October 22-26

Hi Parents. I know that this is a bit late but I had an extremely busy Friday and weekend. Can you relate? J Last week we worked on adding new concepts to our morning calendar. We added telling time and counting by 2’s up to 20. The students are or already have grasped these concepts and we are looking at adding more things to our calendar time this next week.

Also last week we had a great time learning about the life cycle of a pumpkin. The students watched a video on how pumpkins grow and then we carved a pumpkin  and cleaned out the inside of it. We talked about how each tiny seed is either a girl or a boy pumpkin and how the little tiny seed can turn into a gigantic orange pumpkin. A lot of the students were surprised to find out that a pumpkin first starts as a flower and then turns green and slowly turns in to the big orange pumpkins we see in the Fall.

We also had a special treat this week when Mrs. Richey came in and worked on a following directions activity and we made spooky spiders out of Oreos, licorice, and M&Ms.

Also last week we kicked off our one and only fundraising event of the school year: The Boosterthon Fun Run! Please log on to www.funrun.com with your child’s special access code and pledge to sponsor your child for the Fun Run! Please make sure that your child wears their Fun Run jersey on Thursday!

Next week we will have a special presentation for our students with NED. Please click the link for more information. www.theNEDshow.com

November 7^th is our Special Olympics Bowling Competition. Please make sure your child has turned in their permission slip. Also, if you have a medical release form that needs to be returned, please do this ASAP or your child will not be able to participate.

Have a great week!

October 15-19

Greetings Parents!

What a busy, exciting, and eventful week we have had this week.

This week our weekly writing focus was on capitalizing the beginning of sentences as well as the pronoun “I” in sentences. A great way to reinforce this concept at home would be to write out five sentences for your child without the beginning letter being capitalized and without “I” in a sentence being capitalized and ask them to fix the sentences and watch them amaze you!

Also this week, our 5^th graders went to Pine Cove camp. I know that they had a BLAST! Our 4^th graders field trip this week was to the Storytelling Festival. The students really enjoyed hearing the different stories being told by the storytellers. They were so animated and the kiddos had so much fun.   

Next week our 4^th graders will be heading to Safety Town on Tuesday or Wednesday ,depending on your child's general education teacher, to learn about safety with the Frisco Firefighters. We will also be celebrating Red Ribbon Week. Don’t forget to check out the weekly email for fun things that will be happening next week and what your child can wear to be part of the festivities!

Have a super weekend!

October 1-5

Whew! What a great and busy week we had this week. Field Day was definitely the highlight of our week. We ushered in October on Monday and we spent some time learning about the Fall season.  Hopefully we will be seeing a little fall weather in our forecast on Saturday as anticipated. :) Our students really enjoyed making paper plate jack-o-lanterns and seeing our room decorated for October.

On Monday of next week we will have Parent Conferences. There will be no school for our kiddos on Monday but please feel free to bring them to your conference if needed. Next Friday will be Friday Morning Live. If your child has an October birthday, we will celebrate them then. Also next Friday will be our second bowling practice for Special Olympics. Please remember that they will need to wear socks and bring a disposable, easy to eat and clean up snack. We will leave the school around 9am and be back around 11am.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

10/8       10:00am-6:00pm                Parent/Teacher Conference Day (Students do NOT have school!)

10/12                                                Friday Morning Live

                9:00am-11:00am              Special Olympics Bowling Practice (Students Only Event)

10/21     Mon-Fri                               Red Ribbon Week

10/27                                                Gary Burns Fun Run!!

11/1       TBA                                     Boosterthon Fun Run

11/6       6:30pm                               5^th Grade Choir Program

Have a super weekend!

September 24-September 28

Hi Parents!

We have had a great week this week. There has been so much activity in our classroom this week. This week our writing focus was on plural and singular nouns. We also worked on procedures to go by when in the library. On Wednesday of this week our students took individual fall photos. They all did SO well and I am sure you will be very happy with the pictures that they took. Also this week we went to our first practice for Special Olympics Bowling. The kids had a great time and were so excited. I can’t wait to write on our October calendar on Monday after the weekend that it will be happening again on the 12^th  and see how happy they are.

