The Spirit - October 2024
Our first day of school, the courtyard quickly filled with loving parents, grandparents, and siblings; the boys and girls naturally displayed quiet anticipation and a small amount of anxiety. But, within a very short time, the children delighted in new friendships and the joy of learning, and they began to arrive each morning with smiles of excitement and interest.
We gratefully continue our Religion course of study in the form of the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd is an approach to religious formation for children, rooted in the Bible, the Liturgy of the Church, and the educational principles and gifted insight of Maria Montessori. This inspiring and prayerful curriculum encourages the children to quietly listen as God whispers to each of them personally. The boys and girls enter the Atrium in peaceful silence and after listening to a presentation, proceed with their hands-on work and in it, find a closer and deeper relationship with God; while at the same time learning about the liturgy, scripture, and the history of our Church.
We excitedly continue our reading series, “The Superkids!” This comprehensive curriculum is in complete alignment with Common Core Standards and could not be more appealing to the children. Every eight to ten days the boys and girls receive their very own workbook and meet an engaging new character, and through these characters and their diverse interests, learn all the essential elements necessary to become confident, independent readers. In Math, we have been building the children’s number sense, which includes recognizing the relationships between numbers and representing numbers in a variety of ways. And, while researching the causes and consequences of pushes and pulls on Science, we finished the unit creating pinwheels, which the children enjoyed very much.
Each week of the first five weeks of school we focused on one of our Student Learning Expectations, as we discussed growing and learning to be active faith filled Catholics, lifelong learners, effective communicators, and responsible citizens, as well as culturally aware/global citizens.
On September 9th we celebrated Blessed Mother’s birthday, singing “Happy Birthday” to our Mother in Heaven as we reflected on her example of living every day of her life on earth with complete faith and trust in God and the importance of each of us trying to do the same.
In Honor of Hispanic Month we started October by learning and working on Mexican traditions related to the celebration of the “Day of the Dead”. The students were very happy and enthusiastic about participating in these activities.
We are so grateful to have the opportunity to walk to church and help the boys and girls understand more fully the sanctity of the altar and the miracle and gift of the Eucharist in the Tabernacle; allowing the students to continue to develop their understanding of the Mass.
The children met their prayer pals and shared a pleasant time with them in the kindergarten courtyard; they anxiously look for more experiences with their pals on campus and the church. We will have several opportunities throughout the year for the boys and girls to continue to enjoy and benefit from the time spent with the Eight Grade students.
These gentle little people are already practicing so many of the St. Francis Life Skills each day: effort and responsibility as they complete their class work. And perseverance, as they practiced their prayers throughout August and September, allowing them to confidently recite a decade of the rosary with the Student Body each morning in October. Additionally, the boys and girls display friendship, cooperation, and respect each morning and after lunch, as they excitedly enjoy recess together. Recognizing that conflict is a natural part of life, we are teaching the students through a program of “Conflict Resolution” to become responsible problem-solvers. Calming techniques and listening skills are taught through a series of student lessons, providing the boys and girls with peaceful ways to respond when distressed or upset.
First Grade is enjoying an active autumn! We are overjoyed to be in First Grade! This year welcomed 4 new students: Evelyne Chavez, James Garcia, Victoria Garcia, and Liam Ramirez.
During our first few months of school, we have been working on the writing process with Thinking Maps and prompts. We are also continuing to learn about Catechesis of the Good Shepherd and scripture. Exploring Patriotic themes and communities; sound in communication and signals; working on addition, subtraction, and math fact families; and reading about the Super Kids all add to our learning experiences. The Accelerated Reading program has been a popular attraction and a wonderful way to instill the love of reading while increasing fluency! We have had a blast using Kagan strategies to explore teamwork and collaboration. Singing our skills is always a fun way to learn new skills. Additionally, we love working on the IPads! Our favorite activities are Seesaw, IXL, and Freckle!
Each week we focus on the Life Skill and Ethics across the Curriculum theme by using literature, real life examples, and discussing how we live these values. Some of our favorite stories include I Can Cooperate, The Crayon Box That Talked, Caring is Sharing, Johnny Appleseed, and I Can Respect. Our School wide Learning Expectations are evident as we learn about our Catholic faith, have a desire to learn, practice responsibility, follow the Golden Rule, and learn effective communication skills. Conflict Resolution is a primary focus for learning how to solve disagreements and talk things out on the peace bench. This program is empowering us to use our talking power to seek solutions in a peaceful way. These are great reminders of what we learn in the Gospel messages.
