School notes

Red Wing Public Schools

Winter break

There will be no school Monday Dec. 24 through Tuesday Jan. 1. School resumes Wednesday Jan. 2, 2013.

Red Wing High School

Concert

The Red Wing High School Music Department will present their annual ensemble concert Monday, December 17. The concert will feature the Ovation Choir, Barbershop Squared, Jazz Lab and Jazz II. Music performed will include a mix of holiday, pop, swing, Latin and rock. The concert will be 7 p.m. at Red Wing High School in Hovda Auditorium. It is free and open to the public.

Early release

Students will be released at 12:15 p.m. Friday Dec. 21 so that teachers can engage in professional collaboration.

Midquarter

Friday Dec. 14 is mid-quarter day. Grades will be submitted by teachers and then mailed home.

PAC

The PAC meets noon Tuesday Dec. 18 in L100. Gifted and Talented Coordinator Brian Cashman will be the main speaker.

Festive days

Student Council is sponsoring festive days Dec. 17-21. Students should see the posters in the halls about the activities these days.

Hedin-Hartnagel loans

The application form is on the front page of the district website. Applicant interviews will be at RWHS Thursday Dec. 27.

Burnside School

Early release

Students will be released at 1:30 p.m. on Friday Dec. 21.

National Cocoa Day

To celebrate National Cocoa Day on Dec. 13, students in Tim Ford and Molly Zervas’ class learned about the countries that produce the cacoa bean as well as the health benefits of chocolate. The discussion was topped off with a tasty treat of hot chocolate.

Hanukkah holiday

Classes learned about the Hanukkah holiday and traditions, then played the dreidel game. The four Hebrew letters on the side of the spinning top required students to use their math skills to win pennies in this ancient game.

Third grade

Students in Neil Lahammer’s class are collecting books for the Red Wing Food Shelf this holiday season. The books, which are both for children and adults, will be handed out to families who stop by the food shelf. Last year students collected more than 400 books.

Media center

The second-grade classes used a Venn diagram to compare the books "The Emperor’s New Clothes" and "The Principal’s New Clothes."

Library news

Students in library classes are memorizing poetry about snow in English and in sign language. Kindergarteners will learn "The More It Snows," by A.A. Milne, first-graders will learn "Snow," by Mary Ann Hoberman, and second-graders will learn "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," by Robert Frost.

Twin Bluff Middle School

Students of the month

Students of the month for December are Keegan Drewel and Lucas Martin (both from grade five), Haddie Furlong and Emma Lundgren (both from grade six) and Ben Dech and Shana McClelland (both from grade seven).

Report cards

Second quarter mid-quarter report cards will be mailed home the week of Dec. 17.

Sunnyside School

Walking Wednesdays

On Dec. 12, 26 students participated in the Sunnyside Sneaker program. Winners were Carter Rippentrop, from Ms. Pumper’s kindergarten, and Annabelle Marshall, Ms. Dressen’s (Mrs. Damman) first-grade.

Arts Alive

Registration forms are due back from students Wednesday Dec. 19.

Kindergarten news

Our kindergarten classrooms made gingerbread houses this past week and will be on display in cases located throughout Sunnyside.

Winter sing-a-long

Staff and students are invited to our sing-a-long Friday Dec. 21 in the large gym.

St. John's Lutheran Elementary School

Great Cookie Bake

Students are looking forward to the Great Cookie Bake on Monday Dec. 17. If you can help grades K-5 with this project, contact Mrs. Alice Danell.

Band concert

The band concert will be 10 a.m. Friday Dec. 21. A Christmas dinner will be served at 11 a.m. Students will be dismissed after lunch. There will be no afternoon buses that day. Parents are to arrange transportation home after the dinner.

Little Blessings Preschool

Students are learning the Bible story "Jesus the Savior is Born." They are working on letter "Hh.”

Kindergarten

The class will celebrate Jesus' birthday with a cake on Friday Dec. 21.

Grades 1, 2

Completing Memory Treasures this week are Chloe Sorenson, Isabella Goeman, Kaylee Roper, Emma Bohme, Gabriel Hernlem, Lydia Mason and Nina Augustine. Penmen of the week are Aiden Roper and Jonah Bain. Emma Bohmne, Helena Jonas, Kiersten Peterson and Kaylee Roper are Busy Bees.

