School News 10-27-14

THIS WEEK

Tuesday: Picture Retakes / Keeping Kids Safe Talk by Mr. Wilhelm

Wednesday: PE & Art

Thursday: Mass at 8:30 /Adam’s Team 3:10

Friday : Carnival at 2:00 in the gym (See details below)

PARENT TEACHER CONFERENCES

Thanks to those who took time out from your busy schedules to attend conferences. If you missed last week, please try to schedule a conference with the teacher in the coming weeks.

SAFE ENVIRONMENT FOR KIDS

This week I will be conducting a short program for grades K-6 about keeping kids safe from sexual predators and protecting their bodies. The talk is about 15 minutes. If you wish to see the lesson plan I will be using, please stop by my office. There are also forms (on the table in the entryway) that you can sign if you prefer to decline the Safe Environment program for your child.

PRINCIPAL TALK

Now that we are into cooler weather, I just want to remind you that your children need warm outdoor clothes. We could see snow anytime, so check to see if the snow boots still fit. We are hoping that we won’t need them anytime soon, but it is good to be prepared for the possibility. We will again allow students to keep their snow boots and snow pants here at school. On the subject of coats etc., we do seem to have a pretty good collection of coats, jackets and sweatshirts in our Lost and Found tub. Items are located in the gym so please take a few minutes to look if you are missing items.

With Halloween around the corner, we want to stress that our kid’s costumes tone down the blood and violence. We are really trying to emphasize more of a fall celebration. The school is downplaying the scary aspects which might frighten or upset the younger children.

GERMAN REALITY SHOW COMES TO SCHOOL

Tomorrow afternoon around 1:30 a film crew from the German Reality Show Goodbye Deutschland will be coming to school to film the arrival of the Polumbo family. The Polumbo family is being featured in this TV show that will air in Germany. The son Benny will be registering at St. Laurence School. It is my understanding that we will take the family on a tour of the school and into the classroom where Benny will be a student. Please contact the school if you don’t want you child to be filmed. They may also be interviewing a couple of students about the school.

GIFTS ARRIVE THIS TUESDAY

For any families who sold gift items last month in the Magazine/Gift Sale, the items are set to arrive tomorrow and can be picked up in the school gym after school. We will have the items sacked together with the seller’s name. The item will have the purchasers name on it. I am pretty sure that any items purchased online have been sent out separately. These are just items ordered by people from a student and paid to the school with a check or cash. Please get them delivered promptly.

SCHOOL DANCE

Thanks to all who attended the Costume Dance last Friday. While there was not much dancing, the students did have a good time. There were lots of good treats and some nice decorations. Thanks to the parents and grandparents who helped in those areas. Thanks to sixth grader Anabel Coca for doing the music.

CANS FOR THE CAUSE

Do you have aluminum cans at your house? Bring them to St. Laurence School where we turn cans into money. The money goes into a fund for a variety of worthy classroom projects from field trips to classroom rewards. Please place cans in the barrels on the south side back porch by the art room. The more cans we collect, the more positive ways the teachers can support your kids. Please, no steel cans though. They do check for those when we take them for recycling and they don’t like them.

EVE OF ALL SAINTS DAY CARNIVAL

Friday we will have a small carnival from 2:00 till 3:00. The older students will set up games and activities for the younger kids to participate in. We will have a cake walk, the pillow fight, a fishing game, a sponge toss, bean bag toss, and pumpkin prance, just to name a few. We are asking for a donation of $3 per family with the money being split between the Laramie Soup Kitchen and the Teton Science Trip in January. You can send the money any time this week. Just place the donation in an envelope with your family name included and make checks payable to St. Laurence School.

MORE ON HALLOWEEN ACTIVITIES

Costumes are worn in the afternoon only, so pack them up and send them to school with the children. We usually make an exception for Pre-Kindergarten, so that they can wear their costumes all day. (It’s easier for the teacher that way.)

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

Oct. 28

Picture Retakes / Gift orders can be picked up from Magazine Sale

Oct. 30

Mass

Oct. 31

Eve of All Saints Day Carnival 2:00 in the Gymnasium

Nov. 1

All Saints Day

Nov. 2

All Soul’s Day

Nov. 6

Last Adams Team till spring

Nov. 14

End of the Trimester. Feast Day of St. Laurence O’Toole

Kindergarten News 10-27-14

	Week of October 27, 2014 St. Laurence School Weekly Newsletter   From the classroom of Mrs. Specht
KINDERGARTEN
Make sure to check your child’s folder every night! We are working hard every day!

