November 30, 2011

St. Agnes School
Family Newsletter
November 30, 2011 

Mission Statement of Saint Agnes School
Saint Agnes Elementary School strives for excellence in providing a Catholic education that inspires and empowers our students to live the Gospel Message of Jesus Christ as compassionate and faithful Christians, who continue to pursue their spiritual journey, their highest academic potential, and stewardship to others.

 

  

Swaddled in Love for Christmas:  Now that the weather is changing, everyone needs a winter coat, warm sweater or sweatshirt.  It may be that your children are still growing and their coat/sweater/sweatshirt will no longer fit them next year.  If there is not another child in the family to pass it down to, why not pass it on to us?  Our Advent service project will help to swaddle those less fortunate in warmth and love. We are asking for donations of gently used coats, sweaters, jackets or sweatshirts for the local shelters.  Each time your child brings in a warm clothing item, he or she will get to add a “heart” with their name on it to our stable in the front hall.  We will build our stable for the Christ Child this Christmas.  This service project begins on Monday, November 28th and will run through Advent.  Start collecting those warm clothing items, so that this winter no one has to be cold!!!  Check out our front foyer with the heart stable and the coats when you have a chance to stop in. 

 

Change in School Calendar:  There is a change in this year’s school calendar. 

Please mark your calendars.  As you know, we added minutes to each school day this year and made a very tight calendar, hoping that if we had to get off early in May for the capital campaign remodeling, we would have our days and minutes in.  Now it is clear that we will not have to get out of school early in May for the remodeling and upgrading.  Some projects will be planned for this summer, but it will not be necessary to get off of school early in May. So….the two days that parents and teachers want most to be off of school are the Thursday and Friday of spring break.  We will now be off of school on April 12 and April 13.  Our spring break will consist of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and the whole next week.  We have had that in our calendars in past years, but this year we changed in case we needed time at the end of the school year for the construction to begin on our capital campaign remodeling projects.  Also the last day before Christmas will be a half day.  December 21st, the students will be dismissed at 11:00.  This is a change also.  Mark your calendars now, so there is no confusion later.

 

It’s Getting Colder:  Please make sure your child is dressed warm enough for outside recess.  Several young students have come to school without coats this week and last week when it was cold.  They need hats, gloves, coats, etc.  Most days are outside recess days.  If children do not have proper clothing, they will not be able to go to recess.  Thanks.

 

Sixth Grade Showcase:  St. Agnes School will host the Sixth Grade Academic Showcase here this Saturday, December 3rd.  Several area schools will join us for the competition.  Good luck, St. Agnes!!

 

Children’s Christmas Concert:  Students in grades K through 3 will entertain us with their concert on December 20 at 6:30 in the gym. 

 

Costume and Prop Help for K-3 Christmas Program:  Mrs. Miller is looking for a few K-3 parents to assist with costumes and props for the Christmas program. No sewing or previous craft skills are necessary…just a few hours of free time! The job would entail some shopping for supplies and simple assembly. If you are willing to help out please e-mail her as soon as possible: cmiller@saintagnes.com . Thank you!

 

Feast of St. Nick:  Tuesday, December 6th is the feast of St. Nick.  Don’t forget to put your stockings out on Monday night!!!

 

High School Placement Tests:  December 10 is the date for the High School Entrance Tests at the diocesan high schools.  Remember, you must register to take the test at the high school.  Register now. 

 

Library Books:  Today will be the last day students are permitted to check out books until after Christmas Break.  ALL books are due back by December 7th.    Please encourage your child to get those accelerated reader point completed before the end of the 2nd quarter, which is December 21st. 

