December 14-18

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

There is not a normal homework packet this week.  Your child's only homework is to practice their lines in our holiday reader's theater plays.  Your child brought home their highlighted script today.

This week, Russell School  will be receiving a $500.00 check from a local bank!  We are so lucky to be in such a supportive community!

The Studio of the Living Arts will be visiting Russell School on Thursday and performing a shortened version of the holiday classic, The Nutcracker. I look forward to seeing members from our special community perform such a special presentation for us!

On Friday, students from GNG High School will be singing beautiful Christmas carols to the students of Russell School.  It's going to be great to see the older role models of our district bringing some festive holiday cheer to our school!

We'll also be having a Holiday Shop hosted by the Patriot Parents.  Students are invited to bring a small amount of money to purchase gifts for their families.  All gifts will be under $1.00.  If you would like to send in money for your child, please send it in a closed envelope with your child's name clearly written on it.  

Finally, the second grade students will find out soon (probably on Thursday) that they were able to persuade the elves to keep the workshop open!  That means we'll get to host our very own workshop on Friday!  Second graders will travel to all of the second grade classrooms to make gifts for their families.  In my room, students will have a choice between a book mark or a card holder.  Thank you so much to all of you who were able to donate items!  

Students are also invited to dress up like elves on Friday for the workshop!  Red, green, festive hats, scarves, jewelry, etc. are all welcome!

If you would like to volunteer at our Elf Workshop, it will be this Friday from 12:10-2:00.  If you plan to come in, just send me a quick note or email so I can plan on having you there to help out.  

THIS WEEK IN...

Spelling:  We will work on unit 8.  The words are no, make, than, first, and been.  This also means that we will have a summative test on units 5, 6, 7, and 8 on Friday.  The week we come back in January, will be our review/challenge week.  Your child's words for that week will be decided from the summative test.  

ELA:  We are hard at work practicing for our reader's theater performances!  We will be performing:  "Olive, the Other Reindeer", "The Gingerbread Boy", and "Mooseltoe."  When we practice for our performance we are practicing our accuracy (reading words correctly) and our fluency (pace, expression, and phrasing).  Then, we'll have the chance to make our plays come alive with props and a dynamic student created background!  We'll perform these plays for our team on Monday, December 21st.  

We'll also be helping these stories come alive with some fun activities.  For Olive, we'll be writing our very own reindeer applications and explaining why we would make great reindeer.  For the Gingerbread Boy, we'll be sampling some gingerbread cookies and writing how to eat a gingerbread cookie.  For Mooseltoe, we'll write about a time where things didn't go quite so perfectly perfect.

Math:  This week, our focus is going to be on telling time.  We'll review the difference between analog and digital clocks.  We'll review the parts of a clock.  We'll also practice telling time to the nearest hour, half hour, quarter hour, and nearest five minutes.  Finally, we'll practice the difference between a.m. and p.m.  

Holidays Around the World:  We'll finish up with Russia, Mexico, Australia, and finally America for Kwanzaa and Christmas.  It has been such an eye-opening experience for Team Howard to learn a little about the many countries around the world and their different traditions.