Welcome to the K-5 Humanities Newsletter. We will send out this update every other month to highlight happenings in our Humanities and Religion classes

Kindergarten is working on learning the sign of the cross and the Glory Be. In 1st and 2nd grade we start each Spanish class with the sign of the cross and the Glory Be. In 3rd and 4th grade we start the same, but we add the Hail Mary.

K-2nd grades are working on ¡Hola! (Hello!) and ¡Adios! (Goodbye!). We are also working on a pregunta del día (question of the day). Our pregunta (question) is: ¿Cómo te llamas? (What's your name?). The response format is: Me llamo _____ (My name is _____).

3rd grade is continuing to build their conversational dialogue skills, which includes asking and answering multiple questions. They are also working on body parts. We are having fun singing “Cabeza (head), Hombros (shoulders), Rodillas (knees), and dedos (toes).

4th grade classes are continuing to build their conversational dialogue skills, which includes asking and answering multiple questions. We are also exploring Hispanic Heritage Month! As we listened to a little latin music the students could not help but get up and dance!

5th grade began Unit 1 (El Chocolate) of the VAMOS Curriculum. This is a proficiency-oriented curriculum designed for Exploratory Spanish courses and is the perfect bridge for the SOMOS curriculum used in middle school. Each class is filled with communicative, target language activities that build connections within the classroom and the outside world. 

• Core Verbs: esto es (this is), le gusta (likes), prefiere (prefers), dice (says)
• Featured Country: Mexico
• Cultural Focus: Chocolate's origin in Aztec culture

We will have a celebration at the end of this unit with some “chocolate caliente” (hot chocolate) and sampling of chocolates. If you’d like to help donate to this celebration, you can sign up here. 

At home connection: Ask your child to share the “Cho-co-la-te” hand game we learned in class or watch the video here.

Holy and Healthy Habits

September  2024

Family Faith Challenge:

September is dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows and October to the Holy Rosary. These dedications are reminders of a favorite scripture verse: (Romans 12:12) Rejoice in hope, endure in affliction, persevere in prayer. Join us as we take time these next couple of months to reflect on opportunities in our lives to rejoice, endure, and persevere with Christ, as well as pray a Rosary each month.

Family Fit Challenge:

Complete the 3 minute “SALLY UP CHALLENGE” together, once a week (or more)! Essentially, you follow the song as it says UP and DOWN throughout. Depending on the exercise you choose, you could challenge yourself and do the opposite and make it more difficult. You could do squats, planks, burpees, (wall) push ups, jumps, lunges, or overhead tricep curls. I often find myself rejoicing, enduring, and persevering through it!

K-3rd PE Classes:

• Apply the Gospel Values of Respect, Responsibility, Honesty, Compassion, and Teamwork, to spiritual, mental, and physical health while participating in MVPA (Moderate to Vigorous Physical Activity) throughout the year.
• Skills will include foot dribble, foot pass/kick, underhand roll, bowling skills, cardio/stick drumming, directional cues, spatial awareness, relevant vocabulary, locomotors, muscle stretching and identification, heart rate zone concepts, emotional recognition and regulation, cooperation, and Pietra Fitness (Pietra Kids).
• Mrs. B’s Blessings is a positive behavior incentive specifically for the PE classes with Mrs. Brumbaugh. One student in each of the homeroom PE classes will be recognized for outstanding demonstration of the Gospel Values during their PE classes, for that week. I encourage your family to practice and review the Gospel Values at home! Students that earn the recognition will be rewarded with a GOOD NEWS NOTE home and the opportunity to be the PE teacher for a 5 minute warm up activity. Please be assured that each and every one of the students is a blessing to this class and school; this is just a fun incentive to encourage positive participation in PE class, as well as to teach sharing in the joy of peers' successes.

4th-5th PE Classes:

• Apply the Gospel Values of Respect, Responsibility, Honesty, Compassion, and Teamwork, to spiritual, mental, and physical health while participating in MVPA (Moderate to Vigorous Physical Activity) throughout the year.
• Skills: Classes this month have been working on their soccer skills and learning the different rules and strategies of the game. Students will begin real gameplay soon and will get a chance to show their skill and sportsmanship during gameplay.  

Mary, Our Mother, Pray for us!

God bless, Mrs. Brumbaugh & Mr. Farris

Welcome back to Art Class K-5th Graders!!!The first few weeks of school have been awesome!! We started this school year off with all of my classes learning about a new artist and doing a big collaborative mural outside of the art room. 

