Houdini Box

 

Victor is forever trying to escape from locked trunks, walk through walls, and perform any number of Houdini's astonishing magic tricks...without success. Then -- amazingly -- he actually meets his idol, and begs Houdini to explain himself. A mysterious locked box is the magician's only answer, and Victor is left to wonder: Does the box contain the secrets to the most famous magic tricks ever performed?

Secret Person Project and Moriah House

 

Holiday Giving Opportunity

          In the spirit of giving, the Campus School students will be collecting items December 16^th – December 20^th for Moriah House.  Moriah House is Memphis Union Mission’s safe house for women and their children.  In our tough economic times, Moriah House needs our help more than ever.  This year there are seven children ages 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, as well as a two month old infant who will benefit from your generosity. Campus School families can help by donating the following items.

Monday: Paper Products 

·                  toilet paper

·                  paper towels

·                  Kleenex-regular and purse size

·                  diapers ( two month old baby)

·                  paper plates/napkins

Tuesday: Toiletry Items

·                  baby wipes

·                  toothpaste/toothbrushes

·                  soap/deodorant

·                  bath/shower gel

·                  lotion – adult and baby

Wednesday: Cleaning Products

·                  dish washing detergent

·                  laundry detergent

·                  Clorox wipes

Thursday: School Supplies       

·                  notebooks

·                  highlighters

·                  pens/crayons/markers                                                   

Friday:  Non-Perishable Food Items * If you bring one canned food item, you may wear jeans to school. If you bring two canned items you may wear jeans and a holiday or other appropriate top to school! Canned food (soups, stews, vegetables), peanut butter, packaged noodles, and sugar bulk or individual packet.

Secret Person Project (12/16-12/20), Moriah House, and Discovery Assessment

Holiday Giving Opportunity

          In the spirit of giving, the Campus School students will be collecting items December 16^th – December 20^th for Moriah House.  Moriah House is Memphis Union Mission’s safe house for women and their children.  In our tough economic times, Moriah House needs our help more than ever.  This year there are seven children ages 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, as well as a two month old infant who will benefit from your generosity. Campus School families can help by donating the following items.

Monday: Paper Products 

·                  toilet paper

·                  paper towels

·                  Kleenex-regular and purse size

·                  diapers ( two month old baby)

·                  paper plates/napkins

Tuesday: Toiletry Items

·                  baby wipes

·                  toothpaste/toothbrushes

·                  soap/deodorant

·                  bath/shower gel

·                  lotion – adult and baby

Wednesday: Cleaning Products

·                  dish washing detergent

·                  laundry detergent

·                  Clorox wipes

Thursday: School Supplies       

·                  notebooks

·                  highlighters

·                  pens/crayons/markers                                                   

Friday:  Non-Perishable Food Items * If you bring one canned food item, you may wear jeans to school. If you bring two canned items you may wear jeans and a holiday or other appropriate top to school! Canned food (soups, stews, vegetables), peanut butter, packaged noodles, and sugar bulk or individual packets

 All 4th grade students will be taking Discovery Assessments next week. The purpose of the Discovery Assessments is to:

• Predict proficiency for Reading, Language Arts, Math and Science
• Screen students to identify risk for academic failure
• Measure academic growth within and across years
• Monitor progress on state standards and Common Core standards
• Analyze student performance using reports that show proficiency, state and national percentiles, percent correct, item difficulty, and content mastery 

Secret Person Project (Week of December 16-20)

Dear Parents,

          In celebration of the holiday season, students will choose a secret person to shower with small gifts and kindnesses. Each child in our class has filled out a survey about their interests and likes – your child’s secret person’s survey is attached to this letter.  This survey is meant to help your child to create and select gifts for their secret person.

          Each day we would like your child to do something nice for their secret person. In addition to this kindness, we have planned a list of gifts for the students to share with each other. If for any reason your child is unable to participate, please let me know ASAP.

Monday	Design a bookmark for your secret person.
Tuesday	Draw a special picture for your secret person.
Wednesday	Bring a sweet treat for your secret person.
Thursday	Create a holiday card for your secret person.
Friday	Bring a small wrapped gift ($5.00 maximum) for your secret person. Please attach the riddle gift tag.

          Please remind your child that the identity should remain a secret until we reveal on Friday. Also, please bring your gift in a bag so that no one can see how it’s wrapped.  

