Week of September 29, 2025

CLASS NEWS:

We are hoping it will soon begin to feel more like fall outside of our classroom window! Inside our room, procedures and routines are humming along. We feel connected as a classroom family and friendships are blooming. It is a favorite time of year for me as we finally settle in!

FALL CONFERENCES:

Thank you for taking time to sign up for a fall conference. At this meeting, we will discuss your child’s strengths and create goals for the school year. This particular conference is a parent and teacher conversation; however, your child will have the opportunity to provide input before we meet.

Please check the schedule to make sure that you remember our meeting time. Many of my meetings are back-to-back or are touching instructional time. For this reason, I will need to stick tight to our timeframe. Thanks for your understanding. I look forward to visiting with you soon!

PICTURE DAY:

Picture Day is October 7th. Order forms will go out in next Tuesday folders! Here is the link to purchase online.

https://vando.imagequix.com/g1001300265

GLOW DAY:

In Science, we will soon start learning about forms of energy. During this unit, we’ll discuss sources of light, heat, and sound energy. To celebrate the end of the unit and explore all of our learning about light energy we will have a GLOW DAY! Glow day will be on Friday, October 17th. We will experiment and explore the effects of light. On this day, we’re asking your child to wear white or neon colors, they may also bring flashlights, glow sticks, something that glows in the dark,highlighters etc. It will be a very fun day exploring light energy!

STAR OF THE WEEK: Our Star of the Week for this week is Alex! We can’t wait to learn more about our special classmate!

THIS WEEK’S CURRICULUM:

Language Arts:

- Blend and spell words with short and long vowels

- Build fluency

- Learn new high-frequency words

- Participate in shared reading

- Respond through writing

- Continue working on "small moment" stories (drafting personal narratives)

- Write information learned about spiders

- Use the nonfiction text features to learn more about spiders

Math:

- Use objects and pictorial models to solve subtraction problems

- Learn steps to problem solving strategies

- Discuss and use subtraction strategies

Social Studies:

- Learn the importance of maps

- Use maps to identify continents, country, states, and our city

- Create a classroom map

IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER:

October 1: Walk or Bike to School Day

October 3: Parent Reader (Mina's Family)

October 7: Fall Picture Day

October 10: Parent Reader (Avi's Family)

October 13: Student Holiday/Parent Conference Day

October 17: Parent Reader (Lisa's Family)

October 20: Student/Staff Holiday

October 24: Parent Reader (Alex's Family)

October 31: Parent Reader (Nick's Family)

Have a wonderful weekend!

Week of September 22, 2025

Thank you so much for all that you have done to support our classroom since the start of the school year. Now that nightly reading homework has been added into our daily routine, we know that is one more thing for you as a parent to help with. Thank you for reading with your child, helping them to record the title, and adding the number of minutes along with a parent signature. Each child should be reading for a minimum of 10 minutes each school day. We will check for the “Friday minutes” on Monday mornings.

Important Information for this week:

SNACKS:

Students are given approximately 5 minutes to snack during our morning classroom activities. Please be mindful of this short amount of time and pack an item that your child can eat quickly. We ask that each child bring only one snack item and not an entire meal. Candy, cookies, and wet foods (like yogurt) should be saved for lunch or home. We appreciate your help with these guidelines.

FALL CONFERENCES:

Thank you for signing up for a fall conference! This will be a great time to celebrate all progress thus far and learn more about how to help your child with reading, writing, spelling, and math. Please remember that all fall conferences are 20 minutes in length. If more time is needed, we can certainly schedule another time to visit.

PTA REFLECTIONS PROGRAM:

The PTA Reflections Program is underway and we are excited to see what your students create this year with the theme "I Belong!" Entries are due by October 31st! For rules and guidelines, click here! Please submit all entries and questions to marissakashani@gmail.com

SAFETY NEWS:

Please use the properly identified crosswalks to safely cross the streets surrounding Canyon Creek Elementary. While it can be convenient to simply cross the street wherever you are, we need to make sure that we are doing so where you and your students can be protected. Also, please be mindful of handicap parking and do not park or stop in these spots without a permit.