Please ask your children about, Thank You X!! This is his alias! We learned that he is a contemporary artist that lives in Los Angeles, California. He became popular after his work was noticed by the creator of Instagram.  

He has been commissioned to do big projects for businesses and companies, but still paints for pleasure.

I was excited to put up all of their amazing cubes and see them create an awesome mural. 



If you are in the building, stop outside of the art room and find your child’s cube, but then step back and enjoy the full view! 

Kindergarten students are working towards keeping a beat independently as well as singing accurately alone and with others. Their favorite song is quickly becoming "Wake Up You Lazy Bones".

1st grade students are learning about the difference between a steady beat and a rhythm and how to independently perform them. Some students are even singing independently for the class! The classes are moving expressively to small musical excerpts that we call "Move It's"

2nd grade students are beginning to work with quarter note and beamed eighth note rhythms through speaking rhythms, playing instruments, rhythm games and simple songs. Their favorite game so far is Forbidden Rhythm using the hand drums. 

3rd grade students are reviewing quarter note and beamed eighth note rhythms while learning recorder technique. They have learned the parts of the recorder, how to hold the recorder and how to play a G note. We will be working on playing with a beautiful tone and how to fix squeaks over the next few weeks.

4th grade has kicked off the year with great enthusiasm! They've demonstrated their understanding of music in our first unit, which focuses on rhythm and counting. We're also exploring the life of the famous composer Johann Sebastian Bach, and the kids have learned a song about him set to the tune of Bach's Minuet in G. Additionally, we've sung about the Fruits of the Spirit and discussed how the Holy Spirit influences our lives. Most recently the kids performed a group cup demonstration to the tune of "Turn the Beat Around." The kids collaborated as a team and did an amazing job!

5th grade students are reviewing quarter and beamed eighth note rhythms as well as the pitches F, G, A and B on the recorder. Students are beginning to play songs by rote on the recorder to train their ears and develop their listening skills.

The Beginning Band kicked off our first full ensemble rehearsal of the year in August. With 42 members, the group has already mastered five notes and is focusing on organizing at-home practice to enhance their musical skills. They're using our new notes to perform popular songs like "Jaws," "Another One Bites the Dust," "We Will Rock You," and "Baby Shark." The energy during rehearsals has been fantastic! This month, Monsignor Mike made a special guest appearance and was very impressed with the band’s progress. He even conducted a few songs himself. 

Kindergarten through third grade

The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd is an approach to the religious formation of children that is rooted in Sacred Scripture, Liturgy, and the educational philosophy and method of Maria Montessori. This manner of education assumes that young children have the religious potential to develop a conscious and intimate relationship with God.

Each week the children gather in a space called the atrium. The atrium is a specially prepared space that contains many simple, hands-on materials that the children can work with and use to aid the development of their religious life. Both the environment and the materials are designed in such a way as to invite the children to discover – that God calls each of us personally into relationship with Him.

The time spent in the atrium assists the children in their discovery and development of their relationship with the Good Shepherd, who knows each of them by name and calls them to himself.

Each session, the children receive a presentation. These presentations – rooted in scripture and liturgy, are chosen to convey the essential truths of our faith. The children are invited to internalize and respond to the presentation through their personal work with the materials. Their personal work time

allows the children to spend time making connections with what they see and hear at Mass. It also allows them extensive time to ponder their relationship with God and the Mysteries of our faith.

All of the children begin the atrium year with a celebration called Enthronement of the Bible. This celebration identifies the Bible as the Word of God, proclaims the Bible as the most important book in our Church and places it in a prominent place in the prayer corner.

Religion in both 4th and 5th grade begins each year with prayer. We start with the vocabulary. There are five forms of prayer: petition, intercession, adoration, thanksgiving, and praise. In class we practice each form of prayer and discuss the communal act of praying together. 

In 4th grade the students will be working on their Saint Projects. Our focus will be on the canonization process and how a saint becomes a saint, relics and a tour of our reliquary, and students will research a saint of choice. Mark your calendars for November 1st All Saints Day Mass. The 4th graders will attend Mass in their saint costumes.

Fun Saint Trivia: Who was the first saint to be canonized on American soil?

-Juniperno Serra

In 5th grade we will begin with the beginning of creation why God creates and care for God's creation. I use materials from Catholic Relief Services to teach the seven principles of Catholic social teaching. We will then learn how God reveals himself through the story of Abraham.