Bartholomew Bats!


Our school is located in Round Rock, Texas which is near Austin. Austin and Round Rock both have huge populations of Mexican Free Tailed Bats that live under our bridges. A colony of bats lives beneath the Ann Richards/Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin and in Round Rock, another colony resides under the Interstate 35 bridge over McNeil Road. Each evening from March to about October, the bats fly out from beneath the bridge and search for insects to eat. The emergence of the bats is a wonder to watch. We are also thankful that all these millions of bats eat the bugs by our homes.

Our class mascot is the Bat to honor the mammals that live so close to us and help us. (also because Bat and Bartholomew both start with the letter B!) The bats in Central Texas live together in a group and help take care of the young. Then they migrate together as a team. Our class will also live together in our classroom, work together as a team, and help each other out. We are the Bartholomew Bats!





Sunday, November 3, 2013

Great week! Homework packet and reading/math log due on Monday. Toy Drive-Bring in NEW toys. TAG information metkn

Hi, November 2, 2013

We had a week filled with some Halloween fun and learning. We topped it off with more fun at Movie Night. Thanks PTA!

Reading-We read a lyrical poem called “Enter This Deserted House” by Shel Silverstein. We discussed tricky words and used the context clues to help figure them out. We noticed the rhyme and rhythm, the stanzas, and the line breaks. We wrote about the mood of the poem and the images that the poet created with his words. Then we watched a video with the poem being read and various nature images being shown. We discussed the images used and the way the speaker used his voice to create different moods and emotions. Then…. we watched another video of this poem with different images. This time the images were clips from the movie, Psycho, and there is one surprising part that made the kids scream! We wrote about how the two videos were different even though the poem read was exactly the same and talked about how different people interpret poems (and other things) in completely different ways. Here are the links to the videos. Enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x587PpF-J1Q and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1I4uaRt6bM
We will continue reading and analyzing poems this week and reading/discussing our book club books.

Writing-We read a model of an personal essay or expository essay and discussed the structure. An essay has a central idea, supporting details, and a conclusion. We brainstormed, planned, and wrote a rough draft about our favorite place. We worked hard to make our introductory paragraph interesting and inviting to the reader. Lots of specific details with sensory words were used in our supporting details paragraphs. We worked hard to be sure that our conclusions tied up the ideas and thoughts, were reflective, and left the author with something on which to think. I met with the children to talk about the strengths of their essay rough draft, and we talked about changes to make to improve their piece. Many are now revising and editing on their own and some kids already finished their final copy. We will finish up our essays at the beginning of the week, then we will work on writing poetry.

Math-Telling time, elapsed time, reading thermometers, figuring out changes in temperatures, and analyzing graphs were all practiced in math this week. We will continue to spiral these concepts all year. Try to work on these skills at home often. We will begin working on multiplication and division with larger numbers this week.

Science-We will be learning about forms of energy this week.

Social Studies-We read about bartering and discussed items that specific tribes from Texas traded and why. We will continue to learn about Native Texans.

Toy Drive
Service Club is having a Toy Drive for children at Dell’s Children’s Hospital and to bring awareness to OMS, a childhood disease that affects the brain and nervous system. A child in our community has this disease and his mother came to talk to us about it at our last Service Club meeting. Please help us help others. Bring in new toys to donate. Our goal is 200 new toys for the hospital.

Honoring Veterans
We are honored to invite and serve current and former military personnel on Monday, November 11, 2013 to celebrate Veterans’ Day. The cafeteria will serve breakfast from 7:15-7:45 to veterans. After, veterans are invited to stay and walk through campus to be greeted by students. Please RSVP to this event to help us as we prepare food and gather visitor badge information. We look forward to seeing you!
If you are a Boy or Girl Scout, please wear your uniform to school on November 11 to help honor the Veterans visiting our campus,

TAG Parent Information Meeting
Learn more about the TAG Program and the referral process. This meeting will be held in the Forest Creek Elementary Library on Tuesday, November 12, 2013 from 5:30-6:00pm. Referrals for students in grades K-5 will be accepted from November 18 through December 6. Please contact Deanna Jezisek (deanna_jezisek@roundrockisd.org) or Julie Washburn (julie_washburn@roundrockisd.org) for additional information or with questions.

Dates to Remember:
Monday, November 4-Reading/Math Log and homework packet due
Monday, November 4-Service Club Meeting 2:45-3:45
Tuesday, November 5-Reflections Gallery Night-6:00
Wednesday, November 6-Walk to School Day
Thursday, November 7-Family Fun Night at Austin Pizza
Friday, November 8-Spelling/word study test on plurals
Monday, November 11-7:15 Veteran’s Day Breakfast
Thursday, November 14-Fundraiser Pick up 2:00pm
Thursday, November 14-Writing Club 2:45-3:45 in Mrs. Arnold’s Room
Thursday, November 21-Thanksgiving Lunch and Literacy Night
Tuesday, November 26-Groovy-O-Rama at 10:05 for Fourth grade

Have a wonderful weekend! Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)