HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Wishing everyone in our Pine Ridge Family a safe and happy holiday season! Enjoy your winter break and I will see you in the New Year, 2012!

BOOK LOG BLOG

Hey Everyone!

Are you reading a good book this winter break? If so, please share any summaries, comments, questions, or connections you have with your book. I will respond back as soon as I can and others can comment on your post(s) too. I will give extra credit to anyone who posts a comment and thoughtfully responds to at least 3 others students' posts. HAPPY READING!

Weekly Homework for December 12-16

Dear 5^th Graders and Families,

This is going to be an exciting and busy week here at Pine Ridge Elementary! We have many fun things planned for you to make this a memorable week. Keep in mind these “dress up” days when planning your wardrobe this week:

·         Monday- crazy sock day

·         Tuesday- silly sweater day

·         Wednesday- holiday hat/hair day

·         Thursday-tacky tie day

·         Friday- P.J. day

We would like to extend a HUGE “Thank You” to all of those who contributed to our holiday service learning project. We are going to make many children and families very happy this holiday season.

Our holiday party will be this Friday. We are going to have a breakfast that morning beginning at 9:30 a.m. Your child’s teacher will contact you about what you can contribute for the breakfast. You are invited to attend, so we hope you can make it! We will be watching a movie in the afternoon so if you have an appropriate movie to bring in we will be voting on Thursday. The students have been working really hard, and we hope this will be a rewarding day for them….they deserve it! 

All homework is due on Friday so be sure to budget your time accordingly. Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns. We wish you all a WONDERFUL holiday season and hope you ENJOY your time with family and friends. We will see you NEXT YEAR!!! J

Vocabulary:  We will not have vocabulary words or a test this week.

Word Work/Spelling: This week we will focus on PREFIXES in Unit 9. Please read the Family Letter and complete the Take-Home Task together to familiarize yourself with the concepts. We will also discuss homophones (words that are spelled the same way, but have different meanings, i.e. “our” and “are.”) Be sure to look for these words in your reading and writing this week.

Reading:  Read a novel of your choice each night for 20 minutes to become a better reader. In class we will work on making connections (text-text; text-self; text-world) in our Daybook text. Ms. Reese’s class will have a Unit 1 Reading Daybook test on Thursday.

Social Studies: We will not have weekly geography this week. Ms. Reese’s class will have a geography quiz this Wednesday. Ms. Reese’s class will also have an address quiz this week. Be sure you know how to write, spell, and punctuate your entire mailing address. This is VERY important!

Writing:  Ms. Reese’s class will practice writing a CSAP-like extended response. It is a narrative story prompt describing a time when we have helped others. It is better to give than receive!

PTO Announcements

First of all, thank you ALL for a fun filled and successful Barnes & Noble Night.  Ms. Nuss and the Choir did a wonderful job, THANK YOU!!!  Another big THANK YOU to Mr. Carney and our teachers for reading to the kids, I know they enjoyed it.  We know the Holiday Season gets a little crazy and we appreciate that we have such great families that support our school. If you still have some shopping to do, you can still support us online until 12/13/11 by entering bookfair ID 10497352. 

Next Week Activities for the kids and staff:

Monday is Crazy Sock Day

Tuesday is Silly Sweater Day

Wednesday is Holiday Hair or Hat Day

Thursday is Tacky Tie Day

Friday is PJ Day (please make sure to wear school appropriate PJ's)

HOLIDAY SHOP

What a fun week the kids had at the holiday shop.  Thank you to Kendra Elmore and Renee Colvin for organizing the event and thanks to all of our wonderful volunteers, we couldn't have done it without you.

STUDENT COUNCIL

Student Council would like to thank everyone who purchased Boo Grams.  The money raised from the sales of the Boo Grams were used to adopt 5 Cherry Creek School District Families for the holidays.  Because of our generous families, these 5 families will have a wonderful holiday season.  Thank you so much!!!!

