Schedule Changes and Pre-Break Updates

Happy Holiday Season to Everyone! This is a busy time of year, and we know there is a lot to keep up with. We wanted to post about a few schedule changes we will have this week.

We will have lunch during our regularly scheduled time Tuesday-Thursday. 

For more information about Holiday from the Heart, Winter Parties, and Early Release, please check Ms. Applegate's most recent blog post on tceprincipalnews.blogspot.com/. 

In addition, we would like to let you know that the learners will not have their normal weekly spelling or math homework this week. 

As always, please let us know if you have any questions! 

Service Learning Updates

The Giving Tree
First Grade will be hosting their annual Giving Tree Service Project this year. Please click on this link to learn more about this opportunity to donate. 

Canned Food & Turkey Drive
Thank you so much to those of you that donated canned foods and/or frozen turkeys the week before Thanksgiving. Town Center collected 1,087 cans and 83 turkeys for those in need. 

Holiday from the Heart
This year, we will be having our annual Holiday from the Heart celebration during the school day on December 16th. Holiday from the Heart will be a day centered around service learning and cultural awareness. During this day, we would like to highlight traditions and holidays celebrated during the winter in different cultures. If you or your family would like to share about traditions and/or holidays that you celebrate during the winter, please email your child's teacher.

Social Studies Connection
In Social Studies, our fourth graders will begin a new unit on European Exploration and Colonization of Texas. Throughout our unit, we will be analyzing the reasons why people might leave their home and search for a new home in another place. We would love to share real world examples with our learners and give our Fourth Grade families an opportunity to share the story behind why they moved from one place to another. 

If you and/or your family has relocated for a particular reason, we would love to hear from you. (This includes families that moved from one country to another, one state to another, or even from one city to another.) 

If you would like to participate, please click on the link to share your story. (It's just a few short questions.) 

As always, thank you for participating in our on-going service learning projects! 

Updates - Week 13

Thank you for taking the time to read our blog. There is a lot of important information in this post. As always, please let us know if you have any questions. 

Important Announcements

• The 2nd grade students will be having a canned food drive to help feed many families in our community this holiday season. If you would like to help, please send any donations  with your child to school. The Canned Food Drive started this Monday, November 9th. We are going to have to a contest to see which grade level can collect the most cans/items, and we are tying this into our math curriculum! 
  
  
  For more information, please see this link. 

• We will have our annual Turkey Drive again this year. You may go online to donate a turkey, or you may bring one during our Turkey Drive on November, 20th. For more information, please see this flyer from 2nd Grade. 

• The learners will have the week of November 23rd off for the Thanksgiving holiday.  

Texan Town!

As a reminder, Texan Town takes place most Fridays from 7:50-8:40. (When we have a Spirit Rally, we do not have Texan Town.) The dates for Texan Town during the Fall Session are: October 2nd, 16th, & 30th, November 6th, 13th, & 20th, and December 4th & 11th. 

In addition, every Friday we have a modified "Texan Town" schedule. Therefore, on Fridays, we have Specials (Move & Groove) from 9:30-10:20 AM. Our lunch and recess times stay the same. 

Popcorn Money

Ms. Seifert is in need of some helpers to help her pop the popcorn. If you would like to volunteer to sign up, please view this sign up sheet. There are spots available on Friday, November 20th, and Friday, November 27th. Thank you to the wonderful parents that have already signed up! 

If your family is new to Town Center and you have any questions about Texan Town, please don't hesitate to ask. 

Upcoming Dates

• Tuesday, November 17th - Friday Schedule
• Friday, November 20th - Turkey Drive & TCE Turkey Trot 
• November 23-27 - NO SCHOOL 
• December 17th - Class Winter Parties
• December 18th - Early Release 

Character Education
The citizenship quality for November is Cooperation. 

Each week, Town Center focuses on one life principle, or guiding character quality. The life principles for each week are discussed on the morning announcements and will be posted on our agendas. 

What are we learning?
Math & Science

In Math, the learners will be learning how to to find equivalent fractions and compare fractions with unlike denominators. You can help us out by having conversations with your learners about fractions as you're cooking, shopping, or preparing for holiday meals. 

In Science, we recently wrapped up our mixtures unit. We will begin a short unit on Earth's renewable and nonrenewable resources.  

