November 27-30, 2012

November 27, 2012

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving vacation and had many opportunities to build lasting family memories together!  We have many great things planned as we begin the four-week stretch leading up to Christmas!  Mr. Heeres and I will be putting together opportunities for service with our students during these next few weeks. We will be sharing these opportunities with you soon! These next four weeks have a way of passing so quickly, so I really want to use these weeks before Christmas to focus on quality instruction and be intentional to focus on Christ’s birth and the true meaning of Christmas!

I also want to take this opportunity to thank you for your incredible thoughtfulness and generosity for  my birthday!  I’ve included the picture above to help you see what fun we had celebrating as a class!  I am truly blessed to have the privilege of working with such an amazing group of students and their families!  

Also, thank you for your support for His Harvest Stand, and Parkview Home in Zeeland.  We, at ZCS, appreciate your support to the community!  Also, thank you for your donations to our prayer partner, Teacher Marlene, in our sister school in the Philippines.  We will be sending a baby gift to her this week, with other donations that were collected by ZCS families.  Thank you for your thoughtfulness!

Our work for this week was included in the blog posted before Thanksgiving, but I wanted to share additional information for this week:

               Thursday: ZCS "Family" Meeting - Nov. 29 - 7 p.m. - Media Center
All parents, grandparents and friends are encouraged to attend an important meeting on Nov. 29.  Principal Bill Van Dyk and the ZCS Board will share information on the amazing growth ZCS has experienced over the last few years.  They'll also talk about the opportunities and challenges that come with that growth.  Special focus will be on building a new middle school addition.  There will also be a Q & A  time for attendees to ask ZCS questions.  Visit www.zcs.org/strong-together for more information!

Things to keep in mind:

Wednesday, Nov. 28:
Students should say Psalm 100 to me.  (Next passage- Luke 2: 6-20)
Book Fair “Shopping” visit-11:00am-Media Center

Monday, Dec. 3:
Students should be prepared to share what they have learned during the Science Weather unit. I can’t wait to see what they have been working on!!
Weather chart is due.

Box Tops:  It’s time to collect Box Tops again.  Please take a few minutes to cut the box tops off of the products you use in your home and send them in to school with your children.  

ZCS Curriculum Connection: ZCS teachers have been learning about
Project Based Learning (PBL). We are looking at how to take the information that
students learn and present it in a new way through a project or problem to solve. PBL focuses on content, but also on real-life skills that our students will need.  If
you’d like to learn more about PBL, check out:  http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=LMCZvGesRz8&feature=plcp. 

As teachers develop the PBL units they are thinking about how to incorporate "21st Century Skills". To learn more about 21st Century Skills, check out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0xa98cy-Rw.

Have a wonderful week!

Blessings,

Mrs. Walters