Busy Bee News

“Buzz”-worthy Moment: Your kids are BRILLIANT! Ask them about the short expository text, “Inspired by Nature”. Our discussion on details and the main idea was amazing, which led to a student giving us a definition of the “sonic boom”!!

Our January Schedule…

Lunch with 3rd Grade (Mondays) Sign Up:

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0d4dafae2ca3f9c70-lunch

Guided Reading Groups (Tue/Wed/Thu) Sign Up:

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0D4DAFAE2CA3F9C70-guided

Friday 1/20 Wear your Busy Bee Tee!

Saturday 1/21

January Community Activity- Save the Date!  

We had so much fun at December’s Find Mrs. Laramie! It was so much fun to get together as a community to enjoy each other’s time. January’s will be a picnic at the Riparian on January 21^st at 11 am! More specific details to come!

San Tan’s Annual Gifted Testing 

If you are interested in having your child tested for giftedness, please complete the digital Parent Request Form, along with the $50 Co-Pay, linked below.  Gifted testing is will be offered in mid. February. Once a child is identified as gifted, they do not need to retest.

• If your child is currently in a gifted class and identified as ‘provisional’ they will automatically be retested, you do not need to send in the recommendation form.: -)
• Gifted Testing Requests are due no later than January 12^th of 2023.
• Digital Parent Request & Payment:  Click Here

Wednesday, 1/25

Friday 1/27 Wear your Busy Bee Tee!

Friday 1/27, 7pm Cheer Clinic/Camp Performance at STCS Boys Varsity Basketball Game Half-Time. Go Roadrunners!!!

 

In other NEWS…

Busy Bee Tees: Wear them on FRIDAYS!!!

The company that made our Busy Bee Tees for us was started by a few STCS High School Students and a dad. Feel free to browse their STCS Spirit Gear! I truly appreciate how they took care of us and our Busy Bee Tees! https://sstshirt.com/

 

A Glimpse into our Class

Daily Schedule

This is subject to change, of course!

daily-schedule-22-23

Homework

I am encouraging the kids to work on the homework emailed at the beginning of each week.

Any time they spend reading, writing, doing math, and practicing skills will encourage academic success!!

Reminder: I check homework for EFFORT, not COMPLETION. You decide how much gets done at home!

BENEFITS of Homework:

• Extra practice for students who may need it
• Communication with parents about what we are doing in class
• Creates good study habits
• Gives students the opportunity to ‘accomplished’ when they are finished and/or they understand
• Creates opportunities for parents and/or older siblings to spend time with their 3rd grader

***Homework is NOT meant to be a frustration!

My purpose with homework is for the kids to get the practice they need so they understand the concepts AND to show you what they know! If the math packet is easy for them, for example, there is no need for them to complete it at home, although they probably will have finished it at school! THE POINT: I know you are all busy! I am typically flexible with due dates so if you have sports or ??? one night, feel free to wait until the next night to do it.  When they return the homework to me, I acknowledge the time and effort they put into it. If this inspires your child to get the practice at home, wonderful! If not, no added stress!!

Social-Emotional Learning:

Read Aloud:

Because of Winn Dixie  By Kate DiCamillo

We are going to enjoy this heartwarming story while digging deep into literary concepts such as COMPREHENSION, CAUSE and EFFECT, AUTHOR’S PURPOSE, CHARACTER ANALYSIS, FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE, and BOOK vs. MOVIE COMPARISON (If we decide to watch the movie!)

MAIN THEMES and LESSONS:

FRIENDSHIP   LONELINESS  JUDGING OTHERS

Language Arts

We began Unit 4 with the Essential Question: How can we use what we know to help others? The kids LOVED that we read a part of a sequel to Clementine by Sara Pennypacker. Clementine discovered that when she thought she had no talent to perform for the talent show, her principal noticed her talents were best used in helping the kids who were performing!

Reading:

We enjoy our Guided Reading Groups each week. THANK YOU to our parents who led the groups Tue/Wed/Thu 11:40-12:15. We LOVE having you in class!! If you would like to join us, here is the link: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0D4DAFAE2CA3F9C70-guided

Writing:

We continued to work on writing a complete paragraph by comparing two of our favorite literary characters: Clementine and Opal.

