Rusty’s Monthly Review M A R C H

A Message from the Principal Dear Russell Families, Wow! November has really snuck up on us recently. October seemed to fly by. We recently held our “Rusty’s Round Up” and had an opportunity to recognize 15 outstanding students for showing RESPECT to others during the month of October. This was our first chance to recognize those who have best exemplified one of our 6 Pillars of Character. Choosing one per homeroom is a difficult task, but we had students and teachers provide input into those who stood out over the past month. Each student that was chosen received a certificate of recognition in addition to The Official, “It’s Great to be a Tiger T-Shirt”. In addition to developing our students academically, it will be equally important to help develop their character and help shape them into productive adults. As a parent of two boys, I know how important and difficult that task can be in today’s world. Thanks to our PTO for sponsoring such a venture. In order to jazz up our assembly and help us celebrate the accomplishments of those students that were recognized, we invited the Marple Newtown High School Band to our assembly. Under the direction of Mr. Mike Massimo, our high school band has been very accomplished within the surrounding area. Last year, they took home the top honor at the State Competition at Millersville University. Mr. Massimo brought a sampling of his band, most of which were Russell alumni to pump up our “Round Up”. They were awesome and their sounds resonated throughout the halls of Russell Elementary School. As I told the stu-dents, that can be them in a few short years with a lot of hard work. What a great thing to aspire to! Our 3rd grade students introduced our theme for November and December, which is CARING. Mrs. Botos, Mrs. McCloskey and Ms. Harley worked in conjunction with Mrs. King to have the students do a song for the student body to promote caring. They did a re-make of Taio Cruz’s “Dynamite” with words to promote caring and did an awesome job! All of the students and staff were waving their hands along with the 3rd graders. With the holiday season approaching, caring for others is a great trait to promote. Please help re-inforce that message at home over the next few months. We will recognize 15 more students at our January “Round Up”. With conferences approaching, let’s work together to best meet the needs of our stu-dents. If you are seeing certain things at home, be sure to make notes and share with the teachers. We will do the same on our end. Education works best when we work together to meet the needs of our kids. Sometimes, it can be helpful to gather all of that information together in order to meet the needs of each individual student. I have learned over 13 years in the District that “It is Great to be a Tiger”. I look forward to continuing to work together throughout the year and promote hard work along with fun activities. Our Halloween Parade, “Round Ups”, Youth Night Football, Pizza Bin-go Night, Skate Night, Candy Cares Drive, etc. are all opportunities to come together as a community and celebrate what a wonderful school we are a part of at Russell Elementary.

A Message from the Principal 1 PTO News 2 Halloween Party 3 Russell Reader 4 First In Math 6 Calendar 7 Counselor’s Corner 8 To submit 9

November 2015

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It's hard to believe it's November, and Thanksgiving is around the corner. We have so many people for whom we are thankful! A big THANK YOU: …to all of the parents who made the Halloween parties so much fun for our students! We saw kids be-coming toilet paper mummies, making slime, and decorating jack-o-lanterns. We hope you were able to check out all of the great costumes during the Halloween Parade. …to everyone who came out to Skate Night and Katerina Brennan for organizing the fun evening! … to Lauren Fremont for organizing both Spirit Wear and the KidStuff Coupon Book fundraiser. She had a very busy month! …to everyone who shared their Halloween goodies during our Candy Cares program so that local shelters and food banks had candy for those who don’t usually get to have a special treat! And to Kelly Burger for organizing this event! …to Principal Reardon for being determined to make Holiday Shoppe work this year, despite the logistical challenges. With new space issues in the building, we were unsure of the future of Holiday Shoppe. Thankfully, we will be able to keep this tradition alive. Mark your calendars for Tuesday 11/24 and Wednesday 11/25. Students will have time during school to go to the Shoppe on one of these days. Students may also come in the morning before school starts. Please keep an eye out for a flyer that will come home with more detailed information. … to Kelly Burger and Vicki Murray for organizing this year's Holiday Shoppe. … to Katerina Brennan for organizing the School Store. The next several School Store dates are November 19, December 17, and January 21. …to Christine Williams for organizing Pizza Bingo. We hope to see everyone there on November 13th! … to Stacey Park and Tina Quinn for running our BoxTops fundraiser. Each Box Top is worth ten cents, and we will be getting a check for over $360. That's a lot of Box Tops!! We are also thankful to them for running the Scrip fundraiser. Keep an eye out for a Scrip flyer coming home soon! …and finally, a special thanks to all of you from St. Marks’s Food Bank. Please see the letter they sent after our recent Food Drive in this newsletter.

PTO News

Students in Ms. Mikhail’s fourth grade classroom have fun with a pumpkin project!

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The Fifth grade class is getting ready for their Winter Concert. The date is Wednesday, December 2, 2015 at 7:30PM. The Show title is, “SOUNDS ALL AROUND US” and every Fifth grader will be performing. The suggested dress for ALL performers is a Solid White shirt with Black pants. This performance will kick off our theme this year which is – The Power of MUSIC!

The Power Of Music!

