Kaufman Paw Print
April 2015
Volume 9, Issue 8
Upcoming Events
2nd Grade Writing
Benchmark
4/1
School Holiday
4/3
A Note From Mrs. Oliver
1st Grade Musical
6:30
4/9
PTO Meeting
1:30
4/9
1st Grade Field
Trip
4/13
2nd Grade Reading
Restaurant
4/15
Kinder Field Trip
4/16
3rd &4th Grade
Reading STAAR Test
4/21
3rd & 4th Grade
Math STAAR Test
4/22
Book Fair
4/275/1
1st & 2nd Grade
Reading Benchmark
4/28
Mornings with Mom
4/295/1
Spring has finally arrived! The incredible weather is bringing a new
sense of excitement as our students work hard during this last portion
of the school year. Our students have many new things to learn, and
our amazing teachers have great lessons and events planned to help
make the remainder of their school year fantastic. Thank you to all of
our parents for encouraging your children to be the best Kaufman
Cougars they can be!
Sincerely,
Tina Oliver
Attendance Counts
Please help your child to be on time and present as much as possible each and every
day. We appreciate your continued support with our efforts to improve our
attendance here at Kaufman.
Our “Attendance Spirit Sticks” continue to be a huge motivation for our students. We
even had to make 24 more! Seeing our students carry the spirit sticks in the halls
with pride definitely brings a smile to all of our faces everyday!
Closed Campus on April 21 & 22
Due to our 3rd and 4th grade students taking the STAAR test,
NO visitors will be allowed at Kaufman on April 21 and 22.
This includes all grade levels, lunch in the cafeteria and volunteering.
Kindergarten
Happy Spring to everyone! During the month of April, we will continue to orally blend letter
sounds to make words, identify digraphs (sh/wh/th, and ch) and read poetry. After reading
with your child every night, please review concepts about print, comprehension questions
and retelling the story to you in detail. We can't stress enough how important it is to have
your child read to you and for you to fill out the reading folder. We are also preparing the
students for their assessments at the end of April and beginning of May. In math, we are
studying 2D and 3D shapes and measurement. We will be reviewing addition and subtraction. Spring is here and we will continue to discuss soil, parts of a plant, and how plants
grow. Then we will study farm, wild, exotic, and ocean animals. A few dates to remember:
April 2nd (Thursday)- Easter Egg Hunts at 2 p.m., April 16th (Thursday)-Kindergarten Field
trip to Old McDonald's Farm and May 21st (Thursday at 6:30 p.m.)- Kindergarten Program.
*If you are going to be a chaperone for the field trip , you must fill out a volunteer form on the
CISD website. Keep smiling and Happy Spring!
First Grade
First Grade is blooming this Spring in so many ways! You have probably noticed it in your child's writing already. At the
end of March, first grade completed a district-wide writing sample that spotlighted their growth in writing an “All About …”
topic that they felt like they were an expert on with topics ranging from baseball, to exploring, to jump-roping, to St. Patrick's
Day! These little authors really showed their stuff as they put it all together. If your child is writing at home, here are some
questions you could ask to assist them in guiding their writing for this format:
-Did I teach my readers about one topic?
-Did I name my topic in my first sentence to get my reader's attention?
-Did I tell about different parts of my topics on several different pages?
-Did I write an ending?
-Did I put facts in my writing to teach people about my topic?
-Did I use words and pictures as 'partners' to give facts? (i.e. labels
or captions)
Another focus as the year draws to a close, both in the classroom and in working with your child at home, is their reading
fluency. The district-wide expectation for the end of the year is for students to be reading at a rate of 60 words per minute
or greater on a first grade level text. Studies show that reading at about the same rate that people actually speak aids in a
reader's comprehension. When working on fluency with your child, here are a few tips about how to get the most out of this
study time:
-Read the passage aloud to your child. Model reading it fluently and with expression. Child reads for one minute. Chart
their time.
-Student reads passage aloud for one minute. Chart their time. If your child is reading less than 50 wpm, you may need to
offer supported reading, such as reading along with the student.
-For the next couple of readings, students reads to you fluently for one minute. Chart their time.
-Revisit this passage and other familiar passages from time to time.
A great big thank you to parents who have hopped on board and volunteered their time this year by sending in materials,
assisting in making classroom materials, planning and manning grade level events, and a myriad of other ways. Kaufman is
a great place to be!
