Last Week of 2019!!

Hi Kindergarten Families!

We just wanted to include a few announcements and updates for this busy and festive week!

Polar Express Day

On December 18th, we will be having a Polar Express day with all of Kindergarten and 1st grade. To make the day even more cozy, the kids can wear their pajamas to school that day! They are welcome to wear comfy slippers during the day, but please send tennis shoes for PE and Recess.

Winter Party

Our Kindergarten Room Moms have worked so hard to plan a FUN winter party for our classes! Our party is December 19th at 2:00. Parents are welcome to attend this event in our classrooms! If you would simply like to come to the party and be there with just your child then you can sign in at the office as a visitor. However if you would like to help the room moms and teachers with a station or game or snack then you will need a background check on file. We wanted to let you know in advance about the background check so that you would have plenty of time to fill one out and have it approved. HERE is the link for a background check.

Also, please know that per school policy we cannot accept or pass out any treats, snacks, gift bags, or other type items during or at the winter party aside from the party snack.

Early Release

We will have early release on Friday, December 20th at 12:15. Please make arrangements to pick up your child then!

Giving Tree and Food Drive

Kindergarten and 1st grade are hosting a Toy and Canned Food drive! Please consider donating to make someone's holiday season a little cheerier. We will be accepting donations until Thursday, December 19th.

Yearbooks

Each year Town Center Elementary has a yearbook that includes an individual photo of every Town Center student and all class pictures. It also includes fun pictures from school events throughout the year. If you would like to purchase one, visit https://www.balfour.com/student-info?smi=98688. We would like all orders placed by January 11th.

December 9th - 13th

What We're Working On:

Language Arts:

In Reader's Workshop we will review our Reading Super Powers!

We are practicing:  Pointer Power, Reread Power, Picture Power, SNAP Word Power!

In Writer's Workshop we will continue our study of narrative writing.

We are adding a writing checklist to our journal entries so we can remember and double check if our writing is easy for others to read!

In Phonics Workshop we will focus on how to use rimes to make new words.

We will focus on rhyming words to show how rhymes change the beginning of a word but the ending sounds the same.  

Social Studies:

This week in Social Studies we will continue with our unit of family traditions and holidays around the world! 

Math:

In math, we will be learning all about strategies for adding. We will learn how to use counters, draw pictures, use a number line to add, and more. We will also play some fun games and do stations to practice these skills.

Science:

In science we will be learning about our four seasons. We will learn how the seasons follow a pattern. We will also talk about types of weather associated with each type of season!

Important Dates:

December 13th - Jingle Bell Jog (Kindergarten runs at 1:20)

December 18th - Polar Express Day (Kids can wear their PJ's!)

December 19th - Winter Party at 2:00

December 20th - Early Release at 12:15

Important Announcements:

Giving Tree and Food Drive

Kindergarten and 1st grade are hosting a Toy and Canned Food drive! Please consider donating to make someone's holiday season a little cheerier.

Polar Express Day

On December 18th, we will be having a Polar Express day with all of Kindergarten and 1st grade. To make the day even more cozy, the kids can wear their pajamas to school that day! They are welcome to wear comfy slippers during the day, but please send tennis shoes for PE and Recess.

Winter Party

Our Kindergarten Room Moms have worked so hard to plan a FUN winter party for our classes! Our party is December 19th at 2:00. Parents are welcome to attend this event in our classrooms! If you would simply like to come to the party and be there with just your child then you can sign in at the office as a visitor. However if you would like to help the room moms and teachers with a station or game or snack then you will need a background check on file. We wanted to let you know in advance about the background check so that you would have plenty of time to fill one out and have it approved. HERE is the link for a background check.

Also, please know that per school policy we cannot accept or pass out any treats, snacks, gift bags, or other type items during or at the winter party aside from the party snack.

November 18th - November 22nd

What We're Working On:

Language Arts:

In Reader's Workshop we will review and practice using our Reading Super Powers!

