Gleason PAWS
Excellence Begins Here
Gleason Vision
Gleason Misson
Gleason Elementary
Email: gleason@cfisd.net
Website: https://gleason.cfisd.net
Location: 9203 Willowbridge Park Boulevard, Houston, TX, USA
Phone: 281-517-6800
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Gleasontigers/
Twitter: @gleasontigers
January 10, 2020
Principal Message
Happy New Year! It is hard to believe that we only have one week left in the first semester. We have had a successful one. We are excited to begin the second semester.
Congratulations to Sophia Selinidis, Gleason Elementary Spelling Champion and to William Brown, our runner up. Sophia will represent Gleason at the district competition February 5th. We also want to congratulate all of our spelling bee participants who worked hard to prepare for the competition.
We would like to extend an invitation to our girls to attend our 5th annual Father/Daughter Dance on February 14th, from 6:30-8:00. More information to follow.
Gleason will be conducting various safety drills in January and February. Please know that if your child comes home sharing information, it is only a drill. If we had a crisis on campus I would notify all parents in writing prior to your child arriving home.
Upcoming Family Nights
Math Night:
Mark your calendars! Come join us Under the Big Top for Family Math night on Tuesday, January 21st from 6-7:30pm. This event is for students and their families where everyone will play games and students will take some home too! We hope to see you there!
Pre-K Family Night
Calling all Pre-K students and their families! Mark your calendar for Pre-K Family night on Thursday, February 20th from 6:00 to 7:00pm. This event will offer parents ideas for how to support your Pre-K student at home. We hope to see you there!
A Note from the Nurse....Mrs. Compton
We have some exciting events coming up in January:
January 14th is the districts "See to Succeed" program. If your student is signed up they will be going to the Berry Center to have an eye exam and receive glasses.
On January 29th, Kindergarten and 1st grade students will have a Dental Hygienist come talk to their classes. They will get to learn about dental hygiene and why it is so important.
As a gentle reminder,a sick child who is unable to participate in school in a meaningful way should be kept home to rest and recover until symptoms resolve. Keeping a sick child home also protects other children, school staff, and visiting community members from contracting an illness that can be spread from person to person. A child must remain home with fever > 100° F and may only return after he/she has been fever free for 24 hours without fever-reducing medicine such as Tylenol or Motrin.
From the Library....Mrs. Jones
Author Visit
A huge THANK YOU to Gleason PTO for funding this author visit.
Name That Book
Name That Book participants have been reading to prepare for the upcoming school competition on February 10.
Name that Book link: https://www.cfisd.net/download_file/31341/348/
Online Resources
Did you know that our library has a many kid safe online resources that can be used from home? Rather than “google” a question, use Pebble Go or Pebble Go Next to find answers. Click this link to print a resource guide with information about access to the library resources.
On Demand Checkout
The Gleason Library is open for checkout almost every day. Your child does not have to wait for the whole class to come to the library in order to check in a book they have read and checkout a new book. This privilege is extended to students in grades 2 to 5. We add 2nd grade this year and they are doing a great job of returning and checking out books. So, if your child has a book that they have finished reading, encourage them to seek permission from their teacher to make a trip to the library.
PBIS NEWS
In December, Positive Behavior Interventions and Support (PBIS) was a huge success with some fun activities for our students. The students were receiving ornaments to add to the grade level trees. The Holiday ROAR Store was a huge success. We had lots of donations and volunteers to work - THANK YOU - we couldn't do it without your support! The Holiday ROAR Store is where students could use their Tiger Bucks to shop for the holiday gifts. The gifts were thoughtfully selected by students for their family members and wrapped with care by our volunteers.
From the Counselor....Mrs. Salazar
January's Core Essential is trust which is putting your confidence in someone you can depend on. This is great time to set goals as you are thinking about New Year's resolutions. While setting goals, try to make them a S.M.A.R.T. goal: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic & Timely
Specific- A specific goal has a much greater chance of being accomplished than a general goal. To set a specific goal you must answer the six “W” questions:
Who: Who is involved?
What: What do I want to accomplish?
Where: Identify a location.
When: Establish a time frame (really think about the age of the child when setting the time frame)
Which: Identify requirements and constraints.
Why: Specific purpose or benefits of accomplishing the goal.
