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!

Verb Tense with Plickers

I enjoyed collaborating with Ms. Velasquez today to teach her 4th grade classes with Plickers. We wrote some next level verb tense questions to really make sure the students understood how to make different clauses in the same sentence have the same verb tense. We also through in some review questions for apostrophes and quotation marks, as well. The passion for grammar is strong with this crew. Thanks for working with me, Ms. Velasquez, and catching this photo of us in action!

Math Playground with 4th Grade

I am collaborating with Mrs. Velasquez in 4th grade this week to help students visualize multiplication & division word problems with digital models. We're using Thinking Blocks. Check it out!

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.

RRISD Battle of the Bluebonnets at Dell Diamond

The Forest North Eagles had a great showing at the RRISD Battle of the Bluebonnets. We got 34 of 40 questions right, which earned us a tie for 8th place. Congratulations & thanks to Gabriel, Owen, Dylan, and Sean for all their hard work, and to our alternate, Kanishk, who tirelessly prepared just in case, and helped us study! Thanks to the Dell Diamond for sponsoring this event, giving us ticket to a game in April, and to Bryan Mays of KVUE to emceeing the event again! Check out this video KVUE did covering the event.
Congratulations to Caraway for winning for the 3rd straight year, and to Blackland Prairie who got all 40 questions and a handful of tiebreakers correct. I can't believe the memories of these kids! They are truly astounding. 

After spring break, Gabriel & some other 4th graders and I will start a weekly book club to get a head start on next year's titles. Here we go again! Can't wait to start fresh with this amazing program! Thank you to the Texas Library Association & Texas Bluebonnet Award for all of their tireless efforts.

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.

Using Plickers in Grammar Lessons

Ms. Velasquez and I collaborated on a lesson today using Plickers to teach kids about adding -ing to verbs. Sometimes they're tricky with silent -e's and double consonants! Our kids did great! Check out my tweet 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.

Using Models to Solve Multiplication & Division Problems in 4th Grade

I am collaborating with Mrs. Velasquez in 4th grade this week to help students visualize multiplication & division word problems with digital models. We're using Thinking Blocks. Check it out!

4th & 5th grade "Lowriders in Space" Author & Illustrator Visit

4th & 5th graders at Forest North got to attend an amazing presentation by "Lowriders in Space" author Cathy Camper & illustrator Raul the Third today. We even got to ride a bus all the way to CD Fulkes Middle School for the presentation. We had so much fun, learned a lot, and felt so proud to share with other campuses how much we have been reading and participating in the Texas Bluebonnet Award program. Thanks so much for the opportunity, Round Rock ISD & Chronicle Books!

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!

4th Grade Studies Place Value

4th grade is studying place value with Mrs. Velasquez & Mrs. Fournier this week in the library. They are focusing on how multiplying by ten moves any digit one place value to the left, and dividing by ten moves any digit one place value to the right. We are going to use this game to practice, and then assess our learning with a Kahoot!

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. 

4th Graders Study Text Features

4th graders are hard at work this week studying text features and how they support the main idea of various nonfiction texts. We focused on an article from "Time for Kids" magazine about testing and talked about why the author included each one.

Check out more specifics on what we studied in the slideshow below!

4th Graders Compare Fractions on Ipads

4th graders had fun in the library today comparing fractions with the help of an app called Quizizz. They did a great job, worked hard, and had fun doing it! In Mrs. Velasquez' class, one student had to leave midway through the competition, and Mrs. Velasquez jumped onto her iPad and beat the whole class! Way to keep your skills sharp, Mrs. Velasquez! Students had unlimited time for each question, but the game was scored on how many questions they got correct, and how quickly they got each correct answer. We studied comparing fractions, improper fractions, and mixed fractions too, and students did a great job.  We also discussed converting fractions to the least common denominator as well!