Couple of Reminders. . .and a New Design Challenge!

Hi TCE Families,

I wanted to send out just a few reminders about safety when our children are going to and from school each day.  Please remember that we try to get traffic through as quickly as possible each morning and afternoon, but we ask that you are patient and courteous with staff, parents and students as safety is our priority.  Also, please see our latest family design challenge as we move into spring! 

Crosswalk Safety

We have teachers on TCE campus grounds each morning and afternoon on duty in order to help our students and parents stay safe by using our crosswalks.  Please help us to teach our children to be safe and follow the rules by using the crosswalks designated in the front and back loops at all times.  We have a sidewalk that prevents students from having to cross the staff parking lot as well, and we ask that this is used at all times.  

Watch Your Speed and 

No Cell Phone Usage

Please make sure that you are driving slowly through our school zone as well as through our front and back loops or parking lots.  We have many students and parents walking and crossing and want to make sure you are always watching for their safety.  

Also, it is a Texas state law that no cell phones are used when driving through a school zone as well as when dropping off or picking up your children.  We ask that you focus all of your attention on driving safely during drop off and dismissal times.

No Parking Areas

  There are certain areas in our school parking lot as well as our loops that are specifically designated as No Parking areas.  You should never park in any of our fire lanes which are the front loop and the cafeteria loop areas.  This also includes leaving your car unattended to run into the school to drop off or pick up your child or an item.  You must always use the designated parking lots.  

There are also no parking signs on the curbs in the front parking lot of our school.  This is because no cars should be parking behind a parked car, as this has caused accidents in the past as well as it is a safety concern for individuals coming and going from the school.  

Flower/Plant Family Design Challenge

For our next design challenge. . .we invite your kiddos to showcase their creative and innovative ideas with ideas for spring!  Your child may create any kind of flower/plant using various types of materials (no real flowers or plants please)  for us to display on our front bulletin board or library at TCE! These can be done as a family or individually.  You may start sending your designed flowers/plants in this week and we will end our challenge on Friday, March 11th at 8:00am!

Spring is Definitely in the Air. . .

Hi TCE Parents,

I hope you are all having a wonderful Friday and will get to enjoy this beautiful spring weather!  There are a few announcements I wanted to share before we head into the weekend!  

Spring Pictures Individual and Class

It's time for our spring individual and class pictures this Monday, February 22nd!  Please make sure you have brought in your child's order form in order to capture their year at TCE!  It's always a great keepsake as they go through their years in school!  If you are in need of another order form, check with the front office.

  

Jump Rope for Heart

Our annual service learning fundraiser for American Heart Association is continuing this week as we wrap up with our Jump Rope for Heart event this Friday, February 26th!  We have currently raised approximately $8,000 and are trying to reach our goal of $22,000.  

If the school goes even $1.00 over our goal of $22,0000, Coach Yaegar will be coloring his hair and Mr. Shelby and myself will be having buckets of slime dumped on our heads at our spirit rally in March!  

We shall see if we end up getting slimed. . . :)

You can come up on Friday and watch our kiddos jump during their specials times! 

 

Open House

We will be having our TCE Open House on Thursday, March 10th from 5:30-7:00pm.  We hope you are able to come and check out your child's work they will be showcasing!

  Shamrock Shuffle

We will be having our annual Shamrock Shuffle Run on Friday, March 11th during our specials times!  If you would like to come up and support or run with the kiddos feel free!  It is always great to have our parents showing support for physical fitness!  

4th grade- 9:30-10:20

2nd grade - 10:20-11:10

5th grade - 11:10-12:00

1st grade - 12:30-1:20

Kinder- 1:20-2:10 

3rd grade - 2:10-3:00

Spring Break

We will have Spring Break the week of March 14th-18th!  

Kindergarten Registration Begins

Just wanted everyone to know that our Kindergarten registration for TCE will start on March 22nd.  If you have a kinder learner who will be starting this next year, please contact Laura Fairchild in the office to set up a registration time!  Also, if you know someone in the community who has a child who would be starting Kindergarten, please let them know about registration!  Thank you!

Three Other Items. . .

Hi everyone,

I had forgotten to put three more items in my blog I sent out last night!  So, I wanted to make sure and send this information out today.

Important Info About Skate Night!

In order to make your entrance into Interskate easier and faster for everyone, it would be helpful to have the liability waiver for each participant completed before coming to the event. It will slow things down if you choose to wait.  If you are sending your child with someone else, please make sure you complete the form and send it with him/her.  The link for the liability waiver is:

http://interskate.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/INTERSKATE-RELEASE.pdf

Also, they will have a cash only line at the entrance.  This will help things move faster as well.  So bring your $6.00 admission ( $3.00 additional for inline skates ) and you can get right in and start skating.  Otherwise, you will have to go to the window with debit/credit cards and wait.  

We are looking forward to seeing you all at this fun Spirit Night for TCE!  Remember, each paid skater will get a popcorn.  The snack bar will be open as well with a Spirit Night Special of hot dog, chips, and drink for $4.50.  

Hope to see you there!

