East Elementary News
October 11
Passionately empowering learners through connection and innovation.
Upcoming Events
October 12 - End of First 9 Weeks!
October 12 - East Elementary House Party! Wear your COLOR!
October 12 - East PTO Spirit Shirt Delivery
October 14 - Happy Birthday, Laurran Hurst! (Special Education Resource Teacher)
October 15 - Health Screenings @ East (vision & hearing)
October 16 - Family Math Night @ 6:00 PM
October 17 - Happy Birthday, Kim Thompson! (Art Teacher)
October 19 - LCISD Pink Out Day! (Wear PINK!)
October 23 - Fall Picture Day!
October 23 - Fire & Lockdown Drill
October 24 - East Elementary Dedication Ceremony
October 25 - Nifty Fiftieth! Celebrating our first 50 days of school! (Dress in 50s outfits!)
October 26 - Happy Birthday, Nurse Jessie Gallagher!
October 29-November 2 - Red Ribbon Week! (See details below!)
October 31 - Halloween Parties (See below for more information!)
Looking Ahead:
**November 5-9** - U Can Share Food Drive
**November 7** - East Elementary Fall Family Festival (benefitting Watch DOGS) @ 6:00 PM
**November 12** - Elementary UIL @ Frenship ISD (No School!)
**November 13** - Science Fair Informational Meeting @ 5:30 PM
"Play builds the kind of free-and-easy, try-it-out, do-it-yourself character that our future needs." - James L. Hymes, Jr.
Let them play!
We are incredibly fortunate to have two place spaces for our Pirates! The main play area is located on the south side of the building. You've most likely seen this exciting play area when picking up or dropping off your kiddos! This area is equipped with an exciting pirate ship structure and a wide variety of independent play pieces. Our students can access swings, a wheelchair-accessible merry-go-round, climbers, and additional equipment.
The second playground space is located in the outdoor space on the north side of the building, near the prekindergarten neighborhood. This space was designed with our tiny Pirates and students with disabilities in mind. This area is more easily accessible for students who may struggle with gross motor skills or who have not yet developed the coordination required for climbing the larger pieces of equipment. This space can be used for imaginary play and also utilized by therapists who see students in our building.
Not only do our students get great benefits from the physical activity that comes during their daily recess, the social and emotional learning which takes place is authentic and valuable. Numerous studies list the many benefits of play and we are excited to have such great spaces for our students to learn and grow through play!
We are eternally grateful for the support of our Lubbock-Cooper community and the beautiful facility we get to call our home away from home! Taxpayers in our district have made so many dreams come true and enabled us to design a space that can meet the many needs of our students, both academic and social/emotional.
Please feel free to bring your family up after hours or on the weekend to enjoy our playgrounds! As a community center, we welcome you to enjoy our beautiful campus, too!
"Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children, play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood." - Fred Rogers
Charleston Wrap Fundraiser - Turn in any remaining order forms!
Thank you for your incredible support of our fall fundraiser with Charleston Wrap! If you still have order forms at home, please return those to the front office at your earliest convenience. We need to mail all paper order forms on Friday, October 12.
Accessing our online reporting dashboard, we can see that our students have already sold $3768.00 in internet sales alone! Our goal for this fundraiser is $5000, so we are well on our way to meeting our goal once all of our paper sales are turned in!
All items should arrive before Thanksgiving, just in time for holiday wrapping and gift-giving!
All East Elementary fundraising efforts will go towards establishing "The Leader In Me" - a character education program, based on the work of Covey and "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People".
The Leader In Me - Seven Habits of Happy Kids
Family Math Night - October 16th
Many activities will be provided for families and children of ALL ages! Every grade level is preparing an activity to share, with information and materials for families to take home after the event. The activities are appropriate for all students, so plan on visiting every station.
Additionally, several activities are being prepared for campus-wide fun! We'll have several "estimation stations" throughout the event and interactive activities, as well. Even attendance information will be used for live graphing and data analysis throughout the evening.
We hope you'll join us for what will be the very first curriculum night at East Elementary and hope that these events become a standard part of what we do here at East.
"Play is the highest form of research." - Albert Einstein
October 25 - Nifty Fiftieth Day of School!
This day will also be full of special events for our Pirates as we conduct a second engaging educational event! Our entire campus will participate in a variety hands-on lessons, rotating between a number of classrooms throughout the day. Student, parent, and teacher feedback from our "Rock Your School" event was fantastic, so we are ready to put on another fun day of learning!
"Children need the freedom and time to play. Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity." - Kay Redfield Jameson
Meet Amanda Dunn, East Elementary Assistant Principal
My name is Amanda Dunn, and I am the assistant principal at East Elementary. I received my bachelor’s degree in Education from Western Governors University, and my masters in Educational Leadership from the University of Texas at Tyler. I taught 5th grade at Central Elementary for five years before I became the assistant principal last year. I have two kids, Keegan(19) and Kaleb(14). Keegan is a sophomore at Texas Tech studying microbiology and is pre-med. Kaleb is a freshman at Lubbock Cooper High School and is on the golf team. I have been married to my wonderful husband Joe for 22 years now. We have two fur babies to complete our family. Smokey is a silver lab and Scout is a heeler mix.
I am beyond excited for East Elementary. School should be a fun and exciting place and somewhere that everyone is family. East Elementary is exactly that!
"Children learn as they play. More importantly, in play, children learn how to learn." - O. Fred Donaldson
Halloween Costumes & Festivities
We do ask that children refrain from wearing scary costumes. No toy weapons or similar props will be allowed in school. Additionally, any fake "blood" or other scary face paint will be removed. With such itty bitty Pirates on our campus, we want to be mindful of their emotions and protect them from anything that might make them fearful.
All students will participate in a costume parade, which will begin at 8:05. Parents are encouraged to stay after drop-off and join us the gymnasium, where our East Pirates will have a chance to show their creative costumes! We'll begin with PK and move through the grade levels one after the other.
"Play gives children a chance to practice what they are learning." - Mr. Rogers
Halloween Party Times
Halloween parties for all grade levels will be held on October 31. We like to stagger the start times of our parties by grade level to allow parents to spend time with each of their children. Additionally, this helps in reducing congestion in our front office. We hope you'll be able to join us for some spooky fun! Party start times for all grade levels are listed below:
PK - 1:15 PM
Kindergarten - 1:30 PM
First Grade - 2:30 PM
Second Grade - 1:45 PM*
Third Grade - 1:00 PM
Fourth Grade - 2:15 PM
Fifth Grade - 2:00
Parents may sign their students out following the party, if you choose to do so.
*Second grade is a "nut aware" grade level; please refrain from sending any peanut or tree nut products. We appreciate your help in keeping our Pirates safe!*