Spelling:  Variant Vowels: /oo/ /u_e/ /ue/ /ew/

Grammar Focus:

Linking Verbs

Continuing:

Using Commas

Content Words

Context Clues

Sequencing Events

Past/Present/Future Tense Verbs

Capitalizing Book Titles

Figurative Language: Idioms

Synonyms

Abbreviations

Name Titles

Verb Tenses and Subject/Verb Agreement

Adding -y to change the meaning: rock to rocky

Quotation Marks

Colons in the time

Verbs

Homographs.

Open Syllables

Possessive Nouns

Closed Syllables

Collective Nouns: class, team, family

Irregular Plural Nouns: tooth/teeth, mouse/mice, deer, moose, woman/women, life/lives

Homophones

Prefixes un/re/dis

Plural Nouns, adding -s or -es AND changing the y to i

Common Nouns/Proper Nouns

Concrete Nouns/Abstract Nouns

Word Meanings, including multiple meanings

Math Topic 7: Represent and Interpret Data

The kids look at collected data such as tally marks and survey totals and put it into bar graphs, picture graphs, etc.

XtraMath.com

This is great math fact fluency practice at home! Let me know if your child earns a certificate!!

Khan Academy

Feel free to do this at home! Here is the link for the ELA practice:

https://www.khanacademy.org/ela

Science: Animal Lifecycles

Social Studies: The 5 C’s of Arizona State: Cattle

 

Other San Tan News…

Gifted Testing Registration

San Tan’s annual Gifted Testing  

If you are interested in having your child tested for giftedness, please complete the digital Parent Request Form, along with the $50 Co-Pay, linked below.  Gifted testing is will be offered in mid. February.   Once a child is identified as gifted, they do not need to retest.

• If your child is currently in a gifted class and identified as ‘provisional’ they will automatically be retested, you do not need to send in the recommendation form. : -)
• Gifted Testing Requests are due no later than January 12^th of 2023.
• Digital Parent Request & Payment:  Click Here

Michelle Tischer, M.Ed.

Academic Achievement Coordinator

mtischer@santancs.com

Yearbooks for Sale!

https://store.shopyearbook.com/santan-yb

From our Family Engagement Committee (FEC)

Please join our school’s Family Engagement Committee’s (FEC) Facebook page. Here you will find school wide events that are coming up and ways to volunteer at school.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/620590539585576

Thank you again,

Jenn Jacobs and Heather Warren

From the Principal (Emailed Tuesday)

Dear San Tan Families,

I hope you had a restful MLK Day off from school and happy 100^th day of school! It has been such an honor to educate and take care of your students for the past 100 days! I will be sending out additional emails today asking for some parent volunteers for an initiative I am starting regarding reading! If you are available, please sign up!

January’s Find Mrs. Laramie at the Riparian has been canceled due to rain in the forecast for that day! Please look out for February’s day and cross your fingers for better weather!

Have a wonderful week!

– Mrs. Sarah Laramie

Month at a Glance 

• District Spelling Bee- 1/20
• Find Mrs. Laramie- 1/21
• Picture Retakes- 1/25

Important Announcements

Picture Retake Day

January 25^th is picture retake day.  Dorian Studio will be here between 8:30am-10:30am for those interested in picture retakes, and those that missed Fall photos.  Please send your kiddo(s) dressed to impress if you plan on getting retakes done.

Recker Campus Online Ordering

Power Campus Online Ordering

Cheer Clinic

 

Our Varsity Cheer Squad is hosting a Cheer Clinic/Camp! Our Cheer Program is offering this Cheer Camp on Wednesday, January 25th, with a Parent Showcase on Friday, January 27^th at halftime our Varsity boys’ basketball Senior Night home game against Gilbert Classical Academy. The game start time is 7 PM with the half-time performance starting around 7:30 PM.

The camp will be held at the Recker Campus in the gym from 6 PM to 8:30 PM on Wednesday, January 25th. All participants will receive a camp t-shirt to wear at the basketball game.

This camp is available to Kindergarten to 6th grade students. Our Kindergarten participants will need a parent present during the camp. All participants are asked to bring water and athletic shoes to the camp.

The camp participation fee is $60. Register Now Here!

Love and Logic Evening Sign Up

San Tan is proud to be a Love and Logic School with all our staff trained in the 9 Essential Skills. Larry and Kami Kerby, independent facilitators of Love and Logic Parenting Classes and San Tan’s PreK-12 Love and Logic Trainers and Coaches are offering two free introductory classes for our San Tan Community coming up next Thursday January 19th at the Recker campus in the cafeteria from 8:45-9:45 am and an evening class on Jan. 19th-the same day from 6:00-7:00pm. 

