Technology Club

Are you interested in technology? Are you creative and like to collaborate to solve problems? If so, join the Technology club. We will  learn about DASH the robot, Lego Boosts, circuits,  and much more!  We will have two clubs, a 2nd/ 3rd grade club and a 4th/ 5th grade club. Each club will meet every other week in the computer lab.  The 2nd/ 3rd grade Technology club will begin on  Thursday, October 4 and the 4th/5th grade club will meet on Oct.11.  This first session of Technology club well meet from October through December 13. There are only 25 spots for each club due to supplies so please  don't hesitate to fill out your google application before October 2nd!   

Technology Club Application

Be a Literacy Partner at FCE!

Do you have 30 minutes a week to read to two young students at Forest Creek?  Literacy Partners are matched with two children(Kdg, 1st, 2nd, or 3rd graders) and teachers can provide the books.  The Literacy Partner reads with each student individually for 15 minutes each week for the year. The child will be so excited to read with you and talk to you about books each week and you will be a huge positive influence in the student’s reading and language skills.  You will be amazed at the impact your 15 minutes per week will have on the child’s reading skills, confidence, and joy of learning! Can you help?

Read more at: https://education-connection.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Literacy-Partner_Roles-Responsibilities-2018-19.pdf.

Go here to register:https://appgarden2.app-garden.com/VolTrackTX001.nsf

Contact: pam_bartholomew@roundrockisd.org for more information.

UIL Teams are Forming!

Last year was my first year coaching 2nd and 3rd graders for Storytelling -- it was awesome. It is very relaxed, we had a snack, listed to a story then retold it dramatically with gestures. Our team did very well with all members making the semifinals and one student moving into the finals. If you have any questions, please contact the UIL Coach or any of the teachers listed.

UIL A+ Academics News

Forest Creek Elementary

2018-2019

Dear Parents and Students,

We are excited to announce that Forest Creek Elementary will be participating in the UIL
(University Interscholastic League) Competition again this year!

Approximately 3,000 Texas schools participate in UIL academic events, competing in
more than 300 district meets each year. This has been a prestigious tradition that many
Texan parents and grandparents fondly remember. This year will be the another year for
Round Rock ISD to join the fun, and RRISD has been divided into districts for this
competition. Our district includes these schools, which will compete against each other:
Blackland Prairie, Forest Creek, Berkman, Callison, Gattis, and Voigt.

Events offered:

• A+ Creative Writing – GRADE 2: Contestants will be given a prompt with several captioned pictures. From these pictures, the students will create an original story based on their selections in 30 minutes.  Coach: Pam_Bartholomew@roundrockisd.org  Practices: Thursday 2:55-4:00

• Oral Reading- Grades 4 & 5: Reading literature out loud provides opportunities for students to analyze the text, to grow and to develop as a performer, to communicate a message to an audience and to perform an artistic creation. Students choose a selection to read which may be one poem, a cutting of a poem, or a combination of poems.   Coach:Deanna_Jezisek@roundrockisd.org

• A+ Spelling – GRADES 3, 4, & 5: Students will write down words given by the pronouncer on their paper at a rate of approximately five words per minute.   Coach: Charlia_Jones@roundrockisd.org Practices: Thursday 3:00-4:00

• A+ Ready Writing – GRADES 3, 4, & 5:  In particular, this contest helps students learn to write a clear and correct paper that is interesting and original!. Coach: Pam_Bartholomew@roundrockisd.org Practices: Thursday 2:55-4:00

• Number Sense - GRADES 4 & 5:   Students will be given a fill-in-the-blank test which they shall complete without doing calculations on paper or on a calculator. Erasures, mark-overs and mark-outs are not permitted. Requirements for numeric forms shall be as specified in official contest procedures. Exactly 10 minutes shall be allotted for the testing period exclusive of time required for instructions. Coach: Dana_Engstrom@roundrockisd.org Thursday 3:00-4:00

• Storytelling - GRADES 2 & 3: Contestants will listen to a storyteller read a brief story (between 600 and 1100 words long) only once, and then retell that story in their own words before a judge or judges. To tell a story, the participant must develop skills in listening, thinking and speaking. This contest also allows for the development of creative expression, something being given more attention in the professional world. Coach: Susan_Shogan@roundrockisd.org

Practices: Thursday 3:00-4:00

If you think this would be a good opportunity, and you can spare the time (after or before school meetings once a week, plus the Saturday of January 26, 2019), please encourage your child to try out for one or several events. Some event “clubs” will meet several times before a team is selected. A team comprises three competitors for an event, plus one alternate, who is just as much a member of the team and will practice and attend the Saturday event essentially as an “understudy.” Many alternates find themselves competing on the actual contest day.

Try-outs will be announced within each UIL group.  

The UIL district meet will be on Saturday, January 26, 2019. Exact time will be TBA. Expect competitors to be there from morning through early afternoon. A snack concession will be available, and students can bring a parent.

If your student is interested in participating in the UIL program, please send back the
attached interest form by October 11, 2018 and the coach for that event will contact you and your student.