Measurable- Establish concrete criteria for measuring progress toward the attainment of each goal you set. When you measure your progress, you stay on track, reach your target dates, and experience the exhilaration of achievement that spurs you on to continued effort required to reach your goal.
To determine if your goal is measurable, ask questions such as:
How much? How many?
How will I know when it is accomplished?
Attainable– When you identify goals that are most important to you, you begin to figure out ways you can make them come true. You develop the attitudes, abilities, skills, and financial capacity to reach them. You begin seeing previously overlooked opportunities to bring yourself closer to the achievement of your goals.
You can attain most any goal you set when you plan your steps wisely and establish a time frame that allows you to carry out those steps. Goals that may have seemed far away and out of reach eventually move closer and become attainable, not because your goals shrink, but because you grow and expand to match them. When you list your goals you build your self-image. You see yourself as worthy of these goals, and develop the traits and personality that allow you to possess them.
Realistic- To be realistic, a goal must represent an objective toward which you are both willing and able to work. A goal can be both high and realistic; you are the only one who can decide just how high your goal should be. But be sure that every goal represents substantial progress.
A high goal is frequently easier to reach than a low one because a low goal exerts low motivational force. Some of the hardest jobs you ever accomplished actually seem easy simply because they were a labor of love.
Timely– A goal should be grounded within a time frame. With no time frame tied to it there’s no sense of urgency. If you want to lose 10 lbs, when do you want to lose it by? “Someday” won’t work. But if you anchor it within a timeframe, “by May 1st”, then you’ve set your unconscious mind into motion to begin working on the goal.
Your goal is probably realistic if you truly believe that it can be accomplished. Additional ways to know if your goal is realistic is to determine if you have accomplished anything similar in the past or ask yourself what conditions would have to exist to accomplish this goal.
January Core Value- Creativity
Creativity- using your imagination to do something unique
Grade Level News
Pre-Kindergarten
We are excited to begin full day Pre-k with Gleason students. Pre-kindergartens have begun learning all about the winter season. In literacy, we are learning how to retell a story and respond to questions relevant to the text. In writing, we continue to discuss and contribute our ideas to class writing activities and learn how to write our first name. In math, we are learning to count from 1 to 10 with one to one correspondence. We will begin to subitize up to 5 and continue to create patterns. We appreciate all of your continued support at home!
Kindergarten
Welcome back from Holiday Break! In Reading Workshop, we will continue our Be Brave unit by using our reading superpowers to decode difficult words. Mid-January, we will launch a new reading unit called Avid Readers. Students will fall in love with nonfiction stories and get excited about reading. In Writing Workshop, we will finish up our unit on Writing for Readers. We launch a new unit called, Make It Interesting. The students will add details to their writing that will keep their audience wanting to read more! In Math; we will explore graphing, numbers to 100, counting to 100, addition and subtraction within 10. We will continue working on previously taught strategies that will help us become better mathematicians! Don’t forget your student needs a complete change of clothes (long-sleeved shirt, pants, underwear and socks) in his/her backpack. Also, send a snack and water bottle daily. If you are unsure of what snacks are approved, please reach out to your student’s teacher. Thank you for your continued support!
First Grade
First Grade has enjoyed our first semester! We are ready to start the second semester and continue preparing our students for second grade.
In reading the students will learn about the world while reading nonfiction books. They will understand the difference between fiction and nonfiction and explore different topics of interest.
In writing the students will start the non-fiction unit. Students will be able to explore non-fiction texts and learn how to write a “How-to” paper. They will learn how to list out steps to better explain to their reader how to create what they have listed.
In Math the students will practice skip counting by 2’s, 5’s and 10’s. Students will also learn the names and values of coins. We will continue our practice of place value as well as using problem solving strategies using tens.
Second Grade
We are digging deep into Fiction in Reading Workshop. We are studying the characteristics of fiction such as characters, setting, problem, the main events, and the resolution. These story elements will help us retell fiction stories. We are currently immersing ourselves in personal narratives during Writing Workshop. We will use mentor personal narratives to determine its organization and use them as we begin writing our own personal narratives.
Our second graders will be wrapping up telling time and understanding the difference between A.M. and P.M. activities. We will begin exploring geometric shapes. In Science, our students will be discussing freshwater and saltwater resources. We will continue to understand the importance of conserving our Earth’s natural resources.
