THE PAW PRINT
Parent Newsletter
January 2016
Arredondo Elementary School
From Your Principals
Happy New Year Jaguar Families,
We are glad to have our jaguars back after a relaxing holiday break. We continue
to encourage regular attendance and to emphasize the importance of our jaguars
arriving to school on time and ready to learn. We appreciate you as partners in
your child’s education. We also appreciate our school board members and have
included the following article for you to read as we recognize the Lamar CISD
School Board and thank them for all that they do for our jaguars and our school
district.
Go Jaguars!
Heroes for Schools
Texas has more than 5 million students in its public schools. That is 5 million young minds
from about 5 years old to about 18 years old, and our state is attracting even more. Every
year, our student population increases by about 85,000 additional students.
Those impressionable young people depend on the adults in Texas to provide for them.
They need shelter and food and nurturing and an education. Who will step up to see that
ALL the children not just the ones in our own households have what they need in our
schools?
In Texas, more than 7,200 generous people have offered to help. These are people who
receive no pay for their dedicated efforts. These are people who not only volunteer but go
through the process of standing up for public education. They are locally elected school
board members. They are your neighbors, and they care.
These public servants donate their time and talents to ensure that ALL our children have
the best public schools we can provide. These people sit through meetings, read detailed
reports, listen to parents’ concerns, and do the hard work to benefit the students and the
community at large. And make no mistake about it, the whole community benefits from
good schools.
Each January, we pause in our regular activities to say thank you to these dedicated volunteers. We appreciate their generous sharing of time and
energy on behalf of our children. Local school board
members are truly heroes for our schools. Join me in celebrating School Board Recognition Month in January by
expressing your support and gratitude to our school trustees. We are indebted to them.
Ms. Amber Barbarow, Principal
Mrs. Michelle Miles, Assistant Principal
January
School Board Recognition Month
January 8
Spelling Bee Grades 3-5
January 14
Class Group Pictures
(During Specials)
January 18
Student & Staff Holiday
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
January 19
Beginning of 3rd Nine Weeks
January 21
2nd Nine Weeks Report
Cards Go Home
Looking Ahead...
February 5
Chik Fil A Spirit
February 12
Early Release Day
11:30 a.m. Dismissal
Dismissal is at 2:40 p.m. Dismissal is at 2:40 p.m. Dismissal is at 2:40 p.m.
Please pick up your jaguar on time as the office is busy with after school duties in the office. If your child
is habitually picked up late, you will need to arrange for childcare or have your jaguar ride the bus.
The Counselor’s Corner
HAPPY NEW YEAR! As a new year approaches, we think about those
resolutions we want to make. Whether it’s health, fitness, or finances.
Most of the time they fade as quickly as fresh baked cookies! An awesome way to keep some resolutions is to get your kids
involved. For fitness resolutions, put down the electronics and pick up a sport. Go out and run with your kids, toss a football, or
even shoot some hoops. For health resolutions, feed your brain. Choose a book you and your kiddos can read together nightly. For
financial resolutions, invest in your kids. Spend quality time with them by being involved in their education as well as their outside
interests. Those are resolutions worth keeping! New Year, new you!
Mrs. Melissa Schmidt, Counselor
The Gifted Paw
Testing is taking place for students in grades 1-5 who were nominated for the GT Program in
2016-17. Classes are postponed, shortened, or cancelled to allow this testing to take priority.
Results will be reported to parents later in the spring. Kindergarten screening is almost complete! Parents of kindergarten can look for a decision letter in mid February. Every student in
this grade is automatically screened.
Mrs. Gay Clark, GT Facilitator
Ma+h Minute
Actively engaging in meaningful mathematical experiences involving creating equal groups, equal shares, skip counting, and building arrays, or rectangular arrangements of objects, builds the conceptual foundation for learning multiplication and division facts.
Problem solving with a real-life connection, promotes mathematical thinking and reinforces the relationship between multiplication and division as inverse operations. Some activities that foster multiplication and division concept building are:
Cookie arrays – Arrange (12) cookies on a baking sheet in equal rows. Discuss the number of rows, and the number of cookies
in each row. Ask your child if they can figure out the total number of cookies without counting each cookie. Look for repeated addition, skip counting, and/or multiplication. Discuss other ways that 12 cookies could be arranged in equal rows
on the tray. Extend by using 18 or 24 cookies. This activity develops an understanding of factors of a number.
Coin rolls – Ask how many groups of 10 pennies will be needed to make $1.00? Children should sort pennies into groups of 10
(equal share). Look for skip counting or repeated addition to 100. Children may also begin with 100 and repeatedly subtract to zero. Discuss the multiplication fact 10 x 10. The same activity can be done with all coins. This activity develops
the concept of equal groups and repeated addition or subtraction.
Road trips – Note the distance traveled in 5, 10, 15, 20, or 30 minutes. Ask your child to help you figure out how many miles
you will travel in one hour. Discuss her strategy for figuring out the distance. This type of activity builds upon repeated
addition / multiplication, and introduces ratio and proportion concept.
Card Games – Play “War” multiplication style. Each player flips 2 cards and multiplies them. The person with the higher product collects the cards. Aces can be 1 or 11; face cards can be 0 or 12. Hands on exploration allows children to learn the
“how” and “why” behind multiplication and division, and leads to fluent computation.
