Saint Gabriel School Weekly Newsletter for Parents

Week 9 - October 18

UPCOMING EVENTS

Fall into Reading night

Fall Into Reading Night for K-3 will be Monday, October 21. Space is limited so families must pre-register please. Families will enjoy several activity stations followed by a bonfire and s'mores!

Walk-a-thon Schedule and Guest Information

Walk-a-thon is Thursday, October 24. The walk will begin with a pep rally in the gym at 8:30 a.m. K-8 will then walk three laps around the school and through our Natural PlayPark with their grade level. Classes will be staggered. Guests are welcome to join students on the walk. *Please note all guests must sign in outside the gym (Door 34) before walking. Please no guests for lunch.

Parking: Entrances will be blocked at 8:30 a.m. except the entrance off Hudson Lane closest to Bardstown Rd. Guest parking is available by the church and Happy Acres.

This day is a 1:00 pm dismissal.

Walk-a-thon Uniform Break

Students are encouraged to dress in their class colors for Walk-a-thon. Students should follow uniform break guidelines for bottoms. Students may wear add-ons including jewelry, tutus, hats, temporary hair color, or colored socks. Please refer to the handbook p. 48 for a list of prohibited items.

PreK/ JK: Light Blue, K: Red, 1st: Pink, 2nd: Green, 3rd: Dark Blue, 4th: Yellow, 5th: Purple, 6th: Orange, 7th: Black, 8th: White

Letter from Administration

Friendzy: Listen Up!

Dear Parents/Guardians,

We are wrapping up the second unit of Friendzy. This month students learned the Catchphrase LISTEN UP! with a focus on Whole Body Listening; learning to listen with our whole selves so that others feel seen, heard, and valued.

Catchphrase (main point for students to catch on to): “Listen Up!”

Key Verses (Biblical anchor points):

Deuteronomy 6:4-5: “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”

Proverbs 2:2: “Tune your ears to wisdom, and concentrate on understanding.”

Whole Body Listening is a concept to help students focus and actively listen with more than just their ears. It involves ALL of these parts of our body: ears, eyes, brain, mouth, heart, hands, and feet.

We encourage you to Continue the Friendzy Conversation with your student(s). Here are the main points your students have been learning in Unit 2:

Listening is a whole-body activity. Turn your body toward the person speaking and use your eyes to SEE the person’s expressions and posture, your ears to TAKE IN what they are saying, your heart to RELATE to whatever emotions they are communicating so that you can RESPOND with wisdom and love, in words if necessary.
Listening can keep peace. When we are quick to listen and slow to speak, we can be sure we are understanding others more clearly before we jump to conclusions or have misunderstandings that lead to hurt feelings and anger. Wait to speak until you are sure you understand.
Listening demands good questions. Some people need to be drawn out. Some people need help making their point. Questions like, “tell me more” and “how does that make you feel?” can be powerful to help people feel loved and safe in friendship. Be curious about your friends.
Wise words heal hearts. Affirming words that follow active listening can heal hearts and build friendships. When we “concentrate on understanding”, we will respond to our friends with wisdom and encouragement that builds friendships and changes the culture of our schools.

G.E.A.R. Up to Listen Up!

G—Get Quiet: Turning off the external noise of media creates space to focus on quieting down the internal conversations happening in our own minds.

E—Engage: Be present in conversations by actively listening with your whole body. When appropriate, engage, and ask questions. Practice patience, wait for your turn to talk, and be careful not to interrupt.

A—Accept: Actively listening is a way we accept the gift of what others are sharing. Let’s be friends who accept the gift of other’s stories, receiving them with kindness and respect.

R—Respond: Responding with whole-body listening communicates we are engaged, we care, and we’re listening.

ASK THOUGHTFUL QUESTIONS

Next time you have your eyes glued to a screen and begin to tune out the world around you, consider pausing and asking yourself these helpful questions to practice the skills of self-awareness and social awareness in your home:

What is happening around me?
Who is present in the room that I need to be aware of?
Do I need to pay attention to them?

We are better and stronger together!

Blessings,

Sarah Eaton

School Counselor

A Note about Spanish

As you know, the Spanish position is currently vacant. We are not in a position to have a long-term sub or replacement for this position right now so we've come up with a plan.

7th and 8th grade-

Remainder of T1- 7G and 8P will complete Spanish activities during designated Spanish block
Trimester 2- 7th grade, 8P, and 8S will be divided into elective classes. 8Z will have culture class.

K-6-

K-6 will have library classes at times they have chosen with Mrs. McLaughlin.
Students in grades 1-6 will have Dreambox/ Lexia/ WIN time during their previous Spanish blocks.
Kindergarten will continue to have Catechesis of the Good Shepherd classes.

This schedule will begin next week. We will monitor this plan and adjust as needed. Thank you for your support.

HIGHLIGHTS

QUICK LINKS

Open House Thank you!

A huge thank you to everyone who worked Open House! It was a great success. We had 26 families who toured. Our Student Council students did an excellent job as tour guides. We got many compliments. Also, a special thank you to Erica Hodge and Tami Prestigiacomo for volunteering.

Applications for next year are now open. Visit our website for more information.

Congratulations to Bethany Dages! You are the winner of a $100 Amazon gift card for referring a family to attend Open House!

2025-26 Tuition Assistance

It's time to start thinking about the 2025-26 school year. Tuition assistance applications are now available at www.ceflou.org. Parents/guardians will need their 2023 federal tax return and 2023 W-2’s; (additional documents may be requested if they have additional income). Deadline to complete the application and provide all documentation is November 30, 2024 for consideration in the initial round of funding. These families will receive award notifications no later than March 1, 2025.

