Brenda Keimig, Principal Brigitte Bernal, Assistant Principal

November 2015

Dear Parents, We have so many things to be grateful for as the Thanksgiving holiday approaches. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all members of our school community. Thank you PTA for your unwavering support. Thank you parent volunteers for your time and effort; you make C.J. Harris better every day. Thank you bus drivers for getting our students safely to and from school every day. Thank you teachers and staff for your amazing work ethic and commitment to our children. Last, but certainly not least — thank you students, for making C.J. Harris the wonderful school that it is! To celebrate Thanksgiving and our school community, we invite all families to join us for our annual Thanksgiving picnics during the week of November 9-13

th. You may bring a picnic

lunch or purchase sack lunches from our cafeteria. You are encouraged to bring a blanket or chairs to sit on for lunch outside. Please see the lunch schedule for your child’s picnic day and time. You are welcome to visit our Scholastic book fair after your picnic lunch. Happy Thanksgiving and Go S.T.A.R.S.! Brenda Keimig

The Principal’s Pen…

Harris Herald

Reminders from the office:

If your email address or contact phone numbers have changed, please contact our Registrar to update your information.

Please remember to send an excuse note if your student has been absent. Excuse notes must be received within three days of your student returning to

school. If your student has lost any items, please feel free to come check our lost and

found. All students who arrive after 8:00 a.m. are counted tardy. Please ensure your

student arrives on time each and every day to maximize learning. Any transportation changes should be sent in a written note to your child’s

teacher. You may call the office with emergency transportation changes only, and they must be received before 1:45 p.m.

Please sign your Kroger card up for Community Rewards. Kroger will donate a

% of sales to our PTA. https://www.kroger.com/communityrewards

From the Nurse’s Desk:

We have had several students with Fifth Disease (Erythema Infectiosum). Fifth Disease is a common disease of school age children often occurring in the winter and spring. It is characterized by mild symptoms such as headache, sore throat, low-grade fe-ver, and a fiery red rash appearing on the face first. This is described as having a “slapped cheek” appearance. It is then followed by a lacy red rash that spreads to the trunk and then limbs. The rash may itch but usually does not and it can come and go for up to 4 weeks. The illness starts from 4 to 18 days after exposure and remains contagious until the red cheek appearance and fever have subsided. Because of the close contact of school age children, little can be done to prevent its spread. No treatment is usually needed but any questionable rash should be diagnosed by your physician as other serious illnesses have similar symptoms. Children may attend school and are only excluded with a fever or undiag-nosed rash. Pregnant women in contact with an infected child should contact their physician for advice regarding this disease. To Your Health,

Nurse Griffiths

Coaches Corner:

We would like to welcome Coach Chavarria to the gym! We will be participating in a variety of fun, themed activities and games this holiday season! Younger athletes will begin ball handling units and older athletes will start fitness testing. Our first test is the pacer test. We will practice it during class and our goal is to have it finished before Thanksgiving break, depending on weather. Please be dressed for class with tennis shoes and shorts/leggings underneath dresses. We will also work on our curl ups and push-ups to be prepared for those tests. The curl up test is difficult because the motion is new/different than our normal crunch. Arms must slide up with the body. The position is higher than a normal crunch but not a full sit-up. I encourage students to do sit ups and push-ups at home to practice on a daily basis. My suggestions to the students are doing 5 in the morning and 5 in the after-noon. Small amounts will work wonders! Thank you for your support at home! Coach Plumley

News from the Counselor: Hello Harris Family! Thank you for the support at our school at the carnival, it was great seeing our family all to-gether! Also, Red Ribbon Week was a hit and the kids looked so cute dressed up every day. The teachers and volunteers did a great job decorating the hallways, the best part is that it was student centered and the teachable moments were created in the classrooms about how we “have the POWER to Say No to Drugs!” Thank you PTA for the wonderful RRW banner and goodies for all our kids! This month we will be focusing on Caring and Cooperation, we will do a team activity in each class to show what it means to be caring and to cooperate. Ask your child what activity they got to do during my visit to their room. Also, we will discuss what it means to be a caring per-son and a good friend. They will learn that T.E.A.M stands for Together Everyone Achieves More. This month is our can food drive, which will be another way to showcase what it means to care and cooperate together for a common purpose. “No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” –Aesop If you need to contact me, please feel free to call or email me.

“There are a ‘MINION’ reasons your child is SUPER!”

Christina Shaw

shawc@pearlandisd.org

Music Notes:

Happy Thanksgiving CJ Harris Star Musicians!!! Be looking on my music website for all of the performance dates/times and rehearsal music for our upcoming programs throughout the school year. I am so proud of our CJ Harris Choir and first graders!!! They did a fantastic job performing at our Red Ribbon Week Assembly in October. We will look forward to our 3rd grade Veterans Day program (Wednesday, November 11

th at 9:00am) and our 4th grade

Christmas program (Thursday, December 10th at 8:30am and 6:30pm) coming up

soon!!! Please encourage your kids to practice the music at home for their performances. If you forget the password, please email me and I can provide it for you.

Please continuously check out my school webpage to stay afloat on all musical happenings, programs & music classroom topics at: http://www.pearlandisd.org/webpages/kmiller/ It will be constantly updated and will have links, songs from programs to practice at home, re-corder websites, etc…

If you would like to donate to our music room, I would greatly appreciate it. Donations needed in the music room are dry erase markers and Christmas décor to decorate the stage for Christ-mas (trees mostly needed and ornaments)

Musically yours, Dr. Kristi Miller

C. J. Harris Elementary Book Fair November 6th - 13th, 2015

Friday, Nov. 6th thru Friday, Nov.13th 7:30am-2:40pm

Saturday, Nov. 7th 8:00am-12:00pm

A Scholastic Book Fair is a great opportunity for you to purchase books for your child and support

your child’s school at the same time. Scholastic offers low prices on many popular titles, and the

attached flyer lists some of the books that will be available at the fair. Twenty-five percent of the

total book fair sales will go directly to the C.J. Harris Library.

