Dealing With Failure

Failure is a part of life and a person can either learn from failure or become a failure. At Estes, we are teaching students about grit. Grit is persistence, determination and resilience. We want students who are willing to take risks and fail. Failure breeds success and innovation.
How can a parent help a child deal with failure. It is easy! First, don't give up on them. Second, don't make excuses for them.
I will share a time when I failed in school. I earned a D in a language arts class and man I was mad. I went home and complained to my parents that this teacher was horrible and didn't like me. Yes, I played that card with my parents. My parents saw through it because they knew I wasn't working hard in class. I was to worried about other things that didn't matter in my life.
My parents challenged me to bring my grade up and stayed on me to do that. I posted that failing grade above my bed, so that when I went to bed it was the last thing I saw and when I woke up it was the first thing I saw.
My parents could have easily given up on me or told me that I wouldn't need to learn from that teacher. My parents didn't do that because they knew if they were to do that I wouldn't want to try on anything. If my parents are reading this, I want to say thank you for not allowing me to take shortcuts.

Happy Meals for Sight Words

Students who met their sight word goals were treated to Happy Meals from McDonald's! Each grade level has set goals for your children to reach on their sight words! Please help your child memorize these sight words, so that they can earn a Happy Meal. Each month we will reward students who meet their sight word goals with a Happy Meal in the Bulldog Bistro. At Estes, we believe in rewarding hard working students!

Boys Book Club in Full Swing

The first grade boys book club started last week and the competition is fierce. This isn't an ordinary book club! No, this book club challenges the boys to become reading champions. The boys meet and work on phonics lessons through a game show. They learn and battle each other in a "Survivor" sight word challenge. Finally, the boys partner up and go through a no holds barred tag team championship game where they battle for the reading championship belts. In the picture below, you see Gabriel (our first)  "Survivor" champion.

Estes Has the Best Teachers in the World

While the students had a day off on Friday our Estes faculty was hard at work. This dedicated staff was analyzing school data and making school improvement plans. I want you to know when your child walks through our doors in the morning he or she is receiving instruction from some of the best teachers in the United States. This staff truly cares about your children and is doing everything they can to make sure your child will be able to succeed in life. This was not just a one day showing of how hard our teachers work. Drive by Estes on the weekends or late at night and you are bound to see cars in the parking lot. I can tell you they aren't in the gym playing basketball or dodgeball. They are in there getting things ready for the next week of school. Please don't wait until teacher appreciation week to thank your child's teacher.

The "Sorce" of Energy

Mr. Sorce's class was learning about energy. They also discovered what variables and constants are, along with independent and dependent variables.

Mrs. Huskisson's Class is Saving the Universe

Tips of the Week

Did you know that the links on the side are child friendly and will actually help with your child's education? Mrs. Alley told me that she has been looking at reports and her Kindergarten students have been using the sites at home. Ask your child's teacher for the username and password for your child. Just be patient because it will take a few days for them to get the information ready.
What to do when your child is ready and doesn't know a word? It is easy to just tell your child the word, but that doesn't really help your child.
The first strategy I would do is have your child skip the word and read the rest of the sentence. After the sentence has been read go back to that word and see if your child can figure it out now.
The next strategy I would use is chunking the word. Let your child break down the word and look for smaller words inside the word.
How to handle homework that is given out at the beginning of the week and due on Friday. More and more teachers have been going to giving out all homework that is due for the week on Monday's. Lots of children want to wait until Thursday night to do their homework and then soon realize they can't possibly get it all done. I would suggest you sit down with your children on Monday night and help your child come up with a pacing guide that will break down the homework nightly. If your children are doing their homework at a daycare, I would still sit down with them and look over the work.
It is good for your children to learn how to manage their time and work right now because this is a skill they will need as an adult. I am almost 40 and I am doing this with my own college work. Your child will be less stressed when they come up with a plan on how to tackle their homework.
Everyone have a good week and keep pushing for excellence. Also, please remember you are only a failure if you give up. Go Bulldogs!

Extra, Extra! Read All About It!

Mr. Sorce's class hard at work on their class newspaper.

