The Parker Lion's Tale

B.Haverkamp

Parker Elementary - The 2002 National GRAMMY® Signature Elementary School

December 2013 Volume 25 No.4

The Elementary School of Choice in HISD

Magnet NotesNotes from the Principal

I want to share some of the great things that have been going on here at Parker this semester. First I want to thank all the parents who helped with FunFest and our Book Fair! The turn-out for both was tremendous and we could not have done it without the dedication of our amazing parents.

I also want to give an update on our new building. Each campus going through the Bond has a Project Advisory Team (PAT) which is a committee that works with the HISD Bond to design our new building. Members of the PAT committee include teachers, staff mem-bers, parents, and community members. The PAT committee has been meeting monthly this year and we are excited with the progress we are making in the development of the NEW Parker. We are currently working on designating the square footage and are hoping to include a 500 seat auditorium!

Beginning in December we will be welcoming a new staff member. Sonia Garcia, R.N., will be Parker’s new nurse. She comes to us from neighboring Johnston Middle School and she is a current Parker parent. We look forward to her joining our team.

Finally, I want to invite everyone to come out and attend any or all of our December performances. Please check

our calendar as we have so many perfor-mances coming up. We look forward to seeing you at one of them!

Lori Frodine, Principal

Thank you to all the Parker Parents who volunteered during Magnet Aware-ness Week with tours, refreshments and getting students to performances. The parents on our tours really enjoyed talk-ing to our parents and you all do such a great job of making them feel welcomed to our school. Our students were also very well received at the Magnet School of Texas conference that was hosted in Houston the very same week.

~~~~~Please don’t forget to check your

child’s performance uniform to make

sure pants fit and are long enough, black socks, solid black shoes and the Parker Performance Polo. There are many performances in December!

~~~~~The Parker Advanced Chorus

performed for a Houston City event called the America’s Table Thanksgiv-ing Breakfast on November 22nd at Rice University. Once again, they received a standing ovation for their beautiful performance.

Carol Kehlenbrink

Parker Advanced Chorus performs for America's Table Thanksgiving Breakfast at Rice University..

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VISIT FROMHOUSTON SYMPHONY

PERFORMERSParker Elementary Strings students received a special per-

formance by two Houston Symphony members on November 21st. Cellist Xiao Wong and violinist Tong Yan performed a recital of duets and solos for the Parker students, followed by a master class with the members of Performing Strings. This event was part of a Community Outreach program sponsored by the Houston Symphony.

All-City Advanced OrchestrasForty Parker strings students have earned positions, through audition, in the HISD All-City Advanced Orchestra.

There are 57 students in the Advanced Orchestra. Parker students are:1st ViolinsTrinity Mosier Gabriela Ibarra Jade Fanniel David Diosdado Corie Martin Muzyk Young Triniti Boson Ellis Haverkamp Iyosias Hailu Serena West Jennivie Bui Maddy Vanlandingham Hannah Jung Xochitzin Lozano

2nd ViolinsNaideen Alcid, 1st chairDominique Law-Brown Jesse Guzman Leah Lynch Sophia Haskin Rory Johnson Steven Denning Violas/3rd violinsAaron Soice Kolton Denning Seva Ramon Miranda Chodzko John Goodearl

Maleah Sanchez Lacy Castille CellosTobbe Rytting, 1st chairWarren Bonds Connor Duffey Grace Gao Michael Brooks Ava Puccio June Young Lee Eric Rosen Asia Jones Owen Talley James Castillo Baleigh Burrell

Six Parker students earned positions on the HISD All-City Intermediate Orchestra. There are 56 positions in the Intermediate Orchestra. Parker students are:1st ViolinRomina Orozco Sanchez Amy Sanchez Aidan Zider

CellosA’Lana Hadnott, 1st Chair Sarah Rocha Mylah Wilson

Congratulations, strings students! We are Parker Proud of you all!

