January 21

I can hardly believe it's been so long since I' ve posted! Time has flown once again.
Today was the feast of St. Agnes as well as Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Last week we did an Art project on Martin Luther King's "I had a dream..."

We have now started our fourth theme for language arts. We have a total of six themes. Our new skills this week are r-controlled vowels: ar, or, ore. Our new words are board, listen, and told.

We had our first lesson in preparation for First Reconciliation. The lesson was on God's love for us. We are making a booklet "My Book of God's Gifts". Even though it's supposed to be for sacramental preparation, I think the non-Catholics can enjoy these lessons as well. Next week it will be "How I Love God". We'll act out a play Jesus by the Sea from Luke 5:1-11. Please read the note to parents on the back page of their booklets.

Tomorrow we will go to church for the first time for Eucharistic Adoration. We won't be staying the full hour, but I do want the children to experience this form of prayer and being silent with God if only for 15-20 min. They will see how the Monstrance looks on the altar. Speaking of the monstrance, we have been studying many things about church. Last week we went to church to see these things and talk about how some of the items are used. We got to see things we've never seen before ( that includes ME!) Mr. Eaton happened to come in just at that time, and he showed us the monstrance and other things. Fr. Frank also happened to come in. He showed us the altar stone with the relic. Anybody remember those? Maybe you'd have to be close to my age to know about that. Mr. Eaton was impressed with how much the kids have learned. We use "flash cards" I made with pictures of things such as the Paschal Candle, Monstrance, tabernacle, etc. I read the definitions and the kids name what it is. It's a fun way to learn!I told Mr. Eaton that I have smart kids - and he agrees!

We are gearing up for Catholic Schools' Week next week. The opening mass is at 9:30 Sunday. Remember, next Monday night is Family Night. I hope to see many of you there! We also know that the St. Louis kids will be here to celebrate with us on Wednesday. The rest will be finalized soon, and I'm sure you will get a calendar of events.

Have a good evening.

IT'S JANUARY!

Happy 2008! It won't be long until we have completed a half year of school. Wow! I can hardly believe it.
Our time off from school certainly went by quickly, too. There's always so much to do and people to visit with, but it's good that we take time to attend church. For me, it is a peaceful, calming time of worship and community. I hope all of you were able to attend services on the weekends as well as Christmas and New Year's Day. It's a great way to start a new year, too!

We will be starting our new reading lessons even though there are just three days. We won't have the spelling test until next week. The new vocabulary words this week are: believe, whole, and lady. Our skills will be long e sound spelled with ea or ee as well as the endings of
-ture and -tion. Our phonics library story is "The Clean Team". When we finish these stories, the kids should be taking them home and reading the stories to you. I hope they are doing so.

In Math we are still working on TIME. Today we did "time before the hour". Have you ever noticed at the bottom of their sheets ( the colored ones from their texts) that there are suggestions for you to do at home? For example, today's home activity is - At times from the half-hour to the hour during the day, ask your child to tell the time before the hour. Please check these out when the kids bring their papers home.

Have a good day!