The Month of November at Mi Escuelita

Bethany: November was a community involvement month! There were so many wonderful presentations that exposed our children to various interesting topics. The Museum of Nature and Science came and presented about stars. They set up a planetarium using a dome tent and the children were really amazed.  All the teachers kept hearing was "Wow!" The children took a trip to the moon, saw stars, observed sunrise and sunset and located star patterns in the sky. Children were also introduced to dental health by Jason from Metroplex Dental Care, and he was very impressed with all that the children knew about taking care of their teeth. Also, our health support staff, Patricia and Daisey, did a wonderful presentation on hand washing.

 Cockrell Hill: They had a Harvest Dessert Contest and the winners were:
1st Place--Mrs. Rodriguez; 2nd place--Mrs. Martinez; and 3rd place--Ms. Lopez.
Honorable mention goes to Ms. Graciano--her cake had a lot of personality. 
Congratulations to the winners and thanks to the judges; Phillip and Lindsay. Frito Lay visited the children with Chester the Cheetah and brought coats for a few children. Mrs. Martinez and Mrs. Flores's classroom took a trip to Hawaii. Children had their passports, beach wear, and money to spend while there. They sure enjoyed their plane ride! Mrs. Rodriguez and Mrs.Fernandez had some Indians living in their classroom in a teepee.

Wesley Rankin: This month was filled with wonderful events! Prestonwood Christian Academy volunteers came and a fabulous time was had by all making dream catchers with the children, which was a great way for the children to learn about Native American culture. The children also did a reenactment of the original Thanksgiving for the volunteers. Texas Winds came and taught the children about the piano and cello. Their new favorite song is one they learned about the piano. The Museum of Nature and Science came as well and did an awesome presentation on magnets called “Magnet Mania.” The children learned so much and it was so cool to watch them as they discovered everything magnets can do. The staff would particularly like to thank Patricia, Daisey and Mr. Geary for doing wonderful presentations for the children. They did an awesome job!

St. Matthews: The month started off with the children having their pictures taken. Later, fifth graders from St. John’s Episcopal School came and did a science experiment with the children. It was gooey and fun!  Mr. Geary did a presentation on nutrition for the children and also spoke to the parents about nutrition during their parent meeting, which was greatly appreciated. The children sang Thanksgiving songs for the parents who attended the meeting.  The party really got started when the volunteers from Prestonwood Christian Academy arrived! They did face painting, reading, and lots of interacting with the children.  Ms. Silva and Mrs. Duran’s classroom had a dance party going on, complete with flashing lights and music filling the room. Everyone was dancing to children’s music. Patricia and Daisey also did their hand washing presentation for the children of St. Matthew's. They did an amazing job and really got the point across. The Museum of Nature and Science did the “Magnet Mania” presentation here as well. The hands-on activities with different types of magnets intrigued the children.  Last but not least, the children shared a Thanksgiving lunch with a member of their family and everyone got plenty of turkey!  Someone posted an “Eat Ham” sign but it clearly had no effect.


Crossover: November has been a short and exiting month at Crossover. This month they would like to highlight the fathers, uncles, grandfathers, great-grandfather and older brothers that attended the “Bring Dad to School Day” today.  These men came into the classroom and made hats, turkey hand prints and dream catchers with the children. It was great seeing them interacting with the children. They would also like to say a huge thank you to Patricia and Daisey for their hand-washing presentation--the children are still talking about it!


Buckner: The month started with Lifetouch taking holiday portraits of the students. Texas Winds came out  and exposed the children to classical music. Our “Bring a Dad to Lunch” Thanksgiving meal was success; we had over 50 fathers, grandfathers and male role models show up for the event and the children were ecstatic! Our guest speaker, Mr. Henry Jackson of Buckner Children and Family Services, shared a powerful motivational message for the males that attended and some of the mothers volunteered to serve the participants. To close off the month, our special services specialist will speak at our parent meeting about “Child Discipline and Guidance”. We have also invited Bryan’s Place Dental to share a little about what services they have available at their clinic for our community. This month they would like to highlight Class 1, where the children learned about Thanksgiving. They learned about the Pilgrims coming from England in a ship called the Mayflower and how the Indians showed the Pilgrims how to plant seeds and hunt turkeys. They also learned that the Pilgrims wore black hats while the Indians wore headdresses with feathers.

Thanks for stepping inside our classrooms!

October Overview

Every month Mi Escuelita's Program Director compiles stories from each of our six sites and puts them all together for an overview of activities that happened in the last month. This month in particular we had a lot of groups of volunteers, one of which helped us put on a huge Field Day at our Buckner location. We bused all the children from all the sites to Buckner to celebrate. Thanks so much to our Executive Director, Gayle Nave, for putting it all together! Everyone had a great time!

