Dr. Green Elem Family Newsletter
October 14, 2026
Family Newsletter
Dear Parents and Guardians,
We hope you enjoyed the Fall Break and had the opportunity to rest, recharge, and prepare for another exciting 9-weeks period in our learning journey!
We are ready and committed to working alongside you to provide a safe, engaging, and nurturing learning environment for all our students. As we continue strengthening our school community, I would like to share some important updates, celebrate our staff, and highlight the exciting activities we have planned for the remainder of October.
In Loving Memory of Ms. Eva Crispin
First and foremost, it is with heavy hearts that we share the passing of our beloved colleague, Ms. Eva Crispin, on Sunday, October 11. Ms. Eva dedicated 22 years of service to our Dr. Green community, touching the lives of countless students, families, and colleagues through her commitment and care.
We ask that you keep Eva and her family in your thoughts and prayers during this difficult time. Her dedication and the lasting impact she made on our school will always be remembered with love, gratitude, and respect. She will be deeply missed.
Welcoming New Members to Our Team
We are pleased to welcome two wonderful additions to the Dr. Green team: Officer Acosta and Nurse Meredith Bhatti!
Welcome, Officer Acosta!
Many of you have already had the pleasure of meeting Officer Acosta as he helps oversee campus safety and welcomes our families each morning while assisting with traffic flow. We appreciate his positive attitude, cheerful personality, and dedication to creating a safe, welcoming, and caring environment for our students and families. Thank you, Officer Acosta, for helping make every school morning a little brighter!
Welcome, Nurse Meredith Bhatti!
We are equally excited to welcome our new school nurse, Mrs. Meredith Bhatti. Mrs. Bhatti brings 10 years of experience serving students and families in our district, most recently at Powell Elementary. We are fortunate to have her knowledge, experience, and commitment to student well-being as part of our team.
Please join us in making both of our new team members feel welcome at Dr. Green!
Celebrating Our PTA
I would also like to recognize our amazing PTA for its continued efforts to promote a positive school culture. From helping decorate our school and supporting student clubs to planning exciting family events, our PTA plays an important role in making Dr. Green a vibrant and welcoming place for everyone.
Thank you to our PTA members and volunteers for your time, creativity, and dedication to our school community. Your contributions make a difference!
Exciting October Activities and Upcoming Events
I am delighted to share some of the wonderful activities and opportunities available to our students and families this month. We hope you will join us!
📚 Annual Literacy Night
Wednesday, October 21 | 4:30–6:00 p.m.
All families are invited to join us for our Annual Reading Night! Spend a fun-filled evening reading together, listening to amazing stories, and participating in engaging, interactive reading activities. We look forward to celebrating the joy of reading with you!
☕ Coffee with Our Counselor
Thursday, October 22 | 8:30 a.m.
Join Mrs. Moreno for Coffee with Our Counselor, an informative session exploring topics that can positively or negatively affect our students' emotional well-being. This is a wonderful opportunity to learn more about the emotional challenges our children may experience and how we can work together to support them.
🏐 Volleyball Intramurals for Grades 3–5
Beginning Monday, October 26
Coach Ocho is excited to launch a new round of intramural activities, featuring volleyball for students in grades 3–5.
The schedule is as follows:
- 3rd grade: Mondays, beginning October 26
- 4th and 5th grades: Thursdays, beginning October 29
All sessions will take place from 3:30 to 4:15 p.m. A signed permission slip is required for participation. Parents and guardians must also arrange transportation and ensure their children are picked up promptly at 4:15 p.m.
We look forward to seeing our students develop their athletic skills, teamwork, and sportsmanship!
🍪 Cafecito y Pan Dulce with Superintendent Dr. Lusk
Wednesday, October 28 | 8:20 a.m. | School Cafeteria
We are excited to welcome our Superintendent, Dr. Lusk, to Dr. Green! Families are invited to join us for a casual and informative gathering over cafecito and pan dulce. This will be a wonderful opportunity to connect, share conversations, and strengthen our school community alongside with our Superintendent. We hope you can join us for this special visit!
🎉 After-School Clubs Begin
Wednesdays, October 28–December 16 | 3:30–4:00 p.m.
