Tawanka Times

Wishing you a happy, healthy & warm holiday season from all of us at Tawanka!

Enjoy the winter break and have a very Happy New Year!

We will see you back in school Monday, January 3rd!

The band played holiday music for students and staff during arrival on Tuesday, 12/21.

They sounded awesome! A special thank you for bringing us some holiday cheer!

Below photo, left to right: Christine Dignam, Sarah Napolitan, Scott Blaydon, Patrick Cassidy, and Brian Barber

Our 3rd & 4th grade students put on a wonderful holiday concert! The beginner string ensemble, orchestra, and chorus members performed a variety of holiday songs. Well done, everyone!

This week, Tawanka had some special visitors! Author and illustrator Deborah Deeken along with her golden retrievers Chance and Kizmet, met with each grade level to share books and encourage all students to have fun reading, writing, and drawing. Chance and Kizmet are therapy dogs that help students and adults relax and gain confidence in their reading. Ms. Deeken's books are available in our Tawanka library to borrow. We hope all the students enjoyed the visit!

Kindergarteners are working hard this month! Along with hearing and reading different gingerbread stories, Miss Trotta's class has learned to make paper! We also practiced ways to make the numbers 6 -10 both on paper and using fun mini erasers! Keep up the great learning Miss Trotta's class!

Run run as fast as you can….
We used bee-bots to capture the gingerbread cookie. We used teamwork to pretend the bee bot was the sly fox to get the gingerbread men.

Mrs. Wendling's 1st grade class and Mrs. McHugh's 4th grade class got together to decipher gingerbread man glyphs each student created. The students followed a code to create each part of his/her gingerbread man.

Mrs. Fedele’s class is starting to work with Bee-Bots. The students work on their coding skills to control what the robot does. The first day we used them, we made up a code for our robots to dance. Shoutout to Mrs. Phelan for the great idea and letting us borrow them!

In Social Studies, students are learning all about human-environment interaction. We discussed that humans can modify, or change their environment in positive ways: planting a garden and recycling, or negative ways: cutting down trees, or contributing to pollution. Students designed a river and then created a modification by building a bridge over it! They had to work as a team to create the bridge using different materials.

Third grade students built their own instruments as a culminating activity for our sound unit. Each student demonstrated how his or her instrument could change pitch.

Congratulations to the following students for joining the third grade i-Ready Clubs:

25 Math Club

Alexis, Skye, Slava, Kaelyn, Nicole, Zelda, Loryn, Phoenyx, Zafar, Robert, Stephen, Gabby, Aisha, Layla, Nala, Silas, Maddie

25 Reading Club

Amina, Alexis, Nicole, Angelina, Charlee, Kinley, Avery, Ishan, Bryan, Adam, Dominic, Quinn, Madison, Skye, Zelda

50 Reading Club

Adryana, Izzie, Owen, Riley, Emma, Tessa

50 Math Club

Ellie

Adryana

Mrs. Cromwell's and Mrs. Banks’ classes got together to create a gingerbread trap. We read The Gingerbread Loose in the School. The children used their imaginations and creativity to design traps.

Mrs. Fedele and Mrs. Blaydon’s classes got together to create a gingerbread house. The house was designed by solving different math problems.

The Fourth Grade reviewed the phases of the moon using Oreo cookies 🌙

If you elect to have your child receive the COVID vaccination, please send a copy of the card to the nurse. Once your child is fully immunized (14 days after their second dose), they will not be required to quarantine if exposed to a COVID positive person.

Please contact the nurse's office if you have any questions or concerns.

Carol Alexis and Debby DiSandro - 215-809-6316

Safety of all students and staff is a top priority at Tawanka, so we have strict safety procedures in place. A reminder of the following:

Building Entry: All visitors must scan their driver's license or state issued ID at the kiosk in the front vestibule and wait for entry. This is required at every visit, or access will be denied.

Early Dismissals: Please notify the teacher if your child will be picked up early. If being picked up by someone other than a parent/guardian, please specify who will be picking up your child. Students will only be released to individuals listed on the emergency card, but the office must be notified prior to pick-up. Students must be signed out in the main office. Again, driver's license or state issued ID is required to pick up a student. We strongly encourage early dismissals be no later then 3:00pm.

Our next PTO Meeting will be held on Wednesday, January 5th at 10:00 AM. All Tawanka parents are welcome!