Saint Ann School News

• Congratulations to all our students who received First Communion last Saturday! Thanks to the families and teachers who help prepare these wonderful children.

• Congratulations again to all our students who participated in Junior Olympics. Local results were: Nick (3rd Place in Running Long Jump), Grace (2nd Place in 200m), Jennifer (3rd Place in Shot & Discus), Sarah (1st Place in 400m), Mitchell (2nd Place in 3000m), and Christian /Ben/Christopher/Chandler(3rd Place in 400m Relay). Bakersfield results were: Sarah (3rd Place in 400m).

• I invite all of you to our Ice Cream Social this Thursday at 6:30 PM in the Parish Center. Several of the classes will provide entertainment as we sit back, enjoy a treat, and visit with other Saint Ann families. Although the focus of this evening is to socialize and enjoy our treat, we do ask that while the students perform, you give them your full attention. Please also help us welcome new families who are enrolling their students in the fall.

• Used Uniform Sales / Swap Jenny Hunsaker will have our used uniforms available for purchase during this week’s Ice Cream Social. Used shorts, skorts, jumpers and pants sell for $5.00 each. Used white polo shirts sell for $3.00 each. Or . . . bring one of your used uniforms to trade.

• Yearbook Order Forms are in this Monday Envelope. This year the yearbooks will be in full-color!

• Our students will celebrate this month of Mary with a May Crowning right before Mass this Friday. Please join us in honoring the Blessed Mother of God.

• Our Annual Athletics Celebration will be on Monday, May 19, at 6:00 PM in the Parish Center. If your child played basketball or volleyball this year, mark your calendars for this date. Coaches, players, and players’ families are welcome to join us for this awards ceremony. Cake and punch will be served. Please remember to return your uniforms to the School Office prior to this event (trophies will be handed out only to players who have returned their uniforms).

• 5th Grade Basketball—Free admission at the Kerr-McGee gym! Please come support our girls!

May 9 (Fri), Girls @ 6:00 PM vs Las Flores

• Keep Praying for Increased Enrollment – We have had a few inquires about enrolling but we need everyone to keep praying! Remember to send special prayers for the intercession of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Saint Ursula, Saint Rita of Cascia, and Blessed Anton Martin Slomsek. Thank you!

• Reminders—

Tuition / EDP payments are due by Friday, May 9, or postmarked May 10.
Late registration forms and fees are still being accepted

Upcoming Events:

Wed., May 7
Rosary at the Grotto, 7:30 AM, 8th Grade

Thurs., May 8
Ice Cream Social, 6:30 PM, Parish Center

Fri., May 9
May Crowning, 8:15 AM, Church
5th Grade Basketball vs. Las Flores, 6:00 PM

Wed., May 14
Rosary at the Grotto, 7:30 AM, 7th Grade

Fri, May 16
Yearbook Orders Due

May 15, 16 & 17
19th Annual Knights of Columbus Basketball Tournament, Monroe Gymnasium

Mon, May 19
Annual Athletics Celebration, 6:00 PM

“You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” John 8:32

Spelling List
useless playful along recycling
clueless hopeful might bustling
jobless harmful sound invitations
shapeless shameful white steeple
helpless wonderful next ferried
*Please work with your child to learn the spellings and meanings of these words this week.

Rosary
May is the month of Mary. We are saying the Rosary in honor of her this month. Your child is invited to bring a rosary to school to use for this prayer. They are welcome to leave it in their desk if they would like. Thank you.

Jelly Bean Math
Congratulations to Beka and Francisco for completing their Addition Jelly Bean Math. We will be going to lunch to celebrate this week.
Time is getting short. Please work with your child to complete their Jelly Bean Math facts. All students should complete Addition and Subtraction by the end of the year!