VOLUNTEER APPLICATION:

If you plan to be a volunteer on campus, go on a field trip, help in the classroom, or work with students, it is required that you first complete this volunteer application AND receive approval. Please go ahead and complete it now. Generally it takes about 3 days to process, but during busy times it can take up to a week. If you completed an application last year, you will still need to complete a new one for the current school year.

STAR OF THE WEEK: Our Star of the Week is Alex on the week of September 29! We will not have a Star of the Week during the 3-day week. We look forward to learning more about our special classmate!

This week's curriculum:

Language Arts:

Distinguish between short and long vowel sounds
Build fluency
Learn new high-frequency words
Practice ABC order
Participate in shared reading
Respond through writing
Draft personal narratives
Read informational texts to find information
Practice our penmanship
Produce various sounds at the beginning, middle and end of words
Decode words with the a_e pattern

Math:

Practice systems and procedures for Math Workshop
Discuss the doubling addition strategy
Explore missing addends
Practice skip counting by 2, 5, and 10

Science:

Identify how heating and cooling changes materials
Conduct an investigation of how heat changes chocolate into a liquid and cooling chocolate changes it back into a solid

Important dates to remember:

September 22-23: No School for Students

September 26: Parent Reader (Maxim’s Family)

October 1 - Walk or Bike to School Day

October 3 - Cody Fisher Magic & Comedy Show

October 7 - First Running Club Meeting

October 13 - Student Holiday

October 15 - Watch D.O.G.S. Kickoff

October 19 - PTA Kalahari Friends & Family Night

October 20 - Student/Staff holiday

Have a great weekend!

Week of September 15, 2025

I am very pleased with the positive start to our nightly reading homework! It is so much fun to see the books the students are choosing to read. Thank you for expecting your first graders to be responsible for writing their own titles inside of the planners. I also appreciate that you are initialing their planners each night. They have done a wonderful job so far of bringing them back each day and enjoy the fact that they are earning table marbles at the same time. Happy Reading!

IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR THE WEEK:

1. FALL CONFERENCES: Thank you for signing up for a fall conference! This will be a great time to celebrate all progress thus far and learn more about how to help your child with reading, writing, spelling, and math. Please remember that all fall conferences are 20 minutes in length. If more time is needed, we can schedule another time to visit.

2. Please continue to check your child’s backpack on Tuesdays for work from the previous week or important notes from the office. This is an excellent way to spend quality time with your child, and gain an insight into what she/he is doing at school.

3. SNACKS IN THE CAFETERIA: The lunch monitors have let us know they are having a number of students buying snacks and/or ice cream at lunch. They are wanting to make sure children have permission to do so, using the money in their lunch account. We are asking parents to email our cafeteria manager to let her know your preferences. Her email is CanyonCreek_Cafeteria@roundrockisd.org.

4. VOLUNTEER APPLICATION: If you plan to be a volunteer on campus, go on a field trip, help in the classroom, or work with students, it is required that you first complete this volunteer application AND receive approval. Please go ahead and complete it now. Generally it takes about 3 days to process, but during busy times it can take up to a week. If you completed an application last year, you will still need to complete a new one for the current school year.

STAR OF THE WEEK: Our Star of the Week will be Mina!

AMAZON WISH LIST

If you are interested in supporting our classroom needs, here is our Amazon wishlist. I truly appreciate your support!

THIS WEEK’S CURRICULUM:

Language Arts:

Segment and blend phonemes
Build fluency
Learn new high-frequency words
Practice ABC order
Respond through writing
Continue writing stories while understanding the writing process
Generate ideas for a story by drawing and brainstorming
Practice handwriting
Describe the setting of a story and how it changes
Identify the sound of long /e/ in words
Identify nouns in a story

Math:

Practice systems and procedures for Math Workshop
Learn addition strategy called “Friends of 10”
Explore with missing addends
Practice skip counting by 2s
Learn how to add doubles

Science:

Identify how whole objects are made up of parts

IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER:

September 19: Parent Reader (Lexi's Family)

September 22-23: Student holiday

September 26: Parent Reader (Maxim's Family)

Have a wonderful weekend!

Week of September 8, 2025

The students are really starting to get into the groove of first grade! Thank you for sharing them with me each day! They are so much fun!

IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR THIS WEEK:

Star of the Week begins the week of September 8th! Be sure to check the Star of the Week section on this website to see when it's your child's turn! Emily is up first!

Student planners will be coming home on Monday, September, 8th. Students should be reading 10 minutes each night and recording the titles in their planner. Please write the number of minutes that were read and initial. We will check these each day. Reading minutes are expected on each school day. If it is a school holiday, you do not have to record minutes. I will check Friday's minutes on Monday.

For your reference or if you were not able to make it to Parent Night, please check your email. The slideshow was shared via email on September 5.

Please continue to check your child’s backpack on Tuesdays for work from the previous week or important notes from the office. This is an excellent way to spend quality time with your child and gain an insight into what she/he is doing at school.

SNACKS IN THE CAFETERIA: The lunch monitors have let us know they are having a number of students buying snacks and/or ice cream at lunch. They are wanting to make sure children have permission to do so, using the money in their lunch account. We are asking parents to email our cafeteria manager to let her know your preferences. Her email is CanyonCreek_Cafeteria@roundrockisd.org.

VOLUNTEER APPLICATION: If you plan to be a volunteer on campus, go on a field trip, help in the classroom, or work with students, it is required that you first complete this volunteer application AND receive approval. Please go ahead and complete it now. Generally it takes about 3 days to process, but during busy times it can take up to a week. If you completed an application last year, you will still need to complete a new one for the current school year.

THIS WEEK’S CURRICULUM:

Language Arts:

- Distinguish between short and long vowel sounds

- Build fluency

- Learn new high-frequency words

- Practice ABC order

- Participate in shared reading

- Respond through writing

- Orally plan a story from our life

- Draft personal narratives

- Learn a strategy for increasing our reading stamina

- Discuss the story elements of fiction

- Practice systems and procedures for Reading and Writing Workshop

Math:

- Practice systems and procedures for Math Workshop

- Discuss math vocabulary for addition

- Solve story problems by acting it out

- Discuss the “Plus 1” and “Plus 0” addition strategies

- Discuss the “Count on” addition strategy

Science:

- Discuss objects around us and identify their properties

- Sort objects by texture

- Predict how when magnets push or pull objects

IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER:

September 8: Student Planners come home

September 22-23: Student holiday

Have a great weekend!

Week of September 1, 2025

It was another great week in first grade!! Thank you for your continued partnership!

We are still continuing to establish our routines and procedures in first grade! This takes time and is the backbone of our day, and we are really getting into a groove. Our “classroom family” friendships are strengthening each day as we get to know each other through community building activities. It is fun to see a classroom community come together and see new friendships being made.

Important information for this week:

SNACKS IN THE CAFETERIA: The lunch monitors have let us know they are having a number of students buying snacks and/or ice cream at lunch. They are wanting to make sure children have permission to do so, using the money in their lunch account. We are asking parents to let the cafeteria know if your child has permission to get snacks or ice cream. You may email our Canyon Creek cafeteria manager to let her know your preferences. Her email is CanyonCreek_Cafeteria@roundrockisd.org. She can update your child’s specific cafeteria account with your preferences.

PARENT NIGHT: Our Parent Information Night is coming up on Thursday, September 4th. The first grade classes will meet from 5:30-6:00, and the PTA meeting will be held from 6:00-6:30. This is an opportunity for you to learn more about first grade in general and ask any questions that you may have.

STUFFED ANIMAL: Your child will need to bring a stuffed animal to school on Wednesday, September 3rd for a science activity. Their stuffed animal must be able to fit in their backpack and will come back home that same day.

VOLUNTEER APPLICATION: If you plan to be a volunteer on campus, go on a field trip, help in the classroom, or work with students, it is required that you first complete this volunteer application AND receive approval. Please go ahead and complete it now. Generally it takes about 72 hours to process, but during busy times it can take up to a week. If you completed an application last year, you will still need to complete a new one for the current school year.

FINE MOTOR SKILLS: As we get back into the swing of things, it is important for students to continue to develop their fine motor skills. Please practice with your child so they can tie their own shoe laces and drawstring pants and shorts. Please practice at home if needed. Also, allow your child to practice opening tight water bottles and food packages like crackers, granola bars, and popcorn.

