Hello Families and Supporters,
Happy Friday! What an exciting busy week we have had here at school as we started our maple exploration. We'd like to send a special thank you to Mrs. Downes, parent of a 2nd and 3rd grader, who taught all of our classes a lesson about maple tapping. We have three buckets collecting sap on sugar maples on our property and are excited to follow up on the process later this month.
We'd also like to send a special thank you to three other volunteers who visited the school this week. Mrs. Sturges, a former Board of Trustees member, came and did a nature lesson with our K/1 class using the book "The Mitten" by Jan Brett. Ms. Priscilla from the Phillips Free Library in Homer came in and led a book club discussion with our 4th grade class about the book, "Waiting for the Magic," by Patricia MacLachlan. Mrs. Harrington helped 3 classes get started with an incubation project and we are hoping for some chicks to hatch close to the end of this month. We are so grateful for volunteers who give their time and share their knowledge to make our students' school experience special and unique.
In addition to our maple lessons, classes have gotten outside for other lessons, classes have gotten outside for other lessons this week including a 3rd grade lesson on perimeter. We are looking forward to more Spring weather soon as the nicer weather offers even more learning activities outside. Our Rural Life Lab Committee is working on a plan for the garden and while we are expecting more snow this weekend, we are anxiously awaiting the time when we can get outside and have the students do some planting.
Messages for Families
Special Persons' Day- March 18th
Students may invite a parent or other special person to watch their dance performance and do an activity in their classroom. Attached is the flyer for Special persons day performance and activity itinerary.
Students can invite multiple people to the dance but only one to the classroom activity due to spacing in the classrooms. Please reach out to your child's classroom teacher about any questions.
The students decided on what colors they wanted to wear for their performances. Please have them wear the following on March 18th. If you need help getting the appropriate clothing for your child, please reach out to Mrs. Leaf (leaf.carmer@truxtonacademy.org) or Ms. Petit-McClure (sara.petitmcclure@truxtonacademy.org) 4th - White shirt, blue pants 3rd - Truxton Blue & Green 2nd - Black 1st - Yellow shirt, blue pants K/1 - Red K - Red
Family Math Night- March 24th
Truxton Academy will be hosting its first ever Math Night in recognition of World Maths Day on Thursday, March 24th from 5:30 pm to 6:30 pm in the cafeteria and gymnasium. Everyone is welcome to join us in some fun math games and STEM activities. Snacks will be available as well. We look forward to getting together and having some fun with math!
Yearbook Ordering is happening now!!!
2021-2022 Yearbooks cost $8, (plus 40 cents as a processing fee). This year, yearbook orders will go through Isaf-Merkur, the company who is publishing the yearbook. To order a 2021-2022 yearbook for your child, visit: https://buytheyearbook.pictavo.com/PictavoSchool/FindSchool
Our school code is: 700844
Financial Assistance is available. We do not want any student to miss out on these memories. If your family needs assistance with purchasing a yearbook, please contact Mrs. Leaf (leaf.carmer@truxtonacademy.org).
Note from the Main Office: 1) Thank you to those who have returned paperwork for this upcoming school year. If you haven't yet, please return the 2022-2023 school year paperwork as soon as possible. YOU CAN TURN IT IN AT OUR OPEN HOUSE SATURDAY, MARCH 12, 2022 10AM TO 12PM.
As a reminder, the transportation request is due no later than April 1, 2022 in order to have local district transportation for your student(s). Please email Mrs. Leaf (leaf.carmer@truxtonacademy.org) with any questions. Bottle and Can Drive: We are hosting a bottle and can drive! Please drop off your bottles and cans to the trailer parked on the side of the school now through Sunday, March 13th. Thank you! Upcoming Dates: 3/12- Open House 10AM-12PM 3/14- Board of Trustees Meeting-7PM at school and on zoom https://zoom.us/j/91567143586?pwd=cGM3bjZlemxGTGVtUmMwRk5WdG5iQT09 Meeting ID: 915 6714 3586 Passcode: 9ia1fw 3/18- Special Persons Day 3/24- Family Math Night, 5:30-6:30 Updates from the classrooms: Ms. Elliott (K): This week in kindergarten we: *Began our cookbook project to practice our writing skills. (Ask your kiddo what food we are writing about first (: ) *Had a blast learning about maple tapping at our field lesson *Worked together to show different ways we can make 6, 8, and 10 using connector cubes *Used our thinking caps to help us read using letter sound knowledge *Celebrated a birthday for a special friend :) *Earned a grand prize for great listening ears: Teacher for a Day! Mrs. Francis (K/1): This week in K/1 we:*learned the rest of the s blends (sp, st, sw, and squ) and practiced reading and writing words which use s blends *practiced rereading sentences in our books if we find tricky words. This helps us be more fluent readers! *read about dragonflies and learned some really weird and cool facts about them- ask us what we learned! *played math games which helped us practice counting on and counting back *made plywood and then wrote about how we made it in our science journals *learned about how we can replicate Rosie's natural habitat in our classroom *learned about maple syrup with Mrs. Downes *read The Mitten by Jan Brett and did activities related to it with Mrs. Sturges
Ms. Smith (1st):
This week in 1st grade: *Finished our digraph unit!
