Monday, February 28, 2011

Roaring News!

Hello Baldwin Community,

This past weekend was a very busy one for some of our Baldwin Bobcats!

We had 14 students ranging from grades 2-5 that participated in the Austin Energy Regional Science Festival this past Saturday, February 26, 2011 at the Palmer Events Center.  Our Bobcats excelled at this competition. The following is a list of our Bobcats and what they earned at the regional science fair:

3rd Place-Andre S. and Jace K.

2nd Place-Naya T., Noah H., Blake R., Emily O., Lauren K., Julia A., and Alexandra J.

1st Place-Andrew B., Tasha A.., Grace G., Dylan C., and Matthew L.

We are very proud of our students and are grateful to their parents for their support!


I also want to recognize and thank the workers that came out on Saturday morning to help build the flower beds for our Baldwin Gardens. We had a small but strong group of teachers, students and parents that helped us with this project. A ROARING thank you to the following folks for coming out on Saturday:  Lesley and Judd Leach and their daughter Kate, Bob Wittmeyer and his son Robert, Jeff Avila and his son Aidan, Tim Tashjian and his daughter Laurel, Julie Burns and her son James, Gayle Grance and her daughter Kristin. Thank you for giving your time, talents and treasure to this project. All of us at Baldwin will put the gardens to good use.

We also had about 16 fourth graders attend a second writing camp at Baldwin. The students along with Mrs. Cruz and Mrs. Reaves reviewed the 6 traits of writing and had numerous fun activities and discussions that will help them on their TAKS writing test. The TAKS writing test will be tomorrow, Tuesday, March 1st. We are asking all Baldwin students to support our fourth graders by showing their school spirit and wearing their Baldwin Bobcat shirts. If your child does not have a Baldwin Bobcat shirt perhaps they can wear something purple.  Thanks for helping us support our fourth graders through this assessment!!

If you are a parent of a fourth grade student I ask that you help your child prepare for tomorrow's test by helping them get a good night's rest, eat a healthy breakfast and arrive to school on time. I also want to remind you that during State Assessments, parents are not allowed to eat lunch with their child. I also ask that you please not take your child out of school early on testing days; help us make sure that your child has plenty of time to complete his/her test. Thanks for your assistance with this important matter!


Roaring with Pride,
Dr. Peña

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Roaring News

Hello Baldwin Community,

Just a friendly reminder that our fourth graders will be taking the TAKS Writing Test. next Tuesday, March 1st,  In order to be ready to take the test on Tuesday, we will need all of our fourth graders to get a good night's sleep, eat a healthy breakfast and arrive to school on time. Thank you to our fourth graders, their teachers and their parents for the hard work they have put into preparing for this important assessment.

Our fifth graders will be performing for us next Thursday, March 3rd. The performance, entitled, "Glo To The Xtreme" is guaranteed to entertain all ages. They will hold two performances on March 3rd: one will be in the morning at 8:15 for the students to see and the other will be that evening at 6:30 p.m. Please make plans to attend this performance by our fifth graders.

I want to inform you of an opportunity that our district is offering to parents. The district will be hosting free "Love and Logic" classes at  a school near us. What is "Love and Logic?" "Becoming a love and logic parent" gives you the tools to effectively handle challenging behaviors. It promotes a "win-win"  philosophy in which you show love and control in healthy ways; and your children learn responsibility and coping skills through problem solving. This program can help you build a loving relationship with your child, reduce your stress and prepare your child for the real world.  "Becoming a Love and Logic Parent" is appropriate for parents with children of any age. The program is eight-weeks long, offered in English and Spanish, with light refreshments, and in most cases, free child care. The classes will be held on Wednesdays, March 23-May 11 from 6-8 p.m. The English classes will be at Covington Middle School and the Spanish classes will be held at Allan Elementary. To sign up or for more information, contact AISD Parent Training Coach, Mariana Montejano at 414-3134. Don't miss out on this great opportunity!


Roaring with Pride,

Dr. Peña

Monday, February 21, 2011

Roarring News

Hello Baldwin Community,

Thank you to everyone that participated in parent conferences today. Most of the conferences today were led by the students and  I was amazed at how well they could explain their progress and their goals to their parents. The students had examples of their work to share with their parents and some even played games and/or completed centers together.  We appreciate all of the daily parent support! Together we will help all of our children succeed!

