Our holiday party was a great success!!  Thanks to all the parents to came and helped.  It would not have gone so well without you!

Have a great holiday break!

Students return on January 3, 2017.

Read, read, read!!!

Cool weather is here!!!  Make sure your child is dressed appropriately to keep warm during recess.  We will go outside when it is cold.

Veterans Day Program 

November 11, 2016

3rd grade will see the program at 9:30 AM.

Don't forget to "fall back" before you go to bed this Saturday.  Daylight Savings Time ends Sunday!!!

November 3, 2016

Report Cards

Our first report card of the year will go home today in Thursday folders.  Please review it, sign one copy and send it back to school in the envelope.  The other copy is for your records.  Please be aware that the envelope does not seal.  It is just a pocket and the opening is at the top.

TAG information night for parents

If you are interested in learning more about our TAG program, please attend the information night on November 8, 2016, at 6:00 PM in the library.  Mrs. Lehnick will be presenting a lot of valuable information, including how to submit your child's name for testing.  If you are unable to attend this meeting and would still like information, Mrs. Lehnick will post her presentation on the school's website after the meeting.

Election

Our school is a polling place on November 8, 2016.  There are security measures in place to keep our students safe.  Please see the attached letter or the copy of the letter that is in your child's Thursday folder for more information.

October 21, 2016

Fall Goal-Setting Conferences

Thank you to all who have attended a conference.  I look forward to meeting with everyone else.  If you have not signed up for a conference yet, please click on the link and sign up.

GaGa Ball Pit

Ask your child about the new GaGa Ball Pit on the playground.  This is an exciting game for students.  It is supposed to promote integrity.  When a player is hit by the ball, he/she leaves the pit.  It is a lot of fun for the students.  Our PTA provided the funds for the materials, and Cub Scout Pack 404 provided the manpower to install the pit.

Running Club

Running Club starts Monday, October 24, 2016.  If your student would like to be a part of this group, fill out the form and send it in.  It is never too late to join! 

Early Release

We will be releasing students as 12 Noon on October 26, 2016.  Kona Ice will be here after school.  Please make sure your student knows how to get home.

Newspaper Recycling

Send in those old newspapers that you don't need any more.  We are having a contest to see which class can build the biggest stack of recyclable papers.  The class with the highest stack will receive the "Go Green" trophy and spirit sticks. The contest goes through October 31.

Art

Your student needs to bring in a Hot Wheels or Match Box before October 31 for an art project.  If you have an extra that you would like to donate, please send it in.  Thanks!

Fall pictures

We will have our fall pictures taken on October 27.  You should have received a form in the Thursday folder.  If you would like to purchase pictures, you can send that form in on the day of pictures, or you can order after the pictures have been taken.  Bring your best smile!!!

Red Ribbon Week

October 24-28.  We participate in Red Ribbon Week as a way to bring awareness to being drug-free. Please refer to the attached flyer for all of the activities planned for the week.

End of Grading Period

We have just reached the end of the first grading period for the year.  Next week, we will work on getting any late assignments or redo work done so that grades can be submitted.  Report cards will go home on November 3, 2016.

Veterans Day Program

We have begun planning a tribute to Veterans for the morning of November 11th.  Please invite any veterans you know to Forest Creek to have breakfast with the student(s) they know.  The cafeteria will serve cinnamon rolls, fruit and milk or juice from 7:15-7:30 a.m.  Please help us prepare for breakfast by completing this form to provide an accurate number of those eating.  There is no charge for our special guests.

We will be having two patriotic programs to honor our Veterans on November 11th - one at 8:15 a.m. for grades K-2 and another one at 9:00 a.m for grades 3-5.  You may attend one or both. We look forward to recognizing these special men and women who have contributed so much for our country through a slideshow presentation.Please send a photo of your special Veteran to Kelly_Erickson@roundrockisd.org. Please include the Veteran’s name and unit or job title during their service. Veterans do not need to be present for our program to be included in our slideshow.

