PTA Newsletter for Eisenhower Elementary Schoool every night for twenty minutes! Remember, our unit high frequency words are all in the front of your planners. We have implemented

November 2014

Upcoming Events

November 10th - Market Day Pie orders due.

November 11th, Veterans Day, No school

November 13th, Skate Party

November 17th, Market Day Pick Up, Pie Orders

November 20th, 5th grade vocal, band, orchestra concert

November 24th, 5th grade BizTown

November 26th - November 28th, No School

See attached school calendar for other important dates.

Hello Eagles,

We are already flying through the 2nd quarter, with the holidays fast approaching. I hope that everyone found our student-led conferences beneficial as we closed out the first quarter. Our teachers and students put a lot of time into compiling and monitoring data, and tracking it in their Data Notebooks. These notebooks are a good example of Visible Learning. It allows students to know where they are, and what they need to work on moving forward. Students should be able to walk you through

those notebooks at any time of the school year, explain their data, and answer questions as to what they need to do next.

Another strategy we work on at Eisenhower is daily learning targets. You may have heard your student, or your student’s teacher discuss them at conferences. Learning targets are written and posted for students to see, change daily, and identify what it is that a student will learn during a specific lesson. Teachers refer to these targets as they instruct, and give informal assessments to monitor understanding of the intended target. Targets are meant to be specific, student friendly, and driven by the larger standard that is embedded in the curriculum. Targets build on previous learning, and tie lessons together. Students should be able to identify what their targets are each day, and explain whether or not they have achieved success in mastering the target.

Over the last month, another major focus of our building has been the implementation of the Soar to Success intervention and enrichment period. We use specific data, which we discuss at our data team meetings, to deliver instruction that will best meet the needs of each student. Students get the chance to move to a different classroom, and be with a different set of students for 30 minutes a day. The students have done a great job of adjusting to the change, and seem to look forward to the opportunity each day. We monitor progress, and the groups they have been placed in are flexible. We look forward to continuing this successful change as they year goes on.

If you have questions on any of these strategies or other items, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,

Dave Martin

PTA Newsletter for Eisenhower Elementary Schoool

predict the patterns of movement for the sun, moon and stars.

We use our Second Step cards to hold classroom discussions and role play our feelings, talking about ways to solve problems and how to stay calm. We also have meetings in our classrooms about our Olweus Bully Prevention Program. We continue to build our Classroom Communities throughout the year and review the four anti-bullying rules often! Our social studies curriculum is based on “My School and Family” and some of the first graders have had visits from community members through Junior Achievement. We appreciate this “real world” experience provided to the students. We miss our weekly meetings with Ms. Rushford and thank her for teaching us about empathy. We look forward to having her come back to our classrooms soon!

We are supporting your students through differentiated activities in both the classroom and at home by providing different levels of work and homework for them to show their learning. We hold all our students to high expectations and want to challenge them with rigorous work, but not overwhelm them either. We continue to implement data cycles into our teaching which has really improved our recognition of those students who have already exceeded certain objectives and those who need

more time and support to become proficient. We then can group the students with peers that are on the same academic level as they are or group them with peers who can help them better understand a concept. We have had great success with our intervention groups, taking place four days a week, that give your student more support where they need it and the chance to work above grade level for others. This way we are providing many supports to those who need them and letting those students who already understand the objective or concept work on more difficult skills so they can use higher level thinking.

Please continue to support your students at home, as we will continue to support them at school. As the weather turns colder please send your students with appropriate clothing so they can enjoy being outside while being protected! Enjoy the upcoming holiday, spend time together and eat lots of good food!

Your First Grade Team

Our first grade team can not believe how fast this year is going! Conferences went well and we would appreciate any feedback from our families to help inform us of how they liked the student-led format again this year! We are now well into our Treasures Reading Curriculum and have become more comfortable with the weekly work. Please continue to practice your weekly spelling words and read together every night for twenty minutes! Remember, our unit high frequency words are all in the front of your planners.

We have implemented our new pilot program GO MATH and will be working on this until the end of quarter two. We have worked on addition, are continuing with subtraction strategies and will then compare the relationship between addition and subtraction. Please review the math sheets your student brings home to help reinforce all we have been learning. Continue to work on addition and subtraction equations to ten AND higher - without counters (this should be automatic and flashcards work well)!

