Boone Bear Facts
Thursday, September 14, 2017
News from the Principal
Parent Coffee Series for 2017-18
Please join us for our first Parent Coffee of the year. It will be held next Friday, September 22nd, in the Library from 8 – 9am. Topics will range from our AVID program, Title I designation information, and the Gifted and Talented identification process, to helpful hints for making this year a success for your child, as well as an overview of our campus counseling services.
Please join us from 8:00 – 9:00 in the Library for coffee, snacks, and informative conversation. We are planning to hold additional Parent Coffees periodically during the school year. Other tentative dates are October 27, December 1, January 19, March 2, and April 27.
Back to School Nights Next Week
We will hold our annual Boone Back to School Nights next week. PK, Kinder, 1st, and 2nd Grade will be September 19th, 6:00 – 7:00 pm and 3rd, 4th, and 5th Grade will be September 21st, 6:00 – 7:00 pm. Doors will open at 5:55 and you will proceed directly to your child’s classroom. This is a great opportunity to meet your child’s teacher and get an overview of the year ahead. Time is limited so it will not be possible to talk with your teacher about specific issues involving your child. The focus of the evening is on classroom routines, teacher expectations, and class plans for the year.
November Bond Election
Austin ISD trustees in June called for a $1,050,984,000 bond election to be held Nov. 7, which would bring 21st-century learning spaces to students without increasing our tax rate.
A 2017 Bond Open House for the Crockett ECHS Vertical Team will be held on Thursday, October 5 in the Crockett ECHS cafeteria from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
There will be two brief presentations giving a general overview of the bond at 5:45pm and 6:45pm, and tables with project information specific to each of the schools in the Crockett ECHS Vertical Team, so attendees can stop in as their schedules allow and get the information they need.
The open houses are designed to be geographically convenient but not geographically exclusive; all are welcome at every meeting, and information about all Austin ISD schools and facilities will be available. The complete open house schedule can be found here: https://www.austinisd.org/bond/meetings.
2017 Bond Proposition Highlights for the Crockett ECHS Vertical Team
- $44.7 M towards the Crockett vertical team
- $64.5 M towards districtwide improvements
- Fine arts reinvention at Covington Middle School
I have also attached a document showing specific improvements targeted through the Bond for Boone Elementary School.
Boone Garden Club
Do you love to garden? Do you have a green thumb? (Or even a green little pinky?…) Then the Boone Garden Club is for you. As you may have noticed the garden area has been getting a bit of a face lift this summer with the addition of the new fence and sprucing up by our fabulously dedicated parents and teachers. The work doesn’t end there. Our eventual goal is to add a greenhouse in our new Outdoor Science area next to the garden and to transform our garden beds into a “Kitchen Garden” quality facility, so that the vegetables the students grow can be used in our school cafeteria for the lunch menus.
A lot of work and maintenance lies ahead and we could really use some help from our families. If you are interested in helping out with this project, please call or email me your contact information and we will add you to our email list and get you involved! My office phone is 512-414-5311 and my email is alan.stevens@austinisd.org.
It is going to be a great year!!
Cafeteria Monitor Needed!
Cafeteria Monitor Needed
Very special people needed to support our lunch room from 10:45 to 12:45 every day. Please call Amie Chalberg, Boone Assistant Principal, at 414-5310 if you are interested. You will also need to apply via the AISD website under the Boone monitor positions. Pay is $7.25 an hour. Monitor jobs can be found under the 07 Temporary/Hourly heading on the AISD web page under the career section.
Counselor's Corner
Check it out! This website contains a blog, resources at the school, and in the community.
http://boonebearscounseling.weebly.com/
Also follow me on Twitter. @NicoleLozo
Gifted/Talented Nominations
Our school is pleased to announce that nominations for gifted and talented students are being accepted until September 22 for grades 3-5. Interested parents and guardians should contact their school’s GT Advocate with completing the nomination process. GT screening and testing requires parent/guardian permission by the campus deadline. A variety of measures are used for screening and testing including assessments for bilingual students. For more information about the Austin ISD gifted program, please visit the Austin ISD website:
tinyurl.com/AustinISDGATE or visit http://boonebearscounseling.weebly.com/giftedtalented-program.html.
The Austin Independent School District GT Testing Calendar allows for nominations to be collected for grades K-2 beginning on January 23. Our school will notify parents when the Spring nomination window is open.
Updates about Lessons from the Counselor
I visited classrooms the first 2 weeks of school to welcome our preschoolers, kindergarteners, new students, and returning students. We talked about my roles as a school counselor at Boone and all the services I can offer to them and your family.
We have just started our guidance lessons this past week. I have started introducing Dan Siegel's hand model of the brain and Your Fantastic Elastic Brain: Stretch It, Shape It to the 2nd-5th graders. We are having some great discussions about the brain, how it works, and its connection to our feelings and learning.
