Gator Family News

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Thank you to all of our Youens Family for everything you did to help make our Winter Wonderland Carnival successful. We have never had so many people at a festival, and we appreciate your patience with lines around the building, even with all of the activities and our staff spread out as much as we could! It was a huge turn-out, and we loved getting to see everyone enjoying time outside of school! If you had leftover tickets, students can bring them to buy snacks or other fun items later this week during arrival/dismissal time.

We hope students had fun, and we are open to suggestions and ideas to make our festivals better each time around. If you have a suggestion, please let us know!

We thank you for all of your donations to the school, whether it was food items, ticket sales, or Change for Jingles, and please know 100% of money raised goes directly into our campus activity accounts to purchase needed items for the school. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

December

7: Big Kahuna fundraiser pick-up (4:00-6:00 pm)

8: Last day for Scholastic Book Fair in the library

13: Nutcracker evening performance (6:30 pm) on Youens stage

14: Santa Pictures (pre-pay envelopes coming home this week)

16 Winter Food Drive (8:30am-12pm)

17: Winter Parties and Early Dismissal (one hour early)

7-17: Interim Assessments and testing (vary by grade level each day)

December 20 - January 3: Winter Break (no school)

January 4: Students are back to school! Beginning of third grading period

January 6: Report cards come home

It is that time of year where our students take mid-year assessments! These were called DCA's in past years, but are now called Interim Assessments. Our kindergarten through fifth grade will have tests on different days over the next two weeks, to assess their learning up to this point in the year. It is important to be at school on time in order to not miss any review time or testing, as we will use this information in our planning for instruction and intervention. Please help your students get good rest at night and remind them to try their best and take their time. We always appreciate your help in keeping your students focused and ready for learning!

Big Kahuna pick up is this Tuesday!

Date: December 7

Time: 4:00-6:00 pm

Location: bus circle drive in front of school (near cafeteria area)

Please come to the bus circle drive to pick up items. Big Kahuna will be here and will be handling the delivery from the bus line hallway. Please pick up your items during this window, especially if you have refrigerated items. We do not have storage room to hold refrigerated items on campus.

*Do not arrive early, as dismissal will be going on and you cannot block bus area

We would love everyone to enjoy the spirit of the winter and holiday season, so we have themed dress days every day! Students are welcome to wear their school uniforms as well! Here is the schedule (also in graphic above):

Monday 12/6: Mad about Plaid! Wear your favorite flannel or plaid shirt with holiday bling (Winter or holiday jewelry- jingle bells, light up necklaces, etc)

Tuesday 12/7: Twinkle Team Tuesday! Wear your sports team shirts and add some holiday lights if you want!

Wednesday 12/8: Baby It's Cold Outside! Warm-Up Wednesday! Wear your sweatshirts and sweatpants to school!

Thursday 12/9:Tree-Topper and Toasty Toes! Wear your winter or holiday theme socks and hats

Friday 12/10: Deck the Halls! Wear your ugliest or most festive winter or holiday sweater! Feel free to add some extra decorations like glitter, pompoms, or ornaments!

Monday 12/13: Do you Want to Build a Snowman? Wear winter or snowman theme shirt

Tuesday 12/14: Santa Claus is Coming to Town! Wear your favorite holiday outfits! It's also Santa picture day (envelope to come home this week to pre-pay)

Wednesday 12/15: Grinch or Santa Day! Wear Grinch green or Santa red today to show your support for Team Grinch or Team Santa!

Thursday 12/16: Silent Night Pajama Day! Wear school-appropriate pajamas to school!

Friday 12/17: Winter Party Day! Wear your holiday or winter themed outfits for your winter parties!

Stop by the library and check out all the great books at our Scholastic Book Fair! It is still happening through Wednesday, December 8! There are some great Christmas presents waiting there for you to give (if you're like me and love to give kids books)! Please promote with your students and families as well, in case they didn't get to come through at the festival!

We are so excited to be able to host The Nutcracker Suite again! If you have a student in third grade, we would love for you to come to the Nutcracker performance on Monday, December 13 at 6:30 pm. It is a great show and our third graders are working so hard to learn their parts and all the music! We are looking forward to seeing their talents on the Youens Stage! We will have popcorn and snacks, and Nutcracker souvenirs available for purchase before and after the performance.

When we reach Winter Break, we would like to wish you a blessed and joyful time with your family. We pray for good health and safety for everyone as you travel and gather with family and friends, and we look forward to seeing our Gator Family in the new year after the break, 2022!