Visit Our RRISD Pop Up Library This Summer!

Book Drive

RRISD Mobile Library/Makerspace coming your way this summer!

This summer RRISD libraries start an exciting project to bring summer reading and intellectually stimulating activities to your neighborhood via our Mobile Pop Up Library and Makerspace.  A mobile unit with Read & Return books (students borrow and return at their convenience - no due dates, no late fees, no worry!) and Makerspace activities will tour our district.  Our aim is to ensure that our students are engaged in an entertaining way throughout the summer. 

In order to make this happen, we are conducting a district wide book drive!

Keep an eye out for more information on our district's web page re: dates and locations.  See you this summer!

Happy World Poetry Day!

Who doesn't love poetry? I love that there is a day to celebrate poetry. We've gotten a few new poetry books in our library recently, but have a lot of "oldies" that are still "goodies." 

Some of my favorite poetry books

New poetry books

Who are some of your favorite poets?

Here are a few poetry websites to visit:

 Giggle Poetry

Shel Silverstein's Website

Poetry4Kids

Battle of the Bluebonnets

I am so proud of our 5 students that represented Union Hill at the District Battle of the Bluebonnets!

This year, the competition took place at the Heritage Center at the Dell Diamond! Several special guests were in attendance such as Spike, and our Superintendent Dr. Flores! Each student on the team received 4 tickets to an Express game where all RRISD students that competed will be honored.

Thank you!

Thank you so much to all of the teachers and students who participated in Read Across America Week last week. It was so fun to see everyone's creativity come to life with the different themes. I also really enjoyed spending Friday in the dark... with Flashlight Friday all day!

Here's a few pictures to enjoy!

Dress like a teacher day.

Dr. Seuss' birthday!

Dress like a prince or princess.

Our 5th grade teachers dressed as Miss Nelson & Miss Swamp.

Flashlight Friday!

Dress like a real life hero.

Read Across America Week

Next week we will honor the great Dr. Seuss by celebrating reading each day at school with a dress up theme! 

I hope that you read everyday, but I hope that next week, you can find a little extra special time to curl up with one of your favorite books. We all know how important reading is, but this week I want us to focus on how FUN reading can be!

Do you want to know more about Dr. Seuss? 

Kinder NGDC Showcase

Exciting News!!!

Join us for an afternoon of literary fun as teams of students from 29 Round Rock  elementary schools compete in a battle of questions about the 20 titles on the 2015-16 Bluebonnet Book List. Five students are selected from each campus to represent their school in the Battle of the Bluebonnets. The students come together to demonstrate their abilities and test their knowledge of the books they read.

Round Rock ISD's 6th annual Battle of the Bluebonnets will take place Thursday, March 10 at Dell Diamond in the United Heritage Center. Doors will open at 3:00 p.m. and the competition will begin at 4:00 p.m. This is the first year the Round Rock Express is involved in the battle, and it is coming out in a big way. Not only is the Express housing the expanding event this year, but the team is also sponsoring t-shirts for all of the participants.

“We are beyond excited about our new partnership with Round Rock ISD and the Battle of the Bluebonnets program,” said Chris Almendarez, president of the Express. “Events like these make it possible for us to not only give back to the community that supports us, but also encourage habits that drive the success of our future leaders, such as reading. We are honored to be the host of this year’s Battle and cannot wait to see the action firsthand!”

The top three placing teams of the battle will receive on-field recognition in front of their friends, family, educators and classmates during “Reading Day at Dell Diamond” in the spring. The first place team will also be taking a Battle of the Bluebonnets Champion plaque to their home campus and will each be the recipient of a 2016 Junior Sluggers Kids Club Membership, getting them 16 tickets to Express games throughout the season, a t-shirt, and more! Plus, every child that participates in the battle or read at least five books on the list will be gifted free tickets to Reading Day this season.

KVUE morning anchor and local celebrity Bryan Mays will return to host this year's event, and a special appearance by the Express mascot Spike is sure to keep the energy level high. Family and friends are welcome to attend to watch their children in the competition, but please note there is limited seating, so try to get there early to secure a spot.

Our libraries strive to create a reading culture in their schools, an essential component in encouraging students to become engaged and motivated readers. The reading competition is just one avenue to encourage students to read more both in quality and quantity and get them enthused about reading.

Every participant will receive a medal for just being there, and we always have a great time. The anticipation grows as we wait to see which school will take home the traveling trophy (and permanent campus plaque donated by the Express) this year!

We had a busy week!

Kindergarten had a fun lesson along with our Armadillo book "The Most Magnificent Thing." They were challenged to create a "magnificent thing" with reusing materials that could have been recycled.

1st & 3rd graders reviewed the research process and practiced notetaking with the "Trash vs. Treasure" method.

2nd grade just wrapped up learning about the water cycle and are working on poetry in reading and writing. We read the Armadillo book "Water Can Be" and then tried to create acrostic poems about water on the iPads.

Ms. Walker's 2nd grade class decided to finish up their poem in class. Here's their finished poem!

4th graders had a blast using iMovie to create a movie that reviewed 3 text features from their nonfiction book, and how those features help them as readers.

5th grade used the ClassKick app to learn about persuasive writing techniques and then practice using them.

Bluebonnet Voting Party

We had an amazing turnout of students this morning for our Bluebonnet Voting Party. Over 60 students (3rd-5th grade) were in attendance! In order to get invited to this event, students had to get credit for reading at least 5 of this year's Bluebonnet Books. In addition to the fun events and snacks, students got to vote for their favorite book. At our school, the most popular book was "Quinny & Hopper" by Adriana Brad Schanen.

We can't wait to see which book receives the most votes in the state of Texas!

Congratulations Winners!

We are proud to announce this year's winners of the 4th annual Special Reading Spot Contest. Below is a video with the winning pictures. We will get the pictures hung up in the library as soon as they come in from print shop. Be sure to also look for a framed collage of the students recognized as runner ups.

Bridget Heos Visit

We had so much fun learning from author Bridget Heos yesterday! Students are still talking about how much they enjoyed the presentation.

Bridget Heos is Coming Soon!

Author Bridget Heos will be at our school next Thursday, January 26th! Our entire school read her book "Mustache Baby" last year. Since then, she has come out with "Mustache Baby Meets His Match."

We can't wait to learn more about Ms. Heos and her writing process. In the meantime, you can visit her website to learn more about her: http://www.authorbridgetheos.com/

The schedule for the day of the visit is:

8:15-9:05- K & 2nd

9:20-10:10- 5th

10:25-11:15- 1st

11:30-12:30- Lunch

12:30-1:20- 3rd & 4th

1:30- Author signing

All sessions will take place in the library.

Yoga in the Library

Pre-K students are doing their Jungle Unit in class this week. In the library we read "Slowly, Slowly, Slowly Said the Sloth."


After reading the story and identifying the animals, we did yoga poses based on jungle animals.

We began with a monkey pose.

This is the alligator pose, which is a plank.

Boa Constrictor

Turtle

Jaguar

We ended with the sloth pose.

At the end we reviewed what yoga is, and even ended with clasping our hands together and bowing.

Science Fun With PPCD/TWC

PPCD/TWC had so much fun with their lesson today. They are learning about the 5 senses this week so we did a science/art experiment that allowed them to use all 5 senses.
Students traced over their name with glue, and then poured Jello powder on top. Some of the powders were white and then transformed when they touched the glue.