I wanted to share something with you this week that I realized and that absolutely make my heart smile. As I was writing our schedule on the board this week, I realized how many extracurricular on campus activities our students are in and it just makes me so happy. We have a couple of students involved in the Green Team, Safety Patrol, and 4^th and 5^th grade choir. I know that you as parents are extremely busy and having to get your student here early is difficult to do especially because this is not your home campus. However, I love that Carroll is a school that offers these opportunities to our kiddos. I love that our kids have every opportunity to be included in every activity, and I love that you as parents make the effort to have them here for these things.

Upcoming Events:

Friday, October 5^th is Field Day. Please be sure that your child comes with a towel (for water games), a change of clothes, a water bottle, snack, and a sack lunch if you did not order one from the cafeteria a couple of weeks back.  Please make sure that all items are clearly labeled!!! If there is a need for sunscreen, please apply it before coming to school. We cannot apply sunscreen here.

Monday, October 8^th is Parent Conference Day. I will be sending home a short questionnaire next week to help assist me with preparing for your conference. I am really looking forwards to sharing the amazing things your child has done!

Have a great weekend! J

September 17-21

Hi Parents!

We have had another fun filled and active week this week.

Our kiddos dove right in to their spelling and I am really impressed by how well the students did on their first spelling test…we are moving right along! it has been great seeing all the homework that has come back. It really does help our students with retaining information. Sometimes our kiddos really struggle with generalizing information from one setting to another and when they are able to be so successful with their homework, I know that their generalization skills are really being worked on.

Also this week we enjoyed participating in the Frisco wide college week! We all got to wear our jersey’s on Wednesday and it was fun seeing the kids tease one another and their teachers about the colleges we support or attended.

Next week we have a field trip to the bowling alley to practice for our Special Olympics Bowling competition. We will be gone from 9am-11am on Friday, September 28th. Please make sure that your child wears socks and brings a snack on that day. We will eat our snack at the bowling alley.

Also next week is fall picture day. It will be on Wednesday, September 26^th. We will be one of the first classes to get our pictures taken so if you want to send a change of clothes for them to put on AFTER photos that would be fine. Please make sure that anything you send, they are able to get on themselves.   

Lastly, please remember to sign up for a conference time on October 8^th if you have not already done so. The link is below:

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E0E45AFAB2EA57-parent

(Please use the password from the email.)

Have a wonderful weekend!

9/4/12-9/7/12

Hi Parents! We had a short but very busy week this week.

This week we continued getting to know one another, introduced another aspect of math to our Calendar time, enjoyed one another and overall had a great week!

Next week we will start introducing even more of our "normal" schedule to the kiddos. We will start Guided Reading and Language for Learning next week as well as introducing a weekly writing target to our students. We also will start Equals Math towards the end of the week so the students can have a slower transition into a very busy schedule. The following week I will start spelling, a weekly math target, and homework. I don't want the students to feel as if they have been thrown into a huge pit of work. I want the shift from summer to school to having a busy schedule to be gradual and not too tough for them.

A big thank you to everyone who was able to make it to "Curriculum Night". We had a great turnout to our first FA Curriculum Night. I hope it was informative and gave you lots of information to work with for this year and next.

Upcoming Events:

September 14: FML-The first one of the school year!

Septemeber 28: Special Olympics Bowling Practice -Field Trip permission form coming home next week.

October 8: Parent Conferences/No School for Students-Please sign up using this link (30 minute meetings)
http://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E0E45AFAB2EA57-parent

That's all for this week. Enjoy your weekend!

Our First Week

We have had an amazing week at Carroll Elementary this week. Our days have been busy and full of fun. We have spent the entire week getting acquainted or reacquainted (whatever the case may be) with one another.

