Please note that Clubs and Activities may change from year to year.

Art Club is an opportunity for children in grades Kindergarten through 5th to experience additional art outside of the school day. The club meets most Tuesdays from 3:40-5:30 p.m. Look for fliers coming home each month for class descriptions, schedules, and fees (typically $10 per week). Art Club has completed activities such as origami, watercolor painting, drawing and sketching, tin/aluminum works, print making, clay and more!

Twain Elementary is proud to offer Instrumental Music to all 4th and 5th graders for the 2009-2010 school year.  Mr. Andy Wolfe and Mrs. Heather Davis will be teaching the following instruments:  Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Saxophone, Trumpet, Horn, Trombone, Baritone, and Percussion.  Classes will be on Monday and Friday mornings, from 8:25- 9:00am, and tuition is $40 per month. We plan to have two evening performances at Twain during the year (usually in December and May).Contact Mr.
Wolfe at 303-907-2498 or via e-mail:   ampwolfe@hotmail.com.

The Twain Chess Club meets on Tuesday mornings from 8:00 – 9:00 a.m. in the library. This is a wonderful opportunity for your child to learn the game of chess. New players are welcome! Students should know the basics of chess (piece names and basic moves) before signing up. We have plenty of boards but feel free to bring your own if you like.

During the Beginning session, any students who are beyond that level are welcome to come play any Tuesday morning in another area of the library. There will be adult supervision but no lessons. During the Intermediate session, all students who come are expected to be signed up and to attend the lessons; we will not be able to teach beginners during this time.

The LPS Chess Tournament is held at the beginning of December. Following the Tournament, Chess Club will continue as a recreational, come-and-play-when-you-can activity on Tuesday mornings during January, February and March.

Letterheads is open to any third, fourth or fifth grade student. The purposes of the club are:

1) To learn new spelling words.

2) To meet once a week, before school, to practice spelling techniques while participating in fun games and club spelling races.

3) To prepare for the school spelling bee, to be held in March.

4)To meet new friends or see old ones who also have an interest in learning challenging words.

In order to become a member, your child will need to study a list of 50 words, taken from the Paideia, the national spelling bee directory. In September, all interested students will meet before school at 8:15 a.m., to take the written test. The test will consist of 25 of the 50 words from the list. Students that spell at least 20 of the 25 words correctly, or score an 80% or higher, will be members of Letterheads.

After notification of membership the students in the Letterheads Club will meet weekly, from 8:15-9:00 on Thursdays beginning in October. At each club meeting the students will receive a new list of 20 words to study. We'll practice these words the following week during the club meeting.

Those students who were in the Letterheads Club the prior year and wish to participate, taking the written test is not necessary.

Please keep in mind that the Letterheads Club will require effort and work on the part of your child. It is estimated an hour a week will be needed to learn the words. We will help with techniques each week but it is the student's responsibility to put forth the initiative.

The Letterheads Club should get through a minimum of 400 words before the spelling bee in March. This is only a fraction of the words in the Paideia. We will be ordering a Paideia for each member of the club. The club is very exciting and a great academic challenge. We look forward to seeing your student!

Science Matters, "Blast into Space"
Class description – Blast into Space, the Final Frontier.  Train to be a space voyager.  Build a telescope like Galileo and make a Classroom Comet.  Make your own air powered rocket to launch.  Explore the planets and far reaches of our galaxy.  Don’t miss this cosmic adventure!  Explore the Galaxy.  Registration deadline is 10/21/09.  Register online at www.sciencematters.tv or call 1-866-543-9386.  Class 1, 11/5; Class 2, 11/12; Class 3, 11/19; Class 4, 12/03; Class 5, 12/10

What a way to wake up your brain! Have fun while you sharpen your spelling skills, expand your vocabulary and math skills and become a quick draw with a dictionary.

Playing Scrabble is so much fun your kids won’t even notice how much they’re learning! That is why Mark Twain is proud to announce that it has started an official Scrabble Club for all students grades 3-5. Whether your child chooses to participate to sharpen spelling skills, expand vocabulary, wizen addition and subtraction and mental math skills, be a dictionary detective, or just enjoy team play and a little friendly competition– Scrabble is a game for them! If you are interested, please contact the front office.

We are happy to announce that we are offering Spanish Enrichment classes for students in second through fifth grade.  We will be offering this program before school on Monday mornings from 8:15 to 9:00am.  We will offer four sessions during the school year.  Session 1 will run from September 14^th through October 26^th, 2009. Tuition will be $32 for the 7 week session. The classes will meet on 9/14, 9/21, 9/28, 10/5, 10/12, 10/19 and 10/26 in Mrs. Maxwell's Art room.

It's important to provide elementary students opportunities for leadership. One way we do that here at Mark Twain is through our Student Council. Our Student Council members learn and practice citizenship skills, promote school spirit, participate in school-wide activities (playground/lost & found clean-up; assist with Spaghetti Night), create ideas, raise funds as appropriate (through the School Store), manage projects resolve problems, do community service (clothing drive for Inter-Faith Task Force), and practice teamwork through all these activities. In so doing, our Student Council members develop a sense of "ownership" for their school and they demonstrate to the whole Twain community that service to others is an ideal worth working toward.

Open to all students 3rd through 5th grades. We will coordinate with Joan Bertoluzzi, a professional violinist and violin instructor.  Violin Club will perform for school assemblies and other important events, and our students will have an advantage if they continue in middle school orchestra.First semester classes will begin on Monday, September 14, 8:15-9:00 A. M. and continue throughout the semester.  Second semester classes begin in January, 2010. 
FOR REGISTRATION, CONTACT: JOAN BERTOLUZZI, 303-789-1457