We continue working on Science this quarter and we are learning about light and sound. We will soon begin to observe, describe and

November is already here!! We have been very busy learning many new skills. In Math, we will be working on measurement terms and measurement words to describe objects, as well as focusing on counting to 50 with the goal of counting to 100 by 1’s and 10’s.

As we enter our new literacy unit about food, we will continue to practice our Kindergarten words

from units 1-4, reviewing beginning sounds, rhyming words, along with matching letter sounds to the correct letters.

In science, we will be learning about weather graphing, predicting, and types of weather and finally learning about motion through push/pull books and activities.

Have a wonderful month,

Eisenhower Kindergarten team

PAGE 2 THE EAGLE EYE N O VEMBER 2014

Mrs. Elizabeth Swanson [email protected]

Mrs. Rhonda Crookshanks [email protected]

Mrs. Kristy Ehlers [email protected]

Mrs. Ericka Chavera

Mrs. Jennifer Sullivan [email protected]

Mrs. Mary Kaisen [email protected]

Mrs. Jennifer Easton [email protected]

science this quarter! We will be studying seeds and live critters! The crayfish and Boess beetles will be coming soon!

Our intervention groups are up and running in reading. We are working very hard to improve in our fluency and especially our comprehension of the story. Every third grader should be reading 15-20 minutes every night.

Thanks again for all of your support and encouragement!

Third Grade Team

Thank you for attending Fall Conferences! Your child really enjoyed sharing their data folder and talking about all of their hard work this quarter.

Second quarter means addition and subtraction for math. Please continue to drill your child on their multiplication facts!

The students are excited to begin


Mrs. Tina Richter [email protected]

Ms. Kathy Schmitt [email protected]

Mrs. Diane Waskowiak [email protected]

skills. Drawing emphasize on summarizing what we are reading, making inferences while we read, and cause and effect in the story. Reading and discussing stories with your child will help build on those comprehension skills.

Math is looking to operations and algebraic thinking. We will be moving on to adding and subtracting double-digit numbers using multiple strategies. We will introduce base 10 blocks, number line, and also

We have made it through first quarter! Looking back our students came into this school year ready to go and worked hard through the whole quarter. They focused in on their student-led conferences and did awesome! We would like to thank our parents for attending conferences and our 2nd graders who practiced hard to show their parents their hard work!

Looking forward into this next quarter we will continue to be working on our comprehension

decomposing of numbers. All of these skills take repetition and practice!

We look forward to this next quarter and are excited to see the growth the 2nd graders will make!

2nd Grade Team

Mrs. Melissa Kallenberger [email protected]

Mrs. Courtney Eikenberry [email protected]

Mrs. Lori French [email protected]

Mrs. Westerhof [email protected]

Question:

President Eisenhower installed at the White House for him to use.

(Look in newsletter for answer.)

Please send in your box tops, drop them in the box by the front office. If you could package them in lots of 50 that would be great. Also please check the expiration date. If the expiration date is not visible, they will not count it.

Please continue to save the milk caps. We receive $.05 per cap. The caps do add up and help pay for supplies. The

milk caps from the Prairie Farm milk jugs. Please wash and put in bin outside of the office. Thanks!

aspect, wind and solar energy, and micro organisms.

Eisenhower Fifth grade students will participate in Junior Achievement’s BizTown on Monday, November 24th. This is the cumulating activity for their social studies unit on finance. The fifth grade students work together to run the simulated city. Students work hard to operate businesses, form a government, earn and spend money, and balance their checkbooks. We need parents or grandparents to volunteer to make this a successful venture for the students. nformation concerning JA BizTown should have already been sent home.

We will be wrapping up first semester December 20th, before winter break. The children will take an end of the quarter language arts assessment. The following reading skills will be assessed; listening, main idea, key details, problem/solution, summarizing, and compare/contrast. The assessed language skills for second quarter are; verb tense,

dictionary entries, idioms, and synonyms. Each student will also write a persuasive essay.

The students will take an end of the quarter math assessment. The assessment will cover fractions and decimals. Review questions on multiplication, division, and place value will also be on the assessment. Watch for review sheets later in the month.

Parent, student and teacher conferences took place in October. It is great to see parents/guardians and converse on their students successes and ways, that we, as teachers can assist in promoting the student’s academic progress.

