Hello Everyone,

Wasn’t the Science Fair absolutely FANTASTIC?! We had 700 students, parents, and teachers participate. Our largest Science Night to date. As always, the Hebron High School Science National Honor Society did a wonderful job and the Perot Museum always has a wonderful show for us. The month of March seems to be as busy as February with Spring Break the second week of the month. During the first week of March most of the Kingdom Tale Receptions will take place and March 8^th is our spring Open House from 5:00 – 6:30pm.  The 3^rd grade also goes to the Symphony at the end of the first week. The week we return from spring break our spring book fair takes place and we will again participate in the International Day of Happiness at the end of that week. Then believe it or not we finish March with the end of the 3^rd nine weeks of school.  Where is the year going?

Here at Castle Hills we are blessed with wonderful volunteers. Part of volunteering at school requires a background check. There is always some confusion when it comes to background checks. These background checks are valid for the school year you apply and the next 2 school years. For example, if you did your background check at the beginning of the 2017-2018 school year, your background will be good for 2017-2018, 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 school years. You would then have to have another background check completed for the 2020-2021 school year. If you did your original background check in the spring of the 2017-2018 school year you would still have to have a new background check for the 2020-2021 school year. As you can see these background checks are by school year not 3 years from when you originally did your background check.  If you have questions, please call the office.  Background checks are for your children and the staffs’ protection. I understand how frustrating it can be when you thought your background check was current and it isn’t. This is district policy and for the protection of those at school and will be enforced. Thank you for your understanding.

Continuing on the subject of safety, as you know, you must always have your state-issued ID to go beyond the security doors.  Even if you have been scanned before you should always bring your ID. We have purchased a new scanner; therefore, everyone will need to be rescanned. I have been asked to remind you to watch your speed when you drive through the front car rider line. We have been a little nervous lately with our safety patrol kids out there because of the speed at which parents are driving through. Again, thank you so much for your help in keeping our students and staff safe!

New student online registration for the 2018-2019 school year opened on February 20^th. Please go online and update your students’ information. On February 27^th, you should have received via cyber Tuesday and the Tuesday Newsletter information on how to provide input for your child’s placement for next year. I also need your help with student numbers for next year.  To prevent student placements from being changed once made, it is very important that I know how many teachers I will have at each grade level. Please let any family you know who has a Kindergarten or 1^st grader who was in private school and who will be a Castle Hills Dragon next year to go online and register their child at this time. April 5^th and 6^th is Kindergarten and new student registration on campus. This is when you provide your paperwork to school to finish the registration process. You must have registered online initially. Kindergarten and 1^st grade seem to always be the grade levels whom I am most concerned about whether or not we will lose a class in. As I continue to lose classes, these losses move up to the next grade level each year. A smaller school is always nice, but we are a family here at Castle Hills and it is the loss of a teacher that really affects us. This is why registration is so important. Any help with this information is greatly appreciated. Also, Norma will be sending home a form shortly for current students to indicate if they are returning next year.  Please complete these forms quickly and return them.  All information will be used for placing children for the 2018-2019 school year.

The Spring Equinox is Tuesday, March 20^th at 11:15am in the northern hemisphere. As we all know, although it will be spring, here in Texas we experience hot weather one day, and cold the next day. It can be cold in the morning and hot in the afternoon. It makes our allergies crazy and the unpredictability drives us all crazy. With that being said, please send your child dressed to ensure they are comfortable outside during recess. I know that I will see students in shorts more and more with the warmer weather. This reminds me that children grow over the Winter and we don’t notice. It is not uncommon that the shorts and skirts/dresses which were bought in the Fall, fit differently now in the Spring. The following provides a friendly reminder of our dress code.

Dress Code:  Dresses/skirts/shorts should not be shorter than approximately where the finger tops hit when they are hanging down with the hand open.  Another way to measure length is to make sure they are no shorter than 4 inches above the knee. Spaghetti straps are not allowed – shoulder straps need to be the width of a dollar bill.  This applies even to our adorable little kindergarten girls.  It always bothers kids when someone has to speak to them about their clothing choices so please ensure they are not put in that position. If your child wants to wear a top or dress that is not in dress code, make sure they have a sweater to wear over the top or dress. Thanks for your help with this.

On a personal note, I apologize ahead of time that I will miss most of the Kingdom Tales Receptions and Open House this year.  I have a family medical situation that is taking me to Los Angeles.  I have all the confidence that Mr. Johnson will do a wonderful job in my absence.

I hope everyone has a safe and fun spring break.

Mrs. Donna J. Taylor, M.Ed

There are some opportunities under My Account such as Kindergarten Lunch Duty and Student Spotlight articles. Here are also Sign Up Genius opportunities to support our school, teachers, and students: They can be found at CHEPTA.net under My Account --> Volunteer Opportunities:

Event-Specific:

• STEM Kinder Supplies: Toilet Paper Rolls (March 20, 2018)
• STEM 2nd Grade Supplies: Shoe Boxes (March 20, 2018)
• CHE Book Fair Volunteers (March 9-23, 2018)

Year-Round:

• 3rd grade study hall helpers (year round)
• STEM Class Volunteering (every Wednesday and Thursday)
• K-Cups for Teachers (Friday drop-off in office)
• Library Shelving (school hours; flexible times)
• Kindergarten Lunch Duty (10:30am lunch time)
• Castle Courier Spotlight Articles (semi-weekly)

This month we would like to nominate Vivian Williams for all her hard work on making Science Night a huge success! She had a great committee of the following ladies: Marie Reynolds, Carly Dunson, Brooke Martin, Carrie Strahan, Kelly Cleghorn, Angela McCarthy, and Suzanne Bright who helped with organizing, decorating and helping with every aspect of the night! There were science experiments all over the school and even right when you walked through the doors, the kids got tie-died name tags made using shaving cream and food coloring! The kids also got to play with slime, make gak, make a bouncy ball, create and melt shrinky dinks, they built things using bricks 4 kidz and even practiced CPR with Nurse Kohler.

The Hebron High school Chemistry team came to perform a show of several demoed science experiments. You could also browse 4th and 5th grade science fair projects that were displayed throughout the school!

Thank you so much to everyone who made this event a HUGE success!

Ms. Emma Hurst, 2nd grade

1. What is your favorite daily activity to do to reinforce Great Expectations with your students?
   We love doing celebrations to encourage and recognize our friends. 

2. Can you give an example of how your class or a particular student exceeded one of your 8 expectations?
   The students that exceed an expectation are those that stand and address the class and speak in complete sentences consistently. We want our students to communicate proudly and confidently, so we love it when students do this and without prompting. We also have many kids that are so helpful not only to us, their teachers, but also to their classmates and friends. We had group of students ask if they could pick up trash at recess and brought bags from home to collect it in since there aren’t trash cans at the playground.

The 2nd grade practicing the expectations before recess 

Congratulations to all 10 of the teams that participated in the Regional Destination Imagination tournament on Saturday, February 24th! Thank you for representing Castle Hills Elementary so well.

We would especially like to recognize the 5th Grade team Cherriez on Top (5th grade girls) who won 1st place in the Fine Arts Category Challenge, Change of Tune, and the 3rd grade team Mad Design Masters who placed 2nd the challenge Unlikely Attraction. Both of these teams will be advancing to the DI State Tournament in Mansfield, TX on April 7th.

Cherriez on Top Team Members: Ahana Agarwal, Alexandra Barko, Chloe McCain, Noorain Aziz, Reese Walsh, Sydney Etufugh, Zainab Javed

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