K-1 is learning and reviewing Kelso's Choices. We are talking about the difference between "small" and "big" problems. Students are learning simple choices that empower them to solve their own small problems.
I’ve included a copy of Kelso’s Choices for you to review and use at home if you think it would be helpful. The idea is that when children are having a small problem, the ones that can be frustrating and take up a chunk of your time (tattling, not sharing, etc.) you can refer them to the wheel and pick 2 choices, two ways of handling the problem. The big problems involving danger, physical violence, bullying, etc. are always taken to an adult. Kelso’s Choice believes that all children are capable of becoming peacemakers. It empowers children to be responsible for their behavior. It reduces tattling through a proactive, preventative approach that keeps small problems from escalating.
Last, but not least
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT FOR OUR BOONE BEAR FAMILY . . .
On Monday, October 2 we will have two new staff members join us at Boone Elementary School; their names are Andy and Meeko. They will look a bit different from the rest of our staff because they are four-legged . . . a therapy dog and therapy guinea pig!
I’m so excited to introduce Andy and Meeko to Boone. Andy is a Corgi mix dog that loves to play and has a big heart for children. Meeko is about 1 ½ years old, and adores time with others and eating his vegetables. Beginning September 18-29, I will give an orientation to all grade levels during their guidance lessons about having therapy animals at school. We will cover:
· General expectations
· How to pet Andy and Meeko
· When to approach them, which includes good times to say hello and goodbye
· Learning canine and guinea pig body language and communication
· Difference between therapy and service animals
They are both registered therapy animals through Pet Partners, which requires extensive medical and behavioral evaluations. I am also a graduate of Texas State’s Animal Assisted Academy which included over 120 hours of training. I’ve include both site’s links for further information.
http://aac-academy.clas.txstate.edu/about.html
Please contact me with concerns regarding food and pet allergies. Part of my protocol is to give Andy and Meeko regular baths, and to wipe Andy down with an anti-dander spray every day he comes to work.
PTA News
Hello Boone families and community members!
We’d like to encourage everyone to join or renew your membership with the Boone PTA!
We’re so excited about the upcoming school year and hope that you’ll join us.
The PTA was created to help our parents, teachers, staff and students stay connected and grow as a community. As a member of the PTA you will enjoy being a big part of your students' education. Your involvement makes a big difference in what we do as a PTA group and makes our entire school stronger.
There are several ways to be involved this year. You can give your input about upcoming projects and activities at PTA meetings, have fun and win prizes at Bingo Nights or eat dinner with friends while benefiting Boone at Spirit Nights. There are so many opportunities for fun and volunteering! But the easiest way to get started and support our kids is to join the PTA.
Yearly PTA membership is $8.00 for a single family member, and $15.00 for a family (2 adults). Forms can be found in the office, and checks can be made payable to Boone Elementary PTA.
Please contact Martha Napolillo with any PTA membership questions: booneptamembership@gmail.com
JOIN your Boone PTA! Go to Boone PTA's page and click on the link to Signup to become a PTA member today: http://boone.austinschools.org/parents/pta
Go to FACEBOOK TO FIND BOONE PTA: search @boonepta to find Boone PTA's Page for up-to-date Information and Boone PTA Community Group Page for conversation and information!
DON'T FORGET:
Spirit Night @ Bush’s Chicken
9815 Brodie Ln, Austin, TX 78748
Tuesday, September 19th 5:00pm-8:00pm
*** All To-go, Drive-thru and Dine-In sales from 5:00pm - 8:00pm benefit Boone Elementary PTA! *** Don’t forget to pick up some food for the family before or after PreK-2nd Back to School Night! (6:00-7:00pm @ Boone)
COMING UP: Cici's Pizza Spirit Night is Wednesday, September 27th from 5:00pm-8:00pm. Fun. Food. Family.
Math Pentathlon
Math Pentathlon Club registration is closing soon!
Kids, join us for games! In Math Pentathlon Club, you will play fun and challenging games and develop winning strategies. Players at any math level are welcome.
Parents, join in a fun activity and help your child to improve their math skills! In our club, your child will play interactive, problem-solving games for students of any math level and develop logical, computational, and spatial reasoning skills.
Meetings are after school on Tuesdays 3:00 -4:00pm for grades K-1, 3:00-4:15pm for grades 2-5. First meeting is Tuesday, September 19th.
For a registration form or for more information, please contact us at boonempclub@gmail.com
Register by Friday September 15th.
Registration by cash or check : $50 for Fall semester only*, $95 for the entire year.
* If your child continues in the spring to attend tournament, just pay the remaining $45
Make checks payable to Crystal Brothwell-Hernandez. Forms and registration fees can be dropped off in the Math Pentathlon envelope in the school office. All fees are nonrefundable.