have made it to the end of the year. We have just over a week left in this school year. As the school year is ending, I feel bittersweet. I am so proud of the growth our students have made and the resilience they (and you as parents) have shown in the face of all of the changes we have experienced. At the same time, I am sad that we aren't able to be together in person to celebrate. I miss seeing our students everyday and as the year ends, that sadness becomes even more real to me. This sadness, however, is mixed with excitement and hope that we will be able to see each other in the fall. I am also looking forward to the upcoming opportunities for us to celebrate in a socially distant manner (see below).
With everything going on in our country between COVID-19 and health concerns, and protests and racial concerns, this is a difficult time. Yesterday I sent out some resources for talking to your children about race and helping your children understand what is going on. This week in All-School Meeting, we read a book called "Hey Little Ant," which looks at the same situation from the perspective of a little boy and an ant. While I had planned to read this book long ago, I think it is fitting for right now with so much division in our country. The boy and the ant share their perspectives with each other and then the book leaves it up to the reader to decide what they would do if they were the boy. Our students all said they would not squish the ant because it is a living thing and is depended on by the other living things in its colony. They were able to take on the perspective of the ant. During times of conflict, it is important that we look at different perspectives and try to understand them. I was proud of the understanding, empathy, and kindness our students were able to discuss when we read the book. I am proud of the kindness, empathy, and understanding they are able to show one another at times at school. As a school, we will continue to build these skills in our students and we thank you for doing that as parents as well.
Important Updates
End of Year Information:
Kindergarten Drive-in Graduation
We will be holding a drive-in graduation ceremony for our kindergarten students and their families on June 12th at 5:00PM. Kindergarten parents should have already received an email about this. I will be sending an email later today with more details and asking for an RSVP so that we can make sure we plan accordingly for parking spots.
Drive-thru Good-Bye Parade
We are excited to offer an opportunity for all students to say good-bye to our teachers and staff. Staff will be standing outside the building in the back from 3:00- 4:00 on Monday June 15th to say good-bye. We will send a separate email out next week with complete details about this event. We'd love to see all of our students to wave good-bye for the summer!
Virtual 5-K:
Registration for our Virtual 5k is up and running! Go to jmmcomplex.com and click on events to register and support our Truxton Academy community! Please share our event with family and friends. Here is the facebook page with the announcement: https://www.facebook.com/truxtonacademy/photos/a.846361425444621/2985482034865872/?type=3&theater
New Student Recruitment
We will also be doing a virtual live question and answer session via zoom once per week on Thursdays. You can find the event for next week's page here: https://www.facebook.com/events/726023141270787/
If any parents would be willing to join these to give a current parent perspective, please email me. Parent perspectives are very helpful to other parents who are considering our school for their children.
PTO Updates
Thank you to those who came to the Beddie-Bye Book night. It was wonderful!
Learning Updates
Mrs. Francis' Class
In ELA this week we learned about nonfiction texts. We read the book Honey Bees and learned many cool facts about honey bees. Did you know that honey bees have 5 eyes?? I didn't! We also learned about the features of nonfiction texts (Table of Contents, glossary, and labels and captions for the pictures). Then the kids picked their favorite fact about honey bees and wrote a sentence to share that information. Their sentences are looking great! Keep having them practice stretching out words and listening to what they hear so writing becomes easier. Remember, they won't hear every sound and it is most beneficial for them to stretch the words themselves and listen. If they miss an obvious sound, ask them if there is a sound you hear before that? In math this week we continued to solve addition problems using the strategy of counting on. We also practiced representing these problems with number sentences. When the kids use this strategy, they will only make one of the addends using manipulatives and then put the other number in their head and count up. For the problem 11+7 you would only make a group of 7, then have them "put 11 in their head" (ask them what comes next and then they will count up while moving the manipulatives, 11...12. 13. 14, 15...). Please have them practice this strategy during their math work this week and next week. Thanks, as always, for all your hard work!! Have a nice weekend!
Mr. D'Antonio's Class
This week our class continued to do a great job through distance learning. Many students shared pictures of the worm farm they created and some of the worms they collected. There are a lot of creative ideas out there and the kids are doing some outstanding observation. In our class meetings this week we discussed World Milk Day and what our favorite type of cheese is. We probably did the first ever "Milk Toast" in Zoom history. We also learned lots about subtraction using different strategies, 3D shapes, and bicycle safety. The students continue to put amazing effort and energy into their learning during this time!
Mrs. Hull's Class
Second graders are really enjoying studying worms this week. We have developed strategies for catching worms: spraying water on the grass or just waiting until it rains and picking worms up off the sidewalk. We found a virtual earthworm dissection and had a chance to look inside the worm. We've discussed the merits of worms and whether or not we would eat them. There are also a lot of fiction and non-fiction books about worms on Epic that we have enjoyed reading together. Worms are so interesting and they've literally been right under our feet the whole time!
PE
This week in PE students learned a new dance! Practiced their catching and throwing skills with a game of catch as well as tried a jump rope challenge! Keep up the great work!
Spanish
This week students in Spanish class have kept the hard work in physical descriptions (type of hair, age, size) and the family members (also including family pets). We used several family pictures to recognize the family members on those like father, mother, daughter, son, baby, grandfather, grandmother and bring up some known topics such as numbers, clothes, and colors. In the June project the students had made wonderful worms of egg cartons describing colors and parts of the body. They also listed animal names and learned some facts about the worms.
Sara Petit-McClure, M.S. Curriculum and Instruction & Educational LeadershipHead of School Truxton Academy Charter School pronouns: she, her, hers (607) 842-6252