Energizing a Science Class

Ms. Coomes and her kids are learning about energy in her class. They are discovering the potential and kinetic energy all around them. The kids are using math tools to calculate height, degrees of angles, and the speed of objects as energy is converted from potential to kinetic energy! The kids created ramps and tested the speed of the bottles and observed how the height of the ramp affected the speed of the bottles! The kids discovered the Law of Conservation of Energy: energy can never be created or destroyed, only transferred or transformed!

Kids also worked on the 4 Cs and how important it is for scientists to synergize!

Penny Wars

September 16th through October 3rd to benefit the United Way organization students from all grade levels are asked to bring in pennies or any other spare change that they want to contribute to United Way. The grade level that wins the Penny Wars will have their picture featured on the United Way website and Facebook page! They will also have their names entered into different drawings and have the chance to win various prizes. Estes Elementary is very proud of the 3rd graders for taking on this project. We know that together they will do a great job of raising funds for this worthy cause. The United Way donates many funds and services that directly impact our students and families in positive

ways. Thanks in advance for any contribution that your family is able to make for the United Way. 

LAW School

Have you heard that Estes is holding LAW school? Yes, LAW school. Well, LAW stands for Learning, Athletics and Wellness. This is an after school program put on by DARE officers from the Owensboro Police Department. Our students at Estes have the opportunity to hang out with the officers an take part in different activities such as kickball, finger printing, soccer and one special program that we aren't announcing, yet. Take a look at the pics below that show some of our students learning about finger prints.

Dreaming, Believing and Learning

We live in a great country that allows our dreams to come true. Yes, dreams can come true if you put forth the effort to make them come true. All of you have heard the saying-if you believe you can achieve. Well, that sounds nice doesn't. Believing and dreaming can only get you so far in life. A person has to be willing to roll up their sleeves and put in the work to make his or her dreams come true.  A good work ethic can take a person a long way.
We need to make sure our students and your children are willing to work for what they want. I was lucky to have parents that pushed me to become a better student and person. Reading was difficult for me until something clicked in third grade. My parents could have given up on me and made excuses for why I wasn't learning. Instead, my parents worked with me every night and pushed me to do my best. Giving up on me would have been very easy because I can only imagine all the ways I tried to get out of doing homework.
Here are somethings that you can do to help with making homework more enjoyable:

1. Take turns reading with your children. Have them read a page and then you read a page. Model to them how fun reading can be. 
2. While you are reading ask your children some questions about what is happening in the story. 
3. If you have children that like to draw, read a page to them and have them draw what they think is happening in the story.
4. If you have children that like to act, read a page and have them act out that page.
5. If you have children that like to write, have them write an alternate ending to the story.
6. Turn your smart phone into an educational device. Search for free educational apps that your child can play. A great app to start off is Khan Academy.

Now on a personal note- I want to tell my parents thank you for not giving up on me and pushing me to always try my best. Thanks to them I have two college degrees (currently work on my third) and a National Board Certification for teaching. Was it easy? No! Was it cheap? No, I have had to take numerous loans but it was necessary. By the way, I dreamt of being an NBA player, game show host and a teacher. 

Walmart and Estes

Walmart on 54 store manager Bill Burns surprised us with a check for 10,000 boxtops which equals $1,000. From left to right

Mr. Johnson, Mr. Hayden, Ms. Jones, Mr. Williams and Mr. Burns.

We would like to thank Mr. Burns and the fine employees at Walmart for this generous donation to our school. The Estes community is lucky to have a store like Walmart in our backyard that thinks our students are deserving of such a fine donation! The next time you stop into Walmart make sure to tell Mr. Burns thank you and maybe give him a hug. As you can tell, I gave him a big hug!

A Growth Mindset

We are asking our students to challenge themselves and push their brains harder than they ever thought imaginable. To make this work- everyone needs to believe it can happen. For a growth mindset to work, it will take teachers, parents and students challenging what they think they can and cannot do.
We welcome students to be risk takers and fail! Yes, FAIL! You eyes aren't deceiving you! Failure leads to learning. Sitting there and not trying leads to no growth. How can you ever accomplish something without even trying? Guess what? Failing actually helps teachers teach students. Our teachers at Estes can see the thought process of your child when he or she "messes up" on a math problem. The teachers can analyze what the student did wrong and help them Discover what went wrong, Improve their work and help the student Learn from the failure. This is called DIL-ing with it. Discover-Improve-Learn.
Here is an example of what I am talking about. This young girl had a tough time on a math test. She didn't give up and with the help of her mom and Mrs. Jewell she earned an A on her next test. This couldn't have happened if the teacher, student and parent didn't have a growth mindset. We are proud of Mariah and all of our students who are practicing a growth mindset! Go Bulldogs!

