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