The link to sign up is www.Parenting.Rocks/santancharter

If any San Tan staff would like to attend the “Parenting the Love and Logic Way” please reach out to Larry Kerby directly Larry@larrykerby.com

 

Science Fair Volunteer Helper Request

Only 3 weeks until the Science Fair!    We are in need of about 60+ volunteers to help judge our 200+ science fair projects and to ensure our children have a positive, scientific experience.  : -)

Judging will take place on February 1st, from 4 to 5pm.  The fair will open to the public at 5pm.  Awards will be given on Friday the 4th at the STEM Festival.

Volunteer here – https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9dlosMnk7uj-a_BWW6tOZO4kRv6B88L4f8PQaeYHLrD3haQ/viewform

Thank you so much for your time!  We couldn’t do this without you!  : -)

Learning Celebration 

Learning Celebration is a time-honored tradition that we have at San Tan where families are invited into each student’s classroom to celebrate all the hard work and learning the students have done. We will run Learning Celebration from 1:00-3:30 (11:30-12:00 for half day Kinder) on Friday February 3rd.

March Conference Food Donation Request

Let’s thank our STCS staff during their Parent/Teacher Conference Night on Thursday March 9th!!

If you are able to donate, please drop off all non-perishable items on or before Wednesday, March 8th.  Perishable items can be dropped off after school until 4:00 on March 9th.

Thank you for your help!

Sincerely,

The FEC

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090B48A9AF2EAAFB6-taco

Tax Credit 

This year’s tax credit giving goal is $100,000.00.

Your gift — large or small — will make a difference.

The form link is now open at:

https://yqysjrrxph.formstack.com/forms/?1627645-EuNcDzZTd2

With your support, we can continue to provide the programs outlined below;

• Junior High and High School Culinary Arts: Restaurant quality cutlery, pots/pans, additional shelving, and supplies for the classroom
• Full-Day Kindergarten Scholarship
• Funding for the Library/Media Space
• Health Care Supplies
• Playground Equipment

Reenrollment is LIVE

This year, we have gone to completely ONLINE registration!  No more paper packets!!  While the phone app is convenient for most things – we recommend using a computer to complete re-enrollment.  We highly recommend getting your application finished as soon as possible as we prioritize current families and we already have a substantial pool of new students wanting to enroll.

Please Log into your Parent Portal. Go to “More” and then “Online Registration.”

1. Confirm existing students’ information
2. Add any new siblings

If you are adding a sibling this year you will want to have some documents ready as you will be required to upload them before you are able to move forward in the application.

·     Birth Certificate

·     Proof of Residency

·     Immunization Records (exemption form available in application)

·     IEP/504/Gifted Score Documents (if applicable)

If you have questions or need assistance with re-enrollment and/or the parent portal please feel free to reach out to Christine Gray, cgray@santancs.com, or Sydney Burdeno at sburdeno@santancs.com.

San Tan’s Annual Gifted Testing 

If you are interested in having your child tested for giftedness, please complete the digital Parent Request Form, along with the $50 Co-Pay, linked below.  Gifted testing is will be offered in mid. February. Once a child is identified as gifted, they do not need to retest.

• If your child is currently in a gifted class and identified as ‘provisional’ they will automatically be retested, you do not need to send in the recommendation form.: -)
• Gifted Testing Requests are due no later than January 12^th of 2023.
• Digital Parent Request & Payment:  Click Here

New York Trip Information

We still have a few spots remaining for our New York City trip! This trip is open for students grades 5-12 (and chaperone adults!)

Earliest Departure Date: May 28th

Latest Return Date: June 4th

The deadline to enroll is coming up quickly. Make sure your student doesn’t miss this once in a lifetime experience that will include two Broadway shows, a meet and great and improv workshop with an industry professional, walking tours of New York and more!!

www.efexploreamerica.com/2543243vf

Helpful Links

Order Lunch 

Arizona Tax Credit Form 

Social Media Links  

Facebook- San Tan Charter School Family Connection 

Facebook-PreK-6 Recker Campus 

Facebook-7-12 Power Campus 

Facebook- Mrs. Laramie Principal Recker Campus 

Instagram- Mrs. Laramie Principal Recker Campus 

Instagram-STCS Recker Campus