Free and Reduced Lunch Forms

CISD periodically checks to ensure we are helping to support any families who would be in need of free or reduced lunch prices from our cafeteria.  We are sending a letter home tomorrow with all of our students in case anyone is in need or could benefit from this resource.  Also, there is an online form you may fill out that is located on our campus website if you would like to do that instead of a paper copy.  Please check with the front office if you have any questions or additional concerns. 

Snowflake Design Challenge

We thought it might be fun to have another design challenge this month for your kiddos to showcase their creative and innovative ideas!  Your child may create any kind of snowflake using whatever types of materials they like for us to display on our front bulletin board of TCE! (Paper, plastic, foil, glitter, etc.) You can start sending in snowflakes starting on Tuesday, January 19th! 

Happy New Year!

Hi TCE families,

I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday break and are having a fabulous start to 2016!  All of our office staff would like to thank you all so much for all of the heartfelt love from gifts and treats before we left for the holidays!  We appreciate all that you do for us and your continuous generosity!  

All of our staff at TCE is already kick starting this spring semester and we are excited about the learning, laughter and fun we will have each day with all of our TCE Texans!  

We have many events that will be coming up in the next few months as well as several announcements!

TCE Skate Night

Just a quick reminder that our annual TCE Skate Night will be tomorrow, Thursday, January 14th from 6:00-8:00pm at Interskate in Lewisville!  It is a fun evening to come out and have some fun with our TCE Texans and families!  Admission is $6.00 per skater and regular skate rental is included in the cost.  If you choose inline skates, it is an extra $3.00.  You may also bring your own skates!  There will be a free popcorn for each skater and snack bar will be open as well! 

PTO Grants

 We have been so excited at TCE as all of our fall PTO grants have been coming in within the last few months and would like to thank everyone for their wonderful donations to Write-a-Check as well as to our other various fundraisers last year.  

We will be tweeting out pictures for items purchased as well as adding more pics to the blog for you to see the impact the generous donations has made on learning at Town Center!  

Here are a few of the products we have recently received. . .new musical instruments for our music curriculum, new non-fiction readers for our literacy library, toe-tokens for P.E., new picnic tables outside of the school, new safety patrol equipment, new indoor recess games and enrichment tools and more! 

TCE Yearbook Ads and Sales

Don't forget to visit www.balfour.com in order to purchase your yearbook for this 2015-2016 school year!  The store closes on January 22nd and you don't want to miss out on the memories the yearbook shares of your child's time in elementary school!

Town Center Teacher of the Year 

 In case you didn't already know. . .our new teacher of the year for the 2015-2016 school year is. . .

Katy McKinney!  We are so excited to have her represent TCE this year!  Her next step in the process is to compete against other elementary teacher of the year winners at each campus.  We wish her all the best as we go into this spring semester!  

 Spring Creek BBQ Fundraiser

We were so excited for TCE as all of our families helped to raise $1,200.00 for Town Center!  Thank you so much to everyone that was able to come out for the evening! Here are a few pics during the night time event!  

 Spirit Rally and 2nd Grade Performance
Don't forget this Friday at 8:30am is our 2nd Spirit Rally for the year!  Our 2nd grade will be performing as well as our bucket drumming club from Texan Town!

 Holiday Martin Luther King Jr. 

Remember that we have a holiday (no school) this next 
Monday, January, 18th!

 Jump Rope for Heart

We will be kicking off our annual Jump Rope for Heart at the beginning of February.  More info will be coming home soon!

Bikes and Scooter 

Safety and Protection
We have had several issues with scooters and bikes going missing this year from the outside racks at school.  If you would please make sure and have your child lock their bike and scooter if possible during the day.  This will hopefully help with any issues.  Also, if you could please remind your child to make sure they are grabbing the right scooter each afternoon.  Many of the scooters look alike, so anything you can do to mark them or put your name on them would help. Thank you!

Nominate Town Center Teachers
The Education Foundation is working on giving out more rewards for deserving teachers this 2nd nine weeks.  Click on the following link to nominate a teacher who you feel is deserving of recognition!  Please do this as soon as you can as they will be giving out rewards in the near future! 
Click here to nominate!

Getting Ready for the Holidays!

We are already heading into our final week of December and the year 2015!  It is crazy how the time has flown! 

We have a few important reminders and events this week as well as a few celebrations for you!

 

Important Reminders

 

5th grade Music Program

Our 5th graders will be performing their music program for the school on Tuesday, December 15th at 8:00am (dress rehearsal) and then for parents at 6:00pm that evening. Parents are also welcome to attend the morning performance.

 

Holiday From the Heart

We are doing something a little different this year and will be having our Holiday from the Heart celebration during the school day.  Our grade levels will be partnering together (Kinder, 1st and 4th) and (2nd, 3rd, and 5th) in order to work together in station activities around the school.  

 Kinder, 1st and 4th will have morning stations.

2nd, 3rd and 5th will have afternoon stations.

If you might want to come up and volunteer during these activities, you are more than welcome.  Please fill out the following information by Tuesday, December 15th at 10:00am and we will contact you to let you know more details about the exact times and station activities!

