Cougar Tracks
Jarrell Elementary Newsletter - January 8, 2024
Greetings JES Community!
HAPPY NEW YEAR! I love this time of year because it is a time of hope, renewal and dreaming about all of the wonderful possibilities ahead!
I hope you and your family have enjoyed your time together this holiday season. While we have enjoyed the much needed holiday, we miss our students and are ready to see them on Tuesday morning.
This spring is a very exciting time for Jarrell Elementary staff and students. We ended the semester by setting goals - individual, grade level and campus goals., and we believe in the ability of our students to grow, learn and reach their goals.
As we start this new semester, January is School Board Appreciation Month! We are grateful for our outstanding School Board Trustees who put our students first and help us all achieve our goal of ensuring our students have every door opened to them.
We are so excited about the spring semester and all that our students will accomplish. We are here to help in whatever way your family may need. Please do not hesitate to reach out with your questions or suggestions.
With gratitude,
Lara Hutchinson
UPCOMING EVENTS
TUESDAY, JANUARY 9th
3rd 9 Weeks Begins - Students back to school
FRIDAY, JANUARY 12th
Holiday Reading Logs Due to classroom teacher or librarian
MONDAY, JANUARY 15th
Staff and Student Holiday
Holiday Read-A-Thon!
Get those reading logs ready to turn in!
All of our students are came home with a Holiday Read-A-Thon reading log. We hope that all of our students found some time to read on their own or with family over the holiday! This is very important in helping them keep up their skills and come back to school in January ready to go!
Students an turn their reading log in to our Librarian, Mrs. Carbajal, or their classroom teacher before Friday, January 12th.
ALL students who turn in a reading log will win a prize, and two readers will be drawn to win a BIKE!
Attendance Matters! Our goal is 97%!
Let's have our best week yet! Or goal is 97% everyday! Your child's attendance is the most important factor in their success in school!
As always, if your child is running a fever or having diarrhea or vomiting, he/ she must stay home for 24 hours.
Please see the district attendance policy and procedures below:
School attendance is vital to the present and future educational success of your child. Regular school attendance is essential for a student to make the most of his/her education.
TEXAS COMPULSORY ATTENDANCE LAW
Under Section 25.085(2) applies to students who are at least six years old as of September 1st of the applicable school year. The law requires a student to attend public school until the student’s 19th birthday. Students enrolled in prekindergarten or kindergarten are required to attend school and are subject to the compulsory attendance requirements as long as they remain enrolled. (Section 25.085(c).
When a student is absent, the student must bring a note to the attendance office within three days of the absence. After three days, parent notes may not be accepted and the absences will be considered unexcused. A maximum of three (3) parent notes per semester will be accepted as excused.
Truancy Prevention Measures:
Warning Letter #1- 3 or more unexcused absences
*Admin student contact
*Letter mailed to parent
Warning Letter #2- 6 or more unexcused absences
*Admin student contact, parent contact
*Counselor Referral
*Attendance Plan created
*After school detention, Make-up hours assigned (based on the number of absences and classes), Saturday School assigned (8 or more make-up hours)
*Letter mailed to parent
Warning Letter #3- 9 or more unexcused absences
*Admin student contact
*Admin parent contact
*Attendance clerk contact
*Counselor Referral
*Attendance Plan created
*After school detention, Make-up hours assigned (based on the number of absences and classes), Saturday School assigned (8 or more make-up hours )
*Letter mailed to parent
Truancy filed on the parent and the student upon the 11th absence.
Important Daily Deadlines!
7:30 a.m. The back doors automatically lock, and you will need to drive around and walk your child in to the building. PLEASE DO NOT DROP-OFF STUDENTS AFTER 7:30. They must be signed in by a parent or guardian.
1:30 p.m. ALL transportation changes must be made by 1:30 by emailing or calling Stephanie Garcia at (512)-746-2170 or stephanie.garcia@jarrellisd.org.
2:30 p.m. Any student checking out early for an appointment, must be picked up prior to 2:30.
