Deretchin Digest

As we enter the month of December, our school is filled with excitement, learning, and the spirit of the season. This time of year gives us a chance to reflect on all we have accomplished together and to look forward to the joy and growth still ahead.

Throughout the month, students will continue engaging in meaningful learning activities as we wrap up the first semester. Teachers have planned a variety of hands-on lessons, winter-themed projects, and opportunities for students to showcase their creativity. We are proud of the hard work our students have shown, and we encourage everyone to finish the semester strong.

As we approach Winter Break, I want to express my gratitude for our wonderful school community. Our students continue to thrive because of the teamwork between families, teachers, and staff. Thank you for all you do to support our school.

Finally, please take a few moments to check out the latest edition of the “T & L Talks” video on the button below. Leia was ready to wrap things up, but we kept the camera rolling!

Wishing every family a joyful, peaceful, and safe holiday season.

Sincerely,

Tina Oliver

December 3- PTO Spirit Night, Chick-fil-A-Alden Bridge

December 4- Spotlight on Ambassadors, 1st-3rd, 9:15 in cafeteria

December 5- Spotlight on Ambassadors, 4th-6th, 9:15 in cafeteria, McCullough Showcase for 6th grade, 1:00-2:15 in gym

December 6-4th/5th/6th Choir Performance at THWS Band Holiday Market

December 8-12- PTO's "Winter Wonderland" Store

December 9- Orchestra Concert, 6:00

December 11- Band Concert, 6:00

December 12- Spotlight on Generosity, 9:15 in cafeteria

December 15- Character Club, 3:30 in cafeteria

December 16- Choir Concert, 6:00

December 18- PK, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Holiday Parties

December 19- K, 5th and 6th Holiday Parties, Early Release at 11:55

December 22-January 5- Winter Break 😀

Welcome to December! Congratulations to our Silent Auction winners! Don't miss our larger auction in February, the week of Rodeo.

Join us on Wednesday, December 3rd for our Chick-Fil-A Spirit Night at the Alden Bridge location!

Our Winter Wonderland is coming up December 8th-12th. Winter Wonderland is our annual holiday shop that offers students the opportunity to buy gifts for their family and friends. Items range from $1-$8 and students will be shopping with their classes. Students that switch teachers will be shopping with the teacher they have at the time that is scheduled. For example, 5th graders will be shopping during their second block with their second block teacher so find their second block teacher's name on the schedule to find out when they shop! And don't worry - we work hard to stagger inventory so that those that shop on Thursday have the same options as those that shop on Monday! And if you are interested in being part of the holiday shopping fun, we have lots of volunteer opportunities the first 2 weeks of December!

This month we like to show our Deretchin staff our appreciation. Room parents will be reaching out to coordinate teacher holiday gifts and class parties. We are also collecting voluntary donations to go towards a $$$ Holiday gift for our support staff! If you would like to contribute to our support staff fund you can do so here! Every year, we help collect money for our support staff and gift them the funds before Winter Break. This includes our PE Coaches, our Fine Arts teachers, our friendly front office staff, our custodian team and everyone in between! We will present the staff with their cash gift on 12/18 & 12/19.

Michele Nicol

Email: president@deretchinpto.org

SMART Tag Parent APP

Please encourage our parents to sign up for the SMART tag™ Parent App, as we are no longer providing Bus Hubs to notify parents of bus delays. This app offers real-time updates on their

child’s school bus, including arrival alerts, and notifications for delays or route changes.

It's a reliable and convenient way to stay informed about their child's transportation. Simply instruct them to download the app, register, and link their child’s student ID to start receiving updates. The following link will provide parents with instructions on how to register.

SMART tag Parent App Instructions

UPCOMING DATES:

12/4/25 Spotlight on Fall Ambassadors Grades 1-3 9:15 AM in the Cafeteria

12/5/25 Spotlight on Fall Ambassadors Grades 4-6 9:15 AM in the Cafeteria

12/12/2025 Spotlight Ceremony on GENEROSITY 9:15 AM

• Wear brown

12/15/25 Character Club 3:30 PM-4:15 PM

We are also still collecting toys for Children in Santa’s Dreams.

Referral Requests for Gifted and Talented Testing

Referral requests are now open for the Conroe Independent School District Gifted and Talented program. Although the testing will not take place until late January, referral requests are accepted at this time. Referral requests can be made by the parents and/or campus staff. It is recommended that parents of 2nd grade students wait until CogAT scores have arrived before nominating their child because CogAT scores are part of the GT assessment. If you are interested in referring your child, you may want to discuss it with your child’s teacher. Referrals will be accepted October 1- December 19, 2024. Please complete this form to refer your child for GT testing: Referral Form (English) or Referral Form (Spanish). If you have any questions please call or email Jenna Hendon, GT Coordinator, at jhendon@conroeisd.net or 832-592-8828.

