Homeroom

You are cordially invited to attend our class liturgies!

Room 201: Thursday, January 9, Thursday, March 5, and Tuesday, May 5.

We will make sandwiches for St. Vincent's Outreach Program on May 13th.

St. Valentine's Day

We will exchange Valentines on Friday, Feb. 14 and have a party during the last hour of school (2-3:50). Students should bring Valentines for classmates and something, like a box or bag, that can hold the Valentines. There are 19 students in our class. It might be easiest if your child brings 19 signed Valentines without putting a specific classmate's name on each.

Happy Catholic Schools Week! - Important information

We are collecting gently used and new winter clothes (pants, long sleeve shirts, gloves, scarves, and hats) to donate to the Karen House Catholic Worker Shelter.

We are having a movie day on Friday. Permission slips for the G-rated movie have been sent home and need to be returned prior to Friday.

Permission slips have also been sent home for those who made the talent show. Congratulations to those who made it and to all who tried out for your many gifts and talents! We wish all of you could have been in the show. There is a mandatory dress rehearsal on Thursday after school for all in the talent show; details are on the permission slip.

Many thanks to everyone who helped out at Mass on Sunday! I was proud of all of you!

Catholic Schools Week is coming up, Jan. 27-31!

Throughout Catholic Schools Week, our class will be collecting gently used or new winter clothes (pants, long sleeve shirts, gloves, scarves & hats) that will be donated to the Karen House Catholic Worker Shelter. These should be brought to school anytime during Catholic Schools Week.

Talent show tryouts are Wednesday, January 15. It is my understanding that the top acts selected at talent show tryouts will try out again for the Talent Show Committee. Permission slips for the talent show have been sent home. The show itself will be on Friday, January 31.

Please watch your student's backpack and your email for further information regarding the numerous activities taking place during Catholic Schools' Week.

Conduct Honors Students who lost 10 or fewer conduct points during the 1st semester were honored today with a free dress down coupon to be redeemed on Friday, January 24. We even had one student who has earned a perfect conduct score across the entire semester! Congratulations and thank you to these students for showing exemplary respect and courtesy throughout the first half of the school year! Thank you for your example!

Catholic Schools Week

Dress Down and Dress Up Days

What better way to celebrate Catholic Schools Week than to have a few Dress Down and Dress Up Days!

Tuesday, January 28th- students may DRESS UP in their Sunday Best (i.e. dresses, dress pants and a nice shirt, tights, tie, etc.)

(FREE-no cost)

Wednesday, January 29th- students may dress down in their favorite Patriotic outfit. (i.e. red, white and blue bandana, socks, American flag shirt, etc.)

($1.00 dress down)

Thursday, January 30th-students may DRESS UP and wear their Sunday Best attire (i.e. skirts and nice shirt, dress pants, etc.)

(FREE-no cost)

Friday, January 31st-students will have a regular dress down day!

(FREE-no cost)

*Dress code rules still apply! If your child chooses to not dress down, they HAVE to be in their uniform. If your daughter would like to wear leggings, please have a shirt that covers their bottom.


12/13 - Upcoming Prayer Service and Mass

Our class will be leading the Advent prayer service on the last day of school before break, as well as Mass on Thursday of the week that we return to school. Between these two events, almost everyone has a part, and most of these involve some reading. If your child has a part in the prayer service, please remind him or her to practice! The readers of the first reading and Psalm for Mass also should have a copy of their part to practice. The petition readers and song announcer will get their parts this week.

One week of classes left before Christmas! Veni, Emmanuel!

12/12 - Missing Work Notice

Please check FACTS to see if your child has any missing work! Missing work decreases in value each day, and any work that is still missing at the conclusion of the quarter next Friday will receive a score of zero.

12/10 - Just a quick reminder that DARE graduation is tonight! Students should arrive at 6:20 wearing dressy clothes (no jeans, please). Many thanks to the parents who are providing refreshments for us.

5th grade is responsible for leading the Advent prayer services this year. Room 201 is leading the 2nd and 4th prayer services, on Wednesday, December 11 and Friday, December 20. The prayer services will take place as part of the school day.

After exceeding our fundraising quota, we enjoyed the Mission Carnival before Thanksgiving very much! (A couple of pictures are below.)

11/20 Field Trip - We had an amazing time at Biztown today! I watched so many students grow, face challenges and fears, and accomplished something to be proud of during our day as "grownups" and I am so proud of each and every one of them!

Pictures will be coming soon!

Students brought their checkbooks, debit cards, and anything they purchased at Biztown home to keep. Students who sent "real money" to buy Biztown merchandise will receive it soon.

11/19 - Updates - Don't forget to mark the new DARE graduation date on your calendar!

Field Trip: Please make sure that your child brings a sack lunch for the field trip tomorrow (November 20). Students should wear attire that is appropriate for their position and comfortable for being on their feet all day. They will have an opportunity to purchase cookies, popcorn, and drinks with their Biztown salary at Biztown. If you wish to purchase any of the merchandise on the merchandise sheet, the form and the (real, not Biztown) money must be brought to school in the morning.

Mission Month: Our class has achieved our goal of raising a minimum of $57 to attend the Mission Carnival on the day before Thanksgiving! We will continue to collect money until it is due the day before the Mission Carnival. Our current total is $65.19. We are excited to give this money to support the work of the Sisters in Bolivia and Texas.

