Tips for a Fun and

Educational Winter

Break

December 2019

Compiled by Carly Ayala for PS 14X

December, 2019

Dear PS 14 Families and Community,

As we near the winter break, I wanted to wish you all a

healthy and joyful holiday season. During the two weeks

your children have off from school, we hope you will

have some time to rest, play, cook, eat great food, be

silly, and spend some well-deserved quality time with

those you love.

Of course, there are always opportunities to learn with

and teach your child. We hope that you can use this

booklet for inspiration. Whether it’s reading a favorite

holiday book together; planning meals and cooking

together; or even crafting together; these are all

opportunities to learn in a joyful way.

We hope this booklet is a useful tool for you, and we

hope you have a wonderful holiday season.

Sincerely,

Ira Schulman

Principal

STORY HEADLINE Story Subline

Creating Holiday Traditions

This holiday season consider adding some new traditions for your family that will make meaningful memories and strengthen foundations for reading and learning success.

Listen, Laugh, Learn

▪ Listen to audio books while you're traveling to visit family, wrapping gifts or cooking for the holidays.

▪ Lyrics to holiday songs are fun to read and sing together. It is also good fun and good collaborative writing

▪ practice to make up your own lyrics to familiar tunes.

▪ Start a story-telling tradition by revisiting holidays of the past. Old family photographs at holiday gatherings.

Read, relax, respond

▪ Put reading and writing skills to practical

use. Plan holiday meals by reading

cookbooks together, writing the shopping

lists and finding the needed items at the

store by reading signs and labels.

▪ Read the recipe and cook together. During

the simmering and baking, kids can write

and decorate menus or place cards for

special holiday meals.

▪ Set aside time just for reading. Curl up on

the couch together and read aloud an old

favorite or check out books about another

culture's winter celebrations.

▪ Work on those letters. Improve writing

skills with notes or letters to relatives and

friends, thanking them for their holiday

gifts.

New Year’s Resolution: Help Your Kids Do Great in School

Did you know Kids whose parents are involved in their education have better grades, a better attitude toward school, and more appropriate school behavior than those with less involved parents? Consider trying a few of these tips—and make a big difference!

Tip 1: Get involved ■ Visit your child’s school, attend Parent/Teacher conferences, volunteer at events. ■ See if your school offers any workshops for parents and arrange to go!

Tip 2: Check on homework ■ Talk to your child each day about homework. ■ Help your child manage the workload by dividing assignments into smaller parts. ■ Give your child a good place to study—away from TV, phone, or loud music. ■ Please never use homework as a punishment.

Tip 3: Make home a good place for learning ■ Praise you child’s efforts. “You worked so hard!” ■ Be a role model for getting work done before play. ■ Have a homework routine—same time and place, every day. ■ Most importantly, read to your child or have her read to you every day.

What should I do if my child isn’t doing well in school? Contact your child’s teacher; don't wait for the school to contact you. Ask for specific activities you can do at home with your child. Meet with your child's teacher frequently until the problem is resolved. What if my child doesn’t like school? Try to find out why your child seems unhappy. Arrange for a conference with the school counselor. Listen carefully to your child before offering any solutions.

Resolve to Raise A Book Lover

Many New Year’s resolutions focus on developing healthy habits. Here’s one that is important to make and keep: provide a regular diet of books and reading for your preschooler. You feed and care for your child every day so that he will grow into a healthy, happy child & student. Similarly, you also need to provide experiences that will enhance language development and stimulate learning skills. Try this menu of reading activities: Read every day A daily reading routine will give all the readers in your family a chance to read with your preschooler. Dads, moms, siblings, caregivers, and friends can all be a part of the fun. Do things, and then talk about it—in any language you like. It’s great to offer new experiences to your young child, such as a visit to the zoo or museum, but a trip to the grocery store or a neighborhood park can also lead to literacy. Talk about what you are seeing and ask your preschooler what he thinks of it. When possible, use interesting words to describe what you’re seeing. Read everywhere you go You can find reading on the road, at the bus stop, in the store, and at the restaurant. Play a game to find words when you are out and about or take a look at home for words on everyday items like cereal boxes, toothpaste, and household appliances. Be a reading role model Your child wants to imitate you and be like you. Have plenty of reading material for yourself as well as for your child. Tell your child how much you enjoy reading.

