St. John School
Newsletter
Catholic Schools of the Diocese of Syracuse
Mission Statement
The Catholic Schools in the Diocese of Syracuse carry out the mission of Jesus Christ,
bearing witness while proclaiming the Gospel message. Together with families and
parishes, our schools provide an education rooted in the Gospel that is “living,
conscious, and active” including values and ideals that are in accordance with the
teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. We empower our students to live their faith
with compassion, integrity and respect for all life and the diversity of our world.
Our schools are faith-centered communities focused on promoting academic excellence
while developing a strong moral conscience and embracing Catholic principles to enable
students to meet lifelong challenges and demands in our rapidly changing world.
12/5/2014
Dear Parents,
Please join us in prayer and song as we celebrate the Immaculate
Conception Liturgy on Monday, December 8 at 9:00am in Sts. John
and Andrew Church. Mr.Kocik and the 4th grade students are
preparing this liturgy as we remember Mary, the Mother of Jesus on
this special day!
We have been beginning each day together in the gym with our
Advent Wreath and Jesse Tree ceremony. Please feel free to join us at
8:30am.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Mrs. Mary Ellen Kelley
________________________________________________________
Mrs. Burr….This week we learned about the letter Ii. We made ice
cream cones, counted the scoops and even got to eat some too! We
investigated insects in ice cubes, arranged them from smallest to
largest and learned what makes an insect an insect. Everyone had a
chance to help make an igloo out of sugar cubes on Friday. They were
very proud of it so please be sure to take a look when dropping them
off or picking them up! Ice Cream Everywhere, I Was So Mad, God’s
Winter Wonderland and If You Take a Mouse To the Movies were the
books we read this week. Next week is Jj week. Please remember to
bring in a Jj item for show and tell on Monday. Hope you all have an
incredible weekend!
~Mrs Burr~
________________________________________________________
4 Year Olds.....Our classroom is decorated in the spirit of Christmas
joy! We introduced baby Jesus in our nativity set for our letter of
the week – Jj.
The tree is adorned with the charming ornaments
the children gave Mickey Mouse for his birthday, and Mickey and
Minnie Mouse are in abundance around our room with their
Christmas sparkle!
Our Elf on the Shelf, “Elvin” flew in from the
North Pole to keep an eye on the children while they are in school.
(“Elvin” is of Old English origin and the meaning is “elf or magical
being, friend”.) He will report to Santa Claus whether they’ve been
naughty or nice.
They joyfully look for him each morning when
they arrive. Many exciting things happened inside our Show & Tell
box this week! Jesse, who happened to have her jewelry box, was
trying to jump rope while riding a jet ski.
And then the princess
Jack-in-the-Box was trying to drink juice boxes while driving the
jeep all while baby Jesus watched. It was all a quite a joke! We
read Jingle All the Way by Tom Shay-Zapien and heard its
interactive dog “Jingle” make sounds which was so cool!
Don’t
forget Show & Tell next week for the letter Kk! For future
information; our class Christmas Party will be held on Tuesday,
December 23rd at 10:00 am.
A special visitor will make an
appearance and will pass out a gift to each child. Please send in a
wrapped $5.00 or below book wrapped with your child’s name on it
anytime before then.
You are welcomed to attend!
A sign-up
sheet for goodies will be up on our bulletin board the beginning of
next week. The afternoon of December 23rd is also our school’s
Christmas Pageant at 1:00 in the church hall next door.
Our
preschoolers will sing a couple of songs with the school. After the
show we are dismissed for Christmas vacation. But, for now I hope
you all have a wonderful weekend filled with many blessings!
