Fuller Falcon Reminders- November 4, 2025

Greetings Fuller Falcon Families, 

The following are important reminders:

🌍✨ Join Us for Fuller Magnet’s Multicultural Night! ✨🌍

We’re so excited to celebrate one of Fuller’s most vibrant and beloved traditions — Multicultural Night!
📅 Thursday, November 20th | 5:00–7:00 p.m.
📍 Fuller Magnet GT/AIG Basics Elementary

Last year’s event was a huge success — our families and students proudly shared their heritage through food, music, dance, art, and traditions from around the world. 🌎💃🏽🥁 The energy, colors, and connections made it an unforgettable celebration of the diversity that makes our Fuller community shine.

📸 See photos below from last year’s amazing event!
🎨 Experience art and traditions from around the world

✨ Please sign up by this Friday, November 7th to be part of this year’s celebration! ✨
👉 Sign Up Here to Be a Cultural Ambassador: Form

Let’s come together to celebrate diversity, unity, and the many cultures that make Fuller soar! Ideas include:

💃 Performances & Presentations

• Sing Together: Perform a traditional or popular song from your country or culture (solo, as a family, or with friends).

• Dance Together: Share a folk, traditional, or contemporary dance. Students can teach classmates or perform with family members.

• Instrument Performance: Play a traditional instrument or showcase how it’s used in cultural celebrations.

• Storytelling or Poetry Reading: Share a story, legend, or poem from your culture — in English or your home language.

🍱 Food & Flavor

Families love tasting their way around the world!

• Cultural Food Table: Bring a favorite traditional dish or snack (with ingredient list).

• Recipe Card Display: Share printed recipes in English and your home language for families to take home.

🎨 Art, Crafts & Displays

Help students showcase their heritage visually!

• Cultural Artifact Display: Share items like pottery, textiles, clothing, flags, tools, or toys that represent your culture.

• Family Heritage Poster: Create a poster about your country, ancestry, or migration story with photos and captions.

• Craft Activity Table: Teach others a simple craft — origami, beading, paper flowers, henna designs, weaving, etc.

• Cultural Symbols Table: Display flags, maps, or symbols and explain their meanings.

🎊 Traditions & Celebrations

Bring your family’s cultural traditions to life!

• Holiday or Festival Display: Share information, decorations, or music from a favorite cultural celebration.

• Cultural Games: Teach a game from your country (hopscotch variation, board game, playground game, etc.).

• Traditional Ceremonies or Routines: Demonstrate greetings, dances, or rituals used in weddings, new year, or other festivals.
  
  

 

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FINAL CALL: Yearbook Cover Design Contest — Due Friday, Nov. 7, 2025!

Fuller Falcons, this is your last chance to Level Up! Every Falcon, Every Day, On a Mission to Win!
Submit your yearbook cover design by this Friday to be featured on the official 2025–26 yearbook and earn special recognition.

Quick Details

• Theme: Level Up! Every Falcon, Every Day, On a Mission to Win!
  
  

• Deadline: Friday, November 7, 2025
  
  

• Format: Hand-drawn or digital, original and school-appropriate
  
  

• Must Include: “Fuller GT/AIG Basics Magnet Elementary School” and the school year
  
  

• Size: 8.5" × 11"
  
  

How to Submit

• Email: send to jsheleheda@wcpss.net with subject line: “Yearbook Cover Contest – [Your Name]”
  OR
  
  

• Drop-off: bring a physical copy to Ms. Sheleheda in Room 2308
  
  

We can’t wait to see your creativity shine—final submissions due Friday!

— Ms. Sheleheda & Ms. Poindexter, Yearbook Advisors

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🎨 It’s Magnet Application Season!

Families — it’s that exciting time of year again! The WCPSS Magnet and Year-Round School Application Window is now open!

🗓 Application Dates:

• October 15, 2025 – January 22, 2026: Application window for Magnet and Year-Round schools
  
  

• February 19, 2026: Notification of results
  
  

• March 2–13, 2026: Second Round Magnet Application window
  
  

💡 Important Reminder for 5th Grade Base Families:
If your child lives in Fuller Magnet’s base attendance area and you’d like for them to continue on a Magnet pathway for middle school, you must complete a Magnet application — even though you currently attend Fuller Magnet!

🖱 Apply Online: https://wcpss.schoolmint.com/login

Let’s keep our Falcons flying high on the Magnet Pathway!