Reminders	Learning in Kindergarten!
Clothing: The weather is changing! We will go outside every day unless it is less than zero degrees or raining. Please make sure your child is dressed for the weather! Hats, gloves, coats, snow pants and boots are needed. Missing school: If your child will not be at school please let me or the office know. Spirit Days are every Tuesday: Wear your St. Laurence T-shirts or green! October Mass Days: Oct. 30 Parent Teacher Conferences: Parent Teacher conferences were great! Thanks for coming to learn about our learning! Vegetable Soup! We will make vegetable soup on Friday to go with our book. I am asking each student which ingredient they want to bring. Let me know if the ingredient they picked will not work for your family. Halloween Party Friday October 31: Please send your child’s costume in their backpack on Friday. We will have time after lunch to change into costumes for the carnival and dress-up party from 2-3pm. Please no weapons or bloody costumes at school. Feel free to join us for the party in the gym!	Reading Reading will be made up of a whole group lessons and small group lessons based on individual needs. This week our story is Growing Vegetable Soup. The story is about planting a garden full of vegetables and making soup out of the vegetables. Our letter of the week is ‘Ss’ and the rhyme chart is sung to the tune of ‘Skip to My Lou’. We are working on learn all the letters and letter sounds. We are practicing beginning letter sounds and rhyming words every day. This week the focus skill is making predictions while reading a story. See if your student can make predictions during reading time at home. We are also working hard to retell stories. We use “Story Champs” trophies to practice remembering the character, setting, problem, feeling, action and ending feeling. Ask your child about Hiro and his red shoes. Hopefully you will hear he was sad he could not find his shoes.
Math In Math we are working on positions. The vocabulary words are before, between, and after. We will have our chapter 3 assessment later this week. We are also working in on number sequence and counting during our calendar and centers time centers. Try to find things your child can count around the house. Make sure they do not skip any numbers! J

How Healthy Are Our Local Waterways? This is the theme of the placed-based education unit this summer. We will become “field detectives” as we search the rivers of Laramie looking at the richness of the plant life and the types of macro invertebrates living in our streams. The data collected will aid the students in determining the health of the local waterways. We will be in the field every Monday for approximately two hours. This will begin on Monday, July 14 and end on Monday, July 28. Please check the back of this sheet for a calendar and more information.

Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns. Mrs. Specht: 307-399-6915 or mspecht@stlos.com

Grade 1-2 News 10-27-14

The Saints are Marching into St. Laurence School!

Grade One/Two October 27-31, 2014

Greetings on another fabulous fall day! Thanks to all who were able to come visit at conference time. I so appreciate the insights you share about your child so that we can better meet his/her needs. We teach the whole child, not just the ABC, 123 child!

In reading/language this week we will read stories about characters showing kindness to one another. Goals are drawing conclusions/making inferences, discerning the author’s purpose in writing, and long i with final e. Handwriting letters, cursive or manuscript, are d and g.

In math we will review doubles and doubles plus 1, and then slide right into doubles plus 2. We hope to also introduce numbers 6-9 as 5 and some more.

We will talk about All Saints Day in religion. We will also learn about the way our Mexican brothers and sisters celebrate it with el Dia de los Muertos, a beautiful and deeply meaningful observance.

The push is on to complete the downtown book as we will celebrate that huge accomplishment with a book party on Thursday afternoon. Please join us if you can from 2-3 PM in our classroom. We have invited all the downtown businesses we visited. Come for treats, books, and lots of smiles and sharing!

Thanks to Mrs. Boyer for sailing the ship so well in my absence on Thursday. I was in Cheyenne with my Dad who had a minor surgery. Thanks to awesome prayers and excellent medical care, he is doing well. Mrs. Boyer actually managed to get the bat cave up amongst all the other tasks I had left her to do!

Please remember that we will share breakfast at Rose’s Café on Tuesday morning just after 8:30 AM. So your child need not eat breakfast before school that day! Each child will have a $6 or 7 limit; we need to keep this fair. This is my treat and Mr. Wilhelm kicked in some $ from can recycling. Thanks much!

