BOOK CHARACTER PUMPKINS: Reading is fun and reading is important. After fall break our classes will be talking about and voting on their favorite childhood book. Next, each grade level will create a Book Character Pumpkin to display. The pumpkins will be available for display beginning on October 29, 2021. We will need 7 good sized pumpkins for this event. If you are willing to donate a pumpkin to us please let your child’s teacher know. I encourage your family to create a book character pumpkin too. Mrs. Davis has created a video to show you how. If you would like to display your family pumpkin at school, let us know and we will set up an area to display family pumpkins too.
Make A Book Character Pumpkin Video
FALL FESTIVAL: Please join us Friday, October 29th 6-8:30pm for our ALL SCHOOL FALL FESTIVAL! Parents, teachers and students are working together to bring you a special night of family fun. Enjoy food trucks, vendors, games, silent auction items, a photo booth, bouncy houses, live music and emergency vehicles for kids to explore! Save the date- Come join the fun!
STEP IT UP: Our new date for the DAY OF AWESOMENESS is set for Thursday, October 28th. The grade level times are the same. We had a great list of volunteers to help us out and now we need to get volunteers again for our new date. If you are able to help us on October 28th, please click on the link below and sign up. We need you to pull off this event. STUDENTS WILL NEED AN EXTRA PAIR OF SOCKS AND A WATER BOTTLE FOR THIS EVENT.
PTO SPONSORED TEACHER LUNCH: Voyager parents are the best! The school has a tradition where parents provide a monthly lunch for the school staff. The first PTO sponsored lunch is set for Thursday, November 4. Please click on the link below to help encourage our teachers by providing a food item or by assisting with set up or clean up. Thank you so much. The teachers are extremely excited about this event.
OCTOBER IS DYSLEXIA AWARENESS MONTH: What is dyslexia? ... Dyslexia is the most prevalent type of learning disabilities (Shaywitz & Shaywitzx, 2003). It is commonly viewed as impairment in the processing of reading and writing, resulting in a reading ability that is significantly below the person's intellectual level and interferes significantly with academic performances or daily life activities (Snowling, 2000;Snowling & Hayiou-Thomas, 2006). ..
The most common signs of dyslexia in children include:
Difficulty learning the sounds that letters and letter combinations make
Difficulty with basic word decoding (i.e., sounding out unfamiliar words)
Slow, labor-intensive reading
Difficulty spelling
Difficulty recognizing familiar words in new contexts
Avoiding activities that involve reading
Difficulty following a set of instructions.
Having difficulty learning sequences such as the days of the week or the alphabet.
Does Voyager Academy Elementary screen for dyslexia? Yes, we use mCLASS: Dibels, which is a formative assessment tool that can identify students at risk for reading difficulties, including Dyslexia. Dibels is specifically designed to be used for screening, progress monitoring and evaluating outcomes. This assessment is done at the beginning of the year and end of the school year. Things you can do to support your child’s struggle with reading:
Rhyming is one of the best phonological awareness activities because it helps students with dyslexia learn letter-sound connections.
Listening to audiobooks as an alternative to reading
Read to your child daily
Typing on a computer or tablet to help with spelling
Apps that can make learning fun by turning decoding into a game
Using a ruler to help kids read in a straight line, which can help keep them focused
WHAT MAKES US UNIQUE: After learning about different cultures from around the world, second graders started to focus on their own family's culture and what makes it unique. Students took home a Family Culture Interview to fill out. On Friday we got to share our answers with the class. We learned that we share some things with other friends, and some things that we do might be unique to our family!
SEASONAL FUN: This week the Gym has had a spooky look. Students have enjoyed the Fall theme while working in activity stations to practice their skills.
VAES FAMILY MARATHON EVENT: VAES is hosting its first family marathon event. The details of how this will work is listed in the documents below. Exercise is so important and the weather is perfect for walking outside. Families will be encouraged to walk or run 25 miles between October 8th and November 19th. Then, each grade level will walk or run the final 1.2 miles at school. Mrs. Flowe-Dawson and Mrs. Boyd encourage parents, brothers, sisters, grandparents and friends to join in.
VAES Family Marathon Instructions: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rLMz-runmIkb4SMbiDg3TEhuyiFlNg5SpmcM1nzBMCE/copy
VAES Family Marathon Log: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1clJaA1gBuqZn_39cHJLx-1gzf1qmu6fABFJXQ0POLd4/copy
CHICK-FIL- A READING CHALLENGE: We love Chick-Fil-A (on Roxboro Rd) and how they support our school community. Stay tuned for details about how Voyager Elementary will be partnering with Chick-Fil-A to promote the value of reading. We will explain this new program in November and begin on December 1.
HOW DOES VOYAGER ACADEMY TEACH READING: Please click on the link below to learn all about how Voyager helps students become even stronger readers. We are thrilled to now have a Reading Interventionist on staff. Mrs. Heather Roberts holds a Masters degree in reading and is diligently working to help Voyager embrace the Science of Reading.
VAES BIRTHDAY ROCK: The Voyager Birthday Rock is a BIG success. The students seemed thrilled with it and parents have done an amazing job of showing their creativity. If you are interested in signing up to paint the Voyager Elementary Birthday Rock for your child, please click on the link below for details.
Birthday Rock Details and Sign Up
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS CONCERNING COVID: Voyager’s amazing school nurse has created a document for all of our families entitled FAQ Concerning Covid. We understand how challenging and stressful this situation has been and we appreciate your support and partnership. I highly encourage you to click on the link below and read the health information so you can stay informed and will better understand the guidelines Voyager is following as we seek to keep all students and staff safe.
QUARANTINE GUIDELINES: Listed below are the guidelines we have been given as they are related to quarantine:
When your children need to stay home to learn, always contact me and your child's teacher.
The teacher will provide remote assignments for your student. As long as the student is doing some work at home and you complete the attendance link provided below they will be counted present. The link to complete your child’s attendance is HERE
Because your student has been directly exposed to someone, outside of school, who has tested positive for COVID, your student needs to quarantine for 10 days. They may return to school after the 10 days of quarantine have been completed AND have no symptoms from the time of exposure.
The 10 day quarantine protocol is not school days, it also includes the weekend. For example, if your child was exposed on Aug. 9, they can return to school on Aug. 20 (10 days).
Please keep me, your child’s teacher, and our school nurse, Mrs. Skoff updated on your child’s symptoms and/or test results.
See below for details for siblings where ONE tests positive, another tests NEGATIVE. Or for students and a parent tests positive, but student tests NEGATIVE.
Your positive student will need to complete a 10 day quarantine and may return to school after those 10 days so long as they are fever free for 24 hours and their symptoms are improving. With regard to siblings - as of now, IF you are able to isolate the positive child from the family, eat in separate spaces, wear masks in the home, use separate bathrooms, etc the negative child may return at the end of the positive child’s 10 day quarantine IF you were able to ensure the above protective measures were taken in the home.
The negative child(ren) would need to have NO symptoms and obtain a COVID test NO SOONER THAN 5 days following their last exposure to the positive sibling. So, if you used Monday as Day 1, they could test after Friday. If that test is negative AND you have been able to keep the positive student isolated the entire time, then the negative siblings could go back to school after the positive child's 10 day quarantine is over. We would request that you provide us documentation of their negative PCR tests before the children return. IF any of your other children develop symptoms at any point, they should get tested. If they then test positive they would then just complete a 10-day quarantine from the onset of symptoms.
These are the recommendations that the Durham Health Department has provided us as of today. They will continue to assess and monitor the situation and may update their guidelines. We will make changes to our protocols here at Voyager if that happens.