We all loved having applesauce to celebrate Johnny Appleseed’s birthday and angel food cake to celebrate our Guardian Angels. Autumn highlights also include praying the Holy Rosary each day, participating in the Fall Festival, and having a Halloween Trick or Trunk celebration.
Accelerated Reading
5 or more AR points:
James Chaidez, Alina Davey, Scarlett Edwards, Jacob Garcia, Paul Garcia, Victoria Garcia, Kasen Hernandez, Sebastian Lucero-Cervantes, Miles Mariani, Camilla Pham, Liam Ramirez, Fiona Santibanez, Miranda Sotuyo, Ella Tobin, and Juliet Uribe
Independent Reading (10 points): Miranda Sotuyo
Students of the Month
Miranda Sotuyo and Sebastian Lucero-Cervantes
Scrip Purchases
Classroom supplies
Second Grade has been blossoming since the start of school in August! We have walked into our classroom each morning with a smile on our faces, ready to learn. This year, we have welcomed so many new friends to include in our classroom family: Alondra Garcia, Atlas Pascual, Kaliope Rosales, Reina Ruvalcaba, and Oliver Harger. We are looking forward to so many new and exciting things this year!
We cannot believe that it is already October! We are truly enjoying this refreshing autumn breeze. This time of year helps us to remember what is most important: family, friends, faith, and being thankful for the little things that we might forget. We performed the ‘Five Little Pumpkins’ at our Prayer and Flag Ceremony, and now, we cannot stop singing it! The month of October has been a wonderful time of reflection, especially each morning as we pray for our special intentions at Rosary.
We have accomplished so much the past couple of months. It is fun having more independence in our work studies and being able to do more work on our own. We took our first standardized test! Taking the Terra Nova test was tiring, but we “rocked” the test and showed how much we know. Our rock buddies helped us focus our attention. We enjoyed all the themed treats to keep our spirits high!
In Math, we just finished our first two chapters in addition and subtraction facts. We liked learning about the “grinchy” number when subtracting and how he has to be first! Now, we are learning about place value to the hundreds spot. We will make some delicious looking place value candy corn, while eating some, too!
In Reading, we just finished Unit 3 and cannot wait to learn more about the Superkids’ adventures in Unit 4. Currently, Ms. Blossom is having the Superkids partner up to create inventions. We like to enrich our learning with the Superkids Online Fun App. Our favorite ‘game’ is Vocabulary Master.
In Writing, we just finished writing and publishing our very first Expository paragraph on How to Play Hide and Squeeze. We first learned about it in Superkids, and now we enjoy playing it. Currently, we are working on a Response to Literature paragraph about Spookley the Square Pumpkin.
In Science, we finished our very first chapter in our new Science book! We are really enjoying the States of Matter and the properties it all has. We have loved our STREAM lessons and learning how to sort matter according to its properties. We soon will be learning about how matter can change states physically and chemically.
In Social Studies, we just finished our chapter on the three branches of government and how the president and the three branches work together to help America. Now, we are learning about the different types of communities we live in. We also like to act out our landforms with our bodies!
We enjoy using our iPads in our classroom almost every day! Not only do we use them for enrichment activities like Freckle, IXL, and the Superkids Online Fun App, but also for taking our check up lesson quizzes on Seesaw! Second Graders are becoming quite the 21st Century little experts!
In our Catechesis of the Good Shepherd program, we just reintroduced ourselves to the Atrium and decorated our lovely folders about God. We have worked on our Sacred History Chart, which helps us know the timeline from Creation to Redemption to Parousia. If you ask us, we can tell you that our faith has 3 moments that remember and that God has and always will be present. We have really focused on the altar articles and making sure to watch Fr. Rogelio and Fr. Lucas every Friday as they use them. We also love saying the rosary this month of October every morning with our family. We colored a life size rosary picture to help us remember that 10 Hail Mary prayers is one decade.