The Fifth Grade Team

The wheels on the wagons rolled on Thursday, October 31st to pick up the food in the Eisenhower neighborhood. The Eisenhower fifth graders and numerous parental volunteers assisted in the Red Wagon Food Drive that provides food for the local Hunger Drive. This community based push to help supply the local food pantries is a collaborative effort that benefits many people in our area. A big thank you to all the parents and relatives of our fifth grade students that made this year’s food drive a success.

The Eisenhower fifth graders were fortunate enough to visit Nahant Marsh for a field study on Tuesday, October 7th. The field study to Nahant Marsh entitles the students an educational opportunity in the appreciation, interaction and stewardship at the ecological preserve. The environment is ever changing at Nahant but has several diverse learning opportunities for students. The fifth graders studied the nature and environmental


Mrs. Susie Summers [email protected]

Mrs. Tracy Mathews [email protected]

Mrs. Stacie Jantzi [email protected]

In Science, we will be focusing on magnetism and electricity which means lots of fun experiments. Students will learn to make parallel and series circuits. They will be making schematic diagrams of the circuits they construct

In reading, we’ll be working with the themes of snakes, animal tales, people who make a difference, and jobs for kids (right in time for them to earn money for Christmas presents!). The comprehension skills are: inferencing (clues and

you), author’s purpose (persuade, inform, or entertain), and compare/contrast.

In math, we are focusing on geometry. They will be learning about parallel and perpendicular lines, acute, right and obtuse angles and how to measure with a protractor.

In Data cycles, we made our goal of multiplying 1-digit by a 4-digit number. We are working on constructed response (restating a question and giving details from the

story) for our next data cycle. We are also working on interventions in our Soar to Success time where students are grouped according to their Dibel’s reading score to give everyone the help they need.

Ms. Lisa Delzell [email protected]

Mrs. Derry Martinez [email protected]

Mrs. Barb Warren [email protected]


wait patiently in a line or when they listen to staff and safety patrol before and after school.

We see our students taking ownership of our school and their learning when they are in class ready to learn at 7:35 when the tardy bell rings, when they pick up litter or when they support a friend who needs help or report bully behavior to staff or parents.

We see our students being academic achievers when they come to school every day. 157students will receive an IKE note for being at school every day for the first quarter of school! We had 96.8% attendance rate first quarter for the whole school. Attendance is directly linked to school success.

We see our students being respectful when they ‘fill someone’s bucket’ by saying or doing something kind, when they follow directions the first time, or listen to a classmate.

NO TARDY NOVEMBER is here. If students are here on time- first bell at 7:25 and in class before the tardy bell rings at 7:35- November 3rd-28th, then Ms. Rushford will take their photos for a data wall & hand out IKE Notes for “No tardy November”. Ike, our eagle mascot has already visited on several occasions. Ike goes to classrooms when the students have earned a certain number of IKE notes.

IKE notes are a positive behavior support we have at Eisenhower. We use them to acknowledge students and staff we see “soaring”.

S- Safe

O- Ownership

A- Academic Achievers

R- Respectful

We see our students being safe when they show empathy for each other on the playground, when they

Iowa has a website that will help parents and students SOAR as well. It is ihaveaplaniowa.org. It is designed to help all Iowa students become career ready. There is a section for elementary, middle school, high school, college and one for parents. The parent section gives information on college savings and the Iowa 529 plan, financial aid and helping pre-teens with study skills as well as many other things. The elementary section has “Paws in Jobland”, a dog character leads students on career exploration. The middle and high school sections help students make their plans.

I hope this information can help you plan ahead as you raise your children. J

Sincerely,

Dona Rushford School counselor

Fifth Grade Fall Concert

Please join the 5th graders on November 20th at 6:30 PM for their Fall Concert featuring the band, orchestra and general vocal music classes. We ask that our students arrive at 6:00pm to tune their instruments and meet their classmates to form their singing groups. Singers will meet in the gym. Band and orchestra students will meet in designated rooms for tuning and warm-up. We look forward to sharing the gift of music with you.

Musically Yours, Mrs. Booe, Mrs. Ciccotelli and Mrs. Hartman

Many people would love to have this by their house.


5TH GRADE CELEBRATION We had our first bake sale. It was a huge success. We made close to $300. Thank you to all who sent goodies.

