Welcome Back to Estes

We hope that everyone has had a great start to the year. I know the staff at Estes loves having your children here at school.

Please remember that schools starts at 8:05. I would like to thank all of the parents that get your children to school on time. At Estes, our teachers pride themselves on not wasting any instructional time during the day. It might not seem like a lot of time, but when your child shows up at 8:30 they have already lost 25 minutes of instruction. This also requires your child's teacher to stop class and get them caught up with the rest of the class, which then wastes the time of the students in class. 

Breakfast in the cafeteria is served until 7:50. If your child enters the cafeteria at 7:50, they will receive a breakfast bag that your child can take back to their teacher's room.

I believe we have worked out most of the kinks for the walker and car rider lines. Thank you for your patience in dealing with those issues.

Parents we would just like to thank you for everything that you do to help your child become a successful student at Estes! It takes a village to raise a child and with us working closely together we can raise your child to do amazing things! I have a senior this year and there is no way I could have gotten him to where he is today without the help of his teachers. I am so blessed that he had teachers that looked out for him and pushed him to do well in school. As you can see I highlighted "pushed" because let's me honest most kids need to be pushed. If you want to succeed in life you need someone that is going to push you to greatness and that is what our teachers at Estes are trying to do with your children.

Thank you for taking time out of your day or night and checking their folders. My wife and I have a place for each one of our children's backpacks, so that we can do a quick check to see what important information their teachers shared with us that day. Having a place that your child keeps his or her backpack also makes it easier for you and them to find it the next morning. Please continue to keep in communication with your child's teacher with any questions or concerns that you may have. 

Thank you for asking them about their day. If you want to get something besides nothing for an answer change up your questions. What was the best part of the day? Can you teach me something that you learned today? What was something that made you laugh today? What was something that made you proud today? If you could change one thing about today what would it be? How can we make tomorrow better? 

Thank you for reading to them or listening to them read at night. A parent that shows interest in a child's education will have a child that understands the importance of why they come to school. Reading to your child is a simple way of showing your child that an education is important and it is also a way of bonding with your child. Please cherish this time you have them at this age because before you know it they will be looking at colleges with you. I truly miss holding them, reading to them and talking to them about the books.  

Parents lets do something special and show the world that our little school is the best in the world!

Sweet Dreams

I saw this infographic on the news and I thought I would share this with all of you. I have 3 boys and I know the struggle of getting children to bed. It is so important to get your children in a bedtime routine because lack of sleep is dangerous to a child's body, mind and spirit.
I know when our boys were little we would turn off the television an hour or so before bed to allow their eyes and mind to rest. We then would move to giving them a bath and finally read them a bedtime story. This helped them wind down and get a full night's sleep.
Now we parents have to deal with all the technology that our children are on at night. I am speaking from experience and I will tell you that they need to get off all devices at least an hour before bed. My youngest was having trouble falling asleep and it was because he was on his iPad right before bed. I am not going to bore you with all the research, but if you google screen time before bed you can see what I mean.
Good luck and good night!

Engineering in Third Grade

Estes third graders are engineers! When given materials and a task, these students turned to the engineering design process to solve a problem. As you can see, they engineered some original designs. When asked what they learned, most agreed showing grit during the improvement stage is a necessity for successful engineering.

Mrs. Jewell's Leaders

During the first three days of school we worked on creating visuals to display which focus on characteristics of a great classroom community. The students are working on showing what each of these characteristics look like, sound like and how they make them feel as a part of our community. Our words include: kindness, effort, respect and responsibility and were generated by the students! These posters will also help us craft our Leader In Me classroom mission statement!

Pete the Cat

Here is a video from the first week of school of Mrs. Harralson's class and Pete the Cat! Enjoy!

OCTC Is For You!

Amanda Brothers, who works for Owensboro Community and Technical College, recently shared some information with me and I would like to share it with our parents. Here are some just a few of the things OCTC offers: English as a Second Language Classes, GED classes, help with the WorkKeys, College prep  and AOKY classes where they can take college classes when they are working on their GED. We also have the Ready to Work Program and the Work and Learn Program for those who are receiving KTAP and would like to get their GED or go to College. 

