Published: February 01, 2009 08:47 pm      

Palestine ISD Happenings for Feb. 1, 2009

PISD NEWS

l Parenting Conference — Palestine Independent School District Parent Involvement Coordinator Craig Harris will present a parenting conference for parents of High School and Middle School students at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 19 in the cafeteria.

Harris will talk about parenting issues like being consistent, helping children make good decisions, discipline versus punishment, and helping children think with their upper brain functions.

“A lot of new research is coming out about the different parts of the brain,” Harris said. “As parents, we want to make sure our children are using their higher brain functions, not just their brain stems or limbic systems, which control basic, survival functions. I will present material to help parents achieve this.”

Harris has been the Parent Involvement Coordinator for PISD since 2001. He has worked with parents since the early ‘90s, and has written a parenting column for the Palestine Herald-Press called “Apparently So” since the mid-’90s. Harris was a television reporter for KLTV in Tyler in the 1980s before moving back home to Palestine to become a youth minister at a local church.

The conference is free to all parents of high school and middle school students in the district. Snacks will be provided and there will be a special ensemble performance by the Award-Winning Palestine High School Band.

Harris will present parenting conferences at Story Elementary School on March 26, Southside Primary School on April 16 (tentative), and Northside Early Childhood Center on May 14. All conferences are free to the public and will begin at 6:30 p.m.

l Web Site — Log on to the Palestine ISD Web Site for teacher web pages, Skyward Family Access, school menus, athletic schedules, parenting information, and much more. www.palestineschools.org.





HIGH SCHOOL

l PHS Cheerleading —The PHS Cheerleaders will be hosting an all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast at Applebee’s on Feb. 7.  You may purchase tickets for $5 ahead of time, or pay at the door.  This delicious meal includes: bacon, sausage, as many pancakes as you can eat, and a drink!  Come out and support the PHS Cheerleaders!



l PHS Parents — Parents, remember TAKS testing is only a few weeks away and there are a few things you can do to help ensure your students success on this test.  (1) Make sure your child has plenty of sleep the night before the test. (2) Make sure your child has breakfast the day of the test. The cafeteria offers free breakfast for all students. (3) Make sure your child is awake and fully alert prior to the test. Wake them early on these days.  Finally, (4) Be sure your child knows how important their success on this test is to you. Involved parents are a teacher’s greatest ally. Failure is not an Option!   

l PHS English Department — Mr. Cook would like to thank his English classes for their hard work, dedication, and success on the ELA Bench Mark test this past week. Way to go scholars!  Failure is not an option! 



STORY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

l Third Grade — Third Graders know that Terrific Attitudes Keep Succeeding.  Therefore, we are excited and keeping positive attitudes as we press on into this second semester.  Math students are looking closely at patterns and number lines to determine missing numbers and how to extend patterns.  We are enjoying using geometric shapes, beads, and other manipulative to help us understand patterns. 

Language Art students enjoyed a week of studying about Martin Luther King, Jr.  and the Presidential Inauguration, including many interesting facts about our new President, Barack Obama.  We will continue many of those studies into next month which is Black History month.   We appreciate our parents who have replenished school supplies for their children this second half of the year, because it is so important for them to have all the supplies they need to be prepared for class each day.  Parents, please help us in encouraging the students to keep those Positive Attitudes which will lead them to Success!

l Fourth Grade —  Palestine ISD has come to the end o f the first semester and fourth graders are working diligently in Math learning new concepts and preparing for the TAKS test.

In Science, we have been studying the flow of electricity. Mrs. Camp’s class made a circuit using a D cell battery, insulated wire, and a bulb to show how electric currents flow. It was a great challenge. Now we are learning about Earth Science, landforms, weathering, and erosion. Continue to discuss your child’s day with him/her. Watch for homework and provide assistance when needed.

l Fifth Grade — We have been experiencing exciting times!  Our country is changing right before our eyes and we have been spending some time in our classrooms celebrating and discussing these changes to our nation.  We have also been studying Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement in honor of Dr. King's birthday Jan. 15.  Along with all this history, we have dedicated considerable time to our unit in Science this week.  We are into Lesson 3 of our Earth Science Unit.  We began our study of the Sun and its characteristics this week. 

We are still studying Geometry in Math and working hard with our Reading skills.  Several classes are trying to get 100 percent on their Bluebonnets books.  Each student is trying to read at least 5 Bluebonnet books.  The race is really heating up in the AR point race!  The races get closer and closer each week.  It is very important that each student do their part to get their class points up.

l Students of the Month — Students of the Month for January are:

3RD GRADE: Isabel Vigil, Rebekah Cook, Raven Allen, Macey Everhart, Albert Calhoun, Harley Roth, Christian Collins, Jose Zavala, Tytiyana Deyon, Megan Kirchner, Tristan LeGard, Mireya Ferretiz, Josephine Bolton.

4TH GRADE: Perla Cardona, Sarah Dickerson, Logan Day, Keyona Willis, Jacob Parsons, Rolando Garcia, Rosa Cruz, Trent Fillip, Michala Landers, Cynthia Campa, Heidy Sandoval, Kristi Klauser, Kendrick Jackson.

5TH GRADE: Justin Handorf, Leslie Fernandez, Kaitlyn Slindee, Natalie Perez, Claudia Estrada, Brianna Ortega, Katy Stevens, Arron McMorris, Nicholas Clewis-Jones, Hope Fowler-Okwufulueze. Congratulations, Story Lions!



SOUTHSIDE PRIMARY SCHOOL

l Second Grade — The students in Mrs. Gore's second-grade classroom designed and constructed penguins during their study of Antarctica. One child said, "They look like little fat men in tuxedos". Groups of children role played the daily life and cycle of the penguins. The father penguin babysits the egg while the mother travels a very long way to the ocean for food. Upon her return, she feeds her baby, the food from her stomach. (Yuck!) The father has not eaten for several months. He travels to the ocean, leaving his family behind to get food for himself. The children brainstormed ways to make the trip to the ocean faster (airplane rides with parachutes, rocket jet packs, skates, wind surfing, skiing, launching rockets, etc.) A penguin's day-to-day schedule seems fairly dull and uneventful until the imagination takes a turn.

When Mrs. Gore's students read the story "What Makes Day Night?" a literacy work station was organized. As children completed research, they brainstormed ways to find out why it was daylight on one side of the earth and night time on the other side. A spaceship was built from old newspapers, bulletin board paper, tape, glue, paper plates, plastic wrap (for windows) and pipe cleaners. “Astronaut suits" were worn to protect the novice astronauts as they propelled around Earth to confirm their ideas and research data.

l First Grade — Although we had a holiday this week, Ms. Rice's students took several CBA tests. They worked very hard to show their "proof" on the tests. Also, this week, they witnessed President Barack Obama being sworn into office and then wrote about the significance of this historical event. Ms. Rice would like to remind the parents and guardians of her students the importance of practicing reading, spelling, and math facts each night. Through practice comes improvement!

Mrs. Bissell's class has been studying winter and weather in science. To help recognize how the temperature changes in different settings, the students enjoyed making a penguin thermometer. They recorded the temperature for the week and documented how the temperature changed for the week. The class also put the penguins in different locations in the building to see if the temperature was the same or different.

l Pro-Social Skill Awards — The pro-social skill for the weeks of Jan. 5-9 and Jan. 12-16 was "listening". First grade winners were: Jackolyn Arteaga, Alex Arzola, Dakedryn Butler, Jaron Butler, Rodolfo Cabrera, Nari Cronos, Angel Davis, Jeremiah Davis, Isabel DeLeon, Sarah Eubanks, Bethany Garcia, Maximillano Guillen-Vigil, Jose Guzman, Austin James, Johanna Ledesma, Ina Lockhart, Justin Mancera, Lizbeth Marquez, Samual Molina, Lizbeth McLaughlin, Angel Molina, Axel Morales, Carlos Quistian, Edson Ramirez, Grace Reed, Paola Ramos, Michiko Rhodes, Miguel Soto, DeAnthony Thomas, Trey Thompson, Justin Villatoro, and TryonaWhitt. Second grade winners were: Yakeline Alvarenga, Cristine Arrolinga, Shanae Beavers, Skylar Burt, Demond Carwell, Mitchell Cleveland, Christian Collins, Alyssa Crutcher, Matthew Fox, Armando Gante, Trinity Gleason, Calah Howell, Jaylen Hutchinson, Bryston Lewis, Sarah Mahanay, Gianni Mancilla, Kacey Pineda, Miguel Reyes, Kayla Smith, T. J. Tabor, Montrina Towns, Adrian Villalobos, Gissela Villalobos, Hunter Waddell, Ashley Wardlow, Tijanae Watson, and Makayla Williams.

l Bus Trophy Winner — The riders on Bus 19 won the Southside Bus Trophy for the week of Jan. 20-23. Excellent job, students!

l Box Tops and Soup Labels — We are still collecting Box Tops for Education coupons as well as Campbell's soup labels. All proceeds benefit Southside students.

l Applause — Thank you, Dorenda Smith, for collecting Box Tops and Campbell's Soup Labels for us! You helped with the purchase of balls and jump ropes for the children to use during recess!



NORTHSIDE EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTER

l Wildlife on Wheels — Charlotte Henley with “Wildlife on Wheels”, an educational program from the Ellen Trout Zoo in Lufkin, showed students at Northside some of the animals that are from the zoo. She had a possum, a rabbit, and a snake. She also showed animal hair, feathers, and scales. Each class went to visit with Ms. Henley and her zoo animals as she spoke about wildlife and animal adaptations with the students. We want to thank her for taking the time to visit with our school and helping to educate our children.

l Presidential Inauguration — The students at Northside witnessed history in the making by viewing the Presidential Inauguration on Jan. 20. Our students were very excited to see our first African-American President being sworn in.

l Accelerated Reading — Northside started an accelerated reading program where the children are reading and taking AR tests on the computer.

l Hoops for Heart — On Jan. 30, Northside Kindergarten classes participated in “Hoops for Heart” to help raise funds for heart research. We thank Mrs. Van Deman for all her hard work for this project. The students had a great time.

l Upcoming Events — Feb. 6, Spring Individual Pictures