April 23-27, 2018

I hope everyone had a great weekend! My weekend was spent trying (unsuccessfully) to clean my pool.  It was a very relaxing weekend though. 

A message from the Cub Scouts:

Does your family like being outdoors? Are you looking for an affordable way to spend time with your family that focuses on character development? Is your son or daughter entering first through fifth grade in the fall? If so, come to our information session on Cub Scouting, coming up on Thursday, April 26, at 6:30PM in the Caraway cafeteria. We will be talking about summer programming and info for joining Cub Scouts now and in the fall. If you’re completely new to the Scouting program, please see the attached letter and feel free to email me at committeepack162@gmail.com with any questions. Thanks and we are looking forward to seeing you on April 26 and in Scouting next year!

Field Day Information:

Friday, April 27th    

K, 1st, 2nd Grade- 8:30-10:30 am

What will your child need/wear to field day? 

Shorts and t-shirt

Tennis shoes (please no sandals, flip-flops or Crocs)

Sunscreen- apply before coming to school please!

Hat (optional) 

*Sunglasses are discouraged*

*Please send a change of clothes (just in case)*

Early Dismissal Policies on Field Day:  

Leaving school early on Field Day is discouraged.  However, if your student must leave early on Field Day, please follow the below guidelines:

Student leaving DURING Field Day Session:

Parent/Guardian MUST sign student out from Cheryl Borden in the Safe and Secure Office.

• Parent/Guardian will receive a pink Student Pass.
• The Parent/Guardian will need to locate their student on field and bring their student AND the pink Student Pass to their teacher.
• Parent/Guardian will need to keep pink Student Pass when they walk their student through the teacher monitoring zones to exit school property.

Students leaving AFTER their Field Day ends:

• All students MUST go to their Grade Level Meeting Place at the end of their FieldDay session to be accounted for by the classroom teacher.
• Please inform the classroom teacher your student will be leaving early.
• Near each Grade Level Meeting Place, staff members will have sign-out sheets for you to sign out your student.
• Students should enter the school with their class to retrieve their belongings and then meet their parents/guardians by the picnic tables.

Thanks for your help to make field day a fun and enjoyable event!

Weekly Information:

Monday 4/23- Homework this week:  RAZ kids & IXL

Tuesday 4/24- Tuesday folders come home

Wednesday 4/25- Library Checkout & Book Fair video

Thursday 4/26- Ms. Smith out

Friday 4/27- Field Day!

This Week in Writing…

We will be working our way through the writing process one last time through a family writing story! You will be able to enjoy reading these at our Knowledge Night on May 3rd! The students are taking ownership of their writing and working on revising, editing, adding details and publishing their lovely stories!

This Week in Reading…

We will be reading cultural folktales and fairy tales. The students already have a foundation of the elements of folktales/fairytales so it will be fun to add a cultural twist to these stories! We will be digging deeper into the text and using our reading strategies to truly understand these stories.

This Week in Science…

We will be learning about different Habitats.  We will focus on the Rain Forest, Wetlands, Ocean, Coral Reef, Forest, Desert, and Artic habitats.  In this unit of study, we will focus on the interdependence of the different animals and plants in those habitats.  We will be working as a grade level to create habitat murals in the 1^st Grade hallway!

This Week in Math…

We will be wrapping up working with the hundreds chart and moving in to 2 digit place value, money and expanded form. We have learned most of these concepts before, and now its time to tie them altogether! Students will display mastery of these skills through problem solving and hands on activities. IXL has great practice on money and expanded form. (M.3, Q.1-10)

Our life skill of the week is… Initiative.

Have a great week!

Important Dates:

Apr. 26:  Ms. Smith out

Apr. 27: Field Day

              Skate Night

Apr. 30-May 4:  Book Fair

May 3:  KnOWLedge Night

May 4:  Miss Hendrickson’s last day

May 8: Spirit Night

May 14:  3^rd & 4^th STAAR- No visitors on campus

May 15:  3^rd & 4^th STAAR- No visitors on campus

May 16:  5^th STAAR- No visitors on campus

May 25:  End of the Year Party (time to be announced)

               End of the Year Awards (during End of the Year Party)

May 28: Memorial Day Holiday

May 29: Last Day of School (Bad Weather Make-up Day)

April 16-20, 2018

We had a very exciting thing happen today!  We were able to hear one of our baby chicks pecking and scratching inside the egg!  Hatch day is upon us! 