We appreciate our counselor, Ms. Washington, who comes in to talk to us every Tuesday morning for our conflict resolution. We love how she helps us determine what is a small problem and what is a big problem. She has introduced us to Kelso’s choices, and Kelso the frog! We know there are nine ways for us to use our talking power to solve a problem, and if we can’t, we find an adult we trust to help.
In Accelerated Reading, we are just flourishing with books! I have never seen so many students who love to read! To date, we have taken and passed 500 quizzes!
Accelerated Reading
Independent Readers: Makayla Bass, Kehau Cantiberos, Eve Cretin, Aliza Gagne, Alondra Garcia, Reese Porucznik, Daniel Stephensen, and Caleb Vargas
Super Readers: Zoe Espinosa and Bella Romero
Advanced Readers: Olivia Byrd and Olivia Hernandez
Students of the Month
Atlas Pascual and Reese Porucznik
Scrip Purchases
Classroom Supplies
The Third-Grade class has been consistently working hard since the first day of school! The students have been showing effort and patience as they have been learning new words, skills and concepts within the curriculum. We are showing cooperation in class as we work together toward our common goals. On Patriot Day, we came together as a class to put together a cooperative art piece. Each student was given one colorless square with instructions of what to color. When the coloring was complete, we were all cooperative effective communicators and put our pieces together to form one class art piece. It was challenging, but we all learned that each of us has something special to offer and when we work together, we can achieve many great things. We also learned that what is broken can be fixed if we remember to live our lives as God has intended and love one another.
We have been reviewing and implementing our Student Learning Expectations each week. We are discovering different ways to become Faith-filled Catholics, Life-Long Learners, Effective Communicators, Responsible Citizens, and Culturally-Aware/Global Citizens.
It makes us feel so special and loved to pray the Rosary each day during the month of the Holy Rosary with our SFDS family. We love our dear Blessed Mother so much that we all sang “Happy Birthday” while writing birthday cards to her! We also enjoyed some treats to celebrate.
In Religion we continue to build our relationship with the Good Shepherd. So far, we have worked on our continued development of the understanding of the rosary and why it is sacred. We have reviewed the Catholic family and why the holy sacraments are so special. Additionally, we have also discussed the human family and how God shows his love to us, each and every day. It is amazing to witness the students’ curiosity of our Catholic faith and to see their passion for God and the Catholic faith grow. We also enjoyed hosting our first school Mass together on the feast day of Saint Francis of Assisi. Our first prayer and flag was wonderful as well as we celebrated the feast of the Guardian Angels. Students drew pictures of their Guardian Angels and wrote about how their Guardian Angels take care of them.
In Math, we have been working on our rounding skills and applying them to add and subtract three-digit numbers.
In Social Studies, we have been learning about different types of communities and how they all depend on each other to thrive.
We have started a new Science series, and the students love it. They have been having a wonderful time applying new skills to their interactive labs on their class iPads.
In Art, we have made sunflowers out of construction paper and sunflower seeds and cats sticking their heads out of pumpkins. We are currently working on our Pablo Picasso inspired masterpieces.
We have been enjoying our reading stories from our Journey’s text and the students just completed their very first benchmark test. They did great. We are finishing up the novel Ramona the Brave by Beverly Cleary and I am excited to see the students complete their book projects.
Accelerated Reading
Independent readers (10+points): Abel Anaya, Harrison Blackwood, Leonardo Cabanillas, Joshua Garcia, Amiah Hernandez, Ivy Mariani, Zoey Mariani, Brayden Sarmiento, Colin Sarmiento, Daniel St. James, Ariana Valencia, and Nikolai Wright
Super Readers (15+ points): Angel Duarte, Gabriel Martinez, Agatha Medina-Cuadrado, Johnathon Mitchell, Gavry Reyes, and Emmett Soriano
Advanced Readers (20+ points): Mabel Ibarra and Jayden Solano
Star Readers (50+ points): Alexander Flagg.
