Lions Lines
November, 2015 * Hamilton Elementary School
UPCOMING EVENTS
November Family Movement Calendar: http://tinyurl.com/Nov-Movement2015
KISS Lunch RSVP: http://tinyurl.com/KISS-RSVP2015
November
2 Report Cards go home
- Red Chess Club 8:00 AM
- Blood Donor Coach in front parking lot from 2-5:30 PM
- 5th Gr. Art Club 4:10 PM
- PTO Mtg. 7:00 PM/Cafeteria
3 Election Day - Polling location for 0602
- Fit Girls Meet 4:10 PM
4 Kdg. & 1st Grade Celebrate 50th Day of School
- Kdg. 50's Day Program 9 AM/Cafeteria
- 1st Gr. 50's Day Program 10 AM/ Cafeteria
5 Choir Practice 7:45 AM
- Fit Girls Meet 4:10 PM
6 Spirit Day - wear a Hamilton shirt and show your school spirit
2nd Gr. Garden Day
7:45 AM Choir Practice
9 Blue Chess Club 8:00 AM
- 5th Gr. Art Club 4:10 PM
10 Fit Girls Meet 4:10 PM
11 Veteran's Day Program 9 AM
- Author Kirby Larson visits Grades 2, 3 & 5
12 Choir Practice 7:45 AM
- Fit Girls Meet 4:10 PM
13 Spirit Day - wear a Hamilton shirt and show your school spirit
- Classroom Spelling Bee
- Choir Practice 7:45 AM
16 Red Chess Club 8:00 AM
- 5th Gr. Art Club 4:10 PM
17 7:45 AM Choir Practice
- 4th Gr. Houston Symphony Orchestra Concert at Berry Center 9:00-11:30 AM
- Fit Girls Meet 4:10 PM
18 AM PPCD/PK KISS Breakfast 8:35-9:00 AM
KISS RSVP Form: http://tinyurl.com/KISS-RSVP2015
- 3rd Grade KISS Lunch 10:45-11:15
- 5th Grade KISS Lunch 12:15-12:45
- Please no lunch visitors for K, 1, 2, 4
19 Choir Practice 7:45 AM
- 2nd Grade Grandparents Day 10:00 AM
KISS RSVP Form: http://tinyurl.com/KISS-RSVP2015
- 2nd Grade KISS Lunch 10:45-11:15
- Kdg, PPCD/PK KISS Lunch 12:45-1:15
- Please no lunch visitors for 1, 3, 4, 5
- Fit Girls Meet 4:10 PM
20 Spirit Day - wear a Hamilton shirt and show your school spirit
- 7:45 AM Choir Practice
- 3rd Grade Garden Day
KISS RSVP Form: http://tinyurl.com/KISS-RSVP2015
- 4th Grade KISS Lunch 11:45-12:15
- 1st Grade KISS Lunch 1:15-1:45
- Please no lunch visitors for K, 2, 3, 5
23-27 Thanksgiving Holidays
30 Blue Chess Club 8:00 AM
- 5th Grade Art Club 4:10 PM
Neon Circus
Attendance Information
Attendance Rate by Six-Weeks
The HES attendance goal for 2015-2016 is 98.5%.
Overall HES attendance: 97.9%
Attendance by Grade Level:
PPCD: 92.86%
Pre-K: 98.36%
KG: 96.86%
1st: 98.35%
2nd: 98.65%
3rd: 98.18%
4th: 98.38%
5th: 97.43%
***Counselor's Corner***
November Word of the Month
Service- lending a hand to help someone else
This month, we are talking with your child about how fun and rewarding it can be to serve others. We would love for you to have a conversation about service with your family. Here are some discussion starters to get you started:
• Can you think of a good example of someone who demonstrates service in your school, neighborhood
or community? How do you see them serving others?
• Have you ever been in need of someone’s help? What might have happened if no one came to help
you?
• Can you think of someone who might need your help? What might happen if no one helps them?
