Dear East Newton Community,

We hope you had a wonderful break with your family last week! We are gearing up for another holiday break soon, but we have a lot of learning coming up in December. This newsletter contains items such as:

• Upcoming events, such as special dress up days
• Teacher and student spotlights
• Staff celebrations
• What we are learning in December
• Our new Literacy Link podcast on Reading Fluency
• Click the QR link to listen

🎉 ALWAYS REMEMBER THAT PARENTS TRULY MAKE THE DIFFERENCE! WE THANK YOU FOR BEING AN AWESOME PART OF THE EAST NEWTON COMMUNITY! 🏆

- Mrs. Sauls, Principal

Let's enjoy some festive dress-up days!

Monday, 12/16: GRINCH DAY - Wear green!

Tuesday, 12/17: CANDY CANE DAY - Wear red and white!

Wednesday, 12/18: TACKY/CHRISTMAS SWEATER DAY - Wear your tackiest or merriest sweater!

Thursday, 12/19: POLAR EXPRESS - PJ day!

Friday, 12/20: HOLIDAY HEADWEAR DAY - Wear your Santa hats, antlers, elf hats, etc.!

My name is Coach Alexander. I’ve been teaching for 18 years, and this is my 12th year at East Newton Elementary. My beautiful wife is Mindy Alexander, and we have three incredible children. I am a Christian and our family attends Solid Rock Church where my wife and I volunteer in the Kids Ministry. I love spending time with my family! We enjoy camping, hiking, kayaking, and fishing. We recently purchased a fishing boat, and I enjoy making memories on the water with my children. My favorite thing in the world is cruising on Carnival. I would rather go on a cruise than any other vacation. My lifelong goal is to retire and enjoy a cruise at least once a month!

I’ve wanted to be a teacher since I was in the 4th grade. I never imagined having any other profession. I tell people all the time that I have the best job in the world, because I get to play with children all day! I enjoy being a PE teacher because this job allows me to be creative and plan engaging lessons for my students. I love seeing students of all ages, no matter their level of fitness, working together and having fun. I believe PE can have a lifelong impact on students and the content we teach is vital to the physical, social, and emotional health of our students.

Before East Newton, I taught 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade. I loved my job, but I knew it was not what I wanted to do the rest of my life. I earned my certification in Physical Education while I was teaching, but a PE position is hard to find! I prayed that one day God would open a door for me so I could teach PE. During my gifted endorsement classes, I met Dr. Kim Coady who was the principal at East Newton at the time. During one of our classes, she mentioned that her PE teacher was retiring at the end of the year, and from that exact moment I was determined to get that job! I love East Newton and the sense of family we have here. I love how everyone works together for the betterment of our students. I am thankful to God for this school, my work family, and the students I get to teach every day.

Our student spotlight for December is Kelise! Kelise was nominated by a teacher who says that she always shows her PAW PRIDE! Kelise loves gymnastics, skating, arts and crafts, cooking, and anything that is challenging and adventurous. She is always respectful and is an excellent student. She even helped return another student's lost Holiday Shop money this week. Her mom says that she loves her church and God, and she is so proud that she was recently baptized this past September. We are so proud of Kelise for being such a wonderful example for other students! Thank you Kelise for always showing your PAW PRIDE!

Some of our best and brightest 4th and 5th grade girls had the opportunity to participate in the NCS InspirHER Code Like a Girl Conference this week! We can't wait to see what they do with their new learning!

During the month of December, Pre-K will be learning about seasonal changes, snowflakes, and cultural celebrations (Christmas and New Year's Eve). Phonological Awareness will focus on syllables and rhyming. We will work on developing fine motor skills like proper pencil grip and how to hold and manipulate scissors. We will continue to focus on listening/following directions, recalling details from stories, handwashing procedures, counting to 100 by 1's, 5's, and 10's, identifying numerals, letters and shapes, and how to discuss feelings and ways to communicate

December is a busy month in Kindergarten! We are introducing the last of our letters and the letter sounds this month and working on putting those sounds together to read words. This month we will be reading The Polar Express and using the skills that we have learned to identify the characters, setting and events in the story. We will go on a magical journey to the North Pole as we retell the story that we read! As we continue to work on Celebrating Our Differences in Social Studies, we will experience Holidays Around the World. Each class will be a different country and we will travel to the different countries to see how they celebrate the holidays.

This month in first grade, we’re diving into exciting new topics! In math, we’re exploring shapes and introducing fractions through fun, hands-on activities. For reading, we’re practicing asking and answering questions to build comprehension, while also having fun with phonics to strengthen foundational skills. In social studies, we’re learning about historical figures and their impact on the world.

Here is what Second Grade will be learning in the month of December: Our focus in Reading is learning about text features in informational texts. We will continue to practice Writing to inform. Our focus in Grammar is writing complete sentences and knowing when to capitalize nouns. For Math our focus will be the place value unit in which students will work with place value to solve real life mathematical problems. Finally, second graders will be learning about the three states of matter in our Science unit.

In third grade, we have an exciting lineup of topics ahead! In reading, we will explore text features like headings, captions, and glossaries to help students navigate and understand nonfiction texts. Our writing lessons will focus on informational writing, teaching students how to organize and present facts clearly. In math, we’ll be wrapping up our unit on multiplication and division, solidifying these essential skills. Finally, in social studies, we’ll journey back in time to learn about the British colonies and their role in early American history. We’re looking forward to a month full of discovery and growth!

In December, fourth graders are diving into exciting subjects! In math, we are focusing on division strategies, which help us understand how to share equally and solve problems with larger numbers. Students will learn different ways to divide, making math both fun and easier to grasp. In English Language Arts (ELA), we are practicing summarizing texts and finding the main idea. This skill helps us understand and share what we read in a clear and concise way. In science, we are exploring the solar system and learning about the moon. Students will discover how the moon affects the seasons and why it is important to our planet. December is a month full of learning and discovery!

In 5th grade in December, we are doing a novel study. We are reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. We are studying the skill of theme along with it. We continue to work on opinion writing; in grammar, our focus is commas. For math, we have started working with fractions and learning how to make an equivalent fraction. In science we are doing physical and chemical changes. We will switch back to social studies in January.

East Newton Elementary School

Principal: Teresa Sauls

Assistant Principal: Dr. Geri Hawkins

Website: https://enes.newtoncountyschools.org

Location: 2286 Dixie Road, Covington, GA 30014
Phone: (770)784-2973
Facebook: https://facebook.com/eastnewtonelementary
Instagram: https://instagram.com/eastnewtonelementary

Twitter: https://x.com/ENESBears