We are becoming such SUPER Readers! We will also learn about reading fluently and how to read with a smooth voice!  No book bags this week! We will resume after Thanksgiving! 

In Writer's Workshop we will continue our study of narrative writing.

We are learning how good writer's make their writing easy for others to read!
We can make our writing easy to read by:
Starting with a capital
Leaving Spaces Between Words
Using ending punctuation
Illustrating our work to match our words

In Phonics Workshop we will focus on how to use rimes to make new words.
We will use the -at and -in phonograms to make new words by changing the beginning
letter / sound.  

Social Studies:

This week in Social Studies we will wrap up our unit of study on our country:
Land that We Love!
We will continue to learn about Thanksgiving and this history behind this
wonderful holiday! 
We will discuss what we are thankful for this year!

Math:

In math this week, we will be continuing to build our numeracy skills with the numbers 6-10. We will be able to represent these numbers, compare and order, and compose and decompose!  We will really focus on decomposing numbers this week. We will play games, complete interactive stations, and reflect independently on these skills.

Science:

In science we will be continuing our unit on Weather! We will become weather experts - we will learn about the different types of weather like sunny, cloudy, rainy, snowy, stormy, etc! We will also learn about the different seasons and the weather that goes with each season. This week we will be creating a special presentation about types of weather we've learned about!

Important Dates:

November 22nd - Turkey Trot Date / Time Change!

November 25th - November 29th - Thanksgiving Break (NO SCHOOL!)

Important Announcements:

Toy and Food Drive:

November 11th - 15th

What We're Working On:

Language Arts:

In Reader's workshop we will continue our unit on Reading Super Powers!

We are becoming such SUPER Readers! 

In Writer's Workshop we will continue our study of narrative writing.

We will focus on telling our stories first to make a plans for writing.

We will discuss how stories have a beginning, middle, and ending.

We will continue to focus on using capital letters, space, and ending punctuation.

In Phonics Workshop we will focus on initial sounds and how pictures and letters can
give a clue to what the initial sound / letter might be! 

Library Day is Monday! Bring your books! 

Social Studies:

This week in Social Studies we will continue our unit called

"Our Country: Land that we LOVE!"

We will focus on the First Thanksgiving and the history behind it.
We will learn about the Pilgrims that came over on the Mayflower! 

Math:

In math this week, we will be continuing to build our numeracy skills with the numbers 6-10. We will be able to represent these numbers, compare and order, and compose and decompose! We will play games, complete interactive stations, and reflect independently on these skills. 

Science:

In science we will be beginning our unit on Weather! We will become weather experts - we will learn about the different types of weather like sunny, cloudy, rainy, snowy, stormy, etc! We will also learn about the different seasons and the weather that goes with each season.

Important Dates:

November 11th - Veterans Day Ceremony (8:00)
November 14th - Pansy Planting

November 25th - November 29th - Thanksgiving Break (NO SCHOOL!)

Important Announcements:

CISD Family Survey:

CISD is currently surveying our families in order to gain insight into your perception of our schools and district effectiveness. This survey shouldn’t take more than a few minutes to complete and will be a valuable source of information for us, as we work to make our schools and our district the best that they can be. You may complete the survey online between now and Nov. 4, using a computer, tablet or smartphone. To take the survey, please visit https://surveys.panoramaed.com, then select your child(ren)’s school. If you have multiple children in CISD, we ask that you take the survey for each school your child attends.

Veteran's Day Ceremony

Please plan to join us Monday, November 11th in the TCE Gym at 8:00 AM to help us honor our Town Center families and friends who are veterans. We'd like to extend the invitation to any veterans that are able to attend. It's a small way for us to say thank you. The program will be approximately thirty minutes, and we will have refreshments afterwards for our special guests and their families.

Pansy Planting

We'd love to have volunteers help us with our annual pansy planting. We've purchased enough for all learners to plant one in the front of our school next Thursday, November 14th on the way to recess. If you'd like to volunteer to help out, please click on the link below and sign up.