Students of the Month
Mabel Ibarra and Angel Duarte
Scrip Purchases
None
We have started the year off by showing our caring and generosity towards others in a big way with our annual charity drive! We worked very hard collecting fast food gift cards for homeless children here in our valley. The generous spirit of the students and families in our class is inspiring! We see the love of God working through them! We were able to collect over $1200.00! The Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth guest speaker, Lexie, was very impressed, and assured us that our help will make a real difference in the lives of many children. She gave all our students a NPHY bracelet as a thank you. We have also been collecting ring tabs for Ronald McDonald House charities. I have already made a delivery to the home on West Sahara with a large box full of ring tabs. Keep up the good work!
In Religion we have been introduced to the new Atrium set up in our classroom! We are looking forward to a wonderful year growing in our faith. We will continue to honor Mary, Our Blessed Mother, each day during the month of October by praying the rosary. In addition, we have been discussing our Lifeskills such as: honesty, responsibility, caring, and kindness which are so important in our daily lives.
In Reading, we started the year off with The Whipping Boy, a novel by Sid Fleischman about the true meaning of friendship. Our second novel was a Halloween tale, Bunnicula, by Deborah and James Howe. We enjoyed the antics of Chester, a cat with a case of sibling rivalry very much. Frindle, is the current novel we are reading together. Our main character, Nicholas Allen is full of ideas that sometimes have surprising results. In addition, our nightly reading should be filled with many wonderful stories! Please be sure everyone is reading each and every night!
In Social Studies, Fourth grade concentrates on Nevada History. We are learning many new things about the great state of Nevada. We have learned all the major symbols of our state along with the reasons they were chosen to represent us. We have been honing our map skills by using the compass rose, map key, and scale, and we have even learned how to use lines of longitude and latitude to locate selected spots on a map. We can distinguish the differences in the six ecosystems here in Nevada and are now learning about the 4 main regions of our state.
In Science we started the year off with some fun experiments. We looked at cells under our microscopes, to start off our study of the human body. We then moved on to the muscular skeletal system before introducing the parts of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems. We discovered how they are dependent on each other to keep us alive. Now we are moving on to the digestive and nervous systems. Throughout these lessons we will discover how important it is to keep ourselves healthy with proper nutrition and exercise so that all our body systems continue to work properly.
Math has been a review and mastery of our addition and subtraction skills, but we are moving to multiplication with double digit multiplication problems coming up soon! This math is very challenging, but we will feel a great sense of accomplishment because we used perseverance! With practice, these tough problems will become much easier. As always, practice on basic math facts using Freckle Fact Practice will help every student become more confident in their work
Accelerated Reading:
Independent Readers(10 points):Saraiah Carambas, Blair Davey, Cash Delgado, Izabella Gagne, Ivan Garcia, Leovy Garcia,
Mia Garner, Giselle Gougeon, Zoey Green, Isabella Lauria,
Darlene Lopez, Saul Luna, Nicholas Martinez, Gracie McCaleb, Pamela Mercedes, Audrianna Miranda, Clara Shevorski,
Kiani St. James
Power Readers (30 points) - Alexis Rosales, Lady Arabella Santos, Erlise Saraste
Advanced Readers (100 points) - Everett Ware
Outstanding Readers 200 points: Luke Perez
Amazing Readers (250 points) - Rebecca Rickert
Students of the Month
Lady Arabella Santos and Everett Ware
Scrip
Classroom Supplies
Fifth grade is so happy to be on the “big side” of school. All of us are excited to be together with our old friends and new. We welcomed two new students, still like playing Sparkle Spelling, and love Dum-Dum pops!
This year began with learning many new rules for the classroom and playground. The class finished reading Wonder together and watched the movie. We are now reading the novel Holes and will read The Secret Garden later this year.
In Religion, we have begun a series that is new to us, Christ Our Life, along with continuing our studies in CGS. We are looking forward to a wonderful year growing in our faith. During the month of October, we continue to honor Mary, Our Blessed Mother, each day by praying the rosary. We can’t wait to present our Saints on November 5th. Finally, we have been discussing and using many of our Life Skills including, caring, honesty, kindness, and responsibility.
In Reading, we have read a lot of stories from our Journeys textbook. We have read five stories so far. Our favorites were “A Package for Mrs. Jewls”, “A Royal Mystery”, and “Double Dutch”. When we do our workbook pages, we really like the proofreading spelling page. We also really enjoy Sparkle Spelling even though we usually only do it on Thursdays this year. The sole reason we like it so much is, if we win, we get a lollipop.
