School News 3-30-15

St. Laurence Eagle Eye News

FIESTA HAPPENINGS

The St. Laurence Fiesta by the Sea is scheduled for May 9^th in the school gym. Invitations will be going home later in the month. Be sure to fill out and return your committee commitment.

THIS WEEK

Tuesday: MASS at 8:30

Wednesday: Art and P.E.

Thursday: Easter Play by Grades 1 & 2 10:30 and again at 11:00

Friday: Good Friday NO SCHOOL

Monday: NO School

ENCHILADA SALE

Last chance to purchase some more or of the St. Laurence Enchiladas. If you would like some more, please contact the school this week. They are selling for $20.

FIRST COMMUNION EVENTS

Second grade parents should know that there will be a retreat for the students coming up on Sunday April 12^th with First Communion happening at the 8:00, 12:30, and 5:30 Masses on Sunday April 26^th. Let’s all pray for those students as they make prepare this month.

Please be aware that there is an error on the April calendar. Students will not be singing at the 5:30 Mass on April 26^th due to First Communion. Sorry.

LENTEN JOURNEYS

We are in our last week of Lent so we are asking you to turn in your Rice Bowls and bring your non-perishable items for Interfaith.

We have a few Lenten projects for the students and families for the 40 days of Lent. This is the season for alms giving, prayer, and fasting. As always we sent home the Rice Bowls for Catholic Relief Services in support of poor nations across the world. Some families combine fasting and almsgiving by not going out to eat one day a week or having a simple meal and putting the savings in the Rice Bowl.

The school will also be teaming up with the Knights of Columbus project of 40 cans for 40 days for Interfaith Good Samaritan. You will see a shopping cart in the entry to the school where you can drop off canned goods, other non-perishable items and personal care products. A complete list of items will be attached to the shopping cart and will be sent home to put on your refrigerator as a reminder to give. Thanks to everyone who has given so far. Let’s fill the cart again!

We are encouraging more reading and family time during Lent. As an incentive for more reading, we will be sending home Reading Logs during Lent. We will attempt to “travel” to Australia via the other 4 continents during April. We will move our airplanes down the hall a meter (1 meter = 1000 miles) towards Australia for every 20 minutes we read.

CLASSROOM NEWS

Holy Week started with about 10 students participating in the Palm Sunday Mass at St. Laurence Church. Thanks for your ministry in singing and serving. We are renewing our commitment to see “holiness” in everything and everyone as we approach the Pascal Mysteries. We will attend Mass this Tuesday. On Thursday, Mrs. Van Heule’s class will present a short play on the events leading up to Easter. Friday there is no school as the students and teachers get to prepare for the Easter Triduum.

TURN IN YOUR INTENT FOR NEXT YEAR FORMS

Take a minute today to return the intent form for the 2015-16 school year (sixth grade parents are exempt). It helps us in planning for next year.

ALL SCHOOL PICTURES

We added a picture of the entire school when we took class pictures last week. You can purchase that picture with the whole school and all the classroom teachers for an additional $10. Please place the money or check in an envelope write your name and write whole school on the envelope. In order to get your print, we need to have the money by this Wednesday April 1^st.

FIESTA SIGN UP

Last week we emailed you the opportunity to help with making the 2015 Fiesta a success. Please print it off and return it to school this week. If you want to work on the Auction Procurement Committee, the forms need to be in by Wednesday.

You will all receive an invitation to the Fiesta. Additionally, if you know of a family member or a friend who would like to receive an invitation, please let Anita know. This could be a relative who lives out of town, but has shown interest in supporting the school.

KINDERGARTEN STEP AHEAD PROGRAM

Albany County School District offers a free summer program to all children who live in Albany County and who will be attending Kindergarten next fall.  This program is open to all Kindergarten students regardless of what school they attend.

KINDERGARTEN SCREENING

Kindergarten screening for St. Laurence Kindergarten students will be help on Friday, August 7 from 8:00 – 9:15. You must have a scheduled time and fill out the paperwork to attend. We encourage all Kindergarten students to participate. Please see Anita for more information and to schedule a time.

SURVEY

You still have a couple of days to turn in your surveys for Chris’s college class. Don’t forget to sign the consent or he will be unable to use your information. Thanks for helping him out.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

April 3

No School Good Friday

April 5

EASTER

April 6

No School Easter Monday

April 12

First Communion Retreat in the Gym 1:30 – 3:30

April 16

Open House from 2:00 till 6:00 Invite all your friends and relatives with school-aged children

April 26 First Holy Communion

May 9^th Fiesta! Get those sign up forms in so you can get your choice of jobs.