• What are some reasons that we choose not to serve someone?
• Have you ever done something to help someone, and no one else knew about it?
There are so many people in this world in need of a helping hand that it can be a little overwhelming. It’s easy to get defeated thinking of all the people, in all the continents in all the countries who don’t even have their basic needs met. So let’s look closer to home. This month, serve others by finding a local community volunteer project to work on as a family. Research on sites like www.volunteermatch.org or www.dosomething.org to find an opportunity that fits your family best!
Ideas might include:
1. Making cards for patients at a Children’s Hospital, a Veteran's Hospital, etc
2. Bring in cans for a food drive
3. Supply clothing for a Mitten, hat or coat drive
4. Bringing toys in for a Toy Drive.
Are you interested in Helping out a family in need this Christmas?
We will be continuing our tradition of helping out our sister Cy-Fair school that has many families in need for the holidays. If you would like to participate by purchasing items for these children, please complete this “Holiday Help” letter: http://tinyurl.com/2015HolidayHelpLetter.
This letter will let me know how many items that you would like to help out with this year, and in turn, I will send home that number of ornament(s) with the specific item(s). These RSVP’s will be due on Friday, November 20, and the actual gifts will be due on Monday, December 7.
GT/HORIZONS Referral Period
GT/Horizons referral period for mid-year testing opens October 1st and ends December 1st.
Parents/guardians can refer students for HORIZONS testing. Parent Survey and Permission to Test forms are available at the front office, on the Horizons website, or by contacting the counselor, Michelle Erickson. Completed forms must be returned to the campus Counselor by December 1, 2015. Late forms will NOT be honored.
· Kindergarten students will be tested on their campuses during the school day in January 2016, and students in grades 1-5 will be tested on their campuses during the school day prior to Spring Break. Specific testing dates will be provided to parents by the campuses, once the schedule has been created.
· Kindergarten students who qualify for HORIZONS will receive services beginning in March 2016 with parent permission.
· Students in grades 1-5 who qualify for HORIZONS will receive services at the beginning of the 2016-17 school year with parent permission.
Please also see the link below to the Horizons Identification Process Flow Chart for a more detailed explanation of the process that must be followed to refer your child for testing. http://tinyurl.com/1516GTflowchart
Credit by Exam
Students in grades K-5 will have four opportunities during the school year to use “credit-by-exam” to accelerate to another grade level. Students will only have one opportunity to test for each grade level considered.
To apply to take the test to skip kindergarten, a student must be 5 by September 1, and registered in a CFISD school. To apply to take the test to skip grade 1, a student must be 6 by September 1, and enrolled in a CFISD school.
Students who earn scores of 80% or better on each component of the credit-by-exam will qualify to advance one grade. Only one grade level may be “skipped” each year. No retests will be given.
If you are interested in getting more information about credit-by-exam, please contact the school counselor, Michelle Erickson, at 281-320-7055 or michelle.erickson@cfisd.net.
Fall and Spring Testing
Students may be tested during the week of December 7-11, 2015, during the week of February 15-19, 2016, or for summer testing in June (dates to be determined), to accelerate for the upcoming school year (2016-17). Grade placement changes will be made at the beginning of the 2016-2017 school year.
· Testing will begin with mathematics, followed by reading/language arts and science, if required. 80% mastery on each test is required for advanced placement to occur.
· Campus testing will be administered by campus personnel.
Due dates and testing windows:
Application due date: Dec. 2, 2015 Testing Date or Window: Dec. 7-11, 2015
Application due date: Feb. 10, 2015 Testing Date or Window: Feb. 15-19, 2016
Watch D.O.G.S. - Dads of Great Students
It has been a great start to our 2015-2016 Watch Dog program this year! I trained a total of 45 dads for the first semester of volunteers, and they are all prepped and ready to go!
