Charter Chatter
A weekly newsletter written to the parents of TLC
Dec. 8, 2018 Vol 17
| Virginia Stewart |
The big news around here is that the high school is moving back to our campus very soon! We are so pleased that after finals, the high school students will arrive at the Beverly Site campus. The high school has been gone for a year and a half and will finally return. There is no place like home for the holidays and that will be true for our students this year.
All of us, Primary, Discovery and Millennium, are excited about the return. Of course, we know there will be some things we will need to figure out as we adjust to being together. Please be patient with new things like car line and other things. Just take some time to rejoice that we are finally back together in a great new school site. More specifics will be coming your way to prepare you for drop offs etc.
There will be an official red ribbon cutting ceremony in the spring to officially open the new site. We want to wait for more pleasant weather. We are so pleased and grateful for the new facility. We thank the voters who approved the bond for upgrading district facilities and for the work done by the Tracy Unified School District to make it possible.
A reminder, our phone number is now (209) 290-0511 and will be the only number once Millennium moves back to our site.
Important News
Next Holidays
Winter breaks begins on Monday, Dec. 24, 2018 and all students return on Monday, Jan. 7, 2019
TLC Band Performance
6th, 7th, 8th, MHS beginning band, and the MHS marching/concert band will all be performing
The concert will be held on Wednesday, December 19th, 2018
The performance will be held at the Kimball High School Theater located at: 3200 Jaguar Run, Tracy, CA 95377.
Doors to the theater/lobby will open @ 6:40 pm. The actual concert will begin at 7:00 pm.
Please expect the following admission charges at the door.
$10.00 for Adults
$5.00 11-17 years old/Student
Free to children 10 and younger
Parents Club Update
Next PEP Mtg is Monday – Dec. 17, 2018 at 6:30pm in P2 (last week’s Chatter had the incorrect date on it)
Lunch Menu – Week Dec. 10 – 14
Mon. – Pizza
Tues. – Sloppy Joe
Wed- Steak Burrito
Thurs – Corn Dog
Fri – Beef or Vegi Burger
TK
This week in TK, we continued our study of holidays around the world! We learned that children in England call Santa Claus, “Father Christmas,” and celebrate the holidays by playing with Christmas crackers, and eating fruit mince pies. We also learned that children in France enjoy a tasty chocolate sponge cake called, “Buche de Noel,” and place their shoes in front of the fireplace to be filled with treats! Children in Germany like to build gingerbread houses. We also built gingerbread houses in our class, to take part in this special holiday tradition! Finally, children in Greece call Santa Claus, “Agios Vasilis.” They attend Midnight Mass and play with model boats and drums, as they get into the festive holiday spirit. The fun will continue next week, as we learn about the holidays in: Israel, Italy, Mexico and the Netherlands!
PCS
Initial Phase
We have been back in full swing in P2! Students are busy getting lots of learning in before break. We had a surprise visit from our little elf on the shelf named Peppermint.
We are still missing a lot of family recipes. We have a special project planned for these recipes and need one recipe per child to make this a success. If you need a new recipe template, email the teachers (p2@tracylc.net) and we can send another one home.
On Friday, December 21st we will have a PCS Pajama Day! Students can wear their pajamas to school!
Phase One
This week in Phase One, the students have been learning about different holidays around the world. The students have learned different holiday traditions from the United States, Mexico, England, and Italy. They learned the many different foods that people eat to celebrate in each country. They also learned the various names each country uses for Santa.
Each class has been working on writing friendly letters. Some students were able to write letters to their classroom elf. They enjoyed asking their elves all about the North Pole and what it feels like to be able to fly!
Phase 2
Students are learning more about the California Missions. Did you know all the missions were arranged in the shape of a square with a garden or courtyard in the middle? We looked at the different missions and discussed how they were arranged. Next week students will design their own mission based on what they’ve learned in the past few weeks. Some students are even looking up missions at home on YouTube. This is a great way to extend their knowledge and do a virtual mission tour at home!
We are also proud of our holiday hallway displays…check them out!
MUSIC NOTES
I am pleased to be able to invite you to our Primary Winter Music Programs!
TK through 4th grade will be performing in the following holiday programs:
Wednesday, December 19 8:30 am TK performance, at the TK site.
