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January 17, 2020
RED FOX REVIEW Roberts Elementary School Tallahassee, FL
Welcome to the January edition of the 2019-20 Red Fox Review, the
Roberts Elementary student-produced newspaper. We hope you
enjoy reading about some of the events that took place before our
winter break, as well as a peak at some of our upcoming activities.
The Red Fox Review team…
Anne Marie Copelin Logan Harrison
Alyx Gibbens Nicholas Sapiera
Reagan Gould Anastasia Stanton
The students and staff at Roberts will join other schools in
Florida on January 27-31 as we celebrate Literacy Week. This
is a time for us to show our appreciation for books and reading.
We have several fun activities planned for the week. We’ll
have our second annual Caldecott Carnival on Tuesday, January
28. We will also have an author scavenger hunt on Thursday,
January 30. See the schedule below for our dress up days.
These will culminate on Friday, January 31 with our annual Book
Character Parade. On that day, the students and staff will
dress up as book characters and parade around the courtyard. The parade will begin at 8:40
a.m. and we would love to have many parents and other family members cheering us on!
LITERACY WEEK DRESS UP DAYS
Monday – “Team Up With a Good Book” (wear a sports team shirt)
Tuesday – “Hats Off to Books” (wear a hat)
Wednesday – “We’re Wild About Reading” (wear wacky-tacky clothes)
Thursday – “Reading Makes Your Dreams Come True” (wear pajamas)
Friday – Book Character Parade
January 20 – MLK Holiday
January 25 – Trent Race
January 27-31 – Literacy
Week
January 28 – Caldecott
Carnival
January 31 – Book
Character Parade
February 4 – Late Night
Library
February 7 – Daddy/
Daughter Dance
February 12 – Class
pictures
February 17 – Presidents’
Day Holiday
February 27 – Late Night
Library
UPCOMING EVENTS
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SHOP ‘TILL YOU DROP!!
Anne Marie Copelin and Alyx Gibbens
CHA-CHING! CHA-CHING! Do you hear that? That is the sound of
money piling up, which is a sound we definitely heard at our recent
Penguin Patch!
What is the Penguin Patch? The Penguin Patch is a school shopping event where kids can come
buy gifts for their family and friends. Students were able to come during the school day and
shop from December 2-December 6. This is the second year we’ve had the Penguin Patch, and
the second year that one of our parents, Mrs. Becky Tucker, has been in charge of it. Of
course, she has lots of little elves who help her! There were volunteers who helped kids shop
and who took the money and who wrapped the presents. We asked Mrs. Tucker where she gets
the gifts to sell. She said, “These come from the Penguin Patch Shop in Texas.” We questioned
her about how much money we earned this year. Although the final total wasn’t in at the time
of the interview, she said that we earned about $4,000! We also asked her what the money we
earn is used for. She replied, “It goes to school-wide improvement.” The final question we
asked Mrs. Tucker was what was the most popular item in the shop. She said, “The most
popular items were the deer head statue, slime, and jewelry.”
We asked some shoppers who they were shopping for. Laney McDonald was shopping for her
mom, grandparents, cousin, dad, and pets. Amelia Nettles said she was buying for her sisters.
Lyla Boyd was shopping for her grandma and grandpa. Trinity Daniels had a long shopping list!
She was buying for a friend, Mr. Dicky, her brother and her dog. Carsen Banks said she was
getting presents for her sister and her mom and dad.
We hope everyone had a spectacular time at the Penguin Patch! Start saving your money and
making your shopping list for next year!
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UP, UP, AND AWAY!!
Anne Marie Copelin and Alyx Gibbens
3-2-1 BLASTOFF! This is what we heard on January 7 when
Roberts Elementary launched its first ever weather balloon. One
of our second grade teachers, Mrs. Fernbach, wrote a grant for
this, which was funded by the Leon County Foundation.
The entire school went out to watch the balloon lift off. It went
up in the air quickly! After the weather balloon sailed off into the
clear blue sky, the Roberts Launch Team set out to retrieve it.
The Roberts Launch Team consisted of our gifted teacher, Mrs.
Douglas, one of our kindergarten teachers, Mrs. Meyer, one of our second grade teachers,
Mrs. Conrad, and her husband, and Mr. Howard, a teacher from Swift Creek who has
experience with launching weather balloons.
