Robins K-8

Dear Parents and Guardians,

As we wind down the semester and embrace the festive spirit of December, we want to share some important updates and reminders.

Winter Break and School Calendar

• Last Day of School: Thursday, December 19th
• Return to School: Monday, January 6th

Winter Break Learning To keep your child's mind active during the break, we encourage you to:

• Read Daily: A great way to boost vocabulary and comprehension.
• Utilize Online Learning: Access IXL and iReady for engaging math and reading activities.

Upcoming Events

• Band Concerts:
  • 5th Grade: December 13th at 8:30 AM
  • Middle School: December 13th at 9:00 AM
• Orchestra Concerts: December 17th, 4:00 PM - 6:30 PM (Grades 4-8)
• Middle School Dance: December 13th (Middle School Students Only)
• Spirit Week: December 16th - 19th
• Winter Holiday Celebration & PTO Maker Market: December 12th

A Reminder About Winter Traditions As we immerse ourselves in the joy of the holiday season, please remember to balance family traditions with school responsibilities. Ensure your child gets adequate sleep, completes homework, and stays on top of assignments.

Stay Safe and Healthy We wish you all a wonderful and safe holiday season. Let's continue to prioritize our well-being as we celebrate with family and friends.

Thank you for your continued support and cooperation.

Stay SAFE & Happy Holidays!

Hello Roadrunner Families,

Announcements from the Counseling Department:

Please support the holiday food drive, sponsored by Robins Student Council. Dates are December 9-13. Send donations to your child’s classroom.

Classroom counseling lessons have focused on bullying, cyberbullying, and internet safety. Please ask your child what they have been learning and why it is important for them to be safe while on the internet.

The second round of small groups has begun. If your child will be participating in this 4-week session, you should have been notified by email. If you would like to place your child on our waitlist please email me. We have the following small groups:

· Stress-Busters

· Grief & Loss

· Leadership (grades 3-8)

· Changing Families

Thank you to the Robins K-8 National Junior Honor Society for donating their time to the Interfaith Community Services Food Bank on Saturday, 11/16. They organized donations, packed boxes to be given to families in need, and distributed food boxes to families.

The holidays are a time for family and cheer, but making sure the house is clean, the food is ready, and the presents are wrapped and ready to be opened can be overwhelming. These factors can bring unwanted stress and depression in a time meant for happiness.

Some important, practical tips can help minimize the stress that accompanies the holidays. These tips may even help you enjoy the holidays more than expected:

Through the endless parties, cooking, shopping and cleaning, try taking one of 9 steps to ensure you have a stress-free holiday:

1. Plan ahead.

Between co-workers, friends and family, it's inevitable that some commitments will end up on the same day. Make sure to plan on what you can attend in person or virtually. If you're hosting the holidays, create a menu to help you stay organized and make grocery shopping easier.

2. Say no.

With holiday commitments, it is OK to say no to a few or all of them. It also will help relieve some stress. Try sharing your to-do list with other family members.

3. Plan spending.

The holidays mean spending money. Make a budget and stick to it. Spending money on your loved ones is important, but it's also important to pay your energy bill. Don't buy gifts that you'll be paying off for the rest of the year.

4. Create relaxing surroundings.

Turn on some music, light some candles or open the windows on a sunny day. Research has found that listening to music and the scent of citrus can boost feelings of well-being, and vitamin D is always a happiness booster.

5. Maintain healthy habits.

The holidays are notorious for ruining healthy habits. A short workout each morning will help your decision-making throughout the day. Encourage your family to try snow shoeing or sledding to get in extra exercise. Eat healthy snacks like fresh fruit or vegetables throughout the season and to fill up before a dinner party or celebration with tempting, but unhealthy, foods.

6. Share feelings.

Spending a holiday after a loss in the family can be difficult. Accept your feelings and open up about them to others. It may make you feel better to share. Try to switch up old traditions to ease the loss.

7. Respect differences.

Family members will have different viewpoints than your own. Try your best to forgive and forget this holiday season. Focus on your similarities and replace tension with something productive.

8. Be realistic.

You are only one person, and you can only do so much. Be realistic with how much you can handle this season. Forget about perfection, and relax and enjoy the company surrounding you.

