Tiger Tribune

Dear Theiss Families,

As we step into November, I want to take a moment to reflect on how grateful we are for our incredible school community. Your ongoing support—whether through volunteering, attending school events, or encouraging your child at home—truly strengthens the Theiss Elementary experience. Thank you for being such an essential part of our school’s journey.

Your contributions this Fall have enriched our school in countless ways. From participating in our fundraisers to lending a hand at campus events and joining us on spirit nights, you’ve helped create memorable experiences for our students. Your involvement makes a lasting impact, and we are deeply appreciative.

As we transition into the holiday season, we invite you to stay engaged with us. Please join us for upcoming events, keep the lines of communication open with our staff, and continue supporting your child’s learning at home. This newsletter includes information on ways to stay connected and resources to support learning during this busy season.

We are so grateful to partner with you each day. Wishing you and your family a November filled with joy, gratitude, and meaningful moments together.

Respectfully,

Jessica Taylor

November

Native American Heritage Month

4 Learning Celebrations in classrooms & 9 Weeks Treats after lunch

5 Election Day - Student Holiday

6 Kindergarten field trip - Cynthia Woods Pavilion School Days

11 Veteran’s Day Program - 3rd - 5th

12 4th Grade Wunderlich Farms Field Trip

13 Picture Day (Group/Retake/Club)

18 PTO Spirit Night - Chick-Fil-A

20 PTO General Meeting, 2 PM

22 PTO Sponsored Pie Day

25-29 Thanksgiving Break

Save the Dates for December:

3 Staff Caroling in Memorial Northwest

7 Memorial for Michelle Collins, Theiss Outdoor Learning Center, 10 AM

7 Choir - Wunderlich Farms Christmas Market, 11:30 AM

10 McDonald’s Spirit Night. 4:30 - 7:30 PM

12 Xmas Concert - 1st/2nd & Choir, 7 PM

18 PTO Spirit Night - Chipotle, Spring Cypress location

19 Holiday Party Day

20 Literacy Day

20 End of Grading Period 2

Dec. 23 - Jan. 8 Winter Break, student holiday

Parents, please remind your students that upon arriving at school they need to report straight to class unless they are choosing to eat breakfast first. We are seeing many students visiting their former teachers and going to class first before choosing to eat breakfast. Students wanting to eat breakfast should enter through the cafeteria doors in the morning and get in line before going to class. This helps us have an orderly arrival for all students and ensure students have ample time to get ready for school to begin at 8:10. Thank you for your help!

In January, our PE coaches are bringing a new exciting Skate Unit to Theiss! All K-5 students will get the opportunity to learn to skate during PE over the course of 2 weeks. In order to participate, we need your help to cover the skate rental and complete the permission slip. Please send the permission slip and money (cash and exact change preferred) with your child on M, W, F from now until Dec. 20th. Coaches will be stationed in the cafeteria near the school store to accept payment and slips.

We'll be celebrating our students' learning with a family spirit night at Skate Champions shortly after the unit ends.

This year we are using Lifetouch to create our memory book this school year. Parents of 5th graders are still able to order ads and all parents can decide if they want a soft or hard cover book. This year our librarian, Mrs. Reece, will be working with a group of 5th grade students to create our memory book. Don't miss out and order now to get the early bird price!

We will have Winter Holiday class parties on December 19th, 2024 during the following times:

9:20 - 10:05 5th grade - in the cafeteria

10:00 - 10:45 Kindergarten

10:45 - 11:30 3rd grade

11:30 - 12:15 PK

12:45 - 1:30 2nd Grade & 1st Grade

1:30 - 2:15 4th Grade

Parents are invited to attend! RSVP coming soon!

Our Homeroom moms and volunteers have prepared games and crafts for classes to have a great holiday party! Our PTO provides a special snack for all students as well.

We will be able to pre-print badges for those who RSVP, as long as you have scanned your ID this year. There is still plenty of time to come and scan your badge before 12/14, so please plan accordingly.