Russell Reading News

Reading Olympics Update We have a fantastic group of 32 5th graders participating in the Reading Olympics! Students are working on reading, taking notes, and creating questions for their Top 5 books. The books they are reading for Reading Olympics can be used for Independent Reading time, as well as their classroom book projects. We will meet to discuss their progress every two weeks. Our next meeting is scheduled for Friday, November 20th. Title One Literacy Buddies Our 5th grade Title One students have teamed up with our 2nd grade Title One students to read and participate in literacy activities twice a month. The students are forming new friendships as they read, write, and play literacy centered games together!

Please accept my heartfelt thanks for you out-pouring of compassion and generous gifts to St. Mark’s Emergency Food Center. Your September 25 through October 2 Food Drive was extraordinarily generous and very much ap-preciated in the light of the ongoing state funding crisis and the need which exists in Broomall and bordering communities. The amount of food collected kept us going for at least two weeks. I know it doesn’t sound like a lot but it saved us thousands of dollars! The volunteer staff of the Food Center will keep all of you in our hearts. Blessings, Maria Kollar, Director St. Mark’s UMC Emergency Food Center

Thank you….from St. Mark’s

Students are proud of their accomplishments during the Food Drive that took place during this year’s Spirit Week.

Way to go Tigers on helping the community!

Red ribbon week

This campaign is a national effort to encourage school age children to learn and practice anti-drug habits. During the week of October 26, stu-dents and staff members participated in fun, daily themes to help send anti-drug messages through-out the school. Pictured right: Mr. Johnson’s homeroom tried to “twin” with their teacher; Ms. Lizun’s homeroom had some crazy hair! Pictured below: Students and teachers had a blast dressing like twins!

Remember!

The Library Links and Online Catalog link are on the Russell Homepage! Students have been reviewing these links in library classes. There are online encyclopedias, World Book and Gro-lier, for research and homework, fiction and non-fiction ebooks, Trueflix, Bookflix, and Tumblebooks, POWER Library, First in Math, Typing Pal, Pearson Success, Reading Won-ders and much, much more!

First In Math First in Math in an international game-based mathematics competition started by Robert Sun of Easton, PA. This year we have homeroom based teams. On First in Math, students earn stickers based on the number of problems solved. Each day, the team has an opportunity to find their “Player of the Day” and gets to wear the “Player of the Day” lanyard. Students keep the lanyard for the day! We also recognize “Team of the Week” and the winning homeroom is honored with a trophy! Students are doing an excellent job participating in this fun competition! Russell was the top performing school for the month of October and Mrs. Chamoun’s class was the top class for the month. Great job to all of our Russell students!!

Pictured Above: Joel Zacharis (5th ); Jackson Burger (2nd); Mrs. Dougherty and Sheryl Biju (4th); Julianna Deenis (4th ); Pictured right: Mrs. Partride’s 5th grade homeroom takes the tro-phy as a weekly winner

In October, Ms. Scheck’s first grade class got to-gether with their 4th grade buddies to learn about Columbus Day. They made hats to wear and col-ored and labeled the three ships – Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria. They also celebrated Pumpkin Day. Two moms came in to help the class weigh, measure, and learn about pumpkins. Students had fun making a “How to Carve a Jack-o-lantern” book and their own cra-zy Jack-o-lantern!

Left: Miss Rooney poses with the class and

the crazy Jack-o-Lantern

Right: Cheyenne Hackett and buddy, Rhiannon DeLuca celebrate

Columbus Day

Upcoming Events

Nov 4: ELL Family Fun Night, 6:00-8:00pm Nov 11: PTO Meeting, 7:00pm Nov 13: Pizza Bingo Nov 23-25: Parent Teacher Conferences, Half Day for Students Nov 26-27: No School, Thanksgiving Holi-day Dec 2: Fifth Grade Winter Concert Dec 5: Holiday Shop Dec 7: Headstrong Assembly Dec 14: Report Cards Go Home Dec 24: Winter Break begins Jan 4: School Resumes

Pictured below: Soccer players from the high school visited our students each Friday in October and read to them.

We don’t know who enjoyed it more!

Congratulations to our 15 RESPECTFUL students who were honored during our recent Round Up for displaying October’s character trait of Respect throughout the month. These students were nominated by peers and staff members, and all deserve a round of applause for being outstanding students and citizens of Russell Elementary. Top Row: William O’Hara, Ryan Joseph, Jayme Harrington, Colin Scanlan Jack Dreger, Ava Droesser, Ryan McGowan, Lexi Schlater Bottom Row: Anastasi Kamberogiannis, Timmy Long, Crystal Itri, Jared Kaplan, Margaret Schwerdtfeger, Kerri Trainor, Olivia Dreger

Spotlight on: RESPECT

The third graders helped teach about November’s character trait, CARING. This month, students and teachers will focus on those who exemplify what it means to be a caring person. I look forward to hear-ing about the great acts of kindness our students display in the upcom-ing weeks. Be sure to check the Character Education website for up-dates! Also on my website is any contact information you need to reach me. I am here to support your child throughout the school year and am always happy to hear thoughts and suggestions from parents!

Counselor’s Corner

If you have any suggestions or exciting news from our students in the community,

please email cspinelli@mnsd.org

Have an AWESOME

Month!