Deretchin Digest

Fall is officially here, and our school is buzzing with energy and excitement! October is such a special month for our students-there is a crispness in the air, routines are settling in, and learning is in full swing!

Thank you for your continued partnership and support. Deretchin is a joyful school because of our amazing students, dedicated staff, and caring families. Let's make this October filled with learning, laughter, and lots of pumpkin-spiced fun!

Please check out my updated monthly video on the "T & L Talks" button below. I now have a new co-host who will be joining me each month. 😀

Sincerely,

Tina Oliver

October 3 & 4 - PTO Spirit Event-Plush Nails

October 8- Walk and Roll to School Day, McCullough Band Night

October 10 - Student Holiday, Teacher Exchange Day

October 13- Holiday

October 14-31-2nd grade CogAt testing window

October 14- PTO Executive Board Meeting, 1:35 in lounge, TWHS Feeder Intermediate Schools Concert at Deretchin, 5:00-7:00

October 16- PTO General Meeting, 1:45 in cafeteria, Dynamic Deretchin Volunteer Days begin

October 17- Fall pictures

October 20-24- School Bus Safety Week

October 20- Character Club, 3rd and 4th grades, 3:30-4:15

October 21- Report Cards available to view

October 22 - 1st Grade Field Trip to Oil Ranch

October 23 - Fine Arts Education Day for 4th Grade - at the Woodlands Pavilion

October 24 - Character Spotlight Ceremony on Responsibility, 6th Grade Social, 3:30-5:00, PTO Spirit Night-Cypress Academy, 7:00-10:00

October 27 - October 31 - Red Ribbon Week

October 31- Storybook Character Parade

Character Pillar of the Month: RESPONSIBILITY

Habits of the Week

9/29

10/6

10/14

10/20

10/27

Upcoming Dates:

10/3/25 Deretchin will participate in the 23rd Annual Conroe ISD Police Coats for Kids Drive. We will be collecting coats from 10/3/25-10/17/25. There will be collection bins in the front office area. All sizes are needed, but in the last few years our greatest need has been for adult sizes. We get requests for coats up to size 4X.

10/16/25 Dynamic Deretchin Volunteer Days start

10/23/25 The Neuroscience of High Risk Behavior: Prevention through Brain Based Parenting

Presented by Dr. Crystal Collier, PhD, LPC-S Time: 6:30-7:30 PM Location: Webinar

Google Meet Info

Video call link: https://meet.google.com/ehg-ybyt-soq

Or dial: ‪(US) +1 319-346-6091‬ PIN: ‪373 258 695‬#

10/24/25 9:15 AM-10:15 AM Character Spotlight: Responsibility (wear green)

October 27-October 31 Red Ribbon Week

10/27 Monday

10/28 Tuesday

10/29 Wednesday

10/30 Thursday

10/31 Friday

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.

Dear Families,

As October unfolds, we are excited to share that we have planned many fun experiences for your child. This month, we will celebrate Hispanic Heritage, exploring the vibrant cultures and traditions that enrich our classrooms. Through projects, music, and art activities, your child will gain a greater appreciation for their culture. Additionally, we will embrace the spirit of the season with a fun-filled harvest celebration, featuring autumn-themed crafts and activities in our classroom centers. Thank you for all of your support! We look forward to a month of learning, growth, and joyful experiences with your little ones!

Warm regards,

The Pre-K Team

Happy October! As we transition into the fall season, we are excited to share what we will be learning this month in first grade. We appreciate your ongoing support and involvement in your child’s education!

Science:
This month, we will explore the fascinating world of force and motion! We will discuss how push and pulls change an object’s motion. We will also review heat energy, and students will investigate how heat energy is used in everyday life.

Math:
In math, we will focus on numeration and coins. Students will identify coins by name and their value. We will also continue our addition and subtraction unit, strengthening students' math facts.

Social Studies:
Our social studies unit will teach students about landforms, bodies of water, natural resources, and different types of weather. Students will be able to identify physical characteristics of these categories.

Phonics:
This month, we will work on decoding five new vowel sounds. Specifically, the long vowel sounds in words like seed or cake. These skills will enhance our reading and writing abilities.

Reading:
In reading, we will explore early American civilizations: Aztecs, Maya, and Incas. In this unit, students will compare and contrast these three groups. Students will explore informational writing and build their social studies knowledge.

Thank you for your continued partnership in your child’s learning journey. We look forward to a month full of discovery and growth!

Warmly,

The First Grade Team

Thank you all so much for your contributions to our Dollars 4 Dragons Campaign! Students enjoyed our special treats of donuts, popsicles, extra recess, and lunch outside! As the weather cools off, please be sure your child’s name is written on all their jackets and sweaters so they can be returned promptly if lost.

Language Arts:

Readers will build upon their understanding of Ancient Greece by being introduced to several well known Greek myths and characters. Students will work on identifying story elements and characteristics of Greek myths. After we conclude our Greek unit, we will finish out the month of October by diving into the War of 1812. Please continue to ask your reader higher-level questions when listening to your child read nightly.