Our teachers have many great things planned for our students to learn. We value attendance and want our students to be at school the whole day. Early dismissals are discouraged and will follow our regular early dismissal procedures.

We invite those who knew and loved Michelle Collins, a former Theiss teacher, to a special ceremony on December 7th as we dedicate a bench in her honor in our Outdoor Learning Center. Her family and close friends will be in attendance for the dedication. Please feel free to share this invite with others.

Check out the details in this flyer and help us by donating new, unused toys. Students can drop off these in the front office. Thank you for your generosity!

Calling all veterans and their families! We want to celebrate you on November 11th. We will have a short parade downstairs and into the cafeteria, where our 3rd-5th grade students have prepared a performance honoring your service.

RSVP LINK:

We have the RSVP link included here for veterans and their families to ensure we have adequate seating for those planning to attend. We will not have enough room for parents of all 3rd-5th grade students who are performing, but we will have a livestreaming link to send out prior to the performance for anyone who may want to view the performance.

VETERAN PHOTO SLIDESHOW:

During our performance, we would like to share images of veterans connected to our Theiss families. Please use the link here to submit any photos you would like included in the slideshow. https://forms.gle/eHJUskJstivSjA9Y9

Our end of the quarter learning celebrations for this year will follow the same pattern as last year after much success in implementing a variety of formats.

• Quarter 1 & 3 : Students will receive their awards in class during a celebration that teachers will plan. Parents will not be invited to attend this in person, as there are many parent attended events around each of these quarters.
• Quarter 2 : Students will receive their awards via parade in the school for Quarter 2. Parents will be invited to attend by walking up to the front sidewalk to view students in the parade. In the event of bad weather, the parade will be livestreamed for parents to view.
• Quarter 4 : Grades PK - 4 will hold learning celebration ceremonies in their classroom on May 29th and parents will be invited to participate in person. 5th Grade will have their learning ceremony as part of the 5th grade celebration on May 30th.
• Student awards will continue to include recognition for academics, behavior, and growth mindset. Perfect attendance will be awarded to those who have perfect attendance and no more than 3 tardies each quarter.
• On Learning Celebration days we will also have 9 Weeks Treats, sponsored by PTO after lunches in the Outdoor Learning Center.

Attendance is an important part of our students being successful in school. It also plays an important part of our accountability system and a high rating (96% or higher) can make a positive impact on our school's letter grade at the end of the school year.

Each year, every school creates a Campus Improvement Plan (CIP) to set goals for the year with many data points including attendance. This year, Theiss' attendance goal is to reach 96%. We started off strong in August, and we will keep working to improve our attendance rate in the coming months.

August: 96%

September: 94%

Update: We finished out October back at a 96.24%!

As many of you know, we are growing as a student body, and space is limited for the many visitors that we have on a regular basis during lunch. To help ensure we have adequate space for our visitors, we assign designated days for visitor lunches. Starting in October, we will begin to utilize the following schedule:

Tuesday: PK, 1st, 3rd

Wednesday: Kinder, 4th

Thursday: 2nd, 5th

We will continue to allow visitors to eat with students on their birthday. If your child's birthday was over the weekend, visitors can use Monday or Friday to eat with your child for their birthday.

**Please remember that you may only bring lunch for your own child, and not for other students.

Please be aware that students who arrive or are dropped off prior to 7:40 are not supervised by adults. We expect any students arriving early to sit against the wall and wait patiently for school to open. Students should not be riding bikes under the bus porch, playing ball or other games during arrival as this creates safety concerns for all. Banging and kicking on the door as well as screaming at others who are inside the cafeteria is unacceptable behavior by both adults and children. Our staff begins their morning duty at 7:40.

Campus Kids operates starting at 6:30 AM in our cafeteria and provides adult supervision for students prior to the school day starting. Click here to enroll!

We are dedicated first and foremost provide a safe and secure school setting for your children. Please know that these expectations must be followed for every visitors every time they visit.

1. Ring the doorbell.
2. Identify yourself, your child and your purpose for the visit.
3. Show a valid photo ID to the camera near the doorbell and signage.

