Field trips and STAAR

This past week, our 4th and 5th graders took their first round of STAAR testing. I am so proud of how hard they worked to show what they know!

While they were testing, the other grade levels did some exploring at various venues around Austin. Kindergarten went to Crowe's Nest Farms where they learned how to take care of the various animals that can live on a farm. Ms. Roberts was able to hold one of the baby pigs, who apparently squealed the whole time! Ms. Siller and Ms. Kanak also got to hold the pig. I  heard the kids had a blast!

   

  

 


   

First grade students enjoyed watching a theatrical adaptation of James and the Giant Peach at the Zachary Scott theater.  Due to the yucky weather on Wednesday, they were unable to go to the park as planned. I think they still had a good time despite the weather!


Second grade went to see Alice in Wonderland. The field trip was interactive. The students and teachers thought it was really cool. In keeping with the fantasy theme, Ms. Bentley's class did some engineering based on the Three Little Pigs. They built houses out of various materials and then the wolf (a blow dryer) tried to blow them down. How fun!

           

  

And third grade visited the beautiful Wildflower Center. They had a great time exploring the outdoors and learning about nature.
  
  

Already this week, we had Austin author, Chris Barton, come to visit our PK, K and 1st grade classes. He shared his latest book, Mighty Truck, as well as his writing process. He suggested the best way to begin writing is to think about things we love, things we know, and things we want to learn. He also told them to never be afraid to rewrite and/or change ideas as you write. Hopefully he has inspired some of our young authors to get writing!

We also had our annual Kindergarten Round up this week and had a GREAT turnout.   Prospective and future Kindergarteners and their parents came to tour the school and see what life is like as a Kindergartener. They even got to take a ride on a school bus! What fun! Thank you so much to Monica Smith for organizing the event and to all of the volunteers who helped give tours or take information/forms from parents. We couldn't do it without you!

 

We are gearing up and getting very excited for our carnival this Friday. We hope to see you there!

Winter Gardens

I hope you all had a wonderful spring break! I had a nice week of relaxing and spending time with friends and family! On Monday, we hit the home stretch toward summer and though we still have a lot of work to do, we inch closer and closer. There are only about 50 days left of this school year. Wow- it really has gone by fast! 

Before we officially begin spring tomorrow, I wanted to share this post about our winter gardens. 

The mild weather this winter has been good to our gardens. Our gardening club and the individual classrooms tended to the gardens to make sure they were cared for properly and had the best chance of survival. We have some huge plants! There is broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrobi, kale, many different kinds of lettuce, and I'm sure other plants that I didn't mention. Look how pretty they are! I know of a few classes that have harvested some of their plants and made a salad or cooked them for their classes to eat. What a fun thing for the students to eat food that they have grown themselves!

 

 

Our spring gardens have a lot to live up to. I hope that they can be just as bountiful so our students can experience many different types of vegetables. Maybe they'll find a few they actually like! We will see you bright and early on Monday! 

Spring Break

Spring Break has arrived! I know the students and the staff are excited for the break. I must admit that I am too! It's such a great time of year to have some time to rest and relax. This morning during assembly, I gave the students some homework to complete over the break.  It's very easy homework! I asked them to reflect each day of the break and think about one thing they learned that day. It could be something they learned while on a trip, while watching TV, while taking a walk or playing outside, or something they learned just by asking a question.  I look forward to finding out some of the wonderful things they learned about outside of school.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful and relaxing break. We will see you on March 21.

Busy, Busy, Busy!

The Spring semester is always a very busy time of year! These past few weeks have stayed true
to this pattern. Take a look at some of the exciting things we do at OHE. 

The grade vs grade box top challenge is now over. Thanks to all of you, we collected over $1500 for our library. Students who collected 50 or more box tops were invited to shop at our first ever box top store. The students seemed to really like shopping. It was fun to see how they spent their box top points!

 

The gymnastic unit is underway at OHE. We are fortunate to have this addition to our PE curriculum. Mrs. Palmer and Coach Shaw have set up the schedule so that every OHE student gets to participate in the gymnastics unit for a whole month. OHE is lucky to have two gymnasiums that we can keep the equipment up for everyone to use.

  

The Kindergarten Program about Friendly Neighborhood Helpers was super cute! Ms. Brown, Ms. Flaherty and the teachers worked hard to prepare them and the student's were outstanding!

 

  
Author Obert Skye presented to 4th and 5th grade Thursday. He entertained the students with his witty humor as he walked them through the writing process. He shared his newest series Wildwood Reform School and how he created his creatures from his series The Creature From My Closet.
 

The Readathon Medal Recipients were awarded at Friday's assembly. Liliana and Lorelei tied for the Top Readers in minutes and pages. Josh in Ms. Tarpley's class was our Top Fundraiser and received his Kindle Fire and won the class pizza party for his 3rd grade class. We also 3 other high fundraisers: Sydney (Mrs. Ashorn),   Aolani (Mrs. Hamburger), and Ella (Mrs. Peterka). Thanks to all of the participants, OHE raised over $4900 which put around 1600 books into Austin's kids' home! What a fabulous job! Thank you to all of the families who committed to this community service project! Let's make year 

three next year even better!

The week ended with a "totally radical" 80's dance to benefit Ballet Folklorico. Based on the 80's outfits and the dancing, I'm not sure who had more fun- the kids or the parents. Ballet Folklorico will use the money earned to purchase new costumes for their dances and for scholarships for students. We want to thank all of the parent volunteers and Austin High students that helped out and Austin Pizza Garden for donating some pizzas for the event. I had a great time dancing with some students and watching everyone "cut footloose". 

 

This week, the new principal of Clint Small Middle School was announced. We'd like to give congratulations to Mr. Nelson on his appointment to Clint Small. He is coming from Pease elementary and was also previously at O'Henry Middle School. We look forward to working together to continue to make the Oak Hill area great!

Even though the students (and the teachers too!) are ready for Spring Break, we still have a lot of exciting learning this week. See you on Monday!