James Williams Elementary's PTA sponsors special programs to enhance and enrich our children's educational experience by providing funding, leadership, and volunteers for these programs. When you donate your time and financial resources, you help us to continue this tradition of excellence in education at JWE.
Feel free to contact anyone in our PTA should you need anything! Our email addresses may be found here.
The task of creating engages some of the highest levels of thinking for our children's intellect. When students create their own artwork not only can they express themselves as individuals, they also tap into a powerful part of their brain. When students see their creations displayed, they can take pride in the ownership of their artwork. Led by our JWE PTA Art Liaison, our Art Exhibition Support Team mounts and labels the students' artwork to be displayed in the rustic frames and bulletin boards lining the main hallway. They also complete congratulatory certificates for each student whose artwork is chosen to be displayed.
If you are interested in volunteering for Art Exhibition Support, our children would be greatly encouraged seeing their art hanging in the halls of their school! Please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for more information.
You may be surprised to hear that the number one priority of public school education is not education. The #1 priority of our district officials, administrators and teachers is our children's safety. If we cannot keep them safe, then we cannot educate them. For this reason, our school strives to implement policies and procedures that help keep our students safe. Many of our children ride their bike to and from school and even more children also ride their bike for pleasure. Knowing the rules of the road and good safety practices will encourage our children to understand their responsibility in sharing the road with others.
Imagine influencing the next generation of healthcare professionals, scientists, engineers, artists, teachers or lawyers. This event gives volunteers the chance to encourage children to pursue their dreams by sharing their career experiences. The JWE PTA recruits and organizes these volunteers to implement Career Day.
If you would like to talk about your chosen profession to our students, please email our Counselor Liaison at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
Wranglers take their hospitality very seriously and that is why we have the New Wrangler Cafe at the beginning of the year to make our new students feel welcome and comfortable in their new school. Howdy Partners are experienced Wranglers that are chosen to pair up with a new student and show them the ropes. The JWE PTA's Counselor Crew and our School Counselor organize this wonderful program.
The JWE PTA's Counselor Crew also helps to implement the CHARACTER COUNTS! program. CHARACTER COUNTS! improves the lives of the adults who teach it — and the communities that embrace it. CHARACTER COUNTS! gives kids a framework for ethical living. Simply put, we help kids make better choices to make everyone’s life better.
If you are interested in volunteering for JWE PTA's Counselor's Crew or if you'd like more information on New Wrangler Cafe or the Character Counts! program, please contact our Counselor Liaison at
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JWE PTA works to promote environmental awareness initiatives that unite parents, students, teachers and campus administrators in an effort to protect children and their environment. The environmental priorities we focus on include: Air Quality, Children in Nature, Responsible Hazardous Waste Disposal, Resource Conservation, Waste Minimization, Recycling and Preventing Water Pollution.
It is important for our children to understand their role in environmental stewardship because a sustainable and clean environment contributes directly to student success and well being.
The JWE PTA hosts several events throughout the school year to promote these environmental values: Walk/Ride Your Bike to School, Earth Week Celebration, Wrangler Recycling Roundup, participation in the Texas PTA Environmental Awareness Program and the Green Ribbon School Initiative.
New for the 2011-2012 School Year is the Wrangler Recycling Roundup. Be on the lookout for specific dates for these upcoming events:
1st Six Weeks: Recycling Capri Suns and Water Bottles
2nd Six Weeks: Donation of Used Coats and Blankets
3rd Six Weeks: Recycling Batteries
4th Six Weeks: Recycling Newspapers and Magazines
5th Six Weeks: Earth Week Celebration
6th Six Weeks: Recycle Electronics
If you have a passion for our environment, please lend a hand! You can get involved by signing up to volunteer.
Eureka Science is a PTA funded, parent/teacher run science program that gives each student (Kindergarten through 5th grade), hands-on science experience. This specially written program for Katy ISD is supplementary to the science lessons that are taught and reinforces the classroom curriculum.
Each Grade has two experiments per year beginning in September, each a 50-minute session of hands-on fun and practical science experimentation. Each session has a different theme, and the students study topics specific to their age level such as: Worms And Dirt, Spiders, Sound, The Rock Cycle, Building Volcanoes, Magnetism and many more. Students are encouraged to use the scientific method: Question, Record, Predict and Conclude. Students ARE the scientists during Eureka.