Ms. Yan's master class with violin students

Tong Yan and Ziao Wong performing duets/

Mr. Wong's master class with celllo students

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Our Book Fair Oasis!

their classroom libraries. We raised over $6000 for our AMAZING Ms. Shafer and our school library.

Our thanks to our wonder-ful Ms. Frodine and all of the administrative team. Last but not least, a shout out to our past chair-man – Laura Gomez, who provided us invaluable help and guidance!

Book Fair was a fantastic success this year! The Parker Scholastic Book Fair was held from November 4th – 8th in the Mini-Gym.

To get ready for the excitement of the Fair we held a reading challenge contest with a school wide goal of read-ing 100,000 minutes. We did it! Ms. Frodine generously rewarded us for reaching our goal with a Book Charac-ter dress-up day on Friday November 1st. We saw some fun characters in the halls that day, from Pete the Cat to the Lorax to Charlotte’s Web, and many more memorable book characters whom we love. Make sure you check out the pictures to the right. You may see your favorite teacher dressed up as her favorite book character.

Thank you to all who dressed up and supported this contest, we hope you had fun!

Thank you to all the participants in our Poster contest. The winning post-ers decorated the walls of the hallways and generated excitement for our big event. The winners received Scholastic dollars to spend as they wished at the Fair. (Winners listed on page 5.)

We held a new early morning event, “Muffins with Mummies”, on Wednesday Nov. 7th, from 7:15-7:45 AM. It was so well attended; it showed us that our parents really appreciate having an alternative time to come to the Book Fair. We are exploring more alternative time options for next year’s fair as well.

We had over 30 parents volunteer for Book Fair. We really appreciate all the help our volunteers give us, we truly could not put this on without everyone’s help. We also want to recognize our parents who help in many unseen ways that positively impact our children’s interest in Book Fair - those who helped their child with their reading minutes, supported the poster creative process, dressed their child up for Book Character day, or came in with their child during the fair. Our Book Fair is supported by ALL the positive efforts generated by our Parker parents!

This year’s fair generated over $18,000 in sales, $170 in donations, and over 160 books donated to teachers for

It was great fun and we look forward to Book Fair again next year!

Crisa VanDenBossche and Jennifer ZografosBook Fair Co-Chairs

Ms. Rodger's Kindergarten class on Book Character dress-up day

Can you spot your favorite teacher?

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PAINLESS FUNDRAISING

P a r k e r E l e m e n t a r y participates in all of these fundraising programs. Please continue to save box tops, bottle caps, UPCs, etc., for Parker. Thank you.

Getting information about the parent happenings and opportunities at Parker Elementary has never been easier! Simply "Friend" us on Face-book by searching for "Parker Pto". Note: "Parker Pto" is case sensitive.

Library LionsFrom our wonderful librarian Susan Shafer:

It’s nice to see that in the age of the e-book, Parker students still want to get their hands on the “real deal.”

Last week we explored traditional and strange holidays (such as National Mustard Day, Bulldogs are Beautiful Day, World Kindness Day and Get Over It Day). This week we are focus-ing on a variety of fiction about math concepts. Since HISD focuses on vertical alignment, I am working with Ms. Rogers and Ms. Grosso on our second big project - their students are researching Thanksgiving and creating an alphabet project from the viewpoint of the Pilgrims and Native Americans. Their amazing teachers are combining technology (through the Pebble Go re-

search site) and traditional literature to create amazing projects with our young researchers! I help to tie it all together in the library by providing extra expo-sure to literature about their topics. We presented our first project last summer at the Galveston Tots and Technology Conference and got a great response to the idea of research with the youngest info explorers!

A BIG thank you to Crisa Van Den Bossche, Jennifer Zagrofos and Laura Gomez for a wildly successful book fair and to Ellen Tagtmeier for securing the donation from Half-Price Books of sev-eral hundred books for our students.From PTO Library Chair Ellen Tagtmeier:

We are so lucky at Parker to have such an involved and entertain-

ing librarian to make learning and reading fun for our kids. Check out Ms. Shafer doing the hokey pokey with our pre-k students.

