ROARING NEWS

Dear Baldwin Community,

Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving, I thought I would share some of the things I am thankful for at Baldwin Elementary.

I am extremely proud and grateful to the children at Baldwin for their perseverance and willingness to share and learn with others. All of the children from PreKindergarten to Fifth Grade have been outstanding Bobcats in their academics and in their social skills. Since classes started in August, the students have been learning and applying new skills. They love to share their learning so stop by and visit with the children and they will show you how much they have learned thus far this year. 

I am also very thankful for Mrs. Stevens and the Baldwin Choir. The Baldwin Choir put on a excellent performance on November 10 honoring all Veterans. I want to thank everyone who joined us on that evening to show your support. The children sang some beautiful songs honoring all branches of the military. I have to say that the songs they learned and sang are not easy to sing and they did a superb job. Thank you Baldwin Choir for inspiring us with your beautiful voices!

I am also amazed at the number of volunteers that come to Baldwin. Everyday, Monday through Friday, you will find parents, grandparents, and community members giving of their time and sharing their talents with us at Baldwin. We have an amazing group of ladies that volunteer in the office every week and they never miss their shifts. I wish I could add them to the payroll. We are so lucky to have the extra help because Baldwin is a busy place. Throughout the day, I will see numerous volunteers in the volunteer workroom cutting, pasting, copying, and stapling for our teachers and office staff. I have also seen many volunteers reading with our children in the hallways, in the library and in the classrooms. The days we celebrated with Fall Centers, we had many parents and grandparents leading the activities in the different classrooms. Those were some fun days for all of us. Some of the volunteers have also been spotted in the literacy library checking in new books for our teachers to utilize in the classroom with your children. We would not be able to use these awesome resources if it wasn't for our literacy library volunteers! On any given day, you will also find volunteers in the library, helping to shelve all of the books the students have returned. Our children are readers at Baldwin, which means that we have many books everyday that have to be placed back on the shelves for others to check out. I am thankful for the library aides that come to help us in this way. These are just a few of the volunteers that come to Baldwin on a daily basis. There are many, many more and I we are very appreciative for all of the support!!

I would also like to thank all of the families that supported us with the Coats for Kids Campaign. Your donations helped us gather about 165 coats this year. There will be many children in the Austin area that will now have a coat to keep them warm during the winter season. Thank you for your generosity and thank you to the leaders that stepped up to oversee the coat drive!

The Care and Share Turkey Drive has started and will go through December 3rd. Your child's class has taken a feather or two from the turkey to see how our Baldwin Families can help other families that are in need this Holiday Season. There are also some feathers still available for anyone that would like to come and take one to fill the need that is listed on the feather. In advance, I want to thank you for your generosity and your spirit of giving. 

I would also like to thank the PTA and the Carnival Committee for hosting another fabulous Baldwin Carnival in October. The children had so much fun that they are now requesting a Spring Carnival. I don't think they realize all of the hard work that went into putting this amazing event together. I am thankful for the hard workers that put this together and for our PTA and their continuous support! Thank you for being a Baldwin PTA member!!

Oh, by the way, there have also been a few volunteers working on getting the Baldwin Yearbook together for this year. On any given day, you will spot them at Baldwin taking pictures of the children while they are learning or during some of our special events. Don't forget to order your yearbook online; that's the only way to purchase one this year and the deadline is December 1st. Thank you to our Yearbook Volunteers!

I would like to give one last thank you to the Baldwin Teachers and Staff! I am so grateful for their dedication and commitment to our children and our school. They are ready everyday to work with all of our students and they give so much of themselves so willingly. Thank you teachers, support staff, custodians, office staff, cafeteria staff, cafeteria monitors, and crossing guards. All of you make Baldwin such a special to learn and work!

Once again, I am thankful for all of our Baldwin Community and the daily support we are given! 

I hope everyone has a special Thanksgiving Holiday and that you are able to share your time with family and friends. 

Roaring with Pride,
Dr. Peña

ROARING NEWS

Dear Baldwin Community, 

I am so proud of the work our children are completing at Baldwin that I wanted to share some of it with you!

Ms. LeBlanc's students completed some research on spiders and then wrote some short reports on their assigned spider. This was a homework assignment, which gave parents an opportunity to help their child do some primary research and then write in complete sentences. I am very proud of the work this class turned in and shared with their peers. Ms. LeBlanc's kindergarteners showed so much pride in their work and truly are experts on spiders.

In first and second grade, the students have been learning to use the writing process. They planned a first draft by generating ideas for writing, developed drafts by sequencing ideas through writing sentences, revised drafts by adding or deleting words, phrases or sentences and published and shared with others. The students in Ms. Brady's class wrote their own personal narratives. A personal narrative is a story about you, written in 1st person (I, me) and about one small moment. These are displayed in the hallway by their classroom. Many of these personal narratives have "voice" and are very creative. These personal narratives covered topics such as, "the circus," "my first Texas Baseball game" and "My trip to Yellow Stone National Park." All of the stories are very interesting and I have learned so much about these second graders. 

In Mrs. Lerma's and Mrs. Tapia's first grade classes, the students wrote expository and procedural or work-related text to communicate ideas and information to specific audiences for specific purposes. The students in these classes also did some research on spiders and they wrote informational text to share with others. Their reports covered many aspects of a good research project and they used some excellent first grade writing skills. 

In Mrs. Lentz's first grade class, the students spent some weeks working on writing "small moments." The students read mentor texts to see how published authors stretch events in their stories, Mrs. Lentz modeled with her own writing and then the students each wrote several stories of their own. The students in this class chose one of their stories to publish and then edited their story. They met with their teacher in a writing conference to learn a little about revision and finally the students read their stories to an adult volunteer who typed it up for the students. The stories are now bound and hanging on the board right outside Mrs. Lentz's classroom. These stories are unique and show how much our children have learned about writing. 

Today I observed, Ms. Seitz's Kindergarteners writing in their math journals. They had to listen to the math story the teacher shared and paint a picture in their minds. The students then took that picture and drew it in their notebooks. The students then had to write the number sentence that matched the math story the teacher shared with the class. Wow! there are some amazing mathematicians in Ms. Seitz's class. 

In Mrs. Fuller's class, the students were discussing what Veterans' Day means to them. They learned that a Veteran is someone who loves their country and may have fought in wars to protect our country. The students learned the different Armed Forces the veterans may belong to such as the Air Force, the Marines, the Navy, and the Army. One student shared that he had seen the aircraft carrier "The Lexington" in Corpus Christi. The teacher shared photos of the aircraft carrier on the innovation station. Mrs. Fuller's class was very excited to be learning about Veteran's Day and our country. 

A couple of reminders: On Thursday, November 10th our Baldwin Choir will be having a Veterans' Day Program in the cafeteria at 6:30 p.m. Please join us for this concert to honor our Veterans. Also, don't forget that Friday is a student holiday. Your child has the day off from school. 

Roaring with Pride,

Dr. Peña