We encourage you to become involved in Eureka Science. Volunteer for at least one hour or more of your own child's sessions throughout the year. Please see our Volunteer Sign-Up page to become a Eureka Volunteer! For more information, email
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The JWE PTA helps to maintain the outdoor landscaping of our beautiful school. Crepe Myrtles, bottle brushes, rose bushes, and other vegetation help to keep Williams a welcoming place to enter. This year, our rustic parking signs were spruced up, and the USA map located near the playground is being given a new coat of paint by a partnership with our Boy Scouts.
If you would liket to assist our Exterior Beautification coordinator, please click here to sign up!
Williams Elementary is proud to provide numerous opportunities throughout the year for students to see a variety of fine arts genre. Music, Dance, Theater, Storytelling, Poetry Recitation, Puppetry, and Inspirational Rhetoric are among the many types of arts to which our children will be exposed.
Perhaps the most fundamental element to education one should consider is the manner in which we perceive and make sense of the world in which we live. An effective education in the fine arts helps students to see what they look at, hear what they listen to, and feel what they touch. Engagement in the fine arts helps students to stretch their minds beyond the boundaries of the printed text or the rules of what is provable. The arts free the mind from rigid certainty.
A modern society is a cultured society, and we are blessed to provide our students will multiple and diverse performances each year. The JWE PTA and Katy ISD support the arts by providing funding for these assemblies.
For more information, please contact our Arts in Education Coodinator at
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Several of our JWE PTA volunteers love to help the Front Office Ladies year after year. Greeting visitors, helping to check students in and out of school, checking identification for pre-Raptored visitors and volunteers and performing other various office tasks helps to keep our school running smoothly and efficiently.
If you'd like more information on volunteering in the front office, please email
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Through our fundraising efforts, we are able to fund and implement the enriching educational programs of our JWE PTA. Parents, Faculty, Staff, and our Business Community Partners comprise a generous group of individuals who are dedicated to equipping our next generation with quality education.
Through our Patron Program, Cookie Dough Sales, and Hoe Down, our PTA is able to fund not only our wonderful programs but also playground equipment, technology, library books, math manipulatives, science lab equipment and supplies, professional development for teachers, parenting classes and much more.
For more information, please see our Fundraising Pages. And please feel free to contact our Vice President of Fundraising with any questions at
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The Great Composers program celebrates the musicians who have created master works of music. The JWE PTA's Music Liaison organized this enriching experience for our children. Parents facilitate a lesson that teaches all about the life and work of one of our many great composers. All materials are provided for our volunteers to present a dynamic lesson for our students.
Another opportunity to volunteer with our Music Liaison comes through helping to design, create, and prepare the stage for our 1st and 3rd grade performances. If you are interested in helping out with this program, please email
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It is important for children to come to school emotionally and physically healthy. Studies have shown that children’s physical well-being has a significant effect on their learning and long-term success. When children are well-rested, well-nourished, and physically fit they are more ready to learn.
Every parent wants his or her child to be happy and healthy. Parents share the responsibility of ensuring their child's well-being with teachers, the community, its members, and all its services. Learning the facts about various health concerns is key to this common effort.
JWE PTA is committed to building healthy families and healthy communities, and believes we all have an important role to play in making sure parents, schools, and communities have the support and resources they need. Our Healthy Lifestyles coordinator can be reached at
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While Hoe-Down is our JWE PTA's biggest fundraiser, it also serves as a very fun event which fosters a sense of community in our school. This event also happens only because a lot of volunteers participate. Our whole community comes together and volunteers for Hoe-Down: parents, faculty and staff, business partners, and high school students.
Games, good food, a silent and live auction, class ceramic projects, raffle baskets, and music are all part of the festivities. If you would like to donate an item for our silent or live auctions, please contact our hoedown coordinator at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Please mark your calendar for March 3, 2012 from 4:00 - 8:00 pm and join us as we raise the funding to support the enriching programs for our students at Williams.
