November is here! Our students continue to give their very best as they learn many exciting things every day from our AMAZING teachers and staff! Everyone is continuing to do a terrific job following our safety guidelines and that has helped reduce our numbers of COVID-19 cases on campus.

Our Direct Investment Fund fundraiser was a HUGE success! Thank you to all of our wonderful families for your generous donations to our school. Thank you to our amazing PTO for all of their hard work organizing our fundraiser.

We greatly appreciate all of our Deretchin families for your help and dedication to our school, and we are THANKFUL for your continued support and involvement in your child’s education.

Sincerely,

Tina Oliver

November 4- 3rd Grade Program-Times

Poje, Rainbird and Wagner 5:30

Haynes, Lopez and Mills 6:30

November 9- Progress Reports sent home

November 11 - Veterans Day

November 12- Spotlight-Fairness, Turkey Trot, Book Fair begins

November 15-19- Book Fair begins, Generation Texas Week

November 17- Kindness Club, 3:30 in library

November 18- Staff Lunch provided by PTO

November 19- PTO Meeting, 12:00, Book Fair Ends

November 22-26- Thanksgiving Break

STAAR test results:

To get your child's STAAR test results, you will need to log into your Parent Access account. Click on the student, on the homepage for that student, scroll down until you see the image below. Click on the "Texas Assessment Student Portal Link". Enter the 6 digit code and your child's name

November is going to be a fun month in PPCD! We will be discussing how we can be kind and what it means to be grateful as we approach the Thanksgiving holiday. Teachers have some Thanksgiving crafts and activities that we are sure students will enjoy! We have enjoyed updating parents on students’ progress during Parent-Teacher Conferences. Thank you, parents, for your continued support!

Pre-K is moving right into November, and we have been having so much fun learning and expanding our knowledge! This month brings some exciting activities for our little dragons. Book Fair and Generation Texas week are November 15-19, and we will have a cookie decorating party on November 19th before we go on Thanksgiving break.

As we continue working on letters and sounds at school, we encourage families to do the same at home. Reading to your child daily is one of the most important things you can do at home to support their learning at school. Make reading to your child nightly a routine that they look forward to!

We are only given a few minutes each day for snack. Please send ONE snack for your child that can be eaten quickly and without utensils, and fill their water bottles with water only.

As the temperatures drop, we will need our sweaters and jackets for school. Please start working with your child now on being able to get in and out of their jackets independently, and please make sure all belongings are labeled with your student’s name.

Happy November! We will continue this month with having STRONG reading superpowers. We will also be studying different themes for the month of November. In science, we will study different types of energy (light, sound, thermal) . In math, we will continue counting to 100, subitizing to 10 and will start composing and decomposing numbers. At this point in math, your child should be practicing counting to 50 and counting backwards from 20. In writing, we will be focusing on building sentences and using our sight words and knowledge of letter sounds to create sentences and phrases. We will also be adding details to our writing. In social studies, we will be learning about voting, Veterans/Veterans Day, and family traditions/Thanksgiving. At home, please have your child practice their pencil grasp, writing their name with one capital letter, packing their own backpack, and opening and closing their own water container. Reading at home with your child every day is a great way to promote early literacy, vocabulary, and comprehension. Rainbow sight words are an extra learning tool we use to help promote sight word fluency in Kindergarten.

**Upcoming events-**

November 11-Veterans Day

November 12-Turkey Disguise Project due (a note will be sent home)

November 12-Fairness Spotlight

November 15-19-Book Fair

November 17-Kindergarten Thanksgiving Feast (a note will be sent home with details)

November 22-26-Thanksgiving Break

November is upon us, and we could not be more thankful for our four classes of amazing first graders. This month, our learners will continue to build on their writing skills by creating their own original poetry examples. Our first grade writers absolutely loved sharing their Small Moment Presentations at our recent Author Celebration. Our Word Wizards will put their detective skills to the test by reading poetry. This month, scientists will explore the power of forces by using magnets to push and pull objects. Our hands-on science unit is sure to be fun and exciting. Students will learn about the voting process and how it relates to making choices and decisions. November would not be complete without learning about Thanksgiving and our own family customs. Students will be able to present information on one of their own special family traditions to their classmates. Additional information and explanation of this small project will be sent home in several weeks. Our mathematicians will delve into studying various types of math story problems. Please continue to work mastery of recall of math facts at home with your child. Numeration and money skills will be a spiral unit of study to strengthen their foundation math skills. Our children are growing by leaps and bounds, and we are so proud of their progress. We are thankful for all you do to help support our home-school connection the entire year.