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0848A8A823A7FF2-pansy

**All volunteers need to have a completed background check on file to participate. https://apps2.winocular.com/coppell/workspace/

November 4th - 8th

What We're Working On:

Language Arts:

In Reader's workshop we will be starting a new unit on Reading Super Powers!
This week we will focus on pointer power and how we relate spoken words to text on a page.
We will practice using our pointer power when we read. 

In Writer's Workshop we will continue our study of narrative writing.

We will focus on telling our stories first to make a plans for writing.
We will discuss how stories have a beginning, middle, and ending.
We will continue to focus on using capital letters, space,  and ending punctuation.

In Phonics Workshop we will continue working on sounding out unfamiliar words and

using our snap words in writing to help us write more!
We will learn two new snap words this week:
"can" and "to." 

Library Day is Monday! Bring your books! 

Social Studies:

This week in Social Studies we will continue our unit called

"Our Country: Land that we LOVE!"

We have been learning about what it means to be patriotic. This week we will continue our study of patriotic holidays by focusing on President's Day! 

Math:

In math this week, we will be continuing our learning on numeracy with the numbers 6-10. We will be able to represent these numbers, compare and order, and compose and decompose! We will play games, complete interactive stations, and reflect independently on these skills. 

Science:

In science we will be learning all about force and motion. We will learn about pushes and pulls, and we will learn about different types of motion!

Important Dates:

November 5th - PTO meeting in the Library at 6:00

November 7th - STEM Night (5:30 - 7:00)

November 11th - Veterans Day Ceremony (8:00)

Important Announcements:

CISD Family Survey:

CISD is currently surveying our families in order to gain insight into your perception of our schools and district effectiveness. This survey shouldn’t take more than a few minutes to complete and will be a valuable source of information for us, as we work to make our schools and our district the best that they can be. You may complete the survey online between now and Nov. 4, using a computer, tablet or smartphone. To take the survey, please visit https://surveys.panoramaed.com, then select your child(ren)’s school. If you have multiple children in CISD, we ask that you take the survey for each school your child attends.

Veteran's Day Ceremony

Please plan to join us Monday, November 11th in the TCE Gym at 8:00 AM to help us honor our Town Center families and friends who are veterans. We'd like to extend the invitation to any veterans that are able to attend. It's a small way for us to say thank you. The program will be approximately thirty minutes, and we will have refreshments afterwards for our special guests and their families.

We are also putting together a digital photo display this year, so if possible, please send in a photo of your special veteran, even if they are not able to attend the ceremony. We will collect these through Thursday, November 7th. 

If you know of a veteran that is able to attend our November 11th ceremony or have a photo you would like to be included in our display, please email jmartin@coppellisd.com

TCE STEM Night

We would love for your to join us on November 7th for a fun night provided by the Perot Museum!

October 28th - November 1st

What We're Working On:

Language Arts:

BOOK BAGS ROCKED!
We are so proud of all our kinder friends for the great reading they did on their take home book bags! New books will come home on Mondays! Keep up the great reading! 

Book Bags go home on Monday

Book Bags are returned to school on Fridays!

In Reader's workshop we will be reading some fun books on Bats. 
We will compare fiction and non fiction texts.  

In Writer's Workshop we will continue our study of narrative writing.
We are working on writing three sentences and using a checklist to make
sure we have capitals, periods, and finger spaces.

In Phonics Workshop we will continue working on sounding out words and

"catching" the beginning sound. We are using our ABC Charts to help us catch the sound, find the sound and then read or write the sound of each letter!

Library Day is Monday! Bring your books! 

Social Studies:

This week in Social Studies we will continue our unit called

"Our Country: Land that we LOVE!"

We have been learning about what it means to be patriotic. This week we will continue our study of patriotic holidays by focusing on Independence Day!

Math / Science:

This week we will be integrating some fun math and science activities and stations to learn all about Bats!