Grades 3, 4, 5

In English classes, students are finding the main idea in paragraphs and then writing their own. They are revising as needed. Fifth-graders are reviewing for a unit five test.

Grades 6, 7 ,8

Everyday Math 6 worked on adding and subtracting mixed numbers with like and unlike denominators. Transition Math created vocabulary cards to deepen their understanding of some types of numbers. Students completed projects for chapter four. Algebra applied the Algebraic Definition of Division to algebraic fractions. Literature circles presented their music responses for their books.

Colvill School

Colvill Kids Mixed Ages

Ms. Lila's classes are learning about winter and snowmen. We will read "Snowmen at Christmas," by Caralyn Buehner. Students will make snowmen and other winter decorations.

Colvill Kids 3’s

Miss Katie’s classes are reading “The Gingerbread Man,” by Karen Schmidt. Our vocabulary words are catch, run, kitchen, oven, wolf, and gingerbread man. We will decorate a gingerbread boy and sequence numbers in order from one through five. We will have scented play dough for exploration.

Colvill Kids 4’s

Miss Catie’s classes are reading “The Elves and the Shoemaker,” by Jim LaMarche. Students are reviewing the letters they have learned. They are having a book party on Wednesday or Thursday.

Red Cottage Montessori

Holiday season

The beautiful snow has brought not only excitement, but wonderment as Red Cottage children explore their familiar surroundings outside with a blanket of white. Extended Day children discovered that bumps in the snow are logs and rocks. They made 15 miniature snow people and put them in trees, on decomposing logs and in stick shelters in the woods.

Extended day

Extended Day children strung popcorn and cranberries with sewing needles and string. They talked about how long ago before electricity, families had candles on their trees that were lighted on Christmas Eve and used things like cranberries and popcorn to make their tree beautiful without lights.

Art

Red Cottage children are busy with many holiday art media. They are making special snowflake ornaments out of Borax and hot water, which have a true “crystal” appearance. They are stringing small pieces of polar fleece with a darning needle to make ornaments. A new gluing technique has been introduced to make mosaics. This is the children's first experience with cutting mosaic “tiles” and placing them into a shape.

Songs

Red Cottage children are full of songs this year. We have learned the introduction to "Rudolph" where the names of the other reindeer are listed. They noticed that depending on the country and story, the names of the reindeer may be different. The Jan Brett story "The Wild Christmas Reindeer" offers different names than the traditional names found in the "Rudolph" song.

Writers

Many writers in the class are working on personal "Twelve Days of Christmas" books. For example, "On the frst day uv Crismis my brothr gav to mee 1 tree." We hope to have them completed and wrapped to send home for somebody special at Christmas.

His Kids Preschool

Sandy's 4-5

Students have been working on songs for the holiday program Dec. 20 and making holiday crafts. Children are asked to bring in their favorite Christmas story to share. The game "Hide the Christmas Ball" was played with much excitement. A wrapping station was set up for children to work on fine motor skills and language skills while sharing what they want for Christmas. The letter "Mm" was explored by having pictures brought in from home.

3-4 Discovery

Melody and Shari's class made a foot print Christmas tree to display in the classroom, while talking about our "Giving Tree" for our families the center is helping this year. Children are working on "We Fish you a Hairy Christmas" as they get ready for the holiday program. The children are learning about disappointment and how to react when they do not always get what they ask for during the holiday season with belly breaths and conversation. Children enjoyed the fresh snow with sliding and marching in our walking path outside.

Christmas camp

Christmas Camp was offered to our families. Children played games, watched a Christmas movie and made a special snowman to take home.

Adventures in Learning Preschool

3-year-olds

The students loved hearing Dempsey's mom read Christmas books in the library. The students discovered that Christmas is Jesus' birthday and they worked hard to make surprises for their parents.

4-5-year-olds

After handing out candy as quick as can be to the TAG church group, the children dressed in red and students sang three Christmas songs while jiggling their bells. They were a hit! We began to make Christmas present surprises.

Tags: lifestyle, education