BLUES NEWS
Richmond Street School and PTA Newsletter
December 2006				Volume 7, Issue 4
Richmond Street School 615 Richmond St., El Segundo, CA 90245 (310) 606-6831		Dickie Van Breene, Principal Janice Hickey, Assistant Principal elsegundousd.com/richmond_school Shari Gulian, Newsletter Editor	Tammy Long, PTA President PTA El Segundo Council Thirty-Third District California State PTA, everychild.onevoice

MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Dear Richmond Street Families,

Richmond Street School is continuing its school wide bully prevention program. We are committed to teaching positive themes about how to solve problems peacefully and respectfully across all grade levels. As always, we appreciate our parent support with continued discussion at home about “doing the right thing even when on one is looking”, one of our tenets of good character. When needed, we provide appropriate and consistent consequences for poor behavior and encourage the student to self-reflect on how he/she could have made a better choice. Childhood is a time for learning and the Richmond Street School staff is confident, that with your help, all of our kids can learn to be respectful and kind.

Parent conferences for grades 1 – 5 are scheduled for the week of December 11^th. We will be observing the minimum day schedule printed below on Monday through Friday of that week. Your child’s teacher will contact you to schedule a conference date and time.

On behalf of the Richmond Street Staff, I would like to wish all of our families a happy and safe holiday season. We look forward to seeing the children back at school on Monday, January 8, 2007!

Sincerely,

Dickie Van Breene

dvanbreene@esusd.k12.ca.us

DECEMBER CALENDAR OF EVENTS
12/11 – 12/15 Monday - Friday	Parent-Teacher Conferences Book Fair
12/19 – 12/20 Tuesday and Wednesday	Winter Concert See below for performance times
12/21 Thursday	Kindergarten Winter Concert 10:30 – 11:15, auditorium
12/25 – 1/5	Winter Break

SHOW SCHEDULE

Tuesday December 19

9:00-9:30 AM – Choir and First Grade Performance – All first grade parents encouraged to attend this performance at RSS.

9:50-10:10 AM – Second and Third Grade Performance – All second grade parents invited to this show at RSS.

2:00-2:30 PM – Fourth and Fifth Grade Performance – All fourth grade parents invited at RSS.

7:00 – 7:40 PM – Choir Winter Show at ESHS Auditorium.  It’s FREE – and room for 900 audience members!!!!  Come check it out! 

Wednesday December 20

9:50-10:10 AM – Second and Third Grade Performance – dress up!  All third grade parents invited to this show at RSS.

2:00-2:30 PM – Fourth and Fifth Grade Performance – dress up!   All fifth grade parents invited at RSS.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Clothing needed: If your children have outgrown sweatpants, sweatshirts, t-shirts or even tennis shoes, please send them to the school office. We keep a supply in the health office for students who have accidents and need a change of clothing. Thank you for your support.

Make a Wish Foundation: Student Council and RSS students have raised $150 for the Make a Wish Foundation by selling frozen non-fat yogurt at lunch time in November. The Foundation grants the wishes of children with life-threatening illnesses. Our council members chose this group on their own. Our next charitable fundraiser will be held in February for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Student council members will be participating in Pennies for Patients for this worthwhile cause.

WaMoola for Schools: If you have a Washington Mutual Debit MasterCard you can sign up to have Washington Mutual donate money back to Richmond Street School when you make a purchase. Please go to wamoolaforschools.com for more info.

BOx tops for education

Box Top Winners for October 2006
Grade	Teacher	Box Tops
Kindergarten/Tedde	O’Brien	283
First Grade	Lister	348
Second Grade	Miller	72
Third Grade	Igi	145
Fourth Grade	Bennett	109
Fifth Grade	Lubba	144

Congratulations to our October winners!  We're looking forward to a great Box Top year.  Remember to save those Box Tops from your holiday cooking.

Remember collection dates are the first Friday of every month. Have a Happy, Wonderful, and Safe Holiday Season!

Richmond Street PTA Proudly Presents the "Reading Rain Forest"

Book Fair

This week long event from December 11th - 15th will give you and your children the opportunity to purchase award winning and quality books at affordable prices. The Book Fair will be located in the Science Lab and will be open Monday through Friday from 8:00am to 3:00pm. The kids will be visiting the Book Fair at an assigned time with their class and they are also allowed to shop at before and after school and during lunch and recess.

This is the week of Parent/Teacher conferences so the kids will be on a minimum day schedule. Stop by on your way to or from conferences and do some holiday shopping!

We also are excited to offer "Books and Burgers" Family Night! We will have late hours on Thursday, December 14th. The doors will be open from 5:00pm to 8:00pm so that you can enjoy the Book Fair as a family. We will have crafts, games, face painting and special guest readers in the library's new Castle Room! There will be food to purchase so that don't have to worry about rushing home to feed the family. Hamburgers = $2.00, Cheeseburgers = $2.50, Hot Dogs = $1.00, Drinks = $1.00 and Chips = $.50.

All of the proceeds from the Book Fair go straight back to your children's classroom libraries and our school library.

We also have two special opportunities to support literacy inside and outside of our community. First the El Segundo Rotary club will be collecting gently used children's books for distribution to neighboring schools and children in need. So when you come to shop remember to bring those books your children have outgrown or no longer need. Boxes will be available outside the office and at the Book Fair. We are also participating in a program with Scholastic called "One for Books". Donate just $1 and sign a leaf book slip with your name so we can display it on our tree at the fair. The money goes directly to purchasing books for our library and for families in need in our community. Additionally, Scholastic will match the dollars with a donation of up to one million books to three non-profit organizations devoted to improving reading skills among children.

Thank you for your dedication to creating lifelong readers! See you at the Book Fair!