Upcoming activities - help with Market Day pie sale, 5th grade will sell pies in the Spring. Market Day gives the 5th grade all the proceeds from the pie and the regular sale. To do this, 5th grade helps with the Fall sale. We also have Turkey grams for November. Please watch for more information.

Feel free to contact either Jackie Diekmann, [email protected] or Brittany Hall at [email protected]

Don't know what to do with those medicine bottles after they're empty? How about donating them to the Quad-City Animal Welfare Center. They are a no-kill animal shelter in Milan that

has a spaying and neutering program. They use empty medicine containers to send home medicine with the animals after their surgery. Bring them in and drop them in the box outside of the office. Any questions, contact Jackie Diekmann, 563-359-1858, [email protected].

Therapist from Family Counseling & Psychology Center

Laura Stephens is a licensed therapist from Family Counseling & Psychology Center. She provides counseling services for students here at Eisenhower on a variety of issues. If you believe your child would benefit from some weekly counseling sessions you may call her office at 563-355-1611. The office address is 2485 Tech Drive in Bettendorf. She accepts a variety of insurance plans, including Iowa Medical card. She is not part of Davenport Schools, but provides her services as a guest in our building.

She has a different focus than Ms. Rushford. Ms. Rushford teaches lessons, runs groups and has a focus on academic, attendance and behavior issues at school.

Laura Stephens meets with children to provide individual therapy and can go into more depth with children. It happens at school, but is separate from school.

Market Day is looking for 5th grade volunteers to help with the dessert sale pick up on November 17th. We need people to help fill orders and hand orders to customers. Please call Jackie Diekmann at 563-359-1858 or [email protected] if you can help.


Hello Eisenhower Families,

It’s pie time again! We will be sending home a flyer and order form for our Desserts Fundraiser. I keep hearing from first time buyers how awesome their pies were! This year we have a couple of crazy wonderful new pies. I cannot wait to order and bring to my next party.

The pies are better then most pies we have had at restaurants or from other places. They are easily be frozen and used later. They last a number of months in the freezer. They taste perfect. It is something easy to bring to someone’s house.

What do you need to do? You can take orders from family and friends. Collect payment at the time of the order. Hand in your order form by November 12th to the office or to your child’s teacher. On November 18th, come to the Eisenhower gym to pick up you pies from 5:15 pm to 6 pm. Deliver the desserts to the people who ordered from you. It is that easy.

Here are the dates:

Order taking is from October 31st until November 12th. Makes checks payable to Eisenhower PTA.

Return the order forms by November 12th to your teacher.

Pick up will be from 5:15 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday, November 18th at Eisenhower gym. If you can not make the time or get anyone to pick up your desserts, you need to contact either Jackie or Cheryl to make other arrangements.

Questions on pick up or anything else, contact Jackie Diekmann at 563-359-1858 or [email protected] or Cheryl DeSpain at 563-355-3008.

Also, if anyone can help with filling orders for the desserts on November 18th, please call Jackie or Cheryl.

They also offer a 100% satisfaction guaranteed! You can’t find that in many places.

This month has some awesome freebies. With a $90 order, you get free chicken gems. If you sign up for the weekly specials, you will receive even more specials!

Check out the order sheet and their website. The website even has quick

This month we have wonderful specials. Their pumpkin shaped cookies are awesome. Just bake, decorate, and enjoy! Very easy.

This month is also cookie bonus days. All the cookies are delicious and are already pre-portioned out. Great for only making the number of cookies you want instead of a full batch.

and easy recipe ideas.

If you have any questions about the products or would like to help out, please feel free to contact me. Have a great month!

Jackie Diekmann, [email protected] or 563-359-1858

Cheryl DeSpain 563-355-3008


Engraved Bricks

Attention Eisenhower Families, Friends and Staff,

For only $30.00 each you can purchase a brick to be engraved and it will be permanently placed around the Tile Mosaic in Eisenhower School’s front yard.

This project not only beautifies our school yard, it makes a statement about the importance of Art, community, creativity fostered at Eisenhower and leaves a lasting family memory.

Checks may be made payable to “Eisenhower PTA” with “brick” written on the memo line.

Each Brick can hold up to 14 characters. Spaces count as a character and no numbers or logos allowed.