On the sign, you can see in fine print that you should not let other parties in behind you. I know it may feel awkward to ask people the let the door close instead of following in behind you, but it does help us ensure we are following the KISD protocol for every visitor every time they visit our campus.

*The only exceptions to this protocol will occur when we have large campus events. We have a campus specific protocol for special events due to the number of visitors that arrive at one time.

Now that the school year is off to a great start, we want all parents and guardians to be aware that tardies count toward student's attendance. Getting the school day off to the right start is very important for our students to be successful, and our instruction begins as soon as the tardy bell rings. Please help us by dropping your child off before 8:10 so they can make it to class and be in their seats as we begin announcements for the day and start normal routines. Children thrive off of routines in and out of school, so making a consistent morning routine at home helps students create consistent morning routines at school as well.

This year, perfect attendance awards will be recognized in each quarter's learning celebrations. In order to receive the perfect attendance award, students may not have more than 3 tardies for the quarter in addition to zero absences. Each quarter the tardies and absences will be reset for the award purpose, however cumulative totals will be used to identify families in need of intervention for attendance throughout the year.

Increasing our attendance rate, as well as decreasing tardies and early dismissals is part of our campus improvement plan each year, as it plays a part in our accountability system. Our attendance rate overall for last year grew 1% from the year before, which is great progress. We continue to strive for a 97% rate or higher by the end of the school year. Thank you for doing your part in helping our attendance rate!

We are committed to safety for our students and, in doing so, have updated our drop off procedure for students and staff to align with our feeder schools.

• Food deliveries for staff will be dropped off on a cart on the front porch, so no unauthorized delivery people will enter the school.
• Food delivery service drop offs for students will be turned away.
• We highly discourage dropping off fast food meals for our students.
• Student drop offs (food or forgotten items) will be left on a cart in our vestibule.
• Only parents/guardians can drop off lunch for their child, and their child only.
• Parents will need to write the student's name and teacher on a sticky note and leave it on the cart.
• Students will come through the front office to pick up their items and return back to class through the front office.
• Parents are responsible for making sure students know to come get the dropped off item by coordinating in advance. For forgotten items (glasses etc...), please send the teacher a Remind. The teacher will send the student to pick up when possible.
• Please note that our teachers are focused on teaching the class, and may not immediately see any messages about forgotten items or lunch drop offs. Please make sure that your child has everything they need for the day each morning as they come to school.
• We will follow standard protocols and require IDs to enter the vestibule to drop off items.

Thank you for understanding and following these new procedures.

If you have legal paperwork regarding your child's custody arrangement or regarding people who need to have restricted access to your child, please bring the original document with the judges signature to the office so we can make a copy to retain in your child's cumulative record. We follow all the legal requirements of court ordered documents, and are able to fully comply best when we have the records on file.

We are kicking off a new year, and our PTO board is planning great things for this school year! Check out these links for more information about PTO and how you can get involved!

PTO Facebook Page

Interested in Volunteering?

1. All volunteers MUST complete a background check through Raptor. It only takes a few minutes! Click here to complete.
2. Join PTO - it's free! Use the QR code below.
3. Want to learn more about KISD Volunteers? Click here to access the KISD site for volunteers.

We love to celebrate birthdays with your child and will work hard to make it a special day for them at school!

However, sending invitations to school to pass out will not be allowed. Instructional time cannot be used to support or promote private social events such as birthday parties.

At this time, we will not be accepting birthday treat bags. If you would like to arrange for an edible treat to be shared for your child's birthday during the lunch period, please follow the KISD protocols and begin the process 2 weeks in advance. No food brought up to the office will be allowed without going through this process. Thank you for your cooperation.

We'll post links to all the previous newsletter from this school year here!

August

September

October

November

December

January

February/March

April

May

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Find our calendar of events, contact information for staff, request additional car tags and more!

www.theiss.kleinisd.net

Website: theiss.kleinisd.net
Location: 17510 Theiss Mail Route Road, Spring, TX, USA
Phone: 832-484-5900
Facebook: facebook.com/TheissElementary