If you have time to help re-shelve books, please stop by the library and offer to help. For more information about the library, contact Ellen Tagt-meier at etagtmeier@comcast.net. Happy reading!

Ms. Shafer doing hokey pokey with Parker pre-k students in November.

The Code of CooperationMake bright decisionsUse good judgmentSpeak with respectInteract with others positivelyControl your own behavior.

Music TRIVIAThe total string tension in a concert grand piano is close to ‘thirty tons’.

Source: www.pianoworld.com Courtesy Robin Gibson

basis of age, color, handicap or disability, ancestry, national origin, marital status, race, religion, sex, veteran status, or political affiliation in its educa-tional or employment programs and activities.

It is the policy of the Houston Independent School District not to discrimi-nate on the

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Book Fair PosterContest WinnersCongratulations to:

Kindergarten1st place – Hadley Houlihan (Cummins)2nd place – Blake Wilson (Rodgers)3rd place – Sarah Vanlandingham (Rodgers)Honorable Mention – Natalie Johnson – (Stalnaker)First Grade1st place – Martin VanDenBossche (Kelly)2nd place – David Barrash (Kelly)3rd place – Ella Theurer (Grosso) Honorable Mention – Ava Skow (Dean)Second Grade1st place – Emma Holloway (Hoyt)2nd place – John Zografos (Hoyt)3rd place- Jackson Jamison (Hoyt)Honorable Mention – Xitlali Martinez (Mejia)Honorable Mention – Ariana Reyes (Mejia)Third Grade1st place – Morgan Hsieh (Walton)2nd place – Allie VanDenBossche (Campbell)3rd place – Autumn Hunter (Quinn)Honorable Mention – Jennifer Manzano (Bascom)Fourth Grade1st place – Carson Tagtmeir (Hokanson)2nd place – Gabriela Ibarra ( Hokanson)3rd place – Morgan Lozano (Hokanson)Honorable Mention – Hannah Jung (Allen)Honorable Mention – Luz Arcely Rodriguez (Allen)Fifth Grade 1st place – Maddy Vanlandingham (Pikett)2nd place – Prince Frazier (Pikett)3rd place – Kyle Floyd Sutton (Hutchins)

Raffle winners - prize:Ancient Egypt Exhibit Tickets at the Houston Museum of Natural Science

Congratulations to:Bryan Masis in Ms. Pikett’s ClassJaydon Gordon in Ms. Marshalls’ class

And a big thank you to the Houston Museum of Natural Science for donating the tickets to our school.

All-City Band Audition RollThe Parker Elementary Band has 32 students who,

through audition, earned positions in HISD’s All City-Elemen-tary Band. Fourteen elementary Band programs participated and 256 students auditioned. The All City band is comprised of approximately 150 students. One Parker student made it in two different performance areas -- Lawrence Turner.

We are very proud of our students and would like to congratulate everyone who participated!

Parker students who earned positionsBass Clarinet: Aaliyah Cantu and Aiden Escamilla-

JunkmanClarinet: Jacqueline Arzate, Ashanti Bacon, Zachary

Green, Jasmine Morris, Taylor Scott, Chelsie SimmonsFlute: Leann Dromgoole, Azaria Thomas, Cameron

HubbardFrench horn: Sakari Eason (1st Chair), Aria TimmonsAlto saxophone: Christian Valdez, Mario Gonzalez,

Eduardo PalesBaritone Saxophone: Keith Armwood (1st Chair)Tenor saxophone: Jacob Gillam, Noah Simmons Trombone: Morris Baker, Andrew Chavez (tied for 1st

chair), Ryan Homer, Ricardo SantoyoTrumpet: Louie Caballero, Matthew Estrada, Harrison

Lee, Bryan Masis, Max MosierTuba: Jose JuarezBells: Lawrence TurnerPercussion: Dylan Edwards, Joshua Jones, Lawrence

Turner (1st Chair)Thanks for your hard work!We’re Parker Proud of you!