Click here to volunteer during Holiday from the Heart!

 

 TCE Winter Parties

 Our classes will be having their winter holiday parties on Thursday, December 17th.  

3rd Grade at 1:00pm

Kinder, 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th at 2:00pm

You are welcome to attend the party!

Early Release

We will have an early release on 

Friday, December 18th at 12:50pm!  

 

Please make sure that you have made arrangements to pick up your child, as the staff will have early release as well when all children are dismissed!  Then we will start back to school on Monday, January 4th! 

 

Celebrations

We are excited to celebrate our Spring Creek BBQ Fundraiser brought in $1,200.00 for the evening event in November!  Thank you so much to everyone who was able to come out on this night for TCE!  

 

We had two grants awarded to TCE from the Coppell Education Foundation this year!

The winners were Candace Coffee, Kasey Kemp and Renee Rohani!  We are very excited to see what they will be implementing with their grants!  For more info on the Coppell Education Foundation, check out the following link!

Click here for the link!

Pansies, Veteran's and Turkeys. . .Oh my!

TCE Parents we have officially entered into the month of November!  It's hard to believe these first few months of school have gone by so quickly!  We have several things coming up this month to look forward to at TCE!

 Pansy Planting

We had to postpone our annual pansy planting until this next week due to the rain and muddiness outside.  We will be having our planting one day this next week, so if you would be interested in helping to volunteer for this event, please contact Beth Reynolds at bethr40@gmail.com.

Sole Hope Shoe Project in Kindergarten

Thank you so much to everyone who donated jeans for our Kindergarten Sole Hope shoe project! Now that we have collected our materials, we are looking for volunteers to come and help us trace and cut the denim into squares. Once the squares are made and put into pairs, we can ship them off to be made into shoes! 

Kindergarten is teaming up with the Fashion Club during Texan Town. If you would like to volunteer to help trace and cut, please bring fabric scissors on 

Friday, November 13^th  from 8:00-8:50. 

Please email Katy McKinney at kmckinney@coppellisd.com 

if you would be interested in helping out on this day!

Thank you so much! 

Kindergarten cannot wait to make a difference for other kids just like them that do not have shoes!

 Veteran's Day Ceremony

We will once again be honoring our Veteran's this year in a morning ceremony on Wednesday, November 11th at 8:30am.  If you have a family member or family friend who has served in the military and would like to be recognized as during our ceremony, please see the following invite as well as please email Brett Shelby our Assistant Principal at bshelby@coppellisd.com so we will know who will be attending!  Thank you!

 

Turkey Drive and Canned Food Drive

Please see the following info for our fall collection canned food drive.  

Also, remember we will have our annual CISD Turkey Drive on November 20th in the morning outside of our school.  

This year is a little different as we have some info from the North Texas Regional Food Bank letting you know why:

• Our region lost over 1 million birds to avian flu earlier this year. 

•  Due to decreased supply, the prices of turkeys have increased, therefore, we will provide chickens to client families this holiday season

•  Chickens can be stuffed and prepared like a standard Thanksgiving Turkey!

• We received feedback from agencies that many clients could not fit the large turkeys in their oven last year……

• With a minimum $15 ONLINE donation, a donor can DOUBLE THEIR IMPACT - a $15 donation will provide 2 chickens - thus we will be feeding more families this year

• We will also have  a $30 ONLINE donation option that will provide 2 families with an ENTIRE meal (chicken and all the fixins':  sweet potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce, fruit cocktail, mac & cheese, cooking oil)

Click here to Donate Online! 

More info for our canned food drive:

 

TCE Annual Turkey Trot

Don't forget about our annual Turkey Trot that we will have on Friday, November 20th!  This is another fun run/walk that we have to help get everyone excited about physical fitness and invite our parents to come out and run/walk with our grade levels!  Hope you can join us!  

Specials Times for the run:

4th grade- 9:30-10:20

2nd grade - 10:20-11:10

5th grade - 11:10-12:00

1st grade - 12:30-1:20

Kinder- 1:20-2:10 

3rd grade - 2:10-3:00

Shout Outs!

Service Learning

 Shout Out for our JDRF Service Learning Fundraiser!  Town Center raised over $4,000 to help with the Juvenille Diabetes Research Foundation as they learned more about how they as learners can maintain healthy eating habits as well as promoting physical fitness at all ages!  Thank you so much for your generous donations and all of the parents who came up to help support our event!

TCE Fall Family Pumpkin Contest  

Shout Out to our TCE families for our pumpkin contest!  Just a few pics from some of our pumpkin designs. . .we had amazing pumpkins brought to school, so this is just a little peek at some of the pumpkins! 

Thank you to everyone who participated in this fun challenge and hoping to do something like it again next year!  

 

TCE Parent/Community Tours
Shout out to all of the parents and community members who were able to attend our tours!  We had a great turnout and it was wonderful to visit with everyone!  The parents and community members were able to see examples of the learning happening in our classrooms and learn more about our STEM initiative.  We will be having another round of tours this spring, so if you missed the first ones you can join up with us then!    

More fun info to come from TCE soon. . . 

have a wonderful weekend!