May Crowning and Fieldtrip
This Friday, the entire school will have a special May Crowning for our Mother Mary. This will be at the beginning of Mass. You are encourage to attend. We have the special privilege of being the Honor Guard for Mary. It is another opportunity for us to dress up in our beautiful and handsome First Holy Communion clothes as well. This year presents a special twist because we have students who don’t have communion clothes. They still deserve to be members of the honor guard and dress up for the occasion. Those who do not have communion clothes are welcome to wear their Easter clothes or Sunday best. This includes dresses for the girls and nice pants with shirt and tie (if they have one) for the boys. This is not meant to be a pressure situation where you have to buy a new outfit for your child. If your child doesn’t have something to fit this description they are welcome to wear their uniform. We will be changing clothes directly after Mass and I would welcome help for the students if you can be there. Please let me know if you have any questions.
After we have changed, we will be going to Leroy Jackson Park to celebrate our completion of First Holy Communion. Departure time will be around 9:30am. We will spend the morning playing and enjoying a well earned rest from our academics. We will then eat lunch at the park (please make sure you pack a lunch that will survive being outside until lunch time). Also make sure that you send a water bottle and sunscreen for your child. Hats or sunglasses are also welcome. We will return back to school at approximately 2:30pm. I am in need of chaperons for this trip. You need to have all of your paperwork up to date in the office in order to go. Please make a note at the bottom of your child’s permission slip if you are able to help us out.

Here’s What We Are Learning This Week
Every week I highlight what I am covering in class. This will give you an opportunity to talk with your child about specific subjects that we are covering. Not all topics are covered everyday. Be sure to always check to see what we are doing in 2nd Grade!

Reading –We are reading the story New Hope.
Phonics – Reviewing homophones, past tense verbs, and position words.
Writing – We are working on writing persuasive letters.
Grammar - Review grammar lessons from unit 2.
Health - Discussing how drugs affect our body.
Math –We are finishing our chapter on place value.
Spelling – Review words with suffixes.
Religion – This week we talking about the Holy Spirit and Pentecost.
Science - Life cycles of different animals

Dear Middle School Parents and Guardians,

• Microwave Reminder: Beginning this week, students will no longer be permitted to use the microwaves. Please pack lunches that do not require heat.

• 8th Grade Bake Sale is this Thursday. Please send baked goods with your child on Thursday.

• Several Middle School students will be reading poetry at our annual Ice Cream Social this Thursday at 6:30 pm. Come join us for ice cream, fellowship and some great poetry.

• The final Middle School dance, “A Night Under the Stars” will be on Friday, May 16th, from 7:30 pm - 10:00 pm in the Parish Center. Permission slips and ticket purchase information ($2) will come home at a later date.

• 8th Grade Parents: Please . . .
o read the enclosed yellow letter 8th Grade Graduation Information
o cut & return the bottom section if you would like to help with the planning
o discuss with your child the three options regarding the graduation trip
o come to the Parent Graduation Meeting on Tuesday, May 13th, at 6:30 pm in Room 6

Have a great week!

Mrs. Stokes, Ms. Gibbs, and Mrs. Lloyd

6th Grade

Language Arts: Students will be using the inspirational photographs from their petroglyph tour to write free verse poetry. Towards the end of the week, they will begin editing and compiling the final drafts of their poems into a cohesive anthology. Spelling unit 32 workbooks are due Thursday and the final test will be on Friday.
Social Studies: Students will be exploring daily life in and the economy of Ancient Rome.
Religion: Students will continue Chapter 12: Passover and the Sabbath. We will discuss the importance of the Lord’s Day and then review for the chapter 12 test on Thursday.
Earth Science: Students will continue to learn about oceanography, with the focus of the week being on the movement of ocean water and how it affects weather and human experiences. Students will have a test over this chapter on Friday.

7th Grade

Language Arts: Students will put the final touches on their poetry by editing, revising and creating final drafts for their poetry anthology. Spelling unit 32 workbooks are due Thursday and the final test will be on Friday.
Social Studies: Students will finish exploring daily life in the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan and start focusing on the Inca culture.
Religion: This week students will learn how the Holy Spirit is always at work in the world and our individual lives.
Life Science: Last week students learned what makes a bird unique. This week they will learn what is unique about mammals. There will be a test over this unit on Friday.

