On behalf of the entire Hickory PTA team, we would like to wish everyone a very happy holiday season and a wonderful New Year ahead.

Be sure to follow Hickory PTA on Facebook and visit hickorypta.net all month for the latest updates.

Important Dates — Mark Your Calendars!
 

• Toy Loan Drive
  Thursday, December 2nd through Wednesday, December 15th
   
• PTA Association Meeting
  Thursday, December 9th @ 6:30 p.m.
  All Hickory family & community members are invited and encouraged to attend.
   
• PTA Executive Board Meeting
  Tuesday, December 14th @ 5:30 p.m.
   
• Picture Re-Take Day 
  Wednesday, December 15th
   
• Winter Break - NO SCHOOL
  Monday, December 20th through Friday, December 31st
   
• Martin Luther King Jr. Day - NO SCHOOL
  Monday, January 17th

Read-A-Thon Recap

Read-A-Thon was a SUCCESS! Hickory students together read over 88,000 minutes!

Great job readers!

Our amazing community has contributed more than $20,000 to support their kids’ participation in this incredible event. Funds received will go towards our school library and school programs for our students.

A list of all the winners will be announced on Friday.

Class competition winners will be announced on Friday, December 10th. Please note the reading log is now closed but pledges and donations will be accepted until December 9th.

Reflections Recap
Awards for every participant and winner will be given out this week.

Thank you to all our judges, students, teachers, and families that were involved in this year’s contest. We wish all our 1st place winners GOOD LUCK in the next round of competition.

Hope to see all of you continuing to create art and expressing yourselves. Together, we can work to make the world a better place!

Science Time with 4th Grade!

Our Hickory 4th graders had a one-of-a-kind experience dissecting squids! Thanks to our amazing teachers, TUSD NGSS Coaches Mr. Daly, Dr. Stillitano for supporting this program, and to Quality Seafood Redondo Beach for supplying the squids!

What an amazing experience for our Hickory Hounds!

Toy Loan Drive
The Toy Loan Program with the County of Los Angeles is a free service allowing children to borrow toys the same way as they would borrow books from the library. With your help, you can help bring smiles to the faces of thousands of low income children all across Los Angeles County.

If you'd like to help, collection barrels will be placed outside the Hickory front office from Thursday, December 2nd through Wednesday, December 15th.

Complete list of Toy Loan Centers in LA County 

Picture Re-Take Day

Need a do-over? No problem. Come dressed to impress and bring your smiles on Wednesday, December 15th.

Help! Our Lost & Found Is Overflowing!
Parents please remind your children to visit the Lost & Found bins outside the PTA room (located near the front gates across from the front office) for lost items. 

As of 3:12 p.m. Friday, December 17th, ALL LOST ITEMS will be DONATED to a local donation center!

Got Box Tops?

An easy way to support Hickory Elementary is to submit Box Tops from your everyday grocery purchases. Just download the Box Tops app to your smartphone and take a picture of your grocery receipt—it’s really that easy.

Here's a list of products that can help you earn money for Hickory.

Great News! If you buy your groceries online or via Instacart, you can still submit your receipts for credit. Reminder: Do not send your receipt as an attachment, otherwise it will not process correctly; just forward the whole email directly from your inbox.

If your digital receipt is only available through your store’s shopping app, you can forward it directly to receipts@boxtops4education.com.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Tricia Cole at triciacole@gmail.com.

Direct Donation Student Recognition

THANK YOU to the below students and their families for donating to Hickory PTA! 

The Hickory Elementary PTA Direct Donations Campaign has been a HUGE success!  Thanks to your generous Direct Donations we've raised over $20,000!

Participating students have already won prizes like LEGO sets, STEM kits, Spiritwear shirts, PAW tickets, and more! There are more prizes in store including grand prizes like lunch with Mrs. Mabery, homework passes, Nintendo games and a Nintendo Switch! All previous winners will be included in the FINAL raffle for the Nintendo prizes on December 17th!

We're raffling off prizes each week during the morning assembly. You can still donate ANY amount to be automatically entered for a chance to WIN. Be sure to get your donation in before the Winter Break!

In-Person Volunteer Opportunities

Calling all Hickory families! We encourage you to volunteer to help us make this year extra special for our students.

Library

The library is 100% volunteer-based, so let us know if you can donate some time to ensure our students get the learning benefits they missed out on last year!

Interested? Please email Xindy Valesquez & Adrienne Downs at xindyv@me.com & adriennedowns@earthlink.net.

Adventures in Art (AIA)

No art experience required, just a love of art and the willingness to share it with kids. Docents are asked to watch 5 art video tutorials this year, and help teach them to students in class. You may be able to just help set up supplies for the teacher. 

Interested? Please email Amanda Kirsch at hickoryaia.Amanda@gmail.com. 

Please note: As part of the online application process, all volunteers must submit a TB Test/Risk Assessment Form as well as their COVID vaccine documentation OR a recent negative covid test result (PCR and rapid tests accepted). 

AmazonSmile

Shop with Hickory for the Holidays!
 

Shopping for a few more holiday gifts? Hop over to https://smile.amazon.com/ and make "Hickory Elementary School PTA CA" your Smile charity of choice for the month of December. Amazon automatically donates 0.5% of your eligible Charity List purchases to Hickory—at no extra cost to you.

Special thanks to all those who have already signed up! Spread the word to families and friends near and far, as it has truly made an impact.

THANK YOU!

Be sure to follow us on Facebook!

Note: This newsletter does not replace official Hickory or district news. Please make sure you're signed up for email notifications in PowerSchool so you don't miss out on TUSD emails or messages from our principal, Mrs. Mabery.

#HickoryStrong