Grade 1-2 News 3-30-15

Grade One/Two March 30-April 2, 2015

Thanks to all who were able to join us at 5:30 PM Palm Sunday Mass as we begin the holiest week of our church year! We carry that theme with us all this week. Last year, the cherubs wrote a play about Holy Week; we will present that play again this year. We plan to present it at 10:30 AM and again at 11 AM Thursday morning in our classroom. It is short but very sweet and significant to the cherubs. Maybe you can join us? J

In reading /language we will continue to read stories of days past as seconds read a Little House adaptation, and firsts complete The Golly Sisters Go West. Our skills are: pronouns, character and setting in a story, and alphabetizing. Sounds are ou as in mouse and out; seconds also have the ou sound as in double.

We continue our geometry unit in math as we consider attributes of solid shapes. We are also adding and subtracting, just as we should be. J

There will be a book party to share our amazing informational books, but not this week. I hope to have that scheduled by the end of this week and will inform you ASAP; my hope is for the first full week of April. I hope you will be able to come and celebrate this magnificent achievement!

Religion focuses on Holy Week and the Liturgy of the Word in Mass.

Spelling words

house mouse blouse out about shout

Second grade words: double trouble tough rough

Homework

Monday: Spelling sort

Tuesday: Math

Wednesday: please discuss ways your family will observe the Triduum (last days of Lent during Holy Week) and Easter and journal about it.

School News 3-23-15

THIS WEEK

Tuesday: Basketball After School / PAWS Testing resumes

Wednesday: MASS The Annunciation of the Lord

Thursday: Class Pictures / Basketball Game with Harmony 1:30 Here

Friday: Stations of the Cross 8:30 /Library/ Bring Instruments upper grades

ENCHILADA SALE

Thanks to all who worked to make the 2015 Enchilada Sale a success! We have cleared about $19,300 so far. I say so far because we still have some extras that we would like to sell. If you would like some more, please contact the school this week. They are selling for $20.

SIGN UP NEXT YEAR

Today we are sending home a simple application for enrollment for next year. Please fill out the form and return it to school. Even if you have other plans that do not include St. Laurence, could you write that on the form and return it. The form will help in planning for next year. We will send out the Tuition Contracts in mid April.

LENTEN JOURNEYS

We have a few Lenten projects for the students and families for the 40 days of Lent. This is the season for alms giving, prayer, and fasting. As always we sent home the Rice Bowls for Catholic Relief Services in support of poor nations across the world. Some families combine fasting and almsgiving by not going out to eat one day a week or having a simple meal and putting the savings in the Rice Bowl.

The school will also be teaming up with the Knights of Columbus project of 40 cans for 40 days for Interfaith Good Samaritan. You will see a shopping cart in the entry to the school where you can drop off canned goods, other non-perishable items and personal care products. A complete list of items will be attached to the shopping cart and will be sent home to put on your refrigerator as a reminder to give. Thanks to everyone who has given so far. Let’s fill the cart again!

We are encouraging more reading and family time during Lent. As an incentive for more reading, we will be sending home Reading Logs during Lent. We will attempt to “travel” to Australia via the other 4 continents during Lent. Details will be going home from your teacher about the contest to read your way from Laramie to Sydney. We will move our airplanes down the hall a meter (1 meter = 1000 miles ) towards Australia for every 20 minutes we read.

Finally, there will be Stations of the Cross for grades 3-6 on Fridays at 8:30 during Lent. They continue this commemoration this Friday at the church.

SURVEY OPPORTUNITY

If you haven’t turned in your survey for Chris Grissom’s class project, please return it ASAP. Remember you need to sign the consent form and turn it in for your answers to count. It would really help him out, and it will help you to explore your own parenting style. The survey is completely confidential. We will detach the consent page with your signature before turning the forms over to Chris. Thanks for your help.

CLASSROOM NEWS

We are grateful to our terrific volunteers who are helping Mrs. Van Heule with her class. Annie Nelson has been coming in for an hour every morning to work with the reading groups and Mary O’Flannigan comes in to help by teaching a math group. They are a real blessing to the school and to Mrs. Van Heule’s Ones and Twos. The upper grades will continue the PAWS testing this week. Parents, please see that the children get plenty of rest and a good breakfast. Ms. James’s class has been having regular visits from UW’s Science Posse.

BASKETBALL GAME

We won our game against Harmony on that Friday before the break 33-12. This Thursday there will be a rematch at our gym starting at 1:30. All are invited to attend. Go Eagles!

CLASS PICTURES

Also this Thursday we will be taking class pictures and the opportunity to get individual packets as well. All the information is going home today.

FIESTA DATE

There is a last minute change to the date of our Spring Fiesta. Our Auctioneer Zane Burns cannot make it on May 2. Since he is a big part of the success of previous Fiestas, we are changing the date by one week to Saturday May 9.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

March 26

Class Pictures

March 24-April 1

PAWS Testing grades 3-6

April 3

No School Good Friday

April 5

EASTER

April 6

No School Easter Monday

May 9^th Fiesta! (Please note the change in the date.)