It's officially fall! Second graders are busy reading and writing non-fiction books. We are enjoying becoming experts on a wide range of subjects, from soccer to sandwiches, dolphins to Deretchin! We are working hard on correcting our punctuation in sentences we write and adding more detail to the books we write.

In math, second graders are learning how to add and subtract 2-digit numbers. We have spent a lot of time dedicated to talking about math, explaining our thinking, and teaching others. Counting money is always a fun activity to do at home! If your child has a piggy bank, have them organize the money by coin, and practice skip counting to add small amounts of coins.

We have learned so much about our local, state, and national government, and enjoyed studying maps this past month. We are looking forward to our upcoming unit learning about holidays and festivals people celebrate around the world. In science, second graders have been learning about force, motion, and the effect of energy on different objects.

In math, we started our Multiplication Unit! We are learning all about the different strategies (equal groups, arrays, area models, jumps on a number line and strip diagrams) to solve multiplication problems. We have also shown how multiplication and division are related and built some fabulous fact families. We will be starting on our Fraction Unit which will take us through until Winter Break.

In science, we are so excited to be starting our space unit. This will cover the relationship between the sun, earth and moon; order of the planets and details about the sun.

In social studies, our next unit will be all about government and how the government works. We will follow this with information about the building of our country going back to colonial times.

In Reader's Workshop, students will explore the structure and elements of nonfiction texts. Students will be able to identify nonfiction text features and their purposes. They will be able to pull text evidence in order to provide answers to comprehension questions regarding nonfiction texts.

In Writer's Workshop, students will be moving through the nonfiction writing process. They will be choosing topics, researching their topics, drafting, revising and editing, and then creating final/published copies of nonfiction texts. One area of emphasis will be organizing ideas into paragraphs that make sense to the reader.

Reminder: 3rd Grade Program on November 4th - 2 separate performances

Poje, Rainbird and Wagner - 5:30 pm (students need to arrive by 5:15pm)

Haynes, Lopez, and Mills - 6:30 pm (Students need to arrive by 6:15pm)

Poje - Dress for cooler/colder weather

Rainbird - Dress for warmer weather/beach weather (Must be in school dress code.)

Wagner - Dress in raincoats and rain ponchos for more severe weather.

Haynes - Dress for cooler/colder weather

Mills - Dress for warmer weather/beach weather (Must be in school dress code.)

Lopez - Dress in raincoats and rain ponchos for more severe weather.

***There may be a few exceptions if your child's special part is in a weather song that is different from the way the rest of their class is dressed.

Wow! We cannot believe that it is already November!

In math, we just completed part one of our multiplication unit (part two will be after Winter Break). We have just begun our division unit by learning some basic division vocabulary and how to set up a division problem. We will learn a variety of ways to represent and solve division problems, such as using partial quotients, the standard algorithm, area models, strip diagrams and equations. We will also focus on strategies to help solve multi-step problems and how interpret the remainder in a division word problem. We will take our test for this unit right before Thanksgiving Break.

*It is very important that the students are fluent in their multiplication facts, so please encourage your child to practice them nightly.

In science, we just concluded our energy and electricity unit and are starting our force and motion unit. The students will learn about a variety of forces such as gravity, friction, and magnetism, and how to test the force of gravity on an object, as well as how to measure force. After that, we will learn about patterns of change that occur daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly in our natural environment such as tides, shadows, moon phases, and seasons.

In social studies, we just concluded our American Indian unit and learned about the various tribes that lived in Texas and ways the adapted to and modified their environment to meet their needs. We are now beginning to learn about the Explorers that came from all around the world to explore the land of Texas. We will discuss where they came from, what their motivations were to explore the land, and some of their major accomplishments. We will then begin learning about the historical significance of missions in Texas.

Language Arts has finished our realistic fiction unit, and we are moving into nonfiction. We will be talking about nonfiction in reading and writing. In reading, we will learn to read nonfiction with intensity for the purpose of learning from texts. We will look at why authors use different text structures to accentuate topics and how to tackle tricky vocabulary. We will learn how to seek out patterns and relationships of topics, evaluate sources, and grow researched based ideas.

Our writing unit will command students to sharpen their opinions and make judgements fairly based on different criteria. Students will write to evaluate, rank, and support their judgements with bold opinions and reasons to support those opinions. Students will then move into writing reviews and speeches to persuade others.

Over the next few weeks, our grammar units will cover compound sentences, adverbs, reflexive pronouns, and the difference between plural and possessive nouns. We will continue working on irregular plurals and then move into different prefixes and suffixes and how they change the meaning of a word.

Again, thank you for supporting our homework of nightly reading!