December is here! We are learning to identify and manage our emotions. We are working on letter names and sounds, and letter formation. In math, we are learning counting and cardinality. In science, we are learning about life science and objects in the sky. In social studies, we are learning about customs, traditions, and celebrations. Happy Holidays!

We are so excited for the month of December! We will continue our Bluebonnet learning unit on Farms, learn 5 new letter sounds and 1 new tricky word. In math, we will begin collecting and graphing that data, but we will continue to practice counting forward and backward from 20 and forward to 100! In science, we will study day and night patterns. In social studies, we are so excited to learn all about different holidays, cultures, and customs.

Some important dates to take note of:

December 5th- Gingerbread Day

December 10th- Rudolph Day

December 11th- Santa day and KINDERGARTEN FIELD TRIP

December 15th- Grinch Day (secret to students!!)

December 17th- KINDERGARTEN Polar Express Day (wear your pajamas)

December 19th- Holiday Party

Dear First Grade Families,

Happy December! It’s hard to believe we’re already wrapping up the year. We are excited for all the fun and learning this month will bring. Our classroom is buzzing with excitement as we explore holidays and traditions from around the world.

Exploring Holiday Traditions Around the World
Throughout the month of December, our classes will be learning about how different cultures celebrate the holiday season. We will discover the unique ways people come together with family, share special foods, and enjoy festivities. We’re looking forward to exploring the many rich traditions that make this time of year so meaningful around the globe!

A Special Share and Tell: Family Traditions
We’d love for our students to share something special from their own families. Each child will have the opportunity to talk about a holiday or tradition that is important to their family. It could be something they do together during the holidays, a favorite food they enjoy, a game they play, or even a special way they celebrate the season. Please encourage your child to think about what makes their tradition unique and meaningful.

Math
In math, we will continue to review key concepts like place value, addition, and subtraction. We’ll also be diving into measurement.

Literacy
In literacy, our young learners will be working on both reading and writing by making friendly letters. We will explore the er, ar, and or sounds.

Science
In science, we will be learning about the four seasons. Our students will investigate the characteristics of each season and discuss how people, animals, and plants adapt to these changes.

We are so grateful for your support in making this an exciting and meaningful time for our first graders. If you have any questions or would like to volunteer to help with a classroom activity, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Wishing your family a joyful and peaceful holiday season!

Warmly,
First Grade Teachers

As we wrap up November, we wanted to take a moment and congratulate all the students' creativity in designing their original balloons in the balloon parade. The creativity was wonderful to witness. December will be a busy and exciting month for our Dragons. We look forward to seeing you at our Holiday Party as we celebrate the winter season together.

In language arts, students will continue to build their phonics foundation by learning more spelling alternatives for vowel sounds including long i, long o, and long e sounds. Students will also explore more "tricky" spelling patterns. Your child will become an expert on Insects during our next reading unit. Readers are strengthening their listening skills as they learn to internalize facts, processes, and the insect life cycle. Thank you to our awesome families who are supporting the reading process each night. We are seeing great academic gains in students who are regularly reading at least a 100 minutes a week.

Our mathematicians will start our first unit on double digit addition and subtraction. We will learn how to add and subtract by “regrouping”, using our place value skills and automatic recall. Students will learn how to add and subtract using a number line, expanded form, with manipulatives, and using the standard algorithm. Please continue to practice adding and subtracting numbers to 20 with automaticity at home.

This month in social studies, we will explore family culture, immigration, and the many traditions that make our community unique. Students will learn about different holidays celebrated around the world, compare cultural customs, and create a culture project to share their own family traditions.

In science, we will be wrapping up the sound energy unit and begin our objects in the sky unit. Students will learn about patterns in the sky including the sun and moon. Students will also be able to describe what the sun is and how it provides light and heat. Finally, students will be able to observe and compare the visibility of objects in the sky with and without tools.

Los estudiantes en la clase Dual aprenderán la clasificación de palabras según su acentuación (agudas, graves y esdrújulas). También volveremos al tema de los diptongos que hemos visto en unidades anteriores. Otro tema nuevo será el uso de los pronombres de objeto directo e indirecto.

