Weekly Newsletter
November 27-December 1, 2023
FROM THE DESK OF…
Mrs. Terri O’Daniel, Executive Director
OH, HOLY KNIGHTS!
OUR STARS ARE BRIGHTLY SHINING!
The Knights of Columbus from St. Albans visited the Academy on Friday to donate $2,000 from their Tootsie Roll Drive, and the Ascension Knights of Columbus who donated $10,000 from their annual golf tournament! We thank both “Holy Knights” organizations for their generosity.
Both Knights of Columbus groups have been supporters of the Academy for many years! Their diligent work raising funds and generosity are a tremendous blessing to our school!
THEIR DONATIONS HELP OUR STUDENTS SHINE!
An Academy Community Opportunity
During this time of year, our Academy family reaches out to a family in need. This Christmas season, our Academy community has a chance to reach out to one of our school families facing challenging circumstances. Their child, one of our students, is grappling with serious medical issues and trauma and could benefit from our collective support. We’re starting a collection of various gift cards — including those for gas, groceries, Amazon, etc. — to assist them during this challenging period. Please send your gift cards to the office in an envelope labeled “Christmas Blessings.”
Participation is entirely voluntary. We understand that despite its beauty, Christmas can bring its own stresses and financial challenges. Above all, we ask that you keep this family in your thoughts and prayers.
PRINCIPAL’S CORNER:
Academy of St. Louis Clubs
Yearbook Club Each week, we keep making progress toward our final product. Please email pictures to Colleen or me if you’ve attended an event, so we have as many pictures as possible to choose from each week! Thanks!
Drama Club is gearing up for our Christmas Program. With very few days left to practice, we are encouraging families to listen to the songs we will be performing at home as much as possible. The official date for our performance will be Thursday, December 14th at 2:00. We hope you will be able to come and enjoy what we have been working on all year! I know the kids, and I have had a lot of fun!
Upcoming Events
- Tuesday, December 5- Skyhawks Sports 2:45 p.m.
- Wednesday, December 6- Parent Coffee in Cafeteria at 5:30 p.m.
- Wednesday, December 6– Yearbook Club 2:45 p.m.
- Thursday, December 7– Drama Club 2:45 p.m.
- Friday, December 8– NO SCHOOL
- Tuesday, December 12– Parent Resource Night via Zoom -Robin Diehl, Variety Club at 6:30 p.m.
- Tuesday, December 12- Skyhawks Sports 2:45 p.m.
- Wednesday, December 13– Yearbook Club 2:45 p.m.
- Thursday, December 14– Drama Club 2:45 p.m.
- Wednesday, December 20– Early Release for Christmas Break 11:30 a.m.
- December 21- January 2– Christmas Break
- Wednesday, January 3- Classes Resume
2024 Family Auction Contributions
October- Goal:
Sign up for (3) bottles of liquor (Bring Liquor in January to Ann Dunn’s house)
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0548A8AF29A4FA7-44421570-2024
November– Goal:
Obtain $250 in gift cards.
Please send gift cards to the office marked “Auction.”
December– Goal:
Sell 25 $10 Raffle Tickets
All tickets are online at the link below. Please have your friends and families note your family name in the box when they purchase the raffle tickets. This will give your family “credit” for the tickets sold.
Math is marvelous! This week has been loaded with hands-on and engaging math activities.
Children often do not understand where money comes from. The elementary students are beginning to develop an understanding that you can earn money by working hard. Throughout the week, there are many opportunities to earn different coins allowing practice differentiating between the different coins and their values. As the students keep their money in a special jar, they are given opportunities to spend their money at our classroom store. This week our class learned how rewarding it can be to save money and put it all together to purchase a larger item for the classroom. As we saved our money, we learned how to make a dollar using different combinations of coins. We drew a picture to help us keep track of the money we still needed to save to meet our goal of twenty-five dollars. By the end of the week, we had worked together, earning enough money to buy an ant farm!
Along with money, lollipops have been another thing that motivates us. Ms. Cantareira ordered a big box of lollipops for our classroom store. We used the box of lollipops as we engaged in several different math activities. We sorted the lollipops into groups of ten to determine the total amount. Throughout the week, as children purchased lollipops, we used subtraction, drawing pictures on chart paper to determine what was left.
These lessons provided opportunities for addition and subtraction, place value, estimation, and skip counting by 1’s, 5’s, and 10’s to identify values of multiple pennies, nickels, and dimes. But the most valuable lesson we learned this week was the power of saving our money!
We had so much fun shopping for gifts for our Advent Angels this week! It is such a special feeling to buy gifts for others and get into the Christmas spirit. It was also a wonderful opportunity for us to practice counting and using money in the real world. In science, we learned about force and motion as we began to talk about simple machines. I was so proud of the teamwork and friendship that our class showed this week! A special shout out to our friend, Isaac, for doing a wonderful job reading at Church this week! You did incredible, and we are so proud of you!
Wow! Where did November go? This week our classes wrapped up Ch. 2 in Environmental Science and began learning about Ecology in Ch. 3. We will be shifting our focus for the next couple of weeks towards preparations for our semester exams. Students will be working on the second portion of their exam in class starting Monday for their ecosystem poster. In ELA, both groups finished reading our novel “The Witch of Blackbird Pond,” and we will begin our Character Analysis Essays next week! This will also be the second portion of their semester exams. Please encourage your child to take this time seriously and set aside some study time each evening. Also, we are going to be reviewing a lot of material and providing a large portion of class time to work on projects for the end of the semester so being in class as much as possible is extremely important. However, it is the cold and flu season so if your child does need to stay home, be sure to reach out for anything they may have missed in their absence. Lastly, the Student Highlight of the week is Lily Gilberg! Lily has rocked all her classes lately. She is attentive and eager to learn. She pushes herself beyond expectations and continues to turn in all her assignments on time. Way to go girl!
In history, we have been learning about the French and Indian War and have started to prepare for the final, which will be on December 11. Students received a physical copy of a study guide, and it was also posted on Google Classroom. We will go over this together in class, and it will give students an overview of the topics that will be covered by the final exam.
We were extra busy in our classroom this week with two field trips! We had the opportunity to learn more, and connect our learning about energy and weather by visiting the science center! We also had an outing to shop for our Advent Angels! What a blessing it is to give to others!
Over the next couple of weeks, we will be wrapping up science and social studies units for the semester, and all students will be participating in creating a science or social studies poster or project for their final exams. Don’t worry, as we will spend most of our class time working on it, but there may be some final details that have to be finished at home. We will present these on the 15th or 18th of this month.
LUNCH ACCOUNTS
Each day, the entree includes fruit and chips.
You can select additional items a la carte.
Please be sure to place your order by midnight the night before.
Please call Mrs. Cantareira with any questions at 636-534-5099.
SNACKS
DON’T FORGET SNACKS!
|
|
