Upcoming Events:

• March 16:  No school

• March 26 and 27:  Parent teacher conferences

New York State requires vision and hearing screenings for all students in 5th and 7th grade. If your child has not already had these completed by their primary care provider, the school will conduct the screenings.

School screenings will begin next week. If you have already had these done, please send in documentation from your child’s provider to the school nurse. 

Athletics:

• Spring modified sports start dates and coaches:

• Baseball:  Coach Charles Davenport - March 23

• Softball:  Coach Kim Bohannon and Becky Rosas - March 23

• Track:  TBA - March 23

Congratulations to Carter Davis and Chris Brower for winning the 2026 MAC league modified wrestling championship.  

Guidance:

• Grade 8 students will be completing their 9th Grade schedule requests over the next month or so.  Please contact the guidance office if you would like to be a part of your student's scheduling meeting. 

• We continue to implement our character development program PurposeFull People. Our character trait for the month of March is Cooperation.  

• Our clothes closet, the Hawks Hanger, and our school supply closet are full of helpful supplies for any student in need.  Please encourage your child to see me or the school nurse, Mrs. Barber, for any supply needs they may have. 

•  Please feel free to reach out to me with any questions or concerns- KStarkSp@oxac.org- (607)843-7185 ext. 2518

5th Grade:

• ELA:  We are wrapping up our Stone Fox unit assessment and will fully complete this unit on Tuesday. Then for the following weeks we will be working on a variety of activities in class.  Some of these include: Poetry, State Test Prep; and IXL.  Next week our vocabulary will be based around poetry words.  Then the remainder of March we will review a variety of important vocabulary words that we have already been working with throughout this year.  ALL students should also have their own independent reading book daily for class.  Students were also given a March book order.  These orders will be sent in on Friday, March 20th.  Our class code is DX5KD.

• Math- This week, fifth graders continued learning how to find the area of rectangles with fractional side lengths. Students learned how to draw unit squares and rectangles, and determined the area by analyzing the overlapping boxes. The next vocabulary test will be on Friday, March 27th. Please encourage your students to practice their multiplication facts and continue studying for upcoming assessments. Have a great weekend!

• Science is continuing to work on their Spaceship Earth Unit.  We will continue next week.  This week we made shadow clocks.  Please be sure to have your children share them with you.  The next vocabulary quiz will take place on Friday March 20th.  I will send out the list as soon as it is ready. Please reach out with any questions or concerns.  

• Social Studies-Students learned about The Coercive Acts and the Battles of Lexington and Concord. They finished the week quietly sneaking around to find clues about Paul Revere’s midnight ride! Friendly reminder to get America’s Field Trip entries in to me by 3/17. If you have any questions, please reach out! Have a wonderful weekend!

6th Grade:

• Echoes by The REV Theatre Co. is an original theatrical production created entirely from thousands of submissions by middle school students across New York State. It is a creative writing competition for grades 6th-8th. Once students submit their pieces, actors visit the schools to perform a live, professionally staged variety showcase featuring scenes, songs, and stories ranging from heartfelt to humorous.

• In the fall of 2025, our 5th and 6th graders participated in the workshop where they learned more about The REV Theatre Co.'s program. The 5th graders' participation was a "practice" year, while 6th graders were eligible to create and submit a piece.

• We are honored to share that two 6th graders, Hunter LaCotta and Abryanna Rhodes, received a Certificate of Participation. Additionally, Maddie Locke was one of the many students from NYS chosen for the prestigious Showcase Author’s Award.

• ELA:  We are wrapping up our Shiloh unit and we plan to have the full unit with the independent project completed by next Wednesday.  Then for the following weeks we will be working on a variety of activities in class.  Some of these include: Poetry, State Test Prep; and IXL.  Next week our vocabulary will be based around poetry words.  Then the remainder of March we will review a variety of important vocabulary words that we have already been working with throughout this year.  ALL students should also have their own independent reading book daily for class.  Students were also given a March book order.  These orders will be sent in on Friday, March 20th.  Our class code is DX5KD.

