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 9, 2014

Newsletter

Hi, Nov. 8, 2014

We had a great week! Congratulations to Lily P. and Celine for coming in 1st and 2nd place in the Healthy Plate Poster Contest!

Texas Regions Projects
We began presenting our Texas Regions Projects! We presented to our homeroom and the children wrote two compliments and a suggestion or question for each group. I compiled all the information and each group will have an opportunity to revise and make adjustments to their presentation and/or project based on the feedback. We will present to the other homeroom class later this week.

Atomic Learning
Round Rock ISD has purchased Atomic Learning for student, parent, and staff use. This learning tool contains a wealth of information on how to use software and hardware that benefits users. The use does not have to be related to school or children’s programs. For example, Atomic Learning has tutorials on Microsoft Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc), Outlook, Blackboard Learning, Dropbox, Evernote, Facebook, GarageBand, Gmail, Chrome, iMovie, Internet Explorer, iPad, iPod, iTunes, Photoshop, Prezi, Safari, Skype, Windows, and Media Player to name a few. If you’re looking for a tutorial on how to do something on the computer, this is the place! Take advantage of this free resource!

URL: http://www.atomiclearning.com/login/roundrockisd

Username: roundrockparent

Password: learning


Veteran’s Day
Forest Creek will celebrate and honor Veterans this Tuesday. All Veterans are invited to come to school for breakfast then we will have two assemblies (one for K-2 at 8:15 and 3-5 at 9:00). The assemblies will include songs from our choir.

I-Station Reading online-Your child brought home a paper on Tuesday with information about downloading I-Station to work on reading at home. This is a wonderful program that adjusts to match your child’s reading level and works on many aspects in reading and writing. I am encouraging all students to work on I-Station for at least 20 minutes a week. This can be recorded in your child’s reading log and count for one day’s at-home reading homework. I can log into I-Station and check your child’s progress and the amount of time spent on the program. Thank you for working on I-Station at home and let me know if you have difficulty logging on or downloading.

TAG Information Night
There will be a TAG (Talented and Gifted) Information Night on Tuesday from 6:30-7:15. Come and learn about the TAG program and the procedures to request testing.

Reflections Gallery Night
Thursday evening will be the Reflections Gallery Night from 5-6:30. Come and see the projects!

PTA Family Fun Night at Austin Pizza on Thursday, November 13 from 5-8pm.

Reading
This week in reading we are reading and learning about poetry. We are comparing types of poems and elements of poetry such as stanzas, rhyme, meter, line breaks, similes, metaphors, etc… We are also writing responses to poetry and discussing the mood and feelings in poems.

Writing
We took a writing Curriculum Based Assessment this week. Overall, the students did very well on the multiple choice section. The fourth grade team will grade the compositions later this month. We are writing charts of sensory words and phrases for poems. We are experimenting with different types of poems. We are also examining our narratives and experimenting with revising them into poems. We will revise, edit, and publish at least one poem by the end of the week.

Social Studies
Revisions of our projects will take place this week. We will also begin learning about Native Americans in Texas. We will research tribes and the way they used the resources of their region to survive.

Dates to Remember
Monday, November 10, 2014-Reading logs due, tutorials from 2:45-3:45

Tuesday, November 11, 2014-Veteran’s Day Assembly, tutorials from 2:45-3:45, TAG information night at 6:00 pm

Wednesday, November 12, 2014-Reading Summary and Response Due

Thursday, November 13, 2014-Writing Club in library from 2:45-3:45, Reflections Gallery Night from 5-6:30, PTA Family Fun Night at Austin Pizza from 5-8 pm

Friday, November 14, 2014-Reading Summary and Response Due, Spelling and Vocabulary Test

Thursday, November 20, 2014-Thanksgiving Meal during lunch at 11:00

Friday, November 21, 2014- Totally O-Rama at 12:00 for 4th grade

Have a great rest of the weekend and let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,
Pam
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