One of our very own Jane Addams traditions is to read the story, "The Christmas Jars" by Jason F. Wright. Within the story, a journalist happens upon a human interest story that winds up teaching her lessons about love and forgiveness and renewing her own faith in human kindness. On Christmas Eve, twenty-something Hope Jensen is quietly grieving the recent loss of her adoptive mother when her apartment is robbed. The one bright spot in the midst of Hope's despair is a small jar full of money someone has anonymously left on her doorstep. Eager to learn the source of this unexpected generosity, Hope uses her newswoman instincts to find other recipients of "Christmas jars," digging until her search leads her to the family who first began the tradition of saving a year's worth of spare change to give to someone in need at the holiday.
Our Jane Addams community participated in a bubble gum fundraiser so our ACE 5th-graders could embark on delivering our own "Christmas Jars" on December 21.
Many thanks to all who donated -- our Christmas Jars were a surprise blessing to those who received them! Students were able to chew gum on December 20th during school. Our students and families are so blessed to be a part of a community that continues to value, honor, and keep this tradition alive!
On December 19th, students and staff were encouraged to bring in their favorite holiday book to either read to themselves, with a friend, or to the class! We love reading!
On December 15, we celebrated another fun dress up day to celebrate that Christmas vacation was almost here and we wore our favorite vacation/tourist gear! Most of us wished to be in warmer weather!!
Our Soaring Eagles from the week of December 12-16! Way to go! We are proud of you!
A tradition we continued this year was our Holiday Sing Along during Family! We gather together as a school and sing our favorite Christmas carols with our own accompanist, Mrs. Anderson! We always end with the “12 Days of Christmas” which the kids love to participate in the actions for each day! Hope everyone had a great holiday season!
Students have been working hard all year on our PBIS behavior system to be responsible, respectful, and safe. Each week students are given a ticket when they are displaying one or all of those behaviors. We set a goal awhile back to earn 1,200 tickets as a school and they crushed it! As a reward, we got to play Bingo over Zoom as a whole school to earn prizes! It was so fun!
On December 15, we had the matinee concert performance for our first and second graders singing, our 4th and 5th orchestra, and 5th grade band performance! Thank you to our music teacher, Mrs. Anderson, for her effort in preparing the 1st/2nd graders in their cute performance! Shout out to Mrs. Alpers for working hard with 4th and 5th graders in orchestra and for her husband filling in when she was gone. Also, thanks to Miss Deinken for her efforts in getting the 5th graders ready for their band concert! Due to the winter weather, the evening performance was rescheduled to Dec. 19. Thanks for working hard kids! It was an awesome concert!
All of the staff at Jane Addams is so thankful for Life Church! Every month they treat us with yummy snacks at our all staff meetings. We love it! During the holiday season, they go above and beyond with blessings towards the staff!! Thank you!!
To celebrate the last 12 Days of School before Christmas break, we had another fun dress up day! On December 13, staff, students, and parents dressed up in their silliest, favorite, and/or ugliest Christmas gear! You could definitely feel the holiday energy in the air! So fun! Thanks for participating!
Our Soaring Eagles for the week of December 5-9. Congrats! Way to soar! Thanks for being responsible, respectful, and safe!
In honor of the 12 Days of Christmas activities, all students made holiday cards for family and friends on Dec. 7th!
On December 8th, our theme was “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” so students and staff wore white! Our “dreams” came true with lots of snow that day! Look how cute everyone is! Thanks for participating!
Students and staff are participating in some fun dress up days in honor of the last 12 Days of school prior to Christmas! Our first dress up day was on Dec. 6th which was jeans and flannels! So fun!
These are our Jane Addams Soaring Eagles from this past week! Way to go!! We are proud of you!!
Snowflake Shuffle is December 3rd at the All City Gym! Bring your family from 2-4 pm! Enjoy fun holiday themed activities!!
Chess Club is going great and the kids are learning and developing skills. Signups for the Chess Tourney will begin soon. No chess club Dec. 21! Big thank you to David Kerkhove and the Yoder family for running Chess Club each Wednesday after school! The kids love it!
Here are last week’s High Flying Soaring Eagles! We are proud of you for showing us qualities of being respectful, responsible, and/or safe! Keep up the excellent work! Way to go!
Today we celebrate National Substitute Educators Day! We want to thank all of the helpful individuals who sub in our Jane Addams building! Many of these people are current or former parents of All City students so we appreciate your willingness to help in extra ways! Thanks for all you do!
Happy National Education Support Professionals Day! It is celebrated on November 16 to recognize individuals who support education in our classrooms! This includes but not limited to secretaries, classroom aides, cafeteria workers, maintenance workers, bus drivers, speech, liaisons, deaf education, interpreters, tech support, etc! Pictured below are some (not all) of our Education Support Professionals at Jane Addams! Thank you for all you do!
School Store Tuesdays…
Hungry kids? ✅
Working on money skills? ✅
Raising money for the 4th/5th grade end of the year trip? ✅
Parent & student involvement? ✅
All of this equals a big success! Thanks for the support!
35th Annual Teacher of the Year nominations are now open! The Sioux Falls Teacher of the Year Award is the highest award bestowed on local educators from a Sioux Falls accredited school, who exemplify the same passions for children as former Superintendent Dr. John W. Harris. The winner of the award will receive $4,000 in prize money donated by Vern Eide Motorcars!
Nominations due: Monday, January 16th, 2023 by 5 pm.
Criteria for selection include:
* Differentiates instruction based on meeting student needs
* Designs engaging lessons to improve classroom and/or school culture
* Inspires students to recognize their potential impact and role in the larger community
* The desire for professional growth
* Community involvement
* Dedication to the teaching profession
* Rapport with students, parents, and staff
For more information and to make a nomination:
https://siouxfallssd.sites.thrillshare.com/page/teacher-of-the-year-program
We have some outstanding educators in our school! If you feel a teacher is deserving, please check out the link above for more information. Thanks for considering!