Texas means "Friend" and so it is only fitting that our hospitality would be second to none. Our JWE PTA Hospitality Chair carries on this Texas tradition by hosting several events throughout the year. Whether you are teary-eyed because your first-born is starting Kindergarten or celebrating that your last child is finally in school, the Tears and Cheers Breakfast on the first day of school helps support parents through this transition. Our Hospitality Team always provides a comforting cup of coffee and a nice treat to eat.
The JWE PTA also provides a wonderful Welcome Back to School Luncheon and an End of the Year Luncheon for our faculty and staff which our Hospitality Chair organizes. Throughout the year, Hospitality provides little treats and reminders that JWE PTA loves their teachers, administrative staff, and support professionals. If you'd like to get in touch with our hospitality chair, please feel free to email at
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As you walk through the halls of Williams Elementary, you will notice many beautiful murals adorning the walls reminding us of our Cinco Ranch roots. The JWE PTA is pleased to have contributed to the beautification of our school's interior. Over the course of a decade, more and more murals were added, so that now our school can proudly say that we have supported local artists and given our students an enriched atmosphere where art is valued.
In addition, the JWE PTA decorates the four huge bulletin boards inside Williams every year, several times a year with interactive themes which promote the introduction of our faculty and staff, science education, the programs of the PTA, seasonal inspirations, and displays of the children's artwork. The JWE PTA also brings nature indoors with living plants to enhance the beauty and the air quality of our school.
Junior Achievement is the world’s largest organization dedicated to educating students about workforce readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy through experiential, hands-on programs.
Junior Achievement programs help prepare young people for the real world by showing them how to generate wealth and effectively manage it, how to create jobs which make their communities more robust, and how to apply entrepreneurial thinking to the workplace. Students put these lessons into action and learn the value of contributing to their communities.
Please volunteer for this wonderful teaching opportunity for your child and their classmates.
Linking Adults and Students in Self-Discovery Opportunities
Children learn best when mulitple senses are engaged - hearing, seeing, and touching. LASSO engages all these senses with concrete experiences, all centered around curriculum objectives specific to their grade level. Our students rotate to different stations and have the opportunity to engage in activities that correlate with their grade-level subject matter. LASSO creates lasting memories for our children, and some students recall it as one of their favorite experiences of the year.
The ability to read is the ability to learn for a lifetime. For this reason, the reading instruction at Williams Elementary takes a high priority. The science of teaching is evident with the use of leveled readers at JWE. Students are tested to determine their individual reading level. Once a child's level is determined, the teacher can provide individualized instruction so that the child develops according to their stage of achievement. The JWE Literacy Library houses all the books that are categorized by level and genre. Each book is leveled so that teachers can easily access the "just right" books for their students. The Literacy Library is located on the Bluebonnet Trails Hallway, and our wonderful Instructional Coach, Mrs. Schauer, keeps our library organized and resourceful. New books are continually added every year with both Katy ISD and Williams PTA funding. 
Developing a love of reading is the key goal of our Library Ladies. Bridgett Spier and her aides inspire our children to read what they love and love what they read. The Library Ladies encourage our students to read through the Wrangler Reading Challenge (WRC). Children make choices about the books they want to read in a given genre, and then respond to their reading with a fun writing experience. Also, the Library Ladies host several author visits throughout the year. Our budding writers will be inspired and encouraged to further develop their talents as our next generation of professional authors. Finally, make sure your child particpates in Book Club. Your child will read the latest and hottest "off-the-press" children's books, and he or she will share a breakfast and book club discussion with their beloved Library Ladies. New books are added each year with both Williams PTA and Katy ISD funding.
Our lunchroom volunteers assist and monitor the students during lunch periods.
If you're a professional at opening ketchup packets or know how to wrangle a rowdy crowd, we'd sure love your help in the lunchroom! Time commitment is 1-3 hours either weekly or bi-weekly. Please contact our Lunchroom Volunteer Coordintor at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or more information.
This program provides exposure to two artists and some of their better known pieces per year. Coordinated, funded and executed by JWE PTA, Masterpiece Art introduces students to artists like Marc Chagall and Jackson Pollock.
Parent volunteers present the material to students during Art Class and our creative art teacher, Mary Kirk, helps the children create their own piece of art, representative of the artist's work.