Second Grade
Coming up first this month is our Second Grade Easter Egg Hunt on Thursday, April 2nd at 12:30pm. Please be looking for an email
from your child’s teacher or your child’s room mom about this special event. We will need volunteers for this event to help hide all of the
eggs and to donate items for the eggs.
In reading this month is our Reading Restaurant which will be held in mid-April. The students will be very busy reading independently
during every spare moment to increase their reading fluency, expression and comprehension. Each student will prepare jokes, books,
and original poetry and stories to share with their special visitors. It is one of our favorite events of the year! “Save the Date” notes will
be sent home soon!
In Science classes, we will begin studying animal adaptations, habitats, and life cycles. We are busy learning about natural resources
and conservation in Social Studies. Our next unit will be economics and we will participate in our flower pen factory. In Language Arts,
we continue to work on writing, editing, and publishing.
In Math, we are learning about geometry and measurement. We continue to practice regrouping in addition and subtraction, as well as
fine-tune all of the math skills we have learned this year. Don’t forget to continue to practice basic addition and subtraction facts to 20.
We want to be able to finish 30 math facts in addition and/or subtraction in two minutes or less!
The month of May will be a busy time as we prepare to take our district benchmark tests in every subject area. We will be working hard
to make sure our students are well prepared. We also know that third grade is just around the corner and we want our students to be
ready for that big step! Parents, thank you so much for all of your support at home.
Third Grade
We are all so proud of the effort that our third graders have been putting into getting ready for our upcoming Reading and Math
STAAR tests. Math STAAR is on Tuesday, April 21st and Reading is Wednesday, April 22nd. Only 4 more weeks! We're reviewing all skills learned thus far and adding elapsed time as well as measurement (customary and metric capacity, weight and
mass) to our skill bank. We will continue practicing our strategies and problem solving skills within word problems. Try to incorporate math into your daily lives. Ask your child to count money or how much change they will receive, let them help you cook in
the kitchen to practice measurements, ask them the time, or quiz them on multiplication and division facts. Any time we can
incorporate Math into our everyday lives, it makes it real for our students.
When your child is reading nightly, have them read aloud to you and tell you what they are reading about. They can tell you the
summary of the story (not every word or detail but a Beginning-Middle-End of the chapter or book as a whole). Please work on
vocabulary that may be unfamiliar. If your child doesn’t know what a word is ask them, “How can you use the clues in the story
to figure out the meaning of the word?” Pay close attention to prefixes and suffixes. Also, discuss the main idea of a paragraph
or chapter. Ask your child, “What is that part mainly about?” Predict what might happen next in the story? Last but certainly
not least, have your child draw conclusions and infer. Ask them “what if” or “why” questions. All of these types of questions will
be a helpful review and will get your child thinking while reading. Remember Readers are Leaders!!
Thank you so much for your continued support! We are so very lucky to have you!
Fourth Grade
Fourth graders have just finished showing what super writers they are on the Writing portion of the STAAR test. The
fourth grade teachers are extremely proud of the effort put forth! It has been a great journey to watch our students grow
into the writers they now are.
We are glad to have one STAAR test complete, but we are continuing each day to learn as we prepare for the Math and
Reading portions of the test. These will be taken on Tuesday, April 21st and Wednesday, April 22nd and will be our
chance to demonstrate the math and reading skills that we’ve learned this year. Please continue to help at home by practicing multiplication and division facts and by having your child read each night at home. These will help ensure success!
Please also remember that school attendance is very important. In fourth grade, we are busy each and every day learning new skills and building on previously learned skills. Students who are frequently absent miss valuable instruction and
important assignments. Not only is attendance important, but being at school on time is important as well. Students are
dismissed from the hallway to enter their classrooms at 7:50 a.m., and teachers have assignments waiting for them at
this time. Arriving later than this often causes students to feel rushed or behind. Please help your child by having him at
school on time.
Thank you once again for all that you do. The success of your child depends greatly on you!
ART
Hello once again from our Creative Cats!