Class Visits: Each class will visit the book fair on their scheduled library day during the week. Below is the schedule of visits by Homeroom Teacher. Friday, Nov. 6

th – Skinner, Bower, Bates, Pohler, Taylor and Barley

Monday, Nov. 9th – Sockwell, Martinez, Dahlkamp, Aronson, Golden and Watson

Tuesday, Nov. 10th – Copeland, DeBorde, Colson, Allen, Byrd and Lowry

Wednesday, Nov. 11th – Idoux, Schiener, Almanza, Mercer, Schuck, Butler and Stewart

Thursday, Nov. 12th – Wallace, Cox, Matusek, Hawkins, Edmunds, Smith and Merritt

Friday, Nov. 13th – Procell, Casas, Gill, Oliver and Merritt

Family Shopping: The book fair will be open Saturday, Nov. 7

th 8:00am – 12:00pm for families to stop by

and shop. Also, families may come in to shop on the day of their student’s Thanksgiving picnic. Payment/Purchases: The book fair can accept cash, check, and credit card. Please add in the tax (8.25%) when calculating the total amount due. All checks must include a driver’s license number and should be made out to C. J. Harris Elementary School. All book fair purchases are final. Exchanges/refunds will only be made for damaged items with defects not visible at the time of purchase.

If you have some time to help us conduct our next Book Fair, please contact Ms. Kirk at kirkk@pearlandisd.org or complete the volunteer form coming home in your student’s Tuesday folder. Please remember to complete your volunteer application online.

Thank you for all your help! Keep reading, Ms. Kirk

CJ Harris Art Gallery:

Our students are doing phenomenal work in art. I am so impressed with their ideas and effort that being their art teacher is a pleasure. Thank you, parents, for the supplies you have donated and your support of the art program. ***To my volunteers: Eric S., Marcus B., Sara J., Annie M., Minerva M., Lynde S., and Can-dice W., your assistance with our budding Piccasos and Van Goghs is invaluable to me. You’re the BEST!

We are all beginning on projects for the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo art contest. 4

th grade subjects: free choice of western art.

3rd

grade is doing a Pena” or Hullan” style of Native American art. 2

nd grade compositions are buffalos and their environment.

1st and Kinder projects will involve farm scenes.

Your child is allowed to do research for western art ideas at home. They can also practice at home. The final copy for the submission will be completed in class. Finalists from each grade level will be announced when we return in January. I will be able to provide you with show dates in the next newsletter.

Winners of the Painting Experience from the carnival will meet in the art room after school on THURSDAY, November 19. I will provide all materials for the students’ paintings as well as a drink and snack. Please pick your child up on time. Whoohoo! I can’t wait…it’ll be fun.

Be bold, be brave, be artsy. Mrs. Harmon

Pearland ISD to launch new website

The Web address will be the same, but the look is different! Pearland ISD plans to launch a new website that contains many new features to help parents, students and the community access district information quickly and efficiently.

Some new features will include. . . . Designated tabs for community, parents, students and staff with information specific to

their needs and interests Rotating photos with story links on the homepage Icon links to top-visited pages “Highlights” section with important announcements

Updated school webpages will be launched in phases in spring 2016. Visit us at www.pearlandisd.org.

Attention GT nominated 4th grade students and parents: All 4th grade students completed the Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) on their campus in October. The window for additional quantitative assessment measures will be November 10th – December 4th. The assessments will take place at the nominated child’s campus during the school day. Most of the 4th grade GT assessments will be completed during this time. 4th grade parents will be notified of the GT identification results on or before January 15, 2016.

For more information regarding the Pearland ISD Gifted/Talented identification process, please visit the Advanced Academics webpage of the Pearland ISD website, www.pearlandisd.org, by selecting Advanced Academics under the Departments tab.

Melanie Grote Pearland ISD Advanced Academics Specialist K-4 281-485-3203

Thanksgiving Picnics

Please come join your student(s) for a picnic to celebrate the Thanksgiving season.

Picnics will be held outside November 9th -13th. Please bring a blanket to sit on as picnic tables are limited. Picnics

are held rain or shine. You may bring lunch for you and your student(s) or you may pur-

chase sack lunches from the cafeteria.

The schedule for each grade level is as follows: Picnics are held during your student’s regular lunch time.

Please see the reverse side for the lunch schedule.

Monday, November 9th – Kindergarten Tuesday, November 10th – 1st Grade

Wednesday, November 11th – 3rd Grade Thursday, November 12th – 2nd Grade

Friday, November 13th – 4th Grade

*The Book Fair will be open during lunch and parents are wel-come to bring their student(s).

November 2015 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 Daylight Savings

Time Ends

2 3 Career Day

4 5 6 4th Grade Field Trip

Book Fair

7 Book Fair

8 am - Noon

8 9 KG Picnic

10 1st Grade

Picnic

11 3rd Grade

Picnic

Veterans Day

Program

12 2nd Grade

Picnic

13 4th Grade

Picnic

14

15 16 17 18 Progress Reports

19 20 Free Dress Code Day

21

22 23 24 25 26 27 28

29 30

Book Fair, 7:30 a.m. - 2:40 p.m.

Thanksgiving Break