Category Archives: Elementary Schools

Employees give up their holiday break to help students get caught up

While fellow employees are sipping eggnog, exchanging presents, or just visiting with their friends and family, some members of Team HISD will be spending most of their winter break at one of 12 schools around the city.

Those campuses, which include Fondren Elementary, Woodson K–8, and Austin, Chávez, Davis, Lee, North Forest, Reagan, Sharpstown, Jones and Worthing high schools, are conducting credit recovery programs during that two-week period to help students who are behind in their classes get caught up with their peers.

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A load of code: HISD schools take part in digital literacy exercise

Many tech-savvy people—including Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and HISD’s own Adam Stephens—believe that in the not-too-distant future, knowing how to create computer code will be considered as basic a skill as knowing how to read, write, or perform basic math calculations.

That’s why students at several HISD campuses participated in a challenge issued by Code.org as a part of Computer Science Education Week.

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Score! Houston Texans Award NFL Play 60 Grants to 4 HISD Schools

Houston Texans President Jamey Rootes congratulated HISD personnel for their winning NFL Play 60 grants. Left to right, they are Ines Brost, Sutton ES; Lisa McManus, J.P Henderson ES; Lindsey Pollock, Garden Oaks ES; and Sarah Stafford, Patrick Henry MS.

Four HISD schools have scored big with the Houston Texans, winning NFL Play 60 grants from the team to supply campuses with playground or gym equipment that broadens physical education and afterschool programs.

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Two Schools to Plant Dozens of Fruit Trees on Their Campuses

Lantrip Elementary also receives $20,000 grant for campus beautification project

Lantrip Elementary School and Austin High School are the recipients of two grants from the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation that will fund the planting of 25-30 trees at each campus in the coming week.

The Fruit Tree Planting Foundation (FTPF), an international nonprofit organization dedicated to planting fruit trees to improve health, strengthen communities and combat climate change, has joined the East End’s GreenSchools! Greenbelt, which currently includes Austin, Lantrip and Jackson Middle schools.

The GreenSchools! Greenbelt initiative, funded by the National Urban and Community Forestry Advisory Council, connects schools and communities through campus and community greening efforts in Houston’s East End.

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At Poe ES This Week, They’re Working with Wood, Whipping Up Crepes

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/81124590/ w=320&h=205]

Playing, singing or writing music, creating artwork, and cooking aren’t just fun and life-enriching – the fine arts can turn into careers, too.

That’s been the message all week at Poe ES, a fine arts magnet school, where the PTO is sponsoring a Fine Arts Career Week through Friday, bringing in working artists from the community to give youngsters a chance to try everything firsthand, from woodworking to crepe-making.

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Not Your Parents’ Old-Style Teacher Conference

A new team approach – blending classroom learning with home support — is revolutionizing teacher-parent conferences in an HISD pilot program.

Centered on “Academic Parent-Teacher Teams,” the approach being tried at eight schools brings in groups of parents to meet with their child’s teacher three times a year. Instead of merely walking out with a report card, these parents know where their youngster stands in relation to the rest of the class – and take with them important tools to help support in the home what’s being taught in the classroom.

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Students Welcomed to New Sherman Elementary School

Katherine Smith Elementary also unveils new administration and classroom wing

Sherman Elementary School students admired the smart boards and cubby spaces and helped sharpen pencils on Monday as teachers prepared to start class for the first time at their new building. 

“It’s awesome because it’s all new,” said fourth-grader Xavier Cegueda, who was met with hugs and smiles from school administrators and staff who helped students find their new classroom.

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Longfellow Elementary Students Reveal Top 10 Toys for this Holiday Season

Separate lists provided for boys’ and girls’ most desired gifts

Every year, HISD’s Longfellow Elementary students take it upon themselves to find the top gifts for children to help parents tackle their holiday shopping. Today, after more than a month of research, the fifth-grade students revealed this year’s top 10 most-wanted holiday gifts for boys and girls.

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/80401731/ w=320&h=205]

“My favorite part about the toy survey was working in teams,” said fifth-grader Dasani Godfrey.  “We got together and came up with the different toys we thought students would want for the holidays.”

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HISD’s Longfellow Elementary Students to Announce this Year’s Top 10 Toys for Boys and Girls

Lists to be released just in time for holiday shopping

What:                 For the fourth consecutive year, fifth-grade students at Longfellow Elementary School will host a press conference to release their top toys for children this holiday season based on the results of their surveys.  For more than a month, the students worked in teams to survey classmates in the playgrounds, hallways, and cafeteria and then tallied up the results.  Based on their own research, they have determined the most popular toys among young boys and girls that are also cost-effective for parents.  In addition to the findings, the students will showcase samples of the top 10 toys for boys and girls, provided by Target.

Who:               Longfellow fifth-grade students

When:             Tuesday, November 26 at 10 a.m.

Where:           Longfellow Elementary School, 3617 Norris

Four Campuses Celebrate New Outdoor Spaces at SPARK Week Dedications

Kindergarten students perform a routine set to Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World” during the dedication of the Moreno ES SPARK park on Nov. 21.

A rain barrel system and a fruit tree orchard. A new walking trail and an outdoor classroom. These are just a few of the attractions now gracing four new SPARK parks at HISD campuses across the city.

The parks, which were formally dedicated on Nov. 21 and 22 by SPARK park representatives and campus officials, are located on the grounds of Almeda, Berry, Moreno, and Tijerina elementary schools.

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