Free and Fun in the Bronx

Bronx Zoo:

Free on Wednesdays : (718) 367-1010

Lots to see indoors and out! https://bronxzoo.com/winter-wonderland

NYC Parks: (212) 360-8131

https://www.nycgovparks.org/events/f2019-12-25/t2020-01-01/p3

Did you know that the Bronx has more green space that any other borough? Take advantage of nature and of free events this vacation. For example

Tiny Tots Stories and Art 12/26

Poe Park Visitor Center (in Poe Park), Bronx (718) 365-5516 10:00 a.m.–11:00 a.m. Join Poe Park Visitor Center for stories, songs, games, and activities for little ones.

S.T.E.M. Thursdays

Poe Park Visitor Center (in Poe Park), Bronx (718) 365-5516. 2:30 p.m.–4:30 p.m. Children will create projects that are inspired by science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Free and Fun, Continued

History of the Holidays Van Cortlandt House Museum

(in Van Cortlandt Park) (718) 543-3344 11:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.

This annual display features a glimpse into 18th-century celebrations of some familiar and not-so-familiar winter holidays.

Ultimate Dodgeball Family Tournament 12/27

Hunts Point Recreation Center, Bronx (718) 860-5544 1:00 –4:00pm Youth between the ages of 12 and 17 years are invited to compete in our test of agility, endurance and accuracy playing Ultimate Dodgeball.

NYC Public Library

This is a great time to get your children library cards! the It’s free and open to all! Get your library card by just bringing a proof of address—a phone bill or utility bill. Use computers; borrow books, music, films—for free! And in ALL languages!

Your Bronx Library: Visit 3025 Cross Bronx Expressway Extension Bronx, NY, 10465 (718) 792-2612 Library Manager: Leida Velazquez OPEN 6 DAYS

Stuck Inside? Here are some fun crafts projects and holiday decorations

you can make together!

Materials Squeeze bottles Water Liquid food coloring Snow Directions Fill the bottles halfway with water. Add a few drops of food coloring. Have fun in the snow! Materials Twigs Colored construction paper Glue Q-Tips White paint Directions Arrange sticks on paper to make a tree or a forest. Use your Q-Tip to paint snowflakes, snowballs.

Materials Paper plate Glue Ribbon Decorations Paint, glitter glue or crayons Scissors Directions Cut out the center of the plate. Color as desired.

Decorate with beads, pom-poms, cotton balls, glitter, home-made snowflakes. Tie a loop of yarn or ribbon on top.

Materials Small water bottles Water Corn Syrup Glitter Tape Directions Fill the bottle with water half with

corn syrup until it is one inch from the top. Add as much glitter as you can. Close top with tape. These are great tools for helping kids to self-calm. Think of your feelings calming down with the glitter.

Materials 12 popsicle Sticks Glue Pencil Markers Masking Tape Directions Lay popsicle sticks together and tape them together with masking tape so

that you can remove it later. Flip over so tape is on back. Use a pencil to draw any winter picture you’d like. Color it in with markers. Remove the masking tape and you have a puzzle.

Materials Toilet paper rolls Glue Yarn Paper Pop-poms, jewels , glitter or anything else on hand Directions

Cover the rolls with paper or paint them. Glue them together and paper clip them together until dry. Decorate as desired. Attach the yarn to the inside with tape.

Festive Winter Snacks

Snowy Day Snack Mix Ingredients 12 cups popped popcorn 3 cups mini pretzels 10 oz M&Ms 1.2 Cup sprinkles 10 oz mini-marshmallows Directions Mix and enjoy!

Banana Santas Ingredients Bananas Strawberries M&Ms Marshmallows, mini and big Sprinkles Skewers Directions Cut bottom off strawberries Cut banana in half. Cut large marshmallow in slices. Push skewer through mini marshmallow, then strawberry, then marshmallow slice, then banana. Add eyes and mouth of sprinkles and M&M.

Cinnamon Sugar Snowflakes Ingredients Tortillas Melted butter Cinnamon Sugar Directions Put your tortilla in the microwave for 10 seconds to soften it. Fold a tortilla in half and in half again, as if you were making a paper snowflake. Unfold and place on a baking sheet. Brush with melted butter. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Bake at 350 for 5-10 minutes. Cool before serving.

Websites and Apps for Read Aloud and Read Along

Sometimes we all want to hear a story. These websites and apps are fun to share with your children. You can listen together to stories or read along. Make it a family affair whenever possible.

Storyline Online: https://www.storylineonline.net/ Listen to some of your favorite actors reading some of the best children’s books!

Mrs. P’s Magic Library. http://mrsp.com/Kathy Kinney plays a grandma who will read you wonderful books aloud! Every story had read along options so children can practice. Especially helpful for reluctant readers or children learning English.

Aprender Español: https://aprenderespanol.org/audiciones/audio-cuentos.html Links to books in Spanish with subtitles.

