F.Y.I. For Your Information St. Croix Catholic School Educating the Whole Child — Mind, Body and Spirit From the Principal’s Desk by Sister Mary Juliana, O.P. Report Cards Last Friday, report cards went home with the children. Often, it is tempting to see only the grade or comments from the teacher and not to see that this is a picture of your child. It is important to remember that all children do not learn to walk and talk at the same age, nor do they learn math or reading at the same rate. Your child is unique and is developing at the rate that is best for him or her right now. While it is important to challenge our children to be the very best that they can be, it is also important to remember that they are children and need to experience all the wonders of childhood. I also believe it is important to communicate regularly with your child’s teacher to learn what side of your child the teacher is seeing at school. In a classroom of 18 or so, though that is small in terms of classroom sizes, it is large when you compare it with your family. Your child likely responds differently in the classroom setting than at home. We want to be sure we’re doing all we can at school to support you and are reinforcing the same values you would like to be instilled in your child even in the larger classroom setting. Our Lady of Guadalupe ~ An Example of Generosity Each December 12, we celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a beautiful reminder of our Lady’s motherly care and protection for her children. The story is beautiful, as are our Lady’s words to Blessed Juan Diego, and through him to each of us as well, “Listen and understand, my humblest son. There is nothing to frighten and distress you. Do not let your heart be troubled, and let nothing upset you. Is it not I, your Mother, who is here? Are you not under my protection? Are you not, fortunately, in my care?” Let us place ourselves under the care of our Lady and accept her motherly love and protection as she seeks to pre- pare us to welcome Christ, her Son, at Christmas and each moment of every day. December 13, 2012 El Nacimiento de Nuestro Salvador: The Birth of Our Savior Grade 2 - 5 Advent Program Tuesday, December 18 at 6:30 pm Church of St. Michael Students should report to their classroom at 5:45 (no earlier please) and should be escorted to the classroom by a parent.
Transcript
F.Y.I. For Your Information
St. Croix Catholic School
Educating the Whole Child — Mind, Body and Spirit
From the Principal’s Desk by Sister Mary Juliana, O.P.
Report Cards
Last Friday, report cards went home with the children. Often, it is tempting to see only the grade or comments from
the teacher and not to see that this is a picture of your child. It is important to remember that all children do not
learn to walk and talk at the same age, nor do they learn math or reading at the same rate. Your child is unique and
is developing at the rate that is best for him or her right now. While it is important to challenge our children to be the
very best that they can be, it is also important to remember that they are children and need to experience all the
wonders of childhood.
I also believe it is important to communicate regularly with your child’s teacher to learn what side of your child the
teacher is seeing at school. In a classroom of 18 or so, though that is small in terms of classroom sizes, it is large
when you compare it with your family. Your child likely responds differently in the classroom setting than at home.
We want to be sure we’re doing all we can at school to support you and are reinforcing the same values you would
like to be instilled in your child even in the larger classroom setting.
Our Lady of Guadalupe ~ An Example of Generosity
Each December 12, we celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a beautiful reminder of our Lady’s motherly
care and protection for her children. The story is beautiful, as are our Lady’s words to Blessed Juan Diego, and
through him to each of us as well,
“Listen and understand, my humblest son. There is nothing to frighten and distress you.
Do not let your heart be troubled, and let nothing upset you. Is it not I, your Mother, who is here?
Are you not under my protection? Are you not, fortunately, in my care?”
Let us place ourselves under the care of our Lady and accept her motherly love and protection as she seeks to pre-
pare us to welcome Christ, her Son, at Christmas and each moment of every day.
December 13, 2012
El Nacimiento de Nuestro Salvador:
The Birth of Our Savior
Grade 2 - 5 Advent Program
Tuesday, December 18 at 6:30 pm
Church of St. Michael
Students should report to their classroom at 5:45 (no earlier
please) and should be escorted to the classroom by a parent.
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A Holy Hour with the Lord
A reflection from a 5th grade parent
On Friday, December 7th, the SCCS 5th grade classes spent time in the church with the Lord. During the month of
December, the students are practicing the virtue of generosity, through the example of St. Mary Magdalene. The
December VIP classroom activity was the Holy Hour with the opportunity to visit with the Lord in the Blessed Sacra-
ment.
The service, led by Father Lynch, included prayer, scripture, song and
silence. The students were encouraged to talk with Jesus, listen to
God and express love and devotion to Jesus, following the example of
the saints. Although the entire service was simply beautiful, a couple
of noteworthy items stand out as extraordinary. First, after a moment
of silence, suddenly someone started singing a hymn and soon the
entire congregation (43 fifth graders, teachers, parents, siblings and
grandparents) are rejoicing “You are my all and all”. A friend of mine
once said it best; there is nothing like the sound of children’s voices
praising God in song!
Second, the students were given the opportunity for prayer inten-
tions. (Father Lynch gave permission to use outside voices in church,
just this once!) We prayed for grammas and grandpas; uncles, aunts and cousins; moms and dads; classmates,
advent angels, Sarah Rooker, Zach Sobiech, the souls in purgatory and the list went on and on! It was so inspiring
and touching to hear our children generously and devoutly offering prayers for so many! How wonderful that our
children already recognize the power of prayer. What a wonderful gift we are giving our children; to be able to prac-
tice their faith as part of their school day.
An Early Christmas Gift from the Boy Scouts! by Mrs. McCarron
One of our former students, Joseph Riehm, needed an Eagle Scout project, and
luckily he decided to help the SCCS Communications class organize all the props
and costumes that we use for our one-act plays each trimester.
We’ve been very fortunate over the years to get many donations from parents of
clothing and a variety of prop items. However, as the number of items grew, or-
ganization became a problem with the spaces available. As a result, the students
had a hard time finding what they needed.
Joseph, and the scouts who helped him, have saved the day! When the 7th grad-
ers were in the midst of preparing our fall plays, the organization he created in all
the closets made an enormous timesaving difference!
From the start of his project, Joseph was a good communicator listening carefully
to what our needs were for the closets and responding with ideas that he thought
could solve the issues. He created a plan that transformed the props closet from
basically a space that just had items stacked one on top of the other, to a space that has appropriate shelving and
labeled containers that now help the students find and return everything in its place! The scouts also organized all
the costumes into categories, and Joseph created labels for each group.
I can’t thank Joseph enough for the hard work he did to create such needed organization for my students!
The Holy Hour invitation to 5th grade parents
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Upcoming SCRIP Sales Schedule
There will be no SCRIP sales after Mass the weekend of December 29th and 30th.
There will not be an online order placed on Monday, December 24th. Online orders will resume on
Monday, December 31st for pick up later that week. If you should have any questions about SCRIP sales,
