This request may find you busy preparing for the upcoming holidays and sharing special celebrations with family and friends. It is our hope, however, that your family will reserve some time to help with our community service project.

For the sixteenth year, William O. Schaefer’s community service activity will be donating BLIZZARD BOXES, formerly known as Covered Cupboards, for the Meals on Wheels Program.

A BLIZZARD BOX is an assortment of donated non-perishable food items packed into shoeboxes. Refer to Blizzard Boxes Suggested Food List 2017 to find out all the details, including the suggested foods. Please be sure to check product expiration date.

Please wrap the lids separately from the boxes – wrap the top of the shoe box separately from the bottom of the shoe box (no boot boxes please) in grocery bag paper in order to make sure contents are easily accessible. Do not put any decorations on the box. Children can use their imagination to draw pictures on the paper that seniors would enjoy receiving! The BLIZZARD BOXES will be delivered to the recipients of the Home Delivered Meals Program if regular food deliveries are halted due to weather related or other emergencies.

Consider creating a BLIZZARD BOX with your family. Drop off your BLIZZARD BOX at William O. Schaefer (WOS), 140 Lester Drive, Tappan, New York between Tuesday, December 5th and Monday, December 18th.

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Thank you in advance for giving so generously to the seniors in our community during this winter season.

Questions can be forwarded to hhill@socsd.org, ebarsanti@socsd.org, ccosgrove@socsd.org.

What do you think are the answers to these Halloween jokes? Try one, two or all of them! Good luck! Log in using your username and password and write your answers.

Where do ghosts go the day before Halloween?

Why do witches only ride their broomsticks after dark?

Why is a witch like a candle?

Why did the boy carry a clock and a bird on Halloween?

Every night in the United States an estimated 600,000 people live on the streets. This October, SoulPancake and Kid President want 2 million people to prove that even the smallest acts of love, like donating a pair of socks, can make a big difference in the lives of our neighbors who are homeless.

Socktober was launched by Kid President creator Brad Montague five years ago. It’s a movement to get kids and grown-ups to help the homeless in an easy, fun way.

Last year, more than 10,000 schools, families, businesses, and churches rallied together to bring Socktober to life. People from every state and continent have taken part in Socktober! This year, William O. Schaefer is participating and we are having a “Sock Drive” until the last week in October!

All of the socks we collect as a community will be donated to a local shelter.

Acceptance is the fact of allowing someone to become part of a group or community and making them feel welcome.
Diversity is the understanding that each individual is unique, and recognizing our individual differences. These differences might include: ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs, or other ideologies.

Assembly Read Aloud: Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae

Read books about acceptance:

• It’s Okay to Be Different by Todd Parr
• Whoever You Are by Mem Fox
• Big Al by Andrew Clements
• A Rainbow of Friends by PK Hallinan
• The Big Orange Splot by D. Manus Pinkwater and Daniel Manus Pinkwater
• There’s a Skunk in My Bunk by Joseph McCann
• The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss
• I’m Like You, You’re Like Me by Cindy Gainer
• The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi

Sing a few catchy songs about acceptance:

• Harry Kindergarten-Acceptance
• Kindness Song in Sign Language
• Friend Song
• Jack Johnson We Are Gonna Be Friends
• Mr. Stanley: Tolerance
• Everyone is Different song

More great books about acceptance from YouTube!
How Full is Your Bucket

Octicorn

Whoever You Are

A Rainbow of Friends

The Big Orange Splot

The Sneetches Video

Same Same But Different

It’s Okay to be Different

Today we had our first Enrichment lesson with Ms. Eyer. We had a BLAST!! We worked on solving KenKen puzzles. Here is the link to Ms. Eyer’s blog to learn more http://blogs.socsd.org/woslmc/ .

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This is the instrumental version that we are now using. It would really be helpful to practice singing with this version.
Thanks so much,
Mrs. Bartell

Stage Left Children’s Theater is working with William O. Schafer’s second grade students to create an environment where the excitement of the theater is shared by all. Our students will experience a high quality, innovative, participatory theater arts event, taught by theater professionals and teaching artists. The participatory theater experience of A Year With Frog and Toad will develop enthusiasm, confidence, self-esteem, communication and social skills in all of our second grade students.

Students will be cast in the roles of several characters. Students will research their characters using the website, Exploring Nature (username & password: Rockland) or Pebble Go (username: newyear password: reading) to record their information on the Character Analysis Template. Students will also practice their citation skills. Earlier this year, we learned when researching information you must cite the reference.

CLICK HERE to listen to individual songs for “A Year With Frog and Toad”

Below is the script. Students can download and print additional copies as needed.

AND NOW….ON WITH THE SHOW!

2017 Chinese New Year falls on January 28th. It is the Year of the Rooster according to Chinese zodiac. Celebrating the Spring Festival is a great way to experience traditional Chinese folk customs! Chinese New Year has more than 4,000 years of history!

Before the Spring Festival, every family will have a thorough house cleanup and go shopping for festival items. The spring couplets, Fu Character, and the animal paper cut are hung for decoration. Also, new clothes must be bought, especially for children. At the reunion dinner on New Year’s Eve, people from north will eat dumplings and people from the south will eat Niangao (glutinous rice cake). Red Envelopes are given to kids and elders to share the blessing.

Celebrate the year of the monkey during your morning meeting! Learn how to correctly speak a New Year Greeting in Chinese.

In the video below you will learn all about the traditions and legends that make Chinese New Year the most exciting time of the year in Chinese culture. Join the celebration at http://www.celebratecny.com

Read: Sam and the Lucky Money by Karen Chinn, Cornelius Van Wright (Illustrator), Ying-Hwa Hu (Illustrator)

Detailed descriptions of the sights and sounds of the Chinese New Year celebration! Sam receives four bright red envelopes decorated with shiny gold emblems as part of the traditional Chinese New Year celebration, each containing a dollar. He accompanies his mother through Chinatown and realizes that the “lucky money” won’t buy as much as he had hoped. His mood is further sobered after an encounter with a man he stumbles upon in the street. He nobly, though not surprisingly, concludes that his four dollars would be best spent on the barefoot stranger.

Below is a Google Slide show of Sam and the Lucky Money.

Imagine working for one of the largest manufacturers of fortune cookies! What fortune(s) would you write? Watch the video below and actually make paper fortune cookies for your friends and family!