In Math, we just completed three chapters on adding, subtracting, place values, decimals, and multiplication. We learned about expanded form, how to compare, order, and round decimals. All of us enjoyed reviewing our all our math facts using white boards, as well as going up to the Smartboard. We can’t wait to see what the next chapter is about! Although math is a challenge for many of us, we know the effort we put in will make sure success will be right around the corner.
In Social Studies, we are studying the history of The United States. We completed the first unit on our nation’s geography and are now beginning to learn about Native Americans. It is so interesting to tie this with what we learned in Fourth grade during Native American Day to what we are learning this year. We are learning new topics in our DOG. Making our own islands was a fun project. We enjoyed sharing and seeing all the wonderful, creative projects that were made.
In Science, the 5th Grade has been learning about Astronomy. So far, we have studied about the planets, asteroids, constellations, and why we have seasons. We did a few STREAM projects to go along with the units, but the one in September that involved craters on the moon was the most fun! We made a big mess outside with flour, cocoa, and sprinkles flying everywhere! Can’t wait to make our own International Space Stations soon.
Accelerated Reading
Independent Readers: Lesly Abarca, Tomas Cardona,
Benjamin Saba, Kruz Uribe
Super Readers: Montserrat Carrillo-Fierro, Gunner Ellis,
Ethan Garcia, Emma Godwin, Leah Muguria, Matthew Neal, Michael Springer, Chloe Taylor
Advanced Readers: Montserrat Carrillo-Fierro, Rene Duarte, Amy Estrada, Charles Mariani,
Emma Nunez, Zachary Osotio, Journey Richardson,
Audrey Shevorski, Calie Taylor
Star Readers: Kaydence Lauria, Anna Rosenberg
Students of the Month
Amy Estrada and Joshua Baylon
Scrip Purchases
Classroom supplies & Field Trip to In-N-Out
Hello families of SFDS,
Wow! I am so pleased and PROUD of my 6th grade students' efforts, good listening, and co-operation in adjusting to the brand-new world of Middle School! They are all doing a fine job learning the routines of their new, daily school life. We are diligently learning new skills, such note-taking and study-skills techniques to become successful test-takers. We discuss our Life Skills of Tolerance, Integrity, Respect, Courage, Cooperation, Responsibility, Effort, Caring, Curiosity, and Patience in our Religion class and apply these skills to our daily life. I am truly blessed to have such a wonderful Homeroom this year!!
Thank you to all of the parents, who were able to make time to attend our Conference week. I love having an opportunity to talk about what makes me love my job –your students!!
Science: Students are gearing up for an exciting year in Science! They are learning about the Cell cycle and organisms. We can’t wait for our very first Science Fair this year.
English: We just wrapped up our grammar section and concrete and abstract nouns. We continue to work diligently on AR reports. 😊
Religion: This year we are learning about our ancestors in faith, which correlates with our Social Studies curriculum. Students are making connections and understanding how God’s plan of salvation unfolded in the lives of the Patriarchs. As always, we are becoming more aware of God’s goodness and building a deeper trust in God.
Reading: Reading is such an integral part of learning! We are reading a story called “Ravine,” which describes a boy and his friends’ adventure. This year should be an awesome year in reading, as our reading book is filled with many exciting stories. .
Social Studies: We are currently studying the Stone Age and all of the different archeologists’ finds. Students are curious and ask a lot of questions, which adds to the overall learning experience.
Math: We are looking forward to learning more about multiplying decimals.
Sixth grade is striving to be responsible citizens, who love to learn. This includes organization skills, time management, and preparedness.
Regarding AR goals: Students, let’s keep the momentum going in maintaining your goals for this year!
Congratulations and thank you for doing such a tremendous job on AR, continue to read nightly.
The following students have achieved Certification recently:
The Seventh grade would like to extend a warm welcome back to Saint Francis de Sales Catholic School. It seems hard to believe that we are already in October and November is just around the corner. This year is a preparation year for seventh grade as we strive to become leaders in our school. We have been given some new responsibilities this year such as raising the flag every morning, 1st grade prayer pals, and the preparation of the Stations of the Cross.