PRE-K
This week in Pre-K, we will be learning that builders use many kinds of construction vehicles to help them build, it takes many types of workers to plan and construct a building, and a building is constructed in stages. In math we will be counting objects in sets up to 10. In literacy we will continue learning letter sounds, every sentence ends with a punctuation mark, and steps in a story or process can be sequenced to show their order. --
“Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children, play is serious learning.” -Fred Rodgers
KINDER
1st GRADE
Reading: We will be reviewing the parts of a letter: greeting, body, closing, and signature. We will work together to write a friendly letter telling some of the things we learned from our informational text read aloud. We will continue to use text evidence from our informational text to identify important information we learned from the text.
Phonics: We will continue to review our vowel spelling patterns and r-controlled vowel spellings. We will continue to read from our reader and distinguish fictional texts from informational texts. As we are reading from our reader, we will be asking and answering questions about key details in the text. We will use what we know about base words to decode common compound words and words with -er, -ing, and -ed. Our spelling words are: zipper, barking, perfume, morning, carpet, forest, border, and today. Students will be tested over these words on January 17, so students will have more time to be prepared for the test.
Math: We will begin a new unit over place value and continue working with addition and subtraction to 20.
Science: We will begin our unit over objects in the sky. We will observe and record changes in the appearance of objects in the sky such as the Moon, stars, and the Sun. We will also identify characteristics of the seasons of the year and day and night.
2nd GRADE
In Reading (Skills), we will be learning about tricky spelling 'i' and bossy r. We will also review nouns and verbs. In Reading (Knowledge), we will be starting a new domain on insects. In Math, we will be learning about strategies for composing tens and hundreds.
3rd GRADE
Happy New Year! We are so excited to have the kiddos back and continue to watch them grow even more! This week in Reading we will be starting a new unit about Vikings. In math, we will continue to learn about area. Lastly, in Social Studies we will be learning about earning, saving, spending, and donating money. Looking forward to see what 2024 brings for these students!
4th GRADE
Fourth grade is looking forward to a fabulous week back! We plan to jump right into our upcoming units, as we have so much more to cover this semester. In math we will be determining the approximate measures of angles in degrees to the nearest whole number using a protractor. In language arts, we begin our poetry unit. Our students will be analyzing poetry and identifying figurative language found in poetry. In social studies and science we are exploring slow changes to the Earth’s surface and learning about the causes of the Texas Revolution.
5th GRADE
We are excited to welcome our students back from break! In ELA we will begin a new unit focused on poetry. Students will read and write poetry on a variety of subjects, following the examples of the poems we read.
We're thrilled to announce our next math unit with a focus on area, perimeter, and volume. We're eager to delve into these fundamental concepts.
In science, we’re excited to delve into the captivating dynamics of the sun, earth, and moon, unraveling the mysteries behind our day and night cycles. Stay tuned for an enriching exploration of these celestial wonders as we kick off this term together!
Library
We are raffling away a bike to one lucky holiday reader! Every student that turns in a reading log will win a prize! Please help your child turn in their reading log to their classroom teacher or the librarian.
Just a friendly reminder that as the JES counselor, I am always available should you have any questions or concerns related to your child.
Please contact me if you would like me to check in with them or offer extra support. I can be reached at 512-746-2103 or via email: Marilyn.alvarez-brya@jarrellisd.org
Jarrell Elementary School
Lara Hutchinson, Principal
Jaclynne Bizzell, Assistant Principal (Pre-K - 2nd)
Lupita Viveros, Assistant Principal (3rd - 5th)
Marilyn Alvarez, Counselor
Terry Kurtz, Registrar
Stephanie Garcia, Administrative Assistant
Kendra Field, Receptionist
Amanda Yanez, Attendance Clerk
Audrey Zuniga, Nurse
Website: jes.jarrellisd.org
Location: Jarrell Elementary School, County Road 313, Jarrell, TX, USA
Phone: 512-746-2170
Facebook: facebook.com/JarrellElementarySchool
Twitter: @MrsHutch_JES