ROOM PARENT:

Thank you for all of the ways that you have signed up to help in our classroom this year. Our Co-Room Parents will be Kristina Kovalchuk (Maxim's mom) and Agustina Rios Yacoub (Olivia's mom). Please thank them for the work they will do this year for our kids! We will be meeting in the near future to discuss events for the year and you will be hearing from them soon!

This week's curriculum:

Language Arts:

Build reading stamina
Identify beginning and ending sounds
Practice alliteration and review letter sounds
Practice orally blending sounds together
Work on comprehension skills while reading by making text-to-self connections to our stories
Introduce strategies to help with tricky words during reading
Respond to stories
Develop strategies for spelling unknown words
Learn a strategy for refocusing while reading
Build writing stamina
Create lists of ideas for future stories

Math:

Build math workshop routines
Recognize quantities and develop their ability to express strategies
Practice tallying information and surveying classmates
Practice with 10-frames to develop a better understanding of numbers
Share background knowledge about addition and subtraction

Science:

Describe properties of stuffed animals
Observe properties to classify materials

Important dates to remember:

September 1st: Holiday; No School

September 3rd: Bring stuffed animal to school

September 4th: Parent Information Night 5:30-6:00, PTA Meeting 6:00

Have a great 3 day weekend!

Week of August 25, 2025

We had a great first few weeks in first grade! We are busy setting up routines and an amazing classroom community. I love seeing old friendships continue while seeing new friendships form. This time of year is so important in our classroom. It is the time that we set up expectations and routines which allows for the remainder of our year to be as productive and successful as possible.

Please know that we are working hard at school; however, most of the work that we’ve been doing is collected as “show what you know” papers, kept in notebooks or spirals at school, or activities discussed as a class. This means that currently there are minimal papers coming home in your child’s Tuesday folder. I realize you might be curious as to what your child is doing all day, and I thank you in advance for giving us grace and allowing us to set up our classroom community with routines and procedures in place. At the bottom of this newsletter, I encourage you to check out our learning targets for this week, as your child can probably tell you all about what they are learning.

I am really enjoying getting to know your kiddos and finding out their interests and personalities as well as their strengths and areas to focus on this year. I can tell that it will be a fun and exciting year with this cute bunch!

This week we visited the library and found out how Mrs. Bamford runs the library. We checked out three books to start off with, but in time we will be allowed to check out 5 books per person. We will enjoy those books for the week and return them the following Wednesday (our library day) with the excitement of checking out more! Remember that Wednesdays are our "Return It All Day" -- Tuesday folders and library books!

Important information for this week:

Please return the “We Are Authors” assignment that asks for a handful of photographs, stickers, pictures of favorite things, etc. on Monday, August 25th. Thank you to the families who have already returned this information!

Our Parent Information Night is coming up on Thursday, September 4th from 5:30-6:00 with the PTA Meeting taking place right after from 6:00-6:30 so you can learn more about both first grade and our school in general while asking any questions that you may have.

In this week's Tuesday folder, you will find a class contact sheet so your family can reach out to other first grade families for playdates, birthday parties, etc.

Your child will need to bring a stuffed animal to school on Wednesday, September 3rd for a science activity. Their stuffed animal must be able to fit in their backpack and will come back home that same day.

We are still collecting headphones to be used with our chromebooks…thank you to the many families who have already sent some in with their child!

Congratulations to our Co-Room Parents, Kristina Kovalchuk (Maxim's mom) and Agustina Rios Yacoub (Olivia's mom) for the work they will do this year for our kids! We will be meeting in the near future to discuss events for the year and you will be hearing from them soon!

Please use this form to give Round Rock ISD employees permission to refer to your CANYON CREEK ES student by a nickname. If your student goes by anything other than their legal first name, completion of this form is required. If I contacted you earlier in the year and received email permission, please complete this as well. This is the official place to make sure all teachers receive the information. Please ensure you are logged into the parent/guardian email address on file with the school.