For more information on this program, please feel free to email the Masterpiece Art Coordinator at
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Math manipulatives to our adult generation is a foreign term. If you write "manipulative" in a Word Document, it is underscored as a misspelled word. However, it is one of the most important terms in modern math education. A math manipulative is simply a tool that a student can hold in their hand and "manipulate" in order to learn place value, comparing and ordering numbers, computation, decimals, fractions, telling time, counting money, and many more curriculum objectives. When a student is learning a new concept in math, the use of hands-on, concrete experiences is critical in forming the foundation of math literacy. A student can memorize that 6+2=8, but can he or she explain what 6+2=8 means? Using math manipulatives helps a child understand the process behind the math concept. Every year, the JWE PTA and Katy ISD make sure that teachers have the most current math tools available to teach children. 
The Math Volunteers Program at JWE is your perfect opportunity to make a huge educational impact in the lives of our 2nd and 3rd graders. If you like working with small groups of children or in a one-on-one situation, serving as a Math Coach is a valuable way to utilize your volunteer time. Math Coaches instruct students in learning basic math skills twice a week for 30 minutes at the end of the school day. During each session, the volunteer will have access to a variety of fun and helpful aids such as: dice, playing cards, erasable white boards, teaching clocks, play money and more. But, the most important ingredient is *your* enthusiasm, creativity, and desire to help a child learn.
This volunteer opportunity begins in October and sessions will continue through April. The MVP tutoring session is typically from 3:00 to 3:30 p.m. We need volunteers for Monday/Wednesday or Tuesday/Thursday. If you can only help one day, we can partner you with another volunteer. We will need volunteers to arrive by 2:50 to collect their materials and students before tutoring begins.
Red Ribbon Week serves as a vehicle for communities and individuals to take a stand for the hopes and dreams of our children through a commitment to drug prevention and education and a personal commitment to live drug-free lives with the ultimate goal being the creation of drug-free America. At JWE, we also focus on the education and encouragement of our children to make healthy lifestyle choices such as good nutrition, exercise, and positive interaction with others. 
Started by National PTA in 1969, this arts education program has allowed millions of children to express their creativity through diverse formats. Students can currently participate in any of the six Reflections categories: Dance Choreography, Film Production, Literature, Musical Composition, Photography and Visual Arts. Please click the "Read more" icon for infomation and downloadable forms to participate in this program that encourages creativity and self-expression.
The Reflections Theme for 2011-2012 is "Diversity Means".
The Reading Support Volunteer Program provides one-on-one reading assistance for our 1st and 2nd graders. As a volunteer, you can give a child the gift of lifelong learning with the ability to read. This program is one of the most valuable ways to invest your volunteer hours. Reading Coaches spend 30 minutes once a week reading with a child on his or her predetermined reading level. Leveled books are used so that the reading text is not too easy or too challenging but "just right." Children are also taught how to find a "just right" book for themselves. A training session at the beginning of the year will teach you how to encourage students to improve their reading fluency and comprehension. 
A child's hearing and vision clearly contribute to their ability to learn. If one or both of these senses is slightly or severely impaired and goes unchecked, a child's academic progress may be hindered. The JWE PTA is committed to giving all children the equal opportunity to learn by helping the School Nurse screen students for hearing and vision so that deficiences can be revealed and treated. 
SMART Boards transform learning by helping teachers bring more collaboration and interactivity into the classroom. Educators can incorporate SMART technology into their teaching to transform learning and increase student engagement.
"Technology provides us with a whole tool set of rich media elements that we would not otherwise have. We believe that visual imagery enhances learning and supports retention. So, the visual aspeects of SMART technology products are very important for reaching our students with different learning styles."
Dr. Michael Burke, Technology Integration, University of Tennessee
Our workroom volunteers allow teachers to concentrate on more important aspects of their profession. When our volunteers make copies for our teachers, the teachers are then able to use that time to concentrate more on students' academic progress, communicating with parents effectively, and planning for classroom activities. The JWE PTA is proud to provide this support for our teachers. If you would like to help in this capacity, please contact our Workroom Coordinator at
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Memories are made at Williams Elementary everyday and our JWE PTA Yearbook Chair records and creates a compilation of these memories through our JWE Yearbook. Taking pictures, working on layout, and processing order forms are some volunteer opportunities with Yearbook. If you would like to volunteer, please e-mail our Yearbook Coordinator at
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