Bluebonnet Program Starting Soon!

Thanks to Mrs. Houston at Union Hill Elementary for making this amazing page to check out this year's Bluebonnet nominees!

Elizabeth Eulberg

3rd-5th grades were honored to hear the hilariously engaging Elizabeth Eulberg speak today. She made us laugh but also spoke to us about the writing process, deductive reasoning, and her personal story of overcoming dyslexia to become a Texas Bluebonnet Award nominated author. We love The Great Shelby Holmes and are excited to read the sequel now, too. Thanks for sharing your gifts with us, Elizabeth Eulberg, and thanks to the Forest North PTA for sponsoring this event. 

LIBRARY LAB: Cooking Club - One Minute Mug Brownie

We whipped up some brownies in a cup yesterday. We had a mock restaurant to see if students remembered some of the etiquette rules we taught them before, and we were amazed at how much they retained over spring break! What well-mannered cooks we have. Check out this video of our cooking experience. We have one more week to learn a new recipe!

STAAR Ready Video 2017

Ms. A. Velasquez & I had the best time making a video to get our kids excited for STAAR! Check out this video we made for the Writing Olympics Opening Ceremonies.

LIBRARY LAB: Cooking Club Deliciously Fun!

Our cooks had a delicious time making microwave mug pizza yesterday! We learned a lot about cooking & table manners. Mrs. Peyton & I were so excited to have our wonderful grown up helpers, Mrs. MacMillan, Mrs. Stevenson, Ms. Erben & Mrs. San Miguel (with baby Charlie!) 

Great job, Eagles! Can't wait to see what we cook up next! 

Testing Recipes for Cooking Club

The applications are pouring in for cooking club! Get one in the library today or online here. They're due 2/17 - Mrs. Fournier & Mrs. Peyton will choose the 20 best candidates to become cooks in our first Cooking Club! Check out these videos for more information.

Forest North Comic Book Club Convention

We had the best time in Comic Book Club today learning from industry professionals! Mrs. Rapé, our Forest North Office Specialist, used to be a comic book inker! Mrs. Lajaunie, who used to work at Forest North, now owns local comic shop Titan Moon! They gave us all kinds of interesting information! Check out the video on my tweet.

Texas Bluebonnet Award 2017 Voting Party

It is a unique privilege in my life to observe our students as they discover their love of reading. Our amazing students read 1,716 Texas Bluebonnet Award nominated books - that's an average of 11 books per student! 

Thank you so much to everyone who helped support our students in this endeavor, from spending your lunch reading a book to student/s, braving the chocolate fountain and/or the party in general, touching base with students, celebrating their successes, and bottom-line, making sure every student who wants to succeed does! For many students, this is one of their first experiences setting and meeting long-term goals, and modeling this process is so helpful to them! The students were so excited and proud to be there Friday. 

Our marvelous 5th grade classes were wonderful role models for the younger grades, and they were truly safe, respectful and responsible. Props also to 3rd & 4th grade teams for making sure every single one of their students qualified for the party- even ones who started after winter break!

I'm so proud to be a Forest North Eagle, and so lucky to have all of you support our students.

LIBRARY LAB: Emoji Pillows

Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd graders- it's your turn! Join us after school 10/31 & 11/7 for this month's LIBRARY LAB- Emoji Pillows! 3rd -5th graders are having a blast learning to sew, design and stuff their own Emoji Pillows, and we can't wait to share the same experience with our younger Eagles. Get your permission slips from and to the library as soon as possible, because we only have materials for 28 participants! Check out this video to see our club in action.

Join Ukulele Club

Mrs. Fournier & Ms. Velasquez invite 3rd, 4th & 5th graders to join us for Ukulele Club! Applications available here or in the library and are due 10/18 at 3:00! 16 lucky students will get to borrow a ukulele for the year to take home and practice. We'll meet every Tuesday after school - students who own their own ukulele are welcome to apply as well!

Now Seeking Library Leaders!

Interested students in 2nd-5th grade are all cordially invited to apply for Library Leader positions.  This is a program of student volunteers who work in the library to keep it running smoothly. 

Library Leaders applications are due 9/14 - only two students will be selected per class, and typically we have about 60 applicants.  We will have about two students serve each class in the fall, and new students are encouraged to apply in the spring, to maximize opportunities for interested candidates. We have a grading rubric that we use with completed applications to see which students are interested in running the circulation desk and helping other students in the library. We're looking for students who can work independently, get great recommendations from their classroom teacher & have great customer service skills. We need dependable, reliable workers with good attendance records who will volunteer once a week before school to help customers find and check out books, and manage checkout for their class. We encourage you to make sure those applications are complete and returned before the deadline!

Sound like something you'd like to do?  Get the application by clicking on the photo below, or come grab one in person from the Library. 

Unusual Reading Spot Photo Contest Winners 2016!

We decorate the library walls each year with 10 blown up photos of our students reading in unusual or special spots. I'm excited to announce our winners who will be displayed for the 2016-2017 school year!  Check them out & congratulations to our winners.

Camp Bluebonnet Scholarships

Mrs. Fournier is excited to announce that we will have our 6th Camp Bluebonnet on June 13-16 at Great Oaks Elementary.  You can register online through RRISD's Community Education department!  We've already filled up 15 of the 30 available spots, so register quickly if you're interested and going to be a 3rd-5th grader next year!

Mrs. Fournier, with the generous assistance of Ms. Jacobs, our principal, is offering 2 scholarships worth $99 to attend Camp Bluebonnet this summer!

