Last Friday we began the month of November with the Feast of All Saints (November 1st) and All Souls (November 2nd). Thank you to all who joined us at the Friday morning mass to celebrate these important days in the church’s calendar. November is traditionally dedicated to those who have died and “have gone to their rest believing in Jesus Christ” (Eucharistic Prayer II). The month of November also draws to an end the liturgical calendar of the church. Throughout the month, scripture readings at mass reminds us of the last days, culminating with the Feast of Christ the King, November 24th, the closing of the Year of Faith and the National Holiday of Thanksgiving day, November 28th.
This Sunday, November 10th, at 10:00am, the fifth graders will prepare our next Family Mass. Please consider joining with the St. Thomas More School Community to gather together in worship. Collection envelopes will be available at mass. Thank you in advance for your contributions to the second collection, which benefits the school. Save the date – December 8th is our next Family Mass. We look forward to your attendance on this special day as we present the confirmation and first communion candidates.
We hope your parent-teacher conferences are going well. The teachers always look forward to meeting with you and sharing the good news about your child’s progress. Once again, our school showed very healthy IOWA test results with the majority of students scoring at or above the 75th percentile. Please remember to sign and return your child’s report card. Just a reminder that every day this week is a minimum day, with dismissal at 12:15pm for grades K-3 and 12:30pm for grades 4-8.
SCHOOL TOURS: We held our first school tour yesterday and were happy to have 8 families join us. Thank you to our 8th grade student ambassadors, Mark Bickle, Kai Schelstrate, Ricky Duarte, and Gian Ocampo who shared a wealth of information with those families. We have another three tours scheduled for November 20th, December 10th and January 28th. If you know anyone interested in learning more about our school, please encourage them to use this link to reserve a space on one of our tours. Applications for students new to the school for the 2014-15 school year are now available from the office or can be downloaded from our website. Please share this information with your family and friends. Students currently enrolled in grades K-7 need not reapply. You will be receiving re-registration information in the spring.
PARENTS CLUB MEETING: Please consider joining us for our Parents’ Club meeting tomorrow night in Carroll Hall. The social hour begins at6:45 and at 7:15 we have guest speakers coming in to talk about our school scrip programs. Come and learn how to prepare for the upcoming holidays and learn more about how to fulfill you scrip requirement. Just a reminder that ALL families need to raise a minimum of $100 profit through the scrip program. Parents will be on hand to help you sign up for the scrip program if you have not already done so. The guest speaker at our December Parent Club meeting will be Becky Wong, our technology coordinator. Becky will provide much more in depth information on the iPad roll out program for 6th, 7th and 8th grades that begins in January.
SANDWICHES-FOR-THE-NEEDY: This Friday, November 8th, is our next collection of sandwiches-for-the-needy. All are welcome to participate and the sixth and seventh grade students are charged with taking the lead that day. Some of our upper grade students will again work with Alma Via residents this week to make sandwiches. Don’t have time to make a sandwich for our collection…we are accepting donations to help defray the expenses for when we make sandwiches here at school. We thank you in advance for what we hope will be another huge collection for those at the Martin de Porres House of Hospitality.
A BIG THANK YOU: Last week we delivered the many cases of toiletry items that have been donated over the past month to St. Anne’s Home. They were so grateful to receive such a blessing and thank everyone who generously donated items. A thank you letter to the students of STM from Sister Agnes lsp. on behalf of the residents and sisters at St. Anne’s Home is on display in the office. A special thank you to the 8th grade class and their teacher, Natalia Girlich, for spearheading this fantastic collection.
PEANUT BUTTER COLLECTION: As we move towards the holiday season, we want our students to continue to ‘show a little kindness’ by participating in our annual collection of peanut butter. Our collection this year, led again by the first graders, will benefit the St. Vincent de Paul Society. The St. Vincent de Paul Society has requested peanut butter, as it is a much-needed nutritious staple for them throughout the holiday season. Last years collection was so successful, that the students brought in about 400 jars in just 4 weeks. This year, our collection, which starts on Friday, November 8th, will run over five weeks so our goal as a school is to collect 500 jars. If we reach our goal of 500 jars of peanut butter by December 13th, the student body will enjoy free dress on Friday, December 20th. Please send a jar (or two!), any kind, any size with your child by Friday, December 13th.
PANORAMIC PICTURE: For the sixth year running, we are offering a 10”x30” panoramic student body picture for purchase. Lifetouch, our school picture company, will come this Friday, November 8th to take this picture of all students, preschool through 8th grade, and faculty in our gym at 11am. If you are interested in purchasing one, please return the order form you received last week with your child no later than this Friday, picture day. Panoramic photos are pre-pay only and additional items cannot be ordered later. The original pictures from the last five years are on display here in the school office. Drop by and check them out!
NIGHT AT THE RACES: Thank you to all who joined us for Night the Races last Saturday night. It was great to see so many new faces. Thank you also to everyone who volunteered their time to help make the night such a success. We are happy to report that this event raised over $5,000 for our technology program! It added to the excitement and fun of the whole evening that all raffle prizewinners were present. Congratulations to the Kindle Fire HD grand prizewinner, our own Theresa Halloran!
HOOP-A-THON: The Athletic Board will conduct their annual Hoop-a-thon for kindergarten through third graders on Friday, November 15th. The 4th through 8th grader hoop-a-thon will be on the following Friday, November 22nd. Sign-ups are still being accepted. Encourage your child to participate in this fun event! We’d love to see you there to cheer on your children!
YARD DUTY: Thank you for all who continue to sign up for yard duty. Our teachers really appreciate your help in the mornings and during snack and lunch recess. Just a couple of reminders:
- Please arrive at least 5 minutes before your scheduled yard duty time so that you may check-in. Late arrivals will not be credited.
- Cell phone use is prohibited while on yard duty.
- Drinks of any kind are not permitted in the schoolyard while serving yard duty.
- Injured children should be sent to the office with another child. Unless in the most serious cases, we need you to remain in the yard as a parent supervisor.
- The 4th grade Students will visit the Botanical Gardens on Tuesday, November 19th.
- Students from 7th grade will enjoy a production of The Barber of Seville at The War Memorial Opera House on Thursday, November 21st.
- Also on November 21st, the 5th graders will visit The Garden for the Environment.
Sincerely,
Marie Fitzpatrick
Principal
