Kindergarten Invades Reid's Orchard

The Estes Elementary kindergarten students took over Reid's Orchard. The students went through mazes, played in the interactice play spaces, picked apples and learned all kinds of interesting facts about apples. It was a great day at the orchard and the teachers bragged on how well behaved our students were! Go Lil' Bulldogs!

Third Grade PBL Night

Ms. Coomes and her class showed off all the wonderful things happening in her third grade class. Students explained their Community Unity project, science experiments and all the cool things in their personal Edmodo sites. Parents were amazed and impressed with all of the amazing concepts and school work their children are doing in third grade at Estes.

Creativity and Math

The days of drill and kill and students falling asleep in math class are over for the students at Estes Elementary. Here is an example of students being actively engaged with their learning. Students in Ms. Oldham's class used base 10 blocks to create art work. The students then filled out a sheet telling how many total blocks were used and how they found their answers.

Student of the Month Luncheon

The students of the month for September had a special luncheon with Ms. Flagg and Mr. Williams. These students were nominated by their teachers and displayed the characteristic of teamwork. Teamwork is a very vital component of your child's education at Estes Elementary. Congratulations to these students on being the September Students' of the month.

Grandparents Day

Ms. Oldham and Mrs. Crabtree welcomed the grandparents of their students to eat in the classroom. They had a wonderful meal and enjoyed learning about the happenings at Estes.

International Dot Day at Estes Elementary

Estes Dot Week activities concluded last Friday afternoon with one massive dot on the back lawn at Estes. 480 students plus school staff held their personal dot high above their heads. Each dot contained a message on they were going to leave their MARK on the world.

First Grade and Dot Day

Mrs. Johnsons class made dot day shirts and made a dot for International Dot Day. We love the creativity going on with the shirts and dots!

Estes Wins High Attendance Award

We are proud to say Estes won the high attendance award for the second year in a row. How to we celebrate winning? We celebrate by duct taping our administrators to a wall and having some fun with them! Check out the video by clicking on the link below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43kdBbOIwlQ&feature=share&list=UUhBhZ30k9LyVHXMLL1u5Sgg

Reading and Nature

Mrs. McCarty's class is working on reading and getting back to nature. Here are some pics her class would like to share. Now that I think about it I like to read while I am out in nature!

POWER OUTAGE

What would you do if there were a power outage at your house. You don't know? Well, luckily for you the third graders at Estes have the answer. You make homemade flashlights. After studying about electricity and circuits the students were challenged with the task of making a homemade flashlignt out of various materials in the room. Check out what they made!

IT'S ELECTRIC

This group figured out six different ways to set up their circuit. This picture is of how they connected two wires and made the connection about conductors through metal (copper in this case).

Nurture Your Child's Brain

I would like to share an article with the parents on how to help nurture your child's brain. Please click on the link below.
http://www.greatschools.org/parenting/7620-jane-healy-how-to-boost-childs-brain.gs?cpn=20130915weeklysend

Mrs. Alley's Class Does Drama

This week we read the story of The Three Little Pigs and on Friday we retold the story through Drama. Kylee, Billy, Angel (Played the Three Little Pigs) and Gabriel (played the big bad wolf). The rest of the class helped in narrating the story (The wolf huffed and puffed part). My class had a blast! It was truly a capturing moment in our room and a lot of learning going on!

 

Mrs. Seaton's Class Gets Creative with Yellow

We made “Yellow Creations” this week.  The class used some yellow modeling clay, pipe cleaners, straws, pom poms, etc.

A True Mathematician

Zayd completed a math problem with his own strategy. Ms. Oldham was proud of him and had me come down and take his picture for the blog. Here is another example of getting a math problem correct by figuring out your own strategy!

Mrs. Ferrell's Board of Extra Homework

Mrs. Ferrell has had to add a bulletin board in her class because her class keep bringing in extra homework.This is a great problem to have if you are a teacher! Her students are doing this homework not because she has assigned it, but they are bringing in homework that they are doing on their own!

ESTES MADE THE FRONT PAGE

I hope you had the chance to read the newspaper today. Estes made the front page about how we are changing the library into a Project and Research Center. I am so proud of the students and the teachers here at Estes on how they are striving to be the best school in the world. Go TEAM ESTES!

Gallery Walk

Mrs. Gaynor's class is shown here doing a gallery walk. The students were scoring each other on their pictures.

Discovering Matter

Mrs. McKenzie' s class studying Matter and making play dough.

MAP Testing Begins This Week

This is going to be a very exciting week at Estes with MAP testing starting on Tuesday. Parents please make sure your child gets plenty of sleep each night and comes to school every day. Please remember we are serving free breakfast and we need your child to have his or her belly full before taking the test.
MAP testing is a great way for teachers to monitor your child's academic progress throughout the year. If you are new to Estes and don''t know how MAP testing works I will try to explain. MAP testing is a nationally normed tests that is given to students around the country. The test compares your child with children who are in the same grade. Your child will be tested in mathematics and language arts. The MAP test is given three times a year, so that we can make sure your child is meeting his or her yearly academic growth.
Please talk to your child about the importance of this test. We want to make sure your child gives his or her best effort, so that we get a true measure of what your child knows.
At Estes, the MAP test is one way that your child will climb the mountain to success this year!

Ms. Thrasher's Class and Penguins

Ms. Thrasher's class just finished up Mo Willams author study. We love Mo's pigeon!