Lions Lines
February, 2016 * Hamilton Elementary School
UPCOMING EVENTS
February Family Movement Calendar:
http://tinyurl.com/FEBfamilyFitnessCalendar
We are so sorry, but we will not be able to accommodate lunch visitors on February 9th and 17th due to district testing and changes in lunch schedules. Please plan to send lunches to school in the morning with students. Teachers will not have access to email and our staff is limited to help facilitate lunch drop-off. We will not be able to guarantee that lunches dropped off will make it to the students for their lunch time. Thank you for your help!
February
1 8 AM Red Chess Club
3rd Grade Performance (Groups A & B) 6:30 PM
2 8:05 AM 5th Gr. Newcomb (Whittington vs Humphreys)
Storytelling with Kdg, 1st, 3rd
PTO Cultural Arts Events Program at 9 AM (PPCD, PK, K, 1): Texas Cowboy Hoedown
3 PTO Cultural Arts Events Program at 1:30 & 2:30 PM (3rd, 4th, 5th): Meet the Presidents of US
4 100th Day of School Celebration for Kdg, 1st Grades
8:05 AM 5th Gr. Newcomb (Ferrell vs DeCook)
5 2nd Gr. Garden Day
8:05 AM 5th Gr. Newcomb (Dommer vs Harris)
8 Blue Chess Club 8 AM
3rd Grade Performance (Groups C & D) 6:30 PM
9 8:05 AM 5th Gr. Newcomb (Whittington vs DeCook)
5th Math Benchmark Testing - No Visitors due to testing
Parent Night Elementary Art Exhibit at ISC
10 8:05 AM 5th Gr. Newcomb (Dommer vs Humphreys)
11 Spring Portraits taken by Lifetouch
12 9:15 AM PTO Mtg.
15 Student Holiday
16 Pennies for Patients Campaign begins thru 2/19
Progress Reports go home
4th Gr. Plantarium arrives
17 8:05 AM 5th Gr. Newcomb (Harris vs Ferrell)
3rd & 4th Reading Benchmark Testing – No Visitors due to testing
19 1st Gr. Garden Day
22 8 AM Red Chess Club
26 Go Texan Day! Dress in western clothes
29 8 AM Blue Chess Club
Author Phil Bildner visits 4th Grade
2016-2017 Calendar
Board approves 2016-2017 instructional calendar
Jan. 19, 2016—The CFISD Board of Trustees approved the Calendar Committee’s recommendation for the 2016-2017 instructional calendar during its regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 19.
House Bill 1 (79th Texas Legislature) mandates that instruction for the school year may not begin before the fourth Monday in August. For the 2016-2017 instructional year, the earliest start date is Aug. 22—which will serve as the first day of school.
In the spring semester of 2016, district calendar committees were organized with broad-based representation, including teachers, parents, community members, campus administrators and district support staff. The committees worked to construct a calendar using the 75,600 minutes needed to complete a school year now required by House Bill 2610, which replaces the former requirement of 180 instructional days for a school year.
The committees agreed to recommend a calendar to the school board that added 15 minutes to the instructional day, which will allow the 2016-2017 school year to end May 25, 2017 with 173 days of instruction for students. The added time will exceed the state’s required number of minutes providing students additional instruction daily and, if needed, provide enough additional minutes to make up time for two days of inclement weather.
The committee met to discuss various components of developing the instructional calendar before arriving at a consensus for the following calendar recommendation presented to the Board of Trustees:
· students begin school on Monday, Aug. 22, 2016;
· Labor Day, Sept. 5, 2016, is a student/staff holiday;
· the calendar has a five-day Thanksgiving holiday (Nov. 21-25, 2016);
· an 11-day winter break is scheduled for students (Dec. 19, 2016-Jan. 2, 2017);
· a one-week spring break is scheduled for March 13-17, 2017;
· Good Friday, April 14, 2017, is a student/staff holiday;
· The school year will end on May 25, 2017 for students; and
· Feb. 20 and May 26, 2017 are designated as inclement weather makeup days.
To download a copy of the 2016-2017 school calendar, visit the CFISD website at http://www.cfisd.net/en/calendar/.
Third Six Weeks Attendance Information
Attendance by Six Weeks
1st Six Weeks 97.9%
2nd Six Weeks 97.0%
3rd Six Weeks 96.2%
Third Six Weeks Attendance by Grade Level
EE 91.74%
PK 93.29%
KG 93.64%
1st 96.77%
2nd 96.48%
3rd 96.96%
4th 96.40%
5th 96.99%
***Counselor's Corner***
Horizons/Gifted and Talented Testing Update
GT Testing is going strong! If you referred your child during the fall referral period, you received a letter with your child’s specific testing dates on January 8, 2016. Testing began on January 11, and will continue all the way through the end of February. If you have questions regarding GT Testing and your child’s testing dates, please email Michelle Erickson, Counselor, at michelle.erickson@cfisd.net or call 281-370-0990.