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📚 Family Learning Tips: Phonics & Reading Comprehension

Why it matters:
Foundational skills such as phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, oral language and comprehension are critical in early grades (K-3) to support later success. NCSU Center for Educational Development+1

 

Phonics & Word-Reading Foundations

Here’s how families can support the core building blocks of reading:

• Play with sounds: Before your child reads, play simple sound games. For example, “I say /m/… now what word can we make if we add /a/ and /t/?” (→ “mat”). This builds phonemic awareness (hearing/manipulating sounds).
  
  

• Decode together: When your child encounters a new word, say: “Let’s stretch this word together: /c/-/a/-/t/ = cat.” Let them try, then blend. Accurate decoding builds automaticity.
  
  

• Pick decodable texts: Choose reading materials that align with the phonics patterns your child’s teacher is using (for example short vowels, consonant blends). This allows children to practice applying what they’re learning rather than guessing.
  
  

• Celebrate “sounding out”: Encourage your child: “I like how you sounded that out!” Recognizing effort reinforces confidence and persistence.
  
  

• Notice errors gently: If your child mis­reads a word, pause, say “Let’s look at the beginning sound… then the whole word” and help—don’t do the word for them. This supports self-repair skill.
  
  

Reading Comprehension Strategies

Once phonics and decoding are reasonably fluent, comprehension becomes the larger focus. Here are family ways to support that:

• Check-in frequently: As your child reads (or you read together), pause after a few pages and ask “What is happening? What do you think will happen next?” This builds the habit of thinking about meaning. NC DPI
  
  

• Sequence the story: Ask your child to put the events of a story into order (“First…, then…, finally…”). This helps them think about structure and flow. NC DPI
  
  

• Infer and predict: Encourage them to think about things that aren’t said: “How do you think the character feels right now? Why?” This supports deeper comprehension. NC DPI
  
  

• Discuss text features: For nonfiction, show your child headings, table of contents, diagrams, glossaries. Ask: “How does this diagram help us understand the passage?” NC DPI
  
  

• Encourage summarizing: At the end of the reading, ask your child to tell you “in two or three sentences” what the story or passage was about. Summarizing helps them focus on main ideas.
  
  

• Make it personal: Help them connect the text to their own life: “Have you ever felt like that character? What would you do in that situation?” This builds text-to-self connection, deepening comprehension.
  
  
  

 

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Practical Weekly Family Plan (Example)

Here’s a simple plan families could adopt:

Day	Activity	Tip
Monday	Read aloud with child for 15 minutes. Pick a book with some challenging vocabulary.	Pause on new words and talk them out.
Tuesday	After school, play a short sound/phoneme game (e.g., “What words start with /sh/?”)	Keep it fun & short — 5 minutes is plenty.
Wednesday	Child reads independently (or with you) for 10 minutes, then you ask “What’s happening?” and “What do you think will happen next?”	Encourage them to talk about the story.
Thursday	Have a conversation: ask the child to tell you about their day, then say, “Tell me one new word you heard today and what it might mean.”	Builds oral language and vocabulary.
Friday	Choose a nonfiction piece (magazine, short article, website) and together identify a heading, diagram or glossary. Ask “How does this help me understand the text?”	Builds nonfiction/text-feature awareness.
Weekend	Family “book chat”: each person shares a sentence about one thing they learned or enjoyed in a book they read.	Builds connection and shows reading is part of life.

 

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Encouragement for Families

• Celebrate small wins: “You decoded that word perfectly!” or “I like how you thought about what the character felt.”

• Keep it stress-free: If your child struggles, calm support matters more than pressure.

• Make reading fun: Let them pick books they love. Visit your school library or local library together.

• Be a reading role model: Let your child see you reading, enjoying books, magazines, articles.

• Stay in communication: Reach out to your child’s teacher to understand current reading goals, what phonics patterns are being taught, how you can mirror them at home.

• Check out Mrs. Bryan and some of her students sharing their favorite stories on The Reading Roost 👉 Visit The Reading Roost on YouTube!

 

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PTA Reflections Announcement

Congratulations to the following Falcons whose artwork bagged first and second places, as well as an Honorable mention at the School level! 

Drumroll, please! Our judges have chosen the school winners of this year's PTA Reflections contest. Two winning entries from each category and division (first and second place) have been submitted to the Wake County level of the competition.

We look forward to honoring all of our Reflections artists at a special celebration at school in the spring. Thank you for encouraging your child to participate in Reflections this year

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GOOOO Falcons,
Gerald Hernandez, Principal