*Learned about what chickens need to survive so we can have the responsibility of raising baby chicks! The more we learn the better we will be able to care for them and help them grow!
*Designed, drew, and labeled our own incubators!
* Received our eggs and put them in the incubator! Thanks Mrs. Harrington and Mrs. Grinnals!
*Learned and practice counting on and counting back strategies when adding and subtracting.
*Learned about the history of maple syrup and how it is made! We also helped tap a few of our own trees!
*Started writing chapters in our book about "Our School".
*Practiced being superheroes! We are the Resilient Readers! We learned of a new super power that will help us solve tricky words. This power is slowing down, rereading, and using our fingers to run across the word to help us read all parts of the word!
*Introduced the Controlling R rule! AR says 'ar' like a pirate!
Ms. Jess (2nd):
Ask your Second Grader about...-our outdoor maple lesson,
-what they observed happening with our mealworms,
-how to measure the water level, add nutrients and test the pH of our grow tower,
-how the swiss chard they are growing in our grow tower tasted,
-what they read and learned about Jane Goodall and how she followed her dreams,
-using the chrome books in reading and math,
-solving story problems like 68-6 and 44+25,
-playing the math game close to 100 or 200,
-the activity where we noticed that everything we say or do sends a "ripple" through our world, like throwing a stone in water,
-how they earned a Marble Reward Party,
-and other women they have read about for Women's History Month.
Thank you to everyone who has donated items to our classroom, we are grateful!
Ms. Madysen (3rd):
Ask your third grader about...
-U.S. standard and metric tools and the units of measure (ruler, yardstick, meter stick, inches, feet, yard, centimeters, meters)
-how to choose the appropriate tool for measuring the perimeter of different objects
-the suffixes -er and -est and how to add them to the root of a word
-what nonfiction text features are (title, subtitle, captions, pictures, diagras, bold/highlighted text) and why they are used
-the article "The Day it Rained Meat" and what is believed to have really happened on March 3, 1876
-who they researched for their growth mindset poster and why they are considered for having a growth mindset
-what the different parts of a chicken egg are
-their in-house field lesson about tapping Maple Syrup
Ms. Chelsea (4th):
This week in 4th grade we have been investigating addition using strategies based on place value as well as the standard algorithm. We've also been using our brainstorming from last week to draft a short persuasive piece and learned about how to *hook* a reader by opening with a question, interesting fact, or description. A special guest, Ms. Priscilla, joined us from the Phillips Free Library on Wednesday to lead a book club discussion. She left us with our class book for next month: "Shine!" by J.J. & Chris Grabenstein. Kids are talking all about reading for, and finding, meaning within our own books as well as short stories provided to them. Interactive Science Notebooks are also being set up as a prequel to our next science unit all about energy!
Señora H (Spanish):
In Spanish, in K, K/1, 1 and 2 we reviewed food and "me gusta", I like. We read the story "Diego esta infermo". In 3 and 4 we read a story about a friendly alien named Chispa who went to the earth, "la Tierra". As a reminder, your niños can access Spanish songs and games at home at www.Rockalingua.com. Login: Truxton Password: 12345
Mrs. Boyden (PE):
This week in PE we have been continuing to practice our dance routine for the performance and learn some fun new dances along the way like the cha cha slide, cupid shuffle and cotton eyed joe!
Mrs. Boyden (Makerspace):
This week in Makersace we laser engraved our names into a wood tag. The names were the students' own handwriting!
Check out our facebook and instagram pages for pictures of our students' learning throughout the year: https://www.facebook.com/truxtonacademy
Thank you as always for your support of our students and our school family. Have a wonderful weekend and stay safe and enjoy the snow if we get a large March snowstorm!
- Sara and the Truxton Academy Team