LRSD News

Roberts Elementary students recently got their hands dirty by constructing 10 raised bed vegetable gardens on campus. The idea came to light when a 4th grade student wrote a persuasive paper to the school's principal, Barbara Anderson, asking that the school build a vegetable garden so the vegetables could be donated to local homeless shelters. With the help of the Roberts Elementary Science Lab, EAST Lab and several parent volunteers, the idea became a reality.

Students used their math skills to determine area and perimemter, deciding the length and width of the vegetable gardens. They also researched what vegetables would grow best in their gardens. Students throughout the school began the construction of the raised bed gardens on April 6. Then they added soil and planted their vegetables, which include tomatoes, squash, zucchini, peppers, onions, radishes, cucumbers and carrots. The students will continue to assist in the maintaining of the gardens. Each grade level is assigned their own garden to care for and maintain. The school hopes to expand the garden next year to include fruit trees.

Roberts would like to thank the following businesses for their generous donations: The Good Earth Garden Center, Kauffman Lumber, Home Depot of Little Rock and Maumelle Nursery. The school would also like to thank parent Kelly Holbert and science lab specialist Joel Spencer for arranging the construction of the garden.

The Roberts Recycles team was recently named finalists in the national Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge.  The challenge is the nation’s premiere sustainability competition and is designed to give students the opportunity, tools and inspiration to create sustainable, reproducible environmental improvements in their school.

Roberts students chose to focus on reducing the amount of garbage the school sends to the landfill. They planned and implemented a school-wide, three part recycling program that collects mixed paper, Ziploc bags, and juice pouches. Each week, third-grade students collect, sort, and ship recyclables. Goldman Recycling picks up mixed paper, and students send Ziploc bags and juice pouches to TerraCycle – a company that specializes in recycling materials that most recycling facilities cannot process. TerraCycle also “upcycles” waste into new products like backpacks made from juice pouches. Since they put their plan into action, students at Roberts Elementary have recycled 2,000 pounds of paper, 3,000 Ziploc bags, and 2,000 juice pouches each month!

Seeing these students develop a passion for the environment as a result of the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge and being named an elementary state finalist has been an amazing experience. Hopefully this experience will inspire more students in Little Rock to think about the environment and what they can do to help it. 

This year to celebrate Earth Day several LRSD campuses hosted their own tribute to the earth and ways we can help save it.

Ten campuses, including Carver Magnet, Central, Fair, Forest Heights, Henderson, Mabelvale Middle, Mann Magnet, Parkview Magnet, Roberts and Washington Magnet, kicked off their recycling partnership with the City of Little Rock and Goldman Recycling.

At Gibbs Magnet, students held their annual Earth Day parade around the school.

At Williams Magnet, the Little Rock Sustainability Commission donated trees to the school to replace some of the ones lost in the spring storms.

Congratulations to Don R. Roberts Elementary, whose two teams swept the first two places in the 2011 "M-ath"letes Challenge! Western Hills took the 3rd-place spot, and Rockefeller and Jefferson rounded out the top five of this year's competition.

The "M-ath"letes Challenge championship round was held at UALR. Students in grades 3 - 5 competed over the course of three weeks in three separate rounds to make it to the final round. A total of 26 teams compete in Round 1; ten teams advanced to the "Top 10" for Round 2. The top five teams then advanced to the Championship Round.

The “M-ath”letes Challenge is a competition designed to provide Benchmark Assessment preparation and enrichment to students in 3rd, 4th and 5th grade. Students compete for certificates, ribbons, trophies and an overall district trophy for the winning “M-ath”letes Challenge team and their school.

Darcy Pattison, author of The Journey of Oliver K. Woodman and Searching for Oliver K. Woodman, visited Roberts Elementary on March 3 for Read Across America Week. Mrs. Pattison spoke to 1st through 5th grade students about her books and what it takes to have a book published. She also shared with the students how she finds ideas for her writing.

Students had been participating in an author study of Mrs. Pattison's books, and her visit to the school was the perfect culminating event for the study! Mrs. Pattison even held a writer's workshop for some of Roberts's aspiring authors where students could learn about the process of writing, revising and actually publising a book.

Pre-K students at Don R. Roberts Elementary celebrated American Presidents the week of February 21. On Thursday, February 24, they dressed up "like a president." All of them looked very presidential! It was a great opportunity for the students to learn about the U.S. government and the presidents of the United States. Pre-K student Juan Esparza (pictured) even stood behind the Presidential podium to give his Presidential Address!

As part of the International Visitor Leadership Program, representatives from four Asian countries will tour LRSD schools this week. The goals of the program are to provide an overview of education, policies, debates, advocacy, and regulations at the federal, state, local, and grassroots levels; examine school administration, accreditation, curriculum, teaching practices, professional development, and parental involvement; compare and contrast assessment techniques; and highlight methods of educational resource management.  
 
Six visitors from Bahrain, Jordan, Morocco, and Palestinian Territories will tour three LRSD schools on Tuesday, March 1 and Wednesday, March 2. They will be at Fair Park Early Childhood Center on Tuesday at 9 a.m. and Mann Arts and Science Magnet Middle School at 11 a.m.  On Wednesday, the group will tour Don R. Roberts Elementary School at 8:20 am.
 
For more information contact the program Coordinator Toni Carr at 501-940-9743.

     Everyday communities around the world are “going green,” and now Roberts Elementary is joining the environmental movement in cooperation with www.thinkrecycle.com. Each year, the United States consumes 375 million ink cartridges and over 4.6 million tons of electronic waste is dumped into landfills.  In efforts to raise money for the purchase of supplies for science labs, staff, faculty and students of Roberts Elementary have been recycling old ink cartridges, cell phones and digital cameras. Since “going green” two months ago, the school has raised $180, recycling over 500 items. The school’s goal is to raise $500 through its recycling effort. What a great way for students to learn and experience first hand how to create a cleaner, healthier environment for themselves as well as future generations. 

More than 35 students from Roberts Elementary School hosted their first annual “EAST Night Out.”  EAST (Environmental and Spatial Technology)  is an educational model which allows students to be involved within the community and gives the students the opportunity to mold math, literacy and problem solving skills as well as use innovative technology to solve particular community issues. EAST also focuses on student-driven service projects accomplished through the usage of the latest technology.  During the event, EAST students discussed their plans to utilize information that they received while participating in Virtual Reality, GIS/GPS and System Administration trainings in order to design projects which will benefit the community and the school with parents and guests.  To end the night, students demonstrated what they have learned from the EAST program using various technologies in EAST classrooms. The EAST program allows students to make a real difference and impact within their school and community.

To promote reading among students, Roberts Elementary held its Book Character Day. Students and staff dressed as their favorite book character and participated in a parade in which they displayed their true “character.” Volunteers judged the best book character at each grade, with the crowd favorite being Thing 1, Thing 2 and Things 1 through 20 portrayed by Ramona Geurin, Renee Gentry-Heard and Ms. Jefferson’s Pre-K class. What a creative way to promote reading among young students!