Thank you to the following dads for being our Watch Dogs in our first month, October:
Chris Byerly
Greg Svrcek
Seth Gavin
Jeff Carlyle
David Hrncir
Brad Marsh
Jason Miller
Shahnawaz Tarar
Ronnie McGill
Brad Jameson
Nick Priska
Guy Mosscrop
Chris Reimers
If you are still interested in being a Watch Dog Dad for the spring semester, please click on the link below. In order to participate, you will need to be sure and also sign up for one of the two trainings left in the spring. It is embedded in the link below.
School Reminders
From the Attendance Office
Change in Phone Number: If you have a phone number change, please contact the registrar's office. This is the only way we have to contact you in case of an emergency for your student.
***News from the Library***
SOCKtober was a huge success – over 100 pairs of socks were collected! Thank you to everyone who donated socks to the homeless. We hope everyone enjoyed their bonus book from the library!
Name That Book is beginning! 3rd, 4th and 5th graders who love to read may participate by reading as many of the 100 books on the list as possible. We meet twice a month during recess to practice. Upcoming practice dates are: November 13 & 20 and December 4 & 11. We need volunteers to read practice clues to the students, so stop by on those dates between 11:15 and 12:45 to help.
Newberry-Honor winning author Kirby Larson will be here on November 11th to meet with our 2nd, 3rd, and 5th graders as well as give a special address at our Veteran’s Day celebration. Forms to order an autographed book were sent home on October 30th.
Birthday Books
No matter which month is your child's birthday, the time to turn in your order form with payment is NOW! Students will select their book when they come to the library with their reading teachers and bring them home for a week. The Birthday Book needs to be returned so all students can enjoy these throughout the year.
Click on this link for the order form: http://tinyurl.com/2015BirthdayBooks
***Kind Minds & PBIS***
Kind Minds November Challenge
Be sure to check out our HES Random Acts of Kindness jars hanging from the trees in the front of the school. Our students did a FANTASTIC job of thinking about how to show kindness to others in October.
This month, students will be reading a book called, “How Full is Your Bucket?” This challenge is going to be very mysterious and fun! Students each homeroom will be be assigned a class in the school to spy on and to “fill their bucket” by noticing all of the right things that class doing.
Pre-K
King: Alexander Diaz
Queen: Kimberly Duplichan
Kindergarten
King: Madison Rowley
Queen: Frank Vega
1st grade
King: Tate Dodd
Queen: Aaheli Das
November Kings and Queens of Kindness
2nd grade
King: Mithun Prekimar
Queen: Riley Wessels
3rd grade
King: Aiden Hughes
Queen: Emma Vick
3rd grade
King: Aiden Hughes
Queen: Emma Vick
4th grade
King: Daniel Rariden
Queen: Jenna Tran
5th grade
King: Michael Wolny
Queen: Maryn Post
***Birthday Book Club***
Jackson Carlyle
Kyle Chen
Janvi Duri
Ashlynn Green
Lauren Flader
Vedanth Hariharan
Addison New
Madison Pella
Emery Post
Levi Smoker
Ben Stilwell
Parent & Student Handbook
School Messenger: Text Message Sign Up
The directions for adding text messages to your School Messenger account are in the link below. Next year, instead of using Remind 101, HES will be sending text messages via School Messenger. Please stay connected by adding the text message feature to your School Messenger account.
Directions for School Messenger: http://www.cfisd.net/files/6514/1080/3632/SchoolMessenger_Contact_Manager_-_Parent_Handout_CFISD.pdf
Stay Connected
Follow HES on Twitter @Hamilton_Lions
Follow our HES on Instagram by searching for Hamilton_Lions
Don't forget to keep up to date with PTO events, news, and reminders by "liking" their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/HamiltonElementaryPTO
Hamilton Elementary
Email: hamiltonelem@cfisd.net
Website: http://hamiltones.cfisd.net/en/
Location: 12050 Old Kluge Road, Cypress, TX, United States
Phone: 281.370.0990
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HamiltonLions
Twitter: @Hamilton_Lions