December 2017

St. Francis School

From The Principal—Mrs. Sikora The Christmas season is upon us, and the halls of our school are alive with Christmas cheer. The children’s choir did a fantastic job singing at the St. Albans tree lighting - thank you Mrs. Ronen for leading the choir. The Christmas Parade was so much fun! Many thanks to the Adkins, Cloer, and Grishaber families for driving the truckloads of happy, singing, candy-throwing children through the streets of St. Albans. I even spot-ted some future pitchers for the NY Mets! The children’s joy at Christmas time spills over to the adults around them; it certainly lifts my Christmas spirit. Congratulations to Christian Ellison and Bobby Thomas for placing first and second in the St. Francis School Spelling Bee. Christian will represent our school at the Ka-nawha County Spelling bee in January. Way to go, boys! We received exciting news that we were approved for a grant to implement a STEM program. Our students are going to become farmers! We plan to erect a greenhouse beside the gym where each class can experience plant life from seed to harvest. Our plan is to incorporate the vegetables the children grow into our lunch program. Congratulations to our After School Care Director, Andrea Alden and her husband, Jesse on the news that they will be parents in July. Even more exciting - it's twins!! The fifth grade class will be participating in the nationwide "Hour of Coding." Students will practice their coding skills in writing online programs. Often, the fast pace of our lives leaves little extra time in our day, so my wish for you during this Christmas season is that you take five minutes each day to reflect on the many blessings in your lives. Wonderful things will happen!

I wish everyone peace during this Christmas season.

Pastor’s Message—Father Pat For Saint Francis of Assisi Catholic School, there is a reason for the season. The rea-son is Jesus Christ, the child born of Bethlehem. From the first days of the church, Christians have prepared for Christmas during the Advent season. Advent means to “await” to “hope” to “expect.” As Christians, we teach our children that Jesus came to us so that we would learn to love God and love each other. During Advent, we tell the story of the birth of our Holy Savior, we pray to the child in the stable, and we enrich each other with gifts of love.

November Good Samaritans

The Good Samaritan Award is given to a child who shows concern for his/her classmates. Keep up the great work!

K-2: Anastasia Pauley 3-5: Kenni Shamblin

Preschool-Ms. Burns We cannot believe it is Holiday Time already! Time flies when you are having fun! We have been having so much fun in preschool learning in new ways each day. Our new Smart Board is working, and that brings many ways to incorporate move-ment and music with learning. All of us love it and are very thankful to have it in our classroom! We are all very excited for the holidays, and we are doing fun activities each day to celebrate. Our current focus of study is “Boxes”, so we can do many creative and fun activities with that theme. We have turned the play kitchen into a mail center, and we have created a puppet theatre out of a large box. The children really love all these ac-tivities, and it is so much fun to share in their excitement!

Ms. Melissa and I would like to wish everyone a happy and peaceful holiday sea-son; and we would like to thank you all for sharing your children with us. They are a JOY to be around!

Preschool-Mrs. Shrewsbury December will be a busy month in preschool! We are going to learn about hibernation and work on the letters “M” “N” and “O”. We will also have a great time singing Christ-mas songs and most important, learning about the birth of Jesus. Thank you for the generous donations for Operation Christmas Child! It was great to see the preschooler’s excitement in giving to others. We are looking forward to our class Christmas party. Party details will be sent home soon.

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a

blessed New Year!

Best Dressed

Here are the results for November’s uniform checks:

K-95% 1st-92% 2nd-92% 3rd-95% 4th95-% 5th86-%

Congratulations Kindergarten, 3rd, and 4th Grades for earning extra recess!

Kindergarten News—Mrs. Gregg November was filled with activity and all kinds of things to be thankful for. The Thanksgiving meal here at school was delicious. We are so fortunate to have such wonderful cooks at our school! Our class has been learning new words and reading new stories. One of their favorite activities continues to be center time in the after-noon. They love to play in the classroom with all the learning games and with their classmates. We have a class that really likes to play together and gets along well. We are thankful for our class! Enjoy the Christmas Season and have a Happy New Year!

First Grade News—Ms. Potter We are looking forward to Father Pat’s annual Christmas play! The first grade stu-dents are excited for their special part in the play. We will be sending the words to the songs the children will be singing home soon. Please encourage your child to go over the words each day. The students will be asked to wear their Sunday best on Decem-ber 14th and to meet in the classroom. A note will be coming home soon with more details. The students are enjoying reading the story Animal Groups. They are learning to identify the differences and similarities of different animal groups. They are doing a

Preschool-Mrs. Lago

We have been learning about exercise and making healthy choices. We even set up Minds in Motion activities in our classroom. We also created a healthy Thanksgiving plate and shared what and who we are thankful for this year. In December, we will complete our Box Study. During this study we will decorate, measure, sort, and build with boxes. We also made Christmas gift boxes for the bul-letin board. The children loved building our very own Christmas tree out of boxes. We are also enjoying reading and retelling the story “Gingerbread Baby” by Jan Brett. I would like to share with you some of the things the children told us about boxes as we began our study.