Parents, Teachers and Students Learning Together

Our wonderful team of 3rd grade teachers held an information night for parents and a movie night for their students. Mrs. Renfrow played host to our 3rd grade students and they were able to relax with a movie after a hard day of working. While the kids were relaxing our 3rd grade teachers were working with the parents on how they could come together as a team and give our 3rd students the best education possible. There were a lot of great ideas and conversations shared between the teachers and parents. If the Estes community wants our school to be the best school in the world, it is going to take teachers, parents and students working together. Trust me-WE CAN DO THIS!

A Hunting We Will Go

Students in Mrs. McCarty's class are using magazines to go on a digraph hunt! Searching for those tricky pairs (th, wh, ou, ow, ch, sh and ng) at the beginning, middle and ending of words. 
Parents you can gather up your children and go on a digraph hunt in their favorite books. After you hunt for digraphs you can hunt those pesky sight words that are on the run! Turn around! I think I see one!

The Importance of Reading

I am going to post some scary stats that I find totally unacceptable and I am sickened by.
33% of students entering both the county and city school kindergarten classes are below average in language skills!
51% of students entering kindergarten are unprepared for kindergarten work!
66% of fourth grade students are not reading at grade level!
To get our students where they can be successful in the world we all have to work together. We don't need to blame each other but instead come together. This means teachers, parents and students have to be on the same page and work towards making sure our children are successful.
How do we this?
The most important thing we can do is set expectations for our children. We tell them they will succeed and then we don't give up on them when things get hard. Trust me, I know how easy it is to tell your child he or she doesn't have to read tonight because everyone is tired. I have 3 boys that have my wife and me going to all different sporting and academic functions. Our children know they will have to read and do their homework if they want to continue doing  extracurricular activities. It is easy to give in when they are throwing fits about homework and reading but you have to stand your ground. I promise you it will become easier if you stand your ground and tell them they have to read and do their homework. We send conflicting messages when some nights we tell them they don't have to read or do their homework.
We like to have our boys come in and do their homework as soon as they get home. By doing this they can spend the rest of the day and night doing whatever they want to do. We found out the closer to bedtime the less likely they were willing and able to get their homework finished.
Each week I am going to provide you with some strategies that you can do at home with your children to make reading more fun for everyone.
This week I am going to provide three fun ways to get your students to memorize those tricky words on their word lists.
Get a sheet of regular notebook paper and draw 16 boxes (or fold it in half, half again, half again and half again). Pick 8 words that are giving your child fits and write those 8 words 2 times each. Next, cut those boxes out and play a game of memory match.
You can also write each word 5 times and cut those out and play a game of sight word tic-tac-toe. Every time a child puts a word down they have to say the word to you.
You can also play connect four with sight words. You put the sight words in a pile and you and your child each draw a card. If they name the word correctly, they get to put a chip in.
We have a chance to make our students not only survive in this world but thrive in it. We just need to come together and show our children how important a great education can be.

The Summer Reading Challenge

We had some students take part in the summer reading challenge and even more students continue the challenge when school started. Alex was the lucky winner of a Kindle Fire and all she had to do to win it was read. The other students pictured took the reading challenge when school started back on August 6 and they were rewarded with free t-shirts.

The Challenge Has Been Accepted

Mrs. Lanham's class has accepted the SIGHT WORD challenge! She has four students who have mastered the first 100 words! Take a look at how excited they are! Thank you to all the parents who are helping their children learn their sight words! Way to go Bulldog family!

Share Time in the PRC

Mrs. McCarty's class took advantage of the pit area in the PRC to practice how to be a good speaker and audience member. Her class took turns sharing their journal writing.

Hard Work Pays Off

We finished up MAP testing last week and rewarded students who scored the highest on the test and we rewarded students who showed the most growth from last spring. We are always looking to reward high scores and hard work. These students were rewarded with a choice of a bulldog necklace, bulldog backpack or a bulldog shirt. All students in the school who met their goal in both reading and math were treated with a tasty popsicle. We are so proud of all of our hard workers!