We watched video tutorials by Becky's Homestead (youtube) to teach us more about chickens and coops.  She helped us think about what we needed to have in our chicken spaces. Today, we began designing our coops on paper and soon we will begin building! Thank you for sending in materials for the boys and girls to use.  We will be finishing them up by Friday.

Party for Celebrating Mrs. Sanders:

On April 17th we will celebrate Mrs. Nelda Sanders and her 50 years of dedication to education. We will honor her with a come and go reception in the library beginning at 3:30 p.m. We are collecting memories, stories, and photos of Nelda from over the past 50 years. You can either share in the linked form or write a memory on any kind of stationary. You can deliver to Caraway Elementary or bring with you the day of the celebration. We look forward to hearing from you! If you have any questions, please email lisa_costello@roundrockisd.org.

If you would like to participate, our celebration is a "Groovy 60's" theme (students may dress in 60s attire at school on April 17th). ​​No gift needed, your presence is gift enough.

Reminders:

Monday (4/16): Homework bag comes home

Tuesday (4/17): Celebration for Mrs. Sanders at 3:30pm

                          Tuesday folders will come home. Please return Wednesday.

Wednesday (4/18): Chick Fest! Dress like a farmer for Hatch day!

                                Library-Lesson only

Thursday (4/19):

Friday (4/20): Homework Due

This week in Reading Workshop...

We will feature a Read Aloud this week all about diverse cultures.  We will discuss comprehension strategies such as making connections, inferring and retelling the story.  We will discuss how celebrations can be the same or different for different cultures.

This week in Writing Workshop...

We will complete our Chick Research Project.  We've collected our facts by reading from different sources of information such as books, websites and watching short videos.  Now we are ready to teach others about what we learned. 

This week in Science...

We will relate our study of chicken coops to different animals and examine their habitats.  We will think about how the animals depend on plants and other animals to live and get shelter.  We will study habitats from all over the world.

This week in Math...

We will focus on counting collections of coins.  A collection of pennies is counted by 1's.  A collection of nickels is counted by 5's and a collection of dimes is counted by 10's.  We will also begin thinking about numbers up to 120 and find patterns on the hundreds chart.  We will learn about place value by using concrete objects to represent numbers with three digits.

This week’s life skill of the week is RESPONSIBILITY- to respond when appropriate; to be accountable for one’s actions. We will discuss what it means to be responsible and reflect on times that we have shown responsibility.

Have a great week!

Important Dates:

Apr. 17:  Celebrate Mrs. Sanders! Dress in 1960’s attire!

Apr. 18:  Chicks Hatch!  Dress like a farmer!

Apr. 26:  Ms. Smith out

Apr. 27: Field Day

              Skate Night

Apr. 30-May 4:  Book Fair

May 3:  KnOWLedge Night

May 4:  Miss Hendrickson’s last day

May 8: Spirit Night

May 14:  3^rd & 4^th STAAR- No visitors on campus

May 15:  3^rd & 4^th STAAR- No visitors on campus

May 16:  5^th STAAR- No visitors on campus

May 25:  End of the Year Party (time to be announced)

               End of the Year Awards (during End of the Year Party)

May 28: Memorial Day Holiday

May 29: Last Day of School (Bad Weather Make-up Day)

April 9-13, 2018

Family Fit and Fun Night was a great success! It was so fun to see so many faces and families enjoying their time together! There are a few more events to take part in this year! 

We need your help! We have a couple toilet paper rolls and a couple paper towel rolls.  Please send in empty cereal boxes! We can also use other recycled items such as paper towel rolls, toilet paper rolls and card board.  We will need these items by Monday, April 16th. 

Reminders...

Monday (4/9):  Homework this week- RAZ kids & IXL

Tuesday (4/10): CLOSED CAMPUS due to STAAR Testing- deliveries only to the office

                            Tuesday folders will come home. 

Wednesday (4/11): CLOSED CAMPUS due to STAAR Testing- deliveries only to the office

                                Library Check out. 

                               Supplies needed for Project (see note above)

Thursday (4/12): 

Friday (4/13):

This week in Reading and Writing Workshop...

We are continuing our hard work on Chicken Research.  We will continue to learn about what Chickens need to live and begin to create presentations for the facts that we've gathered.  

This week in Science...

We will focus in on our Project Based Learning Goals for this Project.  We will design and create a habitat for chickens to live. First we will plan our habitats by drawing then we will take our ideas and make a model using the recycled materials we can gather from home! Send it everything you have!