Language & Literacy

In reading, we continue to talk about main idea and summary of nonfiction texts. Throughout this unit, learners will think about three key essential questions: 

• How do readers make meaning from facts, details, and evidence?
• How does the organization of the text help readers understand the author’s message?
• How do I use the information I learned to support my thinking?

Throughout the unit, we will be reinforcing these enduring understandings:

• Expository and nonfiction texts provide facts, details, and evidence.
• What we read helps us make sense of the world.
• Text features help the reader locate evidence to support understanding.

In writing, we will begin to explore expository writing. The learners will continue to use the skills they've learned about writing more descriptively as they begin to write expository texts in class. 

Social Studies

In social studies, the learners will begin to learn about the European Explorers that came to America. They will specifically learn about how exploration and colonization of Spain and France shaped the history and culture of Texas. 

Thank you, again, for taking the time to read our blog. We are looking forward to another great week with our fourth graders! 

Service Learning Updates

An Update from the Kindergarten Shoe Drive

Thank you so much to everyone who donated jeans for our Sole Hope shoe project! Now that we have collected our materials, we are looking for volunteers to come and help us trace and cut the denim into squares. Once the squares are made and put into pairs, we can ship them off to be made into shoes! Kindergarten is teaming up with the Fashion Club during Texan Town. If you would like to volunteer to help trace and cut, please bring fabric scissors on Friday, November 13^th  from 8:00-8:50. Thank you so much! Kindergarten cannot wait to make a difference for other kids just like them that do not have shoes.

Second Grade's Canned Food Drive

The 2nd grade students will be having a canned food drive to help feed many families in our community this holiday season. If you would like to help, please send any donations  with your child to school. The Canned Food Drive started this Monday, November 9th. We are going to have to a contest to see which grade level can collect the most cans/items, and we are tying this into our math curriculum! 

For more information, please see this link. 

New Activities for November

There are a couple of new things going on in fourth grade this November, and we thought we'd share a few of them with you.

Gratitude Challenge
In language arts, the learners are participating in a daily Gratitude Challenge. Each day they respond to a prompt and write a reflection about something for which they are grateful. We are enjoying sharing in class and learning a bit about the blessings in each other's lives. Perhaps your family might want to join in as well.

You can view the Gratitude Challenge here.

STEM Challenge
In addition, we have a couple of optional activities that we offer for the kids each month. The first activity is an at home STEM challenge. The learners are invited to design and create something new and innovative using a certain material. This month's challenge is to create something using an empty plastic bottle.

If they participate, they get to share their creations with the class, and then they are displayed at school. We have really enjoyed seeing the creativity and thought that our learners have put into these projects so far.

Reading Bingo Board

The second optional activity we provide each month is a Reading Bingo Board. The learners are encouraged to use this bingo board to find new and fun ways to widen their reading habits. The objective is for them to make bingo by getting five boxes in a row. They can also really challenge themselves by trying to get a "black out" and completing all of the boxes. We are not as interested in the minutes read as we are in the variety of reading activities. If the learners return this with a bingo at the end of the month, they have the opportunity to win a reward. You and your family might like to participate in this Bingo game as well. 

We hope you and your family are having an enjoyable November! 

Updates: Week 11

Thank you for taking the time to read our blog. There is a lot of important information in this post. As always, please let us know if you have any questions. 

Important Announcements

• The learners participated in the JDRF Walk during Specials on Monday, November 2nd. Thank you to those of you that donated to this service learning project! 

• Our annual Spring Creek BBQ Night will be Tuesday, November 3rd at Spring Creek BBQ on Round Grove Road in Lewisville. Join us as we have a fun night of eating with our TCE families and help fundraise for new resources for TCE. (Plus, as an added bonus, you will be served by TCE teachers and staff!)

• We will have our annual Turkey Drive again this year. You may go online to donate a turkey, or you may bring one during our Turkey Drive on November, 20th. For more information, please see this flyer from 2nd Grade. 

• We will have a Veteran's Day Ceremony during the day on November 11th. We will share more information about this ceremony in the near future. During this ceremony, we will honor the Veteran's that are close to our TCE Family. If you have a relative or loved one that is a veteran, you may fill out the RED Veteran's Day form that your learner will be bringing home this week. 

Texan Town!

As a reminder, Texan Town takes place most Fridays from 7:50-8:40. (When we have a Spirit Rally, we do not have Texan Town.) The dates for Texan Town during the Fall Session are: October 2nd, 16th, & 30th, November 6th, 13th, & 20th, and December 4th & 11th. 

