Weekly Newsletter 9/22

RED BLUE REVIEW

Head of School Review

BY DR. ANDY GRAHAM

What a great week it has been with so many fun activities One of my favorite recent activities was the hands on lettuce farm for our elementary students. One of our TRA Dads and a Parent Ambassador, Hunter Rasbach, came by the school last Friday with a special surprise. It is called The Farmstand and allows our students to grow plants at school. The students have planted 24 lettuce plants this week with the hope they will not only learn a little about growing plants but also tend a bumper crop of lettuce. The students were eager to get started and as you can see from this picture, they look like a capable group of farmers.

Head of School Review

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We are eagerly looking forward to our Parent Teacher Conference Day on September 28th!

This will be a day for parents to come to campus, discuss their child's learning, and get to know their child’s teachers a little better. I am often asked what questions are appropriate for a Parent Teacher Conference. I think the ones below are really good:

What do you see as an area of strength for my child?

If you could pick one area to focus on improvement for my child, what would it be?

How does my child contribute to the class atmosphere?

How is my child doing emotionally?

Do you have any concerns about my child?

I would also inform the teacher of any changes in my child’s home life. Those may include a new baby, a move, the loss of a pet, or a change in family circumstances. In the end, the best thing we can do for our child is to have open communication between the parents and the teacher

Lastly, as always, we appreciate your sending your awesome kids to us. It has been a wonderful start to school, and all of the students are contributing in such a positive way

Have a great weekend!

Upper School Review

BY STEPHANIE WEHRER

Art 1 students were given a work challenge on Monday. Ms. Maxwell gave the groups random art supplies and instructions to create something using the supplies on their table. Then came the challenges, which included: supplies that were taken away, supplies that were added and expected to be in the final design, as well as group members being taken from their group and added to another. What a fun way to see students being creative in art class!

Ms Maddux’s 6th grade math classes have been studying integers and absolute value On Wednesday they completed an activity where they constructed a human number line. I absolutely love seeing the creativity of our teachers and how they bring learning to life for the students at TRA.

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Ms. Watson’s Biology II class has been using microscopes to study microscopic specimens. Students were asked to bring in samples of pond water to examine under the magnification. As a former science teacher, I love activities like this because they are learning the practical skills of using scientific tools for observation, but also using samples from the surrounding community because it is relevant as a real world experience.

Ms. Park’s English III Honors class created instagram posts, or “Gastby Grams,” to illustrate different passages from Chapter 6 of the novel. Tonight is middle school homecoming, and we will crown the 8th grade football homecoming queen at 6:00 before the game. Please join us to support of lovely ladies representing their classes on the court, our football team and cheerleaders!

Monday, October 3 Western October 4 Team Shirt or Jersey Wednesday, October 5 Decades

Thursday, October 6 Festive Holidays (Upper School Wear Your Grade/Division’s Holiday Elementary Dress as any Holiday) NO scary Halloween costumes, please! students should wear a two pieced costume to make bathroom trips easier.)

Friday, October 7 Spirit Wear

Lower School Review

BY SUSAN CRANFORD

The TRA Fall Carnival is this Saturday! Come join us for lots of fun! The time is from 9:00 4:00, and we will have our wonderful Grandma’s Bakery, lots of games, auction baskets, Scholastic book fair and more! Our book fair will continue all next week here in the TRA library

We have several after school enrichment classes that are going on this semester. Mrs. Joan is having lots of fun with our boys and girls in robotics, and Ms. Jess is doing some amazing art projects with our boys and girls in after school art. They recently did lego self portraits which were great! We have soccer shots starting up soon, also. If you missed out on these classes this time, we will have them again later in the year if there is enough interest. Our second graders wrote about who their hero is. It was fun to read these and see the different heroes selected. Some were family members, teachers, friends, and even doctors Learning to write sentences, paragraphs, and stories is so important in the overall literacy level of your child We must learn to write to continue to be a good student in all subjects I am thankful our teachers begin this process as early as PreK and Kindergarten.

FALL CARNIVAL IS THIS SATURDAY FROM 9AM 4PM IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE ROSEMARK COUNTRY FAIR.

THE FALL CARNIVAL IS THE MAIN FUNDRAISER FOR THE PTO.

JOIN US FOR A DAY OF FAMILY FUN!

Lower School Review

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Our PreK 4 classes are learning their about bones and the letter X. They made some cool X rays. PreK 2 is sorting objects and counting them, and PreK 3 has a fun Friday planned with a real excavator coming to celebrate the end of letter ‘E” week.

PreK 4 is going on their first field trip this Friday to the Children’s Museum I know they will have so much fun as they explore this amazing place

One of our first grade dads, Hunter Rasbach, received a super cool “Lettuce Grow” kit from the Kiwanis Club. This is a hydroponic lettuce growing system and is so cool! I paired Mrs. Amanda William’s first grade class and Mrs. Claire Gezley’s class to work on this project together. This 100 degree heat is not our friend, and, hopefully, the cooler weather will help our lettuce thrive! This is such a great project, and we thank Mr. Rasbach for sending this to us!

Remember, our parent teacher conference day is next Wednesday, September 28. I hope you can all make it here to discuss your child’s progress. Don’t forget to come out to the middle school homecoming game tonight! We will have our kindergarten and first grade little Rebels cheering and playing at half time See you there!

Don't forget Parent / Teacher Conferences next Wednesday, September 28th. Students do not have school that day!