Lloyd Hughes, Kristell Nelson, & Al CampbellParker Band Directors

Costumed Strings students tune in the minutes before the annual Hauntcert presented October 31st.

The Parker Elementary PTO tweetings Twitter! To access, go to “Twitter Search” on your phone or computer, then type “Parker PTO”. A long list of “Parker” results will appear. Find “Parker PTO” and click.

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The PARKER LION’S TALE is published each month by the Parker PTO. The deadline to submit articles for the January 2014 issue will be December 18, 2013. Please drop your news in the PTO file box or e-mail me at lionstale7@yahoo.com. Contact me at 713-729-3505 to let me know where to find your article. Barbara Haverkamp, Editor & Layout

CARPOOL LINE PARENT ASSIST PROGRAMDecember 2013 Schedule

Carpool Volunteer Class

Carpool Dates

Ms Macomber 12/2 – 12/6/2013Mrs. King 12/9 – 12/13/2013Mrs. McIntrye 12/16 – 12/20/2013

Happy Holidays and Wishing You Prosperous New Year

General Guidelines for Parent Volunteers:Car Pool Line Assistance

Car Pool Drop off is from 7:20 to 7:45 am. We are requesting one parent (more is helpful) at each of the 3 drop off gates. We have two gates on Stillbrooke and one on Willowbend that need coverage. We request that you encourage cars to move up to the gates for drop off and assist children in getting out of their vehicles. There will be a Parker faculty member at each gate to monitor entrance and exits. Our safety patrol students are also stationed to assist arriving students; they may need your encouragement to know how to help. Faculty members will be responsible for closing the gate at 7:45. Faculty and safety patrol need to be in classromms at 7:45. Any student arrivals after 7:45 should be directed to the front school entrance on Atwell. General Guidelines

Drop-offs should be as close to the gate as possible to encourage a “moving car pool lane”. At the Stillbrooke gates If you see older children getting out of their cars early ask them to wait until they are at the gate next time.

At the Willowbend gates the older students who generally need less assistance can be encouraged to get out of the vehicles sooner.

Open as many doors as possible to encourage everyone to wait their turn and avoid backups into the intersections and crosswalks.

Also watch for cars standing in the drop off areas. Should you see any cars stopped by the yellow lines kindly remind them that these are moving car pool lanes and there is no parking by the yellow lines during morning drops and afternoon pickups.

Assist children out of vehicles particularly those with instruments and heavy baggage. Reminder: Student arrivals after 7:45 should be directed to the front school entrance on Atwell.

Deck the Halls Paradea neighborhood holiday parade and festival

Saturday, December 14th, 2013Start time - 5 PM!

This year’s theme is SUPER HEROES!Come see your favorite Super Heroes, their sidekicks, and assorted

characters in their celebrated hero-wear march down the street.Of course traditional favorites will march, too.

Look for Nativity characters, Santa, Hanukkah Harry, Pancho Claus, Kwanzaa King, Dun Che Lao Ren, and many more!

Visit the web site for parade route and other information.www.deckthehallsparade.org

Please Subscribe to Receive the Lion's Tale

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the Lion's Tale via e-mail. Please visit <http://www.houstonisd.org/parkerelem> to subscribe to this service. You can also retrieve The Lion's Tale from the website.

Please subscribe today and help us cut down on paper use and associated costs. Thank you for your assistance.

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Above: Kelly Dean, Al Campbell and Lloyd Hughes rock out.

Kyle Turner, Al Campbell and Anthony Frazier rock on.

Brad Segal on guitar

Elvis Shafer croons a tune.

