• Friday, December 18th
• No school for students!
• Monday, January 4th
• School resumes
• Chess Club after school
• Open Gym with Mr. DC, all dads interested in making Crestwood an even better place are welcome to attend @ 6:30-7:45 pm. 
• Tuesday, January 5th
• Variety Show practice after school 
• Wednesday, January 6th
• Girl Scouts after school
• Thursday, January 7th
• Choir practice before school 
• Variety Show practice after school 

• ...to Mrs. McCray, Mrs. Hart, Mrs. Satterthwaite, Mrs. Dempsey, & Mrs. Essick for their help in planning and chaperoning our holiday party on Thursday. We had a blast!

Writer's Workshop
     Students worked hard this week to publish their persuasive essays using Google Docs.  We'll have a writing celebration when we return in January; look for an invitation!

Reader's Workshop
     We learned about a few parts of speech: nouns, adjectives, and verbs.  Students listed holiday words, and we classified them into each category.  We drew the words out of cups to follow an Adj/N/V pattern to create a poem.  We loved reading, and then singing, it aloud together.

  

Aniya, Mo-Mo, Ivy, Autumn, & Scarlet enjoy the sing-along assembly. 

Santa Claus made a special appearance at our assembly to confirm all Crestwood students made the Nice List!  Although he did look veeeery familiar. . . :)

Sanni, Ivy, & Brenden concentrate as they learn how to make hot chocolate reindeer (they're having fun, I promise!).

Madison, Parker, & Autumn play Pin the Nose on Rudolph.

• Monday, December 14th 
• Crestwood's Support-a-Family continues, donate anything   
• We'll do an informal class and grade level Spelling Bee to select qualifiers for the school Bee in January.  
• Chess Club after school
• Tuesday, December 15th 
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• Wednesday, December 16th 
• Rolling with Character extra recess!  Qualifying buses, ECE, & Parent Pick Up students get a little extra time outside for showing great behavior during arrival and dismissal. 
• Girl Scouts after school 
• Thursday, December 17th
• Choir @ 8:00 am 
• Holiday sing-a-long assembly @ 1:30 pm; parents helping with parties can arrive at this time for setup 
• Holiday parties in classrooms @ 2:00-3:00 pm 
• Friday, December 18th 
• No School
• Monday, January 4th
• School resumes 

• Please send $2 for our holiday party that will take place on Thursday, December 17th.  
• I know many families like to express their appreciation for classroom teachers by giving a gift during the holiday season.  In lieu of a gift, here are some items that Room 28 would love:
• Markers: we use them for illustrating memory sheets, resolutions, and other writing pieces.  Our community markers are starting to get pretty dry, so a few new sets would be awesome!
• Clorox/Disinfectant Wipes:  it's that time of year. . . we've been pretty diligent about wiping off handles, surfaces, and commonly shared items.  We haven't had any major sicknesses sweep our classroom (knock on wood); let's keep it that way!
• Indoor Recess Games:  the ones we have our great, but after a few years of love, some games are starting to fall apart or are missing important pieces.  January & February usually mean a lot of time spent indoors, so some new games would keep us busy and having fun.  

• for donation $2 for our holiday party! It really helps out when all kids donate a little so we can have a LOT of fun!
• for encouraging your child to continue their random acts of kindness calendars at home.

Writer's Workshop
     We completed our persuasive essays this week!  Our conclusion paragraphs include a response or call to action.  Writers do this by asking a question or bossing or begging their reader to do something specific.  We also did a little research to add a relevant fact or two to our essay in order to make it more convincing.  Students learned how to properly give credit to an outside source by including, "According to the ____ website..." or "The ______ says..." We will begin publishing our fine work next week!

Reader's Workshop
    All students completed their reading assessments; some even did a second and third one to ensure their text was challenging enough!  We also studied there, they're, & their homophones.  Students made anchor charts their Reading Journals with examples and sketches of each word.  We also read "10 Amazing Baby Facts" from Storyworks and made corrections to ensure each fact used the appropriate homophone. 

Math
     Long division really challenged our thinking this week.  We learned an acronym to help us remember the steps:  Does (divide) McDonald's (multiply) serve (subtract) cheese(check)burgers (bring down)?  We worked very hard at practicing these steps as a group, with partners, and independently.  Students checked their work using multiplication and addition if a remainder was present.

Science
     Students practiced identifying different characteristics of rocks and minerals with Mrs. Branding.  They used the Mohs Scale to describe the strength of different minerals.  

Our character focus this week was kindness.  We talked about how this means to show caring and compassion to others.  By pure coincidence (and surprise!), my friend Mrs. Nicas sent each student a Kindness Challenge calendar.  Please help your child post it in a visible spot in your home and encourage him/her to complete the random act of kindness each day!

• Monday, December 7th 
• Crestwood's Support-a-Family continues, donate anything   
• Chess Club after school
• Open Gym for dads & male role models with Mr. D.C., 6:30-7:45 pm  
• Tuesday, December 8th 
• Dining to Donate Night @ Bread Co. in Sunset Hills, 4:00-8:00 pm 
• Wednesday, December 9th 
• Early release @ 1:40 pm 
• Science Fair Parent Info Meeting, Library @ 6:30-7:30 pm 
• Thursday, December 10th
• Dad's Club  @ Smugala's, 7:30-8:30 pm 
• Friday, December 11th 
• Box Tops due for second quarter.
• Saturday, December 12th
• Pancakes & PJs, $6/person, 8:00-11:00 am 

• Please send $2 for our holiday that will take place on Thursday, December 17th.  

Writer's Workshop
     We've been working very hard on planning and drafting persuasive essays.  Students chose a topic that was important to each of them and came up with supporting details to back up their thinking.  They created a box & bullets to plan their essay and set to drafting.  We also learned about figurative language, specifically metaphors and similes, and tried a few in our writing.  We also practiced including more advanced transition phrases.

Reader's Workshop
    Students began their oral reading assessments with Miss Dausmann.  They did their best to demonstrate decoding skills, fluency, and comprehension.  The reading level goal for this point in the year is Q, and each students' level will be listed on his or her report card.

Math
     We began exploring division, and boy did we push ourselves!  We used our knowledge of basic facts and trailing zeroes to estimate quotients.  We also practiced using models to divide two digit numbers by a one digit number.  We learned some big hints that story problems give us that are a signal to divide: each person gets, he shared, she made equal groups, the same amount, divide, split, and passed out.  

Science
     Students learned about plate tectonics and how their movement affects the surface of our Earth.  They also began exploring and classifying rocks.