Karaffa STAR Student of the Quarter

Bronwyn Holmes

Bryson Moses

Kaydee Yeager

Levi Stewart

Ella Slessar

Ayden Stacey

Gio Vescovi

Mario Mousourakis

Mason Clark

Joey Westlake

Building a Foundation

for our Future

Year 2 Issue 3

Karaffa Newsletter

Upcoming Events

April 16th Movie Reward for

Read and Respond

April 18th—5/9 state testing

April 19th Board Meting

April 25th Preschool to Zoo

April 26th Preschool to Zoo

April 27th 3rd Grade to Carnegie

Science Center

May 4th Good Presentation at 1

May 9th No school for students

May 16th Science Fair at 1

May 16th McTeacher Night

May 17th Volunteer Luncheon

May 21st Spring Concert at 6 for

grades 1-3

May 25th Last Day

Inside this issue:

Preschool 2

Kindergarten/First 3

Second/Third 4

Fourth/Fifth 5

Fifth 6

Jump Rope For Heart 6

740-537-2471

1307 Dennis Way

Toronto, OH 43964

http://www.torontocsd.org

Each homeroom teacher selected a STAR student of the Quarter from their classroom.

This special award will be awarded each nine weeks to a student who displays the

following qualities while attending Karaffa Elementary School.

Good attendance

Completes projects and Reading homework

Displays neatness and accuracy

Shows preparation for class

Displays an interest in learning

Is a good listener

Respects administrators, teachers, classmates, and all school employees

Displays acts of good citizenship daily

Is caring towards others, especially in difficult situations

After selecting one student, each teacher shared a few of their favorite things about their

STAR Student. In addition, the teachers provided descriptions about how they chose

each child. This information along with the students pictures is displayed on our bulletin

board outside our Karaffa Office.

Jackson Gibson

Lilly Frey

Ariana Youmans

Kendra Board

Makayla Walters

Preston Reed

Hunter Thompson

Addison Izzo

Lilli Whitman

Preschool Faces and Places

Page 2 Karaffa Newsletter

Preschool recently celebrated the 101st day of preschool! Students made Dalmatian shirts at home for their February

Family Project and wore them to school on these days. It was a fun filled day of exciting activities that went along with the

theme of “101 Dalmatians.” Preschoolers made doggie hats, pattern necklaces with dog tags, stamping activities, painting, and

worked on following directions through a large puppy art project.

Preschool has worked hard thus far on learning numbers, letters, letter sounds, sight words, counting, cutting, name

writing, and much, much more!

We also have our volunteer program up and running! Both preschool classes have parents and other volunteers com-

ing every day! These volunteers are gracious enough to play games and work on important preschool skills with our

preschoolers in small groups. The students look forward to this time and can’t wait for their turn! We are extremely thankful to

all of our volunteers!

Page 3 Year 2 Issue 3

The Kindergarten recently studied the community and how it works together to create a "Safe and Sound" place to

live. We were so honored by the willingness of our community members to come to our 68 children and be open

for questions about what they do in our community. We had our local police department represented by Chief

Henry and Officer Rock. The fire department sent Fireman Mike Conlon and Ryan Boyd to show important

equipment that is used to help save people in danger. Our district was represented by Coach Tucker to share his

part in our school and it's community. The children were given real life stories and responsibilities that must hap-

pen to become a professional in a community. Education was an important expectation for success in a communi-

ty helper. The "Work Together" ethic was reinforced so that they would understand the importance of COMMU-

NITY! We were so grateful to them for supporting our kids like they did!

Kinder Community Connections

Fabulous First Graders Busy 3rd 9 Weeks.

The month of February was filled with fun and exciting educational experiences. One celebration that was highly anticipated

was our 100th Day of School. We celebrated being 100 days smarter by making crowns, participating in math activities, and

reading humorous stories. Not long after that celebration, we were feeling the love on Valentine’s Day! Delicious treats, fun

games, and creative crafts were enjoyed by all. The students were able to show their appreciation and friendship to classmates by

passing out and receiving special valentine cards. We celebrated Dr. Seuss’s 114th Birthday on March 2nd with activities that

made each student feel and believe that individuality is an awesome character trait. Next, we invited our lovely grandparents in,

to peek into our educational world. They enjoyed a brief performance, refreshments, and spoiling us at the Scholastic Book Fair.

100 Days Smarter Feeling the Love Happy Birthday,

Dr. Suess!

The second grade let their creative juices flow when completing their 100th day of school projects. Students were asked

to design a poster at home showing 100 of something in groups of 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s. The options were limitless and the

students stepped up to meet the challenge. They were encouraged to think outside of the box when brainstorming ideas.

Students used various material such as stickers, beads, cookies, candies, popcorn, coins, and playing cards to create

their patterns and pictures. The celebration continued as students worked on a activities that centered around the 100

day theme. The day ended with the students snacking on treats that added up to 100.

2nd Grade Celebrates 100 Days of School on February 7

Third is “Eggciting” in Their New Seats

Page 4 Karaffa Newsletter

The 3rd nine weeks have quickly went by and we have

had a lot going on in the 3rd grade. In Miss Gillis’

donors choose project was fully funded allowing her to

purchase alternative seating. There are now 6 different

seating choices in her classroom. The purpose of the

different choices is to help the student become more

comfortable and more focused. They are also partnering

up with UNICEF to send food packets to other countries

where there is severe malnutrition. Each student was sent

home with a wristband that tracks their walking. The

more the students walk the more food we get to send.