Our schedule has us crazy busy doing lots of different projects all at once! We're getting a pretty good juggling act going on here... which
just means we're busy teaching our students many wonderful art techniques and using many different art tools to make them! Our 4th
graders are finishing clay coil pots, making wire sculptures and pastel diptychs, and also learning about radial design through the
repeating of their name to create a circular design. Third grade is learning about Aboriginal Art, making a clay animal medalion for the
center with Aboriginal designs surround it. They also have been learning about radial design through the fun use of "scratch" art. 2nd
graders are learning about "action paintings" and textured brush strokes while learning about the styles of Jackson Pollock and Vincent
Van Gogh. First grade has been learning about cultural masks and are working on 2-D and 3-D mask making. And finally... Kindergarten
is exploring with creative painting with objects and marbles, and are learning about 3- dimensional form through the making of a
rollercoaster sculpture. Pablo Picasso is the artist they will be learning about in the weeks to come. Whew! As you can see.... we have
been VERY busy in the art rooms! We enjoy watching our students light up as they master the concepts we are trying to teach them!
In other artroom news, Congratulations are going out to Zander Beetge and Hope Farmer, who we are naming our March Artists of
the Month. These two students exhibit exceptional behavior and strive to improve art skills, giving 100% effort every time they come to
art. We are both very proud of them.
Lastly, we must correct an oversight from last month. Olivia Spencer was inadvertantly left off the list as a participant in the Youth Art
Month Exhibit at the South Montgomery County Library Show. She certainly deserves her moment to shine and we apologize for that
oversight! We surely hope you made it by the library to look at all the fabulous artwork on display, and especially all of o ur Kaufman
Cougars there making us shine! It's been a special month at the public library!
As we venture into the final months of school, we still have lots of skills to teach your children and we hope you are encouraging them and
asking them to explain their artwork to you when they bring it home. Talking about art and steps to make it are a great way to tie the fine
arts into their everyday communication skills.
Until next month.... happy creating! :)
Mrs. Gregory and Mrs. Rowley
Music
Wow! It is hard to believe that it is already April! Our young musicians have made so much progress this year! They have learned many new songs and games, and
have played many different instruments. We can read new rhythms and simple melodies and can even write our own songs!
During April, 3rd and 4th graders will be finishing up their recorder unit. 1st and 2nd graders will be reviewing melodic and rhythmic elements we have learned this year
and exploring "rhythm band" songs. Kindergartners will learn some fun contraline (also known as "country") and circle dances, and continue to learn more singing
games and movement games.
1st graders will be performing their musical "Nuts" on Thursday, April 9th at 9:00am (school) and 6:30pm (family and
open at 6:15 that night. We hope to see you there!
community members). The school doors will
The Oak Ridge High School Choir would like to invite boys from this year's Cougar Choir to come to a special "Boys Social" on Friday, April 17th from 6:45-9:00pm. The
event will be a fun-filled night for our Choir members to meet and socialize with other Choir members from the feeder zone. For more information, please contact Mr.
Smith, ORHS Assistant Choir Director, at [email protected] .
The American Boychoir will be performing at the HopePointe Church on April 16th at 7:00pm. Everyone is invited to attend and the concert is free. This nationally
recognized group is made up of boys in the 4th-8th grade.
Also, the Woodlands Boys Choir will be launching this spring. Boys ages 6-13 years old with unchanged voices are invited to schedule a brief, unprepared audition with
the choir's director, Sherryl Pond. She can be contacted at [email protected] or at (401) 855-3222. Rehearsals are held at HopePointe Church on S. Panther
Creek Drive. "
PE
Our students get so excited this time of year because they know it's that time to practice, practice, practice their cupstacking in
order to increase their speed and mobility. Not only is cupstacking a very fun and competitive sport, it also has many other benefits. These benefits include eye-hand coordination, increased right and left brain activity, dexterity, and tremendous teamwork.
Our kindergarten and first grade are going to have great fun with ball handling skills. We are also excited about hitting the healthy
heart track with this beautiful Spring weather!
Jump Rope For Heart Update: We are so happy to announce that our fabulous Kaufman Cougars collected $11,578.67 to donate
to the American Heart Association. Our top collectors include Allison Twilla, Kya Silvertooth, Emma Scott, Kaili Otters, Austin
Fisher, Bently Burk, Cady Montgomery, Lacee Krantz, Bradi Rodes, Savanna Conway, Graham Harris, and Abby Mason.
We are so proud of all our Kaufman Cougars with this great ACT OF KINDNESS!
Fitness Fact: Daily exercise and healthy eating leads to increased awesomeness!
Thank you, Physical Education Dept.
Library
Thank you to all of our wonderful volunteers for helping to make our Third AR Store a GREAT success. We really could NOT do it
without your help. The last AR Store will be the week of May 25 so keep reading and taking quizzes!