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. The next opportunity to test for Credit by Exam will take place during the week of February 22-26. The application deadline is February 16, 2016. Late applications will not be accepted.
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 Michelle Erickson, School Counselor, at michelle.erickson@cfisd.net.
Watch D.O.G.S. - Dads of Great Students
We had a very successful Watch Dog Dad Training #2 on January 6, with a total of 38 dads attending! I would like to thank all of the dads for taking time out of their busy schedules to attend one of the two trainings offered. Our third and final training will take place on March 9, so if you are signed up for a volunteer date after March 9, you will be receiving a reminder to attend the third training. Please remember that this training is a requirement prior to your actual volunteer date.
Thank you to the following dads for being our Watch Dogs for the month of January:
Joe Crownover
Eric Johnson
Greg Muse
Bradley Buerger
Michael Vannier
Stephen Amodio
Brian Horak
Luis Vaca
Steven Kilgore
Mike Kuhn
Paul Taranto
Word of the Month
This month in your child’s classrooms, I have been talking with your child(ren) about the importance of self-control, and how this skill encompasses all aspects of our lives. I encourage you to ask your child(ren) what was discussed in our guidance lessons, and see what specific examples that they can share with you, in regards to showing/having self-control in their lives!
Sometimes it is hard to do what you should do when there are so many fun things around that you would rather do. For instance, it’s hard to do your homework when your favorite TV program is on. Or it’s hard to practice piano when your Nintendo DS is in your line of vision. Use these discussion starters to help you get the conversation about self-control to a deeper level of understanding: Have you ever hurt your family or friends with your lack of self-control? Give some examples of how having self-control protects you from getting hurt.
· How is anger like boiling water? What happens when your anger boils over and you lose self-control?
· What lowers your “boiling point”? Raises your boiling point?
· How do you know when to stop?
· What is the thing or activity that usually keeps you from doing what you should do? Then decide to help each other give that one thing up for an entire week. At the end of the week, evaluate:
o Were you able to show self-control?
o Was it easier to choose what you should do instead of ___________________?
Notice to All 5th Grade Parents & Future Tigers
It is about that time of year when we start gearing up for your 5th graders to get ready for their 6th grade transition! During the next few months, elective choices will be discussed and chosen by your children, Level-1 information will be coming home (at the end of the 3rd nine weeks and the 4th 9-weeks), and final schedules will be input for them!
Additionally, Hamilton Middle School is hosting their annual “Future Tiger Night” on Tuesday, February 16, 2016 at 4:45 PM and 6:15 PM. You may choose the one that best fits your family’s schedule. They will be featuring your elective choices through performances by the Hamilton MS Tiger Band, Choir, Orchestra, Theater, and Art. Don’t miss it! Flyers went home on Friday, January 22 with information regarding this!
Are you interested in becoming a mentor to a student?
We need you! The CFISD Mentor Program is a cooperative effort of volunteers from businesses, faith-based and/or non-profit organizations, the community, and CFISD designed to encourage students to make good choices while in and out of school, be motivated to do well and finish school, and focus on future education and career goals. A mentor is a suitable role model committed to helping a student with his/her academic and social development.
If you are interested and would like more information, please contact Michelle Erickson, Counselor, at michelle.erickson@cfisd.net or 281-370-0990. You may also contact the district coordinator of the mentoring program, Leslie Francis at leslie.francis@cfisd.net or 281-894-3950.
In order to become a mentor, you must be trained by the district prior to working with a student. If you prefer, you can go to www.cfisd.net/mentor directly. Here you would receive access to the online application, as well as sign up for one of the many training sessions offered at the Berry Center.
Pennies for Patients benefiting the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society
Pennies for Patients Fundraiser will be February 1 – 9 with Candy Gram sales. All proceeds from the candy sales will go to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
· Candy Gram (sucker with a personal message) will be for sale in each child’s classroom. They will have the option of doing 1 personalized Candy Gram for $1 or a bouquet of 3 suckers for $4. Student Council will deliver the Candy Grams Friday, February 12 to the homeroom classrooms.
February 16-19
· We will be collecting cash/change donations for Pennies for Patients
· Donations can be made in the car rider line, cafeteria or front office. There will be a 5 gallon water jug for each grade level in the cafeteria.
· If you would like to write a check, please make checks out to the Leukemia/Lymphoma Society.
Leo the Lion will be collecting spare change in the car rider line on February 16. He will be wearing a Team Adam T-shirt to honor Adam, who is currently a 5th grader here at Hamilton, battling Leukemia.
