We were so lucky to end this week with a beautiful sunny day on Friday! Students went outside for much of the day. Our PE classes benefitted from a beautiful day for a hike. Students in 2nd grade did math outside. Third graders got outside for science. Our kindergarten and first grade students did writing outside.
This week, in All-School Meeting, our students listened to the book Pigsty by Marc Teague and discussed responsibilities they have in school. In this silly book, a boy doesn't want to clean his room and it becomes so much of a pigsty that pigs actually move in. This book and discussion is part of our month long look at responsibility. This week, I saw students showing responsibility by doing their classroom jobs, cleaning up after themselves, and reminding their friends politely to clean up after one another.
Updates from the classrooms:
PE
This week in Physical Education we started our Hiking unit, we have practiced being observant while hiking with a nature scavenger hunt. We discussed hiking safety as well as items you may need to take with you when you go for a long hike. There are many great local places to go for a hike with your family,Sunday looks to be a great day to give their hiking skills a try! Check out my instagram & twitter for other fun local opportunities to be physically active!
Kindergarten/ First Grade
ELA: Kindergarten and First Grade students have been working very hard on their writing and adding details to make the stories interesting. Our kindergarten students have been working on telling a story using drawings with lots of details. Our first graders have been working on writing stories about something that happened in their life and stretching out the small moments with lots of details. They are working on stories that have drawings and writings over 3 or 4 pages with lots of details and have been learning about using different types of punctuation to show emotion in their stories. All of these kiddos are also rocking their independent reading time!
Science: In science our Kindergarten and First Grade students have been learning about their senses. They have made a Mr. or Ms. Potatohead to demonstrate the body parts that are tied to our senses. The first graders wrote sentences to go along with their potato head. The students have also been talking about how animals use their senses in the wild. We are looking forward to more fun activities where students practice using their senses!
Math: Both our Kindergarten and First Grade students have been working on sorting and categorizing in different ways. The students really enjoyed a dice rolling and button sorting game which challenged students to sort buttons in a variety of different ways and practice making patterns. Kindergarten students continue to practice counting and number recognition while the first graders have been practicing counting on to add and counting backwards to subtract.
Mindfulness: This week in Mindfulness class, the K/1 students started paying attention to how they feel before and after mindfulness practice. They also started learning about heartfulness, sending kind thoughts to themselves and others. Many kind thoughts have been sent your way! ❤
Second Grade
This week our second graders have really been revving up their Readers' and Writers' workshop work. They are working on reading and writing for longer periods of time and worked up to 20 minutes of each this week. They are enjoying reading outside in nature as much as they can. Last week they picked a country to research for Hispanic Heritage month and have been enjoying doing the work on this project both in school and at home.
Third Grade
This week in Third Grade, we began reading and writing spooky stories. Many students had the opportunity to learn about and read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. We all wrote the ending of a spooky story, "The Forbidden Door," started by author Bruce Coville. Students who create stories of at least 500 words and choose to, will submit their story to a contest at the Syracuse Post Standard. Third graders also completed their tree models and continue to add facts about trees to teach others about their learning. Check out the posts about this project on our facebook page. Third graders took some time to reflect on their shared responsibilities to keep the classroom running smoothly and our focus on learning. They created a checklist that they can refer to each day to help them stay organized and productive. Have a great weekend!
Spanish
In the kindergarten and first grade classes, the kids continue to practice colors. They are making their own small book about the colors to help them remember them. In the second and third grade classes, the students are continuing to practice common greetings and phrases. They are working on finishing their interactive notebook for the "greetings" portion. Our virtual second and third grade learners are creating a comic book strip using the "greetings" vocabulary words as well. Upcoming Dates: 10/12- No School in Observance of Columbus and Indigenous People's Day 10/13- Fire Safety Month visit from the Truxton Fire Department 10/19- Board of Trustees Meeting 7:00 PM (in the school cafeteria and via zoom- zoom link will be available on the calendar section of the website and the facebook page closer to the date) 10/24- Trunk or Treat Event 6:00- 8:00 PM: Come Celebrate Halloween, in an outdoor socially distanced manner, at Truxton Academy! Bring your children in costumes (and feel free to wear one yourself) as they get some halloween treats from decorated trunks from some of our staff, board members, and community volunteers. This event is open to the public. Feel free to bring friends! 10/30- Book Character Parade: We invite all students to dress up as a character from a book and bring the book to school with them to share with their class. If children want to make their own book to match their costume, they are welcome to. We will walk down through the town of Truxton and invite our neighbors to come outside of their houses and businesses to see the students in their book character costumes. As a reminder, we have a public facebook page where we share many pictures of our students learning. Please check it out to see some of the wonderful work our teachers and students are doing every day! (https://www.facebook.com/truxtonacademy)