COOKBOOKS ARE IN

Thanks to everyone who purchased and contributed to our very first Pine Ridge Cookbook.  If you are still interesting in buying a cookbook, please send $8.00 to your teacher attention PTO and we will get one sent home for you.

LOST AND FOUND

Lost and found is filling up again.  Please check the table in the front hallway at school this week.  All coats and items will be donated on Friday.  Please remember to write your child's name in their personal items to help control the items left behind.

EARNING FOR LEARNING

Remember to turn in those holiday receipts.  Also remember if you purchase a gift card from the mall office, let them know you are with Pine Ridge, it is worth 1,000 points. 

EARN 5,000 POINTS WHEN YOU ATTEND MOVIES WITH SANTA December 3, 10 and 17 at 10am. $5 donation benefits The Starlight Foundation.

Sign in when you purchase your tickets to earn 5,000 points per family.

Here is a link with more information:

http://www.shopsouthlands.com/go/Poolb.cfm?MallID=1015&FPURLID=2129977091&utm_source=Southlands+Earning+4+Learning&utm_campaign=b9cb0d68cf-movies_twitter11_30_2011&utm_medium=email

Campbell's Labels For Education

Please send in any qualifying Campbell's labels for logging by Dec. 16th.  We receive a bonus for anything sent before the end of the year. 

PARKING, DROP-OFF AND PICK UP

Just a reminder that during the crazy weather, please be aware of the number of people trying to drop-off and pick-up their children.  Please do not park in a non parking area and leave your vehicle.  We have had a great deal of traffic the past 2 weeks and we need to remember to drop the kids off and leave as soon as possible. Thanks for being patient and courteous of others.

Hope you all have a great holiday and a wonderful break.  Always know you can contact the PTO with suggestions or questions.  Thanks again for all of our wonderful families and teachers. 

 Your PTO Team

Buddy Service Learning Activity: Please Read!

Dear Larson and Reese Parents and Students,

We have been working together as reading buddies and have come up with a holiday idea.  Student Council has just conducted our 2^nd annual Adopt-a-Family.  We have adopted families from the Cherry Creek School District and used the money that we earned from the sale of Boo Grams in October to purchase presents for them.   We still have one family with 6 children that needs to be adopted.  We would like to make it a community service project for our classes. 

If possible, we would like for each child to bring in $5.00 that we will put towards purchasing gifts for this family.  This is totally voluntary and you may choose not to participate.  This might be a good opportunity for your child to earn the money by doing a few extra chores around the house. 

We need all money turned in by Friday, December 9^th, so we can get the shopping done. Please send in cash only.  We will wrap the gifts and make cards for the family in class the next week.   Mrs. Larson and Ms. Reese will also contribute financially to this project.  We hope this will be a learning experience for all students involved.

Thank you for your help and support,

Kristen Larson

Emily Reese

Holiday Information

I hope to see everyone tonight at Barnes & Noble in Southlands. I will be wrapping presents from 5-6:30 so be sure to stop by and say hello!

If you are interested in helping out with our classroom holiday/winter party next Friday please contact me ASAP so we can begin making plans. If I do not hear from anyone, I will determine the plans and send home a letter in this week's Thursday folder.

If you have an artifact to share with the class about a family holiday tradition, be sure to bring it tomorrow in order to share with everyone. Keep up the good work!

Vocabulary Words for Dec. 5-9

      1.   astonishment: (noun) surprise; amazement

2.   manacled: (verb) handcuffed

3.   charred: (verb) burned

4.   solemnly: (adverb) very seriously

5.   plateau: (noun) an area of high, flat land

6.   skeptically: (adverb) doubtfully; unbelievingly

7.   tinged: (verb)  slightly colored or flavored

8.   hovered: (verb) stayed in one place in the air

9.   cacophony (noun) a clashing combination of sounds or colors

10. archaeologist: (noun) a scientist who studies artifacts to learn about past cultures