 

PTO News:

Ladies Night Out Update:  Thanks to all who came to the 4th Annual Ladies Night Out. We hope everyone enjoyed the evening. The event was a huge success in that we earned over $2000 and received many donations of very nice items for the BBB silent auction. Also, a red Tommy Hilfiger rain coat was left at the event. If this is yours, please pick it up at the St. Agnes office. Thanks! LNO Committee

 

Market Day:  Cookie Dough results are in!  We sold 169 boxes of cookie dough.  Outstanding!  We earned about an extra $750 on top of our regular grocery sales.  More than 100 boxes alone were sold by our students during the parent/teacher conferences.  The student(s) who sold the most dough earned $50.  Audrey Neinaber and Carolyn Collins were the big winners!  Way to go girls and thanks to all the parents who continue to support Market Day.

 

365 Lotto Update:  Please join us for the December drawing on Sunday, Dec 4th in the undercroft after the 9:30 Mass.  Come see who wins $500 on Christmas.  Please note that the PTO and the lotto committee have decided not to do the 365 Lotto for 2012.  We are looking into revamping it and making it more exciting for the year 2013.  Any ideas or comments welcome.  Please send them to tish.bright@insightbb.com.  Thank you for supporting the lotto in the previous years.

 

St. Agnes Skyline Chili Night:  Please join us on Monday, Dec. 5 at the Ft. Wright Skyline from 5:00p to 9:00p. Coupons are attached.  If you forget them, please make sure you tell the server and/or cashier that you are there to support St. Agnes School, and we will receive 10% of the sales for the evening.  As always, thank you for your support.

 

Boosters News:

Spring Soccer Registration:  Registrations will be accepted December 1, 2011 through February 7, 2012.  There will be no in-person registration. Unfortunately, NO REGISTRATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED AFTER FEBRUARY 7, 2012 and there will be  NO EXCEPTIONS!  Fill out the attached form and send along with the appropriate registration fees to the following volunteer coordinators based on the age group you are registering for.

 

DCCH:  The Diocesan Catholic Children’s Home will host a Foster Care & Adoption Open House on Saturday, December 3 from 1 to 3 pm.  WARM 98 will broadcast live from 1 to 2:30 and there will be festive drawings throughout the event.  The Open House is meant to raise awareness of the dire need for people to foster and adopt needy children.  For more information, contact DCCH.

 

Around Our School

 

Congratulations! The Varsity and 6th grade academic teams defeated Calvary Christian this past match. The varsity record is now 7-0. Fantastic!

 

Did you know…the eighth graders have been studying energy?  There are 1,358 lights, 106 heating or cooling devices, and 997 electrical devices in our school.  After a day of trying to conserve energy we saved $35.20 in electric but because of the cold temperatures overnight we spent $38.99 in gas which was a $1.79 overall increase.  Even if we saved half of the electric that we did yesterday for a whole year, we would save $17.60/day which is $6424 a year.  Think we can do it???  I bet the business manager would be happy!!!

 

Did you know…the eighth graders are busy reviewing in language arts and math for their high school entrance tests which will be given on December 10th?

 

Did you know…the fourth graders made a visit to the Parish Kitchen on Friday, November 18th?  They decorated the Parish Kitchen with a variety of Thanksgiving decorations for the guests that visit every day for lunch.  In preparation for winter, the fourth graders also took a large collection of chapstick to the Parish Kitchen for the guests. Molly gave the fourth graders a tour of the Parish Kitchen and thanked the students for thinking of others during the season of Thanksgiving. 

 

Did you know…science students in sixth grade have been making rainbows, convection currents, snowflakes, warm/cold fronts, and much more?  Ask a sixth grader about his or her weather experiment!

 

Did you know…the second graders wrote letters to Santa asking lots of questions and giving him lots of ideas for presents?  The eighth graders helped us out by typing and emailing the letters to the North Pole. We will anxiously await Santa’s response. Some of the students wanted to know how much Santa weighed, where he likes to go on vacation, and if he uses a GPS. It was difficult to tell which grade level was having more fun!

