Third ASPIRE News

January 25, 2026

Katie Cao--2nd Place Overall

Will Vandiver--1st Place Overall (Grand Champion)

Battle of the Poems

We wrapped up our annual Battle of the Poems this week. What a great time we all had! The students did an amazing job of memorizing their poems, interpreting them, and performing them for their peers. We are so proud of a job well done.

Katie Cao showing great expression during her performance of "I'm Staying Home From School Today"

Will Vandiver's sparkling personality showing through during his performance of "Fancy Dive"

Katie Cao

2nd Place Overall

Will Vandiver

1st Place Overall

CUP STACKING COMPETITION

I wanted to let you know about an exciting new opportunity coming up for our third, fourth, and fifth grade students.

For the first time, our school district will be hosting a cup stacking competition. This event is designed to be a fun and positive experience, not an intense or high-pressure competition. The focus is on participation, trying something new, and enjoying a unique activity with other students from across the district.

Sport stacking helps develop hand-eye coordination, focus, and confidence, and it’s a great way for students to challenge themselves in a new and engaging way. Whether your child has tried stacking before or would be brand new to it, this event is meant to be welcoming and encouraging for all participants.

Please see the attached flyer for more details about the event. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out.

Thank you for supporting new and fun opportunities for our students!

Coach Maupin

STAAR Interim Testing

The following dates will be a closed campus due to STAAR interim & field testing.

On these dates we will not have any visitors such as classroom readers, room volunteers, lunch visitors, etc. If a parent needs to drop off anything or pick up your child before dismissal, they will be held in the vestibule to ensure a secure testing environment. Thank you for helping us support those students testing on the following dates:

Tuesday- January 27th - 3rd Grade Reading STAAR Interim

Thursday- January 29th (not 3rd grade)

Tuesday- February 3rd (not 3rd grade)

Valentine's Class Parties

Friday 2/13 at 1:00 pm

Valentine's Exchange: If you would like to send in Valentine's for your child's class, please be sure that there are enough for all the student's in their homeroom class. (23) We are not sending home a class list this year. The Valentine's do not need to be addressed, you can just put from your child's name. In class we will be decorating paper bags to hold their Valentine's. If you want to make a fancy box or bag, feel free to do that at home and bring it in the morning of the party.

Baby Picture needed for Valentines Party

We have a fun activity planned for our Valentines Party where students will get to see baby pictures of their classmates and will try to guess who it is. In order to do this, we need your help by sending in a cute digital baby picture of your child. The picture needs to be school appropriate, so no pictures in diapers :) Pictures between the ages of 6 months-2 years work great. Please email a picture to your child's homeroom teacher by Friday, February 6th. Thank you!

stephanie.lucero@gcisd.net

lisa.mitten@gcisd.net

Perot Field Trip

We are excited to announce 3rd grade will be going to the Perot Museum for our Field Trip this year on Wednesday, March 25th. Save the date if you are interested in being a chaperone. Look for sign-up information and more details in next week's newsletter.

Prehistoric Park Coloring Contest Details:

Participants will print and color a Megalosaurus coloring page and submit a photo of their completed artwork. One winning design will be selected and transformed into a real animatronic dinosaur, painted to match the artwork and displayed at Prehistoric Park at Meadowmere Park from March 14–29. The winner will also receive free one-day admission to visit the park and see their dinosaur in person.

All entries must be submitted by February 2, 2026. Every participant will also be entered into a drawing to win a ticket to Prehistoric Park.

Additional information about Prehistoric Park and the coloring contest can be found at GoGrapevine.com/PrehistoricPark.

Upcoming Curriculum

Reading/Language Arts

Reading STAAR Interim
I can identify root words and their meanings.
I can revise and edit written passages.
I can write a response to a literary passage and use evidence from the text to support my answer.

Math

I can show what I know about a data set using a frequency table, dot plot, pictograph and bar graph with scaled intervals. (Unit 5 Assessment)
Unit 6 Pre-Assessment - Fractions

Science

I can explain how temperature and precipitation affect animal growth and behavior through migration and hibernation and plant responses through dormancy.xplain how temperatur

Social Studies

I Holocaust Remembrance/Upstander Week

EVENTS

Tuesday, January 27th

Reading STAAR Interim

Friday, January 30th

Pep Rally/Club Day

Friday, February 6th

Spring Picture Day

Friday, February 13th

Valentine's Day Party

Monday, February 16th

No School for Students - Teacher PD Day

Friday, February 27th

Pep Rally/Gatorville Clubs Day

MATH CORNER

Data Analysis

Unit Summary: January 7-January 29

This unit bundles student expectation that addresses summarizing data sets with multiple categories using a frequency table, dot plot, pictograph, or bar graph with scaled intervals. Students collect, organize, represent, and summarize a categorical data set with multiple categories using a frequency table, dot plot, pictograph, and bar graph with scaled intervals.

BIG IDEAS:

Graphs are a part of our everyday lives.
Data is collected and organized in order to answer questions and interpret data about real world situations.

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