THIS WEEK’S CURRICULUM:

Language Arts:

Build reading stamina
Orally segment and blend sounds together
Listen actively and make text-to-self connections to stories
Practice print awareness and identify the parts of a book
Identify and read high frequency words
Develop strategies for spelling unknown words
Create lists to help with idea development of future stories

Math:

Build math workshop routines
Recognize quantities and develop their ability to express strategies
Practice tallying information and surveying classmates
Practice with ten frames to develop an understanding of numbers

Social Studies:

Explore reasons for rules and laws in our communities
Understand the role of authority figures and public officials & who enforces the rules and laws
Identify and describe the role of a good citizen
Explain and practice voting as a way of making choices and decisions

Important dates to remember:

September 1st: Holiday; No School

September 3rd: Bring stuffed animal to school

September 4th: 5:30pm - Parent Information Night, 6:00pm - PTA Meeting

Have a great week!

Welcome to First Grade!

Thank you for a great first week of school! We have loved getting to know our students and building a classroom community.

We appreciate your patience as we begin our new school year. Getting to know our students, making them feel comfortable, and helping them establish new friendships are our top priorities! Building classroom expectations and routines take time and help ensure a smooth, successful year.

COMMUNICATION

Communication is very important. We are committed to keeping you informed about what the students are doing in the classroom. If you need to be in touch with us, you may send a note to school with your child, call, or write an email. However, if you need to change your child’s after school transportation plans for that school day, please contact the main office (428-2800) before 2:00. Teachers may not always have the chance to check email and voicemail before dismissal.

Lauren Barnard 428-2839 lauren_barnard@roundrockisd.org

Karen Ogle 428-2840 karen_ogle@roundrockisd.org

Casey Dobbins 428-2841 casey_dobbins@roundrockisd.org

Each week you will find our newsletter posted on our web pages. In order to make our communication easy to access, all school newsletters can be accessed through the CCE webpage. Please be sure to visit each page on the website as you become familiar with first grade, and then read the newsletter page weekly. It is essential that you utilize this valuable resource for important classroom information. If you have any questions, please ask your child’s teacher. This will be our valuable means of communication with you throughout the year.

Important information for this week:

Please complete these 2 First Grade items located in the weekly folder and return them to school by Tuesday, August 19th:

● The parent survey asking for information about your child (please complete both sides)

● The volunteer information sheet titled Helping Hands

Homework: In the Tuesday folder, you will find your child’s first homework assignment for first grade, a fun little activity! Look for a page called “We Are Authors”, which will help us learn more about your child. It is due on Monday, August 25th. If your child completes the project early, please feel free to send it to school with your child before the due date.

Recess Information: We welcome students to bring a labeled water bottle (first and last names) to school. On days when we have inclement weather or the heat index is too high, we will have a break in our day for indoor recess. The safety of our children is foremost in our minds.

Dismissal Information: At 2:55, each first grade teacher will be dismissing students from the classroom when their family dismissal number appears on the screen to meet up with families that are walking or in the car line. If your child goes to the YMCA, ACES, or another after school means of transportation, we will ensure they get there safely. Thank you in advance for all your help as we work together as partners in keeping all students safe!

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Please send headphones with your child to use with their school issued Chromebook. Headphones need to be labeled with your child's name.

AMAZON WISH LIST

If you are interested in supporting our classroom needs, here is our Amazon wishlist. I appreciate your support!

THIS WEEK’S CURRICULUM:

Language Arts:

- Write about summer experiences

- Read stories about the beginning of school

- Respond to stories

- Introduce Reading Workshop

- Introduce Writer’s Workshop

Math:

- Discuss value of numbers

- Learn how to care for math materials

- Number writing

Social Studies:

- Meet and learn about our new first grade classmates and friends

- Tour the school

- Learn classroom procedures, rules and expectations; create a classroom social contract

- Learn cafeteria procedures, rules, and expectations

- Learn recess rules and expectations

- Compare the differences between Kindergarten and First Grade

- Learn how to share information with partners

- Discuss importance of making good choices

IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER:

September 1: Holiday; No School

September 4: 5:30pm - Parent Information Night, 6:00pm - PTA Meeting

We hope you have a wonderful week! We look forward to a fantastic year!

The First Grade Team

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