Bi-Weekly 4th Grade Newsletter Oct. 24-Nov. 4

  

⭐ October 24 - November 4 ⭐

Upcoming Events: 

Oct. 24-28 Wellness Week (see flyer below for dress up days)
Oct. 24 Helicopter Presentation
Oct. 27 Santa Rita News shared with families
Oct. 28 Storybook Parade and Fall Festival

Nov. 4  Student Holiday/Staff PD

October:
Computer Learning Month
Hispanic Heritage Month
National Arts in Education Week
National Bully Prevention Month
National Principals Month
Bullying Prevention Month

Wellness Week

Reminders

Transportation Changes

Keeping consistent afternoon dismissal will support your child in feeling safe and confident at the end of each day. If it is necessary to request a transportation change, please visit our district transportation site. All changes must be made by email before 1pm on the day of the change. This is an LHISD policy. Any transportation change requests after 1:00pm will not be honored. Any emails sent to campus personnel requesting a transportation change will not be accepted.

Parents will get a confirmation email for transportation changes, but please be mindful that it might take time. If they don’t hear back from our receptionist by 1pm, you may call the campus to confirm it was received.

Early pickup cut-off time is 2:40. If you wish to pick up your child early, you must park in the parking lot and come into the building with a valid ID to check your child out with the receptionist.

Need to know a bus route number, time or location. Infofinder has the answers you need!

A few reminders regarding attendance:

• Excused Absences: Excused absences are not viewed as days a student is entitled to take. Excused absences include, but are not limited to personal illness, doctor/medical absence, funeral/memorial, DPS, or weather or road conditions that make travel dangerous per LHISD notification. Students are required to attend at least 90 percent of the school year.
  

• Unexcused Absences: An unexcused absence is any absence that does not meet the definition of an excused absence (examples: personal business, vacation, club sports/travel, traffic, car trouble, driving school, etc.).

PLEASE ALLOW AT LEAST 3-5 BUSINESS DAYS FOR THE ATTENDANCE OFFICE TO ENTER NOTES

Updates:

Hello Panther Family! 

You may have already heard, but Panther Academy Registration is now open! We have several great classes being offered here after school starting the week of October 24th. We appreciate your help to spread the word in your bi-weekly newsletters in case families have missed this communication. Thank you for your support! 

CARNIVAL BOOK FAIR October 17-21

We are excited about our first book fair for the school year! All book fair purchases benefit our school library and help us fund library activities, author visits, and purchase more books.

Homeroom teachers will let you know what days their class will be visiting the book fair.

Students can shop with cash or e-wallet (please see the book fair website to set up a Scholastic e-wallet account). If you are sending cash to school with your student, please make sure the money is in an envelope or baggie labeled with: Book Fair, child's name, teacher, and how much they have to spend. Parents and grandparents are welcome to shop with their children during student lunchtimes.

Book Fair Family Night

Carnival fun for the entire family!

Thursday, October 20th from 4-7pm

Please see our PTO Facebook page for more information!

Book Fair Website: https://www.scholastic.com/bf/santarita

Classroom Wish List:
Each teacher has selected some books they would love to add to their classroom library. When visiting the book fair there will be a Classroom Wish list board if you'd like to buy a book to donate to your child's teacher.

Book Fair Volunteers:

We are in need of volunteers to help throughout the duration of the book fair!

It’s easy to sign up, please click on the link below:

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0F49A5AD2BA1F4C25-fall

Thank you for supporting the SRE library!

Fall Festival

Fall Fest is right around the corner! On Thursday, October 27th, and on Friday October 28th, Fall Festival will be hosted by our amazing Specials Team! All students will participate in fun activities during their specials block. Students will enjoy various activities such as Candy Corn ring Toss, Monster Feet Hopscotch, Pumpkin Tic Tac Toe, and MORE!

Character Book Parade

On Friday, October 28th, we will have our Storybook Character Dress-Up Day. All costumes need to be associated with a book. This can be a book that students bring with them on that day, from the library, or one they write themselves, but all costumes must be accompanied by a book. No masks, face paint, or scary/bloody/gory costumes please. Students should bring a change of clothes if their outfit will not allow for classroom learning and physical activity afterward as it will be Fall Festival during specials as well. The storybook parade will be hosted outside so that visitors and parents will be able to attend this campus event.

The parade will start at 8:00 a.m. Please see the staging map below. You may park in the front or side (bus) parking lots and you may bring your own chair. Please do not park in the car rider line.

UIL

UIL Academics is a program of academic competition that Liberty Hill ISD elementary schools have proudly participated in throughout past years. Last school year was filled with unknowns and UIL competitions for many elementary schools were not scheduled. For the 2022-2023 school year, all LHISD elementary schools will be participating in a friendly UIL competition against one another. We have collaborated about the expectations, responsibilities and staff needed to support a fun and healthy experience for all LHISD elementary students. We are so excited to be participating in our first ever UIL competition here at SRE! These events will be for 3rd-5th grade students. Your child should have come home with an events descriptor page and an interest sign up form. Tryouts will take place within the next few weeks to form event teams. Each team will consist of 3 participants and will contain 1 alternate.

