Week of February 10, 2025

How is it that Open House is a little over a month away?  That means- Spring Break, too!  You all have hung in there this week with all of the sickness in North Texas.  Thank you for helping each other out in your houses and grades.  Stay well!  I'm off tomorrow.  If you need anything Kat and Angel have you covered. 

DID YOU KNOW:

• Dr. Hunt says we can wear jeans from February 10-14?  You know what that means!!!
• Jacky and Audrey need all the pictures you can share for yearbook?  Please add them to the folders here: 

• we were recognized as a 2025 Certified School of Kindness?  Thank you, all of you, for your work to bring the Great Kindness Challenge to life each year.

• one of our former Lee Spurs, Ishitha Mallidi, is competing in this weekend's wrestling tournament at CHS arena?  Ishitha is a junior who has been wrestling since middle school. She previously qualified for state her sophomore year, on top of maintaining solid grades in advanced classes. She recently became district champion last week and helped her team win the district title. She has even competed nationally, becoming an All-American at last year’s Folkstyle National Championships.  How cool is this?

FOOTBALL FIESTA FRIDAY

Thank you, Social Spurs, for helping to organize our Nacho Bar.  Thank you to all of the houses for all the other "fixin's" to help feed the whole "team."  

BOOK FAIR

Our Spring Book Fair is here.  Please give permission for learners to come down when Holly communicates with you.  The Book Fair will be open on Valentine's Day during the Valentine Party. Create your e-wallet here.

PTO MEETING ON TUESDAY

Save the date! Our next Virtual PTO Meeting is coming up on Tuesday, February 11th, at 6pm. Tune in for key updates from the Lee administration and your PTO team. A link to join will be emailed prior to the meeting. We can’t wait to see you there!

VALENTINES DAY

Thursday is going to be a fun-filled day with a school wide program (Patrol Stories) in the cafe/gym at 2:00 and Valentine Parties at the end of the day.  Do you have any learners who need valentines?  Please get with Angela.  The day's schedule is below and is also on our Master Schedule document.  We KINDLY ask that all houses eat lunch in their houses, on Thursday, so that we can get the cafe prepped and our program can get set up. 

FABULOUS FRIDAYS IN FEBRUARY

FRIDAY PROFESSIONAL LEARNING DAY

• Overview:  The day will begin with a waffle bar in the lounge starting at 8:00 am. We will end our day at 3:30 pm.
• Lunch on Your Own: Enjoy the flexibility to choose where and what you'd like to eat.  Don't want to spend $, our lounge is always an option.
• Attire: Dress comfortably for a day of active learning.
• What to Have Ready: Fully charged Mac, iPad, and Apple Pencil

NO SCHOOL

Although we have professional learning on Friday, please communicate to learners and parents that they do not have school on Friday and Monday.  Enjoy your Monday off!

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

2nd Grade is throwing a Star Party for 2nd graders and their families on the evening of Thursday, February 20th.  We are looking for 7-10 volunteers to help us man the stations at the event from 6:00-7:30PM.  We will have an inflatable planetarium, craft stations, space-themed math connections, and an out-of-this-world scientific photography gallery.  All activities will be pre-planned and materials provided, we just need help with facilitating.  2-3 flex hours will be given to those who sign up.  Please reach out to a 2nd grade designer if you are interested in helping out!

COACH'S CORNER

Here is the Explore Learning Google folder for more resources. You can find lesson planning support and more! Laura Maisel (who did our training) really recommends using the Facebook pages for Reflex and Gizmos supplemental information. *K-2 designers: We will reschedule your Science4Us training soon.

‘RAZ News You Can Use’

 eTool Tips

Retell Practice

Use the microphone to practice retelling.  Have students listen or read the story and record themselves giving a retell of the story.  Go to the In Basket to listen to their retell.

 

Finding Textual Evidence

Have students use a highlighter to go back to the story to highlight textual evidence to support a response to a quiz question.

 

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Grades K-2

Phonics Lessons

Teach effective phonics using explicit, systematic instruction and practice.  Manipulatives in each lesson provide small group and learning center manipulatives for intentional practice.

 

Grades 2-6

Close Read Packs

Help students think critically to uncover layers of meaning within a text and deepen comprehension as students collaborate to answer Key Questions. 