Toy Drive

Forest Creek's Service Club is collecting toys to benefit Dell Children's Hospital and to bring awareness to OMS.  OMS (Opsoclonus Myoclonus Syndrome) is a rare childhood disease that has no cure. The goal is 200 toys. If you would like to donate a toy, please send it in with your child or put it in the box near the front office.

News from Miller's Mon-STARS

Here are some things that you should know about--

After School Clubs

If your student is going to participate in a school-sponsored activity (choir, writing club, scrabble club, etc) after school hours, there is a permission slip that you must fill out. When there is an initial informational meeting, a note from home is fine, but after that the permission slip provided by the district must be filled out.  Sponsors are giving them out at the informational meetings.  If your student misses that initial meeting, let me know and I can get a permission for them to send home.  This is a safety initiative started by the district to make sure that we know where our students are.

Drop Off Safety

Please make sure you drop your child off at the front or back of the school.  Students must go in the main doors (front or back) and go through the building to get to the portables.  Please do not drop your child off near the portables.  

As they go through the building to get to class, they can take the opportunity to use the restroom or fill up their water bottle.

Spelling Tests

We had our first practice test with the opportunity to opt out of taking the regular test this Friday.  Several purple papers went home last Friday and several came back today.  If your child forgets to bring the paper back on Monday, please send it on Tuesday.  If the test does not come back with the purple paper, your child must take the regular test on Friday.  I do not enter grades for the practice test until after the regular test has been taken and graded.  (If this happened this week, please send in the test.)

Also note that most of our words for spelling tests are common nouns.  They do not need to be capitalized.  After the regular Spelling Test 2 is given, capital letters in words that do not need capital letters will be counted wrong.  I have stressed this to the students, and most of them are catching on.  Please make sure they practice using correct capitalization.  On the dictation sentences, I have already started counting misused capital letters as incorrect.

District Common Assessments (DCAs)

Last year, the district implemented District Common Assessments.  These are short assessments at the end of each unit for each subject.  Depending on the number of questions the district has on a DCA, the third grade team may or may not add questions so that a grade may be taken.  The district does not allow us to send home DCAs.  If the third grade team adds questions to a DCA, those questions can be sent home.  If there is ever a time you would like to view your child's DCAs, you are welcome to come to the classroom to do so.

Interim Progress Reports

In the middle of each grading period, your child will receive an Interim Progress Report.  This report will show how he/she is doing so far in the grading period.  These will go home this Thursday.  The grades on these reports should coincide with what you see in Home Access.  There are some missing assignments for some students, but that is OK.  These missing assignments do not count for or against their grade.  As soon as the work is turned in and graded, the grade will be entered into the grade book.  I took some grades on work done late last week.  Some students didn't have time to get it finished.  They will do it and the grade will be entered later.  I do not usually count off points for assignments being late.  If I need to do that, I will let you and the students know in advance.

Welcome!!

Miller's Mon-STARS

Welcome to 3rd grade!!  I am so excited to be starting a new year.  I know we are going to have a lot of fun and learn a lot of cool stuff!

June 10, 2016

Update on Bella, the tadpole.  She is developing her back legs!!!

Summer

Have a great summer!

Keep reading!!!

March 29, 2016

Hello, everyone!!  I hope your week has started off well.  We are very busy in third grade.

Science

We are studying life cycles of plants and animals.  I hope you have heard about our ladybugs.  We made small habitats for ladybugs and observed them for several days.  We released the ladybugs in our outdoor learning center near the playground.

Math

We have been learning a little about financial literacy.  Students are learning what happens to the cost of a product or service based on supply and demand.  We have also studied how education can offer more opportunities for better paying jobs.  Today, we talked about planned and unplanned spending and the benefits/impacts of each.