Best Christmas Pageant Ever Middle School Night

Synopsis
The six Herdman children are the town delinquents. They spend their days stealing, lying, smoking, bullying and vandalizing the community. “The Herdmans are absolutely the worst kids in the history of the world.” So tells Beth, a child herself, who narrates the hilarious story of how those outrageous children end up invading the only “Herdman-free” place in town—the church. After they bully their way into taking over the main Christmas pageant parts, the Herdman children learn the nativity story for the first time. Their crazy interpretations of the Christmas Story help the whole town to rediscover the true meaning of Christmas, while they reinact the most memorable and “best Christmas pageant ever.”

Parents,

This is a note to make sure you saw the date and time of our Middle School Night. Mrs. Bailey arranges for several area middle schools, both public and private, to make presentations to our parents and students of the 4th and 5th grade. It is on Thursday, December 5th from 6:00-7:00 p.m. in our playroom at school. This is a great opportunity to learn about the future schools and ask questions.

 

Happy Thanksgiving

Just a reminder about our feast next week;-) We have lots of empty spaces still, and we would like for a few extra parents to sign up to bring in a dish for us so that we will have enough food for all the students.Here's the link http://mrs-faulknersclass.wikispaces.com/Fourth+Grade+Thanksgiving
Thank you for all that you do!

Healthy Choices Week

Monday, November 18 – Red Ribbon Day

“Don’t Slip Into Drugs””

Wear red shirts, uniform pants and favorite slippers

CPR Demonstration for 4/5 grades in Playroom

1:30-2:00 (4^th Grade)   2:00-2:30  (5^th Grade)

Tuesday, November 19 – Drugs Are Unbearable

Bring teddy bear to school

Read-In (8:00-8:20)

Wednesday, November 20 – Healthy Spirit Day

“Band Together to be Healthy”

Wear Campus School Spirit shirt or Tiger Blue shirt and jeans

U of M Marching Band Pep Rally

Healthy Choices Drawing

Thursday, November 21 – Healthy Body Fair (Playroom)

“Put a Cap on Drugs”

Student wear their favorite hat or cap

Healthy Choices Drawing

Friday, November 22 – Healthy Body Fair (Playroom)

“Play Sports for a Healthy Body”

Students will wear uniform pants and a jersey from a sport they play

Healthy Choices Drawing

Spirit T-Shirt Update

The order for the Spirit T-Shirt went to the printer yesterday so shirts should be delivered to us in about 2 weeks.  So we will probably not have them sorted until  the Mon/Tues after Thanksgiving.  We will attach your order form to your shirts and send them home in your child's backpack.  We will send another email out to let you know to be looking for them.  Sorry for the delay.

Moriah House

Mr. Shadow will be sending home information about our annual charity drive for Moriah House in the next few weeks.  He has a need for 16 large boxes to hold all the donations.  If you have any please bring them to his classroom.

Chick-fil-A Spirit Night

The Chick-fil-A at Mendenhall and Poplar has asked us to start doing a Spirit Night with them.  When you purchase food (dine in or take out) on our Spirit Day we get a percentage of the sales. 

Our first Campus School Night will be on Tuesday, November 19 from 3 PM to 7 PM.   We will have this event the third Tuesday of the month for the rest of the year.

Skate Night

Next Skate Night is Friday, November 22 from 5:15 to 7:15 PM at the Cordova Skate Center

Independent Reading Project and Seven Assorted Reminders

 

The Effects of Independent Reading on Reading Achievement

Research clearly shows that the reading of meaningful, connected text results in improved reading achievement (Anderson, Wilson, & Fielding, 1988; Anderson, Hiebert, Scott, & Wilkerson, 1985; Elley & Mangubhai, 1983; Ingham, 1981; Taylor, Frye, & Maruyama, 1990).
In one of the most extensive studies of independent reading yet conducted, Anderson, Wilson, and Fielding (1988) investigated a broad array of activities and their relationship to reading achievement and growth in reading. They found that the amount of time students spent in independent reading was the best predictor of reading achievement and also the best predictor of the amount of gain in reading achievement made by students between second and fifth grade.

Among the many benefits of independent reading are the following:

Builds Fluency

Independent reading builds fluency. There is substantial evidence that unless students can accurately and effortlessly deal with the word-identification demands of reading, difficulties will result in comprehension and overall reading achievement (LaBerge & Samuels, 1974). There is also evidence that unless children read substantial amounts of print, their reading will remain laborious and limited in effectiveness (Allington, 1984; Stanovich, 1991). Finally, evidence exists which shows that when students do read substantial amounts of text, their reading performance improves (Bridge, Winograd, & Haley, 1983; Dowhower, 1987; Herman, 1985).