Take a look inside our classrooms:

Buckner: This month they had a group of volunteers from Texas Instruments read in the classrooms and help spread the woodchips in the playground, a much needed job! Thank you volunteers for doing this for us! The teachers kicked off literacy month with a skit of the Three Little Pigs. We are so proud of the teachers for working together to create such a wonderful program for our students. This month they would like to highlight class 3, Mrs. Eshiett and Mrs. Villareal’s class. The teachers introduced their students to different math concepts such as the difference between small, medium and large, and the children sorted and counted color bears.  They also made patterns using shapes. In science, class 3 explored with gadgets and also examined nuts and bolts. They took them apart and found ways to connect them together. They also were able to charge a telephone gadget and reconnect a cord according to the way they thought it could power up a phone. Wow! We have little budding scientists among us!

Bethany: October was full of learning at Bethany! They had the Museum of Nature and Science come and do a presentation for the children involving learning about their body. She had lots of hands-on material--the children really enjoyed putting on a doctors coat, using the telescope, using their senses to find the matching smell! It was great! The fire department brought their fire truck for a presentation and the children tried on a helmet, went inside the fire truck and listened to the sound a fire truck makes when on a call. They also had literacy day where the children performed "The Little Red Hen" and parents made a book with their children, decorated pumpkins and sang finger-play songs with the children. They also had a pumpkin decorating contest and their volunteer reader Mr. David got to select the winners. Texas Instruments Facilities group also came out to fix Bethany's leaking roof, trim trees and install new shelves. A huge thank you to them! Last but not least, Mrs. Rodriguez would like to wish Mrs. Espinoza a very happy birthday!

Our Teachers in Little Red Riding Hood

 St. Matthews: It has been a very busy month at St. Matthew’s!  The teachers did a “Bring a Book to Life” performance for the children and acted out “Little Red Riding Hood”.  Ms. Romero did a great job of acting like the BIG BAD WOLF!  The Dallas Museum came to do their “City Critters” presentation which kept the children very attentive!  Everyone was excited to see the big, red fire truck pull up to our school!  The Dallas Fire Rescue squad introduced the different parts of a fire truck, dressed up in fire fighting gear, and answered questions for the children.  Class 1 (Ms. Silva/Mrs. Duran) made some very creative and edible fire trucks.  Next, Mr. Herrin’s advisory fifth graders from St. John’s Episcopal School came to act out fairy tales for the children. The children did an awesome job of acting out fairy tales for their parents. They knew their lines and played their parts like pros!

St. John's 5th Graders Acting Out Fairy Tales

Cockrell Hill: The Museum of Nature and Science presented “Basic Engineers”; Bear Creek Dental Bear visited the children and talked about dental hygiene; and Cockrell Hill police showed the children how to dial 911 and talked about what an emergency is. Also, Northwood University students came out twice to volunteer in the classrooms and the Ursuline and Jesuit students started coming. For their "Bring a Book to Life" celebration, the teachers presented “Little Red Riding Hood” to the children.  They are having good parent participation at the center and with homework!

 

Face Painting at the Fairy Tale Ball

Wesley Rankin: Wesley Rankin has had a very busy October that has been filled with so many awesome events! They had a very successful Literacy Night on October 8th where the parents enjoyed doing activities with their children in every classroom. I think the parents had more fun then the children! :) The classrooms brought a book to life and it was just fabulous. They did such a wonderful job and the children were just adorable. After that the gym was turned into a "Fairy Tale Ball" where the children enjoyed activities like bowling, musical chairs, face painting, ball toss and much more. It was so much fun and even more fun to watch the kids have a blast as they ran around in their cute costumes.

 

Our Parents as Actors

Crossover: Wow! October was a very exciting month here at Crossover.  At the beginning of the month our very talented teachers presented “Jack in the Beanstalk” to kick-off the literacy month.  The children's parents decided to join in the fun by acting out “The Three Billy Goats Gruff” and “Little Red Riding Hood”. It is so impressive to see our parents taking on acting to celebrate "Bring a Book to Life" as well! Hopefully we are bringing the joy of literacy to the entire family not just our students. To close Literacy Month with a BANG the children presented various books. All the children did a wonderful job, but they would particularly like to applaud the “Rocking Performance” by Class 4 in the “Three Little Pigs.” Also a Special Thank You to Caroline and Mark Davidson from Frito Lay for helping beautify our school.  Frito Lay had 38 volunteers who planted flowers, painted two classrooms, fixed closet doors, and donated landscaping/maintenance equipment such as a lawn mower, weed eater, blower and other garden tools!! Frito Lay--you are GREATLY appreciated! 

That's all for this month!