2091 North Winn Road Mt. Pleasant, Michigan December News

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1 2091 North Winn Road Mt. Pleasant, Michigan December News Advent is the time before Christmas when we prepare our hearts for the coming of Jesus. We wait in joyful hope for Christmas. Each Monday morning during Advent we will gather together to light the advent wreath and pray. The students are collecting stocking stuffers for Christmas Outreach and to go snacks for the Homeless Shelter for their Advent service project. Donations are due by December 5. Advent Program Please join us Thursday, December 15, 7:00 PM, in the Church for our Advent Program. Students need to be in the church basement between 6:40 and 6:50 PM dressed in their Christmas colors or Sunday best. After the program students will return to the basement for parents to pick up. Christmas Angels For the past 19 year s people have been invited to think of our students during the holiday season. There has been $222, donated by our Christmas Angels. A big help! Again this year we hope to hear from you and many others. Updates will be in future Sunday Church Bulletins. Christmas Prayer Service and Caroling The students will gather in the Church on Tuesday, December 20, at 1:30 PM as the Kindergarteners present the Nativity Story. We will be caroling afterwards. Parties begin at 2 PM. Please join us!

2 Color Days Monday, December 19 the students will be participating in an Advent Retreat in the afternoon. Students will be grouped by color on this day. More information will be coming soon. Tuesday, December 20, is Red and Green day. Students are invited to come nicely dressed in these and other colors. Contest The winner of the Lions Clubs International Peace Poster contest is Sixth Grader Cece Faber. Carter Fussman was the 2 nd place winner. Cece s poster will be entered in the next level of competition. Way to go! Father Ricky We are collecting money for a Christmas gift for Father Ricky. Please send in a marked envelope to the school office by Monday, December 12 th. First Reconciliation Our prayers are with the Second Graders who have been working to get ready for their First Reconciliation on Saturday, December 10. Penance Service Tuesday, December 13. Students in Grades 3 6 will celebrate this sacrament at 9 AM on School Climate Survey The School Commission thanks everyone who took the time to respond to the survey. Results will be coming in January. SCRIP Plan now for your Holiday Shopping. Last date to order SCRIP before Christmas is December 14 th. Using these gift cards earns money for our school. If you are not a user of these gift cards, please do so soon. NO extra cost to you; our school gets money from the stores for each dollar spent. Many gift cards are available in the school office.

3 Tuition We are now midway in Tuition Payments. Those using the Quarterly or Monthly Plans should have paid $750. December 1, marks the due date for the third Quarterly Payment of $375 as well as the December Monthly Payment of $125. Thank you for your promptness Classes will resume on Tuesday January 3, Updates Please alert the school office of any changes in daycare, employment, phone numbers, and addresses in case of emergency or early dismissal. Thank you. Winter Wear A must during playtime when the cold wind blows: boots, gloves, hats, headbands, and snow pants. Please label all clothing. Is your child missing any clothing? Come and check in our lost and found box. Kindergarten CLASSROOM HAPPENINGS The Kindergartners have been working really hard in Language Arts. They are starting to learn sight words and reading Leveled Readers! In Writer's Workshop they will be starting to write pattern books! In Math, the Kindergartners have been learning about greater than and less than. They also have been learning the basic concepts of adding. Our next chapters will be Chapter 5, Size and Position and Chapter 6, Numbers to 20. This past month the Kindergartners finished their Senses Unit in Science and they have been learning out how to keep Safe during Health.. In Religion, students have been learning about being thankful. They made thankful turkeys and did writing activities about being thankful. At Catechesis of the Good Shepherd they have been learning about the Liturgical Year and now Advent. First Grade The First Graders are finishing their first science unit on Weather Watchers. They have been charting the daily weather and have seen the temperature drop from 80 degrees to temperatures in the 20 s. They have one last lesson to complete, but snow is needed for it. Mrs. Clark is hoping they aren t able to do that lesson until January. (She doesn t like snow very much.) In Math, the First Graders also have been working very hard. They have completed chapters on shapes, patterns, ordinal numbers, and place value. They are now working on adding and subtracting numbers to 20.

