Hello Families and Supporters,
Happy Saturday! I apologize for the delay in sending this email out this week. It was a busy week at Truxton Academy. I was able to get into quite a few classes and loved seeing our students learning. It was so fun to see the 2nd grade students playing soccer in PE. They were doing such a nice job of cheering on their classmates. I saw the 3rd graders practicing different singing volumes as they sang the We are Truxton Academy song. (We will share a recording of this song once all the students know it.) In Ms. Elliott's Kindergarten class, I got to see the students joyfully matching up letters on letter cards to the letters on their rug as they practiced the letter names and got in movement at the same time. In 4th grade, I saw students writing their own word problems as they learned about factors and multiples and applied that learning to word problems. Way to go Truxton Academy Students!
Now that the school year is in full swing and routines and procedures are becoming habits for our students, we began our MAP growth assessments this week. This is a computerized assessment which adjusts the difficulty level of the question based on a student's answers so we can get a very detailed picture of what students know and do not know. Our students take this assessment 3 times per year so we can see growth throughout the year. The students take assessments in both math and reading at all grade levels K-4. Most of the younger students think this is fun because they get to use the computers. We will be sharing information from this assessment with parents at the Parent- Teacher conferences in November.
This week, I have a special appreciation note from one of our teachers to one of our first grade students: Thank you to Levi Barron for picking up trash, masks, and broken toys on the playground during recess on Friday. This was his own idea and was so proud to be so helpful. Levi is not just a K/1 helper, he is a whole school helper. Kudos Levi! ~Mrs. Francis
Way to go Levi!
A Note from the Office:
Some of you may have noticed that we have been having some problems with the phones at our school. We are working with our phone service provider to fix this. If you are experiencing phone trouble when calling us, please email Leaf (leaf.carmer@truxtonacademy.org) and Sara (sara.petitmcclure@truxtonacademy.org) to get any messages to us in a timely manner while our phone carrier is doing preventive maintenance over the next two weeks. It should take fewer than two weeks. Thank you for your patience when contacting the school.
A Note from the Nurse:
It was brought to our attention that the email sent out earlier in the week had some incorrect information. The questions for authorization do not match what we thought they would. At this point, for students we are only doing symptomatic diagnostic testing. The authorization questions would actually be for any kind of testing.
- The first question means you are authorizing your child's sample to be tested with a pool of other samples.
- The second question means that you are authorizing that sample to be run separately should the pool testing show a positive. In the pool testing method, they run multiple samples together at once. If all are negative, there is no further action taken. If the pool shows up positive, all samples in the pool are run separately in order to isolate who the positive case(s) may be. If the pool tests positive, all people whose samples were in that pool will be quarantined until the individual samples are run. This is usually 24- 48 hours.
- The third question gives authorization to our school nurse and I to be able to access the results for your child.
Once your child has a profile created, if you want them to be tested on a particular day, you will have to go in and register them for a test. This can be done on the day that it is needed at the time of the test. Both the profile creation and the test registration are optional and can be done at this website: https://app.clarifi-covid-19.com/
Please reach out if you have any questions.
