TPCA Elementary News
May, 2017
From the Desk of Principal Ruiz:
It has been suggested in a well known African proverb that it takes a whole village to raise a child. This is certainly evident at TPCA. It is an honor, a privilege, and our collective passion to educate and raise our Eagles, who will become our hope for the future, and ultimately, adults that the world can and will depend on. It is a blessing to have a part in helping you raise our Eagles to be God-fearing, academically balanced, motivated, successful, and joy-filled. We are honored to be helping you raise strong Eagles!
When helping your Eagles pack their lunch from home, please be mindful that our Eagles struggle with food that must be warmed in the microwave. The lines for the microwave can be extensive and prohibit our Eagles from having the appropriate amount of time to eat their lunch. With these known facts, we will be removing microwave privileges for the K-4 Eagles. We appreciate your support as we attempt to have the most effective lunch experience possible.
As we approach the end of the school year we covet your prayers and assistance with reminding our Eagles to finish strong. The warm weather and anticipation of summer often lends to their minds wandering. We still have many skills to teach our Eagles.
Have a magnificent month of May...
In His service,
Angela Ruiz, Ed.S.
What is GRIT?
What it is, why it is important, and how to help your Eagle get it...
Grit is defined as having perseverance and passion for long-term goals and working hard toward challenges, even when failure and adversity presents itself.
Grit is a "non-cognitive" skill, similar to self-control, resiliency, and curiosity. Researchers realize that grit is as important, if not more, than academic skills! We know that teaching literacy and math skills are important for a student's long-term success. But what happens when the math gets a little tricky? Or when the reading is "boring"? What keeps our Eagles from giving up? GRIT...that's what! And grit can be taught.
Here is how you can help your Eagle develop grit:
1. Praise the effort, not the grade.
When you praise the "stick-to-it-ness" of your Eagle's efforts, they will be more determined to continue working hard. Praising your Eagle's hard work will encourage them not to give up.
2. Let your Eagle struggle.
As hard as it is to see your Eagle struggle, they need to learn how to work through frustration and failure. If you save them before they fail, they will never learn how to deal with failure, which is a part of life. While your Eagle struggles, praise their effort!
3. Create and talk about your own goals.
If your goal is to clean the basement, repaint the bedroom, or run a half-marathon, talk about it as a family. Share the small steps you are taking along the way to meet your goal, and talk about your own struggles and how you plan to get past them.
4. Keep and model an open mindset.
An open mindset is believing that things can change, that we can all improve our skills and knowledge, and that we are able to overcome challenges. As opposed to saying, "I cannot do this!" you can say, "I cannot do this yet!"
5. Find ways to challenge your Eagle.
Encourage your Eagle to try new things, even if they are not sure they will be successful. Trying new things is how we learn from our mistakes. Give them age-appropriate chores at home. Find new hobbies and involve your Eagle in as many activities as possible. Praise their efforts along the way.
For more information about grit, take a look at the work by Psychologist Angela Duckworth:
Instill a Love of Math:
Parents are bombarded with messages to read with their children, but it’s rare to hear about the importance of doing math with them. Here are some helpful tips on why and how to instill a love of math in your children.
Early Math Matters
We may take for granted that our children will inevitably learn how to add, subtract, multiply and divide, but early math lessons establish the base for the rest of their thinking lives. “Mathematics that kids are doing in kindergarten, first, second and third grades lays the foundation for the work they are going to do beyond that,” says Linda Gojak, president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). “They are learning beyond just counting and numbers.” That’s why it’s so important to help children love math while they are still young. Parents can build on those first preschool lessons by counting with their children, asking them to look for patterns and recognize shapes, then moving on to numbers, Gojak says.
The goal should be to make math “real” and meaningful by pointing it out in the world around you. That could include checking and comparing prices at the grocery store, driving down the street counting mailboxes, reading recipes, calculating coupons, or even measuring food or drink at the dinner table. Kevin Mahoney, math curriculum coordinator at Pennacre Country Day School in Wellesley, Mass., says when his children were little, his wife kept a small measuring tape in her pocketbook. While they were waiting for their order at a restaurant, the children would measure different items on the table.
Just as you encourage your early reader to look for familiar letters, ask your child to watch for math, regarding math as highly as you do reading. “Every parent knows that it’s a good idea to read to your child every night, but they should also realize the importance of talking about mathematical situations with children every day,” says Mahoney.