Please contact Ann Marie McGlynn with any questions. [email protected]

You can find order forms at our Eisenhower Web site under “student and parent resources” or in the front office at school.

This is open to anyone who is interested. Including both student and staff alumni as well as community Leaders. So pass on the information to all you know.

Name: __________________________________________________________

Phone #:________________________________________________________

Requested Engraving: __________________________________________________________

Engraving guidelines:

Use up to 14 characters, Spaces count as a character and No logos or numbers allowed.

Examples:

Team McGlynn (uses 12 characters) John and Jane (uses 13 characters) Smith Family (uses 12 characters)


WOW! It’s hard to believe that one quarter of the year is finished. I am impressed with how well our students use their manners in the school library. I would like to thank all of the parent volunteers who helped to make the book fair a great success. I would like to thank the P.T.A. for sponsoring the book fair, and I would especially like to thank the co-chairs Shelly Fischer, Jenny Strang, Melissa Simatovich, and Shawna Smith for organizing and delivering a

fantastic book fair. The students were very excited to purchase the books available to them at the book fair.

The library lessons for October focused on library organization, poetry, enhancing the school’s curriculum through Google Documents, and reading for leisure. Featured books included books by Kevin Henkes: Lily’s Purple Plastic Purse, Lily’s Big Day, Penny and Her Marble. The upper grade students were given a tutorial on using our online card catalog system, DestinyQuest. The students learned how to use filters to find good fit books based on reading level, interest level, lexile, grade level and noted literary awards.

Recommended Thanksgiving read aloud books found in our school library: The Night Before Thanksgiving, Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving, One is a Feast for Mouse, Squanto and the First Thanksgiving, and Don’t Know Much About the Pilgrims.

Enjoy Reading,

Mrs. Spaete Mr. Reagan

Everyone LOVES a good pizza, right? But, WHERE can you get a delicious large pizza for ONLY $11?? RIGHT here at Eisenhower School! We have teamed up

with Old Chicago and now have "PIZZA PALZ" coupons available for purchase through our PTA. These coupons not only benefit you and your hungry family, but also

support local pizza and Eisenhower School as well.

Coupons sell for just $11 each! Each coupon is good for one large pizza (valued at $22 or less) from Old Chicago any Sunday through Thursday. If you are interested in purchasing your own “PIZZA PALZ” coupons please contact Mrs. Mathews at [email protected] OR

fill out the order form below and send it with your money to Mrs. Mathews, Room #22, at school.

Name________________________________________________________________

# of coupons you want to purchase _____________ x $11 = ___________________

(amount enclosed)

Name of child and classroom to deliver coupons to:

_____________________________________________________________________


Attention Eisenhower Families

Eisenhower will host a “Winter Wonderland” Dance on December 5th from 6:30-8:30p.m. This dance will be in celebration of Jacob Dalton’s life and how he

touched so many by “choosing to be positive”! Money raised will benefit any future Eisenhower student who may have serious continuing medical issues and expenses as well as help us all continue this celebration of Jacob, year after year!

Admission price will be $5.00 per person or $20.00 per family. This price includes: pizza, drinks, dancing to music provided by D.J. Mark Manuel and a great time.

There will also be Snow Cones for sale, sponsored by Kona Ice with 20% of the snow cone profits being donated to our fund by owner Matt Schwirtz.

Remember to bring your camera so you can utilize the provided Winter scene photo opportunity.

If you are interested in donating, we are always in need of bottled water, paper plates & napkins.

If you are interested in volunteering the night of the event please contact

Ann Marie McGlynn at [email protected] or at 563-344-4701.

Thank you all for your continued support.

Book Donation Day- November 14th

My name is Cora Wynsma and I am in 4th grade. I had to go to the Children's Hospital in Iowa City because I had to have a tumor removed from my leg. During my visits, I noticed that they have a little free library across from the Pediatric Clinics. Unfortunately, there were not many books in it. I am hoping to collect used books from Eisenhower Elementary to donate to the Little Free Library and other Hospitals with pediatric units. I will be collecting these books,

with the help of Ms. Rushford and classmates, on November 14th. There will be boxes for collection in each of the classrooms. I will take the books to the Children's Hospital on my next visit. Here is the website for Little Free Libraries http://littlefreelibrary.org/

I’m are working hard to get the double points for October. I hope to get at least 1 more pencil sharpener for the school with the bonus points. Please let family and friends know that Eisenhower DOES save Labels for Education.

