• 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.