Page 1 of 8

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

Page 2 of 8

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!

Page 3 of 8

Page 4 of 8

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

Page 5 of 8

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

Page 6 of 8

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.

Page 7 of 8

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

Page 8 of 8

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