Third Grade
This month in Reading, we will be interacting with poetry across a variety of poetic forms. We will explore the author’s purpose, genre characteristics, and analyze author’s craft in order to interpret and comprehend many different poems, including inferring theme. We will also explain the use of structural elements, poet’s use of sound devices such as onomatopoeia and figurative language such as a simile, metaphors, and how these structural elements help achieve specific purposes and images. In Language Arts, we will be composing original poems by using what they have learned in Reading about the genre characteristics and structural elements in poetry using voice language and other literary devices learned in Reading. We will also be having our Writing DPM on Monday, January 13th and our Revising and Editing DPM on Thursday, January 23rd.
This month in our math classes, will we be exploring our unit on fractions! We have begun our unit by understanding the parts of a fraction and naming fractions. Within the month of January, we will compose and decompose fractions, solve problems involving partitioning whole objects or a group of objects, compare fractions with like denominators or like numerators, represent fractions using a variety of models, and find equivalent fractions. You can help your student further understand fractions by finding and naming them at home. Our next checkpoint is on February 5th.
In our science classes, we have completed the lessons on soil and we will be studying natural resources and the products that can be made from them. We will also cover conservation of natural resources. Our next unit test is on January 16th. We will then jump into our astronomy unit for the remainder of January.
Fourth Grade
4th grade welcomes in 2020 with high academic and behavioral goals in mind!
Please remember to read 20 minutes every night and study your multiplication facts too.
We are getting into a Reading Unit of Study specifically examining characters in dramatic plays and graphic novels.
In Math we are working on equivalent and incomplete fractions.
In Science we are studying moon phases.
Fifth Grade
ELAR
We kicked off our Informational Text unit in Reading and Writing during Week 6 of the 2nd 9 weeks. Students are working very hard pulling together everything they have learned as we move to the heart of this unit. They have selected their research topic and are currently collecting their information through a note-taking process in order to draft their Informational writing piece. Our Reading unit is totally integrated with their writing providing mentor texts and lessons. In the last week of January, we will be starting a new Unit: Investigating Social Issues to Craft Arguments and Correspondence. In Social Studies we are studying the American Revolution & Independence.
Math
We have made so many strides this year multiplying and dividing decimals, using all four operations with fractions, finding area perimeter and volume using formulas. Looking forward we use ordered pairs and tables to find graph coordinates. Please don’t forget to practice your math facts every night, it is crucial to your child's success mathematics.
Science
We are currently preparing for our unit test which will cover Weather and Astronomy. Before the break we learned about the water cycle and weather and climate. Currently we are learning Earth’s rotation and the physical characteristics of the earth, moon and sun Including moon phases. The unit test is on Jan 23. We will then move onto matter.
Upcoming Events
January 14- Pre-Kinder Curriculum Night 6:00-7:00 pm
January 17- Marking period 2 ends
January 21- Marking Period 3 begins
January 20- Student/Staff Holiday
January 21- Family Math Night 6:00-7:30 pm
January 24- Report Cards go home
January 27- CFISD Horizon Showcase
February 3- PK & KG Mother Goose Visit
February 5- 100th Day
February 5- District Spelling Bee @ Berry Center
February 10- Gleason Name That Book 9:15-10:00
February 13-K.I.S.S. DAY
February 14- K.I.S.S. DAY
February 14- Father Daughter Dance 6:30-8:00 pm
February 18- 4th Writing & 5th Math Benchmark NO LUNCH VISITORS NO LUNCH DELIVERIES
February 19-5th Reading Benchmark NO LUNCH VISITORS NO LUNCH DELIVERIES
February 19- Progress Reports go home
February 20- Pre-Kinder Night 6:00-7:00 pm
February 21- Group Pictures NO LUNCH VISITORS NO DELIVERIES
February 22- DaVinci Day
February 25- Spring Pictures NO LUNCH VISITORS NO DELIVERIES
February 26- Nature Trails
February 27- Nature Trails
Important information about lunches
February 18th
February 19th
February 21th
February 25th
District’s Student Insurance
Below is the link to the district’s student insurance webpage.
http://www.cfisd.net/en/parents-students/registration/student-insurance/