Food Law

I wanted to make all parents aware of the Texas nutrition policy, in very simple terms all candy and carbonated beverages are not allowed on school campuses during the school day. I will not be handing out candy to the students unless it has been approved in advance. I have also spoken to the students about the estimation jar for student of the week, they are not to put candy in them. I will send it back home if candy is brought to school. Please consider this with Halloween approaching, candy or chocolate is not a nutritonal snack choice.

In 2004, the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) implemented a much more restrictive policy on foods that are provided to students. The policy is aggressively enforced and schools found to have violated the policy will lose a day of meal reimbursement funds from the state and will be required to reimburse the food service account for the lost reimbursement. The policy applies to foods of minimal nutritional value (FMNV), and any type of candy and also restricts the provision of “competitive foods,” which are all foods and beverages not provided by school food services. The policy also limits the number of grams of fat and sugar Texas schoolchildren are served each week, restricts portion sizes for items such as chips, cookies, frozen desserts and beverages, and calls for phasing out deep-fat frying in schools. Nutrition policy exemptions allow for such events as birthday parties, pizza parties and classroom snacks (see the Exemptions section on facing page for details). The full Texas Public School Nutrition policy is available on the Texas Department of Agriculture Web site at www.squaremeals.org. Policy highlights include:

Soda water, Water ices, Chewing gum, Candies and chocolate bars are not allowed at any time during the school day.

Classroom birthday parties: Foods otherwise restricted by the policy are permitted at student birthday parties. It is recommended that such parties be scheduled after the end of the last lunch period so that these celebrations will not replace a nutritious lunch. Federal regulations do not permit FMNV to be served in the food service area during meal periods.

Updates

Math: We have just finished working on subtraction and addition. However, that does not mean that we are done with it completely. It will show up in their warm ups, on tests, daily work and homework. This week we are going to cover geometric and number patterns along with estimating sums and differences. This week will be our culminating assessment over place value, addition and subtraction. Finally next week, we will begin the much anticipated multiplication. If you are using the enVision textbook, it is topic 12.1 and 12.2 along with 2.5 and 4.4 .

Science: We have just finished working with science tools such as microscopes, balances, beakers, graduated cylinders and thermometers. We are getting ready to begin our unit on States of Matter. The students will end the unit with a project. More instructions will be coming home soon. We will be having a test coming up on all the science tools we have been working on.

Social Studies: Students are studying important inventions and how they effect and improve our lives.

Field Trip

I am excited to announce our first field trip for the school year. We are going to the Main Street Theater on December 3 to see the Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Permission slips will be going home this Wednesday and the $11.00 is due back by October 30th. I am looking forward to this and if any parents are interested in chaperoning pleae let me know.

Star of the Week

The week of September 21-25, Star of the Week was Grace. She brought in her 2 dogs, Tommy and Ali and they were a hit was the class.

Penny Time Line

This week the students are going to be working on making their penny timelines. In their homework is a sheet for the students to record at each age of their life and event that happened. They also need to collect a penny for each year they have been alive and bring them to school on Friday, September 18th. In class the following week we will be putting the penny timelines together. If you have any questions please email at jbronste@houstonisd.org

First three weeks of school

Time has really flown since school started. We have been working really hard on place value and rounding in Math. We talked about good citizenship in and out of the classroom. Now we are beginning science and discussing the importance of science safety rules.

I am looking forward to Open House on Tuesday, September 15 at 7:00. I hope all parents will be able to attend and hear the expectations of Mrs. Henley and me. I will be starting star of the week in late September and then I will start posting pictures of the class doing various activties. I am looking forward to a wonderful year!!!

New Year 2009-2010

Dear Parents,

Welcome to 3rd grade. We have a very busy and exciting year in store for us!

Before I give you a short preview of some of the subjects to be covered during the course of this year, let me first introduce myself. I am Jamie Bronstein-Sawyer and I am a native Houstonian. This will be my seventh year at Briargrove Elementary and I consider myself very fortunate to be among such a professional faculty. I teach Math, Science, Social Studies, and Geography. My partner teacher, Krystle Henley teaches Reading, Language Arts, Spelling, and Writing.

I realize that teaching your child is a privilege, as well as a tremendous responsibility. I will do my best this year to ensure that each student has a motivating and safe learning experience in the classroom. However, I cannot do this alone: I need your help. We both need to be partners in the learning process. I need each of you to encourage your child at home by helping to ensure that they have completed their assignments, and help them study for quizzes, if necessary. I will keep you informed of all assignments and subjects that are covered in class with a weekly summary.

I will send more information home on the first day of school. Enjoy the rest of your summer!

Mrs. Sawyer