With our UIL season getting off to a strong start, we wanted to clarify dismissal procedures for practice days.  Students participating in UIL events will need to be picked up in front of Santa Rita Elementary at:  as we have 53 students that are supposed to stay on Wednesday for UIL and 146 on Thursday. We do not have the staff personnel available to work crosswalks to ensure your child gets home safely.

Coat Drive

Operation Liberty Hill/LHISD Police Coat Drive.

Bins will be on campus 10/3 - 10/31.

National Bullying Prevention Month

We love for parents to partner with us to create a positive, caring, and inclusive school by reinforcing the same message. Here are some main points regarding bullying.

• Bullying is something that is said or done to HURT, HARM, or HUMILIATE.

• It involves an imbalance of power, is often repeated over time, and is done intentionally.

• Bullying can be physical, verbal, emotional/social, or electronic/cyber.

• A bystander is someone who sees bullying occur and does/says nothing.

• A reporter or “upstander” is someone who reports it to an adult and seeks help! (Don’t be a bystander, be an UPSTANDER!”

Excerpt from our Student Handbook:

Bullying is defined in state law as a single significant act or a pattern of acts by one or more students directed at another student that exploits an imbalance of power and involves engaging in written or verbal expression, expression through electronic means, or physical conduct that:

• Has the effect or will have the effect of physically harming a student, damaging a student’s property, or placing a student in reasonable fear of harm to the student’s person or of damage to the student’s property;

• Is sufficiently severe, persistent, or pervasive enough that the action or threat creates an intimidating, threatening, or abusive educational environment for a student;

• Materially and substantially disrupts the educational process or the orderly operation of a classroom or school; or

• Infringes on the rights of the victim at school.

Helicopter Presentation- Wellness Week

On Monday, October 24th, SRE will kickoff Wellness Week/Red Ribbon Week with a presentation by the Austin Police Department Air Support Unit.

Students will hear a brief message encouraging good choices. They will also have the opportunity to see and interact with various law enforcement and public safety personnel and equipment.

Their will be a helicopter landing in the playground area around 8:15 and then the presentation will begin. This event is open to parents and the community. All guests will enter through the bus parking lot gate. Please make sure you have a photo I.D. Please see the map below for staging purposes. You may bring your own chair and sit with your child's grade level.

Fall Picture Retakes

Picture day retakes will take place on December 8th at SRE. These photos will go in the yearbook and replace the 1st picture as well.

Setting Limits in Your Child's Meal Accounts

Below are the steps to set limits on your child's meal account in Skyward. This will prevent your child from being able to charge a la cart/ snack items.

A Message from Music:

If your 4th or 5th grade student is in Choir after school, there is not a need to put in for a transportation change.  All 4th and 5th grade teachers have a list of students that are approved to stay after for choir.

Emily Williamson

SRE Music Teacher

PTO:

LHISD Elementary Parent and Student Handbook

How can I access my child's grades?

How can I celebrate my child's birthday at school?

Are counseling services an option?

Is there a dress code?

What are the attendance and tardy policies?

Tell me more about being a volunteer!

Answers to these and many more questions can be found in the LHISD Elementary School Handbook.

Headphones 

The computers will stay at school, but we will use them frequently in class to expand and enhance the learning experience. Please double check that your student has headphones or earbuds in their backpacks each day, as several have been lost or broken since the year has begun!  We appreciate your support!

Water Bottles

Please don't forget to send a water bottle to school with your child. We have bottle filling stations throughout the school to refill, as needed.  

Jackets

Our rooms get chilly and with the chillier mornings, please make sure that your student has a jacket with them.

Weekly Spirit Days

Mondays are College and Career Days! Wear your favorite college or career readiness shirt! Fridays are Panther Spirit Days. We can't wait to see your purple and gold! 🥳

RLA:

We will be learning about informational text features and how they contribute to the author's purpose and the central idea of a text. 

Social Studies: 

We will learning about European exploration in Texas. 

Math: 

We will continue our unit on multiplication of whole numbers. We would like to encourage all students to practice their multiplication facts at home. If you would like practice resources for multiplication facts, please reach out to your child’s math teacher. We are happy to help! 

Science: 

We will discuss conductors and insulators and how they affect the transfer of energy.

Specials Rotations:

Monday, 10/24	Tuesday, 10/25	Wednesday, 10/26	Thursday, 10/27	Friday, 10/28
Purple	Silver	Gold	Red	Orange
Monday, 10/31	Tuesday, 11/1	Wednesday, 11/2	Thursday, 11/3	Friday, 11/4
Yellow	Green	Blue	Purple	NO SCHOOL

 

Garner	Graham	Horony	Loehr	Lombardi	Rogers	Schultze	Styskal
PE	PE	Library	Keyboarding	Art	Music	PE	PE
Art	Music	PE	PE	PE	PE	Library	Keyboarding
PE	PE	Art	Library	Music	Keyboarding	PE	PE
Music	Keyboarding	PE	PE	PE	PE	Art	Library
PE	PE	Music	Art	Keyboarding	Library	PE	PE
Keyboarding	Library	PE	PE	PE	PE	Music	Art
PE	PE	Keyboarding	Music	Library	Art	PE	PE
Library	Art	PE	PE	PE	PE	Keyboarding	Music

Helpful Links: 

COVID-19 Guidelines

SRE School Website

LHISD District Calendar

Lunch Information and Menus