8th Grade

Language Arts: Students will put the final touches on their poetry by editing, revising and creating final drafts for their poetry anthology. Strategies will include peer and self editing as well as reading poetry out loud to check for fluidity. Spelling unit 32 workbooks are due Thursday and the final test will be on Friday.
Social Studies: Students will be reviewing Ch. 16. The test is on Friday.
Religion: Students will prepare for their test on Chapter 10 on Thursday.
Physical Science: Chapter 15 will continue with students learning how to balance chemical equations. They will then move on to the different types of chemical reactions.

Math 6th, 7th, & 8th

Concepts & Applications: Students will continue Chapter 9 with experimental and theoretical probability, and independent and dependent events. The chapter 9 test will be on Friday.
Pre-Algebra: Students will be working with triangles, the Pythagorean Theorem, distance and midpoint formulas, similar triangles and indirect measurement. There will be a quiz on Tuesday and Friday.
Algebra: This week students will learn about radical equations, the Pythagorean Theorem and the Distance Formula.

PE 6th, 7th, & 8th

PE: Students will be learning and participating in activities that will lead the

Monday, May 5, 2008

Dear Parents,

Congratulations to all children who received First Holy Communion this weekend! Our St. Ann teachers, Miss West, Mrs. Horn, and all of the CCD teachers certainly prepared the first communicants for a beautiful celebration on Saturday. They deserve our thanks and congratulations.

Today I have challenged the students to learn the names of all 50 states. They should study them each night. I will give them a test in two weeks that will have the first and last letter of each state. They will fill in the rest of the name. Please encourage them to practice.

This Thursday, May 8, is the date for this year’s Ice Cream Social. The third graders will be singing and playing their recorders as part of the program. The social starts at 6:30 pm.

We will continue to celebrate Mary’s Month by praying a decade of the rosary each day. Eighth graders will lead the school in one decade of the rosary on Wednesday morning. This Friday, May 9, we will attend the May Crowning Mass at 8:15. Please join us as we honor our Blessed Mother together. Please join us!

God bless,
Susan McDonald

Third Grade Goals This Week

Religion: We will study lesson 25, We Profess Our Faith. Check out the website www.faithfirst.com weekly for activities for your child.
Reading: We will continue reading Charlotte’s Web. In “Reader’s Workshop” we will read the sixth story in the unit titled Storytelling. It is called Aunt Flossie’s Hats (and Crab Cakes Later). Students will study sequence and author’s point of view.
Language: We will continue to work on the writing process. In “Writer’s Workshop” we will review simple and compound sentences, colons, conjunctions, interjections, and capitalization. Writer’s Workshop is a time the students will work on reports they write, revise and edit. We will continue to work on our individual choice mini state reports this week. The scripture sentence this week is: God is at work within you, helping you want to obey Him, and then helping you do what He wants. Philippians 2:13. Our vocabulary words are: memories, terrapins, trillion, rescue and buglers.
Spelling Words: Students will have a spelling test with 15 words this week. This week’s words are words that use the same patterns we have studied for the last five weeks. The words are: police, wrote, plunge, huge, quake, seven, shelf, city, stripe, spray, racing, wrestle, buttons, story, and engines.
Math: We will continue to take timed division quizzes. We will finish Data and Probability. We will start fractions and decimals.
Handwriting: All students are practicing writing the letters in cursive using correct form and posture.
Social Studies: We will finish our study Unit 4 with “How have people worked for freedom?” We will continue our mini state report as part of our social studies this week.
Health: We will study the human body and its systems.
P.E.: We will continue kickball this week.

We have another busy and fun week of learning ahead of us as we dive in to explore the ocean! I know that May is a very busy month for all of us, however it is very important that we continue to help our children stay focused on school and learning. Completing work and focusing at school becomes very difficult without your support in doing homework, completing nightly reading and ensuring that your child is well rested. Thank you for your understanding as we continue to work and learn to prepare for first grade.