STAAR Testing

Our fourth and fifth grade students took a STAAR test today.  Our class did an awesome job being quiet in the hallways of the school.  It is always stressful when it is STAAR time, even when we are not taking the test.  Please reassure your third graders that we will not be taking our tests until May.  We have plenty of time to continue our learning before the test gets here.  Also, give them a pat on the back for being respectful of the students who were testing today.  Fourth grade will be testing again tomorrow.  Our campus is closed to visitors during STAAR testing days, but if you need to bring something to your student, just drop it off in the office and they will get it where it needs to be.

PTA Spring Carnival

The Country Fare Carnival is on April 15, 2016.  If you would like to purchase tickets/wrist bands in advance, please click on the link to place the order.  The tickets/wrist bands will be delivered to me and I will give them to your child to bring home.  Things are usually a little cheaper if you purchase in advance.  You can always purchase tickets at the carnival.

Carnival Class Basket

Our class has signed up to do a "chocolate" themed basket for the carnival.  We donate the basket and the PTA will raffle it off.  It is a lot of fun and chocolate is usually one of the favorites.  Our homeroom mom, Mrs. Allison, has agreed to make a candy bar cake.  We just need donations of full-sized candy bars (must have chocolate) so that she can make this fun creation.  Please send in candy bars by April 8 so that she will have time to get the "cake" ready for the carnival.  If you don't have time to purchase candy bars, you can send it cash and Mrs. Allison will purchase the candy bars for you.  Any donation will be a big help to a great fundraiser!!! (See the email from Mrs. Allison for more information.)

Donations to the classroom

If you would like to donate things to the classroom, we are in need of some yellow highlighters and pencil top erasers.  We have depleted our supply of each.  Small cups for water also come in handy for students who forget their water bottles.

Report Cards

The end of the grading period was March 24.  Report cards will go home next week, April 7.  Be looking for that in your child's purple folder.  Please sign one copy and return it in the envelope.  You can keep one copy for your records.

News from the Service Club and Mrs. Bartholomew

The Service Club is helping with a Food Drive for the Round Rock Serving Center in conjunction with the Round Rock Empty Bowls Festival.  The Empty Bowls Festival is on Saturday, April 9 at Cedar Ridge High School from 11-2 pm.  To get ready for the event, we are collecting food. The food donations can be dropped off in the boxes outside the main office.  

Most Needed donations for RR Serving Center:

canned soup

canned fruit

canned vegetables (green beans and corn are favorites)

peanut butter

pasta

macaroni and cheese, rice, beans

toilet paper

diapers

cereal

canned meat and tuna

We will report our totals on April 8 and the elementary school with the greatest amount collected will receive a trophy!

Thank you in advance for your food donations!

Kickball Tournament

The Service Club is also helping to organize a Kickball Tournament with teams from FCE, Blackland Prairie, and Gattis Elementary.  Kids Kicking out Hunger will be held on May 1 at Gattis Elementary.  Your K-5th grader can register for a team or individually to play.  Registration is $10 per person and we are trying to have t-shirts for each school also.  All the money will go toward the Round Rock Serving Center and Friends of Los Ninos (which funds an orphanage and villages in Honduras).  It will be super fun to have some friendly kickball competition while helping kids locally and globally.  Come join us!  Create a team with friends (some team members may go to different schools) family, your scout troop, your soccer team, your dance group, etc....The school with the most participation will receive a plaque and there will be medals for the winning teams. Watch the video to learn more.  

My (Mrs. Bartholomew's) older daughter Blair and I went to Honduras in 2012 with Friends of Los Ninos and loved it there. Blair (in the green shirt) is in the video bagging rice and beans. Our family sponsors three of the children at the orphanage.  Susan Shogan has also been to Honduras with Friends of Los Ninos several times and sponsors several kids as well.  The Flip Flop Drive that FCE has organized for three years goes to this group.  This organization as well as the RR Serving Center are very worthy causes and are very dear to my heart.  Thank you in advance for your support.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0By3gjcUnlOB1Mm1xUGpiOWFmUE0/view?pref=2&pli=1

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0By3gjcUnlOB1WjlRQlAtSlJGUTg&usp=drive_web&tid=0B4N9Dq09tORwNEVSRk9RS2RSYXM

The first link should be the video.  You may need to cut and paste it into your browser to be able to see it.

