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December 5, 2014

       
Community
Beach Park School Newsletter
Important Dates
Above: Elena and Nadia working with the number rods.
  
  

 Thurs, Dec 11- MS-volunteer at

                    Metropolitan Ministries, 8:15am

 

 Thurs, Dec 11- UE - 9:30am   

                American Cancer Society Presentation 

 

 Wed, Dec 17 - All Elementary and Middle School

        Holiday Visit and Singing at Westchester Gardens

                          Drivers needed

 

 Wed, Dec 17 - Primary Inside Field Trip

                          Bits & Pieces Puppet Theatre

                           "Winter Tales"

  

 Wed, Dec 17Metropolitan Ministries 

                     Food and Gift Drive Ends 

                                    

 Mon -Mon, Dec 22 - Jan 5Winter Break                                               School Closed

             Classes resume on Tuesday, January 6th. 
 

 

 

 

Parker's grandmother, Nanny Jack, visited this week from Canada.

    

 

Quick Links

 

Food & Gift Drive

for 

Metropolitan Ministries

 

  

The Holiday Food and Gift Drive starts today for Metropolitan Ministries.  

Please donate before Wednesday, December 17th.   Our barrel and donations will be picked up that day.

 

The items most in demand at this time are: 

 

Cereal

Beans

Canned Fruit

Canned Yams

Canned Vegetables

Peanut Butter

Macaroni & Cheese

Bags of Rice

Boxed Jell-O & Pudding

 

No glass jars, please. 

Keep the BPS food drive in mind as you shop this week and help fill the barrel! 

 

  
Primary
We studied the Arctic Circle this week! From Polar bears, Arctic foxes, Snowy owls to Eskimos. We learned about the frozen tundra and its inhabitants. This month it will be all about winter in our classroom, even though we have a mild season here in Florida, we will be talking about weather and how it affects us around the globe. We are going to start charting the temperature outside daily. We started building our continent boxes -starting with Antarctica. If anyone has any artifacts, pictures, postcards, coins or trinkets from any of the 7 continents please consider adding them to our boxes.

 

Our garden is growing, and some of our friends are enjoying writing and drawing in their journals about what they see and taste. We have had some adventurous palettes- so far Arugula is not a favorite!

Analeigh, Greyson and Giselle writing in their garden journals.

One to grow into, I suppose.

 

We are starting to feel the holiday spirit as the children learn about winter holidays around the world. At this time of year we welcome families to share their holiday traditions with the classes.

 

Please let us know if you would like to come in and share a special story, food item, or other family tradition. This is part of our community building experience and we really enjoy learning about how our friends celebrate at home!

Lower Elementary
Leyton and Gideon doing an experiment with vinegar and baking soda.

There has been a lot of excitement in lower elementary this week! The children all shared what a wonderful Thanksgiving they had. And now we are excited for the upcoming holidays! We will spend the next couple of weeks talking about St. Nicholas, St. Lucia, Hannukah, Christmas, Kwanza and other celebrations from around the world. If you would like to prepare a presentation for the children relating to any of these special days, please let us know and we will schedule a time for you to visit.

 

This week we also learned about verbs and what an important job they have in every sentence. We also learned the layers of the earth by comparing it to an avocado, which the children all got to taste after the lesson! 

The end result.

 

In art the children started a special Christmas project and also had a chance to make some ornaments. They will continue working on these for the next 2 weeks. 

 

We will be going to a nursing home for caroling and a tour on Wed, December 17. The facility is providing a pizza lunch for us. We will need drivers, so if you are available we would appreciate your help! We will be leaving at 10am and returning around 1:30.

 

Look for information that was sent home today in your child's folder concerning special upcoming activities for our class!  

 
Upper Elementary
UE and MS group with Ms. Wanetha from the Salvation Army.

It was great to be back in school and to see all the smiling faces after our Thanksgiving Break. We hope that everyone was able to enjoy a warm and joyous holiday.

 

This week in upper elementary, along with our regular academic work, we've been working on several exciting projects. Our service learning projects come to fruition this Friday and students will decide on which organization they wish to support throughout the year.

 

We had two wonderful presentations this week. One from Tampa Bay Watch, an organization that helps revitalize and sustain local estuaries, and one from the Salvation Army, who spoke to us about how we can support local homeless families in need. On Friday, we will have the opportunity to see all the student's projects for service learning.

 

Since the winter holiday is coming soon, we have also begun planning our holiday festivities. Students will be going to Westchester Gardens to sing carols and offer a hand-made gift. The facility is providing a pizza lunch for us. We will need drivers, so if you are available we appreciate your help. We will leave school at 10am and return around 1:30pm.

 

Students' are also very excited about "Secret Snowflake," which is a gift giving tradition here at Beach Park School. Look for more info on "Secret Snowflake" in next week's newsletter.