~Mrs. Fox~
________________________________________________________
Transitional Kindergarten.....The letter /Jj/ was introduced this
week. We read the books: Jamberry and Jaguar’s Jungleberry
Jamboree. We have also been practicing our songs for the
Christmas Pageant which have /Jj/s in them: The Jazzy
Gingerbread Man and Happy Birthday Jesus. Speaking of
Gingerbread….our kitchen area has been transformed into a
Gingerbread Bakery. The children are pretending to bake cookies
and retell the Gingerbread stories. We also have a Nativity set in
the classroom that the children are using to retell the story of the
birth of baby Jesus. We have talked about how this is the season
of Advent and how we are waiting for Jesus to be born. The
children are enjoying the lighting of the Advent candles in the
morning with the whole school. Please be sure to have your child
at school by 8:30 if you would like them to join in this beautiful
activity. Malina and Oki are our holiday visitors from the North
Pole. They have been checking in on our behavior and reporting
back to Santa Claus. I was so fortunate this week to go to a
workshop presented by Dr. Jean Feldman. Dr. Jean works with
early childhood educators to demonstrate how to develop language
skills through songs, music, poems, movement, talking, and reading
to children. Next week we will learn about the letter /Kk/. Don’t
forget show and tell for Monday and your index card for Tuesday!
Have a lovely weekend!
~Mrs. Reibel~
________________________________________________________
Kindergarten…... The story of the week was The Bus for Us. The
letter of the week was Ll and we met Larry Lobster. We learned three
new sightwords she, he and here. We are reading different versions
of the Gingerbread Man. We are comparing the stories and writing
about them in our journals. We made gingerbread girls and boys for
the hallway. In Math, we compared the length of linking cube sticks
to various objects and compared objects using the same as. In
Religion, we learned that Advent is a time of preparing for Christmas
and celebrating the birth of Jesus. The students are each making a
Happy Birthday Jesus book. We also learned that Saint Nicholas was
a bishop who loved children and told them about Jesus. We learned
that St. Nicholas leaves presents in their shoes or stockings on
December 6th his feast day. Please make sure your child has a hat,
gloves, snowpants and boots because we will be going outside for
recess everyday unless it is bitter cold.
Enjoy the weekend!
Mrs. Newins
________________________________________________________
First Grade..... What a busy week! It began with a discussion of
Advent and what we need to do to prepare for the birth of Jesus. The
boys and girls are excited about completing the simple tasks on their
Advent calendars each day. Hopefully they will have a very colorful
and complete calendar on Christmas day. In the ELA area the
students are working on the skill of retelling a story. They are
learning how to use their own words to state the important events of a
selection in the correct sequential order. The boys and girls are also
working on an informative writing piece on a Christmas topic. Look
for the results shortly. We continue to add numbers greater than 10
using the decomposition strategy. The students are realizing how
important it is to know the basic facts as they complete multi-step
problems. We ended the week with talking about St. Nicholas and the
tradition s of his feast day. The boys and girls made shoes on Friday
and are hopeful that St. Nick will leave them a treat over the weekend.
Hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Mrs. Vaverchak
_________________________________________________________
Second Grade… It has been another busy week in second grade! In
Religion, we have spent a lot of time discussing and learning about
Advent, the Advent wreath, and the Jesse Tree. Please feel free to
join the school every morning in the gym when we light the advent
wreath and place a symbol on the Jesse tree. The children are really
enjoying learning about the Jesse tree and the most important
promises that were made to Jesse and his son David. In English
Language Arts, we read “Farfallina and Marcel” and worked on the
skill of making inferences. In Spelling and Phonics, we worked with
the long i sound spelled igh, ie, i, or y. In Grammar, we worked on
possessive nouns, which is a little difficult and will continue to
review. In Math, we will be finishing up Module 3 and beginning
Module 4.
Enjoy the weekend!!