It's a busy day in the ELA classroom, and we love it! 🙂

Math

In math, we have been working through all operations of decimals (add, subtract, multiply, divide). Now as we enter into the fall we will be going through all the operations of fractions with different denominators. Here we are going to learn how to find common denominators when adding and subtracting, as well as how to multiply and divide whole numbers by fractions. Students have been working so diligently in guided math with staying focused at small groups to being engaged during different station activities. We are beyond proud of our 5th graders!

ELA

In reading, we have been working on our Nonfiction unit and learning interesting facts about our class read aloud, When Lunch Fights Back. Our students are focused on not only reading their nonfiction texts, but also practicing their higher order thinking skills with the use of note taking strategies called signposts and partner discussions. In writing, our students will begin the process of writing their very own informational book and will get to share their final product with their peers with a special author’s celebration in class! Thank you parents, for your continued support. It has been a pleasure not only to work with our students, but to watch them grow as readers and writers!

Science & Social Studies

In science, we are wrapping up our Energy Unit and moving into the following two units this November: Force & Motion and The Solar System. We are very excited to begin these units! The next science common formative assessment (CFA) will be on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, November 30th. In social studies we have been talking about the rise of the Revolutionary War. Moving into November, we will be covering the battles of the Revolutionary War. This has been such an exciting unit for the kids! They love learning about our American history. The next social studies CFA will not be until December 9th. Thank you so much for sharing your kids with us during the day. They are such a great group of kids and it’s been nothing short of our pleasure to teach them this year!

Sixth Grade Scoop

The numbers don’t lie, and ours tell a story of amazing happenings in sixth grade! As a grade level, we raised enough money to earn popsicles at lunch, and an extra recess that we all enjoyed together after our Fall Rotations. Thank you to everyone who contributed to The Deretchin Direct Investment Fund. This fundraiser was perfectly timed since we are studying economics, as they relates to Central America, South America and Mexico. We love to see how things that we are learning in school can be applied to real world situations. In science, we have been calculating average speed and learning about distance and time. The focus in ELA has changed to nonfiction and the students have been doing a great job of applying concepts that they learned in the fiction unit to this new genre. In math, we are wrapping up Module 4 where we learned how to turn math into a language. We learned about exponents, prime factorization, and expressions. We will begin our new Module, number 5, which will take us into algebra. We will learn how to model, write and solve equations and inequalities.

We think that it’s fair to say that it’s shaping up to be a great November for 100% percent of our Sixth Grade Dragons.

It’s that time of year! This month intermediate grades will begin brainstorming Western themed art for the Rodeo competition. Elementary students are studying geometric shapes, organic shapes, abstract art and monochromatic colors.

We have several exciting events coming up in the music department this November!

In grades PreK-4, we are learning Fall themed songs and games that use our steady beat and note reading skills. This month, 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade will focus on five melody sounds- so, la, mi, re and do. They will also work with the rhythms quarter note, eighth note, rest, half notes and sixteenth notes. First graders will focus on quarter note, eighth note and rest. Pre-K and kindergarteners continue to sing high and low notes, as well as practicing a steady beat and anticipating the steady beat. The 3rd graders are presenting “Whether the Weather,” our first program of the school year, on November 4, 2021.

Our 6th grade choir students are working towards the Conroe ISD vocal solo contest on November 13, 2021. Our choir classes and clubs are excited to begin rehearsing music for our December concert!

In Band, our 6th graders are preparing for the CISD 6th Grade Honor Band auditions! This is their first audition EVER so we are beyond excited for them. If the students are selected for the Honor Band group, they will come together with 6th graders from other CISD intermediate schools and perform an amazing concert sometime after Christmas with a clinician! Our 5th graders are continuing to learn more notes on their instruments while playing with their best sounds.

In Orchestra, some of the 6th graders are preparing for the CISD 6th Grade Honor Orchestra auditions on November 9 at Mitchell Intermediate. They have been putting in a lot of hard work on their scales and excerpts, and if selected, will perform with other CISD intermediate students in January at the concert at McCullough JH. Our 5th graders are currently working on tone production with their bows, as well as learning new notes.

The 3rd graders are presenting “Whether the Weather,” our first program of the school year, on November 4, 2021.

Our 6th grade choir students are working towards the Conroe ISD vocal solo contest on November 13, 2021.

Thank you,

Melody Childs-Music/Choir

Ali Celia-Music/Band

Cameron Price-Music/Band

Alex Marte-Music/Orchestra

Happy Fall! We have been very busy continuing with our cooperative games, introducing team sports, as well as focusing on our 5 Components of Physical Fitness. We have learned about muscles and bones, and the relationship between the two that allows the body to move. In November we will continue working on our fitness components, introducing volleyball, and preparing for the upcoming Turkey Trot that will be on the 12th. The Turkey Trot is always an exciting race where they can put their speed and endurance to the test in our 1 mile fast paced race. We are very busy and very active in P.E, so please continue to encourage your child to wear appropriate shoes and clothes so they can participate and be successful in our class.