(active engagement, differentiated resources, and intentional practice)

ESL UPDATES

LESSON IN LEADERSHIP

DATES TO REMEMBER:

BLACK HISTORY MONTH
NATIONAL DENTAL HEALTH MONTH

CTE APPRECIATION MONTH

SPRING BOOK FAIR WEEK

February10-  Upstander Presentations for 3rd and 5th Grades

     Kinder Dentist Visit (Cafe 2:00)

February 11- Amirtha's Birthday

     Progress Report Grades Due (8:00 AM)

     Virtual PTO Mtg. (6:00)

February 12- 5th Grade Visit from CMSW (8:30 Cafe)

     Leadership Mtg. (3:15)

February 13- Day 0- Alternate schedule

     Patrol Stories Program (1:00)

     Valentine Parties (2:00-3:00)

February 14- Valentine's Day

     Campus Professional Development (8:00-3:30)

February 15- Bethany's Birthday

February 17- Bad Weather Day- NO SCHOOL

Week of February 3, 2025

Happy Thursday, sweet folks.  What a GREAT week spreading and celebrating kindness.  Your beautiful banners look glorious hanging through our school!  I am reminded, daily, what a blessing it is to be at Lee Elementary with each of YOU!  Stay healthy!!

DID YOU KNOW:

• houses have professional learning during conference time on Monday?  K-2 will receive training on Science 4 Us in your design studios and 3-5 will receive training on Gizmos in the conference room.  This learning is provided by and recommended by Samira.  Please come with any questions or ideas for implementation or enrichment with these resources.
• we will not have our staff meeting on Wednesday?  We will move our required school training on on STAAR and TELPAS security to our February 14 campus professional learning day.  Enjoy having that Wednesday afternoon back.
• we will have a presentation on Thursday, Feb 20, from Oncor?  They are going to all CISD elementary schools and teaching them about the importance of electric safety, how to identify potential danger, and what to do in harmful situations.  This presentation will take place in the cafe from 8:00-9:00 for K-2 and 9:00-10:00 for 3-5.  Letting you know now, so that you can mark your calendars. 
• we have school Board walks on Thursday?  Please make sure you are showing off excellence at Lee and that spaces are tidy.  Guests will be here between 8:30 and 10:30.  

SCHOOL COUNSELOR APPRECIATION WEEK

We are fortunate to have an incredible school counselor at Lee Elementary.  Please help us in celebrating Mrs. Garvin for ALL that she does not only on the frontline, but behind the scenes to serve our learners, famiLEEs, and staff.  

100th DAY OF SCHOOL

Monday, February 3, is the 100th day of school.  We can't wait to help celebrate everyone being 100 days smarter!

COLLEGE SHIRT DAY

Wednesday is College Shirt Day.  Encourage learners to participate by wearing a college shirt on the first Wednesday of each month.  

RODEO GOAT SPIRIT NIGHT

Join us next Thursday, February 6, at Rodeo Goat in Cypress Waters starting at 4 PM for a fun night of food and fundraising! 🎶 With the Purple House music performance happening the same evening, it’s the perfect chance to grab dinner before or after the show. 20% of sales go to Lee PTO! Don’t miss out!

FABULOUS FRIDAYS IN FEBRUARY

We hope you enjoy the month of February filled special Friday events.  Thank you to Social Spurs for sponsoring our first Fabulous Friday with a Nacho Bar.

BOOK FAIR

Our Spring Book Fair is one week away.  We WILL be open during the Valentine Day parties so stop by.  Create your e-wallet here.

VALENTINE PARTIES COMING SOON

Parents, please make sure that if you want to attend and help at the Valentine Party that you have signed up to volunteer and have your background check completed.  

TELPAS TESTING

Don't forget that we have school-wide testing on February 24 and February 25.

COACH'S CORNER

• We have two more flex learning opportunities.  What would you like to learn about?  Flex learning input
• 100th day of school activities (scroll down a little bit)
• 🔦District Resource Spotlight
• Discovery Education has a section called Spotlight on Strategies.  These SOS Instructional Strategies are research-based strategies for integrating Discovery Education digital curriculum resources in meaningful, effective, and practical ways.
• Timely Reminders:
• All K-5 educators:  We are in the middle of our MOY NWEA MAP & mCLASS testing window.  Remember to complete your MAP makeup tests as soon as you can. Learning Coaches will send periodic updates of incomplete assessments.
• Use this graphic organizer with the learning strategy AEIOU. Interpret information from images or videos and write down thoughts next to five descriptive categories: A-E-I-O-U.

LESSON IN LEADERSHIP

DATES TO REMEMBER:

BLACK HISTORY MONTH
NATIONAL DENTAL HEALTH MONTH

CTE APPRECIATION MONTH

NATIONAL SCHOOL COUNSELING WEEK

MOY MAP and MCLASS WINDOW

Feb 1- Blue House on Lounge Duty this month- thanks with clean up and helping with silverware

Feb 3- Professional Development during conference time

     100th Day of School

Feb 5- College Shirt Day

     Staff Meeting CANCELLED- enjoy the gift of time back

Feb 6- LEEdership Council Mtg. (8:00)

     CISD Board Walk (8:30-10:30)

     Purple House Music Performance (2:00 and 6:30)

     Rodeo Goat Spirit Day

Feb 7-  Chantel Off campus

Week of January 27, 2025

Happy Thursday, sweet folks.  Thank you for all of your hard work submitting your SLO documentation and getting MOY assessments completed.  We appreciate your attention to these tasks.  I can't wait to see your banners looking beautiful hanging through our school after Monday's parade!  Store them somewhere SAFE so that custodians don't accidentally throw them away.  I'm off tomorrow and will be with fifth grade at Sky Ranch on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, so hold the fort down, team!

DID YOU KNOW:

• Admin wants to make 100 calls on February 3? If you haven't added learner names to the document shared from leadership, please help us so we can call a boy and girl from every class. We can't wait to brag on our top 100 kiddos!
• Tara and Annah will be with us at Sky Ranch?  We will have a substitute nurse in the clinic.
• Baby Tyler Patrick Curran is home safely with mommy and daddy?  Check out the cutest new future Spur!  Thank you, Abeer, for being Rachael's long term sub.

GREAT KINDNESS CHALLENGE IS HERE

Looking forward to seeing you in your pajamas on Monday.  The parade will start at the back stairs right after morning broadcast.  

LEEDERSHIP COUNCIL HOT COCOA SALE

LEEdership Council will be selling hot chocolate on Tuesday morning.  The cost is $1.00.  Please share in your newsletters.

SKY RANCH

5th grade will be at Sky Ranch Wednesday through Friday this week.  Thank you to those who are helping to watch fifth grade learners in the houses on Wednesday morning as the fifth grade teachers check in chaperones and learners.  Thank you, in advance, for all of the help on Friday afternoon when we arrive back on campus for having the cafe ready for us.

100th DAY OF SCHOOL

Can you believe we have already been in school almost 100 days?  We are more than halfway through the year!  Feel free to participate next Monday, February 3.

WORLD READ ALOUD DAY

We are working with CMSW for a couple of partner reading and opportunities for World Read Aloud Day.  Please see information below or visit with Holly if you have questions or an interest in participating.  They will have lots of free online author visits on the 5th.  

BOOK FAIR VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

The Scholastic Book fair is coming to the RJL Library in early February, and we still need a few more volunteers for the 8am slots for Feb 10-12. Please consider signing up if you can! This is a great way to get involved and foster young readers!  bit.ly/RJLBookFair

Reminder, if you plan to volunteer for these or any other future events, complete your yearly required CISD Background Check asap here. 

LAST CHANCE

Our PTO grant application cycle for this school year closes this Sunday, January 26. If you are interested in applying for a PTO grant this year, please submit this form.  We look forward to partnering with you!

WALKTHROUGHS

We will be increasing our walkthroughs now that formal TTESS and mid year goal setting is concluding.  We will give you feedback in Domains II and III.

COACH'S CORNER

ESL STRATEGY OF THE WEEK

Provide opportunities for free write time. This helps lower the affective filter when EBs approach writing in English, especially those that may have some anxiety around writing specifically. If you have an EB who is Beginning or Intermediate, allow some of their writing to include pictures or copying words. This is still helping them to grow in their English proficiency. Provide sentence frames to build paragraphs.

This is a great strategy to remember as our EBs approach TELPAS with writing as a domain. Having our 2nd-5th graders type what they wrote will also be beneficial practice!

LESSON IN LEADERSHIP 

DATES TO REMEMBER:

MOY MAP and MCLASS WINDOW THROUGH FEBRUARY 28

GREAT KINDNESS CHALLENGE WEEK

January 27- Kindness Parade (8:00 AM)

January 28- Hot Cocoa Sale (before school)

     3rd Grade Design Time (AM)

     Yellow K-2 Design Time (PM)

January 29- Sky Ranch

January 30- Sky Ranch

     MTSS Meetings (Conference Time)

     Super Teacher Luncheon (Enjoy Megan and Kristi)

January 31- Sky Ranch

Week of January 20, 2025

Thank you for an awesome week.  I'm so excited to celebrate our namesake Mr. Richard J. Lee for his 90th birthday on Saturday.  Thank you to the classes that made cards for us to present him with.  He is going to feel so loved by our Spurs.  CONGRATS to our entire school on winning money from CISD for your work with our attendance.  Please share your ideas in house meetings for how we can spend the funds in a meaningful way.  What a cool surprise as a result of your hard work.