Our after-school clubs are back! We are excited to offer students opportunities to explore their interests, develop new skills, and learn alongside their peers, thanks to our wonderful teachers who have volunteered to sponsor these clubs.
Students will bring home a permission slip for families to review, sign, and return to the school office. A signed permission slip is required for participation.
Please note that families are responsible for arranging transportation and picking up their children promptly at 4:00 p.m. Since our teachers sponsor these clubs on a voluntary basis, they are unable to remain beyond the scheduled dismissal time.
Thank you for helping us make these opportunities possible for our students!
🍂 Annual Fall Festival
Friday, October 30
Get ready for a fun-filled evening at our Annual Fall Festival, organized by our amazing PTA. We encourage families to sign up to volunteer and help make this event a success. Of course, you are also welcome to simply come, enjoy the festivities, and make wonderful memories with your children and our school community.
We look forward to celebrating the season together!
🌟 Working Together for Our Students
As always, please do not hesitate to reach out to me with your ideas, suggestions, questions, or concerns. Open communication and a strong partnership between home and school are essential to our students' success.
Thank you for your continued support, involvement, and commitment to the Dr. Green community. Together, we can continue creating a school environment where every child feels safe, supported, valued, and inspired to learn.
We look forward to seeing you at our upcoming events and making this another wonderful month at Dr. Green!
Warm regards,
Respectfully,
Guadalupe Pineda
Dr. Green Elementary Principal
We Are Hawks, Watch Us SOAR!
2026-2027 Handbook
Acknowledgement Page and Student Handbook link
Parents,
Please be advised that if you child is absent, you need to report the absence via email. You may submit a doctor's note or a written statement from you about the reason for the absence. Please send any documentation to: green_notes@episd.org
Attendance is critical to a student's daily learning. Please read the information below for Attendance Procedures.
I also wanted to inform you that students in grades 3-5 will be taking a STAAR INTERIM assessment in math and reading on Tuesday and Wednesday, October 20th and 21st. Please ensure to send your students to school and support their efforts by having a goodnight sleep the night before and a fulfilling breakfast.
For the safety of all children and adults, please follow the traffic procedures both outside and inside our parking lot.
Please DO NOT leave your vehicle unattended while in the drop-off lane. We also ask that you do not stop your vehicle to verify that your child has made it safely to the school doors, as this can create traffic congestion and compromise the safety of others.
If you would like to ensure that your child has safely reached the school’s front doors, please park in a designated parking space and walk your child to the front entrance.
Thank you for your cooperation and for helping us keep our students, families, and staff safe!
Dear Families,
The Core Essential Value for October is Integrity: Choosing to be truthful in whatever you say and do.
EPISD offers the Extended Daycare Learning Center at Dr. Green for a weekly fee.
Daycare Manager: Grace Gonzalez
Hours of Operation:
Monday-Friday
6:00 am to 7:30 am
3:30 pm to 6:00 pm
Please access the EPISD webpage for more information. https://www.episd.org/o/episd/page/extended-day-learning
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Dear Families,
Welcome back from Fall Break! We hope you had a wonderful break filled with fun, rest, and special memories. Thank you for supporting your child’s education at home. Below are some festive ways to continue helping your child at home with Math and Reading.
Enjoy some spooky reading at home! 👻
Make reading extra fun this October! You can enjoy these simple activities together:
🕷️ Read a Spooky Story – Choose a Halloween book and read it together.
🎃 Read by Flashlight – Turn off the lights and read using a flashlight!
👻 Story Retell – After reading, have your child tell you what happened at the beginning, middle, and end.
🍬 Halloween Word Hunt – Find and write Halloween-themed words while reading.
🧙 Create a New Ending – Ask your child to invent a different ending for the story.
Interactive Read-Alouds & Comprehension
Silly vs. Spooky Comparisons: Read a fun picture book like Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson or Bonaparte Falls Apart. Ask your child to identify character traits and retell the beginning, middle, and end.
Fiction and Nonfiction Pairing: Read a fictional pumpkin story (like Too Many Pumpkins) alongside a real informational article about how pumpkins grow to practice comparing text styles.
Themed Comprehension Sheets: Use short, high-interest reading passages with quick questions, such as free printable Candy Corn Reading Passages found on Teachers Pay Teachers.
