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.