The Twain Times

Mark Twain Elementary School

October 6, 2015

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Dear Mark Twain Community, Mark_twain_pto_logo

The October calendar is full of activities at Mark Twain. When you receive the October calendar, please look at all the activities coming up. Several events are student-centered and I encourage you to participate in as many of those activities as you can. Our biggest event for children is the Spooky Spaghetti Supper. It is our version of a Fall Carnival. It will be held on Saturday, October 17 from 4:00-8:00 pm. The decorations you see around the school are to publicize the event and were provided by the parents that are organizing Spooky Spaghetti. It is a fun evening for all and I hope to see you there.

I want to encourage all parents to communicate with classroom teachers when questions arise. When you have questions about homework, expectations, or anything related to the class, the teacher is best equipped to address your concerns. My administrative staff is available to assist if needed but the classroom teacher should be your first contact. All teachers have planning periods and are available to meet with parents to discuss student progress and concerns.

One of our most important duties as educators is to provide a safe environment for your child. Although we have systems in place there is always room for improvement. Below are general guidelines that we should all adhere to:

There are no left turns into the carpool lane in the afternoon. Enter the carpool lane from Braes Blvd.
There are never two lanes of traffic in the carpool driveway. This is a very dangerous practice and I respectfully ask that you not form a second lane. Please be patient.
Cell phone use is prohibited in the school zone area.
The kindergarten gates leading to Helen's Park and to the kindergarten parking lot must be kept closed at all times. Those gates are unlocked only until 8:00 am. If you arrive after 8:00 am you should enter at the front of the building. Please do not prop the gates open at any time. The gates are there to provide security for your children. Please help us keep them closed at all times.

Magnet applications are available at HISDchoice.com. If you have a kindergarten student entering in Fall 2016, dual language applications are available in the front office or at houstonisd.org/twaines.

Have a great week!
Melissa Patin

Principal

Huckleberry Park
News & Information

We Need You
Please let us know if you can help with web design, grant writing, block walking, or civil engineering.

Community Survey

Give us input on how to make Huckleberry Park YOUR community park. Please take a moment to complete the brief survey here.

Community Meeting

Plan to attend the community meeting on Wednesday, October 14 at 7:00 pm in the Mark Twain cafeteria. Kathleen Ownby, Executive Director of SPARK, will speak and playground consultant Halycon Reese-Learned, PhD, will gather feedback for Huckleberry Park. You won't want to miss it!

If you have any questions, comments, or want to help, please contact Elaina McNulty and Linda Barcot at huckleberrypark@yahoo.com.

Spooky Spaghetti:
Fall Carnival and Supper

Saturday, October 17
4:00 - 8:00 pm at Mark Twain

Wear a costume, play games, jump and slide on inflatables, sing karaoke, listen to the DJ spin tunes, enjoy a spaghetti dinner from Candelari's and have tons of fun!

Spooky Spaghetti glow-in-the-dark t-shirts are on sale this week in the front rotunda before and after school. Students can wear their t-shirt any day in October.

Ticket sales will be October 12-16 in the front rotunda and cafeteria before and after school.

Please sign up for a shift at your class game booth. Contact your room parents for more information.

We need your sweets! Please bring baked goods for the Sweet Shop and/or a cake for the Cake Walk to the PTO workroom on October 15 or 16.

Spooky Boo-tique: We are looking for vendors to be part of our Spooky Market/Boo-tique. We ask for 10% of final sales. Vendors participating so far include Tomfoolery Toys and Noonday Jewelry. If you are interested, contact Elecia Wheeler at ewheeler9@att.net or 713.825.5993.

If we can borrow your large cooler, please label it with your name and phone number and plan to bring it to the PTO workroom on October 15 or 16.

Volunteers are appreciated. Please contact Frankie Sartin at frankiesartin@gmail.com or Annette Rodriguez at annettealonzo@me.com to volunteer or for more information.

Yearbook Cover Contest

The 2015 - 2016 school year marks the 25th Anniversary of the LDC Program at Mark Twain. To help celebrate, this year's Yearbook Cover Contest will be literary themed.

Think books. Think knowledge. Be creative! Students may draw a picture based on this theme for a chance to have their artwork be on the cover of this year's yearbook. Download a complete list of guidelines here. Submissions are due by the end of school on Friday, October 9. For more information, contact Liz Sanders or Tracey Reeves at twainyearbook@yahoo.com.

Box Tops for Education

Return your Box Tops to your classroom by Tuesday, October 13. The class with the most box tops will win a popsicle party this year.

HEB has joined with Box Tops For Education to donate 10 eBoxTops for everyone who registers and signs up for emails at cashforyoureducation.com. Mark Twain has a Team Page and it's an easy way to get extra Box Tops without buying anything.

Also, if you sign up at boxtops4education.com, and register Twain as your school, you can enter 2 current contests - one is worth 10,000 Box Tops. Various contests are offered throughout the year. You can enter daily or as often as you like to increase your chances. Additionally, if you purchase 3 Box Tops products at Sam's Club, you can earn 100 eBox Tops. Instructions are at boxtops4education.com.

For more information, please contact Dominique Isenhower at disen@flash.net.

Mark Twain Parent Enrichment
Friday, October 16 at 8:00 am
in the cafeteria

Please join us for a great book discussion:
How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare Your Kid for Success by Julie Lythcott-Haims

In How to Raise an Adult, Julie Lythcott-Haims draws on research, conversations with admissions officers, educators, employers, and on her own insights as a mother to highlight the ways overparenting harms children, their stressed-out parents, and society at large. While empathizing with the parental hopes fears that lead to overhelping, Lythcott-Haims offers practical alternative strategies that underline the importance of allowing children to make their own mistakes and develop the resilience and inner determination necessary for success.

Looking ahead: Friday, November 13
Aimee Taylor, Certified Health Coach, will speak about maintaining a healthy lifestyle throughout the chaos of the holidays.

Marathon Kids

Marathon Kids is returning to Mark Twain. Students who love to exercise and run are welcome to join the Twain Tiger Running Club and try and complete 4 marathons over the course of the school year. For each marathon completed, students will receive a reward for a total of up to 4 rewards.

Students in the Twain Tiger Running Club will have the opportunity to run laps on Get Fit Fridays, during recess and PE, and on occasional days after school with Coach Jody and other teachers. The cost to participate in the program is $15, but scholarships are available. Please return the registration form and payment to Coach Jody's mailbox in the office by Friday, October 9.

On Monday, October 19, Mark Twain Elementary will join the Barbara Bush Literacy Foundation and others in Read Across the Globe - a special day where volunteers will team up to break the Guinness World Record for the number of children read to within a 24-hour period. The current world record is 238,000 children, and the hope is to smash it by reading to 300,000 children across the globe.

We need YOU to serve as a volunteer in this exciting event, which will help inspire the love of reading and promote awareness of the importance of literacy across our city and around the world.

We need volunteers to read to each class in 30 minute shifts from 8:00 - 11:30 am. We will provide the book for you to read. To sign up for a shift, please click here. Please select the "Reader" option. For more information, please contact Michele Rawson at mrawson1@houstonisd.org.

For more information about Mark Twain Elementary, visit marktwainpto.org or houstonisd.org/Twaines. To receive the Twain Times e-newsletter, please sign-up here. For submission guidelines, visit marktwainpto.org/communications.