“You put toys in there for people.” “You put food in there.” “You put stuffed animals in them for people who don’t have stuffed animals.”

Thank you for all your donations to our Operation Christmas Child and Caring Kids programs. Our Christmas celebration will be Wednesday, December 20 @ 1:00. We wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Second Grade News—Mrs. Lopez

In second grade, we are anxiously awaiting Christmas!! We have been doing lots of learning, listening to Christmas music, and practicing our songs for Father Pat’s Christmas play. The Christmas play will be on Thursday, December, 14 at 6:30 p.m. Please have your child dressed in their Sunday best and dropped off to our classroom at 6:00. I will escort them to the gym for the play and they can be picked up in the cafeteria immediately following the play. Thanks to all those students who have sent in Christmas gifts for our school “Caring Kids” program. It is not too late to send in a new unwrapped toy. The toys will be given to area children . Also, thank you to all the families that sent in items for the Op-eration Christmas Child shoebox program. We had enough donations to make six boxes from our class! Way to go second grade! We would like wish Emily J., Mia, and Izzy a very happy birthday this month. Don’t forget about our class Christmas party on Thursday, December, 21st at 1:45 in our classroom. I hope to see you there. I hope you all have a blessed Christmas!!

terrific job reading aloud in class. It is amazing to hear the progress the students are making with their reading skills. I appreciate all of the extra practice you are providing at home! In math, the first graders are learning to add and subtract two. They are also review-ing doubles and adding and subtracting one and zero facts. They will begin measur-ing line segments with rulers, adding two digit numbers, and counting money. They are also continuing to practice counting by 2’s, 5’s, 10’s and 100’s and identifying odd

and even numbers. The students will begin a study about the birth of Christ. They will learn that this spe-cial time of waiting to celebrate Jesus’ birth is called Advent and the meaning of the Advent wreath. They will discuss ways they can share God’s love during this special time and learn that helping others is the best gift they can give. Thank you first grade families for your generous donations for Operation Christmas Child! The students filled several boxes with toys, crayons, soap, toothpaste, and other items. It is so wonderful to see how excited the children are to give to others. I hope we all take time during this busy season to remember those in need. The first grade class would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year!

Third Grade News—Mr. Swalley I am very happy and proud of the progress the students have made in achieving their A/R goal! We have several in the class who have already met their goal for the nine weeks and several more who are close to it. It makes me so proud when Mrs. Sikora is presenting the A/R awards after Mass and it seems she calls third grader after third grader after third grader! Also, remember, those who earn 100 points for the year will get a special treat, so please continue to encourage your child to read and take tests even after they meet their goal for the nine weeks. Keep up the great work third grade!!!

Fourth Grade News—Mrs. Martin December is an exciting month in fourth grade. We are celebrating the season of Ad-vent. the word Advent means "Coming." Advent is a season both of expectation and preparation. We made our Advent wreaths and lit our first candle. The light grows as we approach the celebration of the birth of Jesus. The fourth graders are also prepar-ing their roles for our annual Christmas Play beautifully written and directed by Fr. Pat McDonough. We will be putting our shoes outside our doors with hopes that St. Nicholas will stop and fill our shoes. On the eighth, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception will be celebrated with mass. Our third grade Caring Kids are collecting new toys for the less fortunate so please bring in a toy for a boy or girl, unwrapped. Please continue to encourage your child to read each night in order to meet their AR goal, which is a part of their Reading grade and continue drilling Math multiplication facts. Merry Christmas and a very blessed New Year.

Fifth Grade News—Ms. S. Wow! It is December already. Fifth graders are busy practicing for the Christmas play. They have the biggest roles every year, so each night students need to practice their lines for the play. The play will take place on December 14th at 6:30 pm. Please arrive no later than 6:00. We will be meeting in the classroom and will return to the class after the play for dismissal. I would ask you to please keep encouraging your child to read each night as it seems to be helping our AR goals. We are doing AWESOME so far! Have a wonderful and safe Christmas this year!

UPCOMING EVENTS—DATES—REMINDERS For more information on the calendar of events, school lunch menus, and much

more, visit our school website: www.sfswv.com! Friday, December 8th—Mass Grades K-5 Friday, December 8th—Popcorn Day—$.50 Tuesday, December 12th—Mass 2nd Grade Wednesday, December 13th—Choir 2:45 pm-3:30 pm Thursday, December 14th—Mass Grades K-5 Thursday, December 14th—Father’s Pat’s Christmas Program @ 6:30 pm Friday, December 15th—Jeans Day—$.50 Monday, December 18th—Choir performing at the Capitol @ 11:30 am Tuesday, December 19th—Mass 3rd Grade Wednesday, December 20th—Choir performing at Town Center & Thomas

Hospital Wednesday, December 20th—City National Bank Day @ 9:30 am Thursday, December 21st—Free Red & Green Day (Jeans Day) - Class

Parties @ 1:45 pm No School December 22nd—January 1st, 2018. Return to school January 2,

2018