Spelling words

like bike ride side hide ice rice

nice dice

Additional second grade words: twice trike pride

Homework

Monday: spelling sort as usual

Tuesday: Math

Wednesday: religion please talk with your child about his/her patron saint and why you chose that saint for your child, OR discuss your favorite saint and why that saint is your favorite. Ask your child to name his/her favorite, tell why.

Thursday: reading p. 64 (1^st) or 57 (2^nd)

El Dia de los Muertos

Our Hispanic brothers and sisters are preparing to celebrate El Dia de los Muertos, a beautiful celebration to remember our loved ones who have passed into Eternal Life. It occurs in conjunction with All Saints Day.

One of the components of this celebration is to make an ofrenda, or altar, on which photographs of loved ones are placed. We would like to offer you the opportunity to bring in pictures of your loved ones who have passed. After reading about this feast day, we will make a small and simple ofrenda in our classroom, complete with flameless candles and silk flowers.

Please bring your photos in any day this week. Your loved ones will be prayed for with great love.

Peace,

Mrs. Jeanne Van Heule

Mrs. Tara Boyer

School News 10-20-14

St. Laurence School

608 S 4^th Street

Laramie, WY 82070

742-6363

www.stlos.com

Oct. 20, 2014

St. Laurence Eagle Eye News

THIS WEEK

Tuesday: Last day to turn in Parent Teacher Conference forms

Wednesday: P.E. all grades and Art 2-6

Thursday: Mass at 8:30 /Adam’s Team 3:10 Conferences 6:00-8:00

Friday : Conferences 8:00-12:00 NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS

ST. LAURENCE MAGAZINE SALE

Thanks to all of you that did your part in making the Fall Magazine/Gift Drive a success. We took in over $4168.00 both online and in house. We had over $1500 from online sales. We are 30 orders short of our goal of 300 orders, but in terms of the amount we exceeded our goal in gross sales. Any gifts that were purchased will arrive on October 28 and can be picked up in the gym after school. This applies to paper orders only, not the online sales. Online sales go directly to the address supplied. I told the students that their bears need to hibernate for the winter so your children may leave them at home. Student prizes will go home tomorrow.

You can still order online any time between now and December using the St. Laurence School Code 3589454. So pass the word (and the number) so your friends and relatives who didn’t get a chance to order during the sale can still help the school.

PARENT TEACHER CONFERENCES

We are sending home conference signup sheets again today. If you have already signed up, you will see that on the sheet. If you do not see your name, please sign in on a blank time and return the sheet tomorrow. Fill one out for each child. If you don’t return the sheet we will have to assign you a time. Please be prompt for your conference.

TETON SCIENCE SCHOOL

The 4-6 grades will be heading to Jackson Hole for the week starting on Monday January 12. The trip is a 5 day learning experience. We are able to attend because of a $5000 grant from the Diocese of Cheyenne.

PRINCIPAL TALK

Now that we are into cooler weather, I just want to remind you that your children need warm outdoor clothes. We could see snow anytime, so check to see if the snow boots still fit. We are hoping that we won’t need them anytime soon, but it is good to be prepared for the possibility. We will again allow students to keep their snow boots and snow pants here at school. On the subject of coats etc., we do seem to have a pretty good collection of coats, jackets and sweatshirts in our Lost and Found tub. Items are located in the gym so please take a few minutes to look if you are missing items.

With Halloween around the corner, we want to stress that our kid’s costumes tone down the blood and violence. We are really trying to emphasize more of a fall celebration. The school is downplaying the scary aspects which might frighten or upset the younger children.

SCHOOL COMMISSION OPENINGS

If you would be interested in serving on the St. Laurence School Commission, please contact me this week.

SCHOOL DANCE

This Friday we will have a school dance from 6:00 till 8:00 in the gym. The cost is $1.00 per student. Costumes are encouraged but not mandatory. We are also asking each family to provide one tray of healthy finger foods for snacks for the children. Remember that students from other schools are invited to attend and join in the fun. We will be sending home a flyer about the dance tomorrow with all the details.

CANS FOR THE CAUSE

Do you have aluminum cans at your house? Bring them to St. Laurence School where we turn cans into money. The money goes into a fund for a variety of worthy classroom projects from field trips to classroom rewards. Bring in your cans and place them in the barrels on the back porch on the south side of the building by the art room. The more cans we collect, the more positive ways the teachers can support your kids.

