We have plenty to report in this week’s Room 15 update. First of all, we’ve received a new letter from the Nepalese student we support in Asia. Room 15 kids (and before them, Room 3 kids at SVE) have been contributing toward Nur Tshering Sherpa’s education for each of the last five years. Nur’s latest report card shows we’re having an impact, and his latest picture shows how much he’s matured. Click here to see and read more about Nur, including his latest letter to us. In response, our students will be writing back this week. And with any luck, they’ll soon have collected the funds to keep Nur in school. We’re almost half-way through the school year and the kids have collected $90 of the $280 we need. Find those nickels and dimes, kids!

We’ve also heard from New York where Luis Duarte from our 5th grade language arts class had his “Word Nerd” submission published in the January 2012 issue of Scholastic’s Storyworks magazine. Storyworks has a circulation of nearly 400,000, so it’s kind of a big deal!  Great job, Luis!  Speaking of language arts class, our reading students are continuing their current set of Book Clubs ,(Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James & the Giant Peach, and Matilda). These three great Roald Dal books are proven winners when it comes to getting kids enthused about reading. Students are assigned specific sections each Monday-Thursday nights. On most nights, they also have a study guide to get them thinking a bit more deeply about the text. In addition to the Book Clubs, students are preparing for their vocabulary test on Thursday of this week. The words can be found here.

We also want to congratulate Caleb Russell, our fifth grade winner of the Fact Car Rally Race. Fact Car Rally is our math facts program. Students “race” around the classroom walls, advancing from one stage to the next by mastering their multiplication and division facts.By winning the race, Caleb has proven he truly knows his math facts and has earned a 6 on his next report card. Who will finish second and third among the 5th graders? And who will be our 4th grade winner?  Stay tuned!

Speaking of math, here are the measurement homework sheets for this week: Monday, Jan. 9th; Tuesday, Jan. 10th; Wednesday,Jan. 11; Thursday, Jan. 12th.