In addition, every Friday we have a modified "Texan Town" schedule. Therefore, on Fridays, we have Specials (Move & Groove) from 9:30-10:20 AM. Our lunch and recess times stay the same. 

Popcorn Money

Ms. Seifert is in need of some helpers to help her pop the popcorn. If you would like to volunteer to sign up, please view this sign up sheet. There are spots available on Friday, November 20th, and Friday, November 27th. Thank you to the wonderful parents that have already signed up! 

If your family is new to Town Center and you have any questions about Texan Town, please don't hesitate to ask. 

Upcoming Dates

• Tuesday, November 3rd - Spring Creek BBQ Night
• Friday, November 6th - Pansy Planting 
• Wednesday, November 11th - Veteran's Day Ceremony 
• Friday, November 20th - Turkey Drive & TCE Turkey Trot 
• November 23-27 - NO SCHOOL 

Character Education
The citizenship quality for November is Cooperation. 

Each week, Town Center focuses on one life principle, or guiding character quality. The life principles for each week are discussed on the morning announcements and will be posted on our agendas. 

What are we learning?
Math & Science

In Math, the learners will be investigating different ways to represent data. They will be learning about Frequency Tables, Stem-and-Leaf Plots, Line Plots, and Bar Graphs. 

In Science, the learners will be investigating the different states of matter. They will also be investigating mixtures. 

Language & Literacy

In reading, we will begin our nonfiction unit. Throughout this unit, learners will think about three key essential questions: 

• How do readers make meaning from facts, details, and evidence?
• How does the organization of the text help readers understand the author’s message?
• How do I use the information I learned to support my thinking?

Throughout the unit, we will be reinforcing these enduring understandings:

• Expository and nonfiction texts provide facts, details, and evidence.
• What we read helps us make sense of the world.
• Text features help the reader locate evidence to support understanding.

In writing, we will continue our unit that focuses on building strong sentences and using descriptive language to add depth to our ideas and meaning to our writing. 

Social Studies

In social studies, the learners will begin to learn about the early history of Texas and the lives of the Native Americans that lived here. Throughout this unit, learners will think about the following essential question: 

• How do people adapt to where they live?

In addition, we will be enforcing these enduring understandings throughout the unit: 

• Where people live affects how they live.
• Native Americans in Texas developed different ways of life based upon the geographic region in which they lived.

This will be learners first opportunity to use our new online textbook, and we are excited to see how the learners like the curriculum. They will be able to access the text, listen to an audio version, and make notes using their iPads. 

Thank you, again, for taking the time to read our blog. We are looking forward to another great week with our fourth graders! 

Updates: Week 9

Thank you for taking the time to read our blog. There is a lot of important information in this post. As always, please let us know if you have any questions. 

Important Announcements

• We will begin tutoring during the week of October 26th. Unfortunately, there may have been some miscommunication regarding our start date, so we apologize for any inconvenience. If you have not received information regarding your child being invited to tutoring, you may disregard this announcement. 

• On Monday, October 19th, we will have our kick off assembly for our school-wide Diabetes Service Learning Project. The assembly will be at 8:30 am in the gym. As a reminder, we will use a Friday schedule on this day (and all assembly days). Therefore, we will have specials from 9:30-10:20. At the end of our service learning project, the kids will participate in a fun run on Friday, October 30th. Parents are invited to come and run with their kids. To learn more about our service learning project, you may visit 
  www2.jdrf.org/goto/towncenter. In addition, the learners should be coming home with fundraising envelopes this week, so be on the look out for them. 

• We will have picture retakes on Tuesday, October 20th, first thing in the morning. Please let your son/daughter know if they will need to get his/her picture taken on this day. 

• In addition to our school-wide service learning project, Kindergarten has a few service learning projects going on right now, and they need your help. Please see our previous post about donations you may be able to provide, including gently used shoes and blue jeans. 

• Our 1st Spirit Rally will be Friday, October 23rd at 8:30 am in the gym. We ask that your child please wear his/her TCE spirit grade level t-shirt on this day. (Our fourth grade shirts are bright orange.) 

• We will celebrate Red Ribbon Week during the week of October 26th. We invite our learners to support a healthy, drug-free lifestyle and participate in these dress up days at school. To see the dress-up themes for each day of the week, please see this link. We will discuss these days with our learners at school as well. 

