Keep Skills Sharp During Winter Break

Help your child stay at the top of his learning game during the holiday vacation — no flashcards involved!  By Kristen Finello  from Scholastic website.
Winter break means a well-deserved reprieve from homework and daily obligations. "Just as we adults cherish our vacation days, students need a break from their routines to recharge," says elementary school expert Lawrence L. Smith, Ph.D., acting associate dean for the teachers college at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. Still, before you know it, the holidays will be over and it will be back to the bus stop. To prepare for a smooth re-entry and a successful second semester, don't let school skills like reading, writing, and math slide completely during winter vacation. "We want kids to read, do some writing and some math," says Smith. But not to worry: "All of these can be done in fun ways from shopping to cooking to playing games." Try these family-friendly activities:
Read for pleasure. Whether your child is in the mood for holiday stories like The Night Before Christmas or the newest installment from his favorite series, winter break provides the perfect opportunity to stash schoolbooks and read for fun. Encourage relatives to give books as holiday gifts or gather in front of the fire (big kids too!) to take turns reading from classic tales. After reading, ask questions such as, "What was your favorite part? What part didn't you like?" Smith suggests.

Most Recent Sight Words List

Update from "LINKS" (P.S./I.S. 217 The Roosevelt Island School Newsletter)

"Class K003 at The Roosevelt Island School is wrapping up their personal narrative/small moments unit. The students have been adding details and emotions to their stories.  Look for their latest published stories on the class bulletin board.

In reading, K003 students have been working on retells and talking about characters in their books. In math, students have been playing many addition games and working on their doubles facts as well as combinations of 10.  They are looking forward to sharing these games with their parents in January (more information to come!)

In Social Studies, students have been discussing holidays and traditions.  Thank you to all the parents that have volunteered their time to come in and share their family traditions with the class.  December has been a very busy month.  K003 saw the Nutcracker at the LaGuardia Performing Arts Center and made gingerbread houses in the classroom.  Thank you again to all the parents for their continuous help and support.  Have a wonderful holiday and see you in 2010!"

Last Day of School at The Roosevelt Island School G&T Class!

Can you believe the first half of the school year is already over?  It's very impressive how much children at the G&T class at The Roosevelt Island School learned during these months.  At the same time Ms.C. did a wonderful job keeping her little students interested in studying: they love coming to her class every day.  Looking forward to another great year of learning in 2010!

Please respond to the Foreign Language Program survey, which was distributed via backpacks, as soon as possible, if you haven't done so yet.  Your input is vital to get the program started as early as the beginning of 2010!  Please take time to provide the PTA with information, so that our children would have another exciting after-school enrichment activity - learning second, and for some even third, language next year!

Thank you for amazing worksheets that you've submitted for our Winter Recess Homework Packet!  What a talented group of parents we have in this class!  No wonder that you came up with so many creative activities to entertain our children during the Winter Recess.

Thank you, again, for your continued contributions to our class, and Happy Holidays!

"Winter Holidays Around the World" Social Studies Workshop at The Roosevelt Island School G&T Class: Russian New Year

Students at K003 G&T class at The Roosevelt Island School had fun while learning about Russian New Year (Novyj God) on Tuesday, December 22nd.  Perfect timing for talking about snow, frost, and Siberia, given recent snowstorm here in the NYC!  Children learned about Grandpa Frost (Dedushka Moroz) and his granddaughter Snegourochka (Snow maiden), listened to Sviridov's "Snowstorm" musical illustrations, and even made snowflakes and snow bunnies costumes!

Here is one of the videos children watched in class during the Russian New Year presentation:

Library Update

Sylvia Vilabrera / Librarian "We listen to stories based on the theme of the month.  K003 sometimes spots an interesting book on display and I will usually honor their request".

December's theme of the month was "The snow".  So kids got to read plenty of books on this topic.

Students of the Month

December students of the month in K003 G&T class at The Roosevelt Island School are Anja and Maya. Congratulations!