Grade 1-2 News 3-23-15

March Madness in Grade One/Two

March 23-27, 2015

I hope your spring break was lovely, fun, and restful. We had a delightful and love-filled time with our very new baby granddaughter, Emma Grace, who finally arrived on March 13 after a long and arduous journey into the big wide world. God is good!

We are back to work in a big way, needing, not just hoping, to finish our amazing social studies books. We are ready to cover this week after a great and valiant push to complete all writing before spring break! Woohoo!

I have a virtual field trip about dinosaurs scheduled with the Atlanta Center for Puppetry and Arts on April 14, so we need to start the dinosaur unit next week.

In reading/language, we will read stories of long ago (which to these kiddos means when I was born, back in the dark ages J). Firsts will read a delightful book called, The Golly Sisters Go West while seconds read Two Lunches at the Mill. Both give insight into life in times past. I would like the kiddos to begin making simple dioramas as a story response. We will have two weeks to complete this in-class project. I think I am crazy doing this along with covering books, but oh well… It should be fun! Our sounds are ing and es word endings. Seconds also have the nch word chunk. We will talk about pronouns, plurals, and story characters. (Hence the diorama.)

Mrs. O. is out of town visiting family so we will not have her help in math for the next couple of weeks. Firsts will review addition strategies and work hard on subtraction strategies while seconds learn about adding and trading with 3 digit numbers. All will work on geometry, solid shapes in particular.

We continue to learn about the parts of the Mass in religion. We will be singing at the 5:30 PM Mass at St. Laurence on Sunday. Palm Sunday is a big deal and I am hoping for a good number of children to come sing!

Spelling words

move moving go going box boxes

stop stopping

Second grade words: bench benches lunch lunches

crunch crunches

Homework

Monday: spelling sort as usual, neat and readable, please!

Tuesday: Math, geometry

Wednesday: no homework, 2^nd grade parents please come to the important and necessary gathering to discuss First Communion at 6:30 PM at St. Laurence church (upstairs in the body of the church)

Thursday: spelling

School News 3-9-15

THIS WEEK

Tuesday: Basketball After School

Wednesday: Grade Reports go home.

Thursday: MASS 8:30/ Basketball / Mr. Jim’s Pizza Night

Friday: Stations of the Cross 8:30 /Library/ Basketball Game at Harmony 1:30 / Bring Instruments upper grades

ENCHILADA SALE

Thanks to all who worked to make the 2015 Enchilada Sale a success! We have cleared about $19,300 so far. I say so far because we still have some extras that we would like to sell. If you would like some more, please contact the school this week. They are selling for $20 to parents and $25 to the general public. Get them while they last. Thanks also to the folks from Wyotech for their volunteer hours. They all were awesome workers. Thanks to ALSCO and Pepsi for donating for the fundraiser. Thanks for the Fraustos who made the green and red chili that we sold out of at about 10:30.

LENTEN JOURNEYS

We have a few Lenten projects for the students and families for the 40 days of Lent. This is the season for alms giving, prayer, and fasting. As always we sent home the Rice Bowls for Catholic Relief Services in support of poor nations across the world. Some families combine fasting and almsgiving by not going out to eat one day a week or having a simple meal and putting the savings in the Rice Bowl.

The school is also teaming up with the Knights of Columbus on the project of 40 cans for 40 days for Interfaith Good Samaritan. You will see a shopping cart in the entry to the school where you can drop off canned goods, other non-perishable items and personal care products. A complete list of items will be attached to the shopping cart and will be sent home to put on your refrigerator as a reminder to give. Thanks to everyone who has given so far. Let’s fill the cart!

We are encouraging more reading and family time during Lent. As an incentive for more reading, we will be sending home Reading Logs during Lent. We will attempt to “travel” to Australia via the other 4 continents during Lent. Details will be going home from your teacher about the contest to read your way from Laramie to Sydney. We will move our airplanes down the hall a meter (1 meter = 1000 miles) towards Australia for every 20 minutes we read.

Finally, there will be Stations of the Cross for grades 3-6 on Fridays at 8:30 during Lent. They continue this commemoration this Friday at the church.

SURVEY OPPORTUNITY

Chris Grissom, Faith and Olivia’s dad, has asked our help with a project he needs to complete for his college class. His project is a survey that he is asking every family, both mom & dad to complete about parenting styles. It would really help him out, and it may give you some insight to explore your own parenting style. The survey is completely confidential. We ask that you detach the consent page with your signature before turning the survey in to the office. Chris needs the surveys back no later than March 24^th. Thanks for your help.