Rosary at the Grotto/May Crowning
Our class will be joining the school each Wednesday morning at 7:30 to honor Mary. We stand with our Prayer Pals as we pray a decade of the Rosary. Please feel free to stay and join the school at this special time each Wednesday in May.

This Friday, May 9, we will attend the May Crowning Mass at 8:15. Please join us as we honor our Blessed Mother together.

The students are doing very well with memorizing the Hail Mary. Please be sure to continue to check the special flower calendar to send in flowers for the May Altar in the classroom.

Ice Cream Social
We are looking forward to some time to relax and visit with each other at the Ice Cream Social this Thursday at 6:30 PM. The Kindergarten students will sing a special song for everyone! I will let you know when they should come up to the front of Parish Hall. There is no special dress required. Soccer or baseball practice clothes are fine!

Wild Burro Facility Trip
We are looking forward to our trip to the Wild Burro Facility next Wednesday. Please complete and return the enclosed permission slip by Friday of this week. Thanks!

Important Dates:

Monday, May 26- No School- Memorial Day
Thursday, May 29- Kindergarten Pajama Day
Friday, May 30- School Fine Arts Program at 10:30 AM in the Parish Hall
Wednesday, June 4- Sport’s Day/ We still need parent volunteers.
Thursday, June 5- Kindergarten Graduation at 10:30 AM in the Kindergarten room
Friday, June 6- Mass/Eighth Grade Graduation/Last Day

Language Development

*Shared Reading of Humphrey the Lost Whale
*read fiction and non-fiction stories about the ocean
*oral segmentation and blending of words
*review of all sound cards with our special cheer
*focus on vowels
*focus on the /ch/ blend
*review letter formations
*review Star Words
*build words by listening to sounds
*listen for beginning and ending sounds in words
*illustrate sentences
*write dictated sentences
*cloze writing (students fill in blanks in sentences)
How can you help?
Sound out three letter words such as n-e-t. Have your child build the word that they hear by writing it out on paper.

Math

*focus on subtraction to 10 using manipulatives
*subtract 2 from another number
*vertical subtraction
How can you help?
Use small manipulatives to review that subtracting is taking away. Give your child 8 small objects and then take 3 away. Have your child tell how many are left.

Religion

*identify ways we can show respect and love for each other
*life is a gift from God
*God wants us to take care of ourselves and others
How can you help?
Continue to practice Rosary prayers at home.

Science/Health/Social Studies/Physical Education

*the earth is covered mostly in water
*oceans are the largest bodies of water
*oceans are salty
*explore ocean life
*locate the oceans on globe and map
How can you help?
Have your child locate the continents and oceans on a map at home.

May 5, 2008

Dear Family,

We congratulate the second graders on meeting Jesus in a special way for the first time in First Communion last Saturday. The children made a card and we sent a special treat to add to their celebration.

Thank you for returning the readers last week. Reading, discussing, retelling, sequencing, writing, spelling…all of the above are keeping us BUSY, BUSY, BUSY! During the month of May, I will not send home a reading record activity. At this time of year, I would rather have your child spend more time READING than reporting. Thank you for working diligently throughout the year to help your child to complete the monthly reading record. It is one way that your child sees that reading is important to you.

As your child’s primary religion teacher, please continue to check your child on knowing his/her prayers. In the learning process, a child may learn a word, phrase or sentence incorrectly. Listen carefully for several days as your child prays at mealtime and before bed and other family prayers times. Thank you.

We CONTINUE to memorize math facts, as well as add and subtract two digit numbers (without regrouping…that is a treat they will learn in second grade)! We are also reviewing our work on telling time and using a calendar. I am introducing measurement: rulers, scales, cups, pints and quarts! Refer to such measurements at home whenever the occasion arises!

Were you asked to perform a science experiment on gases? The class loved the one we did, so I sent home the directions in case you wish to try it at home. We will continue our unit on matter: solids, liquids, and gases.