In my last blog, I mentioned all of the beautiful artwork that our students have been doing at Baldwin but I failed to recognize our art teachers Ms. Rutledge and Mr. Abbott. Thank you to both of our Art Teachers for teaching our children some incredible art skills and for displaying their talents.

This past Saturday, two of our fourth grade teachers, Mrs. Reaves and Mrs. Cruz, held a writing camp for fourth graders. I came by Saturday morning to greet the students and the teachers and they were all so excited to be at Baldwin, even on Saturday. The teachers started the camp by having the students go on a scavenger hunt through the school. The students were thrilled that they could go through the hallways and talk with their friends, which is not the normal procedure during the regular school day. The scavenger hunt led the students to find puzzle pieces that covered the traits of writing they were reviewing. I heard from the teachers that the students had some awesome writing to share before they left on Saturday, which was the goal for this camp. I am very proud of the students for giving up some of their Saturday to get some extra practice and I appreciate Mrs. Reaves and Mrs. Cruz for setting this up for them. Thank you to the parents of our fourth graders for bringing them and picking them up on time.  We will have another writing camp this Saturday, February 26th. We look forward to seeing the fourth graders here again!

Mrs. Beeler's first graders have started writing to their pen pals from Widen Elementary, our "sister" school. The first graders in Mrs. Beeler's class have been matched with other first graders from Widen Elementary and they have been writing to each other. The students' first writing correspondence has been posted on the bulletin board outside Mrs. Beeler's class. Kudos to Mrs. Beeler's first graders for participating in this type of activity and for making new friends!

Good News! We have some additional bike racks that were installed this past Friday. The bike racks are along the front drive of the school just past the library, which is the south end of the drive. I noticed last week that we had many bike riders and now we have more bike racks available for the students to use. As the weather cooperates, I hope to see more children riding their bikes to school or walking to school. Thank you to our parents for encouraging this type of healthy activity for our children.
 
Roaring with Pride,
Dr. Peña
 

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Roaring News

Baldwin Community,

I want to begin this blog by highlighting some of the amazing work that is taking place at our school. First, I want to brag on the art work that our students have been doing in art class.  In the display case by the cafeteria, there is third grade artwork. They have been working on sewing small stuffed animals (animalitos). The third graders learned to thread his/her own needle and sew small stitches. Their work includes a running stitch, an outline stitch, and a blanket stitch. There is also some amazing first grade artwork hanging in the main hallway that leads to the cafeteria. First grade students studied the life and art of the famous painter Vincent van Gogh. From this learning, the children were able to create swirling, moving lines just like Vincent van Gogh's brush strokes. They also learned about the State Capitol building and drew the Austin landmark landscape in the style of van Gogh. Their work is titled: Starry Night, Austin Style. Next to the first grade artwork, there is a display of Kindergarten work. To celebrate Black History Month, the Kindergarten Classes learned about the legends of Anansi the Spider, an African Folk  hero of the Ashanti people of West Africa in the country of Ghana. Anansi is a wise and loveable spider. The Kindergarten children used horizontal, vertical, and diagonal lines to create Anansi's spiderweb. The webs were filled by using colorful markers to create line patterns that include curved, dashed, dotted, zig-zag, curly and spiral lines.

I also want to brag about the history projects the second graders completed a few weeks ago. Each second grader had to complete research on a past president and complete a written report that they then presented to their classes. The projects were amazing! I could tell that each student took so much pride in their work because their presentation boards had so much information and each child could explain their research in detail. I was fortunate to hear a few of the students presenting to their classes. I saw a student in Mrs. Lee's class present his report through a game he created. The game was a timeline of the life of the president he studied. Another student in Mrs. Lee's class created a cipher just like the president he had studied had done to send code messages. I am very proud of our second graders for the incredible projects and presentations they created. Way to Go Second Grade!!

Our fourth graders have been working extremely hard in their language arts classes. They have been writing and writing to get better prepared for the TAKS Writing test that will occur on March 1st. I want to say thank you to our fourth grade teachers and parents for encouraging your children to write from their hearts. The different writing techniques and strategies the children have been using will help them on the day of the test and beyond. We appreciate your encouragement and support!


I also want to thank everyone that participated in the PTA sponsored "Love Your School" No Hassle Fundraising Campaign. I don't know an exact total for this campaign but I do know that we are close to reaching our goal of $10,000. Thank you parents  for your continued support and love!

Don't forget Parent-Teacher Conferences are Monday, February 21st. I look forward to seeing you at Baldwin!


Roaring with Pride,
Dr. Peña