Students will also continue to build their writing skills by following the writing process within a fictional narrative and then a narrative book report. We will introduce commas, quotation marks, and contractions. Students will continue cursive handwriting practice. We will end October going over spelling alternatives: sound /ae/ ‘ai’, ‘ay’, ‘a’, sound /oe/ ‘oa’, ‘oe’.

Math:

This month, our young mathematicians will explore a variety of exciting concepts!

We'll begin by reviewing money, focusing on identifying and representing amounts up to $1.00 using the dollar and cent symbols. Next, we'll dive into geometry, learning all about 2D and 3D shapes — don't be surprised if your child comes home telling you how many sides a dodecagon has!

After that, we'll shift our focus to telling time, with students learning to read clocks down to the minute. We'll finish October with a deep dive into place value, reviewing different ways to write numbers and extending our understanding to numbers up to 999.

Science:

In science, students have had many memorable moments including making root beer floats, sanding objects, melting chocolate, and making predictions about objects freezing. This month in science, students will be finishing up the unit on matter and its properties by using their knowledge gained to combine different types of matter to build towers. Finally, we will begin our unit on forces and motion where students will learn about the effects of pushes and pulls on objects.

Social Studies:

In October, we’ll wrap up our maps unit with a fun surprise, then begin exploring government! Students will learn about patriotic symbols and the roles of local, state, and federal government leading up to Veterans Day.

Spanish Language Arts

Los estudiantes practicarán palabras con consonantes dobles comunes en español, como l-ll y r-rr. Esto también incluye practicar sus diferencias fonéticas. Nuestras lecciones también incluirán el uso de diptongos y sufijos diminutivos. Continuaremos practicando dictado de palabras multisilábicas y su uso en contexto.

It’s going to be a fun, engaging month full of learning — and hopefully, some beautiful fall weather too!

In October for English Language Arts, third graders will be wrapping up Unit 2: Scales, Feathers, and Fur. In this unit, students have been exploring how animals are grouped and classified based on their unique traits. Through both fiction and nonfiction texts, they have practiced identifying main ideas and supporting details, drawing conclusions, and using text evidence to explain their thinking. This unit also helps build scientific vocabulary related to animals and their characteristics.

Afterward, we will begin Unit 3: The Human Body: Systems and Senses. This unit focuses on how the different body systems work together and how our senses help us interact with the world. Students will read a mix of informational texts and stories to deepen their understanding. Along the way, they’ll work on summarizing, making connections, and strengthening their writing skills as they explain how body systems function.

In math, students will solve with fluency one-step and two-step problems involving addition and subtraction within 1,000 using strategies based on place value, properties of operations, and the relationship between addition and subtraction. We will then start our multiplication and division unit by the end of the month.

In science, students will demonstrate that materials can be combined based on their physical properties to create or modify objects such as building a tower or adding clay to sand to make a stronger brick and justify the selection of materials based on their physical properties.

In social studies, students will learn all about government by describing the basic structure of government in the local community, state, and nation, identify local, state, and national government officials and explain how they are chosen and also identify services commonly provided by local, state, and national governments.

October is upon us, and we love getting to know our students! ♥️

In language arts, we are beginning our contemporary fiction unit. This unit will be an integration of reading and writing activities with comprehensive instruction of many skills. Our focus will be on character development, theme, summary, author’s purpose, and sensory language. This unit will feature text-dependent comprehension questions focusing on literal, inferential, and evaluative questions.

In math, we will spend the entire month of October working through our multiplication and division unit. The unit begins with multiplying up to 4 digit by 1 digit numbers using a variety of methods including, partial products, arrays, area models, and the standard algorithm. We will then use the same methods to multiply 2 digit by 2 digit numbers. After multiplication, we will learn how to solve division problems of up to 4 digit dividends by 1 digit divisors, including interpreting what the remainder means in the quotient. During this unit, we will focus heavily on problem solving and math fluency.

In science, we will begin the month learning about different forms of energy: thermal, mechanical, sound, and electrical. We will investigate and identify the transfer of energy by objects in motion, waves in water, and sound. We will also identify conductors and insulators of thermal and electrical energy and demonstrate and describe how electrical energy travels in a closed path that can produce light and thermal energy. We will spend the second half of the month learning about the nature of forces and the patterns of their interactions. The students will plan and conduct investigations to explore the patterns of forces such as gravity, friction, or magnetism in contact or at a distance on an object.

In social studies, we will learn about the various Native American tribes that inhabited the regions of Texas and how their location impacted their way of life including government structure, whether they were nomadic or sedentary, what their homes were like, and what they ate. We will then move into learning about European exploration in Texas. The students will understand the causes and effects of European exploration and colonization of Texas. They will also learn about the motivations for European exploration and settlement of Texas, including economic opportunity, competition, and the desire for expansion.

Fall is finally here, and we are so excited to finally have some cooler temperatures. We continue to learn new warm-ups and new large group games as well as more team-building activities. We are excited to get outside and start training on our distance running so we are prepared for the Turkey Trot in November.

Coming up in October is Walk/Roll to School Day on the morning of October 8th!