FAMILY NIGHT & THE POPS CONCERTOne of the high points of the

year at Parker is Family Night with delicious food and excellent en-tertainment held during book fair week. This year, November 8th was the magical night. Our thanks to Autumn Jamison and Thomas Hood for a great Family Night din-

ner. Families could dine and listen to Parker's amazing 11th annual POPS Concert.

Our thanks to Kelly Dean for leading our talented fathers, uncles, sons and faculty members through the POPS musical repertoire. The music was great! The special appear-

ance by Elvis Shafer was a delight, too. Thank you, Elvis!

It was a very good night for the Parker Family.

HEALTH BEAT

Parents: If your child received

any kind of referral let-ter, VISION, HEARING, OR ANCANTHOSIS NIGRICANS(diabetes), please take advantage of the holiday time off and follow up with your health care provider regarding these important health issues. Learning can be hard if your child has difficulty seeing or hearing. Please remember to let the school nurse know the outcome of your doctor’s visit so that she may update your child’s health record.

WE OUR MUSICALLY TALENTEDVOLUNTEERS! THANK YOU!

Items on the calendar are accurate as of press time. For questions regarding possible cancellations and new times,

please call the main office at 713-726-3634.

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PARKER CALENDARDecember2 PTO Free Dress Day fundraiser 4th Grade Spelling Bee - 8:15 AM3 3rd Grade Spelling Bee - 8:15 AM 4th Grade Piano Recital – 3 PM4 Performing Strings to Exxon Mobile 5th Grade Piano Recital - 3 PM5 5th Grade Spelling Bee - 8:15 AM 3rd Grade Piano Recital - 3 PM SDMC Meeting – 3:30 PM6 PTO Meeting - 8:15 AM 2nd Grade Piano Recital - 3 PM10 Int. & Adv. Guitar and Int. & Performing Strings Concert - 2 PM - for grades 4th and 5th

Int. & Adv. Guitar and Int. & Performing Strings Concert and 6:30 PM – for families and friends12 Chorus Concert Concert - 2 PM – for grades 2nd and 3rd Chorus Concert Concert - 6:30 PM – for families and friends 13 Adv. Chorus performs at Fine Arts Friday at the Administration building - 12:15 PM16 Select Piano students to The Buckingham to perform17 1st Grade Piano Recital - 12:45 PM Advanced Band, Rhythm Band & Pre Band Concert - 2 PM – for grades PreK, K and 1st Beginning Band & Advanced Band Concert - 6:30 PM – for families and friends18 1st Grade Piano Recital - 12:45 PM 2nd & 3rd Grade Guitar Recital - 3 PM19 Kinder Holiday Party Advanced Chorus to Houston City Club Part of 4th grade to Heritage Tour20 School Wide Pajama Day/ Class Parties - 2:15 PM Part of 4th grade to Heritage Tour MAGNET APPLICATION DEADLINE FOR ALL 5TH GRADERS TO MIDDLE SCHOOL

AND PRE-K TO ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS23-1/3 Winter Holiday BreakJanuary 2014 6 Teacher Prep Day7 Students Return9 SDMC Meeting – 3:30 PM13 PTO Meeting - 6 PM20 Holiday

Parker music groups perform acrossHouston during the month of December.

There will be performances on campus, too. You are invited to attend one or severalconcerts. Please check the calendar for

performance dates and times.Admission is free. Parking is free.

Parker performances are priceless.

10626 AtwellPhone no. 713-726-3634

Website address:<http://www.houstonisd.org/parkerelem>

Band Performs at Park OpeningThe Parker Band performed at the grand opening of the Wesbury

Park on November 9. The park now has new play structures with shade covers and a renovated drainage system. Dignitaries from the City of Houston, the Westbury Civic Club, Westbury Super Neighborhood. and the Westbury Area Improvement Corporation were on hand for the ribbon cutting. The Westbury High School Band also performed. The weather and music were perfect for the event. Band students, you make us Parker Proud!