Dress Down Days: Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of Thanksgiving week will be themed dress-down days. This means that students who choose to participate must wear clothes that matches the theme. For example, no jeans are allowed on pajama day. Detailed guidelines can be found in the weekly newsletter. Each dress down day costs a dollar. The dollar needs to be brought on or before dress down day. Students may pay for the dress down days in advance or may pay for all three at the beginning of the week. Students are not obligated to participate, but students who dress down and forget money may not be permitted to participate in future dress down days until they remember it.

Class Liturgies - Our class will serve at three Masses in new year, in January, March, and May. The dates above have been updated to reflect the new dates if you would like to mark your calendar now!

11/18 - DARE Graduation Date Change: Due to scheduling conflicts, the date of DARE graduation has been changed to Tuesday, December 10. It is still at 6:30 p.m. and students still need to report to the gymnasium at 6:15. Please have your child dress in a nice outfit. Please, no jeans.

11/4 - Mission Month is here! Please see the email newsletter and the handout sent home last week for details about the many activities going on at school this month to raise funds and awareness for the missions.

If your child is a server, server field trip permission forms went home today. Please sign and return if you would like your child to participate in the server field trip.

Upcoming events include our mock interviews (9:15-10:15am on October 31), Halloween party (after interviews on October 31) and 2nd class liturgy (8am on Tuesday, November 5). JA Biztown jobs will be assigned after the interviews on October 31 and the field trip is November 20.

10/7 - Where has the first quarter gone? Please check for any missing work in FACTS. If end-of-quarter grades are to reflect your child's real academic work, all missing work needs to be in before the quarter closes at 3pm on Friday.

9/26:

Life Skills: Our first life skill lesson is scheduled for October 31st after Mass. It is titled, “How to Interview for a Job.” We think that the interview process will take about an hour to an hour and a half. We need volunteers to help us “interview” students for their JA Biz Town jobs. We will have some questions to help you with the interview. You will ask the questions and then you will decide if you would recommend the student for the job or not.

DARE: DARE graduation is scheduled for Tuesday, December 3rd at 6:30 PM. Students need to report to the gymnasium at 6:15. Please have your child dress in a nice outfit. Please, no jeans.

Field Trip: 5th grade will once again go to JA Biz Town. The field trip is scheduled for Nov. 20th. We will need around eight chaperones to assist at the different businesses. A signup sheet for volunteers will be sent home as the date gets closer. If more parents volunteer than we need, we will choose volunteers based on a lottery. Chaperones will need to drive separately from the bus (and your child) to JA Biz Town in Chesterfield. If you volunteer, there is no guarantee that you will be at the same business as your child.

Students will be allowed to “dress out” of uniform for the field trip. Students will be expected to wear attire that is fitting for their job. For example, if your child is the CFO or CEO of a company, he or she should wear business clothes. If your child is an installer at the phone company, then jeans would be appropriate. More information on your child’s role will come home closer to the field trip.

9/25: DARE graduation is Tuesday, December 3 at 6:30 p.m. Please mark your calendars!

Remind your students to show you their graded/returned work. Some students' work ends up in my recycle bin which means that you miss out on that communication and students don't have a record of what they need to continue to work on.

Students brought home an economic deprivation survey earlier this week. Survey results are kept confidential but help the school to receive funding Title I services and professional development money. Please fill this form out and send it back to school if you have not already done so. Thank you!

9/17: Picture Day is October 2. All students took home two flyers today pertaining to Picture Day. Please be sure to ask your student for them. This is a separate event from the all-school picture being taken this Thursday, September 19. On that day all students are asked to wear a red uniform top/jacket if they have one.

Continue to bring a healthy snack and several number 2 pencils to ITBS testing week. Let's keep up our motivation to the end!

Great job, everyone, on our first class Mass today! Mrs. Lance sent us a note saying that Jesus was very pleased with how we proclaimed His Word, prayed and sang for Him. All your hard work and dedication helped us to lead our entire community in a prayerful experience this morning. You should be proud!

Specials Schedule: Mass is on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8am.

  • Monday - Music We attend Adoration regularly on Tuesdays.
  • Tuesday - Computers DARE has started and meets on Mondays.
  • Wednesday - Art Students wear DARE shirts on Mondays during DARE.
  • Thursday - No specials The lunch menu is available in the school office.
  • Friday - PE Lunch money is entirely online through FACTS.

Class Library

Thanks to several students who volunteered to help label books during their free time, Room 201's library is open for business! Students are encouraged to check out one book at a time to bring home and enjoy. Some of our books may also be useful for the book reports for Ms. Shawver's class. In addition to fiction, I also have a nice array of books about saints and other religious topics, historical fiction, biographies, and books about science and historical periods. Come and check it out!

Conduct

We will use a point system for tallying the Conduct grade. Each student will receive 7 points per day for acceptable behavior. You will see a weekly (usually daily) tally of the points your child earned in FACTS. A student can lose a point by disrupting class, displaying disrespectful behaviors, or any behavior that is deemed to require a "Think Sheet." For example, some students lose points for speaking in the hall when they are required to be silent.

Scholastic

Ms. Shawver is taking care of Scholastic book orders for both 5th grade classes this year. We will have book orders through Scholastic once a month. You can always go online to purchase books and Ms. Shawver will submit both 5th grades at the end of each month. Scholastic Book Orders Website for our class: https://orders.scholastic.com/TQTVY