Tuition Assistance Information Flyer (English)

Tuition Assistance Information Flyer (Spanish)

Bingo Schedule

Bingo

Bingo is one of our largest fundraisers. Funds are used to offer tuition assistance and capital projects. A schedule for this year has been created to assist with staffing volunteers. If you volunteer, your child may have a uniform break the next non-mass day! Please sign up using Sign Up Genius.

Oct. 23- 6Passanisi

Oct. 24- 6Rhea

Oct. 30- 7Gooch

Nov. 6- 7Fullerton

Nov. 7- 7Cecil

Honor Thy Child/ Safe Environment Training

Are you planning to volunteer or attend a school event this year?

Field Trip chaperones and special event volunteers need to have a background check on file and have attended the Safe Environment Training. For more information, visit https://www.stgabriel.net/background. Not sure if we have your information? Contact background@stgabriel.net. To view upcoming Honor Thy Child trainings, visit https://www.archlou.org/about-the-archdiocese/archdiocesan-policies-guidelines-and-handbooks/restoringtrust/safe/. Background checks and safe environment training refresher must be completed every five years.

Save the Dates

October 31- Halloween parties (K-3) @ 1:45 p.m.
November 1- All Saints Day mass
November 8- Ukulele/ guitar electives performance @ 1:45pm
November 9- Mother/ Son Event
December 13- Eat Lunch With Your Child Day
March 13- Grandparents Day (2nd)
April 24- Grandparents Day (8th)
April 26- Confirmation

Post of the week

From The PTSO

Walk-A-Thon Giving is live!

Saint Gabriel will be hosting its annual PTSO “Fall Crawl” Walk-A-Thon on Thursday, October 24th. Funds raised help provide student scholarships, school enrichment, teacher requests for their classrooms and teacher encouragement throughout the year. Our goal this year is to raise $32,000.

Walk-a-thon giving is now live! Visit https://fundraise.givesmart.com/vf/SGWALK to get started.

Our school goal is $32,000. All proceeds directly benefit the students at St. Gabriel by providing funds to support our play park refresh, classroom equipment and furniture, teacher appreciation, student scholarships, and enrichment.

Two Ways to Give:

Click on Become a Champion to set up your own fundraising page*. Click on "Join a Team" to join your homeroom team. You can then personalize your page and share your direct link with family and friends! *This year your page will NOT require approval before it goes live.

Donors can register on the main page and select “Donate”. The form will ask donors if they want to attribute to a child or homeroom.

Family goal is $150 to win awesome prizes!

Walk-a-thon Leaderboard

Whose class will win? Here is the current leaderboard:

2-Henehan
K-Riley
8-Zuhars
1-Adams
K-Meuris

Box Tops

Box Tops is a great fundraiser for PTSO! Download the Box Tops for Education app and scan your receipt for a contribution of $1.50 or more. Be sure to enter the name of the child who should receive credit. Our next Box Tops Uniform Break will be October 28.

Our school ID is ID: 393279.

PTSO Group Me

Not on social media but want to stay up to date on PTSO news? Join our GroupMe chat. GroupMe link

PTSO Events 2024-25

Walk-a-thon- October 24

Mother/ Son event- November 9

Santa Shop- December 2-4

Father/ Daughter Dance- January 11

Paint Night- February 5

From The Parish

Link Your Kroger Card

Choose St. Gabriel for your Kroger Community Rewards! This can be done easily by selecting our program on your digital account.

St. Gabriel ID # is: QA178

Learn more at https://www.kroger.com/i/community/community-rewards

From The Community

We support Amendment 2

The Archdiocese of Louisville and Catholic Conference of Bishops supports the Kentucky Amendment 2 and encourages Catholic school families to vote yes this November.

To learn more about this bill for , visit https://www.kentuckystudents.org/.

Superintendent asks Catholics to ‘do your homework’ on Amendment 2

Check out this story in the Record.

https://therecordnewspaper.org/commentary-superintendent-asks-catholics-to-do-your-homework-on-amendment-2/

High School Information

We have added a section on News You Can Use for high school information. Check out this section for upcoming events for prospective students. This section will continue to be updated.

To view information about Catholic high school open houses, visit https://louisvillecatholicschools.com/schools/high-schools/.

Saints for Kids Art Submissions

Youth who are high school age and younger are invited to submit original visual art, such as a drawing or painting, to be featured in the “Saints for Kids” section of Youth Focus in The Record Newspaper.

Students can submit art depicting the following saints:

St. Martin de Porres, deadline to submit — Oct. 17

Our Lady of Guadalupe, deadline to submit — Nov. 21

A photo of the artwork can be submitted via email to ocastlen@archlou.org or the original can be mailed to the attention of The Record at the Maloney Center, 1200 S. Shelby St., Louisville, Ky., 40203, with a stamped return envelope.

Fern Creek Chamber Fall Festival

Fern Creek Chamber Community Fall Festival is right around the corner! This year, with all of the renovation at the Community Center, it will be held at Fern Creek High School, 9115 Fern Creek Road on Thursday evening, October 17, from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm. It is a fun-filled family night of trick or treating, networking and family fun!

Mercy Trunk or Treat

Join us on Wednesday, October 23, from 6 PM to 8 PM at Mercy Academy for a family-friendly event, and ALL are welcome! We are so excited to see everyone!

News You Can Use Website

Saint Gabriel the Archangel Catholic School(502) 239-5535 | school@stgabriel.net | School Website | Parish Website

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