Please mark your calendars for Wednesday, April 22 from 5:30 p.m. -8:00 p.m. The CISD and Montgomery County Public librarians
will join with The Pavilion, Chick-Fil-A, Dr. and Mrs. George Kaufman, Scholastic Book Fairs, Woodforest Bank, High School Art
students, St. Anthony of Padua Library, and the Jr. League of South Montgomery County in offering a FREE reading event called
HATS OFF TO READING! Come and enjoy many activities: enter a coloring contest, play Go Fish, make a hat, play Wheel of Fortune, receive a FREE book, do the Book Walk, make a Summer Reading Log, get your face painted, enjoy the entertainment, and
have lots of fun for FREE!
April is BOOK FAIR in our library! Students will preview on April 20, 23 and 24. Shopping will take place the week of April 27.
Special events:
FAMILY NIGHTS: Tuesday, April 28th, from 4:00 pm -7:00 pm. Visit with CLIFFORD the BIG RED DOG and enter a drawing to win
$25.00 in FREE BOOK FAIR materials.
MORNINGS WITH MOMS: Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, April 29, 30 and May 1 at 6:45. Shop and eat or eat and shop!
ONLINE SHOPPING: great for shopping at home for friends and family near and far. The link is on the Kaufman Library Web Page
and below:
http://bookfairs.scholastic.com/homepage/georgekaufmanelementarysch
Be on the lookout for a Children's Book Week flyer. Kaufman Cougars will be taking part in the celebration during the week of May
4. Each day will be a different theme, which celebrates the love of books and reading. We can't wait.
Please remember that parents are ALWAYS welcome in our library. YOU may check out books too! We support Dr. Stockton's
READ FOR A BETTER LIFE initiative: students are encouraged to read 20-30 minutes each evening to encourage a life-long love of
reading and learning!
Keep 'em Reading!
Mrs. Wright and Mrs. Martin
Clinic Information
A reminder from the clinic that CISD district policy requires all medications including over the counter medications be brought directly to the school nurse by a parent/guardian. Absolutely no medications may be
transported by the student. This is a significant safety hazard for your child and others. Over the counter
medications include cough and throat drops. Thank you for your cooperation.
GT Testing
GT Testing for the Spring has been completed. The test results will be in sometime in May. Mrs.
Twilla will contact each parent that had a student tested this Spring. Then testing results will be
sent home in a sealed envelope.
Nominations for summer testing will be accepted April 1-30. Nomination forms can be picked up
in the front office. No late nominations will be accepted. Summer testing will take place June 911 and testing will last all day. More testing details will be provided at a later date.
PTO News
GENERAL PTO MEETING
There will be a general PTO meeting on Thursday, April 9th at 1:30. Please come join us as
we plan for our spring events. Future cougars are welcome!
MORNINGS WITH MOM
Mornings with Mom will be April 29th through May 1st. Donuts, coffee, milk and juice will be
served from 6:45am – 7:30am. The Book Fair will also be open in the library during these
times. Watch for more information in your Tuesday folders.
THANK YOU!
Cougar families earned $1368.19 for Kaufman this quarter through the Kroger Community Rewards Program just by shopping! Anyone interested in signing up for this program can visit
www.KrogerCommunityRewards.com and use our organization number 90144. Thank you
Cougar family and Kroger for supporting our school.
STAY UPDATED
Search for and like “Kaufman PTO” on Facebook and register for weekly emails on our
webpage at www.friendsofkaufman.digitalpto.com to stay updated.
Counselor’s Corner
Test Anxiety
Feeling a little anxious and nervous on the day of a big test is normal. It is important to remind
your children that a little anxiety is normal and helps keep them on their toes. It is important
for them to do the best job they can do. Everyone works at a different pace and it doesn't matter who finishes first. It’s about showing what you know. Remind them if they feel stressed to
stop, take a couple of deep breaths. Teach them to be their own cheerleader and come up
with some positive self-talk such as: I can do this, I am smart, I will try my best.
You can also make sure they get enough sleep before the test, eat a good breakfast and is on
time for school. All of these things will help your child feel more prepared and ready to take
the test.
Practice Breathing to Reduce
Anxiety with Your Child:
* Take a deep breath. Bring the air in through your nose, and keep it coming until your lungs
are completely full.
* Hold for a slow count of 3. Let air out through mouth.
* Repeat 2--‐3 times.
* With each inhale, think your positive self-talk.
* Which each exhale, think you’re blowing away worry and stress.