We are looking forward to having you come to the parish center on Friday at 11:30. All you need to do is relax, enjoy tea and cookies, and listen to wonderful stories read to you one-on-one and respond by writing a complimentary sentence in the back of their little book. You do not even have to get out of your chair!! We hope that you will be able to invite a grandparent, aunt, uncle, or family friend to help celebrate your child as the author he/she truly is!! A reminder: if you have any flowers that your child could bring to school this Friday, the flowers can certainly be used to decorate at our Authors’ Tea. Thank you.

I look forward to seeing you at our school’s PTG/Ice Cream Social this Thursday evening at 6:30 p.m. The event provides a time to slow down and visit with members of our school community…and enjoy ice cream!!

Respectfully,

Christine Simolon

• Registration Forms and Fees are due by tomorrow, Tuesday, April 29. Remember–Please call or come in to talk with me if you have any concerns about the tuition for next year. We do not want any family to choose not to return because of financial pressures.

• The deadline for earning Parent Participation Hours is May 1! Please remember to log your hours by this Thursday at 2:15 PM after which time the book will be closed for tabulating. The only hours that may be added after that point will be hours worked at the First Communion reception.

• We ask you to join us in congratulating and praying for our 2nd Graders, both school and CCD, who will be making their First Holy Communion this Saturday. The students are so excited to finally get to participate in this beautiful sacrament! Their teachers and you parents have worked very hard to make sure they are well prepared. We can all learn much from their wholehearted love of the Lord Jesus.

• This Friday, May 2, is a minimum day for students with an 11:30 AM dismissal. This is the annual planning meeting for next school year for the staff.

• I invite all of you to our 5th Annual Ice Cream Social next Thursday, May 8, at 6:30 PM in the Parish Center. Several of the classes will provide entertainment as we sit back, enjoy a treat, and visit with other Saint Ann families. Please help us welcome new families who are enrolling their students in the fall.

• Used Uniform Sales / Swap Jenny Hunsaker will have our used uniforms available for purchase during next week’s Ice Cream Social. Used shorts, skorts, and pants sell for $5.00 each. Used white polo shirts sell for $3.00 each. Or . . . bring one of your used uniforms to trade.

• Our students will celebrate this month of Mary with a May Crowning right before Mass next Friday, May 9. Please join us in honoring the Blessed Mother of God.

• 5th Grade Basketball—Free admission at the Kerr-McGee gym! Please come support our boys and girls!

April 29 (Tues), Girls @ 5:00 PM vs Faller
May 2 (Fri), Boys @ 5:00 PM vs Faller

• The next meeting of the School Advisory Council will be at 7:00 PM tonight in the school library. Items to be discussed include efforts to increase enrollment, the Angel Program, campus clean-up, and the budget for 2008-2009.

• Mrs. Duff would like to say thanks to the students for a “job well done” during this year’s weekly library visits. At the beginning of the year, students were given library badges to which they added stickers each time they returned a book on time. Mrs. Duff says that there has been a tremendous improvement in timely return of books and fewer books were lost during the year. As a reward for their success, the top 20 students will be having a pizza party on Tuesday, April 29. Parents of students who qualified are being notified in this Monday Envelope.

PTG News:

There will be a short election of PTG officers for next year at the Ice Cream Social.

Upcoming Events:

Mon., April 28
School Advisory Council Meeting, 7:00 PM, School Library

Tues., April 29
Registration forms and fees due

Fri., May 2
Communion Service (not regular school Mass), 8:15 AM, 5th Grade
11:30 AM Dismissal (for Teacher Planning Day)

Sat., May 3
First Communion, Second Grade, 10:00 AM, Church

Wed., May 7
Rosary at the Grotto, 7:30 AM, 4th Grade

Thurs., May 8
Ice Cream Social, 6:30 PM, Parish Center

Fri., May 9
Mass and May Crowning, 8:15 AM

Mission Report Due Dates
Please have your child bring Rough Drafts in as they are completed, so I can check. I will allow about 30 minutes a day to do this until May12th.

