Update from our Head of School - October 7, 2022

Dear Students and Families,

There are so many excellent things going on in classrooms and as I walk around I am reminded about how lucky we are to be a Truxton Academy family! Just a note: Our students go outside everyday that the weather is permitting and the temperatures are getting colder. Please remember to dress your child appropriately for the weather each day. In addition, we are, like most families, resisting the urge to turn the heat on so early in the fall and at times our building is chilly and requires all of us to wear a sweater or sweatshirt. Last week I talked about Student of the Month: Below are each month's character trait so that you can help us by discussing these at home in addition to school.

September-Responsible

October-Respectful

November-Trustworthy

December-Cooperative

January-Dependable

February-Hard-Working

March-Thoughtful

April-Polite

May-Dependable

June-Loyal

Upcoming Dates 10/7 NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS 10/10 INDIGINOUS PEOPLES DAY-NO SCHOOL-students or staff 10/17 Coffee with Kerryanne 10am-11am 10/18 Fire Safety Presentations 1-3pm 10/27 September Student of the Month Breakfast 9am 10/28 Student of the Month Ceremony 8:45am 10/28 Trunk or Treat 6pm-7:30pm 10/31 Halloween Parade 10am-11am Updates for the Classrooms: Kindergarten This week in kindergarten we: *Had a blast scoring a hole in one while mini golfing at Shipwreck *Read about Little Bo-Peep and what it means to have a flock of sheep *Shared different ways of how we could build a ten frame and discussed how to use it to represent quantities *Played 'If you're happy and you know it' to practice listening to beginning sounds *Played 'Spot the picture card' to exercise blending sounds with three syllables *Began to discuss what steps we need to take to prepare for our class pet *Discussed what a community member is and how they help our society

First Grade This week in First Grade we: -Learned about how light helps our eyes to see -Learned that light can and can't go through some objects or bounce off from objects -Did a fun collage separating opaque and transparent objects -Learned about the vowel o sound -Read CVC words with vowels, a, i, and o -Segmented CVC words to try and spell them -Read the fable a Wolf in Sheep's Clothing -Learned 2 new Math games and strategies for adding 2 numbers together -Learned safety tips for biking and walking from our friendly neighborhood police officers -Practiced our phonics skills with fun games while enjoying the warm weather Second Grade Ask your Second Grader about... -what they learned about Hispanic Heritage Month, -reading the story "Island Born," -writing letters describing their community, -solving story problems with multiple addends, -using number strings to solve addition equations with multiple addends, -our "How Many Pockets?" investigation, -words that end in 'ng' and 'nk', -their addition and subtraction facts cards, -where monarch butterflies migrate to, -and what they are reading during independent reading.

Third Grade Ask your third grader about: *Kids vs. Teachers and how they as a class earn points (and about the impact teachers earning points has on our learning environment). Our very social group is working on minimizing talking in between tasks, hearing and following directions the first time, and being our BEST self so we all can learn and have fun! *how many steps 1 lap around the school is (384!) *what happens in the last two chapters of Stone Fox and how many stars out of 5 they would give it. *what they are reading about in their independent reading book *the patterns we notice on our 100s chart when we skip count by 2, 5, 10, and 3s *the changes they see in the seeds in their mini-sprouters from last week *our fun with Ms. Holly and tomato seeds!

Fourth Grade -The fourth-grade is learning about characterization and writing about the traits of the characters in the novel Upside Down Magic, as well as alternative novels being read in class. -4th Graders have started learning about collecting data and using a line plot to organize, represent, and analyze data to compare groups. Students will create a line plot comparing the heights in inches of the 4th grade class and the first-grade class. -In social studies, 4th graders are learning about the Algonquian People. -In science students are learning about desert and rainforest ecosystems and have started researching desert or rainforest animals for an ecosystem project.

Fifth Grade Ask your 5th Grader about... - Identifying Main Ideas/Details in a text - Writing a friendly, persuasive letter organized by main idea and details - Spelling the final "k" sound in single and multisyllabic words. - Properties of whole numbers: factors, odd/even, prime vs. composite numbers - Creating and separating mixtures - Prefixes: Pre-, Fore-, Post- and After- - Vocabulary: Standard form, area model, place value, array, mixture, physical properties, rigid, and coax. - Defense mechanisms animals use to survive in the wild Rural Life Lab n our rural life lab this short week, Kindergarteners turned their bodies into trees and went on a leaf search. 2nd grade checked in with their strawberry plants and learned more about hydroponics. 3rd and 4th grades helped care for our school campus. Spanish In Spanish this week we read a book about making hot chocolate. The niños really enjoyed learning some songs about chocolate as well. Here are links to the videos if you would like to show them at home: Chocolate Song - Choco-choco-la-la Choca-choca-te-te PE I want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who has helped with covering for me and making the field lesson fun for the kids and national walk/bike to school event great for all. I appreciate it! I can't wait to see you all again finally tomorrow! Send me any photos you may have taken from golf and the walking so I can share it on our facebook page. THANK YOU! 6073455384

Note from the Cafeteria: We have partnered with Hershey Ice Cream Smart Snack program for our Friday Ice Cream days which means we will now be offering a reduced fat ice cream sandwich (flavors may change) as well as an allergy friendly option (Tropikool fruit bar or a juice rush cup, depending on the week). The price will stay the same at $1.50, please make sure your student has adequate funds on their myschoolbucks account to participate. Have a terrific weekend! Stay safe and stay healthy! ~Mrs. S.

"Don't count the days, make the days count!"- Muhammed Ali

Kerryanne Schenck Head of School Truxton Academy Charter School