June 8, 2020
Dear Families,
If you haven't seen Mrs. Stewart's letter regarding Mrs. McKinley's health, you can click on the link. Mrs. McKinley is at home and will be meeting with a team of doctors on Tuesday to plan treatment. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers. We cannot thank everyone enough for their support, encouragement and patience during this Covid-19 school closure. We miss all of our kids and can't wait to see you again. Thank you for sharing your kids with us.
With love and prayers for a safe and fun summer. Please keep Mrs. McKinley in your prayers. If we can do anything for you over the summer please let us know.
With a heavy heart, Mrs. Norris
June 1, 2020
Dear Families,
Happy June. This week is again going to be a short four day week. We have no school on Thursday, it is graduation day for our 8th graders. So, say a prayer for all our graduates on Thursday and enjoy the day. Thank you to everyone who have been checking power school and emailing me missing assignments. June 3, is officially the last day I can accept late or missing work.
Mrs. Norris and I are proud of all our families and students. We hope that during the summer all our students enjoy fun vacation time with their families, but will also continue to read, write and practice math. Our reading eggs and math seeds programs will be open for use during the summer months. There are summer reading logs available and students should record in a writing journal their daily summer adventures.
Mrs. Norris and I have loved being your students teachers this year. We pray that we will be able to enjoy seeing you all again at the beginning of this next school year in the court yard.
Big hugs being sent to all our fantastic first graders soon to be SUPER second graders!
Love,
Mrs. McKinley and Mrs. Norris
May 26, 2020
Dear Families,
We hope you all had a great Memorial Day weekend.
This week is a short four day week. Parents and students you ROCK! I am so proud of all of you that have been completing and submitting your work regularly to me. Please note though, that not every page I assign needs to be submitted/turned in. If an assignment needs to be submitted to me, I state complete/submit. Example: the only math pages that need to be submitted to me this week are the review/test pages. The other pages are assigned for practice of the skills, leading up to the test pages and do not need to be submitted to me. I also need to let you know that any late/missing work should be emailed to me by June 3, 2020.
Keep up the good work! Mrs. Norris and I miss our students and again are very proud of how wonderful all our families have been in helping our first graders complete their work, during this online schooling time.
Take care.
Mrs. McKinley and Mrs. Norris
May 18, 2020
Dear Families,
Wow, we are almost done with the month of May. June is almost here! Hang in there, just a bit more school to go until summer.
To keep our spirits up, our school has decided to do another week of fun themes. Monday will be puzzles/games day, Tuesday is tropical fun in the sun day, Wednesday culinary day, Thursday bike, hoola-hoop, or scooter day and Friday No school/ movie day. Monday of the following week will be Memorial Day. It is also a no school day but we ask that you wear Red, White and Blue to honor of all those that have laid down their lives for our freedom.
If you can, please take photos and share what you do on these days on our school face book page.
Have fun!
We love and miss our students.
Mrs. McKinley and Mrs. Norris
May 11, 2020
Hello you Fantastic first graders and Awesome parents,
Thank you so very much for the drawings, cards, flowers, sweet notes, emails and other things that we received this last week during Teacher appreciation week. Your kindness and love that you shared with us, this last week, were very much appreciated and needed.
Both Mrs. Norris and I were very impressed with all the creative robots and stories that were turned in this last week. If you have not had a chance to view the robots yet, check out our class photo gallery. I bet the photos will make you smile.
This next week, I have assigned an assignment that I hope all of our first graders will enjoy doing. It involves reading, art and showmanship. Parents if you can, video your student presenting the assignment and send it to Mrs. Norris and I, we would love it. The assignment is to create a puppet show from a story. I also have assigned a Germination experiment. For this experiment you will need a sunny window area, a sandwich size baggy, a couple wet paper towels, some type of bean seeds, like: pinto, kidney or lima beans and about five to seven days of observation. I hope these assignments will add a little excitement into your at home schooling. Mrs. Norris and I are very proud of all our students and parents. Keep up the good work!
We loved, seeing many of you at the drive by parade this last Friday. We miss you all! Take care and stay safe.
Mrs. McKinley and Mrs. Norris
May 4, 2020
Happy May Everyone!
In May, our school usually does a May Crowning prayer service to honor the Virgin Mary the Mother of our Lord and Savior. In keeping with this tradition our religion chapter this week will be Chapter 25 titled: We Honor Mary and the Saints. I encourage you to read through the chapter, pray the Hail Mary and talk about ways you can honor Mary this week at home. If you want to share photos of the ways you and your family decide to honor Mary, please send them to knorris@stvs.us so we can post them in our class photo gallery or on our prayer page.
I am very excited that our school is having a drive by visit by our families in the church parking lot, on May 8th. All of us teachers will be there, 6 feet apart from each other in the court yard, from 11:00 to Noon. Both Mrs. Norris and I miss all our students! So, we are hoping that we might see many of their smiling faces on Friday and be able to wave a big hello to each and everyone of them!