If you did not get to visit on Meet the Teacher night, we have two new paraprofessionals in our classroom. Ms. Fabozzi and Mrs. Stewart. Both of these ladies are amazing teachers and the students really enjoy working with them and getting hugs and "pennies" from them.

We completed a few fun crafts this week that helped us get to know one another better. One of the crafts that the students really enjoyed was creating their "house". It was a great activity that gave us all a glimpse into each others lives and helped us to know fun details about each other. These will be on display in the hallway next Thursday for "Curriculum Night".

Also this week I completed your child's DRA assessment that tells me what reading level they are on. I was COMPLETELY impressed by how much growth and the reading confidence that I have seen in your kiddos since last spring.

Next week we are jumping a little deeper into our academics and we will start to introduce some of our curriculum programs back into our daily routine. You can learn a lot about the curriculum we use at "Curriculum Night" next Thursday night at 6:00pm.

As you may have noticed, I have been putting "Curriculum Night" in quote marks. This is because I believe it should not be called "Curriculum Night" but "What you NEED to Know About FA and How to Help Your Child Become More INDEPENDENT and How to Prepare them for Middle School Night." I know, it's long so that's why we simply call it "Curriculum Night". It is true that some of our meeting will be about our curriculum and the different programs we use since it is different from the rest of the grade level. However, most of the meeting is going to be about our procedures, what Middle School could be like, and how WE are going to help and work together to ensure your childs success this year.

Also, because this will be an in depth discussion and not kid friendly, we are asking that all students stay at home on this night. We realize that this may be an inconvenience to some, but it is imperative that you be here if at all possible so call on those babysitters and please make arrangements to be here Thursday evening 9/6/12 from 6:00-6:45.   If your child is a 5th grader, there will also be a parent meeting at 7:45 for Pine Cove. We want all our 5th graders to attend camp this year so please make plans to attend this informational meeting.

Lastly, Monday is Labor Day so there will be no school. Enjoy your long weekend off!

Supply/Wish List

Hi Families!

I am posting the supply and wish list for the 2012-2013 school year. The supply list is a list of things your child needs to have on the first day of school. We would prefer that all supplies are brought to Meet the Teacher night on August 24th.

The wish list is comprised of items that our classroom will need throughout the year. Please choose two or three items on the wish list to purchase and bring to Meet the Teacher as well.

If you have any questions, please let me know!

Thanks!

FA Supply List 2012-21013/Mrs. Bell’s Class

1 – Box of crayons (24 count)                                                  

1 – Box of color pencils (12 count)

1 – Box of markers (10 count)

1 – Package of wooden pencils (12 count)

1 – Package of expo markers (4 count)  

8 – Glue sticks

1 – Pair of blunt tip scissors

1 – Plastic pencil box

1 – Package of multi-colored construction paper (9x12)

2 – Folders with pockets and brads

            3^rd – green

            4^th – orange

            5^th – purple

1 – Composition book

1 – Spiral notebook

4 – Boxes of Kleenex

3 – Containers of Clorox Wipes

2 – Bottles of hand sanitizer

2 – Cans of Play-doh (your child’s favorite color)

1 – Large bag of M&M’s (girls)/ 1 – Large bag of Skittles (boys)

2-1 inch binders (green and white

Mrs. Bell’s Wish List

· Dry Erase Markers

· Colored Cardstock

· Stickers

· Rice

· Magazines (kid friendly)

· Clorox Wipes

· Baby Wipes

· Sharpie Markers

                      · Lysol Spray

· Dixie Cups

           · Googly Eyes

· Bingo Dotters

· Glitter

· Cotton Balls

                      · Pinto Beans 

· Froot Loops

· Baggies (all sizes)   

           · Craft Sticks

Welcome!

Hello families! I wanted to welcome you to our new classroom blog for the 2012-2013 school year. This blog will be updated on a weekly basis to go over what we did in class as well as any upcoming events or information you may want to know. I will post pictures, videos, and links to educational resources here as well. If you have any questions, please feel free to post them here or email them to me at bellge@friscoisd.org. I can't wait to get this new year started!