CLASSROOM NEWS

We are grateful to our terrific volunteers who are helping Mrs. Van Heule with her class. Annie Nelson has been coming in for an hour every morning to work with the reading groups and Mary O’Flannigan comes in to help by teaching a math group. They are a real blessing to the school and to Mrs. Van Heule’s Ones and Twos. The upper grades will begin the PAWS testing this week. Parents, please see that the children get plenty of rest and a good breakfast. (That time change is throwing everyone off.)

BASKETBALL GAME

The Basketball team will be playing a game at the Harmony Gym this Friday afternoon with the game starting at 1:30. All the students in grades 3-6 will be going. Permission slips are going home today. Go Eagles!

FIESTA DATE

There is a last minute change to the date of our Spring Fiesta. Our Auctioneer Zane Burns was unable to make it on May 2^nd. Since he is a big part of the success of previous Fiestas, we are changing the date by one week to Saturday May 9^th.

MR. JIMS PIZZA NIGHT

Mr. Jims has set Wednesday March 11^th as St. Laurence night. A flyer is going home tonight.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

March 11

2^nd Trimester grade reports will be sent home / Mr. Jims Pizza Night

March 16-20

Spring/Winter Break No School

March 26

Class Pictures

March 10-April 1

PAWS Testing grades 3-6

April 3

No School Good Friday

April 5

EASTER

April 6

No School Easter Break

May 9^th Fiesta! (Please note the change in the date.)

Grade 1-2 News 3-9-15

The Luck of the Irish!

Grade One/Two March 9-13, 2015

Greetings! Since we won’t be in school on St. Patrick’s feast day, March 17, we’ll do a bit of celebrating this week! We will learn about this important saint and have a couple of fun activities to remember him.

In reading/language, we will read two more stories about space and the moon. We have bunches of skill lessons this week, including ABC order, making inferences, pronouns and syllables, magic e, and doubling the middle consonant in a word.

We will complete our money unit in math. Thanks for all you do to help your child learn about money. As you have probably seen, it’s really a challenge when counting money to switch from quarters, to dimes, to nickels, to pennies! We are also working on place value. Seconds will add and subtract 3 digits this week.

Writing books is slow and hard and we probably will not have them all bound by the end of this week. Oh well!

Lent and the Mass are two topics in religion. This is the big week to make clothespin crucifixes, a really nifty project! We are learning the parts of the Mass to help enhance that celebration. Knowledge and understanding mean so much. Our trip to the Cathedral and Synagogue was wonderful! We had a great discussion about it on Friday. Based on the children’s responses, I think it was very worthwhile.

Spelling words

rabbit little hammer game same name

2^nd additional words: basket rocket blame flame

Homework

Monday: spelling sort

Tuesday: math

Wednesday: talk about how a Catholic church and a synagogue are the same and different

Thursday: spelling

Have a great week!

Grade 1-2 News 3-2-15

March came in like a lion!

Grade One/Two March 2-6, 2015

Greetings on a snowy and chilly first day of March! Just like the old post office saying, neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow will deter us… from learning!

Reading/language finds us first on Monday, celebrating Read Across America Day and the birthday of Dr. Seuss. I have both literacy and math activities to mark the day. Later in the week we will read stories about space exploration. A reading skill this week is finding the main idea of a passage, and our sounds are oo as in moon and oo as in book.

We continue to explore money and place value in math.

Steady albeit slighty slow progress is being made on our book projects in social studies. My hope is to begin making covers on Friday. These are very special, cloth-covered books which your child has worked very hard to complete. I hope they will find a safe place in your home (instead of under the bed or at the bottom of a toy box. J)

In religion we will begin to learn about the Mass in preparation for First Holy Communion. We continue to talk about Lent and ways to observe it as we grow in holiness and relationship with Christ and His Body.

Weather permitting, and hopes for healing of sick parents (my husband and me) we will make our Lenten pilgrimage to Cheyenne on Thursday of this week. I hope you saw and read the note sent home Friday. We have drivers and do not need more, but if you are not driving please send $3 to school by Wednesday to help with fuel costs. Thank you. We will walk the 8 blocks from St. Mary’s Cathedral to Mt. Sinai Synagogue, so while we need to dress appropriately for church visits, we need walking shoes (no dress shoes, please) and warm clothes for outdoor time. Thanks. Please remember not to send a peanut butter sandwich for lunch that day.

Spelling words

moon soon noon book took cook look

looking *2^nd grade additionals: shook spoon

Homework

Monday: spelling sort, neatly

Tuesday: Math

Wednesday: Ask your child to tell you one thing about the Introductory Rite of the Mass and write a bit about it.

Thursday: study spelling, please. No written assignment as we will be returning from our trip

Have a lovely week!