HALLOWEEN ACTIVITIES

On the Eve of All Saints, October 31^st, there will be a carnival from 2:00 till 3:00 with a games and contests. The suggested donation is $3 per family for unlimited games and the proceeds will be split with half used to fund the older student’s trip to the Teton Science School and the other half given as a donation to the Laramie Soup Kitchen. Costumes are worn in the afternoon only, so pack them up and send them to school with the children. We usually make an exception for Pre-Kindergarten, so that they can wear their costumes all day. (It’s easier for the teacher that way.)

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

Oct. 23

Parent Teacher Conferences from 6-8

Oct. 24

No School for Students

Parent Teacher Conferences 8-12

Costume Dance in the Gym 6-8 Invite your friends and their kids

Oct. 28

Picture Retakes / Gift orders can be picked up from Magazine Sale

Oct. 31

Eve of All Saints Day Carnival 2:00 in the Gymnasium

Grade 1-2 News 10-20-14

“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.”
― Albert Camus

Happy Autumn Thoughts

Grade One/Two October 20-23, 2014

Let’s celebrate Camus’ “second spring” with these lovely October days! We celebrate with learning, experiences, prayer, and community. Speaking of community, we are nearing completion of our downtown Laramie unit. This week we will visit Ivinson Mansion and work hard on our book about Laramie. The celebration climaxes next Thursday, Oct. 30 with a book party in our classroom from 2-3 PM. We hope you can join us to share this special event! My hope is to provide one final treat for the cherubs: next week we’d like to have breakfast at Rose’s Café! This was actually a suggestion/request of one of the children and I think it’s a smashing idea! I will let you know next week what day we will go; you can send your child to school without breakfast that day! J

In reading/language this week, we will read about family gatherings. Other goals are learning about contractions are, will and is, and long o with final e, as you see in our spelling words. I am grateful every day for Mrs. Boyer, who inspires me!

We are proud of the cherubs work in math with learning doubles added and subtracted. This week we’ll tackle adding doubles plus 1. Seconds are moving on in place value and adding 2 digit numbers.

We will finish rosary making this week, finally, and talk about grace, God’s life in us.

Spelling words

cone stone bone home those nose rose

hope lope rope

Additional second grade words

phone shone throne dome slope

Homework

Monday: spelling sort

Tuesday: math

Wednesday: Our Father prayer game

Just a reminder about Halloween costumes, please no violence or gore. The real meaning of the event is “All Hallow’s Eve,” the night before All Saints Day, and we know that hallowed means holy. So let’s please keep this in perspective. Thanks!

I look forward for visiting with you at conferences this week! Thanks for all you

Kindergarten News 10-20-14

	Week of October 20, 2014 St. Laurence School Weekly Newsletter From the classroom of Mrs. Specht
KINDERGARTEN
Make sure to check your child’s folder every night! We are working hard every day!

Reminders	Learning in Kindergarten!
Clothing: Please send extra clothes for your kindergartener just in case they need to change some time during the day. The weather is changing. We will go outside every day unless it is less than zero degrees or raining. Please make sure your child is dressed for the weather! Hats, gloves, coats, snow pants and boots will all be necessary very soon. Check and make sure everything fits before it gets too cold! Missing school: If your child will not be at school please let me or the office know. No School Friday October 24 Spirit Days are every Tuesday: Wear your St. Laurence T-shirts or green! October Mass Days: Oct. 23, Oct. 30 Parent Teacher Conferences: If you have not done so already, please return the parent teacher schedule form to the office. Conference times are filling up quickly! The time schedule is going home with all the kindergarteners today. Please take a look and see if the time still works for you. Let me know if Thursday October 23 from 6pm to 8pm or Friday 8am-12pm will not work for you so we can schedule a better time. SINGING AT THE LITURGY We will sing again October 26 at the 5:30 mass.	Reading Reading will be made up of a whole group lessons and small group lessons based on individual needs. This week our story is Mouse’s Mess. The story is about a mouse in a kitchen. While he is getting snacks, he makes a huge mess and blames the people. Our letter of the week is ‘Mm’ and the rhyme chart is a marching song. We are working on learn all the letters and letter sounds. We are practicing beginning letter sounds and rhyming words every day. We are also working hard to retell stories. We use “Story Champs” trophies to practice remembering the character, setting, problem, feeling, action and ending feeling. Ask your child about Maria at the store buying bananas and how mad she felt.
Math In Math we are working on positions. The vocabulary words are on, over, under, left, right, front and behind. We are also working in on number sequence and counting during our centers time centers. Try to find things your child can count around the house.