Creative Writing & Extension Activities
Spooky Story Starters: Give your child a fun prompt, such as what it would be like to adopt a pet monster or find a mysterious glowing pumpkin, to practice descriptive writing and new vocabulary.
H-A-L-L-O-W-E-E-N Acrostic Poems: Have your child write the letters of Halloween vertically down a page and write a descriptive word or mini-sentence for each letter.
Spooky Math Fun at Home! 👻
Make math fun this October with these simple activities families can enjoy together!
🕷️ Count the Candy – Count, sort, and compare different types of candy.
🎃 Halloween Patterns – Create patterns using candy, toys, or Halloween decorations.
👻 Math Story Problems – Make up Halloween-themed addition and subtraction problems.
🧙 Estimate & Count – Guess how many items are in a jar, then count to check!
🍬 Shape Hunt – Look around the house for circles, squares, rectangles, and other shapes.
Lower Elementary (Grades K-2)
Candy Sorting and Graphing: Sort a pile of Halloween Candy by type, color, or size. Count how many are in each category and make a simple bar chart on paper.
Spider Ring Addition/Subtraction: Place plastic spider rings onto a drawn paper hand. Write simple addition or subtraction equations on index cards and use the rings as physical counters to solve them.
Candy Corn Math Facts: Use candy corn pieces as markers to play a roll-and-cover board game or to practice number bonds by hiding a few under a cup.
Upper Elementary (Grades 3-5)
Fraction Cupcakes: Draw or print pictures of grouped items (like witch hats or ghosts) and ask questions like, "What fraction of the spooky items have a star?" You can scale this up to decimals and percentages.
Spooky Measuring and Flying: Make paper airplanes, decorate them like bats or broomsticks, and fly them down the hallway or yard. Measure the distances in both inches/centimeters and calculate averages for the group.
Candy Decimals and Budgets: Assign a pretend money value to different pieces of candy (e.g., a mini chocolate bar is $0.25, a lollipop is $0.10). Give your child a budget to "buy" a specific mix of treats and practice adding and subtracting decimals.
Have fun practicing math and reading while celebrating this month! Happy October!
Reading and Math Activities
It’s that spooky time of the year! Here are some ideas for you to celebrate the Halloween spirit while enriching your learning at home!
Reading:
Read scary stories to your friends and family. Click on the link below to access a pdf of “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.”
https://files.commons.gc.cuny.edu/wp-content/blogs.dir/6542/files/2019/03/B-001-014-456.pdf
Math:
Fun Halloween Math Activities for Home
Candy Sorting and Graphing: Empty your child's Halloween Candy Sorting haul onto the table. Have them sort pieces by color, brand, or type. Then, ask them to count each group and create a simple bar graph on a piece of paper.
Spider Ring Addition & Subtraction: Grab some plastic spider rings and use them as counting tools Easy DIY Halloween Math Activity | Spider Ring Addition & .... Write simple equations like 5 + 3 or 9 - 4 on index cards and have your child place the correct number of spiders on the table to find the answer.
Pumpkin Weighing and Measuring: Pick up a few small pumpkins or gourds. Ask your child to guess (estimate) how much each pumpkin weighs, how tall it is, and how many ribs it has. Then, use a kitchen scale or a ruler to check their guesses.
Spooky Word Problems: Invent stories featuring ghosts, bats, or witches. For older kids, try calculating distance or speed with 7 FREE Spooky Halloween Math Activities And Games by measuring how far a paper bat flies across the room.
Science: Create a Solution
Easy DIY Halloween Slime Recipe
1 bottle (5 oz) of clear or colored school glue
1.5 teaspoons of baking soda
2 teaspoons of contact lens solution (must contain boric acid)
Spooky add-ins: Food coloring (green, purple, or orange), glitter, and plastic spiders or googly eyes [1, 2, 3]
Instructions
Pour the entire bottle of school glue into a clean mixing bowl.
Stir in the baking soda completely.
Add a few drops of food coloring and your favorite glitter, then mix well.
Add the contact lens solution and stir actively. The mixture will pull away from the bowl sides and thicken into slime.
Knead the slime with your hands until it reaches a stretchy, non-sticky consistency.