How is it already December? Third graders will begin Bluebonnet Unit 5: Flash, Bang, Boom!, where we explore the fascinating science behind light and sound. Students will read informational texts, hands-on explanations, and engaging stories that show how light travels, how shadows form, how sound moves, and how we use our senses to observe the world. Throughout the unit, students will work on identifying main ideas and supporting details, explaining scientific concepts in their own words, and using text features to deepen understanding. They will also strengthen their writing by describing experiments and observations clearly and accurately.

In math, we will start our Geometry Unit by learning about two- and three-dimensional figures, including cones, cylinders, spheres, triangular and rectangular prisms, and cubes, based on attributes using formal geometric language. We will also use attributes to recognize rhombuses, parallelograms, trapezoids, rectangles, and squares as examples of quadrilaterals and draw examples of quadrilaterals that do not belong to any of these subcategories.

For social studies, we will start our History Unit with learning about early explorers and describe how individuals, events and ideas have changed communities, both in the past and in the present. In science, we will continue our Force and Motion Unit by demonstrating and describing forces acting on an object in contact or at a distance, including magnetism, gravity, and pushes and pulls. It is going to be a very busy 3 weeks!

During the month of December in math, we will finish part one of our fraction unit and move right into our data unit. We will focus on collecting, organizing, displaying, and interpreting data in a variety of ways. We will represent data on a frequency table, dot plot, or stem-and-leaf plot marked with whole numbers and fractions. We will also solve problems by interpreting the data in the various graphs.

In science, we will learn about resources and conservation. We will learn about natural resources and how they are important and can be managed. We will identify and explain advantages and disadvantages of using Earth's renewable and nonrenewable natural resources such as wind, water, sunlight, plants, animals, coal, oil, and natural gas. We will also explain the critical role of energy resources and how conservation, disposal, and recycling of natural resources impact the environment and modern life.

In social studies, we will learn about Mexico earning its independence from Spain and the impact this had on the colonization and development of Texas. We will also identify the accomplishments and explain the economic motivations and impact of significant empresarios, such as Stephen F. Austin, on the settlement of Texas.

In language arts, we will complete our unit on the American Revolution. Students will continue working on identifying cause/effect relationships that led to the American Revolution. Inferential, evaluative, and sequential questions will follow each day’s reading. The unit will culminate with the students completing a cause/effect essay that sequences events that led to the American Revolution. Our grammar focus will be on subject-verb agreement, the suffixes -able and -ible, and the prefixes -in and -im. We will also continue to work on identifying the subject and predicate in a sentence as well as common and proper nouns.

The Turkey Trot was a blast! Students put their speed and endurance to the test while improving their quality of health. The loud cheers from the spectator area encouraged our runners to move quickly. Congratulations to everyone that participated in this fast-paced race!

In December, we will continue our football unit and begin working with short jump ropes. Did you know that jumping rope boosts your heart rate and improves coordination? This month we will also get active by participating in holiday activities that promote a healthy heart, good sportsmanship and fun for all.

Please remember that safe, comfortable athletic style shoes are very important for your child to wear when they attend P.E. class. Flip flops, open-toed shoes, Crocs, boots, shoes with high heels, and slippers are not safe shoes.

We wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Coach C (Mary Chernitsky) & Coach Parra (Tammy Parra)

Library News!!

I cannot believe we’re in the month of December. I don’t know about you, but this school year has flown by. We had a wonderful Scholastic Book Fair this past month. Thank you for your support and Thank you to all who volunteered. I couldn’t have done it without you. In the 3rd quarter, I’d love to have you volunteer in the library. Stay tuned for the Signup Genius.

Happy Reading,

Cristofer W. Mattern

Deretchin Elementary School is a school for the community, promoting a safe and nurturing learning environment while developing the whole child and encouraging excellence in all we do.

Deretchin Elementary is a community that builds on best practices in order to help our students reach high academic, social, and emotional goals. Our school collaborates with our parents and community to provide a safe and positive culture the embraces the diversity on our campus where everyone is equal and achievements are celebrated.

Email: toliver@conroeisd.net
Website: https://deretchin.conroeisd.net/
Location: 11000 Merit Oaks Drive, The Woodlands, TX, USA
Phone: 832-592-8700
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DeretchinCISD/
X: @DeretchinCISD

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deretchinconroeisd/

The Conroe Independent School District (District) as an equal opportunity educational provider and employer does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age, or disability in educational programs or activities that it operates or in employment matters. The District is required by Title VI and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, as amended, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Americans with Disabilities Act, as well as Board policy not to discriminate in such a manner.

For information about Title IX rights or Section 504/ADA rights, contact the Title IX Coordinator or the Section 504/ADA coordinator at 3205 W. Davis, Conroe, TX 77304; (936) 709-7752.