Merry Christmas

Well, my friends, it's Christmas (or just about). It truly is, for many, the most wonderful time of the year. The time of year that just sparkles with the gift of Jesus' presence and life on this earth. Redemption for God's people. When we read in Scripture about Moses at the burning bush as he talks with God, we learn that God heard the cries of His people, He felt concern and He acted. He came to His people to redeem them. And now, here we are celebrating this truth. Jesus enters in and offers us salvation. What a gift to have two weeks to celebrate this truth and to rest. To sit with God in quiet pockets of time and space. To thank Him for all He has provided. To ask Him to continue to bless this work we are doing, for this work is not complete, but the rest is necessary. So bless and be blessed over the next two weeks. The work you do is GOOD! It is in partnership with God that we carry out this mission. Thank you for pouring yourselves into this every day. For encouraging and praying for one another. For bringing JOY to these walls, because in that JOY, Jesus SHINES! Happy birthday, Jesus! and Merry Christmas friends! 

If you have time to dream, please jot your ideas here regarding the following two events:

Makers Week Sign Up

MLK Jr. Day Sign Up

For 2017:

Feeding the 5,000

Good afternoon, friends. Well, our few boxes of Cheerios and bags of pretzels have multiplied to a quantity that is more than I could imagine! Thank you for spreading the word! As I'm sure you experienced as well, I heard many mini-conversations between our littles that demonstrated a small understanding of the need we have to share our bounty with others. "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat" was lived today. Thank you!

Christmas Chapel
Karen VM's class will lead our Christmas chapel on Tuesday at 10:30. Preschool, you are welcome to attend if your class is in session.

MLK Jr. Day Sign Up

Makers Week Sign Up

Discovery Night
Please save Tuesday, January 31 for Discovery Night. We'll talk through the logistics after Christmas break....unless the curiousity is eating you up.  I'll happily fill you in early.

K-2 Staff Meeting
Our next K-2 staff meeting will be held on Thursday, January 19.

Preschool Staff Meeting
Thursday, January 12 beginning at 3:45 for 57 minutes at Rose Park's media center.

December This and That

Thank you for communicating and supporting our Kids Food Basket initiative. This is uncharted territory for us and I'm so encouraged with how our table is continuing to fill. Just as a refresher, we'll put together a sign-up document for next Thursday morning. You may take your class to the south entrance of school and lead them through three "stations" if you will. The first will be the trail mix assembly station. In order for all students to participate in the trail mix assembly, Troy Vos (Kids Food Basket coordinator) recommends we collect the following in terms of quantity:

-63 Boxes of Cheerios

-63 Bags of pretzels

-63 Bags or boxes of cheese crackers (Goldfish or Cheez-Its)

-63 Bags or containers of raisins 

We have quite a ways to go yet, but I think we can get close! :)

Time cards
Employees who turn in time cards: cards are due tomorrow at 1:00 pm, please. If we happen to have a snow day, cards will be due to Pat on Monday morning by 8:30.

Copy Machine
Faith Prins will next be copying on the 15th, next Thursday, in the afternoon. She comes to do work in the afternoon every other Thursday. I know it gets tricky to navigate how to "get in line" when she is working through her load. We thought perhaps if you are aware that she is coming, it might be easier to avoid congestion at the machine.

Staff Meeting
Our next staff meeting will be on Thursday, January 19 (second Thursday of the month). Please let me know if that doesn't work for you and/or your team.

MLK Jr Day
Per our staff meeting, I will send out our sign up doc early next week. In the meantime, keep thinking, praying and exploring who's work, which has contributed to our society, you could highlight with our learners on January 16. Feel free to bounce ideas off of me if you'd like.

Discovery Night
On January 31 from 6:00-7:30 we will hold our annual Discovery Night. Roles and responsibilities will be outlined soon as plans are being solidified. Please consider this a "save the date" notice. Thank you!

Makers Week
Just in case you'd like the link again ;) here it is. Feel free to do the same project or mix it up a bit. This is a great way to vary our students' learning experiences.

Celebrating Christ's Coming

Christmas Celebration

Would you please copy and paste this in your blogs? 

Christmas is a time to love our neighbor. While certainly we are called upon to love our neighbor all throughout the year, Christmas is a time we want to be very intentional about where our focus lies. Consumerism gets packaged up in such pretty bows, it can be a challenge for adults as well as children. While we will be holding classroom Christmas parties, we also want to hold another kind of party this year. A giving party. There are children in our city who will go home during the two weeks of Christmas break with little to no food to eat. Their school-supplied meals will be inaccessible and they will face hunger. God calls on us every day to share our gifts so that others will see and feel God through our actions. In answer to that call, we are going to move into action.

This year, rather than partnering with World Renew to reach out to those in need in far away places, we are going to partner with Kids Food Basket. Following their guidelines, we will be able to provide suppers for children to eat during the two weeks they have off of school during Christmas break. Kids Food Basket helps to feed 500 children in the city of Holland. We will assemble a healthy trail mix for these friends of ours, we will decorate their brown bags and we will collect items from their wish list. On Thursday, December 15, all of our students will get busy packing trail mix, decorating bags and loading up food supplies.

Would you be willing to help bring this to life with your child at home? In years past, children have been able to donate money during Christmas time at school and make selections from our World Renew catalogs. This year, would you invite your child to select which items he/she would like to donate from this wish list? Our children understand the discomfort of hunger pangs. Many of our children don't understand the fear that those hunger pangs might not be satiated. Please talk about God's call on us to serve our neighbors and help provide hope by filling hungry little tummies.

Items we would like to collect:

• 100% Fruit Juice Boxes
• Cracker Packs
• Granola Bars
• Individual Fruit Cups
• Individual Pudding Cups
• Boxes of Cheerios
• Bulk Pretzels
• Bulk Cheez-It crackers or Goldfish crackers
• Bags of raisins
• Snack Sized Zipper-lock bags
• Brown Lunch Bags

Staff Meeting
Our next staff meeting will be Tuesday, December 6 over the lunch hour. Please bring your "The Differentiated Classroom" book with you. Thank you.

Delta Math
If you are comfortable and feel prepared, you may lead your class in the Delta Math assessment using your packet from Erin any time throughout the testing window which will be December 5-16. Remember to give the fact test on paper, score those quizzes and then give the digital assessment on the iPads. The packet given to you from Erin provides your script. We will review this during our staff meeting on Tuesday.

Christmas Chapel
Karen VanMeeteren's class will be leading us in our Christmas chapel this year. As you know, we have moved our date to Tuesday, December 20th. In order to allow our preschool students the option of participating as well, let's hold chapel from 10:30-11:00 on Tuesday, December 20.

Chapel January 18
On January 18, we will again be skyping with the children from Beautiful Gate during our chapel time. More details to come.

Take a gander at our calendar. Our Christmas luncheon, hosted by our supportive, loving parent team, will take place on Wednesday, December 14. Wednesday, December 7 is the Christmas celebration hosted by our school board. Have I ever told you? You are LOVED and appreciated!