4 In First Grade, the students will be making Christmas cards and writing letters to friends and family. They will be learning how to address envelopes and recording on a giant map all the places the cards were sent. Second Grade This week we are preparing a prayer service that we will do next Monday morning for the entire school. The Second Graders are moving right along in our math studies. They had an introduction to multiplication and division and are now working on multiplication facts for 2, 5, and 10. Next will be some chapters on metric measurement, linear, volume and mass. The next science unit will be Measuring Matters. This goes well with their math. They will continue to alternate addition and subtraction quizzes on Fridays. Third Grade The Third Graders have new pen pals. They have written their first letters to the residents of Green Acres Assisted Living in Mt. Pleasant, wishing them a Happy Thanksgiving. They also made them Thanksgiving placemats. They are waiting anxiously for their letters back to them! In Math, Third Graders now have weekly timed tests for their multiplication facts. They are tracking their progress with their own charts on their desks. Currently they are working on division with and without remainders. The Third Graders just enjoyed a wonderful trade book called Amos and Boris. They wrote in their writing journals a sequel to the main character's adventures together. They were very creative! In Social Studies, the short inventor reports are hanging in the hallway, along with the inventors' pictures. They look great! In Religion, Advent is upon us and we are celebrating in many ways throughout St. Joe's. The Third Graders will be leading hall prayer on December 19th, our school's final Advent prayer service before Christmas! Fourth Grade Do you know how to find the mean, median, and mode of a set of data? Ask a Fourth grader! They have been working on a math chapter on Data and Probability. It is a challenging chapter full of new terms and topics. In Science, the Fourth Grader has begun a new unit on Matter called The States of Matter. The students have been studying the different properties and states of matter. They will learn about mass, volume and investigate the physical changes of matter.

5 In Reading, the Fourth Graders are reading the book Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo along with the Journeys text. They are examining the characters in this book, so that we can better understand them and become better readers. Fifth Grade In Math, the Fifth Graders will be starting our chapter on Algebra. The students will be using letters as numbers, simplifying algebraic expression and applying algebra to real world problems. In Social Studies, the Fifth Graders will be learning about the history of European settlements in North America. The Spanish decided to live in the Spanish borderlands (the southwest). The French put down roots along the Mississippi River valley. The British colonists lived along the east coast. In Science, they will be learning about magnetism. It is a noncontact force. Magnetic attraction is the pull of magnetic objects toward a magnet. Magnetic repulsion is the push of magnetic objects away from a magnet. Sixth In Religion, the Sixth Graders have learned about the saints for the month of November. They have read a short story on Saint Philomena and did research on their patron saint. In Language Arts the students continue to read weekly readings from Journeys. The readings include realistic fiction, informational text, science fiction, and fantasy. The students are also beginning to work on their persuasive argument. In math, the Sixth Graders have just finished a unit on rates. Next, they will learn about percent before starting to learn algebraic concepts. The students are finishing their second unit on Latin America. They will be completing their country reports during the winter. The next geographic area they will be studying will be Europe. In the second Science unit the students will be learning about forces that reshape the earth. This includes earthquakes, volcanoes, continental drift theory and plate tectonics. The Sixth Graders will also be studying magnetism and fossils. Calendar Update: December Thursday Dec. 1 Mass, 8 AM Friday Dec. 2 Color Day Tuesday Dec. 6 Feast of St. Nicholas Thursday Dec. 8 Mass, 8 AM Feast of the Immaculate Conception

6 Saturday Dec. 10 First Reconciliation, 10 AM Sunday Dec. 11 Band Concert, 4 PM at BCPS Tuesday Dec. 13 Reconciliation for Grades 3 6, 9 AM Wednesday Dec. 14 Grades K-2 Field Trip to Chippewa Nature Center Thursday Dec. 15 Mass, 8 AM Advent Program, 7 PM Monday Dec. 19 Advent Retreat in PM Parents provide transportation Tuesday Dec. 20 Red and Green Color Day Christmas Prayer Service 1:30 PM Christmas Parties 2 PM Christmas Break begins, 2:45 PM Parents provide transportation January Tuesday Jan. 3 Classes resume Thursday Jan. 5 Mass, 8 AM Friday Jan. 6 Color Day PARISH-SCHOOL MISSION STATEMENT Saint Joseph the Worker Roman Catholic parish and school encourages its members to live fully the message of Jesus Christ. Inspired by the Holy Spirit through faith, love, sacraments, and service, our parish family will be a community of lifelong achievers and a center for academic excellence.