Until then we hope that everyone will continue working hard on their school work. Parents you are awesome and we so appreciate everything you are doing to keep your children learning and growing in knowledge and skills. I hope both, parents and students have fun and get creative with the build a robot project this week. I also hope many of you will be able to do the plant experiment or an experiment of your choice this week. .
God bless you all. Mother Mary and St. Vincent de Paul, Pray for us!
Love,
Mrs. McKinley and Mrs. Norris
April 27, 2020
Dear Parents,
Wow, wasn't Spirit Week great! Thank you to all of you for participating and sending pictures. I have to admit I have been pretty sad since the announcement of school not resuming. Mrs. Norris and I are very thankful for all of you and your willingness to share pictures of your children with us. Seeing their smiling faces, having fun during Spirit Week, truly raised my spirits and gave me renewed energy to tackle planning lessons for the end of April and the beginning of May. Please keep sending photos for our class picture gallery to knorris@stvs.us , the pictures really help Mrs. Norris and I. They brighten our days!
This next week is the end of April and the beginning of May so do not forget to get the April reading logs done and ready to submit. Thank you Parents for being such great partners in your children's learning during this pandemic. We are so thankful for your participation in helping us keep your students learning and completing their school work. You are awesome and we truly could not do any of this without you!
Please give your kids hugs from us.
We love and miss them!
Mrs. McKinley and Mrs. Norris
April 20, 2020
Hello and welcome back!
Mrs. Norris and I hope everyone had a restful break.
This week, our school is celebrating our school spirit with some fun themed days. We hope that all our families will enjoy taking part in the themes, and that you will take photos and share them with us by sending the photos to knorris@stvs.us or sharing them on the school face book.
We have great news. Mr. Donovan, shared with us that our class school rice bowl, that was left at school the week of the closure, had $19.87 in it. Through the generous donations from the other classrooms that week plus our classroom donation, $240.84 was collected. This means that the cow was purchased. We got the Cow! How exciting is that. Plus even more donations have been being sent in to the school. So, Mr. Donovan says, we have enough collected for even more animals to be purchased. We will keep you posted on the final tally of Lenten donations and animals purchased. Thank you so much for your participation and generosity.
Mrs. Norris and I want you all to know that we are so proud of all of you! Everyone has been doing such a wonderful job on completing and turning in assignments. Way to go first graders and parents! As we begin this next week of lessons, we encourage you to keep up the good work! Mrs. Norris and I will do our best to continue to plan and post lessons that we hope will keep all our students learning and growing towards second grade. Hang in there parents, you are awesome. Hugs to our fantastic first graders!
God bless you all!
Love,
Mrs.McKinley and Mrs. Norris
Please send your final rice bowl donation by April 24th to:
Wanda Stewart
Attn: Rice Bowl
St. Vincent de Paul School
30527 8th Ave. S.
Federal Way, WA 98003
April 10, 2020
Happy Easter! No lessons this week, it is Spring Break.
On April 20th our online lessons will resume and reflect our School Spirit Week. During our School Spirit Week, we will be asking students to dress up, get creative and have fun with the suggested daily themes. Please send us photos of your students taking part with each daily theme. Send/email photos to knorris@stvs.us so they can be posted on our class site picture gallery. Pictures can also be posted in the comment section on the schools Facebook page.
Monday - Super Hero Day: Dress up as your favorite super hero or create a costume and become your own made up super hero.
Tuesday - Creative Genius Day: Share your creativity. Do some sidewalk chalk drawings, color/ paint pictures, create Playdough creatures, or build a Lego creation, sing, dance and have fun doing creative artsy things. Don't forget to send us pictures.
Wednesday- Furry Friend Day: Send us a picture of you and your pet or you and your favorite stuffed animal.
Thursday- Crazy Hair Day: How funny or creative can you get with styling your hair? Show us.
Friday- Pajama Day: Stay in your jammies all day, build a blanket fort and send us pictures of you in your jammies and blanket fort.
Mrs. Norris and I look forward to seeing pictures of our students and families, taking part in our school spirit days.
Love and miss you all!
Mrs. McKinley and Mrs. Norris
Schedule for Week 5: Enjoy your Easter Break!
Dear School Families,
As our Lenten journey took a sharp and unexpected turn this year, we hope that your family has been able to find comfort in celebrating traditions, though perhaps in new and different ways.
Like you, we have had to think about the best way to ensure a successful completion of a school tradition, our Catholic Relief Services Rice Bowl collection, in a new way.
This year, donations collected in our classroom Rice Bowls will be donated to purchase livestock through CRS programs that empower people around the world. As of our last day of regular school in March, we had collected over $250 - enough to purchase a rabbit, a flock of chickens, two pigs and a goat!
