December 17-21, 2012

December 17-21, 2012

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6

During devotions, we have been using an Advent devotional called, “Adornments”, which includes several ornaments with scripture describing the many names, which Jesus referred to himself, such as Bread of Life, Living Water, The True Vine, The Good Shepherd, and others.  Ask your child if they have had a chance to choose a new ornament for our tree and what name of Jesus they shared with us.

Reminder: Student Card Exchange:  Students will bring home construction paper to create a card for their friend.  Please encourage your child to write a note of encouragement or scripture in the card too.  They look forward to sharing these with each other!

Christmas Party preparations:  Thank you to all who have signed up for donations to the party!  If you didn’t get a chance to sign up, watch for Valentine’s Party opportunities to help in February! 

Christmas Party- Thursday, Dec. 20 at 1:00.

Christmas Offerings Opportunities:

• We will be walking to the Dollar General tomorrow right after lunch to purchase socks for the Holland Rescue Mission with Mr. Heeres’ class. We are looking forward to doing this together!  The coordinator at the mission wanted me to extend their heartfelt gratitude for this donation.  She told me that they go through many socks for men, women, and children on a regular basis for residents, so the donation is deeply appreciated!  Join me in praising God that we can be used in a small way to help others in need!

• Also, we are looking forward to distributing the cookies and Christmas treats to the ZCS secretarial staff, “specials” teachers, and others who work with students in our class.  Students will also share cards for their “specials” teachers and other staff.  Please send the cookies and treats to school on Wednesday.  Thank you!

On Monday, we look forward to meeting Isaac’s grandparents, who have just returned for the holidays from Hungary.  Mr. Jack Ippel was a teacher at ZCS for many years.  He and his wife will be sharing about their experiences in Hungary, and a few other surprises as well! 

CHAPEL:  On Wednesday, December 19 at 1:00p.m. We will have our all-school Christmas Chapel in the gym.  All are welcome to attend!

JINGLE JOG:   On Thursday, December 20 at 10:00-10:30a.m. our class will be running in the Jingle Jog.  Parents are invited to meet in the gym or hallways to cheer on your child!  Additional information regarding collecting pledges was sent home last week.

Yearbook forms were sent home last week.  If you are interested in purchasing one, please complete the form with a check made out to ZCS. Reminder:  $15 if ordered by Dec. 21.

Festival of Christmas Concert  (5th-8th Grade) Don’t miss our ZCS “Festival of Christmas” Concert, now scheduled for Thurs., Dec.  20 in the school gym at 7 pm. This is not the date originally published, so please change your calendar. That way you won’t miss all the great Christmas music from our school bands and choirs. We’ve added the grade 5 students to the performers this year! Come and hear traditional carols arranged as swing tunes, marches, and in medleys. Plus, you’ll hear something symphonic from the 7/8 band, and enjoy this year’s debut of the 8th grade vocal ensemble.

Dates to Remember:

Thursday, December 20- Classroom Christmas party at 1:00

Christmas Vacation:  December 22-January 6

Classes Resume:  January 7, 2013

Have a wonderful week!

Mrs. Walters

December 10-14, 2012

December 10-14, 2012

“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: 

The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, 

and will call him Immanuel.”  

Isaiah 7:14

As I reflect on “Immanuel- God with us”, I was recently challenged to consider what are some ways that I hope to experience God as “Immanuel” in my own life this Christmas and how I can give the gift of God’s presence to others?  It is my prayer that every day we meet together this advent season, that I will share God’s presence to each student.  They certainly bless me with His presence in so many ways, as we pray together, through singing, and their sweet and caring way of helping each other. I pray that you will know God’s presence in incredible ways this Christmas.  

We have two very busy weeks before Christmas vacation begins, and we will be working hard to pack in learning each day!  We will continue working on our poetry unit, as well as a PBL (Project based learning) unit on our country’s important symbols, holidays, celebrations, and famous “patriotic” people, as well as our focus on Christ’s birth in Bible.  I’m also looking forward to seeing the students culminating work from our science solar system unit on December 19.

Student Card Exchange:  Students will be exchanging names with each other this week so they can work on their Christmas card to share with their classmate at our party on December 20.  Please encourage your child to write a note of encouragement or scripture in the card too.  They really look forward to sharing these with each other!

Christmas Party preparations:  I have created a Sign-Up Genius account: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0C4EA9AE2BA31-zcsshcchristmas to ask for your help providing food and craft supplies for our party.  You should have received an e-mail regarding this sign-up process, which does not require you to create an account, although it is helpful.  Please check out the list and consider how you can help to provide supplies or assistance for our party.  Thank you!

Christmas Offering Opportunities

We also have a special opportunity to serve others and share with those in need.  Both Mr. Heeres’ class and our class will be sharing plates of cookies with the ZCS secretarial staff, as well as “specials” teachers.  In class during devotions, we have been talking about the importance of “giving” instead of “getting” at Christmas.  We are asking that each child provides 2 dozen “holiday” cookies or goodies (Families with multiple children in the program are asked to provide 3 dozen cookies). They may be brought to school in a tupperware container, or paper plate.  We will then transfer them to a decorative plate to distribute to the staff, who often work behind the scenes at ZCS to keep everything running smoothly.  We truly appreciate the work they do and look forward to sharing a variety of goodies with staff!  Students will also work on cards during class for their “specials” teachers and other staff.