Seventh grade has enjoyed spending time with their prayer pals, at our first meet and greet we shared popsicles and great conversations on getting to know each other. We are looking forward to sitting at mass together in November. We look forward to our many gatherings throughout the year.
We also have been busy reviewing thinking maps. We have been enjoying working together cohesively throughout the Jane Schaffer Expository writing process. In addition, the students also worked on a brace map in Spanish on colores.
The students have enjoyed the Arts Attack program, they completed a contour drawing of Wild Horses and created beautiful pictures of our Mother Mary for the month of October. Stop by our hallway to admire the wonderful artwork being displayed.
Subject Happenings:
Science: Currently we are studying the individual planets, and we just learned about the different phases of the moon. We are looking forward to our very first Science Fair this year.
English: We just wrapped up our punctuation and capitalization sections and are currently on prepositions, which are the key to identifying . We continue to work on My Access writing assignments on a weekly basis.
Religion: This year we are learning about many new interesting events in Religion. Currently, we are studying parables in the Bible. In the near future we will begin studying the women of the Bible.
Reading: This year should be an awesome year in reading. Our reading book is filled with many stories. We are also starting our Greek Mythology unit in November.
Social Studies: We are currently studying about early colonies as well as learning the map of the United States in regional areas.
Math: Is so cool but it is also going to be a challenging year. We are looking forward to learning more about Solving Expressions and Equations using integers.
Seventh grade is up for the challenge of being responsible citizens who love to learn. We look forward to a dynamic year filled with opportunities for us to grow and learn throughout the year.
Accelerated Reading:
Super: Presley Chirpac, Anthony Khayat, Jacoby Laranio, Alejandro Mora, Fallyn Napolitano, Jayleen Orduna, Tyson Valdez
Advanced (20+): Blair Angeles, Alissa Balsicas, Daniel Batara, Alana Cano, Samuel Cantiberos, Isaiah Carambas, Jayden Carias, Olivia Delgado, Christian Duarte, Sebastian Garcia, Blake Hazard, Josephine Ibarra, Natalya Jarrous, Josslyn Kimenker, Lea Lopez, Gianela Martinez, Reagan Medford, Julius Nasiak, Juliette Rosales, Gabriel Ruvalcaba,Sophie Simon, Isabella Toledo, Eliana Valdez, Aaliyah Vigil, Piper Wells
Star(50+): Dresdan Reyes, Layla Mariani, Chloe Cullum, Kennady Byrd
Students of the Month
Eliana Valencia and Jayden Carias
Scrip Purchases
None
The final year for the class of 2025 from St. Francis de Sales is well underway. We welcomed eight new students, Isabelle Khayat, Karyssa Wand, Jayden Eugarrio, LJ Marchese, Lincoln Pilanca, Robbie Pistone, Adrian Herrera, and Alexander Rosales. We wish them a very successful year at St. Francis de Sales. We did some SLE license plate artwork the first week of school. It was hanging in the hallway until the month of October when we put up our beautiful pictures of Mary and golden noodle crosses. We also filled out a personal inventory of ourselves for our portfolio as well as a questionnaire as to our leadership skills.
We have been concentrating very hard on the SLEs. As leaders of the school, we want to demonstrate all the necessary qualities for leadership for the younger students. Before we know it, high school will be here, and we will be making decisions as leaders and young adults.
Eighth grade enjoyed the Welcome Back Barbeque. It is fun to see students from years past who come back to visit.
We were thrilled to meet with our Kindergarten Prayer Pals during Terra Nova Week. We made cards for them and played outside with them. We also got to sit with them in Mass on Friday, October 11, 2024. We are looking forward to Minion Day in October and the Thanksgiving Pie Day with them.
We also had our first retreat with Mr. Blaskey. He continued to emphasize our leadership expectations and how we can influence the younger students by our actions.
Ms. Studdard’s Math classes are concentrating on integers and rational numbers. We reviewed extensively for Terra Nova and were happy to have the math section over with on Wednesday, September 18! We can tell that this year will be a very busy year in math!
In science, we are also slowly beginning to work on the Science Fair…it is not until February! We have already picked our projects and will start the research paper very soon. We are also studying simple machines.