Your Partner In Education,

Crystal Gentry

Forest Creek Elementary UIL Coordinator

512-464-5439

Crystal_Gentry@roundrockisd.org

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UIL A+ Academics Interest Form

Student Name:________________________

Classroom Teacher:__________________________

Grade Level: __________________

Event(s) interested in: _______________________________

Parent Name/Phone #:____________________

Parent Email Address: _______________________

Progress Not Perfection

It was a fine, fine week in 2nd grade -- but not perfect.  I missed a couple of my friends; flu and allergy season is upon us. 

In Math ... we have been working on 2 digit plus 2 digit addition using a hundreds chart, using base 10 blocks and an open numberline.  As my mathematicians become more experienced, they will certainly have a favorite strategy, but they must recognize all strategies and how they are related.  These three strategies all decompose numbers into their place value parts to make them easier to combine**** If you as a parent are not sure you know what these strategies look like, take a look in the handouts for parents.  I've posted a few pictures.

In Science ... we have been describing matter using a variety of properties and then examining the effects of adding heat to matter.  Who knew melting a crayon would be a WHOA moment -- truly the beauty of this age.  We are about to use our understanding of different properties to start a STEAM bridge project that will culminate in presentations to parents the week of 10/8.  Please send in paper towel rolls, toilet paper rolls and boxes for building materials.

In Reading ...we have been looking at fiction for a few weeks and are going to explore some non-fiction for a while -- we will be primarily discussing text features and how they support our understanding as a reader.  We'll integrate some social studies by reading about citizenship and about some of the defining moments in our country's history.

In Writing ... the kids completed their first "real" word study unit and although they are newbies at looking at word structure/spelling generalizations they did well.  Our language is influenced by so many cultures it is sometimes easy to forget that there are some phonetic and spelling rules that are pretty consistent.  We learned the 5 main parts of  a friendly letter this week and tried our hand at a thank you letter to some staff members.  Moving forward we'll be writing expository to reflect our study of non-fiction writing.

Remember:  Our class is presenting author/illustrator Marla Frazee at the Texas Book Festival 10/28

We've got two important birthdays this week!  Happy birthday to Finn on Tuesday and to Mathias on Thursday!!

Cedar Ridge Homecoming Events

Cedar Ridge is celebrating a full week of Homecoming events this week including a Raider Parade and Rally event on Wednesday from 5:30 - 9:00.  All community members are invited to attend. Come on out and have some fun with your friends and family - We will have a variety of food trucks including Flavorlicious, P. Terry’s, Golden Chicken & Little Caesar’s Pizza.  We will have a D.J., dunk tank, face painting, photo booth & yard games. We will have a voter registration booth available & our Booster Clubs, PTSA and Project Grad will be selling a variety of Raider spirit wear items. The parade will begin 7:00 followed by a pep rally in the football stadium.  

Continue your Raider spirit by coming out to the Homecoming football game against the Leander Lions on Friday at Kelly Reeves stadium. The game starts at 7:00. Be sure to wear purple

Calling All Writers!

 Writing Club will begin on Monday, Sept. 17 after school at 2:55. Writing Club will be every OTHER Monday.   In Writing Club, the students in 2-5 grade free write and share their writing.  We will have a mini-lesson and talk about a writing craft or strategy. Then the writers can choose to write whatever they want.  It can be a poem, story, rap, comic, essay.... anything.  They can write individually or in groups.  They can choose to share their writing with others as well.  It is a place and opportunity for children to be creative and use their imaginations in a risk free environment.  Writing Club will take place in the library and we will walk out to the front of the school for pick up. After school, the kids will meet in the gym and Mrs. Bartholomew will pick them up to go to the library to write.  All 2-5th graders are welcome. Questions? Email pam_bartholomew@roundrockisd.org or dana_engstrom@roundrockisd.org

If your child will attend Writing Club every other Monday, please let me know how they will be going home.

September!

The Shogan Salamanders are well into their school routine with the exception of guided math.  The kids are friendly and fun and social which makes our classroom a wonderful place to be but presents a challenge when we are tasked with independent or quiet work.  We're going to keep working on it!

In reading we have been making connections, both text-to-self and text-to-text to deepen our understanding of our shared reading.  We've even recorded some as readers' responses (new for the kids) using sentence stems.  Next week we'll delve into character traits, internal and external.  Kids sometimes need clarification separating an emotion from a trait.  A trait is exhibited over time, not just in a moment.

Math is going well.  The kids are secure in their knowledge of two digit numbers represented as a group of tens and ones, can do expanded form and can determine the value in a ten-frame or base 10 blocks.  We'll continue to do 100 puzzles to expand and challenge our thinking.  We've also looked at taking surveys for information and representing that data in a bar graph.  We'll look at pictographs next week and review the entire unit.

Writing is a process.  We're working on personal narratives (they have a setting, beginning/middle/end and describes a small moment).  We're going to do some editing to check our use of capitalization and punctuation and revise to add some "show, don't tell" description and hopefully do our first writing gallery walk next week.

Next week we begin our unit on Physical Properties and the effects of adding/removing heat to matter.  A couple of hands on activities will keep it fun.

Remember, the kids often want a sweater or sweatshirt jacket in the classroom as it gets cold.  Our lunch time is 12:38 and the kids benefit from a small healthy snack at our recess time.

Feel free to contact me anytime!