Thursday, December 20 1:00 pm P2 (Kindergarten) Performance -TLC Gym
Thursday, December 20 6:30 pm All Phase 1 & Phase 2 students will be performing – TLC Gym
The evening performance is for grades 1-4. Phase 1 students perform first at 6:30 pm. Phase 2 students will perform directly after the Phase 1 students (approximately 6:50 pm). Phase 1 students need to report to their regular classroom by 6:10 pm. Phase 2 students need to report to their classrooms between 6:10-6:30 pm. The teachers will walk the students to and from the gym. You need to pick your student up in their classroom after their performance. Our gym space is limited. There is no room for the non-performing students to sit in the audience.
If possible, have the students dress in nice clothes. Holiday attire is encouraged, but not mandatory. They may wear Santa hats, Elf hats or small holiday head bands. Please no tall reindeer head bands. Also, the head gear must not play music, have lights or have any movement involved.
I look forward to showcasing your fabulous children in a fun holiday show!!
Mrs. Watson
TLC Primary Music Director
DCS
5/6 Discovery
Although, we were sad to see Ms. Sabedra depart from DCS, we understand her need to be closer to home. We are fortunate and forever grateful that Coach Ruiz has stepped into the role as our long term sub, which allows us to interview candidates and ensure we find someone who fits into our 5/6 family. Coach Ruiz and Ms. Zaca have been working closely together on curriculum planning and best ways to implement the lessons.
On Going Events in 5/6:
-Brighter Christmas Canned Food Drive by Nest ends December 14th
-5th – 8th will start their annual Winter Door Decorating competition between classes on Monday
-5th – 8th will have a winter spirit week Dec. 17th– 21st (be on the lookout for more information being sent home next week)
A Glance into Classrooms:
Ms. Christensen LA/Humanities: This week we discussed a controversial article and practiced how to write a 3 paragraph essay on our opinion of the topic. We continued reading Freedom Riders, practiced diagramming and hooks. In Humanities, the students finished presenting their slides on their assigned art technique.
Math with Ms. T:
Varsity- We are doing a nice job at finding LCM and started using this skill to add and subtract fractions with unlike denominators. Subtracting fractions with unlike denominators that also need borrowing is still tricky and we need extra practice next week. We will be having a quiz on Tuesday, December 11th to see how we are doing before we take our fractions test.
Scholastic- Our class has had fantastic discussions about loans, mortgages, credit cards and stocks these last two weeks. We have gotten really good at finding Simple Interest this week and now know how monthly payments for cars and large ticket items are calculated. On Monday, our class was broken up into small teams and each team picked 4 stocks to track until Christmas break. The Bank of T gave allotted each team $5,000 to invest -the team that makes the most money at the end will win!
Honors- We have been preparing for our Unit 5 Test on expressions and equations. Our test is scheduled for Tuesday, December 11th. We have become really good at consecutive number problems and show lots of excitement when solving system of equation problems (Substitution & Elimination). Our next goal is to strengthen our algebraic word problem skillset!
Social Studies with Coach Ruiz:
This week students jumped right into the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s! All classes learned about the events that led up to the passage of both the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act and viewed different pictures from the movement. Students wrote their thoughts and questions down about the pictures in their notebook and shared with the class the significance those pictures had on African-Americans in the 1960s. Students also learned the history of the Jim Crow Laws and took Literacy Tests given to African Americans in the South to see firsthand how impossible it was for anyone to pass that test. On Friday, students went back in time to the Sit-ins at Woolworth and took on the roles of Dr. King and the four students who refused to leave the counter-tops that were designated for “Whites Only”. Next week, we will compare President Kennedy and President Johnson’s domestic and foreign policies.
Updates:
- Winter Break begins 12/21
- Canned Good Brighter Christmas Donation continues until 12/14
Pentathlon:
This week Discovery hosted their first Pentathlon Super Quiz event of the year (the first of three). It was a major success and students were able to showcase all that they have learned about the 1960’s so far this year. Special thank you to those parents who joined!
CJSF:
We are collecting canned goods for Brighter Christmas until 12/14. Please remind your students to bring in these cans! They can find the drop-off boxes in any classroom.