In Social Studies, we discussed the Constitution and all that our Forefathers did for us when we were a very new country. This was in preparation for our upcoming election in order for all of us to be aware of our voting history.
English, Reading, and Religion are also keeping us busy with grammar, writing, and learning the history of the Church.
Spanish is always exciting with learning new verb tenses and new vocabulary. We love the videos Mrs. V plays for us in class.
In Technology, we continue to practice our keyboarding skills. We are also learning different types of letter formatting such as block, semi-block, and modified. We are also working on projects to help us build a better career and future for ourselves.
6th Grade Living Science
Hello 6th Grade parents! 6th Grade students has had an exciting 6 weeks. Students kicked off the year learning about Scientific Inquiry, Scientific Theory, and Scientific Law. Students were given the opportunity to test what they had learned in the form of multiple hands on labs. Some labs that students have enjoyed were identifying animal skeletal systems and labeling fossils. The material covered in their textbooks have included Unit 1, Classifying and Exploring Life. The purpose of this chapter is to understand what are living organisms and how can they be classified? Unit 2, Cell Structure and Function. The purpose of this chapter is to understand how the structure and processes of a cell enable it to survive. Unit 3, From a Cell to an Organism. The purpose of this chapter is to understand how one cell can become a multi-cell organism. We are currently starting a new unit on Genetics. Upcoming labs will include activities viewing microscopic organisms under microscopes, and a hands-on presentation of various animals from a live traveling exhibit from a local pet shop. We look forward to what the rest of the year has in store in class!
7th Grade Earth Science
Hello 7th Grade parents! 7th Grade students has had an exciting 6 weeks. Students kicked off the year learning about Scientific Inquiry, Scientific Theory, and Scientific Law. Students were given the opportunity to test what they had learned in the form of multiple hands-on labs. Some labs that students have enjoyed were mineral identifications, mineral excavating where they dug out their own minerals. Rock cycle identification and they will be cracking their own geodes later this week. Thee dry ice lab activity had to be rescheduled for a later date. The material covered in their textbooks have included Unit 1, The Nature of Science. The purpose of this chapter is the exploration of scientific theory. Unit 2, Matter. This chapter covers molecules, atoms, fluids, liquids and gasses. Unit 3, Minerals. This chapter identifies how minerals are formed, identified and uses. Unit 4, The Rock Cycle. This chapter covers the 3 types of rocks in the rock cycle and how they are formed. Students are wrapping up Unit 4 and will be diving into the next unit on Views of the Earth, where they will be learning about maps, satellite images and Earth models. We are excited to see what the rest of the year brings!
8th Grade Physical Science
Hello 8th Grade parents! 8th Grade students has had an exciting 6 weeks. Students kicked off the year learning about Scientific Inquiry, Scientific Theory, and Scientific Law. The material covered in their textbooks have included Unit 1, Scientific Problem Solving. This chapter covers scientific inquiry, scientific theory / scientific law, and problem-solving methods. Unit 2 Motion and Forces. This chapter describes varied models and ways to interpret and describe motion. Unit 3, The Laws of Motion. This chapter explains how forces change the motion of objects ans Newton’s 1st, 2nd, and 3rd laws. Unit 4, Work and Simple Machines. In this chapter, students learn about work vs power and simple machine vs. compound machines. Students have recently completed this chapter and are moving into the next unit, Unit 5, Pressure of Density and Fluids. This chapter will include states of matter.
We are excited to see what the rest of the year brings!
It’s been a month now since we started singing our new mass setting, Mass of Christ the Savior by Dan Schutte, replacing Mass of St. Ann by Ed Bolduc. Mass setting means the common songs sung with the congregation starting with Kyrie, Gloria, Gospel Acclamation, Hosana, Memorial Acclamation, Great Amen, and Agnus Dei. Settings change following the liturgical calendar.
First Grade is learning the song Home Means Nevada as they host the Prayer and Flag for the very first time this year. Third Grade started playing recorder in music class and they are doing great! We started with B-A-G positions and now they know the rest of the octave, C1, D,E,F, and C8.
This month, we continue to learn Instruments of the Orchestra, Elements of Music-RHYTHM in particular, and learning more church hymns for our weekly Eucharistic celebrations. I will also start assigning each class their music for our Christmas Program. All classes will be busier in the coming months as they prepare for much-awaited program. I will tell you more details in the next newsletter.
