Week of April 2nd

Hello everyone! We have a busy month this April and hope you all had a wonderful long weekend. We had an awesome last couple of weeks with our cultural celebration and can not believe we are in the final 9 weeks of the school year! 

Things happening at TCE:

• Tutoring Canceled - Tutoring will be canceled Monday April 2nd due to campus meetings. Tutoring will also be canceled the week of April 9th due to STAAR testing. 

• STAAR Dates - The learners will be participating in Writing, Math and Reading STAAR this school year. The dates for each test are below. As a reminder, there are no parent visitors this day for lunch. If you have a note for your child on one of these days, please contact the front office. 
• Writing STAAR: April 10th
• Math STAAR: May 14th
• Reading STAAR: May 15th

• 4th Grade Schedule Change - Tuesday April 10th
• Lunch 12:15-12:45
• Recess 12:45-1:15
• Specials 2:00-3:00

• Field Trip - Thank you for everyone who has returned the field trip permission form. If you have not, please return it to your learner's homeroom teacher ASAP. We will be taking a Field Trip to the Fort Worth Zoo on May 24th.

• There will be a PTO Meeting on Wednesday, April 4th at 5:30 PM. During this PTO Meeting, the Human Resources department from Coppell ISD will be there to discuss the process for hiring a new principal for Town Center Elementary. The Human Resources department will be asking for feedback from our TCE families before the interview process begins. For more information, see the PTO facebook page or PTO emails. 

Curriculum Tidbits:

Math:

In math, we have begun our unit over measurement. The learners will be skilled at converting measurements within the same system and solving problems that deal with measurement using models to determine a formula for perimeter and area. They will also know relative sizes of measurement within the customary and metric systems.

Science:
In science, we will be investigating why we have seasons and tides. We will also be continuing to track the phases of the moon with the moon packet that was sent home last week. 

Language Arts:
In reading, students will continue reviewing different different skills such as theme and text features to help navigate and understand text.

In writing, the learners will continue to prepare for their Writing STAAR test. Learners are working on memorizing their Revision Checklist so they can do it memory and working through their grammar STAAR review packet.

Updates: Week 29

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

Field Trip

• As you know, we will be going to the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History on May 18th. As a reminder, all field trip permission slips and money were due Friday, April 1st. This includes chaperone money and forms. If you have not turned in these items, please do so as quickly as possible. If you are unable to return these items for any reason, please email your child's teacher. 
• Please click this link for more information regarding our field trip. Please let us know if you have any questions regarding our trip. 

STAAR Testing

• Our first round of STAAR testing was successful. The kids completed their writing tests and everything went smoothly. Thank you to PTO for providing our snacks. 
• We will take our Math STAAR on May 9th and Reading STAAR May 10th. 

Volunteer Appreciation Breakfast - April 7th

• We are so fortunate to have many parent volunteers at Town Center, and we are abundantly grateful. As a token of our appreciation, we'd like to invite all of our volunteers to our annual Appreciation Breakfast on April 7th. If the image doesn't show below, you can click this link to see the invitation. We hope you're able to make it! 

Texan Town 

• Our last session of Texan Town will start on Friday, April 8th. 

•  As always, l
  

  earners can purchase a popcorn subscription for $2.50, which will cover the cost of popcorn for 5 weeks of Texan Town, or they 

  can purchase weekly for $.50 a bag. 
  
  
• The dates for the last session of Texan Town will be 
  

  April 8, 15, 22, and 

  
  

  May 6, 13.

Spring Conferences

• We do not get a designated day for spring conferences like we do in the fall, but we will be able to offer conference times (either face to face or via phone/email) to those that are interested. 
• We will be sharing information regarding spring conferences this week. Be on the look out for a handout!  

Upcoming Dates

• Thursday, April 7 - Volunteer Breakfast 
• Friday, April 15 - TCE Hoedown
• Thursday, April 21 - Engineering Extravaganza (More Info to Come)
• Friday, April 22 - Spring Spirit Run
• Friday, April 29th - Holiday Coupon: A Picnic Outside for Lunch
• Friday, May 6th - Mother's Day Marathon
• Monday, May 9th - Math STAAR
• Tuesday, May 10th -  Reading STAAR
• Friday, May 20th - Field Day
• Tuesday, May 24th - Recorder Concert (AM and PM) 
• Thursday, May 26th - Holiday Coupon: A Movie & Popcorn

Character Education
The citizenship quality for April is Effort. 

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 are finishing up our unit over measurement. We will be taking a test at the end of this week covering area and perimeter, relative size of measurement within the customary and metric systems, and measurement conversions. 

*NEW MATH WEBSITES*
The learners were introduced to two new Math websites that they can use at school, as well as at home. The websites are listed below:
Prodigy- prodigygame.com/play
Khan Academy- khanacademy.org

In science we have started our new unit in life science, beginning with energy in ecosystems. The learners will be exploring how living organisms within an ecosystem interact with one another.

Language & Literacy

In reading, we will continue to focus on comparing and contrasting texts by analyzing the main ideas, points of view, authors' purposes, and text structures. We will also continue to focus on thinking critically and analytically about various texts. 

Social Studies

In social studies, we are continuing our study of the Texas Revolution. Throughout our study of the various battles in the Revolution, learners will be thinking about the following big questions: 

How does the past shape our present and future? 
Could the Revolution have been avoided? 
_____

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

Fourth Grade Field Trip 2016

Field Trip information went home on Friday, March 4. All field trip permission slips and payments are due Friday, April 1. Chaperone interest forms are due Thursday, March 10.

For more information regarding our field trip, please click this link.