A heartfelt thank you goes out to our Tawanka community, staff members and PTO for your generosity this holiday season. We were able to brighten the holidays for 27 of our Tawanka families and we could not have done it without your help! We are truly grateful!

Come join us for our holiday concerts on Wednesday, December 15th!

The first concert will be held at 6 pm and feature the Orchestra and Beginner String Ensemble.

The second concert will be held at 7:30 pm and feature the 4th grade Chorus.

Students go outside for a 30 minute recess every day as long as the outside temperature is 20° or above and it is not inclement weather. Please make sure to send your student(s) to school with a coat, hat & gloves.

Another friendly reminder to please label your child's belongings; coats, hoodies, lunch boxes & water bottles are the most frequently "lost" items at school. Placing a name or initials on these items helps us return them to the owner!

Below is a photo of the current lost & found table, if you recognize an item please call the office at 215-809-6310. NOTE: Items not claimed are donated several times a year, most recently over Thanksgiving break. These are items collected just in the last two weeks!

Mrs. Phelan has been teaching for 21 years and taught high school English and Social Studies, as well as Elementary Library and Academic Enrichment. Currently, she is the AE teacher at Tawanka, Pearl Buck, and Herbert Hoover. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in English from Bloomsburg University, a Master’s of Arts in Education from LaSalle University, and is currently working on a Doctorate of Education Degree at Holy Family University. When she’s not teaching, Mrs. Phelan enjoys camping, watching movies with her family, and reading.

Mrs. Ratka asked the students at recess to join her for a snow parade around the playground this week! They were hoping to see some snow!

Click the below link for the newest edition of the Title I Family Engagement Newsletter!

For Math Challenge #5, we had 118 participants! Great job, everyone!

Class Winners:

Ms. Wells- 18 students

Ms. Sylvester- 12 students

Ms. Atwater- 11 students

To check your answers for Challenge #5 or print the packet for Challenge #6, please use this link: https://www.mathinaction.org/neshaminy-sd-elementary.html

Let's see if we can beat the number of participants for Challenge #6! It starts tomorrow and is due January 5th!

On December 20th, 21st & 22nd author/illustrator Deborah Deeken will be visiting Tawanka presenting: MY DOG MADE ME DO IT!

Deborah, a former Tawanka art teacher, is now writing and illustrating children’s books. She will present her books to inspire students to read, write, and draw, in order to gain confidence in themselves. All books are available for purchase. Order forms were sent home in your child's backpack.

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.

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

Can you find the mystery word?
Yes we can!
We used markers to uncover a mystery word to practice reading.

Kindergarten had fun dressing up their turkeys in costumes! We have such creative students. They all look fantastic!

The Kindergarten pod was transformed into Gingerbread Land! The teachers did an amazing job decorating!

Mrs. Fedele’s class learned about pyramids during a Super Smart lesson from Superkids. After the lesson, students went on a virtual field trip to the Great Pyramid using Nearpod.

Mrs. Curtin's class is busy getting for the holidays! They have made Gingerbread Math Glyphs and have written what they like to do in the winter on their mittens. We are excited for some snow!

Mrs. Rydzewski's first grade class has been working on writing personal narratives. Our latest piece was a whole book! Each book is about a real-life personal event, and includes a beginning, a middle, and an ending. Students also illustrated each page and designed their own book covers. What great authors and illustrators!

Second Graders are learning all about physical characteristics in Social Studies. Physical characteristics tell us what a place looks like and includes landforms, bodies of water, climates, and biomes. Ms. Atwater's class was divided up into 7 teams, each focusing on a different continent. They researched the animals, landforms, and climate of each continent and made a visual representation to share their findings!

2nd graders examine the various stages in the life cycle of a mealworm.

Students in Ms. Wells' class had a blast practicing their spelling words by playing board games!

Mrs. Hanna's 2nd grade class and Mr. Finkel's 4th grade class worked together tracing their hands and feet to make reindeer!

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

25 Math Club

Izzie, Davis, Evan, Lana, Avery, Otabek, Emily, Lucas, Riley, Adryana, Tessa, Kyra, Robert, Matthew, Robert, Ofelia, Lukas, Cameron, Sofia, Emma, DJ, Angelina, Tanner, Quinn, Charlee, Aisha, Brooklyn, Drew, Leo, Sarah

25 Reading Club

Leo, Dj, Adryana, Cameron, Jake, Alayna, Ofelia, Michael, Zoe, Sarah, Timur, Seth, Phoenyx, Jameson, Drew, Amir, Ellie, Robert, Izzie, Nathan, Sofia, Silas, Dominic, Quinn, Kaelyn

50 Reading Club

Savannah, Slava, Emma, Caleb, Matthew, Zoe

Keep up the great work!

The students in Mrs. Tryon’s class read the book, The Best Part of Me. They then chose their “best part” that makes them an individual, and wrote about their best part using descriptive and figurative language. Their pictures and writing are displayed in the third grade pod.

Fourth grade has been reading the novel Wonder since September and celebrated finishing the book by watching the movie. Students had a great time watching in the pod together and loved the story of Wonder.

Officer Zaffino and Mrs. McCreary joined Mrs. Neff's Kindergarten class in Art this week coloring gingerbread. Officer Zaffino practiced his shading skills.

Our next PTO meeting is Wednesday, January 5th at 10:00 AM. All Tawanka parents are welcome! Mark your calendars - we hope to see you there!

Thank you to everyone who donated to wear their PJ's on Friday, December 3rd! Team Tawanka raised a total of $1,412 to be donated to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia! We are proud of our Tawanka Eagles!

Join us for dinner on Tuesday, December 21 from 6-9pm at Trevs Philly Steaks!

10% of all sales will be donated to the Tawanka PTO. Dine-in or carry-out, no coupon or flyer is needed. Flyer will be sent home with students the week of 12/13.