See you on October 20, Parish Festival and please support the SFDS Choir as they perform onstage singing some popular music of the 60s!
It has been a very busy month with Soccer. Our Soccer team has been playing very well this season. I am very proud of our team and how hard they are played. The Soccer team made it to the finals and won the Championship against St Anthony. Congratulations to all players!!!
We have started and are finishing our soccer unit. Students learned the fundamentals and the rules of soccer. We worked on passing, shooting, offense, and defense. The lower grades also worked on the fundamentals. Our upper grades continue to reinforce their fundamentals, and also play scrimmages so they could learn about the game and practice positions. Overall students are working hard in PE to get better at playing soccer.
This month we began our basketball unit. The students have been looking forward to getting started with basketball. We will work on fundamentals and work on defense offense, shooting, passing, and dribbling. Our upper grades will reinforce their basketball skills. It should be a fun unit.
We also trained the past two months for Cross Country. We ran hard and we took 3rd place. Thank you to the 4th graders who ran also. Congratulations to all the runners and thank you Miquel for running for the 7th graders and winning a 2nd place medal. Next month I will list all medal runners.
We will continue to learn the importance of good sportsmanship, and the importance of staying active and living a healthy active lifestyle. Please continue to keep your children active.
Have a great month in October!!
The 2024-2025 NJHS year began with the induction of 14 new seventh grade students on Friday, October 11, 2024, after the 8:30AM Mass. On Tuesday, October 15, 2024, all the NJHS students were surprised with a beautiful cake, soda, and goodie bag. We are all very excited and looking forward to a busy year with various duties: helping out at hot lunch, church helpers, homework books, and patrol duty. This year our officers are President, Genevieve Lara; Vice-President, Cristel Claveria; Secretary, Reagan Medford; Treasurer, Josslyn Kimenker, and Historian, Piper Wells.
Our first fundraiser will be Pop Tarts (lots of yummy flavors) on Tuesday, November 5, 2024.
Dear Parents,
We are very proud to present this October issue of The Spirit! I know you will enjoy reading all of the classroom news, as well as the articles written by our student reporters this month.
Our school year is off to a wonderful and very busy start! Parent-Teacher Conference Week has just ended, and we find ourselves more than halfway through the mid-term of our first trimester! Meeting with each of you and sharing your child’s first progress report has been our first “official” communication regarding academic performance. We firmly believe that communication in all aspects of school life creates an atmosphere that allows parents and teachers to work together - effectively. I greatly appreciate the way in which you, as parents, share what is happening within your families and the manner in which it can affect your child’s performance at school. This allows us to offer the appropriate support and flexibility when students need it most. For our part, we continue to do our very best to keep you aware of what is happening within our classrooms and throughout our school community. The relationship between parents, teachers, and students is the key to our success!
Parish Festival News .... Thank you so much to all of our Amazing parents for all of the help and support with this year’s Parish festival! We greatly appreciate your generous donation of time, talent, and resources! We do not take our successes for granted - again, thank you for all that you do!
Student Council wishes to remind everyone that they will also be sponsoring their annual Black and Orange Free Dress Day and Pumpkin Decorating Contest on October 31st! Bring your most creative, funny, and spooky pumpkins - we will have terrific prizes for all winners!
Trunk or Treat: This year we will be hold our Fourth Annual Trunk or Treat! We are all so excited! On, Thursday, October 31st we will be going from trunk to trunk collecting candy!! We can’t wait to see all the decorated cars! We will be sure to post many pictures!
Day of the Dead : We look forward to seeing everyone’s beautiful and meaningful offrendas on November 1st. This will be the beginning of a wonderful school tradition!
Scrip News: We thank you for your continued support of the Scrip program. Since the beginning of the school year, Scrip funds have been used to pay for Staff Development, our Welcome Back Barbecue, Classroom Supplies, the Scholastic Challenge, and field trips! I would especially like to recognize Mrs. Chirpac for her continued dedication, ensuring the success of the Scrip program.
I eagerly look forward to the continuation of a great school year!
Respectfully,
Carol Wilson
Principal