Farfaria: Application for iPhone or Android Get one book a day for free. Subscribe for unlimited books. Kids choose from unlimited books, poems, songs and more. Words highlighted for easy read along.

Farfaria: Application for iPhone or Android Get one book a day for free. Subscribe for unlimited books. Kids choose from unlimited books, poems, songs and more. Words highlighted for easy read along.

Farfaria: Application for iPhone or Android Get one book a day for free. Subscribe for unlimited books. Kids choose from unlimited books, poems, songs and more. Words highlighted for easy read along.

Winter Themed Books

Iguanas in the Snow and Other Winter Poems By: Francisco Alarcón All ages Alarcón describes in this book many of his winter experiences growing up in the city of San Francisco, California. He has taken many of his childhood experiences to create fun, creative poems. Bilingual text.

Amadi's Snowman By: Katia Novet Saint-lot Age Level: 6-9 Amadi, an Igbo boy in sun-drenched Nigeria, sees no point in learning to read, until he sees a picture of a snowman in a book and is curious to

find out more. He wants to learn about the far-off country where frozen rain falls from the sky and the chance to read about it fills him with joy. Children will enjoy reading about Amadi's life in the village, depicted in the earth-toned, intimate scenes.

In the Snow By: Huy Voun Lee Age Level: 3-6 Language: Eng & Chinese Xiao Ming and his mother are spending a winter day in the forest, and the snow is the perfect place to draw characters for words such as "tree" and "sparkling."

Xiao Ming's mother helps him see the picture within each character.. The colorful, intricate illustrations, created by cut-paper collages, will fascinate young children.

Breadcrumbs By: Anne Ursu Age Level: 9-12 Hazel is having trouble fitting in to her new school, although based on her experience of having been adopted, she is no stranger to feeling like an outsider. The only tolerable thing about school is

that her best friend Jack is there with her each day. Then Jack disappears into an enchanted forest with a winter witch, and Hazel realizes that only she alone can rescue her friend.

Winter Holiday Books

The Tomten By: Astrid Lindgren Age Level: 3-6 From Swedish folklore comes the story of the tomten, a little gnome who watches over us while we sleep. Read this

heartwarming version, from the author of Pippi Longstocking, and celebrate a time-honored tradition for the Winter Solstice.

Grandma’s Gift By: Eric Velasquez Age Level: 6-9 It's Christmastime, and Eric he has to write a report about a new painting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Eric's grandmother makes a deal with

him: if he will help her make traditional Puerto Rican pasteles, she will take him to the museum. Together they leave the familiar neighborhoods of Spanish Harlem.

The Polar Express By: Chris Van Allsburg Age Level: 6-9 A magical train ride on Christmas Eve takes a boy to the North Pole to receive a special gift from Santa

Claus. This holiday classic earned a Caldecott Medal. Also available in Spanish.

Robert's Snow By: Grace Lin Age Level: 3-6 A little mouse lives with his family in a leaky boot that constantly needs repair. As winter approaches, the others are all for staying inside to

shut out the cold. Robert has always yearned to play in the snow, so when he accidentally slips out of his window, he is delighted. Soon, however, he becomes lost and must be saved by a 'big animal' with red fur and blue eyes.

Winter Holiday Books, Continued Tree of Cranes By: Allen Say Age Level: 6-9 The narrator recalls his first Christmas in Japan and why his other decorated a tree with a thousand paper cranes as she relives her holidays in California. Based on a family story, Say's illustrations evoke a holiday in two cultures.

When Christmas Feels Like Home By: Gretchen Griffith Age Level: 6-9 After moving from a small village in Mexico to a town in the United States, Eduardo is sure it will never feel quite like home. The other children don't speak his language and they do not play futbol.

Oskar and the Eight Blessings By: Richard Simon and Tanya Simon Age Level: 9-12 A refugee seeking sanctuary from the horrors of Kristallnacht, Oskar arrives by ship in New York City with only a photograph and an address for an aunt he has never met. It is both the seventh day of Hanukkah and Christmas Eve, 1938. As Oskar walks the length of Manhattan, to his new home in the north of the city, he passes experiences the city's many holiday sights. Each offers Oskar a small act of kindness, welcoming him to the city and helping him on his way to life in the new world

Together for Kwaanza by Juwanda Ford and S. Hehenbeger Age Level 6-9 Kwanzaa is Kayla’s favorite time of year. But this year, it looks as if a heavy snowstorm will keep her big brother, Khari, from getting home in time for the festivities!? Will Kayla and her brother somehow find a way to be together for Kwanzaa? A perfect introduction to Kwanzaa, this book will teach children all about the traditions and practices that make it a special winter holiday.