Lower School Newsletter
Monday, December 4, 2017
Upcoming Events
Tuesday, December 19 - All-School Christmas Chapel, 8:15 am
Thursday, December 21 - Lower School Christmas Concert, K-5th, 6:30pm
Thursday, December 21 - PreK-3 Christmas parties (please note date change)
Friday, December 22 - PreK-4 - 5th grade Christmas parties (please note date change)
Friday, December 22 - End of second marking period
December 25-January 5 - Christmas vacation
From the Principal's Desk....
Dear Lower School Families,
Plans for Lower School Winterim are underway. I am still in need of presenters. If you are interested, please email me and I will send you the volunteer form to fill out. I have received many responses from parents who have volunteered their time to talk about their careers to our students. This is our first year for this event and look for God’s blessing in all of what our students will experience.
The Christmas season is underway, and our halls are filled with excitement. I found this article online that I would like to share with parents as everyone prepares to buy that special gift for family and friends.
Three Gift-Giving Lessons You Can Teach Your Kids (ChristianParenting.Org)
The holidays have a peculiar way of bringing out the best and the worst in each of us. Overall, the season of shopping madness doesn’t have to be stressful or difficult. It can be used as a valuable time to teach your kids about the meaning of giving and receiving. You just have to shift your focus a little.
Pray for the people you buy for.
The culture most of us have been raised in teaches that giving gifts is a means of expressing love. Do the gifts have to be expensive and perfect for the recipient? Of course not—what matters is the heart of the giver. When buying gifts with your children, have them think about the person they are buying for and say a prayer for them. Talk with them about that person’s needs, personality and possible struggles. Let them know that what matters with the gift is the intention, not the price tag. It is never a substitute for love; the gift is simply an expression of it.
Give a “gift” to Jesus.
Christmas is Jesus’ birthday and therefore, gifts should be given to Him. This notion may confound adults, but not children. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, ask your kids (even teens) what they can give Jesus this Christmas and see what they come up with. Since they can’t buy Him anything, their creative juices will begin to flow. They could write him a letter of gratitude, perform a random act of kindness for a stranger. Or, they may want to serve a local ministry or outreach program.
Focus more on giving time than spending money.
Rather than spending the days counting down to Christmas stressing over your budget for your kids’ Christmas presents, consider how you could spend your time with them. Block out a Saturday in December to serve somewhere together as a family. Take your daughter out for a daddy-daughter date, or your son to see that movie he’s been wanting to see. Perhaps spend an afternoon making homemade cookies together as a family and pay a surprise visit to an elderly neighbor to deliver them.
Whether you spend your time on your kids or spend time together serving as a family, that shift from money to time will make an enormous difference for you this holiday season. After all, it’s hard to argue with one another about shopping and the cost of gifts when you’re giving the gift of your time and energy to people who really need it.
The Transformed Heart- What Does It Mean to Love God and One Another?
Question for this week: What will happen when I "turn from evil and do good?"
This week’s Bible verse is…
Psalm 37:27-28 “Turn from evil and do good; then you will dwell in the land forever. For the Lord loves the just and will not forsake his faithful ones.”
Yours in Christ,
Mr. Shirvinski
Driving On Campus
As we reach almost the halfway point of the year, we are thanking the Lord for His faithfulness to our school. Whether we have been driving on or off campus, He has kept us in His care, but it is also important to realize that there are specific things we can do to continue to maintain a safe environment for our students.
Over the last few weeks, it has become apparent that we all need to remind ourselves of some basic safety instructions while driving in and out of WSCA's campus.
- Maintain speeds of less than 10 MPH.
- Refrain from using your hands while on your cell phone- no texting or hand held conversations.
- Pay close attention to the instructions of the staff traffic controllers and pick up assistants.
- Keep any music/audio down to a level that allows you to notice and hear instructions should they be given to you.
- If you have to cross the street in between the upper and lower schools, please use the corner crossing only.
It goes without saying that our students' safety should be everyone's utmost priority while driving in and out of our campus. It is vital that we all work to abide by these directives. We would never want to be in the position of looking back on a major (or even minor) accident that could have been prevented by simply heeding these instructions.
Thank you for your attention to this matter!
Giant A+ Rewards
Starting in the month of October, 2017, West Shore Christian Academy – ID#: 20565 has the opportunity to participate in and earn CASH from A+ School Rewards, a great fundraising program run through your local Giant! Last year WSCA raised over $3000.00 though this program but there is limitless potential to what we can earn for our school and all we need to do is register more Giant bonus cards to WSCA!!
PLEASE NOTE:
You DO NOT need to re-register your card if your school selection(s) remains the same as last year.
This does not personally affect your own bonus/gas point etc.
To participate:
- Visit www.giantfoodstores.com and select Savings & Rewards.
- Follow the prompts to create your online account if you do not already have one. You’ll need your 11-digit BONUSCARD® number and the School ID #
To earn points:
- Use your registered BONUSCARD® each time you shop at Giant, and you will earn CASH for our school. You can track the number of points you are earning for our school by checking your grocery receipt.
- At the end of each month, your points are calculated and converted to CASH rewards. These CASH rewards for our school are updated monthly. You can track our progress when you sign in to your online account.
- Our school will receive one CASH awards check at the end of the program.
CATS Prayer Team Update
We have changed the day that we gather as parents in prayer for our school to Tuesday afternoons from 2:00 to 2:45 in the Lower School Conference Room. We pray for staff members, teachers, and students by name and any special requests for that week. If you aren't available on Tuesday afternoons you can get the prayer requests via email each week to commit to pray at home. For more information contact Gretchen Carvella at CatsPrayerTeam@westshorechristian.org . Thanks for lifting our WSCA community before the Lord in prayer!
Here's a link to a prayer calendar which all of us can use to pray each day for our children, our children's friends, their teachers, and all who are in the WSCA family. Just follow the date, no matter which day of the week it falls on each month -
http://www.motherhoodonadime.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/September-Prayer-Calendar1.pdf (Copyright Bob Hostetler (www.bobhostetler.com). Used with the permission of the author. Also available as an iPhone/iPad app in the iTunes app store.)
WSCA Lower School Yearbook Orders
Go to treering.com/validate to purchase your student’s yearbook. Your Lower School passcode is 101495056158615. There is an option to personalize two pages with your student’s favorite photos at NO additional cost. If you start designing the two pages and then decide against completing them, it will automatically revert to a standard yearbook.
Please note, if you have students in both Upper and Lower Schools, you will need a different passcode for the Upper School yearbook. If you have any questions email Yearbook@westshorechristian.org or call 717-737-3550 x134. See the attached PDF (at the bottom of the newsletter) for additional information on how to purchase, customize pages and download app if desired.
West Shore Christian Academy
Email: info@westshorechristian.org
Website: www.westshorechristian.org
Location: 201 West Main Street, Shiremanstown, PA, United States
Phone: 717.737.3550
Facebook: www.facebook.com/westshorechristian
Twitter: @WSCA1