Increases Vocabulary

Independent reading leads to increased vocabulary development. One of the best-established relationships in the field of reading is the very significant relationship between vocabulary development and achievement in reading (Baumann & Kameenui, 1991; Nagy, 1988). There is also evidence that shows that independent reading is probably the major source of vocabulary acquisition beyond the beginning stages of learning to read (Nagy, Anderson, & Herman, 1987; Nagy, Herman, & Anderson, 1985). This same research shows that while the probability of acquiring the meaning of any specific word simply through reading it in the context in which it appears in independent reading materials is not high, students who read widely can learn the meanings of thousands of new words each year.

Builds Background

Independent reading builds background knowledge, or schema. Another extremely well-established research finding is that students' reading ability is dramatically influenced by the amount of interrelated information (schema) they have about the topic about which they are reading (Anderson & Pearson, 1984; Ausubel & Robinson, 1969; Bartlett, 1932). By reading widely, students are exposed to diverse topics and information which they can then use in future reading.

Couple of quick reminders:

1) Lenny's Spirit Night (store on Highland) is this today 11/7 from 3 PM to 8 PM.  Just tell the cashier you are with Campus School.

2) Jeans and Spirit Shirt day this Friday 11/8 to celebrate 100% participation in CSPN Support Drive and U of M Homecoming.  Kids can wear U of M face decals is they want.

3) The U of M Homecoming parade has moved this year to Saturday November 9, at 10:30 AM.  Parade will start at Tobey Park and the go down Central to Tiger Lane. The parade is always a lot of fun.

4) Yearbook

The Campus School Yearbook webpage is open for business:
* http://www.campusschool.org/Yearbooks.html
* Or go to http://www.campusschool.org and click on YEARBOOKS on the top-menu.

Prices:

* Yearbook:  $25
* Upload photos:  FREE
* 5th Grade Ads:  Half page $75; Quarter page $45
* Business Ads:  Full page $200; Half page $125; Quarter page $75; Eighth page $40
* Purchases will include a $1.00 processing fee for each checkout.

* Both Business and 5th Grade Ads need to be purchased AND completed by February 28th.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Kevin Dixon at dixon9090@gmail.com.

5) Kroger Rewards Card

Did you know that Campus School gets all most $1,000 a quarter from the Kroger Community Rewards Program?  Right now we only have about 60 families with their cards linked to Campus School.  We get a percentage of every dollar spent at Kroger if your card is linked to Campus School so please take the time to enroll.  Click on the link below to get started.  You will need your Kroger card, Campus Schools Id is 81249 and if you do not have an account on the Kroger web site you will have to create one. 

https://customer.kroger.com/communityrewards.aspx

6) Healthy Choices week will be the week before Thanksgiving--Nov. 18 through Nov. 22.

7) Middle School Parent Night will be Thurs. Dec. 5th at 6:00 in the playroom.

Thankful it's November

 
"November comes
And November goes,
With the last red berries
And the first white snows.

With night coming early,
And dawn coming late,
And ice in the bucket
And frost by the gate.

The fires burn
And the kettles sing,
And earth sinks to rest
Until next spring."
-  Elizabeth Coatsworth

Summary:  The Palmer family is all ready for an exciting camping vacation on an isolated island in northern California. While on a hike, their mother falls and breaks her ankle. The father heads to the nearest hospital with the mother, while twelve-year-old Jonathan stays on the island with his partially paralyzed younger sister, Abby. The family dog is there to help. When an earthquake hits the island, Jonathan is faced with many problems while trying to keep his sister safe

Earthquake Terror coincides with Earth Science

Summary:  The Palmer family is all ready for an exciting camping vacation on an isolated island in northern California. While on a hike, their mother falls and breaks her ankle. The father heads to the nearest hospital with the mother, while twelve-year-old Jonathan stays on the island with his partially paralyzed younger sister, Abby. The family dog is there to help. When an earthquake hits the island, Jonathan is faced with many problems while trying to keep his sister safe. 

Genre:  Realistic Fiction 

Realistic Fiction is a fictional story in which the setting, plot, dialogue, and characters seem real.

Story Skill: Plot (Conflict and Events)

A plot is the action or series of events in a work of fiction.  Sometimes important events in a plot are changes in a character's feelings or attitudes. Other times they are action-packed events, such as earthquakes, space journeys, or shipwrecks.  In most stories the plot concerns one or more problems or conflicts.  To keep you reading, authors set up interesting characters and situations.  Then, they give their characters big problems or conflicts to deal with. 

Plots usually follow a pattern like this one:

1. Exposition - The characters, setting, and conflict, or problem, are introduced.
2. Rising Action - The characters try to solve the problem.  It usually gets worse.
3. Climax - Action, conflict, and tension reach a critical point.
4. Falling Action - The conflict gets worked out.
5. Resolution - The ending tells the outcome.