• Our annual Spring Creek BBQ Night will be Tuesday, November 3rd at Spring Creek BBQ on Round Grove Road in Lewisville. Join us as we have a fun night of eating with our TCE families and help fundraise for new resources for TCE. (Plus, as an added bonus, you will be served by TCE teachers and staff!)

Texan Town!

As a reminder, Texan Town takes place most Fridays from 7:50-8:40. (When we have a Spirit Rally, we do not have Texan Town.) The dates for Texan Town during the Fall Session are: October 2nd, 16th, & 30th, November 6th, 13th, & 20th, and December 4th & 11th. 

In addition, every Friday we have a modified "Texan Town" schedule. Therefore, on Fridays, we have Specials (Move & Groove) from 9:30-10:20 AM. Our lunch and recess times stay the same. 

Popcorn Money

One of our Texan Town clubs is Texan Treats. Ms. Seifert leads this club, and she and her learners work to pop and deliver popcorn to our Town Center Texans. Learners can purchase a subscription for $4.00.  It will cover the cost of popcorn for 8 weeks of Texan Town. Alternatively, learners can also purchase popcorn weekly for $.50 a bag. 

Ms. Seifert is in need of some helpers to help her pop the popcorn. If you would like to volunteer to sign up, please view this sign up sheet. Thank you in advance for your help! 

If your family is new to Town Center and you have any questions about Texan Town, please don't hesitate to ask. 

Upcoming Dates

• Monday, October 19th - Diabetes Service Learning Assembly
• Tuesday, October 20th - Picture Retakes
• Friday, October 23rd - Spirit Rally 
• Monday, October 26th - Friday, October 30th - Red Ribbon Week
• Friday, October 30th - Diabetes Fun Run
• Tuesday, November 3rd - Spring Creek BBQ Night

Character Education
The citizenship quality for October is Responsibility. 

Each week, Town Center focuses on one life principle, or guiding character quality. The life principles for each week are discussed on the morning announcements and will be posted on our agendas. 

What are we learning?
Math & Science

In math, we are working on addition and subtraction with whole numbers. The learners will practice estimating and will consider when and why they estimate. We are also learning how to apply the correct problem-solving strategies to addition and subtraction problems in a variety of ways, including the standard algorithm. 

In science, we will continue exploring the different types of energy, the effects force has on an object, and the relationship between gravity and distance.

Language & Literacy

In reading, we will begin our nonfiction unit. Throughout this unit, learners will think about three key essential questions: 

• How do readers make meaning from facts, details, and evidence?
• How does the organization of the text help readers understand the author’s message?
• How do I use the information I learned to support my thinking?

Throughout the unit, we will be reinforcing these enduring understandings:

• Expository and nonfiction texts provide facts, details, and evidence.
• What we read helps us make sense of the world.
• Text features help the reader locate evidence to support understanding.

In writing, we will begin a new unit that focuses on building strong sentences and using descriptive language to add depth to our ideas and meaning to our writing. 

Social Studies

In social studies, the learners will begin to learn about the early history of Texas and the lives of the Native Americans that lived here. Throughout this unit, learners will think about the following essential question: 

• How do people adapt to where they live?

In addition, we will be enforcing these enduring understandings throughout the unit: 

• Where people live affects how they live.
• Native Americans in Texas developed different ways of life based upon the geographic region in which they lived.

This will be learners first opportunity to use our new online textbook, and we are excited to see how the learners like the curriculum. They will be able to access the text, listen to an audio version, and make notes using their iPads. 

Thank you, again, for taking the time to read our blog. We are looking forward to another great week with our fourth graders! 

Service Learning & Cafeteria Updates

Kindergarten Service Learning

Kindergarten is collecting gently used shoes for our shoe drive! We will be using these shoes in our first Engineering unit as well as donating them to various charities in our community.

Kindergarten is also collecting any blue jeans that you are not using/wearing anymore! We are going to be doing our very first global service learning project this month. We will be helping to make closed toe shoes for children in Africa out of blue jeans. If you would like a little more information before we get started, please click on the link below! More information will be coming home as we get closer to starting this global service learning project!

http://www.solehope.org/

2nd Grade Texan Town Needs

Parents, please consider sending any of your paper shopping bags to school with your child. Second grade will be using these for collecting the recycled papers during Texan Town. We would be happy to take any paper shopping bags, bags from the grocery store, etc.

