Archive | 2018-2019

We are reading a book. It’s called Down the Mysterly River. Down the Mysterly River is about a boy who somehow ends up in this world. His name is Max the Wolf, and he meets a talking badger named Banderbrack. Later he meets a man with the blue swords. The man tries to kill Max. Then, a talking cat named Mctavish saves Max and the badger. After that, they meet a talking bear named Walden. This book is dramatic, suspenseful,sad story. There is a big twist at the end! Read the book to find out.

His name is Max the Wolf, and he meets a talking badger named Banderbrack. Later he meets a man with the blue swords. The man tries to kill Max. Then, a talking cat named Mctavish saves Max and the badger. After that, they meet a talking bear named Walden. This book is dramatic, suspenseful,sad story. There is a big twist at the end! Read the book to find out.

My summer vacation was awesome! I have been to so many places in New York City, Philadelphia, and Canada. I love the subways in New York City. I’ve been to the World Trade Center, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and Sea, Air, and Space Museum in New York City. In Philadelphia, I went to Betsy Ross’s house, Ben Franklin Museum, Independence Hall, and the Liberty Bell.  At Niagara Falls, we saw fireworks from the balcony of our hotel and I took a ride on the Maid of the Mist. I got souvenirs everywhere I went like toy planes, shirts, and a water bottle. It was a fun trip, and I like to look at things I’ve never seen before! Then we took the plane home to DFW to hang with my grandpa and uncles and Mimi and cousins. The big trip was so fun I wonder what is coming up next summer?

The wonderful Ms.Friedman has created a team of students that publishes the news about Travis Heights Elementary. She wants to get the kids’ perspective on what’s going on at school or in the community. She uses 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students. She makes sure we’re doing the best we can do. She gives all of us cameras so we can take pictures for our articles. The pictures make the news a lot more interesting to read. During photojournalism we get out our computers and start writing. We get to eat our lunch while working. She doesn’t take us there to play, we work very hard during our lunch time. We get to choose what we write about and for me that’s really fun. Sometimes we work with partners, but usually we work alone. Ms.Friedman taught us how to take a good photo and make the person look nice.

Hi! I’m Puppypaw!  If you’re like me, you like to swim.  Next door to our school there is a pool called Big Stacy.   It has lap swimming lanes, a kiddy pool (shallow area), a deep end, and lots of fun. If you go to Travis Heights Elementary, in 1st grade you get free swim lessons in the spring. While being escorted by a lifeguard, you learn all the rules of the pool and how to swim in the shallow end. If you’re an expert at swimming, you can do diving in the the deep area. In the swim lessons they learn safety rules and how to save someone if they are drowning. They also teach strokes like the backstroke, freestyle and some other strokes. They also teach the standing dive, procedures like staying calm if you’re drowning and how to save someone if they are drowning.

   Ice Cream Social  

At the ice cream social you do three things: Find out your teacher, meet your teacher, and get Ice cream or a popsicle.

1. Find out your teacher

When you walk into the building there is a bulletin board with every class on it. Find your grade and look for your name, then move to the next step.

2. Meet your teacher

Walk to your new classroom to meet the teacher and drop of the school supplies. Usually you sign a sheet that says you’re a walker, car rider, bus rider, or you’re in after school care. The teacher will give you a ticket for ice cream.

3.  Get your Ice cream

Next, you leave the classroom and make your way to the cafeteria.  When you walk in you will see stands of people giving out fliers and information.  As you walk to the back of the cafeteria you see two lines for people to get ice cream (gluten free and non-gluten free). There is someone to collect your ticket and give you ice cream.

Written by goldenmonkey pictures by fuzzylobster

This year as a project in 4th grade we are doing a immigration and migration interview. We are expected to find a person that is not our parents to interview and that came from another continent, country, or state. Then we are expected to ask them different questions like:

• Where were you born?
• Why did you come to Texas?
• How did you come to Texas, that sort of thing?

I’m doing my interview on my grandmother from Valley of the Angels, Zacatecas, Mexico. She came to join her husband, but there’s different people from different places and some came here for different reasons. I’ve observed that many of them moved because of better experiences, better jobs, more money, war, a natural disaster or, like mine, to join family. Most of them did get what they moved here for. Whether or not, most of them settled here.

Lots of them had family here, too. Many of them are doing well. We are also supposed to make a giant chart with two to three people, as well we will make a podcast with the same people. Then the podcast will be on a QR code and when people hold their phones up the podcast will play. It’s fun and probably my favorite P.B.L. ever!

The new principal of Travis Heights is Michelle  Amezquita Navarro. When Mrs. Navarro was four she had playdates with her friends, and she would play school. What made Mrs. Navarro like playing school so much was that she loved helping people, and now that she is an adult she loves seeing the potential in kids. Before now, she was an assistant principal and was mostly spending her time in the classroom. Being in the classroom, she realized that she must never forget how hard our students, teachers and families work.

There are some things Mrs. Navarro would like everyone to know. She married her highschool sweetheart. She is a proud parent of a AISD student named Olivia. They are  hoping that Olivia can join the Travis Heights Thunderbirds next year. She also loves to dance and adores animals. Mrs. Navarro also has some goals for this year. She wanted to have the building ready, such as having the doors painted. Another goal that she has set for her community is to make sure everyone is kind to one another.

A challenge that Mrs. Navarro sees is to make sure every student has a voice. Every student can come talk to her no matter “what language you  speak, what level of education you are on, or what your family looks like.’’ Mrs. Navarro believes In order to lead, learn, and serve you must be respectful and kind.

We have a new vice principal at Travis Heights Elementary and her name is Ms. De La Torre. She graduated from U.T. She worked in her hometown at Giddings Intermediate School, but she missed Austin. So switched to Riley Elementary School where she taught 3rd, 4th and 5th grades. She then decided to go to Walnut Creek, where she worked as a supervisor and helped teachers be the best they can be.

When she was looking for a step-up in her career, the schools she saw didn’t look like what she wanted. Then she looked at the website for Travis Heights. She really liked it. It stood out.

One of her favorite things to do is say “Hi” to all the students and see their beautiful faces. The biggest thing she’s done is getting to be familiar to everyone.

It’s her 1st year as an assistant principal, and she says everyone has been very supportive. Ms.Navarro used to be a vice principal, and Ms. De La Torre says she has been a great role model and very supportive. She thinks that this year has been going great and she loves it here.

Ms.De La Torre really likes the one and only Mr. Hawes. She thinks he does cool things like the Thunder News, which is where students tell everyone what’s been happening at Travis Heights. She also enjoys our Friday assemblies because she sees us all happy. She thinks the ThunderBand is really cool and loves how we have our own band and they play music. She looks forward to this year so she can show everyone she can be a great leader.

Hi, I’m in Ms. Villanueva’s 4th grade class. This year in fourth grade we are doing a P.B.L. about  immigrants and migrants who moved to Texas. We had to find a immigrant or migrant and interview them. Then we partnered up and made a podcast with all of the information we have learned.  We asked questions like:

• Where were you born?
• How old were you when you came to Texas?
• How did you get Texas?
• Where were you born?

We made a chart with all of are information to see if our partners have any of the same information.  After that, we had to write script on Google Docs (longer than 2 minutes).  When we were done with with our scripts, we went to the computer lab and recorded it.   That’s what we did for our Project Based Learning to start off the year!

Our 5th grader photojournalists are given the opportunity to write for our neighborhood magazine, Life in Travis Heights.  Check out some of the articles they wrote last year:

Architecture in Travis Heights

Gardens Around Austin

The Coolest Things about the New Central Library