Mrs. Pencek
_______________________________________________________
Second Grade: December? ? No it can’t be! Okay, so it is. I trust that
each of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving break. I surely did, which
reenergized me for this new month. On December 1st an elf from the
North Pole arrived from Santa. His name is Bertrand. He will be
observing us all month long and returning each evening to Santa and
sharing with him, what our day in school was like. Yep! Were we
naughty or nice? We are all hoping we have more good reports than
not so good. During this Holy Season of Advent we are preparing
ourselves to celebrate Jesus’ Birthday. Each week we are working on
a special gift for Jesus. It might be trying harder in school, helping
out more at home, being kinder to others, etc. These good acts will
be the gifts we give Jesus on His birthday. In conjunction with our
Advent Activities we have been learning about God’s laws, The Ten
Commandments. We recognize that God isn’t trying to be mean to us
but, rather because of His great love for us He has given us
guidelines on how to love Him and others. Following these Ten
Commandments will draw us closer to God and make us happy. In
Math this week we have continued practicing strategies we have
learned and working on a new strategy. Using Tape Diagrams to add
and subtract was our new strategy. Our focus in Language Arts this
week has been identifying Possessive Nouns and making inferences.
Both are difficult at first but, with continued practice throughout the
year, all should become successful. In Phonics and Spelling we have
worked with the long vowel ‘i’ spelled i, ie, igh, and y. Each day we
have been listening to different Christmas stories to help get us all
ready for Jesus’ birthday. As you can see these second grade elves
continue to be very busy! Enjoy the weekend! Happy December!
With Warm Wishes...Ms. Savage
________________________________________________________
Third Grade…. The third grade students did a wonderful job
presenting the Thanksgiving Mass last week! Advent activities are
now underway in 3rd grade. Everyone is excited to have an elf in our
room, too. Her name is Glitter Noelle, and she is encouraging us all to
do random acts of kindness throughout the Advent season. We also
finished the chapter on the four marks of the Church. We read The
Legend of the Poinsettia and created beautiful poinsettias that
decorate our hallway. The students were thrilled to have earned their
first s'more party after they completed reading 10,000 pages of
independent reading! Now they are working even harder to earn
another celebration. In math, we finished our module on measurement
and will have a test next week. We are working on a Christmasthemed writing piece that focuses on the use of
adjectives.
________________________________________________________
ELA.....Mrs. Mary Terela
Our 5th and 6th grades were fortunate to see a production of
Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Falstaff at the Anderson Center friday. Mrs.
Jean Goodheart invited our students to attend this student friendly
performance. We spent some class time in advance of seeing the
show by watching a video rehearsal of the Met’s new production of
Falstaff. This helped us appreciate the time that is spent rehearsing,
creating scenery, costumes, etc. by professionals. My, what a
beautiful theatre the Metropolitan Opera House is! Next we read a
synopsis of the story this week along with a biography about
Giuseppe Verdi, followed by a “trivia question group search.” Our top
5 winners were rewarded! Last of all, two performers, along with Mrs.
Goodheart, visited our classroom Thursday to share their music
singing talents. We even had a chance to warm up our singing voices
with them! Having background information certainly helped us to
look forward to our trip and performance. It was great fun!
________________________________________________________
Math & Science...Mrs. Rai
The 6th grade Mathalon team will be competing this Saturday.
6th Science is working on topographic maps and the math class is
writing expressions and equations.
5th Science is studying weather and in math we learning the metric
system.
4th Science worked with waves and learned about crest and
amplitude. 4th math is working on adding and subtracting mixed
numbers.
________________________________________________________
Social Studies, Current Events, Religion......John Kocik
Please support our bottle drive on Sat. Dec. 6 9-11 in lower church
parking lot.
4th Rel- We have made door-knob decorations for several of our
classrooms- all in the spirit of Advent.
5th Rel- Students are discussing the steps and procedures for a
successful confession during the sacrament of Reconciliation.
6th Rel- The students are viewing the movie “Ten Commandments” as
well as readings from Scripture the adventures of Moses.
4th S.S.- We are about to learn how our government got organized
after the Rev. war.
5th S.S.- It is now the “starving time” at Jamestown. How could this
have been avoided.
6th S.S.- We are being introduced to the Hindu and Buddhists
religions.
Quote
When it comes to giving, some people stop at nothing..
_____________________________________________________
twitter - @catholicschools
facebook - www.facebook.com/broomecatholicschools
facebook - www.facebook.com/stjohnschoolbinghamton