DID YOU KNOW:

• chargers for the MetaPens arrive January 25 and will be distributed to campuses?
• it is already time to start thinking about school supplies for next year?  Here is last year's list. Please review, as a grade level, and make any adjustments.  Once your adjustments are made, change the date on your tab to "Your Grade 2025-2026" so we know you are done.  The total should be below $60.  Please have this done by Friday, Feb 21, so I can get it to PTO.  I'm sorry, but this task should be done outside of Team Time since it does not align with our 4 questions.
• MTSS is only two weeks away?  I know that the snow days have delayed progress monitoring a bit.  Please make sure you have your goals updated with the most recent information before our meeting on January 30. Everyone is doing a great job creating new goals as the old ones have been met. Thank you for updating our spreadsheet and Panorama with progress and needs. -Kat
• you need to accumulate 18 hours of flex credit this year? Please check out your portfolio in Power School to see that you are close and send in your submissions for approval, now.

THINKAPALOOZA

Friday is here!  Thank you to everyone, especially Ayesha, for making this day possible for our learners and to all of the staff for your flexibility.

NO SCHOOL

School will be closed on Monday in celebration of Martin Luther King Day.

PTO MEETING

Our next virtual PTO meeting is coming up this Tuesday, January 21, at 6pm. Zoom link will be emailed out prior to the meeting. This month, we will be highlighting some important things you should know about our CISD School Board, the Texas Legislative session, and how you can get involved and stay up to date. Make sure to save the date and join us to hear all the important updates!

FLEX LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES

On Wednesday, Holly will host a flex session for those interested.   

Learn more about Page Keeley probes from Samira.  Please share if you are attending here: https://forms.gle/D5w3yv8AeHkrrSuCA so Samira can plan accordingly.

 

GARDEN FUNDRAISER

We are excited to support a group of learners who have been working with our Garden Guru to implement ideas to control the mouse problem in our school garden.  If you would like to support their efforts, they will be hosting a key tag sale on Thursday and Friday.  You will get to personalize your key tag and hang it on the fence by the garden.

PTO SPIRIT NIGHT AT MODERN MARKET

Looking for a night out that makes a difference? Join us at Modern Market Eatery on January 23rd from 11am-8pm  and enjoy wholesome, tasty food for the whole family! 30% of proceeds will benefit Lee PTO when you use promo code giveback015. Healthy eating never felt so rewarding! #EatWellGiveBack

ANNUAL PTO DESIGNER GRAND APPLICATIONS NOW OPEN

Reminder that our PTO grant application cycle for this school year is now officially open. If you are interested in applying for a PTO grant this year, please submit this form. We will be accepting applications through Sunday January 26, 2025. We are looking forward to partnering with you!

GREAT KINDNESS CHALLENGE
THANK YOU, Angela, for leading the charge with our Great Kindness Challenge planning for 2025!  Be thinking about how you can incorporate KINDNESS into your lesson design in the next couple of weeks.  You will want to create a banner for your classes for our Kindness Kickoff Parade.  This will take place first thing Monday morning, January 27. Here is the link from Angela with details.

SAVE THE DATE FOR 100TH DAY OF SCHOOL

We hope our staff and learners will have fun celebrating the 100th day of learning on February 3.

BOOK FAIR VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

The Scholastic Book fair is coming to the RJL Library in early February, and the volunteer sign up is live.  Act fast to get a slot that works best for you!  This is a great way to get involved and foster young readers!  bit.ly/RJLBookFair

Reminder, if you plan to volunteer for these or any other future events, complete your yearly required CISD Background Check asap here. 

COACH'S CORNER

Timely reminders:

*1st grade mCLASS testing-there are 2 weeks left to complete mCLASS.  It is due by Jan. 31st.

*Your SLO student growth check in is due in Power School Perform by January 24th. Here is a 2 minute tutorial to walk you through the process. If you would like to go through this with a learning coach, email us to schedule a time.

ESL STRATEGY OF THE WEEK

TELPAS testing dates are February 24 and 25 and on the staff calendar. 

LESSON IN LEADERSHIP

DATES TO REMEMBER:

MOY MAP and MCLASS WINDOW THROUGH FEBRUARY 28

SCHOOL BOARD APPRECIATION MONTH

Jan 20- NO SCHOOL

Jan 21- Reading Academy

     Virtual PTO Mtg. (6:00)

Jan 22-  Reading Academy

     Design Day (Green House AM / Red House PM)

     Flex Learning (3:15)

Jan 23-  Angela's Birthday

     Design Day (Blue House AM / Yellow House PM)

     Sky Ranch Chaperone Mtg. (5:00)

Jan 24- SLOs due in Power School

     Design Day (Purple House PM)

     Chantel OFF