Category Archives: Elementary Schools

New program designed to lower stress, boost focus in classes

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Twelve Houston ISD schools have a new program designed to improve students’ health and reduce their stress.

The program, which is sponsored by the Sonima Foundation, will teach students skills for a healthier lifestyle. Through group discussion, character education, breathing exercises and yoga, students will learn to focus their attention, calm their minds, reduce stress and think before reacting.  Nutrition curriculum will be introduced later in the school year. Continue reading →

Your Voice feedback paves way for school improvement

HISD recently released the results of the 2013-2014 “Your Voice” survey, which gave thousands of students, parents and instructional staff the opportunity to share information on how HISD and individual schools have progressed toward district and campus goals.

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The survey, which was conducted for the second year in a row this past May, measures perceptions of safety, rigor and environment within the district. The survey also allows HISD to better understand the needs of its schools and to foster a culture of community engagement that will help guide future initiatives. Continue reading →

Condit ES receives healthy lifestyle grant from Oliver Foundation

Grant to provide pedometers, introduce students to one new fruit or vegetable each month

Condit Elementary students can add nutrition and leading a healthy lifestyle to their school education this year, thanks to a $3,000 grant from locally based Oliver Foundation.

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Helms ES celebrates crossing guard’s 84th birthday

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Helms Elementary threw a birthday party for one of its most dedicated employees on Monday – 84-year-old crossing guard Joy Wilson. She was presented with dozens of cards and flowers. Continue reading →

Will you be a reading mentor?

Houston ISD and community partners issued a call Thursday for 1,500 volunteers to join HISD’s Read Houston Read program, to mentor first-graders at more than 50 selected elementary schools as part of the district’s Literacy By 3 movement.

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“All along, as we devised our master plan to attack this literacy crisis, we have said that this is not a problem that will be solved in the classroom or the school alone,” said Superintendent Terry Grier at the news conference at Garcia Elementary, one of the participating schools. “It is a community crisis, and the community’s help is needed to solve it. This is a very important — if not the most important — district initiative since I’ve been here.”

Read Houston Read volunteers can sign up for a weekly one-hour mentoring session at a school, where they will work with two first-graders in half-hour sessions — listening to them read, doing an activity related to the book, and reading another book to them. Continue reading →

N.Q. Henderson ES reveals library renovation

Nathaniel Q. Henderson Elementary School has a newly renovated library, thanks to Lakewood Church.

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The church also donated more than $1,000 worth of library books and 10 iPads.

“We anticipate a great impact in the closing of the reading gaps for our scholars,” Principal Rosa Cabrera said.

In addition, Lakewood donated equipment for a multi-sensory room for the Champions Club, which was designed specifically for the school’s special needs students.

“We had over 500 volunteers work on this school and in this community this past year,” said Craig Johnson, Lakewood’s director of ministries. “It’s a way for them to give and then see the difference they’ve made in the lives of students.”

J.P. Henderson ES gets teachers’ lounge makeover

J.P. Henderson Elementary has new furniture in its teachers’ lounge, thanks to Gallery Furniture, Univision 45 and Children at Risk.

The furniture store is making over several teachers’ lounges throughout the Houston area. It asked Univision 45 to pick a school, and the TV station asked Children at Risk for a recommendation.

“When Univision called that I had really good news, I ran to my office and said that I need good news – it’s the beginning of school!” Principal Herlinda Garcia said. “This sends a very strong message from the community to the teachers that we do care about you.”

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Community partners pitching in to help students start off the new school year right

Thanks to the generosity of Houston-area companies and community organizations, many HISD students have the supplies they need to start the new school year.

For the fourth year in a row, NRG, formerly known as Reliant Energy, helped local students with a donation of more than $20,000 worth of school supplies. NRG executives were on hand at the Martin Luther King Jr. Early Childhood Center the week before school started to personally distribute the school supply packets to students. Four thousand more backpacks that include grade-specific supplies for students in grades K-12, such as crayons, notebooks, pens, paper, or folders, will be distributed to more than 35 HISD schools.

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Walnut Bend ES and community raise awareness for National Literacy Month

Celebrity readers share stories, set an example for community involvement

Walnut Bend ES partner Phillips 66, along with the Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation and Lone Star Sports & Entertainment, got together at the campus on opening day Monday to raise awareness about the importance of literacy for Houston’s children. The star-studded event kicked off HISD’s Literacy By 3 program, a movement designed to turn around and end the literacy crisis in Houston.

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Giving high mobility students the ‘Home Field Advantage’

Living up to a promise made by Superintendent Terry Grier during February’s State of the Schools address, HISD is enacting “Home Field Advantage,” a program to create educational stability among highly mobile student populations.

Students at 13 elementary schools where families are most transient are being offered transportation to continue to allow them to make that school their home, even if their families move. General mobility rates in the selected schools is about 30 percent annually, according to Susan Kaler, Student Services officer. Continue reading →