The second link is to the FCE Coyote Call.

Special Day

Our class has earned enough HOWL tickets to have a special day.  We took a vote, and we will have "Camp Day" on Friday, April 1.  (No April Fools!!!)  Students are allowed to bring sleeping bags or blankets, pillows, and stuffed animals.  We will rearrange our room so that we can spread everything out on the floor.  It will be fun, but we will also be learning that day.

February 6, 2106

This week will be a fun-filled, busy week in third grade.  

Math

We are beginning a new unit in math -- multiplying by 9s and dividing by 8s.  This is exciting stuff as we learn strategies to manipulate these numbers.

Language Arts

Last week we started our new unit where we will begin researching famous people.  In your student's purple folder, there was a letter describing exactly what we will be doing for this project.  Most of the project will be done in class, but any props needed for the presentation and practicing the presentation will be done at home.  I have attached a copy of the letter that I sent home.  If you have any questions, please let me know.  This should be a fun activity, and the presentation will be awesome!  Mark your calendars because all parents and families are encouraged to attend..

Science

We have been studying living and non-living things and their habitats.  This week we will finish that and begin learning about life cycles.

Counselor News

The counselor will be visiting our classroom on Tuesday during science time (2:00).  She will be presenting a lesson on how to treat other people.  It will be a great reinforcement for everyone on being nice and respectful.

Progress Reports

Be looking for your student's progress report on Thursday this week.  This is only half-way through the grading period, so any grades that are not where they should be can be brought up.  We will keep working and putting forth our best effort to have the best grades that we can achieve.

PTA News

The spring carnival will be on April 15.  Mark your calendars because this is a fun night for everyone!!  Attached is a flyer telling about it.

Picture Day

Group pictures as well as individual pictures will be taken on Tuesday, February 9.  Bring your best smile!!

Tutoring

Because I will be gone on Tuesday, there will be no tutoring after school.  A new baby is expected to arrive very soon for a staff member and we are celebrating that on Thursday after school.  We will not be able to have tutoring on Thursday either.  We will get back to it the following week!!!

January 5, 2015

Here are some things that are happening--

Homework

There is no homework packet for this week, but students are expected to read and study their spelling words.  They have their spelling list in their green spiral.  There will be a homework packet this Friday, and we will have a spelling test next Friday (1-15-16).

Talent Show

The auditions for the talent show are Friday, January 15, right after school.  If you student turned in the form, they will need to be ready next Friday.

Absences

If your child is absent, it will be unexcused until a note is sent in to school.  The note should have the student's name and date(s) of the absence.  The note can be in the form of an email, written note from parent/guardian, or a note from the doctor.  If you send me a note or an email regarding an absence, I will forward it to the office.

Kids Art Contest

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and Samsung Austin Semiconductor invite K-5 students in Texas to submit their artwork of how they, along with their friends and family, help keep the air and water clean, conserve water and energy, and reduce waste. One grand prize winner will receive a Samsung laptop, and 15 students will win a Samsung tablet. The teacher of the student who designs the overall best artwork will also be awarded a Samsung tablet. The contest begins January 4, 2016; entries must be postmarked on or before March 2, 2016. 

Science Fair

The science fair is just around the corner (January 28).  Click here for the packet for all the information you need.  The packet must be submitted to the office by January 15.  If you have questions, let me know.  This is a great opportunity for students to get involved in science.  Third graders are not required to do this, but when they are in fourth grade, they will be required to do this.  This year is a great time to get started without the added pressure of being graded in class.