The Principal and teachers handed out the certificates to the students at the auditorium.  Lower grades did a great job at singing the school song which they've performed at the Winter Concert before - "P.S. 217 is the place to be!"

This Week's Highlights at The Roosevelt Island School Gifted and Talented

- Monday, December 21th @9:35 am - Student of the Month Assembly: Anja and Maya will receive the awards this month.
- Tuesday, December 22nd @10:15 am - Winter holidays presentations - Novyj God (Russian New Year): Yuriy (Sophia's dad) will come to class to talk about this Russian holiday.
- Tuesday, December 22nd:  Last day to submit your worksheets for our Winter Recess Homework Packet.
- Wednesday, December 23rd - Mystery Reader: Alexis (Max's mom) will read to the students, and do a craft with them!
- Thursday, December 24th-Friday, January 1st - Winter Recess: NO SCHOOLl!  The school will reopen on Monday, January 4th.

Mystery Reader Update

A wonderful update from Talia, Xavier's mom, who was the Mystery Reader in the G&T K003 class at The Roosevelt Island School on Friday, December 19th. 

"Dear Parents,

On Friday, I was the "mystery reader" of the week. I brought Baby Bernardo with me. He is almost 7 months old. The children were very excited to have him in the class, and he seems to have loved being in the class too. A lot of the children present that day seem to have a younger sibling, and they wanted to tell me all about him/her!

Because Xavier (Palma) loves dinosaurs as well as eating, I read "Trouble at the Dinosaur Cafe" by Brian Moses, illustrated by Garry Parsons, and "How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food?" by Jane Yolen, illustrated by Mark Teague. Both are humorous and rhymed. The children were very attentive.

Here is a review of each book:
"Trouble at the Dinosaur Cafe": PreSchool-Grade 3–A bouncy, boisterous, colorfully illustrated story. Several prehistoric beasts are sitting down to enjoy their snacks at the Dinosaur Cafe when along comes Tyrannosaurus, who is not satisfied with gobbling and gulping up menus–he wants meat! Iguanadon sneaks away to phone Terry Triceratops for help. With cacophonous commotion, Terry and the other dinosaurs knock down, jump on, and tickle the bully until he leaves. Afterward, the victorious friends regale each other with battle tales. The picture-book crowd will delight in the tumult and turmoil included here. Pair this title with Bernard Mosts ABC T-Rex (Harcourt, 2000) and Tony Mittons Dinosaurumpus! (Scholastic, 2003) for an energetic, spirited storytime.–Andrea Tarr, Corona Public Library, CA

"How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food?": PreSchool-Grade 2–Another addition to the humorous series that began with How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? (Scholastic, 2000). In the first part of the book, dinosaurs burp, belch, and display all kinds of other inappropriate behaviors during breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Spinosaurus doesn't eat all his food...[he spits] out his broccoli partially chewed. Quetzalcoatlus fusses, fidgets, and squirms in his chair in a restaurant, while Amargasaurus flips his spaghetti high into the air. But, is this the way that dinosaurs should act? Of course not. So, a very genteel Cryolophosaurus says please and thank you while sitting very still, Lambeosaurus tries everything at least once, and Spinosaurus never drops anything onto the floor. In the last image, a very proper Cryolophosaurus–with pinky in the air–daintily eats his pancakes. The book is great fun, and sure to be popular with dinosaur lovers. Hidden in the illustration on each page is the proper name of the reptile portrayed therein. Teague's gouache-and-ink illustrations contain just the right amount of detail and whimsy, and they are large enough for storytime sharing. Children not yet old enough to read will still enjoy looking at the pictures by themselves.–Roxanne Burg, Orange County Public Library, CA"

Winter Recess Homework Package

Only four days until the Winter Recess, much-anticipated family time!  But two weeks is a very long time for kindergarteners, so lets help each other keep our children in the learning mindset!  Please remember about worksheets for our Winter Recess Homework Package.  Submit them by Tuesday, December 22nd the latest, so that we have time to make copies and distribute them!

Hopefully we all will get to enjoy the snow this weekend!