So What If It’s Hard?
What if you hated math as a child? Parents should try to set aside their distaste for math and encourage their children as much as possible. Young children are eager to learn. “It’s hard to learn to talk or walk. But they don’t care,” says Sue VanHattum, a community college math teacher in Richmond, Ca., who blogs about math learning on www.mathmamawrites.blogspot.com. “They just push themselves over their limits. They are going to come at math with that same attitude.”
Avoid talking negatively about math, even if you have no need for trigonometry in your daily life. “A lot of people will only joke that they cannot do math or announce publicly, ‘I’m not a math person.’ When a parent does that in front of a child, it suggests that math’s not important,” says Char Forsten, education consultant and writer, who urges parents to create that desire to learn by constantly screening the environment for math. “Have you seen any good math lately?” she likes to ask students.
If your child believes that math doesn’t really matter, he’s not going to be as open to learn. “Attitude has everything to do with learning. You can’t make anyone learn. If a child has learned not to love math, if they don’t love math, and aren’t willing to learn, you have to deal with that first,” Forsten says.
If you are stuck on how to foster math enthusiasm, talk to your child’s teacher about some ways to support math learning at home. There may be a new game that you have never heard of, which both you and your child will love.
Play Games
With so many facts and figures to memorize and apply to math problems, children learn early that math is something that requires work. That doesn’t mean that it can’t be fun; keep the pleasure in math by playing games with your children. Many games, even the ones adults play, rely on math. With countless websites, computer games and phone apps, parents have endless options, but don’t forget about the nondigital games you loved as a child. The classics that require manipulating cards and game pieces, calculating along the way, may have the same appeal for your kids as they did for you. One game worth considering is Chutes and Ladders. A 2009 study conducted by Carnegie Mellon and the University of Maryland found that preschoolers who played the game improved math skills significantly compared to those in the study who played a different board game or did nonmath tasks.
As you play with your kids, try to tap into your own love for math. When you play Trivial Pursuit, you are using math to determine how many spaces you need to get to the next wedge or predict which category you can answer best. The game doesn’t have to be about math, but should involve it. If you have a good game store in your area, stop by and ask the salespeople for help. Some of VanHattum’s favorite games really push logic, which is the basis of math, and get children thinking visually. Check out Link, SET, Rush Hour, Blokus and Spot It, to name a few.
“Playing games is a great family activity,” VanHattum says. “The more you have a tradition of playing games, the easier it is to bring in other games you like.” So while you may not be passionate about your child’s latest board game, you can work up to another game you like. Try to make the game personal to your family by playing it in your own special way. “Mathematicians make up their own rules,” VanHattum says. “It’s really important to be open to making up your own games. Change the rules. ‘In our family, we play the game this way.'”
Flexing Math Muscles
Riding a bike, swimming in the deep end, and playing an instrument are just examples of our favorite childhood activities that require practice to master. So does math.
“Math is an intellectual muscle building; it’s crucial for fully developing a child’s potential,” Mahoney says. “Those muscles can atrophy. If school is the only place you do math, then it becomes something you only do at school. Then you don’t even think about using it in real life.” So brush off those negative feelings about math and instill enthusiasm. Math will play a role in your child’s life forever.
“It’s important to remember that those basics are essential for later learning. A lot of the stuff we learn in math we apply in different ways later,” says Gojak, who emphasizes the thinking skills that math provides. “I might not have to worry about what an isosceles triangle is, but it’s still an important part of education.”
As they grow, kids will learn that they are willing to work hard at something they love. It may just be math. Either way, remember that your child does not have to excel at math to enjoy it. “It doesn’t matter if they’re good, it matters whether they like it,” VanHattum says.
Add Math to Everyday Fun with these Activities:
Kindergarten News:
Our Kindergarten Eagles are looking forward to visiting the Children's Museum and exploring all the fun exhibits next week.
1st Grade News:
1st/2nd Grade News:
2nd Grade News:
The Asian Art Fair was held during Grandparents' Day this year. Mrs. Byely and Mr. Truitt’s 2nd grade Eagles have been studying the continent of Asia in the month of April. As part of this project-based learning opportunity, our Eagles were to research the history of and art style from any country in Asia. The classes presented landscape paintings, ceramics, embroidery, Russian matryoshkas, and different versions of the Great Wall of China, etc. Our Eagles enjoyed presenting their projects, and have developed an appreciation for the vast Asian cultures.
