| | | | Dear Parents:
Happy New Year! It was a great vacation, but it is nice to be back. We hope your vacation was enjoyable, too. On these cold mornings, it is important that your child has a healthy breakfast to get a good start to the day and a warm jacket to wear to school. While the building is nice and warm, it gets quite chilly when they go outside at recess time.
Yesterday marked the Feast of the Epiphany. Epiphany is traditionally celebrated the 12th day after Christmas. The term epiphany means to show or to reveal. When the Wise Men, who brought the gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to Jesus they were the first to acknowledge Jesus as King and so were the first to show or reveal Jesus to a wider world as the incarnate Christ. Today, the day is now observed as a time of focusing on the mission of the church in reaching others by showing Jesus as the Savior of all people. | | | The Parents' Club have their monthly meeting tomorrow night, Thursday, January 8th in library at 7:00pm. Please consider attending. | | Sacramental Prep class for 2nd grade parents, Tuesday, January 13th in the 2nd grade classroom at 7:00pm.
| | | | USF DIGITAL MEDIA AND LEARNING: We are very excited to be asked once again to participate in a unique partnership with the University of San Francisco. We are one of two Catholic schools in the city who have this valuable opportunity. Our students will work in collaboration with USF graduate students in an exciting course entitled, Digital Media and Learning. This is our eighth year participating in this program and is open to all 6th, 7th and 8th grade students. Because of class size restrictions there are only eight spots open to STM students. The sessions will take place on Thursday afternoons between 4:30 and 6:00pm at the School of Education at USF, 2350 Turk Boulevard. The first session will begin on Thursday, February 19th. If you are interested in having your child participate, please review the flyer you are receiving in today's envelope. Taking this class will look very impressive on a high school application! | | | CIOPPINO: Please mark your calendars for our annual Cioppino fundraiser on Saturday, February 28th. The evening includes appetizers, antipasto, salad, garlic bread, cioppino (or chicken if you prefer), dessert, balloon prizes and a fabulous auction. Babysitting is also available on site! The committees in charge are busy looking for raffle and silent auction items to use as part of this event. Many such items are received through the generosity of our parent community. Do you have items at home that you cannot use? Are you always thrilled by all your Christmas gifts? Do you really need another chia pet? Well, one person's trash is another person's treasure. Send us your unwanted/unneeded gifts. We'll turn those lumps of coal into diamonds! The committee is now accepting donations of all kinds. Please drop all donations to the school office.
The next Cioppino meeting is scheduled for Monday, January 12th at 7pm. Anyone interested in attending this meeting or helping with the event can contact Linda Shah at lp1114@aol.com, or Judy Silva at jsilva@stmsf.org for the location.
NATIONAL CATHOLIC SCHOOLS WEEK: This runs from January 25th through January 31st. Please mark your calendars for our Family Mass, Open House, Book Fair, and other exciting events on Sunday, January 25th. The schedule of activities for National Catholic Schools Week is included in your envelope today and is also available here. Again this year we will be having a special day where we invite grandparents and other special guests to spend some of the day with the children. Pencil in Thursday, January 29th for this special day. Invitations for this Grandparents lunch are in your envelopes today. To help celebrate our grandparents and other special guests in the lives of our children, all students and their adult guests will receive a free lunch that day! We are looking for parent volunteers to help prepare this lunch. If you are available, please contact the office as soon as possible.
KINDERGARTEN APPLICATIONS: We are happy to announce that we have received a good number of applications for our 2015-2016 kindergarten class. Please note that in accordance with California State law children must be 5 years of age on or before September 1st in order for them to attend kindergarten in the fall. As a reminder, if you currently have a child in Utopia or a sibling who wishes to apply for kindergarten and have not completed the application, please do so as soon as possible. Next week, we will begin scheduling kindergarten screening appointments for Saturday, January 24th.
MINDFULNESS PROGRAM: Mindfulness, the practice of cultivating focused awareness on the present moment, has been shown to have a number of benefits, including emotional stability and improved sleep. Ashley Crouch, one of our school counselors from last year has asked if STM would be interested in piloting a Mindfulness Program that has been successfully used in schools across the nation. The program teaches kids as young as five years old how to use body scans, mindful breathing and attention to their thoughts and emotions to become more focused. We look forward to Ashley working with our kinder through 5th graders in these activities. | |  | | Sadly we received news this morning that our beloved librarian, Pat Pinnick, has passed away. Pat was always ready with a quick smile and a greeting for everyone who came through the front door. She will be greatly missed, especially by all the students who loved hearing her read stories to them and help them select an appropriate library book. She always seemed to know what kind of books each child was interested in. Pat was 82 years "young". We will pass on more details regarding her service as soon as they are available. Please keep her family in your prayers. | | Sincerely,
Marie Fitzpatrick
Principal | | | | | | | |
