Valley Hi eNews October 2026

A huge thank you to all of the Grandparents who joined us on Friday, September 11th as part of our annual Grandparent's Day Breakfast. The attendance was huge, which serves as a testament to the wonderful bond that the grandparents in our community share with our Valley Hi Woodchuck students. Grandparents can serve an integral part in helping students be successful, so it was wonderful for us to play a part in celebrating that wonderful bond and sharing our gratitude for the support of all of our wonderful Woodchuck Grandparents!

During their weekly library visit on September 24th, the Pre-K students in Mrs. Herrera's class were treated to a fun read-aloud of the book "Crack Goes the Cascaron". Our librarian, Mrs. Grimes, chose this book to accompany her lessons celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month this month. Each student was gifted a copy of the book to take home and help build their home libraries. This was made possible as Mrs. Grimes purchased these books herself to give to each student. She is enjoying watching these little Woodchucks develop a love of reading as they are introduced to new books each week...and even more so, as they are being gifted their own copies of the books to enjoy at home with their families.

During the week of September 14-18 Valley Hi had a Celebrate Freedom Week series of activities in honor of Constitution Day on September 17th. Students in 3rd-5th grade participated in a lesson in the Library on the history of the Constitution with a specific focus on the Preamble. The students applied what they learned to complete a Preamble matching activity and completed the lesson by receiving their own copy of the Constitution in a pocket sized booklet thanks to our librarian, Mrs. Grimes, and the group Project 917. What a fun way to ensure that our students understand how the Constitution provides them with the freedom to select our leaders and have a say in the governing principles of our nation.

On Friday, 9-25 it was so awesome to see so many of our Woodchucks take part in our special day honoring the one and only Dolly Parton, who worked tirelessly to support literacy for countless children around the world. Whether it was wearing pink, sparkles or western gear, our Woodchucks shines bright and showed their love for the great Dolly Parton.

On Friday September 25th several of our Woodchucks were surprised when their names were drawn for a random gift bag raffle. A variety of awesome prizes provided by Ms. Abi and Mrs. Grimes were included in the bags, which helped serve as a reminder about the importance of coming to school every day! Congratulations to the winners!

During their Hispanic Heritage Month lessons in the library, Mrs. Grimes had the 2nd graders work on creating a collaborative poster bringing together the concepts that they had learned about including learning some Spanish words, celebrating the role of family in Hispanic communities, learning about delicious foods (2nd grade learned the recipe for making Flan using the book "Abuelita & I Make Flan" and discovering the stories of Hispanic community leaders. The beautiful creating these 2nd graders made will be displayed in the cafeteria for all to enjoy.

On Friday, September 25th, our Woodchucks joined thousands of other readers across the state to drop everything and read as part of the HEB Big Texas Read In. This exciting annual event gives our students to all enjoy a little relaxing reading time in various formats, including flashlight reading, buddy reading and interactive storytelling. It was even more awesome that this event happened to fall on Dolly Parton tribute day. What a great way to wrap up another successful week of learning and growing as readers!

During the month of September we had several activities to focus on the importance of coming to school every day, which included a dress up week, random raffle for prize bags, poster giveaway and the top 5 classes with the highest attendance percentage for the month won a glow party on stage. Our winners were Mrs. Simpson's 4th grade class, Ms. Martinez's 2nd grade class, and Mr. Garay, Mrs. Lee and Ms. Stehn's classes...all from 5th grade. The students in these classes enjoyed lunch on the stage with disco lights, music and LOTS of fun! Congratulations to all of the winners.