What an amazing week it has been at the elementary school. We have gotten ready for our Day of Awesomeness. We have prepared for our Book Character Day Celebration and then we are looking forward to the Voyager Fall Festival. Let’s just say the students are a little EXCITED this week. It is so wonderful to see true JOY from our youngest Voyager learners. Thank you for sharing your precious gifts with us. The following announcements will be helpful for you and your family for the week of November 1-5.
DUKE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL NEEDS OUR HELP: Duke Children’s Hospital needs our help. They are in need of some school supplies so let’s do what we can to help. Please put all supplies in the plastic bin that will be located in the front office of the elementary and middle school. What a blessing it is when we can help those in need,
Please turn in all supplies by November 19.
White cardstock- Kindergarten
Sandwich bags- First grade
Gallon bags- Last name A-L
Jumbo bags- Last name M-Z
Kids scissors 2nd grade
Crayola crayon packs (8 count to 24 packs) 3rd grade
BOOK CHARACTER PUMPKINS: Voyager Family. Thank you for your support with our Book Character Pumpkin Day. We appreciate the donated pumpkins. The students had a wonderful time celebrating literacy. Students dressed as their favorite book characters. We had literacy stations in our classrooms and then each grade level created a book character pumpkin. If you did not get a chance to see the creations, they will be on display in the front lobby all week.
STEP IT UP: Thank you to every parent, grandparent and family friend who helped support our Day of Awesomeness. I hope your children were as pleased with the day as I was. I would welcome your thoughts about the event. What did your students enjoy and where do you think we could improve? Please ask your student to tell you about what they loved about the day of celebration. To all of our parent volunteers--THANK YOU. We could not have done this event without YOU.
FALL FESTIVAL UPDATE: The Voyager Fall Festival is Friday night, October 29 from 6:00 to 8:30. Come out and enjoy the fun. THANK YOU TO OUR PTO STAFF FOR WORKING SO HARD TO CREATE THIS AMAZING VOYAGER TRADITION!
EXCITING LANDFORMS FROM 3RD GRADE: We all know that kids love to have fun and learning about the landforms should be fun! Good thing there are many different ways in which each child can learn about the landforms! The third graders used frosting and graham crackers to demonstrate plate tectonics. They built mini-volcanoes and watched them erupt. The students were very excited to see how much and how high the “lava” would explode out. They also built a model of a mountain and poured water on it to learn about erosion.
CAR LINE REMINDERS: As we are settling into the colder mornings and afternoons, please keep the following reminders in mind:
We are having about 15 students late each morning. The tardy sign goes up at 7:45 am. I would love to encourage families to leave home about 5 minutes earlier so that we can begin our student’s day with less stress. Car line is very slow from 7:15 to 7:35 and then becomes extremely full after the 7:35 time. If you are able to arrive during the early time, you will lessen your stress level as well.
We have multiple parents who are not waiting in the car line, but are driving up Ben Franklin and then trying to merge into car line without waiting in the line. I understand that waiting in the line is not pleasant, but please be kind and please be patient. Please wait in the line, it is the right thing to do and we have young impressionable students watching our every move.
Thank you to the parents and grandparents who frequently roll down their car windows to say good afternoon or provide the car line staff with treats and well wishes. You are being used to remind us how very special the Voyager family is. We appreciate you.
SCHOLASTIC BOOK FAIR: The PTO sponsored fall book fair has been rescheduled for the spring. More details will be coming in the future.
JOKE FRIDAY: Each Friday, Mr. Manning shares a joke with the students during morning announcements. Many of the students like to share jokes with Mr. Manning as well, so we have an idea. If your child has a joke they would like for Mr. Manning to read during morning announcements, please encourage your students to write their joke out on paper. Have them practice their best penmanship and begin the joke with a capital letter and end the joke with punctuation. Then, they can give that joke to Mr. Manning and he will do his best to use it. Remember to add your name to the joke. This is a great way to have fun and practice our writing skills.
FIRST GRADE HEALTH FAIR: Our Voyager first graders have been working on their first PBL project. They have been learning all about the body, nutrition and healthy living. The students then shared their knowledge with our kindergarten students by hosting a KINDERGARTEN HEALTH FAIR. It was wonderful. Our first grade team is working on a slideshow presentation to highlight this event that we will then put out on the school’s website. Way to go first grade students and teachers!
EXCUSED ABSENCE PROCEDURE: if you have a family trip planned that you would like to be considered excused, we ask for parents to go to the school website. Click under parent resources, and then the documents and forms tab to look for the Excused Absence Request Form. You submit that form to Mr. Manning (via email or by dropping off at the front office). He will review and get it back to you and then inform the teacher. The link that is located on the website is also listed below.
https://voyageracademy.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/REQUEST-FOR-ABSENCE-TO-BE-EXCUSED.pdf
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
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.
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.