Language Arts:
Cerezo:
All classes engaged in a “Fish Bowl” style debate. The topic for this debate was “Should Voting Be Mandatory?” Students were challenged to have a continuous debate and engaging conversation regarding this topic. In preparation for this debate students read 5 articles and discussed the pros and cons of Mandatory Voting as a team and as a class.
Also, on Wednesday every class went “paperless,” and engaged in a series of short review games. Students practiced their diagramming skills, vocabulary usage, and their knowledge of Hamlet. It was a major success.
Math:
Mr. Singh
Hopefully you all had a great Thanksgiving and now our thoughts turn to the winter holidays.
7/8 Math would like to make a few suggestions for stocking stuffers for our students: pencils, extra erasers, dry erase markers, highlighter, red pens, Texas Instrument calculators
Great Teacher Gifts would be kleenex, band aides, hand sanitizer, pencils for the classroom, dry erase markers for the classroom, lined white paper. Thank you.
Varsity is continuing with the unit 4 Factors, Fractions and Exponents and has completed 4.1 Divisibility and Factors, 4.2 Exponents, 4.3 Prime Factorization and GCF, 4.4 Simplifying Fractions (4.1 to 4.4)
Honors is studying unit 5 Relationships within Triangles and has completed 5.1 Perpendicular and Angle bisector Theorems and continuing 5.2 and 5.3 Point of Concurrency.
Scholastic has started a new unit 3 on Solving Inequalities and has completed (3.1 Inequalities and their Graphs ,3.2 One step inequalities, 3.3 Two step inequalities)
Social Studies:
Students participated in a Visual Thinking Strategy (VTS) By looking at different pictures that represented the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. As students watched, they wrote down any thoughts or questions that came to mind within the two minute minute. Some of the thoughts, words, and ideas expressed by students were Hope, segregation, fulfillment, and racism.
Verbal Expressions:
Lights, Cameras, and Action
Public service announcements for Brighter Christmas, toy and food collections, Video ads for TLC’s talent show, Spirit Week, Spiderella and Rappers traveling performers are preparing interviews and practicing choreography. TLC Door decoration and Winter Wonderland competitions are are on the schedule of interviews and ads as well as some sound and light surprises being developed by one of our new student IPad tech teams. A new set of Soar videographers are learning how to film and upload to our private Youtube channel.
Choir:
We are off to a great start this trimester. My new 5/6 & 7/8 music students are in the middle of a street busking unit. They will be presenting their final projects next week. I am looking forward to hearing what the students put together. This is a great first project.
MHS
8th Annual TLC’s Got Talent Show-Wednesday February 20, 2019
We are still accepting audition videos for this year’s talent show! This year audition video submissions will be required in order to qualify for an in-person audition. Email your audition video to: mhscounseling@tracylc.net and return your participation form to the TLC Main Office or MHS Counseling Office. Please Note: All audition videos and participation forms are due by Friday December 14, 2018. For any questions, please contact the MHS Counseling Office at 209-627-8299 or email: mhscounseling@tracylc.net
Reminder: Finals and the Start of Second Semester
Finals have been rescheduled for Monday December 17, Tuesday Dec 18, and Wednesday Dec 19. These will be early release days with school all three days scheduled to be held from 8:15am to 12:30pm at the Corral Hollow Campus. The second semester will begin the remaining two days of that week (Thursday, December 20th and Friday, December 21st) at the Beverly campus before we adjourn for winter break. We will return to school on January 8th. Please make all arrangements for students to be present for finals and the beginning of the second semester.
Spirit Week Next Week!
Let’s bid this campus goodbye with a fun spirit week/nest competition to cruise into Finals…
Monday: Cozy Bundle Up Day — Wear your PJ’s or sweats! (And remember no blankets, please)
Tuesday: Twin Day/Crew Day — Match up with your friends!
Wednesday: Ugly Sweater Day — But if all your sweaters are too cool to qualify as ugly, just wear red and green!
Thursday: Nest Color Day — Rep your nest!
Friday: Falcon Pride Out — Black and Gold day!
PSAT Scores Available Next Week
Students who took the PSAT in October will be able to check their scores online next week at www.collegeboard.org. The Counseling Department will schedule a meeting with students who took the test after paper scores are received to help them interpret those scores and practice for the SAT!