9. Take a break.

Don't forget about your own needs. Take a nap, go for a short walk, read a book or watch a funny movie. Laughing relaxes the whole body, and can relieve physical tension and stress.

Holidays are meant to be a fun, enjoyable time with friends and family. These tips can help ensure you truly enjoy your holidays when stress starts to set in.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Rachael Walters, Counselor, at 520.908.4322 or by email at Rachael.Walters@tusd1.org.

DATE CHANGE!

Kids Maker Market & Winter Celebration Night!

2 events in 1

December 12th 5 - 6:30pm

Students are encouraged to craft items to sell. The kids maker market will be held during our school winter celebration night!

Sign up now

robinsPTO@yahoo.com

@robinsPTO23

Digital volunteer form: https://forms.gle/G9SwhvLAt34ZqUiA8

Robins K-8 students are making great choices on campus ! After school opportunities continue to grow with the Gardening Club, Folklorico, Guitar, K-1 Soccer and other choices as well as middle school extracurriculars including Boys Volleyball and Co-Ed Flag Football.

Roadrunners Rock coupons are given by the K-5 teachers and PBIS points in the middle school classrooms. Middle school students have the opportunity to spend these points on various items including mechanical pencils, books and lunch rewards with Principal Thomas or myself.

Robins K-8 students are also following school and district expectations in regard to general behaviors. However, when the seasons change, behaviors often change. Add to that the stress of the holiday season, and students begin to misbehave both in class and among their peers. Showing compassion, grace and patience with your student goes a long way to making positive behavior changes. Continue to have discussions with your student(s) about their school activities, recess time, favorite class activity, etc. Positive speak leads to positive outcomes.

Continue to encourage your Robins K-8 student to Be Kind & follow the three tenets of Robins K - 8:

• Be Safe
• Be Responsible
• Be Respectful

December is the time for quarter 2 Benchmarks in grades 2 through 8. This testing season students will be taking their reading and writing tests and will also have a writing prompt. All students in grades 3 - 8 will be asked to read 2-3 articles and respond with a multi-paragraph essay that will be typed. 2nd grade students will read 2 stories then hand write one paragraph. This is similar to what the state writing test will look like in April. The rubrics used are also very similar to those used for the state assessment. Please review your child's scores with them in January. You can locate these scores by having children log into Clever and opening the SchoolCity app. From here, there is a tab along the top called Student History. This will show you all of their testing data for their entire time at TUSD.

If you would like to help your child prepare for the assessments, you can follow any of these tips:

• Read with children each day and ask them lots of questions. Deeper thinking questions tend to start with "why" or "how"

• Practice math daily

• Have children write every day, help them with capitals, punctuation, spelling, and grammar

• Have 2nd and 3rd grade students read aloud for a few minutes daily to help with fluency

• Make sure children know that you care about their scores and that these assessments are important to help you and educators know where they are successful and areas they need support in

• Check in with teachers to see what areas your child may need help in

Thank you for all of your amazing support!

Happy December!

The winner of the NOVEMBER Perfect Attendance Competition will be announced via ClassDojo SOON!

Please remember we want ALL students to Be Here, On Time, Everyday! We have benchmark testing this week and next week and only 14 school days left until winter break! I want to see everyone here, everyday to finish the quarter off STRONG!

Our annual Family Engagement Survey is closed. Thank you to everyone who filled it out!

Reach out to me if I can help support your student with organization or missing assignments. I am a resource to them. Call or email me if you have specific concerns for your student.

Please check out the TUSD Family Engagement Newsletter for additional resources available to your family!

If you need anything for your family or your student, give me a call and I’ll help you out!

❤️ Mrs. Sheava Craig

Hey, Scholars! We are entering into the holidays, and it will be winter break soon. Please take the time to look for any books you may have that are lost or past due. On December 12th there will be some cool sculptures here in the library. Also, the December reading challenge should be easy for you to complete since you will have so much time during winter break! Bring your completed paper to the library when you come back to school to enter it into a drawing to win a prize. I love how many of you are opting for chapter books instead of graphic novels. Keep it up!

See you at the library!