We will learn about the lifecycle of a bat, the basic needs of bats (and all animals), different types of bats, and some very fun facts for bats. We are excited about a fun week of learning!

Important Dates:

October 29th - Kindergarten Pumpkin Carving Day @ 8:45
(see below for details)

October 31st - Kindergarten Fall Fun Day
October 31st - Red Ribbon Run / Jack-O-Lantern Jog at 1:15

November 7th - STEM Night (5:30 - 7:00)

November 11th - Veterans Day Ceremony (8:00)

Important Announcements:

Pumpkin Carving Day: 

This Tuesday, October 29th @ 8:45 we will be carving our kindergarten class pumpkins!  Parents are welcome to come and join us for our carving (and help too!) but please be sure you have a 

background check on file in the office! Information on background checks 

can be found on the link below:

https://www.coppellisd.com/Domain/3443

CISD Family Survey:

CISD is currently surveying our families in order to gain insight into your perception of our schools and district effectiveness. This survey shouldn’t take more than a few minutes to complete and will be a valuable source of information for us, as we work to make our schools and our district the best that they can be. You may complete the survey online between now and Nov. 4, using a computer, tablet or smartphone. To take the survey, please visit https://surveys.panoramaed.com, then select your child(ren)’s school. If you have multiple children in CISD, we ask that you take the survey for each school your child attends.

Town Center Elementary School Parent Compact

Today you will receive home a yellow handout labeled School / Parent Compact.

Please review the compact and sign it and return to school ASAP!

Veteran's Day Ceremony

Please plan to join us Monday, November 11th in the TCE Gym at 8:00 AM to help us honor our Town Center families and friends who are veterans. We'd like to extend the invitation to any veterans that are able to attend. It's a small way for us to say thank you. The program will be approximately thirty minutes, and we will have refreshments afterwards for our special guests and their families.

We are also putting together a digital photo display this year, so if possible, please send in a photo of your special veteran, even if they are not able to attend the ceremony. We will collect these through Thursday, November 7th. 

If you know of a veteran that is able to attend our November 11th ceremony or have a photo you would like to be included in our display, please email me at jmartin@coppellisd.com

TCE STEM Night

We would love for your to join us on November 7th for a fun night provided by the Perot Museum!

October 21st - October 25th 2019

What We're Working On:

Language Arts:

This week your child will be bringing home a book bag!! We are so excited to bring home some books to practice and read!  Your teacher will send an e.mail with more info about book bags too, but here is what you need to know....
Book Bags go home on Monday
Book Bags are returned to school on Fridays!

We will continue working on our writing! We are getting so good at
Starting with a capital letter
Using finger spaces between words
Ending with a period

We will continue our phonics study by focusing on sounding out words and
"catching" the beginning sound.  We are using our ABC Charts to help us catch the sound, find the sound and then read or write the sound of each letter!

Library Day is Monday! Bring your books! 

Social Studies:

This week in Social Studies we will continue our unit called
"Our Country: Land that we LOVE!"
We have been learning about what it means to be patriotic.  This week we will focus on
three patriotic holidays: Independence Day, President's Day, and Veteran's Day!

Math / Science:

This week we will be integrating some fun math and science activities and stations to learn all about PUMPKINS!

We will be doing pumpkin math: counting pumpkins, sorting pumpkins, and graphing pumpkins.

In Science we will learn about the lifecycle of a pumpkin, what all plants need to grow, and how pumpkins grow and change.

Important Dates:

October 18th - Report Cards go home *Please sign and return
October 18th @ 6:00 p.m. PTO Family Movie Night at TCE
October 21st - October 25th - RED RIBBON WEEK (see below for dress up days)
October 29th - Kindergarten Pumpkin Carving Day @ 9:00
October 31st - Kindergarten Fall Fun Day 

Important Announcements:

Red Ribbon Week 2019

TCE is a school DRUG FREE! Check out the graphic below to dress up each day and support our TCE Red Ribbon Week!  

TCE Pumpkin Patch