3rd Grade News:
4th Grade News:
Our fourth grade Eagles also had a great time attending JA BizTown last month; our Eagles ran city of BizTown for the day!
3rd/4th Multiage News
Even though it was a cold and windy day, Miss Marowelli's class enjoyed facing brisk weather in the Let's Grow 5K with multiple runners and two 1st place winners!
News in the Media Center:
News in Physical Education:
Field Day will be held on May 25th. Look for a Sign Up Genius soon. It has, once again, been my pleasure to teach and play with your children. They bring a great deal of joy and satisfaction to my job here at TPCS. It's not really a job but a wonderful blessing "coming down from the Father of lights." God is good, all the time. And all the time, God is good.
News in Art:
Thank you for your support:
Our 5K Run was a fantastic way for our TPCS family to share our joy for Christ and learning with the community. The turnout was breathtaking, despite the chilly start to the day.
Our Eagles raised more than $900.00 in the Penny War competition. We celebrated with Ms. Huff's 4th grade Eagles for having the highest "positive" totals. We celebrated with Mr. Truitt's 2nd grade Eagles for having the second highest "positive totals. We also celebrated with Mr. Day's 3rd grade Eagles for raising the most money overall. This competition was a fun-filled way to strategize as a class while growing our TPCS team. Thank you for your generosity.
Summer Reading with Principal Ruiz:
Mark your calendars for these important summer meeting dates:
June 20th (10:00 - 11:00)
July 11th (10:00 - 11:00)
August 1st (10:00 - 11:00)
Vacation Stations:
Summer will be here before you know it! Vacation Stations are here to help with academic retention for elementary students.
The BJU Press Vacation Stations program provides a helpful resource that has been developed to help students maintain their academic skills and to prepare for the next grade during summer vacation.
Students currently enrolled in Kindergarten - 6th grade are able to build their confidence for next year with two pages per day of math, language, and reading reviews. Parents, you will appreciate a fun way to help your Eagles with meaningful, grade-appropriate practice.
The content found within Vacation Stations supports our schools' academic program. All orders will need to be placed no later than May 11th to ensure delivery before the school year end. Order forms will be sent home with your Eagle next week on Monday.
Dates to Remember:
April 24th – May 19th – NWEA testing for all grades (Media Center)
May 9th - Dad’s club meeting (6:30 P.M. in the Media Center)
May 11th – Elementary Honors Assembly (1st - 4th at 6:00 P.M. in the TPCA Gymnasium)
May 12th – Muffins with mom (before school in the gymnasium)
May 17th – Spirit Day at Buffalo Wild Wings 11:00 A.M. - 11:00 P.M.
May 19th – 24th – Scholastic Book Fair (7:30 A.M. – 5:00 P.M. in the Media Center)
May 22nd – Kindergarten Celebration (1:00 in the gymnasium)
PTF Meeting (6:30 P.M. in the Media Center)
May 25th – Field Day
May 26th – 4th Quarter ends
May 29th – Memorial Day (No School)
June 4th – High School Graduation (4:00 P.M. TPCC Worship Center)
July 10th – Annual Golf Outing
July 31st – August 4th – Playground renewal (volunteers needed)
August 4th – Back to School Night/Supply Drop Off (5:00 P.M. – 6:30 P.M.)
Arthritis Awareness Month:
Did you know Kids get Arthritis too & May is Arthritis Awareness month!
May 20th, is the Walk to Cure Arthritis in Indianapolis. We invite our TPCA family to walk in honor of our 2nd grade Eagle, Cameron Miller. Cameron was diagnosed with JIA (Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis), which is an incurable autoimmune disease three years ago. Cameron endures many doctors appointments, medical testing, and powerful medications. One of Cameron’s daily prayers is to find a cure for Juvenile Arthritis.
How can our TPCA family help? You can pray for Cameron and a cure to be found, join the Walk to Cure Arthritis team (Walk this Way for Cameron) or make a donation to the Arthritis Foundation. To read Cameron’s story, join his team, or to make a donation, visit Cameron’s team page at: