Happy Friday! I can't believe it is almost June. This year has flown by even as parts of it towards the end have seemed to move slowly due to distance learning. It feels that as we move into June, we are (finally) moving into summer weather. I hope you and your family have been surviving the heat this week. As someone who lived in Texas for almost 10 years, I love it, but I know it can be brutal for others. Summer weather in New York is so nice! I hope you all are finding some time to enjoy the outdoors.
I have been to school a few times this week and really miss seeing our students when I am there. That said, we know we are all safer at home and understand the safety restrictions put in place while also acknowledging how hard these restrictions are on us. Our guinea pigs and trout are at school and being well cared forby our maintenance staff. We are working on plans for new animal additions for next year as well.
We hope that our project this month has helped you and your children deal with some of the challenges this time has presented to our community and our world. Our focus on mental health and keeping yourself and others feeling positive has been helpful to my family and I hope to others as well. Change in routine is hard, especially for children who are still learning how to express themselves and cannot always communicate their emotions effectively. As we move on to our next project, we plan to keep some of the mindfulness activities in our plans to help students continue to build and apply these skills.
Important Updates
School Calendar Changes and Summer School:
Thank you to the families who took the time to fill out our quick survey about the school year calendar and summer school. The executive committee met yesterday and took this information under advisement. According to the family survey, the vast majority of families feel that it will be more beneficial for them to end the school year early. The official last day of school for the 2019-202 school year for students will be Monday, June 15th. Our teachers will have a few extra work days to reflect on this school year and begin planning for next year. Their last day will be June 18th.
For parents who would like some additional activities to have for their children up until June 26th, which was the last day of school on the original calendar, please let us know. We can make sure you have some work that meets your children's needs.
No decision has been made with regard to summer school as this is dependent on budget. School funds across New York State and the country are being cut in response to the economic challenges of this time. As we get more information about this, we will communicate about whether we will be able to offer an optional distance learning summer school. If there is a summer school program, it will utilize distance learning methods per Governor Cuomo's executive order.
Next Project:
Our next project, Worm Farm, begins on Monday. Packets have been mailed or are ready for pick-up at the school in the brown bin. If you receive your child's work digitally, it will be emailed out before Monday.
Virtual 5-K:
Please support our Truxton Academy community by sharing our upcoming Virtual 5K Run/Walk on Facebook and consider participating with your family and friends. Registration will be coming soon! Here is the facebook page with the announcement: https://www.facebook.com/truxtonacademy/photos/a.846361425444621/2973621726051903/?type=3&theater
New Student Recruitment We still have some spots open at our school for next year. Please remember to help us out with new student recruitment if you would like to by doing one of the following or talking to your friends and neighbors (in a socially distant way): 1. Videos and Pictures of your child's work- you can send these directly to me 2. Reviews of our School- You can do this on the facebook page 3. Share our facebook posts on your personal page- at times you need to check a box that ensures that the whole post is shared. 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/246448610133152/ PTO Updates The PTO will be hosting Virtual Beddie-Bye Book Night tonight, Friday, May 29th at 6:00 PM. All students who attend will be mailed a free book afterwards. Thanks PTO for helping us keep our community strong during these unprecedented times. Learning Updates
Mrs. Francis' Class
This week in Kindergarten the kindergarteners read a book to me! We previewed sight words and 4 sound blends (CCVC and CVCC words) in order to make our reading great. They have come so far as readers! Keep practicing and watch their skills grow even more! We also wrote a sentence about the story they read. In math, they showed me how they solve an addition problem independently and then told me the steps so we could double check their answer together. We also reviewed and then sorted real world 3D shapes. Great work this week!
Mr. D'Antonio's Class
This week our class has continued to do a great job through distance learning. We have been doing some excellent work in math especially with subtraction, using symbols to determine numbers in equations, and finding the missing number in an equation. In ela, the students have shown excellent growth in their reading skills as we are reading harder books and recognizing more words. We have also been doing lots of good writing about whether we would want to go to outer space or how to make a paper airplane. The kids have been very focused and working hard in our zoom meetings. Awesome job!
Mrs. Hull's Class
Second graders have really invested in their learning this week. Congratulations to second grade on reading over 1000 books on Epic! This is an exceptional amount of reading. In imagining and designing a 3rd grade classroom, second graders have presented many intriguing and helpful ideas. Some suggestions include a class pet (tarantula, snake, goose or bunny), a personal office for everyone, a reading corner with lots of books and listening station, art and craft stations, building materials, and safe spaces. Keep up the great thinking, second grade.
PE
This week in PE students began a virtual race with physical activity time! Keep up the great work! Send those activities and times to Mrs. Boyden to be part of the race and see the race on google classroom! It ends next week!
Spanish
This week students have practiced how to describe the physical characteristics of members of a family, with Spanish vocabulary, using a picture as a model. Also they have practiced the vowel sounds in Spanish and some relaxation techniques in the May project.
Thank you,
Sara and the Truxton Academy Team
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