***News from the Library***
BARNES & NOBLE IN-STORE (CHAMPIONS) & ONLINE BOOKFAIR is February 6th. Student artwork will be on display, and our 5th grade choir will perform at 11:30. 20% of all sales (books, Nooks, and café items) directly support putting new books on our library shelves when you mention Hamilton at the beginning of the transaction. B&N online purchases between 2/6 and 2/11 also support the library when you enter Bookfair ID# 11792959 at checkout.
4th GRADE AUTHOR VISIT WITH PHIL BILDNER is February 29th. He will be leading our students through writing camp as well as talking about the writing and publishing process. Order forms for autographed books will be coming home later this month. Thank you PTO for funding our visiting author and illustrator program!
OSMOS & SPHERO'S - Thanks to last year's Boosterthon, the PTO was able to purchase 10 Osmos and 12 Sphero's for our library. All classes have been given the opportunity to take an Osmo class and learn several of the Apps: Words, Numbers, Tangrams, Newton and Masterpiece. Osmos can be purchased from Amazon or at www.playosmo.com. Small group classes for computer programming with Spheros will begin soon. We already have 12 'test-pilots' from 5th grade who are helping us learn the capabilities of Sphero. More information will be coming soon!
THANK YOU FALL VOLUNTEERS! A tremendous thank you to the amazing team of regular volunteers who keep our library running smoothly: Amy Fink, Rebecca Patel, Krish Hariharan, Rebecca Parker, Claire Whyte, Nita Patel, Valerie Arnold, Lindy Lecompte, Roxie Goetz, and Sunalini Rajput. If you are interested in being a spring library volunteer, please complete this survey: http://goo.gl/forms/9GMtPT9fKK
Name That Book
Congratulations to all of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders who participated in the Name That Book grade level competitions on January 26th! We hope you enjoyed reading the 100 fabulous books on the district list. The following teams will be moving on to represent their grade level at the school competition on February 9th:
3rd grade: Eliza Lightfoot, Ravine Cohen, Sanvi Kumpatla, Mera Rakouki, Juhi Bhatt
4th grade: Ella Smoker, Anya Rodricks, Annie Li, Elise Fawcett, Bethany Selz, Kara Arnold
5th grade: Phoebe Vannier, Crystal Gooding, Maggie Ni, Sankavi Gownder, Ziana Sundrani, Carrigan Royer
3rd Grade Teams
- Emma Collins, Brennan Gibbs, Avery McSwain, Morgan Bay, Megan Brady
- Emma Vick, Emery Post, Riley Jaco, Danielle Falkenberg, Kyndall Riepe, Emily Vick
- Walter Hernandez, Anastasia Albarado, Lara Dogan, Riya Patel, Maddison Dodd, Elizabeth Vick
- Kaylee Williams, Cora Miller, Reagan Morrison, Catherine Herold, Jamie Diamond
4th Grade Teams
- Matthew Blocker, Erwin Kingston, Diego Vaca, Nathan Wei, Krish Dhanuka, Kevin Ramirez
- Marshal Arain, Kristine Ngo, Abby Georgson, Averie Morris, Caitlyn Gomez, Bailey McClendon
- Krithiya Krishnamoorthy, Michael Solomon, Ellen Zhang, Corin Patel
5th Grade Teams
- Jackson Carlyle, Nacho Durante, Alex Willman, Reed Ernstrom, Reece Simmons Miller
- Katelyn Whatley, Zoey Boyer, Ari Williams, Cole Minson, Gabi Powell
***Birthday Book Club***
Bobby Ball
Zoey Boyer
Caroline Buerger
Jake Davis
Grace Davis
Juan Martin Durante
Reagan Fielder
Annah George
Kyler Goings
Brenden Green
Brenna Howell
Connor Hounshell
Gavin Liu
Finley McLamore
Vedanth Rachakonda
Anna Shepherd
Haroon Tarar
Logan Truong
Riley Wessels
Claire Willis
Zachary Wittliff
Kate Zhao
2014-2015 School Report Card for Hamilton Elmementary
The State of Texas 2014-15 School Report Card for Hamilton Elementary has been publically released and is now posted on our campus website.
This is a report required by the Texas Legislature and prepared by the Texas Education Agency. It is to be sent to the parent or guardian of every child enrolled in a Texas public school. The report provides information concerning student performance on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR), as well as information on student enrollment, class size averages, and financial expenditures.
The School Report Cards can be found online at:
About Us
School Ratings
Select Campus Name
Select 2014-15
Click Filter
Click School Report Card (State)
If you do not have access to the internet to view the School Report Card online, please call 281-370-0990 to request the School Report Card be sent home with your child. You may also visit the main office and request to view or have a copy of the School Report Card provided to you.
Please feel free to contact Joni Conn at 281-370-0990 if you have any questions regarding the School Report Card.
***School Reminders***
Parent & Student Handbook
***CFISD Information***
CFISD District Information
2016-2017 Calendar: http://www.cfisd.net/en/calendar/
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
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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