This week in Math...

We are working with numbers and place value.  We will practice composing and decomposing numbers up to 120! We will examine patterns and build numbers with concrete tools as we shape our understanding!

This week in Social Studies...

We will read A Chair for My Mother.  Using this piece of literature we will discuss how families in our community have to make decision about how to spend, save and donate their money.  We will talk about the needs of families and the community.

This week’s Life Skill is Problem Solving- to find a solution to a big or small problem. 

Have a good week!

Important Dates:

Apr. 11:  5^th Grade STAAR- No visitors on campus

Apr. 18:  Chicks Hatch!

Apr. 26:  Ms. Smith out

Apr. 27: Field Day

              Skate Night

Apr. 30-May 4:  Book Fair

May 3:  KnOWLedge Night

May 4:  Miss Hendrickson’s last day

May 8: Spirit Night

May 14:  3^rd & 4^th STAAR- No visitors on campus

May 15:  3^rd & 4^th STAAR- No visitors on campus

May 16:  5^th STAAR- No visitors on campus

May 25:  End of the Year Party (time to be announced)

               End of the Year Awards (during End of the Year Party)

May 28: Memorial Day Holiday

May 29: Last Day of School (Bad Weather Make-up Day)

April 2-6, 2018

I hope everyone enjoyed their three day weekend! We spent time with family, in and out of town.  It was great to have an extra day to enjoy! 

Last week we set up our incubators and received our chicken eggs.  It's official! We will have baby chicks around April 18th! Our eggs will take 21 days to develop into chicks! It is such an exciting time in first grade!

Reminders:

Monday (4/2): March Reading Calendars are due! 

                          Homework Bags go home

Tuesday (4/3): Tuesday folders will come home.  Please return them the next day.

Wednesday (4/4): No Library this week

Thursday (4/5): 

Friday (4/6): Homework Bags due

                      Family Fit and Fun night 6:30pm-7:30pm 

Next Tuesday (4/10) and Wednesday (4/11) the 4th and 5th graders will be taking STAAR tests.  Our campus will be closed to all visitors these two days.  Please plan lunch dates accordingly! 

This week in Reading and Writing Workshop...

We will be researching all we need to know about Chickens! First we will learn all about the development of a chick in the egg by reading books and sources on the internet.  Then we will shift our focus and learn all about chickens.  As readers we will gather information from various sources and as writers we will write the facts we find on sticky notes! 

This week in Science...

We will begin to discuss our Project Based Learning activity.  We will pose the problem, "Where will our baby chicks live once they have hatched?"  We will move through the steps of this project by learning all about what chickens need in a habitat.  We will spend two weeks on this project.

We need your help! Please send in empty cereal boxes! We can also use other recycled items such as paper towel rolls, toilet paper rolls and card board.  We will need these items by Monday, April 9th.

This week in Math...

We will begin a new unit on deepening our understanding of two digit place value. We will ask ourselves some questions including: How do I use place value to read and write numbers? In what different ways can we show a number? How can I use patterns to help me count? We will use as many hands on manipulatives and tools to make these concepts make sense to us!

This week in Spelling...

We will have our first spelling test.  We've been review things we know about spelling patterns.  This week we will focus on long versus short vowel sounds.  Our words will be...

hope, cat, take, fun, cute, mate, need, step, pop, sit, hike

We will practice our words at school then have an assessment on Friday. 

This week’s life skill is FLEXIBILITY- to be willing to alter plans when necessary. 

Have a great week! :)

Important Dates:

Apr. 4:  Ms. Smith out for 2^nd Grade field trip w/ Maggie J

Apr. 6:  Family Fit & Fun Night

Apr. 10:  4^th Grade STAAR- No visitors on campus

Apr. 11:  5^th Grade STAAR- No visitors on campus

Apr. 18:  Chicks Hatch!

Apr. 26:  Ms. Smith out

Apr. 27: Field Day

              Skate Night

Apr. 30-May 4:  Book Fair

May 3:  KnOWLedge Night

May 4:  Miss Hendrickson’s last day

May 8: Spirit Night

May 14:  3^rd & 4^th STAAR- No visitors on campus

May 15:  3^rd & 4^th STAAR- No visitors on campus

May 16:  5^th STAAR- No visitors on campus

May 25:  End of the Year Party (time to be announced)

               End of the Year Awards (during End of the Year Party)

May 28: Memorial Day Holiday

May 29: Last Day of School (Bad Weather Make-up Day)