THE SHEPHERD'S VOICE
January 8, 2021

St. Robert Catholic School students love God, science, technology,
engineering, math and learning so they can be the best they can be.



This Week at
St. Robert Catholic School!
Dear Families,

Welcome Back!

It was so great to see all our students back at school! The break seemed wonderfully long this year, probably because we could not travel like we have been able to in the past!

As we near the end of the 2nd marking period, I wanted to make sure you know where to access the curriculum standards for each elementary grade level. You can find them on the Catholic Schools 4U website at: https://catholicschools4u.org/curriculumstandards. These standards were recently updated in all subject areas.
Why is it important that you have access to these standards? We want you to be able to see what is expected of your child each year. The teachers use these standards as they prepare lessons and assessments for their students. They map out their units to ensure they meet all the standards each school year. Many of the standards overlap into different subject areas, so teachers are able to teach and review standards across the curriculum. For example, the first kindergarten social studies standard is to “Apply Catholic virtues and democratic principles when working with others.” Although this is listed as a social studies standard, this is something that can be taught in all subjects throughout the day. These standards are also vertically aligned from year to year, so they naturally move the students to more complex learning standards as they grow.

For preschool, the standards are in this document: Preschool Curriculum Standards. Teachers also use these standards as they write lessons and plan assessments for their students to ensure learning is taking place. Our Young 5s class follows the preschool standards with several kindergarten standards added in areas where the teacher sees the students are ready.

All the standards appear on the school report cards; however, teachers may choose to only show standards that have been graded so far. Second semester report cards will be available to view in Infinite Campus on January 25, 2021. 

Elementary teachers use the following scale to show student understanding of a standard. 
Proficient (PR) – Student demonstrates complete understanding.
Developing (DV) – Student is making progress toward proficiency.
Not Yet (NY) – Student has not yet demonstrated understanding.
Not Evaluated (NE) – Standard has not yet been evaluated.

Preschool teachers use the following scale to show student understanding of a standard.
Consistently (CN) – Student consistently demonstrates understanding.
Developing (DV) – Student is making progress toward proficiency.
Not Yet (NY) – Student has not yet demonstrated understanding.
Not Evaluated (NE) – Standard has not yet been evaluated.

I hope this information is helpful to you! Please let me know if you have any questions on this topic.


Peace,
Liz 
Virtue of the Week...Perseverance
Taking the steps necessary to carry out objectives in spite of difficulties




Mighty Shepherd
Moment


A peek at special moments of our school day...

Mrs. Sass' Preschool 4 Class



Perseverance is a Virtue!

Continuous Enrollment Begins Next Week
for Current Families!

Great news! We will begin re-enrolling
our current families for the 2021-22 school
year starting January 11! What is even
better news is that if you don't
need to change/add anything, the process
will take less than 10 minutes! If you need
to add a child, the process will take a
few minutes longer! As promised, there
have been no changes to schedules
or programming for next year!

A letter describing all of this was sent to all school families via email on Wednesday, January 6.

Early next week, each current family will receive another letter, a Continuous
Enrollment Assignment Letter listing the expected grade level for each student for the
next school year.

In the case of Preschool students, the letter will ask the parent(s) to choose a grade level, either
iY5 or Kindergarten

This letter is essentially a summary of how the Continuous Enrollment Process works,
a confirmation of your student(s) grade level for next year and also the request for
confirmation from the parent(s) of Preschool students of their preference between
Y5s or Kindergarten. Note - Parents of Preschool students can confirm their grade level choice when they complete the Continuous Enrollment/Reenrollment Form.

Also included in this letter will be the link to our Continuous Enrollment/Reenrollment Application Form. Please note that Current School Family Enrollment begins Monday, January 11 and ends February 1.

On February 2 we will open up enrollment to new school families.


Catholic Schools Week is Coming....
Our staff has been busy planning our events to celebrate Catholic Schools Week. Here are just a few of our planned events...

  • Post Videos (Facebook) from School Families - talking about what they love about our school
  • School Parents - Guest Speakers about our school at Sunday Mass
  • Catholic Schools Week Display in Church Vestibule - featuring our students thoughts about our school
  • Special Mass for School Parents - with students participating as readers/gift bearers, etc...
  • Rosary with Parents
  • Pen Pals - students exchanging letters with students from a local Catholic school
  • Classroom Door Decorating Contest - featuring a Bible Story
  • Cathedral Mass for All Catholic Schools - Livestreamed
  • Say a Special Prayer for our Country
  • Visit from a Nun and a Priest - learn about religious life
  • Students participate in a zoom meeting with Seminarians
A Day in the Life of a Student
at St. Robert Catholic School
Please see the video below! We are excited to share with you the video that we had produced for a couple of reasons...
The first reason was so that you can see what school looks like this year. We showcased one classroom/student, but the overall feel is the same throughout the school.

The other reason we created this video was so that we can use it on the website, since we can't do tours during the school day. We want prospective parents to be able to "see" what school looks and feels like right now. 

This is our "A Day in the Life of a St. Robert Catholic School Student" project. We were able to do this project with the help of Grand PR, the Public Relations group made up of Grand Valley students. They put us in touch with a company in Grand Rapids called Carbon Stories. This company worked within our very small budget but still created a high quality product for us!  
Important!
Mandatory Parent Reading Development Night

Our 2nd Mandatory Parent Reading Development Night is scheduled for Thursday, January 21 from 6:30-7:30. At this event, teachers will each offer a 10 minute mini lesson on a strategy that you can use at home to help your student develop into a strong reader. 