Science Matters
Lamar CISD’s Elementary Science Olympiad will be held February
27, 2016 at Lamar Junior High. If you have a 4th or 5th grader interested in participating, practice is starting soon. Information about
the Science Olympiad, practice schedules, and participant eligibility
will he sent home in 4th and 5th graders’ Wednesday folders.
Mrs. Stacie Johnson,
Math & Science Instructional Coach
Roar Into
Reading
Does your child struggle with reading, or is he/she just beginning to read? It is still important
for students who are emergent readers, or who struggle with decoding, to practice their
comprehension strategies. Reading stories aloud is one way to allow your child access to text
he/she is not capable of reading independently, but there is another option! WORDLESS
BOOKS! They are amazing for practicing comprehension strategies. Students still must “read”
the pictures in order to understand the story. Wordless books will still contain a plot, complete with characters, setting, and a problem. David Wiesner has some great wordless picture
books. The following website lists several great wordless picture books for you to start introducing to your child: http://childrensbooksguide.com/wordless
Happy Reading!
Mrs. Katrina Avinger
Notes From Our Nurse
From Our Specials
Congratulations to the Jaguars whose artwork won
the Arredondo Elementary Rodeo Art competition. Their artwork will be on display at the LCISD
Rodeo Art show next week.
The winners are: Asyia Alam, Janey He, Christopher
Caraway, Ema Cloma, Peyton Todd, Taygen Tunson, Emily Mireles, Miracle Anosike, Jalyssa Awoh,
Wyatt Schlepphorst, Jasmyn Lanham, Cynthia Bui,
Madison Poole, Samson Cane, Isabella Garza, Kayla
Yargo, Harmony Jones, and Alon Donahue
Winners at the district level will have the opportunity to be entered in the Houston Livestock Show
and Rodeo Art Competition. Good Luck!
Check out the LCISD Rodeo Artwork at the Rosenberg Civic Center.
Tuesday, January 12 noon-9pm
Wednesday, January 13 and Thursday, January 14
8am-9pm
Mrs. Kelly Schlepphorst, Art Teacher
Library- Spring book fair March 7-11. More information will be sent home soon.
Mrs. Aimee Rubin, Librarian
Happy 2016! As we welcome the New Year, I cannot stress
enough what a pleasure it has been caring for all our Arredondo students the past few months. I trust that this year
will bring new goals for all our families in order to make
this year a very healthy one. Please remember that our
children mimic their parents and their habits. We need to ensure that
we are providing the best future for our children, mainly by promoting
healthy behaviors and stressing the importance of an education. If anything in your child’s health has changed since the beginning of the
school year, please let me know. It is important that all health issues are
documented in their health record in case of an emergency.
Rosenberg Lions recruiters sent Arredondo information regarding a highly rated Texas Lions Camp in Kerrville Texas. Texas Lions provides a
weeklong camp in the summer for children with disabilities from ages 716 at NO cost to the parent other than providing transportation to the
camp. Registration is open to enroll your child if they qualify. Please go
to their website: www.lionscamp.com to read about the camp and review over 80 disabilities that meet the requirement to enroll. Please do
not miss out on this wonderful opportunity if you have a child with a
disability. This camp gives children a chance to be with other children
their age who share common health issues. Please note that the diabetes camp fills quickly. At some point in the process, you will be asked for
a Lion sponsor. I have two names you can use for sponsors. Just email
or call me for the names.
Should you have any questions, concerns or comments, please let me
know.
Michelle Camilli
Arredondo Clinical Nurse
832-223-4806
832-223-4801 (Fax)
Other Reminders and Information
Attendance Is Important!
LOST & FOUND ITEMS:
Please make sure
that you write your
note every time your jaguar is absent
jaguar’s name on
from school. Try to schedule doctor’s jacket’s, sweaters,
appointments after school so your
umbrellas, lunch kits,
backpacks, and any
jaguar can be in class as much as
other items so we
possible. You will receive a district
know who to return
mailer at 3, 6, & 9 absences. Truancy lost items to. We
will have a box in the
paperwork affidavits will be filed if
your child has 10 unexcused gym of lost items.
Please send a written or doctor’s
Absences.
On Time Jags!
Our doors open at 7 a.m.
Jaguars must be in the building by 7:45
a.m. so they are not counted tardy.
Students eating breakfast must arrive in
the cafeteria before the 7:30 a.m. bell rings.
Student drop off is only in line in front of the building, and not in the parking lot.
Communication is Key!
Arredondo Elementary’s Phone Number: 832-223-4800
Our Address: 6110 August Green Drive, Richmond, Texas 77469
Find us on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ArredondoES
Our campus website: http://www.lcisd.org/campuses/arredondo/home
LCISD Family Access: http://www.lcisd.org/students-parents/family-access
Food Service: http://www.lcisd.org/departments/business-office/food-service/menus
Your child’s lunch and snacks in
their backpack so you don’t have
to bring it to the office. We don’t have staff available to deliver
these items to the classrooms so please help us with this!
Remember to Pack...
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can
&
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Will