The balloon was 5 feet tall. The balloon was 6 feet wide on earth, but when it rose into the
atmosphere, it expanded to 30 feet wide! It carried equipment which transmitted a lot of
information about the balloon’s speed, altitude, location, and the temperature.
There were many people involved in making this
special event happen. Mrs. Fernbach, Mrs.
Douglas, Mrs. Conrad, Mrs. Harry and Mrs.
Meyer were all part of the Science Committee.
Also helping was one of our parents, Mr. Le.
Mrs. Douglas’s 5th grade students also helped
plan and present the launch for the students.
We were also fortunate to have Mr. Casanova
Nurse, the chief meteorologist from WTXL,
come and give a presentation to some of our
students after the balloon launch.
Superintendent Rocky Hanna also came to support us as well. We asked Mrs. McFarland if she
thought the students were excited. She said, “Yes!” She said when she visited classrooms that
morning, every class was tracking the balloon. We also asked her if we will do it again. She
replied, “Yes, we’ll do it next year. We might even do it again this spring.” We also interviewed
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Mrs. Douglas. We asked her how high the balloon went. She said it went 86,897 feet. We also
asked how fast the balloon went. She replied, “At times it went up to 122 miles per hour.”
Sadly, our weather balloon went into the water off the coast of the Atlantic Ocean.
Therefore, we could not retrieve it. Even though we did not get it back, we still got to go home
with an awesome experience!
Aubrey Wolfe, Charlie Norfolk, Juniper deGreef,
part of the “countdown team” Mr. Le
Announcers Caffey Hilyer and
Anne Marie Copelin Mrs. Douglas and Casanova
Nurse
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HOUSES!
Reagan Gould and Logan Harrison
“What house are you in?” You’ll hear that question around our
school a lot. That might sound like a strange question to someone
outside our school, but most of our students and staff are
beginning to understand, and are excited to hear the answer!
A few years ago, some of our teachers visited the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta, Georgia. One
of the things they were impressed with was the “house” system. They came back and started
it with fourth graders at Roberts. This year all grades are doing it, although Kindergarten and
first grades are just getting started. Those students will be sorted into their houses on
Friday, January 24th.
In this system, all the students and staff are sorted into houses. Being in a house with
students from different classes and even different grades lets us build a sense of community.
Students have the opportunity to earn points for their houses by exhibiting positive behavior,
work/study skills, academic gains, and using good manners and citizenship.
Together, all the houses are called Umoja, which means unity in Swahili. Each house is named
for a character trait. The houses are Alnazaha, which means integrity in Arabic, Optimisio,
which means optimism in Dutch, Valor, which means courage in Spanish, Perseveranza, which
means perseverance in Italian, Symponia, which means compassion in Greek, and Ukarimu, which
means generosity in Swahili.
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Each house also has a designated color. In December, our teachers and staff surprised us
when they decorated a tree for each house. The theme of each tree represented the
character trait of the specific house.
Valor
Courage
Ukarimu
Generosity
Symponia
Compassion
Perseveranza
Perseverance
Optimisio
Optimism
Alnazaha
Integrity
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We asked some of our classmates and
staff members to share their
resolutions for the New Year. Good
luck in keeping them! You can do it!
Nicholas Sapiera and Anastasia Stanton
Mati, 2nd grade – I want to meet my AR goal.
Ja’Nyla, 3rd grade – I want to get better at soccer. I am going to get a soccer goal for my yard
and practice at least 20 minutes a day.
Mrs. Thompson, tech teacher – My resolution is to read one book a month (so I watch less TV).
Mackenzie, 2nd grade – I want to earn 100 DOJO points.
Sienna, 3rd grade – I want to make the dance team that goes to compete with other dance teams
across the state.
Dominique, 2nd grade – I want to read 100 books.
Dallas, 3rd grade – I want to be one of the Top 3 Readers in my class this 9 weeks.
KJ, 4th grade – I want to double my AR goal.
Coach Cory – I’m going to drink less soda, go the gym more often, and eat more veggies.
Mrs. Tucker, guidance secretary – I want to get a candy bowl for my desk.
Kyle, 2nd grade – I want to learn to pop a wheelie on my bike.
Parker, Kindergarten – I’m going to help take out the trash.
Mrs. Jacobsen, guidance counselor – I’m going to eat healthier.
Elizabeth – I want to drink 64 ounces of water every day.
Bree, 5th grade – I want to stop biting my fingernails.
Mrs. Hill, 1st grade teacher – I want to exercise more
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