The focus of the day is to encourage our students to "get out of the cars and onto the pathways" not just for the event day but for the rest of the school year. This event encourages more physical activity, more family involvement and a better, safer, cleaner environment for all of us.

Get up earlier, dress appropriately and give yourself time so that you can walk or bike to school. It will be a great day!

******THIS EVENT OCCURS IN THE MORNING ONLY! TEACHERS MUST RECEIVE A NOTE IF AFTERNOON TRANSPORTATION ON THIS DAY WILL BE DIFFERENT FROM THE STUDENT’S NORMAL AFTERNOON TRANSPORTATION. IF A NOTE IS NOT SENT, THE STUDENT WILL GO HOME BY THEIR AFTERNOON DISMISSAL TAG.*******

Greetings,

I cannot believe we’re in the month of October.

Save the dates: November 14-21. We will have our Fall Scholastic Book Fair. Stay tuned for more details and information.

Here is the link to sign up to volunteer in the 2nd quarter: http://tiny.conroeisd.net/GXbD5

If you have any questions feel free to email me at CMattern@conroeisd.net or call me at my direct line, 832-592-8778.

Happy Reading,

Cristofer W. Mattern

Thank you for all of your support during the Dollars for Dragons campaign! We raised $63,904.27 and surpassed our goal! We will have a fun day at school on November 7th to celebrate and will have additional information sent out later this month on how to volunteer.

Please note our October PTO meeting has been moved to Thursday, October 16th at 1:45PM. We hope to see you there! You can RSVP here.

Don't forget to visit Plush Nails 10/3-10/4 for our Spirit Event. Mention Deretchin and we get 10% back to the school. And join us on Tuesday, October 7th, 4-6pm to chalk the walk in preparation for Walk & Roll to School Day on October 8th!

Our 6th Grade Fall Social is coming up on Friday, October 24th. Be on the lookout for additional information from your 6th graders. And we will finish the month with an additional Spirit Night at Cypress Academy on Friday, October 24th! Register here.

Michele Nicol

President, Deretchin PTO

Email: president@deretchinpto.org

A LETTER FROM THE NURSE

Welcome to Deretchin Elementary I am Nurse Robby Bruner and the Clinic Aide on campus is Shara Bracho. We are looking forward to meeting your student and meeting their health needs while on campus. Below is information regarding the common processes and procedures within the clinic to meet the health needs of your student.

Clinic Contact Information

Phone: 832-592-8770

Fax: 832-592-8780

Email: jrbruner@conroeisd.net

Clinic Communication to Parents

We encourage parents to save the clinic phone number, 832-592-8770 or 832-592-8769, in your mobile device to avoid missed calls. The clinic phone number may show up as “spam” on your mobile device. The clinic will contact parents for any of the following reasons:

· Illness/Student pick up

· Follow-up regarding immunization requirements or vision/hearing referral

· Notify parent of an injury that you may notice when student arrives home or requires higher level of care

Illness and Attending Class

Students that should stay home or will be sent home from school:

· Fever of 100 degrees or more

· Suspected contagious condition or disease

· Vomiting or Diarrhea

· Severe stomachache, headache, or earache

· A child who is too ill to function in the classroom

Student must be free of fever, vomiting or diarrhea for 24 hours without medication to suppress sign or symptom before they can return to campus.

Vision and Hearing Screening

Texas requires a Vision and Hearing screening, every school year, for all students new to Conroe ISD, as well as, every student in Pre-k, Kinder, 1st, 3rd, and 5th grade. These screenings are completed by campus clinic staff during the first 120 days of school. Parents will receive a referral, requesting you to follow-up with a healthcare provider, if your student does not pass a screening. If your student does not meet the above criteria but you would like them screened, please contact the clinic. Parents do not receive a notice if their student passes the screening.

Activity Restrictions

If your student experiences an injury or illness that requires them to avoid physical activity during PE or recess, please email the clinic the physician’s note or written formal request. All activity restriction request should have the following:

· Student name

· Date of Visit

· Specific Restrictions

· Duration of time to implement restrictions

Medications on Campus

Medications can be administered to your student while on campus if the following requirements have been met.

· Parent must drop off medication to clinic.

· Parent must complete required documents giving campus permission to administer medication.

· All medications must be kept in the clinic for the duration it will be administered.

Prescribed Medication

· Labeled with student name, dose, route, and frequency

· Labeled in English

· Cannot be expired No more than 90-day supply

· Must be prescribed by licensed healthcare provider in Texas

Over-the-Counter Medication

· Dose cannot exceed recommended dose on bottle

· Cannot be expired

· No more than 30-day supply

· Must be medication approved by FDA

All medications must be picked up by parent or guardian before the end of the last day of school. No medication is kept in clinic over the summer months. Medications left after last day of school will be disposed of using the appropriate disposal method.

Asthma/Anaphylaxis/Seizures/Diabetes

Students that have a chronic health condition that require emergency medications or health management while on campus must have multiple documents completed prior to attending campus.

· Must meet “medication on campus requirements” listed above

· Completion of emergency action plan/ diabetic treatment plan

· Completion of document outlining health history

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

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.