Heart of a Champion

Ladies and gentlemen we have six weeks of school left in this school year. The last six weeks of the year are where champions are made. Why? It is because champions don't let distractions stop them from achieving their goals.
What goals are you talking about Mr. Williams? The one and only goal I would like to address is being the best version of yourself that you can be. I would like to describe what I believe this looks like for our students. This is based on 18 years of being an educator and what I have seen during my 18 year career.
Students you need to remember why you are at school. The main reason you are at school and why your parents want you in school is to be successful in life. The world is a hard place that will chew you up and spit you out if you aren't prepared for what life throws at you. In the final six weeks you are going to have distractions that will test your heart and if you are a champion. You are going to have ball games and practices to go to. Here is what I have seen in champion students: THEY GET THEIR WORK DONE either before practice or after practice. These students understand that less than 1% of all students that have attended schools in Owensboro and Daviess County have played professional sports. They also understand that if you don't do your work in middle school and high school you will not participate in any sporting events. I have one son that plays high school baseball and one son that plays little league and they know that if their work isn't completed they aren't playing that night.
What other distractions are going to be thrown at you? Daylight lasts longer and you will want to stay outside and play longer. Trust me I get it and I am right there with you wanting to stay outside, but you still have to do your work. I suggest getting everything completed right when you get home. Once your work is done you will have all night to play.
What else? Bedtime! You still need to get to bed on time. Champions know that their body needs ample amounts of rest to perform at high levels. If you stay up late and get up early, you are setting yourself up for failure.
Still more? Getting to school on time and coming to school every day is very important if you want to be a champion. Champions know about preparation and know how important it is to show up on time and be ready to put in work. Champions don't call in and say they are too tired to come in. Quite frankly and this is going to sound harsh but it needs to be said- Losers do this. Don't fall in the there is only six weeks of school left and I am going to slack off! Champions don't think that way and neither should you.
Like I said earlier I have been doing this for 18 years and I have seen champions that were made in the last six weeks of a school year. There are students of mine that our in college, playing college sports, in the Armed Forces, working skilled jobs and supporting not only themselves but also their families. I have also seen students that didn't take school seriously and lets just say the best version of them didn't happen and they are still having a hard time figuring things out.
I can't wait to see all the champions that are made in the final six weeks of this school year.

GRIT and Reading

Mr. Belcher has some GRIT leaders who have focused on improving their reading skills. Nikki knows 177 sight words, Phoenix knows 100 sight words, and Jordyan knows 100 sight words. The goal for the end of Kindergarten for sight words is 100 words and they have all exceeded this goal. They are all also reading on a first grade level. They are showing GRIT and working hard. We are so proud of them.
We will work on getting a picture of these students.

Wisdom!

Ms. Huskisson's class starts their day with a student leader pledge to focus ourselves on what we need to work to do each day. My class wanted to share their words of wisdom to inspire other students.

Art Winner

Congratulations to Christian in Ms. Vincent's class! He earned 1st place in the Daviess County Conservation District's "Backyard Adventures: Exploring Trees in Your Hometown" contest! Way to go! He was awarded a plaque, shirt, and $20! Our class also earned $50 for participating! We are so proud of all of our artists! Check out Christian's poster!

The Amazing Spider Web!

Mrs. Lusk's class completed science lessons on spider webs!

Growing Cabbage

Mrs. Harralson's class is growing cabbage!  It seems that the grow lights are doing a better job than the sun!

Teens in Kindergarden?

Mrs. Harralson's class is building teen numbers!  Check out our tower of 17 the ten way!

Anger Management

DARE came to Mrs. Lusk's 1st grade class! We learned about different ways to handle our anger.

There's a Garden on our Window

Our ELA students planted seeds back in the fall when we studied our unit on "Plants in the Neighborhood". They started in little Ziploc bags tapped to the window. When they began to sprout we planted them in dirt. As the bean vines grew we added lines for them to climb. The beans are now producing more seeds and we are replanting. It is a wonderful cycle we are watching on our windowsill.

Pie in the Face!

Ms. Vincent and Ms. Huskisson's proficient and distinguished got to pie their teacher in the face. Those who gave their good faith effort got to enjoy watching their teacher get pied in the face!

Harralson Blog

Read Across America Week in Mrs. Harralson.

Publishing Party

Publishing Party ...check us out !!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gi-tuN3HDxs&feature=youtu.be

A special shout out to Mr. Sorce for videoing it for us and putting together this awesome video!

Box Top Winners

 Mrs. Harralson's class had 331 box tops and Mrs. Williams' class had 309 box tops. Parents please keep sending those box tops in. We appreciate all that you do to help support our school.

George Washington Comes to ELA

ELA had a special guest on this presidents day. George Washington!! He read a non-fiction book about his life, talked about why we have a president and rules. Our kiddos were so intrigued. Such a great experience!!

Harralson's Blogs

The 100th day of school is one of our favorite events of the school year
to celebrate in kindergarten.  We started our 100th day celebration with a
hershey kiss find.  Each child found a kiss that had a number on the
bottom of it and had to match it up to the correct number on the 100¹s
chart.  You can view our video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4E4-tiEJ44&feature=youtu.be
Not only did we make necklaces with 100 fruit loops but we also put
together puzzles of ourselves looking like we were 100 years old, built
towers out of 100 cups and wrote about what we would buy if we had $100.
These stories were hilarious:  one child wanted $100 worth of bananas, we
had a few motorcycles, a puppy, a cat, toys, necklaces, and a special time
with mom or dad.  They were well thought out and it was exciting to read
their step 1, step 2, and step 3 of how they would spend the money.
First grade visited us with their writing.  Their stories were lengthy and
really had so many details in each book.  I was amazed at their writing
and so were my students!  Finally, we ended our day wrapping up our ³Snowy
Day² unit by making snow out of hair conditioner and baking soda.
Here is the recipe if you would like it:
2 boxes of baking soda
3/4 cup of hair conditioner (any white kind)

Working Hard in Mrs. McCarty's 2nd Grade Classroom

Mrs. McCarty's class has been working extremely hard in class. If you don't believe me just check these pictures out.

Winter Grit Trip

We had 50 students earn a trip to the Edge IceCenter. These students worked hard and showed passion and perseverance in school and that hard work was rewarded.