Cafeteria Details

• We thought it might be helpful to share a few details about our cafeteria. 
• Should your family feel the need, you may apply for Free and Reduced Lunch. To submit your application, go to: www.coppellisd.com/freeandreducedlunch.
• To access your child's lunch account, go to: myschoolbucks.com. 
• To view the school menu, go to: www.coppellisd.nutrislice.com. 

Updates: Week 6

Thank you for taking the time to read our blog. There is a lot of important information in this post. As always, please let us know if you have any questions. 

Important Announcements

• We had lots of visitors on Special Friends' Day! We would like to give a special thanks to our PTO volunteers and Room Moms for helping to coordinate that special day. 

• If you have not yet returned the BLUE Emergency Contact cards, please do so at your earliest convenience.

• Please click here to view a flyer about Destination Imagination. This is an after school opportunity for any learner in 3rd-5th grade. 
  
  

Texan Town!

Our first session of Texan Town will begin this Friday, October 2nd. Texan Town is a great opportunity for our learners to explore their passions and interests and to learn more about a variety of engaging topics. Texan Town takes place most Fridays from 7:50-8:40. The dates for Texan Town during the Fall Session are: October 2nd, 16th, & 30th, November 6th, 13th, & 20th, and December 4th & 11th. 

This week in class, the learners had the opportunity to choose their top five clubs/jobs from our Fall Catalog which features a variety of options. The learners will find out later this week which club or job they have been assigned. 

In addition, every Friday we have a modified "Texan Town" schedule. Therefore, on Fridays, we have Specials (Move & Groove) from 9:30-10:20 AM. Our lunch and recess times stay the same. 

Popcorn Money

One of our Texan Town clubs is Texan Treats. Ms. Seifert leads this club, and she and her learners work to pop and deliver popcorn to our Town Center Texans. Learners can purchase a subscription for $4.00.  It will cover the cost of popcorn for 8 weeks of Texan Town. Alternatively, learners can also purchase popcorn weekly for $.50 a bag. 

Ms. Seifert is in need of some helpers to help her pop the popcorn. If you would like to volunteer to sign up, please view this sign up sheet. Thank you in advance for your help! 

If your family is new to Town Center and you have any questions about Texan Town, please don't hesitate to ask. 

Fall Conferences 

• Fall Conferences will be Friday, October 9th at Town Center. In addition, we will be offering more conferences during the weeks of October 12th & 19th. You only need to sign up for one conference. However, in order to fit in all of our learners, we had to create two forms per classroom family. For more information regarding conferences, you may visit our previous blog post: Fall Conferences and the following sign ups: 
• 4A/4B Sign Up - Option One (October 9th) 
• 4A/4B Sign Up - Option Two (Weeks of October 12th & 19th)
• 4C/4D Sign Up - Option One (October 9th) 
• 4C/4D Sign Up - Option Two (Weeks of October 12th & 19th)

Upcoming Dates

• Friday, October 2nd - First Day of Texan Town 
• Friday, October 9th - NO SCHOOL/Parent-Teacher Conferences
• Monday, October 12th - NO SCHOOL 
• Friday, October 23rd - Spirit Rally 
• Monday, October 26th - Friday, October 30th - Red Ribbon Week

*On Monday, October 19th, the school will use a Friday schedule. This means that our fourth graders will have specials from 9:30-10:20. 

Character Education
The citizenship quality for October is Responsibility. 

Each week, Town Center focuses on one life principle, or guiding character quality. The life principles for each week are discussed on the morning announcements and will be posted on our agendas. 

What are we learning?
Math & Science

In Math, we will be discovering how to read and write decimals. We will also be discovering how to compare and order decimals using real world numbers. Please make sure that your learner is working on Reflex Math three times a week for at least 15 minutes. 

In Science, we will be investigating the difference between conductors and insulators. We will also be investigating different forms of energy.

Language & Literacy

In writing, we are working on the narrative writing process. The learners have been using the kernel essay strategy to plan their stories. They have loved this quick and easy way to add structure to their stories. We are loving their creativity and detail!

In reading, we are reviewing a variety of strategies to monitor our comprehension while we read. The learners have focused on checking for understanding, cross checking, and backing up to reread. In addition, we are continually working on building up our reading stamina. 

Social Studies

In Social Studies, we are wrapping up our unit on the Regions of Texas. The learners have been working on a blog post to compare our region of Texas to another region in our great state. The learners have been using their writing skills to show what they have learned in Social Studies. 

Thank you, again, for taking the time to read our blog. We are looking forward to another great week with our fourth graders!