Dr. Barrett Mosbacker, PublisherThe following is an email that I recently sent to our staff and parents. I am sharing this devotional on The Christian School Journal because you may want to submit your own acrostic, but I will not give you pizza! :-) You may also want to consider something similar for your school.

Dear Staff and Parents,

Last week I had the privilege of attending our fourth grade Thanksgiving program, The Purpose of Thanksgiving. It was a beautiful program and the children were wonderful. We have some great talent heading to the South Campus!

As I watched and listened, I was again reminded that we are to walk through this life with its peaks and its valleys with a grateful heart. One of the songs the children sang was Give Thanks with a Grateful Heart.

Give thanks with a grateful heart
Give thanks unto the Holy One
Give thanks because He's given Jesus Christ, His Son
Give thanks with a grateful heart
Give thanks unto the Holy One
Give thanks because He's given Jesus Christ, His Son

And now let the weak say, "I am strong"
Let the poor say, "I am rich
Because of what the Lord has done for us"
And now let the weak say, "I am strong"
Let the poor say, "I am rich
Because of what the Lord has done for us"

The Challenge—You Must Hurry!

This beautiful song got me to thinking about Thanksgiving and how our culture demeans the holiday when referring to it as “Turkey Day.” I do not like the phrase “Turkey Day” because it distorts the purpose and meaning of Thanksgiving. “Turkey Day” turns our attention away from God and toward our appetites.

Seeking to refocus our hearts and minds on thankfulness, I have created a simple acrostic from the word Turkey:

Thankful

Under all circumstances

Remembering God’s goodness and

Keeping his praise on our lips as we

Enjoy Him and his blessings every

Year

I bet our students can do much better than the Superintendent! Here is a challenge!

Take a few minutes in your classes to have your students (individually or as a class effort—see below) create an acrostic for the word Turkey that communicates something about thankfulness from a biblical perspective. Here is a website that you can use on your SMART Boards: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/poetry/acrostic/turkey/index.shtml.

This challenge has both spiritual and academic merit!

The Rules:

Early Childhood and Elementary

· To be fair to all students—all EC and Elementary classes must participate.

· Every class is to submit an entry either as a class project or as individual student entries from the class. I recommend that this be a class project as a part of reading, literature, or Bible instruction for EC and Elementary classes.

· The acrostic must be submitted to the Superintendent by the close of school this Tuesday!

· Submissions must include the student’s and teacher’s name and grade (if this was done as an individual effort) or the class grade and teacher’s name if done as a class effort.

· To protect class time and to be equitable, no more than 15 to 30 minutes should be devoted to this challenge.

· Entries are to be submitted by email. This means that for younger children, teachers will need to type the acrostic for their student or class and email them to the Superintendent.

· Entries from students or classes must be submitted to the Superintendent by the teacher, not by students.

· Only the acrostic will be considered. Art work, etc., will not be considered.

· The winning entries will be determined by votes from the principals and Superintendent.

· If an individual student submission wins, his or her class will win free pizza. The same applies if the winning entry is submitted by a class.

· Employees and their families are not eligible. :-)

Junior and Senior High

· Due to the complexity involved on the Jr. and Sr. high campuses (e.g., we do not want this project done for each class period), only individual student entries will be considered. Class entries will not be considered. However, teachers may, if they elect, set aside time in their classes (from 15-30 minutes) for students to work individually on their acrostics during class time. This may be an excellent exercise for study halls or English/Literature classes.

· I ask that each teacher explain this challenge to his or her classes and then encourage students to submit entries by emailing them to a Jr. or Sr. high teacher who will then email the entries to the Superintendent. All entries must include the student’s name and the class/subject, class period, and teacher’s name that the student wants the entry to be considered for. For example, “Mrs. Suzie Smith, 7^th period history, Mr. ‘s class”

· Entries are to be submitted by email.

· Entries from students must be submitted to the Superintendent by the teacher, not by students.

· The acrostic must be submitted to the Superintendent by the close of school this Tuesday!

· Only the acrostic will be considered. Art work, etc., will not be considered.

· The winning entries will be determined by votes from the principals and Superintendent.

· If an individual student submission wins, the class that he or she designates on the submission will win free pizza. Remember, in order for a class to be awarded pizza, the winning entry must include the student’s name, class/subject, period, and teacher’s name that the student wants the entry to be submitted for. For example, “Mrs. Suzie Smith, 7^th period history, Mr. ‘s class”

· Employees and their families are not eligible. :-)

The Reward:

Free pizza will be provided by the Superintendent. Pizza will be awarded to one class for each division of the school (EC, EL, Jr. H., and H.S.) and the winning entries will be published in the next issue of The Roar! The date for awarding the pizza to the classes will be determined in consultation with the classroom teachers, principals, and the Superintendent.

Final Thoughts:

Let’s not make this more complicated than necessary. Let’s make this fun, creative, and a spiritual activity in the lives of our students. If I have not anticipated every possible complication and inadvertently created a problem, please forgive me, granting the judgment of charity (I mean well), and work around it. :-)

I’m looking forward to seeing our students’ creativity! Who knows, if an acrostic is good enough it may go viral and be a blessing to many others!