There is so many more labels you are able to save for the school. For example, some cereals, Dannon yogurt, some magazines, and Pop Secret popcorn. For a complete list, please check out the website, labelsforeducation.com.

There is a bin by the office to place your labels. Also, when saving labels, you only need to cut the ENTIRE UPC code with the point value as pointed in the picture. If the UPC code is not there, I can not use the points.

Keep clipping!

Jackie Diekmann, [email protected], or 563-359-1858

It was something outside.

http://littlefreelibrary.org/


Book Fair News

Hello Eisenhower families! The fall book fair was a great success! Over $6500 in books were purchased, we added $300 in books to our library, and earned over $1600 for our library and PTA! It's always amazing to see the support and love our Eisenhower families and

students have for our book fair! Thank you so much! Our classrooms collected $157.25 in our All For Books collection contest. Mrs. Richter's 3rd grade classroom earned a celebration for collecting over $50 for this amazing program. Schools that participate in this program use the money collected to add books to their library while Scholastic matches the funds raised, donating up to 1 million books to Kids in Distressed Situations Inc., the Kids in Need Foundation, and other nonprofit organizations that help underserved children.

We would like to thank our awesome volunteers, without your help the book fair wouldn't happen! You're time is truly appreciated and the students love having you there! A huge thank you to:

Elizabeth Bevins Becky Brooke Meghan Enright Amber Gorham

Jennifer Hart Amy Hock Ann Marie McGlynn Natasha Sottos

DeAnne Wheat Amy Zimmerman

It would be great to add more names to our list of book fair volunteers! It's fun, easy, and the kids love to see their families at the book fair! Send an e- mail to [email protected] if you are interested in helping.

As always, thanks to Mr. Reagan, Mrs. Spaete, Mr. Martin and the Eisenhower staff for your support! You encourage and promote reading in our students every day. Thank you!! Please look for us in December, we'll be having our BOGO (Buy One Get One )! Thank you for supporting the book fair, Eisenhower PTA, and Eisenhower school!!!!

Your Book Fair Chairs, Shelly Fischer, Melissa Simatovich, Shawna Smith, & Jenny Strang

Popcorn Days Thank you to everyone who bought one or more of the over 800 bags of popcorn sold during our September popcorn day!!!!!!!

Please thank the following volunteers who popped, bagged and delivered all of those bags of popcorn:

Barb Dalton-Banks, Amy Zimmerman, Kim Rice, Elizabeth Bevins, DeAnne Wheat, Mrs. Hartman, Shelley Fisher, Maddison Wheat, Brody McGlynn, Ada Marie McGlynn, and Ann Marie McGlynn.

Our next popcorn day is November 14th.

We always welcome volunteers, so if you are interested in having a lot of fun while volunteering, please contact Ann Marie McGlynn at [email protected].


Question:

President Eisenhower installed at the White House for

him to use.

Answer: A special golf putting green was installed on the White House lawn for him to practice his golf shots.

Welcome back! We will again be doing Kids Spot. Kids Spot will be stories, articles, songs, etc. written by Eisenhow-er students. ALL grades are welcome to submit their article to their teacher or to Mrs. Easton. Submission are ac-cepted throughout the month. Mrs. Easton and I will review the articles and pick 2 per grade.

Hope you enjoy our new Kids Spot.

Mrs. Easton and Jackie Diekmann

What I did last weekend

I helped my mom put some engraved bricks into the ground around the mosaic. There were 8 bricks and one of them was Dr. K’s brick. I put it in the ground with all the other bricks. I got to pull out the blank bricks. Then I got to stomp on the new bricks to push them in. After I filled sand in around them, I blew on them to get rid of the sand so you could see the letters. When I was all done I went to the playground and played on the cir-cle monkey bars with my mom. I also made lunch for me and my mom for us to have a picnic at Vanderveer Park. We ate lunch, fed the ducks and played on the playground. We also played sorry sliders and battleship. I beat my mom at battleship. It was a fun weekend.

Ada Marie McGlynn 1st Grade

TOPICS FOR DECEMBER

Want to submit something to Kids Spot but don’t know what to write? Here’s some topics!

What will you do over Winter break?

What is your favorite memory of Christmas?

What do you like about snow?