The White Oak Primary and Intermediate Campus is having a food drive beginning November 2nd until November 20th.
You can click on the flyer below for more information.

Below are Parent and Student Permission forms to be signed and returned at the beginning of each school year.

It is almost summertime and the insects are all a-buzz. What better time to do some online research on insects than here at the end of school. So let's download the documents and everyone get "enlightened".

In case it happened to slip right by you without notice, we wanted to remind everyone that Earth Day was April 22nd. Our class has been a participant in the online Blog Challenge09 for the past eight weeks and recently one of the challenges addressed Earth Hour. This peaked our interest and we began to think about what we could do to help Save the Earth. Coincidentally, that same week, Mr. Mike Gilbert, White Oak ISD's Superintendent, sent out an email with some fantastic earth shots taken by Astronaut Sunita Williams from NASA's International Space Station. The final slide of Ms. Williams' presentation encouraged those who had the privilege to view it to share her digital captures with as many people as we could.

So, our class decided to brainstorm some things that we could do to help Save the Earth. We incorporated the slides from Ms. Williams as the backdrop and enhanced our podcast with the students' own ideas. I think after you listen to them, you will agree that they have some excellent plans for the future.

Please enjoy our presentation.

Each month we update our Holiday Heyday webpage with calendar information and academic links for math and reading. Students are asked to print out the PDF assignment and answer questions about each month.

This gives students practice writing proper nouns and dates. They also practice the seven days of the week and twelve months of the year while having a lot of fun.

We will continue to update these during the summer months as well.

April showers bring May flowers, but it also brings birds--lots of birds. I have noticed robins scratching for worms in my front yard after my husband mowed. It just reinforces the arrival of spring. April's Monthly PDF Assignment will center around a study of birds. Thanks to FACTS4Me for providing an excellent source of data each month.

We joined into the Happy Birthday, Mr. President 2009 and agreed to produce a podcast of our study to be shared with other involved in the online collaboration. We had such a wonderful time learning about this great President. The students were truly interested and wanted to share all that they learned. We look forward to our next online project, St. Patrick's Day Project 2009.

Today was a first for our class, and I think it was actually a first for any class on the White Oak Intermediate campus. We participated in a NINE-STATE Skyping session. For those of you who do not know what Skype is, it is a audio/video technology tool for connecting with others via the internet. On the 200th Celebration of Lincoln's birth, Jennifer Wagner coordinated a connection of classrooms in Michigan, New Jersey, South Carolina, Arkansas, Ohio, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Texas in a collaborative effort to read the Gettysburg Address simultaneously. We are hoping that when the final count comes in we will discover that we have been a part of making history by setting a new Guinness World Record. Our class was assisted in its efforts by the help of third-grade cousins, Wyatt Smith and Tyler Smith. We also appreciated Mrs. Karen Dickson, our principal, for coming to take part in this learning experience as well as Mr. Michael Gilbert, Mr. Michael Gras, and Mr. Scott Floyd for their encouragement and technological support of our students. Below is the video account of our reading and a question and answer review of our study of Abraham Lincoln.

We have all heard the saying regarding the weather in March, "In like a lion, out like a lamb". Where did that saying originate? Most often the temperatures at the end of the March are much higher than at the beginning of March. If you would like to read a little bit more about it's origin, then check out this illustrative cartoon by Jack Horkheimer. We have decided that our Monthly PDF Assignment will center around Clouds. Please take place in this study with us using the FACTS4ME database.

February is the month that we honor Presidents past and present. Three of our Presidents were born in the month of February. I know that you can name George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, but can you name the third one? After this Monthly PDF Assignment, you will be able to name all three.

Our class has just finished studying glyphs and reading The Gingerbread Man by Karen Schmidt. So what better way to practice our newly gained knowledge but to make Gingerbread Glyphs. We have also been waiting for just this kind of opportunity to make another podcast.
We hope that you fully enjoy this production that showcases some of our White Oak Intermediate students. Be sure to watch all the way to the end because the last lines truly says it all.

This month we will be reading both fictional and nonfictional books about penguins. Our monthly pdf assignments will help us learn some information about these wonderful animals. Please print out the pdf and go to FACTS4ME to find the answers.

On November 12th a group of White Oak teachers from all campuses traveled to the Nature Center in Tyler, Texas, to attend a Project WILD Training session. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department sponsors these programs which offer unique, hands-on opportunities for learning. Project WILD is a K-12 "environmental and conservation education program emphasizing awareness, appreciation and understanding of wildlife and natural resources." The activities encourage higher-level thinking skills and align with the TEKS and TAKS. We appreciate all of the efforts of TPWD, Larry Lebeau, Irene Hamel, and Neil Ford to provide this training for area educators. Here is a recap of our enjoyable day.



You may download this file by clicking here .

Our students are learning how to use the web to gain more knowledge of the settings of the stories we are reading. By making weather comparisons between our own hometown and the setting of the stories, it helps our readers to identify more closely with the characters. Students surf through sites using the pdf below to answer questions about each town. At the end of the data gathering, they will use this information to evaluate and make a judgement about each locality.

December is one of my favorite months of the year. There are so many different activities going on that the days seem to just fly by us. It is during this time that a lot of hours are spent in the kitchen. This month's research takes us into the Kitchen of Santa.