 

Did you know… the eighth graders are great recording artists? While studying the Progressive Era in Social Studies, they created song titles reflecting the many issues of the reformers at the turn of the century…the 20th century that is. Song titles included: “Give Me Money”, by Boss Tweed; “Who you Gonna Call? Trustbusters!” by Theodore Roosevelt; “Vote for Me”, by the 19th Amendment.

 

 

Jesse Tree Project

 

We are making a Jessie Tree for Advent this year.  It is located in the hall by the computer room. Here are the daily Jessie Tree messages.

 

Nov. 28

This year we are celebrating Faith for Generations. As we go through our Advent journey waiting for Christmas, we will be listening to stories about the generations of people who prepared the way for Jesus’ birth. We’ll be learning about these people through the Jesse tree. Look for the Jesse tree in the front hall, and each day when we introduce a new ancestor of Jesus, we will add an ornament representing that person.

 

We begin with Jesse. Jesse is the father of King David. His family tree is the tree from which Jesus’ family springs forth. Jesse’s symbol is a tree root.

 

·         Stop today and say a prayer for your grandparents and great grandparents who are the roots of your family trees.

 

Nov. 29

Today we will add Adam and Eve to our Jesse tree. Adam was the first man whom God created. The devil tempted Adam and his wife, Eve, and they were driven from the Garden of Eden. After that, God promised to send a Redeemer to the world to open the gates of heaven. Adam and Eve’s symbol is the Apple.

 

·         Adam and Eve disobeyed God. Make an extra effort today to obey your parents and teachers when they ask you to do something.

 

Nov. 30

Today we learn about Noah. Noah was a good and faithful servant of God. He was told by God that the whole world would be destroyed by a severe flood. Only Noah’s family would be spared. God also told him to build an Ark and bring two of every kind of animal on the boat. After the water went down, God put a rainbow in the sky as a symbol that he would never again destroy the entire earth with a flood. Noah’s symbol is an Ark.

 

·         Say a prayer today for those who are affected by natural disasters such as storms, floods and earthquakes.

 

Dec. 1

Today we add Abraham to the Jesse tree. Abraham was the father of Isaac, and the husband of Sarah. His faith was tested by God when he was told to sacrifice his only son. But because he had such great faith God stopped him before he could do it and promised that he would be the father of many nations and descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky. Abraham’s symbol is a sky full of stars.

 

·         Abraham was ready to sacrifice something precious to him to show God how much he loved him. What would you sacrifice to show your love for God? Maybe try giving up a video game or a TV show to spend some time talking to God today.

 

Dec. 2

This morning we add Isaac to the Jesse tree. Isaac was Abraham and Sarah’s only son. He was to be killed on an altar as an offering to God in order for Abraham to prove his love for God. He later became the father of Jacob and Esau. His symbol is an altar.

 

·         Isaac was ready to die for God. Say a prayer for the men and women of the Armed Forces who sacrifice their lives every day for the freedom of our country.

 

Dec. 5

Today we will learn about Jacob. Jacob tricked his father, Isaac, when he pretended to be his older brother Esau. He had a dream with Angels going up and down a ladder to heaven. Jacob later became the father of twelve sons. He gave a colorful coat to his favorite son, Joseph. Jacob’s symbol is a ladder.

 

·         Spend 12 minutes in silence talking to God today or say 12 Hail Mary’s for someone in need.

 

Dec. 6

Today we will add Joseph, son of Jacob to the Jesse tree. This Joseph is not the same as Jesus’ father. This Joseph was the youngest of twelve children. His father loved him so much he was given a coat of many colors. His brothers were jealous and sold him to slavery, but because he could interpret peoples’ dreams, he was given a high position with the King of Egypt. He gave food to many people who were starving during a famine. Joseph’s symbol is a colorful coat.

 

·         Just as Joseph was given a warm coat from his father, we are also given warm clothes by our parents. Please remember we are still collecting gently used coats, sweatshirts, blankets and other items that keep us warm for those less fortunate who need to stay warm through the cold winter months.