Student Council Takes Action

Student Council took a field trip last week.  They visited University Village Memory Care Facility and sang carols with the residents!  Our student council visited twice this past Spring and enjoyed it so much they couldn't wait to go back and visit again.  Although they had fun, their visit had purpose!  Here is an interesting related research on the power of music to boost memory.

Student Council Wins Award!

Chandler Oaks Student Council was awarded a great honor! RRISD Partners in Education chose them as the Youth Volunteers of the Year! Our Student Council has worked very hard this year, both for the school community and the Round Rock community.

Student Council members have taught lessons to the younger grades as part of the 15 Days of Caring, volunteered at the local nursing home, raised over $1500 for charities and the school, helped teachers after school and created bowls for the Empty Bowl Project. They are models of integrity, respect and principle!

Congratulations to the 2012-2013 Student Council!

4th Grades Take Action!

4th Grade studetns are investigating the central idea, The availability of usable water affects people’s opportunities, in their Sharing the Planet unit.  Ms. Gray’s 4th grade class was inspired by a guest speaker from Round Rock Water to clean the trash from the reading garden. The speaker told the students one way to keep our water supply clean is to keep the trash out of the environment, so students decided to start in their own back yard!  Many students use the Reading Garden, so Mrs. Gray's class helped both other students and the water supply.  That's putting learning in action!

Students Take Action- Every Day!

One of the elements of the IB Primary Years Program is the Action Cycle.  It's the continuous cycle of choosing, acting and reflecting.  We try hard to help our students understand this cycle and how action can happen in many ways.  Sometimes, it's spontaneous and seemingly small, like deciding to pick up some trash outside even when it isn't yours.  Sometimes it comes from curiosity and passion, like when 5th grade presented about UNICEF to a second grade class.  Second grade students wanted to know more, so 5th grade took action and created bookmarks with information and passed them out.  Still other times, action is the result of seeing a need and wanting to do something about it.  Like when students noticed our reading garden was in need of weeding. 

All these little things together make a big difference, and when students reflect on the things going on around them and choose to take action, we all reap the rewards! 

Student Council Serves the Williamson County Animal Shelter

Student council recently took a field trip to the Williamson County Animal Shelter and presented them with a $500 check!  This donation came from their fundraising efforts all year selling candy grams!  Student council members were able to tour the facility and see how their donation will impact animals in  Williamson County.  Thanks to all cheetahs who helped make this donation possible and a big thanks to Student Council for organizing these events and serving both the school and the community!  You put the Chandler Oaks motto into action!  Giving our best, expanding our minds, changing our world!

4th Grade Students Take Action - On Their Own

4th Grade has been studying how the availability of clean water affects people's opportunities.  After diving into this unit, students took matters into their own hands!  THIS is what it is all about.  These students are the IB learner profile in action, and we couldn't be more proud of them! The note below confirms that parents are seeing some pretty amazing things too.

  

Ms Haynes,
I just wanted to share this picture and story with you.  Ms Gray taught the
students this past week about families in Honduras who didn't have clean
water; they kids had to do a project describing how their lives would be
different if they had to walk two miles to get clean water and had to
figure out how their family would handle it.

After learning about this the kids, on their own, decided they wanted to
raise money to send to Honduras for clean water.  They, again without any
help from parents, decided to sell lemonaid and sno cones.   They
determined who would bring what, how much to charge, and when they would do
this.   All came home very excited on Thursday and us parents realizing
they were very serious helped them pull this together on Friday.

They raised over $75 in just a few hours.  According to Ms Gray, $25 gives
a person clean water for life.  Because of their efforts they gave 3 people
clean water for life!

I just wanted to share this with you, one because I'm proud of them.  Two,
and most importantly, Ms Gray not only educated these kids but she also
inspired them.   Ask any of them and they can tell you exactly what is
happening in Honduras, about why not having clean water is bad, and how
lucky they are.   IB education does work and will help create some amazing
kids!
Thanks
Julie

Second Grade Responds to Problems

Second grade students have been investigating the central idea "Societies respond to problems with action" during their How We Organize Ourselves unit.  One problem that is current to our students is safety!  We recently wrapped up two weeks of safety reminders.  Second grade took the opportunity to teach us about the problems we face at the crosswalks and how to do it safely.  They researched the problem, then decided how they would take action. Students in Mrs. Koester's class decided to make a Power Point and Ms. Birrell's and Ms. Kenisell's classes made public service announcement videos.  2nd grade presented at the assembly this morning to help other students make safe choices.  Check out their work below! 
Other second grade classes are also investigating problems - look for some of their projects soon!

The Crosswalk Problem

4th Grade Supports No Name Calling Week!

Fourth graders read a story about no name calling to second graders. Then they asked students if they wanted to sign a no name calling poster and act out a skit to show how to be safe with name calling and help reinforce the strategies for the younger students: stand up for yourself, ask a friend, find an adult, and exit the area. YEAH FOURTH GRADE!

Read Around the World

Student Council members worked together to recruit guest readers among their family, friends, and community.  The students advertised the event on broadcast and at school assemblies.  They also introduced the speakers and helped make sure everyone had what they needed on the day of the event.  Student Council's goal for the event was to create an appreciation of other cultures and languages from our community which therefore helps Chandler Oaks become a No Place for Hate!  The event was a success!

5th Graders Become Environmental Consultants

Here are some great examples of learning about resources in the 5th grade  IB unit Sharing the Planet. Students learned about resources by exploring the central idea, “Using and conserving resources alters our relationship with communities and environments.” At the end of the unit, students were given a problematic situation they had to solve.  They became consultants for fictional communities and were asked to evaluate the use of resources in that community.  They looked for strengths and weaknesses and then developed an action plan to help the community move forward in an environmentally responsible way. These are examples of students looking at resources that are used in everyday products, researching and organizing our information in Kidspiration and Prezi, writing letters to companies to gather information on their impact and choices, and creating and action plan for a community. 

Webelos Troop Help COE!



The Webelos troop completed a service project at COE. On Monday, October 17th, 5 members of the Webelos brought their hoes and yard tools and did a great job cleaning up the library garden. They pulled weeds, picked up trash and swept up debris. For all their hard work they will earn a badge. Thanks so much for helping keep the reading garden a place we can all enjoy! With such cnice weather, many students will benefit from the hard work the Webelos did!