• Math: The students are working hard in class and learning how to solve and write algebraic expressions.  We are focusing on combining like terms and using the distributive property to simplify an expression.  Have a wonderful LONG weekend! 

• Science is wrapping up a unit on space systems and moving to the weather and climate unit.   The next vocabulary quiz will take place on Friday March 20th.  I will send out the list as soon as it is ready. Please reach out with any questions or concerns. 

• Social Studies-Students learned about The Coercive Acts and the Battles of Lexington and Concord. They finished the week quietly sneaking around to find clues about Paul Revere’s midnight ride! Friendly reminder to get America’s Field Trip entries in to me by 3/17. If you have any questions, please reach out! Have a wonderful weekend!

7th and 8th Grade:

• ELA 8:  This week, 8th Grade ELA continued building foundational language arts skills. Students completed daily Bell Ringer tasks and practiced spelling, punctuation, and grammar by editing inspirational quotes.

• Our literature unit continued with the novel in verse, Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai. During reading, students concentrated on identifying and citing character traits for both the protagonist and supporting characters. A comprehension check was also completed for the assigned reading.

• Students are demonstrating excellent progress with their independent reading, which requires a minimum of 30 minutes daily (including weekends) to enhance fluency and comprehension. Please note: All Independent Reading books must be completed by Wednesday, March 25th.

• Thank you for your continued support! Please email me at ncrandall@oxac.org with any questions.

• ELA 7 students continued honing their writing skills by writing short paragraph responses to constructed-response questions.  These responses require students to read a short text, answer questions relating to it and citing textual evidence to support their answers.  The NYS ELA Standard learned is  

• ELA 7 7R1: Cite textual evidence to support an analysis of what the text says explicitly/implicitly and make logical inferences.

• On 2/9 students were assigned their fifth of seven independent reading assignments.  Students must choose a book to read on their own outside of class and will be assessed on their understanding of it on 3/20.  Please encourage your student to read every night.

• 8th Grade Science: We are currently working on our third NYS Lab with a goal to finish by next Friday. To prepare for the May NYS Science Test, weekly review questions are now being posted in Google Classroom at the start of each week. Please check in with your student to ensure these are completed and turned in by each Friday .

• 7th Grade Science: After finishing our section on photosynthesis and cellular respiration, we are moving on to diffusion and osmosis. Ask your student if they can explain why "learning by osmosis" isn't actually possible!

•  7th grade Social Studies students have been learning about George Washington's presidency and life in the early nation.

• 8th grade Social Studies students wrapped up World War I with an essay.  They are now using documents to help learn about consumerism in the 1920s.

News / Programs / Clubs / Related Arts:

Spirit Fridays:

March 20 - Agents vs. Aliens

March 27 - Role Reversal (teachers dress as students and students dress as teachers)

April 17 - Country vs. Country Club

April 24 - Dress as your grade 5th babies 6th toddlers 7th adults 8th grandparents

May 1 - Sports Day (Favorite team or Sport)

May 4 - Star Wars Day!

Lego Club

Tuesday saw the second weekly after-school meetings for Grades 4 - 6 students.  Each week Lego Club members will be given a new building challenge.  For this week’s challenge, students made a bridge to span the length of a piece of paper and hold up a water bottle.  All students met this building challenge and some pushed themselves to build a bridge capable of supporting heavier objects.  The creativity and persistence shown were phenomenal!

PRINCIPALS MESSAGE:

• ParentSquare will be used for all communication from the school including progress and report cards in the newsletter.  You can download the ParentSquare app and create an account or you can go to the schools website and scroll all the way to the bottom and can get to the site from there as well.

• Update to our Website:  School Lunch Access:   "My School Bucks" that parents can access to see their child's lunch account activity and add money to it.  It is under the "Parents/Community" tab on our school website.

• Thank you for sharing your children with us.

• Be great everyone.