• Monday, May 5th Rough Draft (Early History)
• Monday, May 12th Rough Draft (Secularization & Today)
• Friday, May 23rd (Final Report)

Mission Report/Language Arts
Students will have two rough drafts due next week. Students may bring in Yellow folders if they need help in organizing their sticky notes and developing topic sentences. I will give 30 minutes each day to help students with their mission reports. During this time, they may take notes, read a Reading Counts Book or do an SRA Reading card while they are waiting to meet with me. There is a separate enclosure entitled Mission Report Requirements 2008 and a rubric by which the report will be graded. Please make sure to read and follow this carefully. I will also Email this to you.
Religion
We will learn about Moses and the Exodus, the covenant on Mount Sinai, the Ten Commandments and Divine Providence.
Math
We will begin learning about decimals. We will make sure that we have returned to the multiplication and division fact speed that was achieved in previous quarters. Also, I will be giving multi-digit operations Math quizzes without notice. Fourth graders should have these types of Math Problems down pat by now. I will return the Basic Operations Test that they took last quarter, so they are aware of exactly what I mean by this; rounding of whole numbers is also included.
Social Studies
We finish the Rancho Period by writing a paragraph about the major elements of this time. We will study the Oregon Trail during this week.
Progress Reports
Progress Reports will come home today. The Mission Report will account for about half of the Social Studies and English grades by the end of the quarter. As always, there is time to improve grades before the quarter ends. The Progress report includes the quantity of Reading Counts books complete for the quarter. I am planning to read a book with the class called Esperanza Rising during the last part of fourth quarter; all students may use this as a Reading Counts book. It takes place in the Bakersfield and is about the migrant farmer workers movement in California during the early 1900’s.
Basketball Players
Please mark your calendars for our end-of-the-season basketball tournament sponsored by the Knights of Columbus. The dates will be May 15th (Thursday afternoon), May 16th (Friday afternoon), and May 17th (Saturday all-day).
Fieldtrip to Manzanar, Wednesday, 5/28
Fourth and fifth grade will going on a fieldtrip to Manzanar. This National Historic Site was one of ten camps where Japanese-American citizens and resident Japanese aliens were interned during World War II. It is about 8 miles North of Lone Pine and is about 1.5 hour drive on Route 395. We will need parent drivers for this trip.
Thanks for all you do, especially with your help on the Mission Report

April 27, 2008

Dear 5th Grade Parents and Guardians,

I always know we’re getting close to the end of the year when we finish the weekly Cursive lessons. Although we’re done with Cursive lessons, we will continue with the weekly Spelling lessons, finishing with the end of Unit 36.

You will find your child’s mid-quarter progress report in today’s Monday envelope. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me as soon as possible.

Students will take the first State and Capitals Quiz this week on Friday. This quiz will cover the 9 states and capitals in the Western region of the US. The quiz is multiple choice, and students will take this quiz until they pass it with a 100%.

Thank you to numerous families who baled us out last week with donations of Kleenex boxes. The students and I appreciate it.

Our field trip to Cerro Coso is this Thursday. If you didn’t send in money yet for the “I’m going to college” t-shirt, please send in $5 this week. Thank you. We will join a number of other fifth grade classes from the school district to take a tour of the campus, rotating through three different demonstrations, and then enjoying a college lunch on their campus.

Please see the information in today’s Monday envelope about our field trip next Monday. Our eighth grade class will join us on Monday’s trip on the bus. If you would like more information about the actual site of the field trip, you can go to http://www.rileysfarm.com/previsit.htm for more information and photos.

Our Knights of Columbus Basketball Tournament will be on May 15th (Thursday afternoon), May 16th (Friday afternoon), and May 17th (Saturday all-day).

During the month of May we pray a decade of the rosary each day. We will be using our World Mission rosaries. We used these rosaries last October to focus not only on a specific mystery, but also the people on a particular continent as well. On Wednesday mornings, we hold our morning assembly near the grotto where we pray a decade of the rosary as a school community. Please feel free to join us when you can.