In addition, we will be reaching out to our community by having a sock drive for the Holland Rescue Mission.  Many families in the Holland area are served through the Rescue Mission, so we would like to provide multiple pairs of socks for children, men and women.  We are asking that each child provides $3-5 towards the purchase of new socks.  As a 1st-7th grade SHC group, we will be walking to the Dollar General store next week (approx. 2 blocks from school) to purchase socks that will be delivered to the mission.  If you would like to purchase socks on your own and bring them to school, that is fine too!  Please send in your sock donation by next week Monday.

CHAPEL:  On Wednesday, December 19 at 1:00p.m. we will have our all-school Christmas Chapel in the gym.  

JINGLE JOG:   On Thursday, December 20 at 10:00-10:30a.m. our class will be running in the Jingle Jog.  Parents are invited to meet in the gym or hallways to cheer on your child!  Additional information will be sent home from Mrs. Miller this week.

Festival of Christmas Concert Don’t miss our ZCS “Festival of Christmas” Concert, now scheduled for Thurs., Dec.  20 in the school gym at 7 pm. This is not the date originally published, so please change your calendar. That way you won’t miss all the great Christmas music from our school bands and choirs. We’ve added the grade 5 students to the performers this year! Come and hear traditional carols arranged as swing tunes, marches, and in medleys. Plus, you’ll hear something symphonic from the 7/8 band, and enjoy this year’s debut of the 8th grade vocal ensemble.

ZCS Curriculum Connection: The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are new math and language arts guidelines that ZCS will be implementing over the next year. The goal of the CCSS is to make sure that students are college and career ready when they leave high school. The ZCS teachers have been learning about the CCSS and looking at how our ZCS curriculum aligns to these new standards.  As we shift to the Common Core State Standards, we will be changing how we assess students annually.  In the year 2014-2015, ZCS students will no longer take the Math or Language Arts MEAP, but will take the new Smarter Balanced Assessments.  These assessments will be taken online, will combine performance and response items, and will allow us to access results more quickly.  For more information, check out http://www.smarterbalanced.org/parents-students/.

Dates to Remember:

Thursday, December 20- Classroom Christmas party at 1:00

Christmas Vacation:  December 22-January 6

Classes Resume:  January 7, 2013

Have a wonderful week!

Mrs. Walters

December 3-7, 2012

December 2, 2012

As we enter the season of Advent, my prayer is that you will be able to take time as a family to ponder and reflect on the coming of Christ’s birth.  We will also consider God’s amazing plan of salvation through his son, Jesus as we prepare to celebrate his birthday!  We will intentionally pause to reflect on God’s word through prophecy, preparation for his birth and prophecy fulfilled!  May the glory and wonder of Jesus' birth fill you with his peace and presence!

We have several things to remember this week!

Psalm 100 memory work- Postponed to this week Monday, due to a birthday celebration :) and farewell party for Miss Rhodes, our Hope College student last week.  Students will share their great memory work on Monday.  Our next passage,  Luke 2: 6-20, will be sent home this week.  Please work on this at home, as it is a long passage- Due on Wednesday, December 19.  This will be a fill-in-the-blank format, with a word bank included.  We will also work on it at school, adding motions and fun gestures too!

Monday, December  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!! 
• Students should also bring their text books to class for a quick check on Wednesday- I’ll send them back home on Thursday!  (Feel free to e-mail me if there is additional information regarding how your child processed the information- discussion, written work, vocabulary work, activities, etc.)
• Weather chart is also due on Monday. 

Tuesday, December 4 - Wednesday, December 19

The Solar System science unit home study:

• Utilize the online teacher’s edition (lessons, virtual labs, inquiry lessons, readers), websites (see Google site in addition to others)
• Please work on the key concepts from the curriculum, as well as supplementing with the other grade level content, online resources, or books from the library!  Have fun with many hands-on learning opportunities!
• December 19- We will again celebrate students hard work and learning with a culminating project, presentation, demonstration, keynote, video, model, poster, etc.

Solar System Units:

Grade 2:  Unit 8

Lesson 1:  What Are Planets and Stars?

Lesson 2:  What Causes Day and Night?

Lesson 3:  (Inquiry Lesson)  How Can We Model Day and Night?

Also People in Science and Engineering and Technology

Grade 4:  Unit 6

Lesson 1:  How Do the Sun, Earth, and Moon Interact?

Lesson 2:  What Are Moon Phases?

Lesson 3:  (Inquiry Lesson)  How Does the Moon Move Around Earth?

Lesson 4:  What Are the Planets in our Solar System?

Lesson 5 (Inquiry Lesson)  How Can We Model the Sun and Planets?

Also People in Science and Engineering and Technology

Grade 5:   Unit 12

Lessons 1, 2, and 3

Christmas Party- December 20:  We look forward to celebrating Christ’s birth together in class on Thursday, Dec. 20.  We will be exchanging names to create Christmas cards for each other.  (We will not be exchanging gifts, but will exchange special notes, made at home, on hand-made/decorated cards.)  During the party, we will play a few games, create a craft and of course, enjoy a little food!  If you would like to help facilitate the games, craft, or snacks, please let me know!  The party will be after lunch recess from 1:00-2:00 pm.

Service Project:  Mr. Heeres and I will be finalizing details this week.  Details and information will be sent home soon regarding our class service opportunity as we reach out to others during the Christmas season!

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. This is a class competition, so bring in the box tops! 

Dates to Remember:

Thursday, December 20- Classroom Christmas party

Christmas Vacation:  December 22-January 6

Class Resumes:  January 7, 2013

Have a great week!!

Blessings,

Mrs. Walters