From the PTO: Our first fundraiser is underway and runs through next Friday, October 8th. Please share this opportunity to purchase a SaveAround coupon book and supporting our community with family, friends, and anyone else you know that would be interested. Our school receives 50% of all sales! The SaveAround 12-month Coupon App is INCLUDED with the purchase of the book and has tons of additional coupons for savings on the go…even across the country. Please note that the books are able to be used from now through December 2022. You should have received a sample book home last week along with a flyer providing directions for those that wish to order online. We are including another copy of the flyer with this message for your convenience. Questions? Please don’t hesitate to reach out to Erin Kelly, PTO President, at pto@truxtonacademy.org. After School Enrichment: The afterschool enrichment STEAM and Drama programs begin this upcoming week on Monday and Wednesday. You should receive an email notifying you that your child has gotten a spot in one or both of the programs. If your child is enrolled in these programs, we will automatically change their dismissal plan to have them attend on the day(s) they are enrolled. If you want them to be dismissed at the regular time on any day that they would be attending enrichment, please call the office and send a note in to notify us of that change. Otherwise, please plan to have someone pick your child up between 4:20 and 4:30. Upcoming Dates: 10/5- School Photo Day: Don't forget to order pictures online or return your picture money before Tuesday! 10/6- Walk to School Day: Laps will be walked on the blacktop since most of our students can't walk to school- Please remember the fundraiser forms! 10/8- Last day of the PTO SAVE AROUND Coupon book fundraiser 10/11- Indigenous People's/ Columbus Day- NO SCHOOL 10/ 29- Book Character Parade 10:00 AM- More information to come 10/ 29- Trunk Or Treat 6:00- 8:00 PM (please email Mrs. Boyden if you want to decorate a trunk to participate heather.boyden@truxtonacademy.org) Updates from the classrooms: Ms. Elliott (K): Our Kindergarten friends learned how to be prepared during a fire drill and were able to experience one for the first time this week. They asked so many great questions and did a perfect job lining up and walking quickly and quietly all the way outside. We are so proud of them! Mrs. Francis (K/1): K/1 had a blast this week reading The Three Billy Goats Gruff many times! They became experts on making their words sound like the characters' words, setting, problem/solution, sequencing, and retelling the story using popsicle stick puppets. Speaking of being experts, the K/1s are working hard on their own teaching books. We focused on drawing clear, well detailed pictures about 1 topic and improving our writing stamina by writing for all of Writers' Workshop. In math we learned about inventories and practiced 1:1 correspondence up to 17! We put together tree puzzles, listened to silly sentences, practiced singing the ABCs to different melodies, and so much more! Ms. Smith (1st): This week we reviewed the short vowel sound of o! Here is the song we sing in class! Feel free to sing this with your kids! We also celebrated a birthday this week and had a fun dance party! Short O Sound: Tune: Pop! Goes the Weasel) The short o has The /o/ sound Like dog and log and frog The short o has The /o/ sound Pop! Goes the short o. Ms. Jess (2nd): Ask your Second Grader about… -adopting a dairy calf and collecting coins -playing the math game How Many Pennies -and finding snap words and scooping up words as they read. Ms. Madysen (3rd): Third graders are continuing to work really hard when it comes to following classroom expectations. In math we have been practicing skip counting and using pictures in order to help us create multiplication equations. Ask your student to sing "You've Got a Friend in Three", which is helping us learn the multiples of 3. In writing, we have started editing our first writing piece using colored pencils to help us prepare to publish our first writing of the year! Mr. Daniel (4th): This week, 4th graders learned more about Native American history such as where they lived in New York as well as tools and materials that they used. In writing, they started a narrative story about an event in their lives. In Math, they continued their exploration of multiplication, factors, multiples, and prime and composite numbers.. Señora H (Spanish): In Spanish the K, K/1, 1st and 2nd graders learned about sentiments (feelings) and formas (shapes). In the 3rd and 4th grade classes we learned words and phrases having to do with el otoño (fall). If you are interested in engaging in Spanish videos, songs, stories and more there is a wonderful resource now available for all Truxton Academy families called Rockalingua. The website is Rockalingua.com and the login information is the same for all students. I encourage you to look around and explore! Username: Truxton Password: 12345. Mr. C (Music): In our younger grades, we have continued to learn the chorus of our "We Are Truxton Academy" song. Our older grades have begun the process of putting together the ideas that will become the verses of our song. :) Ms. Ashley (PE & Makerspace): During our soccer unit, students played on small teams 3 on 3 OR 4 on 4 as the gym was divided into separate "playing fields." Most everyone had their sneakers ready to go, so thank you parents for having them prepared for class, again! This week we finished our first unit on biomimicry as kinders - 1st grade created geckos, and 2nd - 4th grade created pitcher plants. Additionally students watched a funny video from science teacher/youtuber Mr. Demaio on pitcher plants. More importantly, carnivorous plants! Check out his super funny and educational youtube channel here to learn about planets, hurricanes, volcanoes, and more when your kiddos are not in school: https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Mr.demaio+Youtube.com&&view=detail&mid=CEA014DEF7AC2CA86980CEA014DEF7AC2CA86980&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3DMr.demaio%2BYoutube.com%26FORM%3DRESTAB Thank you for your continued support of our school family! Have a great weekend! - Sara and the Truxton Academy Team
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