Turkey Trot RSVP https://forms.gle/V9cjMV7MvMDpvxQx6

I am so excited to announce that we will be having an IN-PERSON Scholastic Book Fair this fall. Our fair is scheduled from November 15-19, 2021. Unfortunately, parents are still not able to come in and shop with their students. However, students will be creating “Wish Lists” the week before and will bring this list home to share with you. Then during their regularly scheduled library time, they will be able to shop the fair. There will also be open times during the week in which they will be able to shop too. Also teachers will be creating wish list boxes too. The Book Fair schedule is shown on this link: http://tiny.conroeisd.net/URt5j. Parents, I definitely can still use your help to set-up the book fair. Currently that is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, November 9, from 3:30-? I definitely will need help with taking down the book fair too. This is scheduled for Friday, November 19, from 11:30-2:30.

Also, for students in 3rd-6th grade, I am excited to announce that we will be having a visiting author, Dan Geimenhart, on Friday, December 10th. This link will explain more information on how you can order his books at a discounted rate: http://tiny.conroeisd.net/sQxRS.

We also will be having a special author virtual visit, Lauren Tarshis for students in PK-2. The date is still pending. However, she’ll be talking about her brand new picture book. Here’s a link to a short book trailer for the book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnHbEtT3GdY.

Parents, if you have any questions feel free to contact me at CMattern@conroeisd.net.

Happy Reading!

Mr. Cristofer W. Mattern

Library Media Specialist

College Readiness K-6 Presentation

Join our Zoom webinar as we discuss career and college exploration for your elementary student.

November 17th 5:30 pm - 6:00 pm

Zoom Link: http://tiny.conroeisd.net/hMfYx

Passcode: 794056

Referral Requests for Gifted and Talented Testing

Referral requests are now open for Conroe Independent School District Gifted and Talented program. Although the testing will not take place until late January, referral requests are accepted at this time. Referral requests can be made by the parents and/or campus staff. It is recommended that parents of 2nd grade students wait until CogAT scores have arrived before nominating their child because CogAT scores are part of the GT assessment. If you are interested in referring your child, you may want to discuss this with your child’s teacher at conferences. Referrals will be accepted through December 17, 2021. You may request a referral form from the front office or Jenna Hendon, Counselor. You can also find the referral form and other GT information on the CISD GT Homepage at Gifted & Talented - Conroe ISD. You will scroll down to the middle of the page and click on Referral Forms. Only the first form listed needs to be filled out at this time. If you have any questions about this process, please contact Jenna Hendon by email at jhendon@conroeisd.net or by phone at 832-592-8828.

Generation Texas Week

November 15- 19, 2021

Generation Texas Week teaches students about the importance of education, previews the schools in their feeder zone, and highlights postgraduate options, such as college, technical schools, the military, and other career opportunities. Throughout this week, we will discuss how Deretchin Dragons are the future of Texas and how a good education will help them achieve their dreams.

Monday- “Career Day: Tie into a great career!”-wear a tie to school

Tuesday- “Back to the Future Day”- wear a college shirt to school

Wednesday- “Transitions Day”- wear Highlander colors (Red and Green) for McCullough Junior High and The Woodlands High School

Thursday- “If Not College, Then What? Hat’s off to Post High School Education!”-wear a hat to school

Friday-”Paving My Way! Your future's so BRIGHT!”- wear your sunglasses and bright colors!

The results are in... The Direct Investment Fundraiser has brought in over $56,250!!! And still growing with company matches coming in over the next few months!

Be on the lookout for more information regarding our Galactic Celebration Reward Day on December 16th.

Thank you all for your generous donations!!

The upcoming Deretchin Spirit Event is Nov. 8 at Crust Pizza in Alden Bridge. (8000 Research Forest Dr.) All day including dine in or take-out! Mention you are with Deretchin and they will give 15% back to our school.

PTO will sponsor a Teacher/Staff appreciation lunch on November 18th. Be on the lookout for a sign-up genius to help supply the needed items.

Plan on attending the next PTO meeting on November 19 at 12pm.

The Conroe Independent School District (District) as an equal opportunity educational provider and employer does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age, or disability in educational programs or activities that it operates or in employment matters. The District is required by Title VI and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, as amended, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Americans with Disabilities Act, as well as Board policy not to discriminate in such a manner.

For information about Title IX rights or Section 504/ADA rights, contact the Title IX Coordinator or the Section 504/ADA coordinator at 3205 W. Davis, Conroe, TX 77304; (936) 709-7752.