To apply for the scholarship, please submit a persuasive essay on why you should be one of the two people chosen to attend camp on scholarships. Eligible students must be in 3rd-5th grades next year. Essays may be handwritten or typed but can only be on the front side of one page. Essays are due 4/1 in the library by 3:00.  Students that win scholarships must be able to provide transportation to and from Great Oaks Elementary at 9:00 AM and 12 PM on 6/13-6/16. 

Ukulele Club Rocking Out!

Ukulele Club has been such an eye-opening experience!  I started private lessons on my ukulele back in November so that I could get a head start, but since we started a few weeks ago, the students in Ukulele Club are rapidly closing the gap!  They learn chords and progressions so quickly, and their transitions are quickly approaching perfect!  It is very obvious that they are dedicated to practicing at home.  We are learning different songs and deciding what we should play at the Talent Show on 5/27 at DeerPark Middle School. 

Check out yesterday's tweet to watch the video of our students playing Bob Marley's "Three Little Birds" yesterday. I got really excited because @roundrockisd retweeted it, which always makes my day!

See you on 5/27 at the talent show!

3rd Grade Alphabetizing

One of 3rd grade's Texas Essential Knowledge & Skills (TEKS, we call them) is to be able to alphabetize words to the third letter.  We practiced with an old fashioned competition in the library today!  Students practiced alphabetizing in groups, getting acquainted with what to do when words have the same beginning letter/s, and what to do when one word is just plain shorter than others!

3rd Grade Multiplication Bee

Yesterday 3rd grade had a multiplication bee in the library!  Each student is paired up with another, and the fastest one to answer a fact gets to move on to the next round.  It's a fun way to practice that's way more interesting than worksheets.  We will do more bees later this year, but in yesterday's bee, Kanishk was the winner! He clearly has been practicing his facts, because he knew the answers so quickly and stayed cool under pressure.  

Congratulations & way to go, Kanishk.  You must be so proud of yourself!

Texas Bluebonnet Award Winner Announced

3rd-5th grades were invited to the library this morning to witness the announcement of the Texas Bluebonnet Award. At Forest North, our top books were The Misadventures of Salem Hyde (36 votes), Sky Jumpers (26 votes), and Mountain Dog (14 votes). Across the state, we see a very different picture, with When the Beat Was Born taking the top prize!

Congratulations to the winning book, and thanks so much for your participation this year in our program- see you at the Battle on Thursday afternoon!

Bluebonnet VIP Breakfast

Yesterday was the highly anticipated Bluebonnet VIP Breakfast!  3rd graders who read 10+ Bluebonnet nominees, and 4th & 5th graders who read 15+ books were all invited to a special breakfast in the library.  For historical purposes, we usually have about 15 kids attend this event.  As you can see below, this year, we blew that out of the water when 45 kids qualified for the VIP Breakfast!

Students were served by Mrs. Vetter. Mr. Stewart, Ms. Velasquez & myself - we wore aprons and put pencils behind our ears to really play up the server role.  They dined on breakfast tacos (potato or bacon!), bananas, muffins, orange juice and milk.  Congratulations to these amazing readers, and we look forward to seeing 13 of them compete next week in the Battle of the Bluebonnets!

Some of the most motivated, focused readers at Forest North!

Your lovely servers- Ms. Velasquez already left at this point to go teach her wonderful 4th graders!

Get ready to watch these kids show off their knowledge in the Battle of the Bluebonnets on 2/18 - here they are pictured with their favorite 15-16 Texas Bluebonnet Award nominee!

Ukulele Club

Hey, third fourth and fifth graders! Ready for something amazing and new in your life?  So are we!  You should apply today for the UKULELE CLUB!  You know, like adorable little Hawaiian guitars?  Yeah, ukuleles!  In a club!  Ms. Billitteri & Mrs. Fournier started playing a few months ago and we want to make a group at Forest North.  We’ll be meeting on Tuesdays, starting 2/23 and going through May! Apply today!  Fifteen people will be accepted and they will get a free ukulele to use during our meetings and to take home for practice.  We’ll even perform at the talent show in May! So be sure to get an application below, or just pick one up from Ms. Billitteri or Mrs. Fournier.  Applications are due 2/17, so get it in as soon as possible, and we’ll see you in UKULELE CLUB!

Texas Bluebonnet Award Voting Party 2016

Huge kudos to FNE students and teachers for our achievements with the 2015-2016 Texas Bluebonnet Award program! Check out these numbers, and think about the dedication & skill-building they represent. Think about the teamwork with so many staff & volunteers that made it happen! Thanks for helping our kids read in new genres, get exposed to awesome works of high-quality contemporary literature, and most importantly, feel like successful readers!​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ 

1,732 books read (That's 10 quizzes per 3rd-5th FNE student. This number is HUGE compared to other schools around RRISD and the state, even though we're small and Title I!) 

157 students voting for their favorite book at the party last Friday (& taking home a new book to keep, trying the chocolate fountain, getting a manicure, playing video games, and watching the drone - video below!)

45 students qualifying for the VIP Breakfast (that's 10+ books for 3rd, 15+ books for 4th & 5th) - this is a HUGE increase above any other year.

13 students qualifying for the Forest North Battle of the Bluebonnets (reading all 20) - also a new all-time high! 

8 teachers who supported 15+ kids as they qualified to vote, who get a free lunch on me! 

1 grade level who had 100% participation- a new record, even with new students coming in the days leading up to the party. Way to go, 4th grade! 

 Super special thanks to teachers, paraprofessionals, former students, former staff & parent volunteers who were on hand during the party - 157 kids had a blast and they loved spending time with you! Thanks for keeping them safe while they had fun- I literally couldn't do it without you! 

 We'll find out the state winner soon, but here were our top books! 36 votes - Misadventures of Salem Hyde 26 votes - Skyjumpers 17 votes - Mountain Dog 

Check out this drone video Mr. Fournier took during the party: