The Palestine Herald
September 22, 2007 11:19 pm
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PISD NEWS
• New Web Site — Log on to the new PISD web site for the latest information about Palestine Independent School District. The new address is: www.palestineschools.org. You can log on to Skyward Family Access from there to see your student’s grades and attendance records. You can also see your children’s teachers’ web pages, school menus, sports schedules, parenting tips and much more. Be sure to bookmark the new address.
HIGH SCHOOL
• Homecoming Events — Homecoming is Friday. At 5:30 p.m. Monday, a tailgate party will be held with booths, hamburgers for sale, and games in the parking lot next to Wildcat Stadium. This will be followed by a Pep Rally at 7 p.m. at the stadium.
• Yearbooks — Yearbooks will be available to the graduates of 2007 during the second quarter and half time of the Homecoming game on Friday. After this date, they will be available in the front office.
• New Web Site — Friday, the horticulture students went to the "Growing Wild" program hosted by the Texas Cooperative Extension and the Master Gardener Association of Anderson County at the Ben E. Keith building. Greg Grant, an award winning Texas Extension Service horticulturist, spoke about wildflowers, native plants, and bulbs.
• New Student Council — Student Council officers for 2007-08 are: President, Hannah Abernathy; Vice President, Niki Hilton; Secretary, Austin Hamon; Treasurer, April Aguilera; Historian, Charlotte Jackson; Parliamentarian, Andreya Bagley. New Freshmen Representatives: Megan Brown, Hilton Hamon, David Rayner, Rachel Dean, Jermey Drees, Bailee Layton, Katie Hollingsworth and Jaimie Galloway.
• FFA Meat Sale — The Palestine Agriculture Department and FFA Chapter will begin taking orders for meat items on Friday, September 14. We will once again be using the quality products from DJ$ Fund-raising of Texas. Sausage, Bacon, Biscuits, Pigs in a Blanket, Hot Links, Fajitas, Tamales, Hams and Turkeys will all be available. And don’t forget the cookies — eight varieties of cookies — 48 1 oz. pre-made cookies per box. Contact an Ag student or FFA member to order. Sales end Oct 1.
• New Web Site — The PISD Web site has changed to http://www.palestineschools.org.
• Blood Drive — The PHS Student Council will be sponsoring a blood drive on Oct. 3. Members of the community are welcome to attend. Please plan to help us save lives.
• Students of the Month — Congratulations to Hannah Abernathy and Austin Hamon, the students of the month. Also congratulations to the Junior Rotarians for September, Jared Rogers and Anna Webb.
MIDDLE SCHOOL
• Volleyball — The Ladycats will have a volleyball game in Madisonville at 4:30 p.m.
• Open House — The Palestine Middle School Open House will be at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. So please come meet your student’s teachers.
• Football — The Wildcats will have their football game at 5:30 p.m. Thursday.
• Fund-raiser —All fund-raiser money and orders are due Friday in the office.
STORY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
• Third Grade — What a great group of students you will find in Mrs. Carnell’s and Mrs. Ivin’s classes! In math class, we have been busy reviewing our math facts and exploring the wonderful world of place values. We will begin extending our knowledge of numbers all the way up to the hundred thousands place.
In science, we are studying the desert…what makes up a desert, what animals live there, what is the climate like? Life in the water is coming up next! The world around us is a wonderful thing!
In social studies, we have learned about the Constitution. In spelling, we are on List 5, as well as List 5 for vocabulary, study every night.
Our Reading AR goal is 10 points by the end of the 1st six weeks. In reading we are focusing on main idea, vocabulary building, synonyms and antonyms. The students are awesome!
• Fourth Grade — Hello parents! School is well underway by now and we are so excited about what this new school year has to offer! Mrs. Taylor and Mrs. Smith’s classes are so excited about the projects we will be working on this year. We will be doing everything from making a time capsule to publishing our own class book. Flat Stanley will start going around the world again this year around Thanksgiving. We look forward to hearing back from him. We are also partnering with other classes in our school to do some exciting science projects. Mr. Lamb’s 5th grade class has adopted our class and in turn, we are adopting Mrs. Carnell’s third-grade class.
Classes also are doing a couple of community service projects that we are very excited about. In November, we will start collecting change to support an Angel from the Angel Tree. During this project, the students will learn about community and how it is our responsibility to care for and support each other. We’re all in this together!
I want to remind everyone that we love parents at Story Elementary School! If you have any questions, comments or concerns, call the office at 903-731-8015 and ask for your teachers’ conference time. We are more than happy to talk to you!
• Fifth Grade — The fifth-grade team of Coleman, Richardson and Thigpen are having a great time learning. In math, we are continuing to work on multiplication and learning how to use compatible numbers to estimate. We are also enjoying learning how to write equations to help us solve word problems. Remind your student to practice their math facts daily.
In science, we are on Lesson 5 learning about unique niches, food chains and food webs. There is a lot of vocabulary for this lesson so please help your children learn these words.
In language arts, we are reviewing the four kinds of sentences and working on main idea, summary and using CSPS to locate information to solve a mystery. We are reading a non-fiction article about J. K. Rowling. Remember to study your spelling words and read nightly.
• Coming Up — Thursday, science benchmarks; Friday, reading benchmarks. Parents, please prepare and study with your child for these important tests! Oct. 1, PTA meeting at 2 p.m. at Story School.
SOUTHSIDE PRIMARY SCHOOL
• Open House — Open House was held Tuesday at Southside Primary. Principal Nikki Calhoun and counselor Shannon Butler made a presentation explaining to parents about our reporting process. Irma Flores Cobbs, Assistant Principal was there to answer questions in the translation of said materials. These included the Texas Primary Reading Inventory, running records, STAR, benchmark tests, report cards/progress reports and end-of-year practice TAKS. All these are assessments used at the first and second grade levels. Mrs. Butler also included Web sites for parents to go online and get information. After the presentation, parents visited their child’s classroom and were able to meet the teacher if they had not already done so. Teachers gave the parents general class information especially reiterating the importance of initialing their child’s Monday folder which has their child’s work for the week. We had a very successful open house with special guests attending-Superintendent Jerry Mayo and Assistant Superintendent Suzie Eiben.
• Wacky Weather — In Mrs. McNutt’s class, the children have been studying the weather this week. After learning about the weather for each season, Mrs. McNutt read Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs.
Then each child became a meteorologist writing and illustrating their own Wacky Weather Report. The class used weather words (drizzle, storm, clouds, etc.) but also used food and beverages for the weather condition. An example of the children’s writing included a "rain of popcorn and peas" with the illustration included. Come by our class to check on weather conditions for the rest of the week. You’ll be hungry and thirsty waiting for rain.
• Butterfly Box — Mrs. Franks and her class are enjoying nature in their classroom by having a "Butterfly Box" in which caterpillars have been put. They feed and clean the box where the caterpillars are and wait for them to go into chrysalis form. From this stage, they will become butterflies and be let out to enjoy the sunshine. Children also have made "Butterfly Bites" to eat. The child comes and follows pictorial directions to make these tasty treats. They use celery and peanut butter for the body.
Then two pretzels are used for wings; antennae are pieces of pretzel and the eyes are raisins. Yum! Yum! What a tasty treat!
• Best Bus— Children who are following the rules and using their social skill of listening on the bus is Bus No. 22. The children did a good job and won the weekly trophy! Thank you for doing a great job!
NORTHSIDE EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTER
• Constitution Day — We celebrated Constitution Day by wearing Red, White and Blue.
• Testing — The Head Start students completed their hearing and vision testing.
• Upcoming Events — Friday, individual pictures; Oct. 1-5, Book Fair.
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