This was an amazing accomplishment for just one week of donations (with our second week still to be counted)! St. Vincent's students have already helped many families.
But we're not done! We need your help to finish strong.
Some students have been performing chores, acts of service and acts of kindness to earn money to contribute to rice bowls, and other families are contributing funds saved from preparing simpler meals. Whatever your Lenten practice, we hope that you'll enjoy the following suggestion for bringing the season of prayer, fasting, and giving to a productive conclusion. Please adapt these suggestions in whatever way is most meaningful for your family.
Please gather as a family to count the money you have collected in your rice bowl. Take time to remember the good deeds and goodwill that prompted those donations, and perhaps say a prayer of thanksgiving for blessings, and pray an intention of goodwill for those whose lives will be changed by your generosity.
Because we are unable to collect and count money from each family, please mail a check in the amount of your total collection to the school at the address above. The last day to accept donations will be Friday April 24th. We will then update our community during the following week on just how large a herd of animals we will be contributing. We are excited to see how each person's small contribution can create a big impact when we join together! Can't wait to see if we get the cow.
Thank you for your generosity of time, treasure, and spirit.
Dear Families,
Our school Lenten Rice Bowl collection this year has allowed us to purchase the above pictured animals. We are just missing the cow. So, our school is extending our Rice Bowl collection to include our school closure time. We would like to encourage all our students to try and earn money, by doing chores at home, to help purchase the cow. Just think how good it will feel to come back to school and share how you earned money to put towards the purchase of the cow!
Lets work hard and get that cow!
March 30, 2020
Good day my boisterous Spokane group!
I miss singing our Jesus song with you in the morning, doing prayer together, and reading a good story out loud with all of you. Your contagious laughter and occasional interrupting of a story, with comments or questions was always a challenge, but I miss it terribly now that I am facing a computer and not your engaging selves.
Spring is here, so I am going to begin a science unit on trees and plants. I think you will enjoy the unit. If we were at school this week, we would be going outside and identifying types of trees and looking at different types of tree seeds. Maybe at home this week, your parent can take a picture of you by a tree outside and you can write me a note about what type of tree you think it is and why. Mrs. Norris and I hope you enjoy the plant unit and all the other lessons we have planned for you.
We love and miss you!
Mrs. McKinley and Mrs. Norris fmckinley@stvs.us or knorris@stvs.us
March 23, 2020
Hello You Fantastic First Graders,
Golly we miss working with you! This week, knowing what fantastic students you are, we have added some new links and other activities to our site . We hope you enjoy trying out the new Spelling City link and Phonographic link. Keep working hard! We are counting down the days until we get to see you all again.
Send us pictures of your activities, like your weather book, map of your room, cardboard model of your house or just a note to say hi. Our emails are fmckinley@stvs.us and knorris@stvs.us
Take care! You are in our thoughts and prayers.
Love,Mrs. McKinley and Mrs. Norris
March 16, 2020
Hello First Graders,
We hope you and your families stay healthy during this closure. We miss you already. We will send you messages, and of course, work to keep you busy each week on this site. We wish we could figure out how to send you sticker rewards for all the work you will be completing. Since we cannot do that, we will plan for a Popsicle and popcorn party for the day we all return to school. You are all in our prayers and we are counting the days until we see all of your smiling, bright and eager faces ready to share your six week adventures with us. Your parents can feel free to send pictures of you, your work and any questions they have to fmckinley@stvs.us or knorris@stvs.
Love to you all.
Mrs. McKinley and Mrs. Norris
Holy Week 2020
April 6, 2020
Dear Students,
Mrs. Norris and I wish you all a very blessed Holy Week. We so wish that we were able to be with you doing special activities having to do with each of the days leading up to Easter. Please know that we are constantly thinking of all of you and praying for you and your families.
We will miss not being able to celebrate a Seder meal with everyone in our classroom or color eggs and make baskets together. Maybe you can do a Seder meal at home with your family and make special placemats to put on the table for the meal. A Seder meal is the meal that the Jewish people celebrate on Passover. Passover is a holiday when the Jewish people celebrate and remember Moses freeing them from slavery in Egypt. This is the meal Jesus was celebrating at His last supper with his disciples. Read Luke 22:7-38 or Matthew 26 17-30 in the bible, with your family, if you would like to learn and understand how this connects to Jesus and Holy week.
Another thing that you might try doing at home with your family is coloring hard boiled eggs and make a basket or container to put the eggs in. Eggs are just one symbol of Easter. See if you can discover more symbols of Easter and email me what you discover at fmckinley@stvs.us .
Please send Mrs.Norris pictures for our classroom picture gallery. Pictures of any special things you do at home to prepare for Easter would be nice. Send the pictures to knorris@stvs.us.
We love and miss you bunches!
Mrs. McKinley and Mrs. Norris