How Healthy Are Our Local Waterways? This is the theme of the placed-based education unit this summer. We will become “field detectives” as we search the rivers of Laramie looking at the richness of the plant life and the types of macro invertebrates living in our streams. The data collected will aid the students in determining the health of the local waterways. We will be in the field every Monday for approximately two hours. This will begin on Monday, July 14 and end on Monday, July 28. Please check the back of this sheet for a calendar and more information.

Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns. Mrs. Specht: 307-399-6915 or mspecht@stlos.com

Grade 5-6 News 10-15-14

This week in class…

We will be making hands out of colored paper this week for Kiwanis Kids to help with a project that the Circle K at UW is sponsoring. Steve Wagner, from the Laramie Kiwanis Club has asked for our help. Here is a description of the project:

Heidi L. Solomon, President of Circle K at the University of Wyoming states,

”The main idea of the project is to help remind Laramie of all the reasons it has to be thankful, allowing residents to share their thanks, and simultaneously raising money to help combat neonatal tetanus.  To this end, we hope to sell colored paper hand cutouts for $1 a piece at local businesses and schools to be displayed on walls throughout the establishments.  Once people donate, they will write down whatever they are thankful for on the hands to be displayed for all to see.  We are calling this event the "November Hands of Thanks," and our hope is to cover all of Laramie's walls with thanks.”

I have asked each student to make 10 hands. Mr. Wagner will pick them up on Thursday, October 23^rd.

Book It

I have only received reading logs from 5/9 students in class. I will be sending home a new reading log today and will send a new reading log each Wednesday. Even if your child has not read yet or logged any minutes, please log any minutes they read this week or next. I will be recording “all” the minutes your child reads over these next six months. Also, even if your child does not read 450 minutes for the month of October, they can read 450 minutes for November and get the free personal pan pizza. Any month that your child reads 450 minutes they will earn a personal pan pizza. I enter minutes from the reading logs on the day it is turned in. You should be able to track your child’s progress by going to www.pizzahut.com/bookit

Homework Corner

We have our Spelling Test this week on Thursday, October 16^th. Other than reading for Book It, there shouldn’t be much homework. I was very proud of how well the students performed on their tests last week!

Novels for Reading Groups

All groups are off to a great start in their novels. We are learning about the significance of Ellis Island as an immigration processing center and what it was like to be an immigrant in The Orphan of Ellis Island. We are learning about the Dust Bowl and migrant workers in Blue Willow. And we are experiencing plot development and characterization in Frindle.

This Week’s Spelling List Test 10/16/14 Retest 10/17/14 Unit 6 Vocabulary Review Part 2 1. sought 2. clause 3. annoy 4. mound 5. crouch 6. groove 7. naughty 8. appoint 9. squawk 10. hoist 11. sword 12. pierce 13. chart 14. mourn 15. skirt 16. starch 17. earth 18. curb 19. snarl 20. earnest 21. intact 22. absurd 23. tepid 24. turmoil 25. endeavor 26. trampoline 27. refute 28. turquoise 29. coax 30. taut *There will be no extra credit words this week *There will be no extra credit words this week

Next Week’s Spelling List Test 10/23/14 Retest 10/24/14 Unit 7 Vocabulary 1. barefoot 2. sea gull 3. driftwood 4. carefree 5. somebody 6. nowhere 7. haircut 8. runner-up 9. teammate 10. toothbrush 11. headache 12. iceberg 13. fireproof 14. uproar 15. whereas 16. dead end 17. forehead 18. grandchildren 19. old-fashioned 20. nevertheless 21. wildlife 22. weekend 23. first aid 24. homemade 25. baby-sit 26. water-repellent 27. ebb tide 28. painstaking 29. self-confident 30.crestfallen *Words 25-30 are extra credit words *Words 25-30 are extra credit words