 

We also wanted to welcome parents of our students to come and share their holiday traditions with us. This is an important opportunity for our kids to learn about the spiritual traditions of different cultures and to develop an appreciation for the diversity of the community we live in. Please contact Mr. Greg or Ms. April if you wish to present to our class.

 

Thank you to all the families who have donated to support MPK (our snake). While we have support through the end of the year, we now need families to sponsor MPK starting in January. You can sponsor a full month or even a partial month if you wish. We ask for $12.00 per month. If there are any families who will be in town and would like to take MPK home for the winter break, please let us know.

 

Finally, please remember to help students' practice their multiplication tables at home. This week we did the 10X and 11X tables and are reviewing some of the other ones that were challenging for students. Next week will be the 12X tables. The week before break, we will begin practicing with all of them together. Thank you for your support
Middle School

Happy December!  This week in middle school many of the kids in our class finished Florida Virtual School.  We also started reading The Giver, by Lois Lowry, which is a book that takes place in a dystopian society.  As well as reading The Giver, we have finished chapter 14 of our Earth Science textbook which was about the ocean. 

 

We started Finance Park, which is a program that teaches you about money and financial institutions. Math got a bit more difficult this week because we have started working with backward scientific notation and dividing x's with exponents. We also went over our plans for the month which include: Fed-ex day (a day where we get to work on a project of our choice), picking our service project (an organization that we are going to help throughout the year), our social skills projects, and the class party. 

 

We are going to Westchester Gardens on Wednesday, December 17, for a tour and to sing carols. They are providing a pizza lunch for us. If you are able to drive, please let us know.

We will leave school at 10am and return around 1:30.

 

Pamela decorating donation box for gifts.

As well as many fun activities this week, such as going to the YMCA, we also had multiple visitors such as Tampa Bay Watch and the Salvation Army. They talked about how we could help their organizations, and I think that everyone is considering helping them for our service project.

 

On Thursday, December 11, we are volunteering at Metropolitan Ministries. Students will need to arrive at school by 8:15am that morning. A note will be sent home along with a volunteer form that needs to be filled out by parents and returned to school by Monday of next week. This is going to be a busy month.

                                                         Pamela

Spanish

Lower elementary: As the holidays approach, we started our Spanish songs for this season. This week we practiced 'Little Christmas Tree" and the march, "Toys and More Toys". We also started a booklet on animals related to this festive time of the year.

 

Upper Elementary: We used a twenty-word vocabulary to label and illustrate a table to host a holiday dinner. Some of the words were; table cloth, dining room, napkins, tableware, wine, and goblet. We then reviewed various greetings and types of food.

 

Middle School: "December Celebrations All Around the World", was our unit for this week. Students are researching traditions, customs, and symbols for the different holidays. We are focusing on Spain and Latin American countries but have also included traditions from Africa and Asia. This research is both immersive and extensive; we all had fun and learned many interesting facts.

 

Trivia Facts: Some towns in Brazil celebrate a play titled, "The Shepherd's". Many people participate in this holiday tradition.In Spain, actors and actresses reenact a "living" Nativity Scene. 

Office Notes
Holiday Singing

We will be needing drivers for the holiday singing at WestchesterGardens on Wednesday, December 17th.  All elementary and middle school students are going. The facility is located on Mc Mullen Booth Rd.

  

If you are able to drive, please check your calendar and let us know if you can help out.  Just call the school office or send an email.

 

The cars will leave at 10 am and will return to school around 1:30 pm.  At WestchesterGardens, the children will sing for the residents and patients, present them with small gifts they have made and then have a tour of the facility.  They will be treated to a pizza lunch before returning to school.

 
Holiday Gift Drive

 

The annual BPS gift drive for children at Metropolitan Ministries is under way.

We are collecting for children of all ages.

 

Items most in demand are:


Ages 1-4:                                       Ages 5-11:                                    Ages 12-17:

 

Preschool Play Sets               Remote Control Cars                            Jewelry

Building Blocks                          Arts & Crafts                                     Purses

Baby Dolls                               Legos & Lego Sets                              Makeup

Learning Toys/Puzzles               Current DVD's                            Hair Accessories

Character Toys                       Fashion & Baby Dolls                Footballs, Basketballs,

                                                  Electronic Games                            or Soccer Balls

                                                                                                    Sports Clothing & Hats

                                                                                                            Sketch Books

                                                                                                            & Art Supplies

                                                                                                        Cologne or Perfume

 

Donated gifts must be new and unwrapped.  You may drop off items in the school office any time.

 

 4200 W. North A Street � Tampa, FL 33609 � Ph: 813-289-3747 � Fax: 813-286-7307
[email protected]

Beach Park School does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, religion, disability, sexual orientation, age, national or ethnic origin.