This is helping our students become more active and

other children receive the correct nutrition. We are also

taking virtual field trips to other countries that have

severe malnutrition and learning some of the things they

do and why their countries are so poor. In Mrs. Boka’s Science class we are learning about life

cycles. The students have made vocabulary books and

the life cycle of a frog booklet to learn more about how

different animals and insects grow. We have also been

experimenting with eggs since we have started our

journey of the life cycle of a chicken. We have an

incubator in each third grade classroom and the

Jefferson County Farm Bureau is coming each Friday

to teach about the life cycle of the chicken.

4th/5th Grade Scientist

Page 5 Year 2 Issue 3

This year, the fourth and fifth grade students have been

utilizing a hands-on, project based science curriculum.

The two grade levels have tackled topics such as

ecosystems, light, sound, thermal, and electrical energy,

force and motion, fossils, matter, landforms, and our solar

system. They have participated in many experiments and

guided demonstrations as part of their learning about the

scientific method, all with the purpose of increasing their

understandings of the world around them. So, how it is

going? When asked, this is some of what the fourth

graders had to say:

“My favorite lesson of this year was learning

how to build a circuit. I like building circuits

because we know how electricity works. I

also enjoyed this year the cricket habitat

when we build a home for the crickets. We

had to try to get the crickets to like their

home.” Cadence Burke-Reed

“My favorite project was the gameboard

because we go to make something with

electric circuits. I enjoyed this one because

we got to use a battery, wires, and foil.”

Michael Henry

“I love to do experiments and to learn about

the Earth. My favorite was the quiz board

because I got to learn math answers and

learn how energy can flow. My other favorite

was the straw structure because we learned

about the Scientific Method. I learn more

from doing experiments.” Kendal McGraw

“I really like electromagnets because we got to

try to make a magnet of a nail. Also, we

picked up nails with the magnet. We really got

the magnet to work and it was funny.

Probably because Mrs. Holmes and Mr. Monti

couldn’t make a magnet and we could.” Kylie

Chevalier

“My favorite experiment was when we made

towers out of gumdrops and straws. We

worked together in our group to build a tall

tower. My group got the tallest tower. It is a

hands-on experiment. We had a competition

to see who could get it the highest. It was

really fun.” Amiah Collins

Figuring Out Fifth

Page 6 Year 2 Issue 2

Thinking Like NASA Astronomers! In our 5th grade science class they had to pretend they were NASA astronomers who have

discovered a new planet. Part One: they had to fill out their planet trading card which gave their planets characteristics, the

planets composition, distance from Sun and Earth, size, temperature, length of day and year, and how many moon(s) their

planet has. Part 2: They typed out a report about their planet including all their planet’s fact and answering these two additional

questions 1. Compare and contrast your planet to planet Earth and 2. Would you rather live on your planet or planet Earth and

why? Part 3: we will construct a model of their planet and each student will present their planet and model to the class. Finally, I

will take all the models and will name our new galaxy!

The 5th graders in Ms. Glover’s Language Arts and Social Studies class became

podcast hosts for the day! After the students found a current event and summarized

it, they got online and tested out their skills as a disc jockey. The students created a

script for their podcast, which included the summary of their current event, as well

as their thoughts and opinions on their article, and gave themselves DJ names.

Some hosts even had guests on their show! After all of the podcasts were recorded,

we had a listening party in our class!

The students in Mrs. Wright’s math class spent the day as detectives!

They worked in groups to complete an escape room activity. They

worked in teams to solve puzzles and riddles using multiplication and

division of decimals. As they correctly solved the problem, they had

to use the clues to find the hidden envelopes around the room with their

next clue. The giggled and laughed, and a few even argued, but this was

a wonderful hands-on learning activity. We have great detectives in

Mrs. Wright’s class.

Karaffa Elementary students took part in the American Heart Association's Jump Rope For Heart event once again! Two

types of competitions took place: the long rope and the short rope. Students were also encouraged to collect donations from

family and close friends to raise money to support the American Heart Association.

During the week of February 5-9 the students competed against each other to be the top jumper in their class, grade, or

even the school. The top boy and girl jumper in each grade won the chance to be Mrs. Dickinson in one PE class. The top

jumper in each grade won the chance to go to Subway for lunch. The top jumper of the school also won a personalized T-shirt!

The top long rope jumper was 5th grader, Russ Dickinson who jumped 499 consecutive jumps!

During the week of February 12-16 the students competed to be the top short rope jumper in their class, grade, and

school. These students were awarded the same prizes as the long rope jumpers. The top short rope jumper was 5th grader, Jacob

Cottrell who had a combined 2,092 jumps! During this week there were several high school volunteers that visited the gym to

help count student's jumps.

The top donator of Karaffa was 3rd grader, Americus Kimbal! She earned a trip to Subway for lunch along with several

prizes from the American Heart Association. The top donating class was Mrs. Scott's 1st graders. They raised $304. They were

given the chance to put whip cream in the face of Mr. Dopp, Mrs. Bodnar, and Mrs. Dickinson during an assembly! Karaffa

Elementary School was able to send $1,893.25 to the American Heart Association to help with the fight against heart disease!

Way to go KES!!

Jump Rope For Heart!!!