Parents will be assigned to a breakout room and teachers will move in and out of these rooms so that each group will see 4 presentations. You will also get a "Parents Read-at-Home Toolkit for Success" to download at this event. This 30 page handout, Adopted from the Mississippi Department of Education, is a great resource for phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, etc. and ideas for practicing these skills at home! 
Here is the schedule for the hour:

6:25 - sign on and be assigned to breakout rooms
6:30 - open with prayer and instructions
6:35 - join rooms and first presentation begins
6:45 - first presentation ends
6:47 - second presentation starts
6:57 - second presentation ends
7:00 - third presentation begins
7:10 - third presentation ends 
7:13 - final presentation begin
7:23 - final presentation ends
7:25 - gather back into one room, get a link to the toolkit
7:30 - sign off!

Liz Peters is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Mandatory Parent Reading Development - Session 2
Time: Jan 21, 2021 06:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

Meeting ID: 744 6901 2014
Passcode: AJnQg2

Parent /Teacher Conferences for 2nd Quarter (Optional)

Parent/Teacher Conferences - 2nd Quarter
Thursday, February 4 - 3:30 pm - 7:30 pm.

2nd Quarter Conferences are optional. A Sign-Up Genius will be coming soon.

Protecting Your Children

Important Reminder!


Have You Added Amazonsmile
to your
Amazon Prime Account?


Please consider adding this Amazonsmile
option to your Amazon Prime account.
Every purchase you make on Amazon
using Amazonsmile will give our
school .05% of your purchase as a
donation from Amazon.

See below for instructions on how to add amazonsmile to your account.

Amazon Smile!

To our school families, if you are Amazon shoppers, we have a great opportunity to raise money for our school. If you are planning to make any purchases on Amazon, please consider using Amazon Smile when purchasing as our school will receive .05% for each purchase.

Here is how it works...

  • Sign in to your Amazon or Amazon Prime account and then paste the link below for Amazon Smile up in your browser. Link https://smile.amazon.com/
  • Then Click the "Get Started" button near the top of the page
  • Type in the name of the Charity and Location as follows: Greater Grand Rapids Independent Catholic Elementary Schools
  • Begin shopping!

You should only have to do this one time and then each time you sign in to your Amazon account, at the top of the page you will see the option to select this Amazon Smile, but in order for each purchase to be applied to Amazon Smile you must select it at the top of the page.
Snow Clothes!

Note! Please remember to send indoor shoes...

It's that time of year again! This is a reminder for students to bring snow clothes to school each Monday.

Snow clothes should be taken home each Friday to be washed. They get very wet and muddy on the playground.

If snow clothes get wet during the school day, students must take them home in the evening to get them dry. We are finding that clothes do not dry well if left at school.
Important Safety and Health Reminder!

All student cloth masks must be taken home and washed
every day. We should not see any facemasks hanging on student hooks in the hallway at night as all cloth masks must be
washed every night to insure cleanliness and best /safe
health practices, perthe CDC guidelines
Uniform Policy for
Elementary Students
(Y5s - 2nd Grade)


It's great to be back in school and we are thrilled to be finding some sense of normalcy. However, we are seeing many students arriving at school not dressed in the proper school uniform and/or not following the uniform guidelines. Our school uniform policy is intended to create a school identity and sense of community. Adhering to the school uniform policy teaches our students to respect rules and guidelines

Please note that all Elementary students (Y5s - 2nd Grade) should be wearing actual uniform tops and bottoms purchased from Lands End at Landsend.com.

Lands' End has all acceptable uniform pieces on their website. If you purchase from our school section you will have exactly what you need.
Home and School News

Use this link to access the list of Box Tops for Education products... https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MjvRwNFRnZWz5fameHjXxCzMrc6IQHKW/view?usp=sharing


Preschoolers Building
a Picture with Shapes"
More After Care Fun!
Camera Craziness!
Indoor Fun!

Wednesdays
are
Gymnastics Days!


Thursdays
are
Lego Days!


Many thanks to Mrs. Kohn, our After Care Lead Teacher for enriching our After Care Program!


January Birthdays


Fr. Len Sudlik - January 15
Adrienne Wilhelm - January 18




Upcoming Dates

Monday, January 4 - Friday, January 29 - MAP Testing - K-2

Monday, January 11 - February 1 - Begin Current Family Enrollment for 2021-2022 School Year - Continuous Enrollment Process

Friday, January 15 - Second Quarter Ends

Monday, January 18 - Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday - No School

Thursday, January 21 - Mandatory Parent Meeting via Zoom - Parent Reading Development Night - 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm - see information above in this newsletter!

Thursday, January 28 - Half Day Dismissal at 11:00 am for All Students - No After School Care - Diocesan Teacher Training

Monday, February 1 - Close of Current Family Enrollment 2021-2022 School Year - Continuous Enrollment Process

Tuesday, February 2 - Open Enrollment for New Families Begins for 2021-2022 School Year

Thursday, February 4 - Parent / Teacher Conferences (... by request, only) - 3:30 pm - 7:30 pm

Friday, February 5 - Half Day Dismissal at 11:00 am for All Students - No After School Care

Monday, February 8 - Open Enrollment for Non-Parishioner Families for 2021-2022 School Year

St. Robert Catholic School provides a premier Catholic STEM based education where students are immersed daily in their faith which empowers them to become the individual God created her/him to be.  
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