The fifth grade class is in charge of this Friday’s Communion Service. Please join us this Friday morning, or any Friday, for Mass.

Have a great week!

Tracy

Religion: Begin Chapter 24 (Jesus, Our Model of Prayer); Chapter 24 Test next week

English: Book Report #2/Reading Quiz #2 due this Friday, May 2

Literature: Begin reading Number the Stars Chapters 13-15; Chapters 13-15 Quiz Friday

Math: Continue Chapter 7 (Adding and Subtracting Fractions); Continue with prime factorization, Greatest Common Factor (GCF) and introducing Least Common Multiple (LCM); Chapter 7 Quiz #1 Wednesday

Social Studies: Read/Discuss Chapter 6 Lesson 4 (What was life like in the colonies during the Revolution?) and Lesson 5 (How did the American Revolution affect the creation of state governments?); Chapter 6 vocabulary quiz and test next week; States and Capitals Quiz (Western states) on Friday

State Report: Natural Resources notes/draft due tomorrow; Economy notes/draft due Friday

Science: Begin Unit D3 (Protecting Water Resources)

Spelling Unit 33 for week of April 28 through May 2
delight, exit, public, increase, freedom, lengthen, backward, liberty, narrow, eastern, entire, western, decrease, private, whole, extend, forward, pleasure, entrance, slender

Spelling Unit 34 for week of May 5 through May 9
haiku, macaroni, karate, chipmunk, alligator, knapsack, boomerang, plaza, kimono, plaid, robot, waffle, crochet, yogurt, shampoo, beret, burro, guitar, hammock, yodel

Monday, April 28, 2008

Dear Parents,

The children are certainly excited about their mini state reports! We will continue to take notes, write the rough draft paragraphs and copy final drafts this week.

We will celebrate Mary this month by praying an abbreviated rosary each day. Each week different classes will lead the school in one decade of the rosary Wednesday mornings at 7:30 am in front of the grotto. Please join us!

The children are also enjoying learning about and playing kickball. It gives an opportunity to be responsible citizens by being respectful of classmate’s varying abilities to play the sport.

Wednesday, April 30, the third graders will be treated to a sample “Battle of the Books” competition with students from Faller school joining our own students. The children will be invited to join this book reading club next year. We can even get started on the book list over the summer so that it won’t seem such a daunting task to read 30 books before April 2009! Please come to the sample battle at 1:00 pm in the Parish Hall. You just might want to become a Battle of the Books volunteer.

God bless,
Susan McDonald

Third Grade Goals This Week

Religion: We will study lesson 25, We Profess Our Faith. Check out the website www.faithfirst.com weekly for activities for your child.
Reading: We will continue reading Charlotte’s Web. In “Reader’s Workshop” we will read the fifth story in the unit titled Storytelling. It is called Johnny Appleseed. Students will study main ideas and supporting details.
Language: We will continue to work on the writing process. In “Writer’s Workshop” we will focus on capitalization. Writer’s Workshop is a time the students will work on stories they write, revise and edit. We will continue to work on our individual choice mini state reports this week. The scripture sentence this week is: Don’t repay evil for evil. Don’t snap back at those who say unkind things to you…We are to be kind to others, and God will bless us for it. 1 Peter 3:9. Our vocabulary words are: decade, inspired, befriended, replenish and recollections.
Spelling Words: Students will have a spelling test with 15 words this week. This week’s words are words that have the /s/ and /j/ sound. The words are: since, sauce, safe, sink, nice, gym, germ, magic, age, gentle, hinge, cellar, second, cider, and largest.
Math: We will begin Data and Probability. We will take timed division tests.
Handwriting: All students are practicing writing the letters in cursive using correct form and posture.
Social Studies: We will study Unit 4: Lessons 5 (How states, American Indians and our country’s government work together) and 6 (How have people worked for freedom?) We will continue our mini state report as part of our social studies this week.
Science: We will study energy and change.
P.E.: We will continue kickball this week.