THE SHEPHERD'S VOICE
January 21, 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,
I am so excited to share with you that we have had many calls about our wonderful school, and I have been doing virtual tours during the day for potential new families interested in enrolling their students for next year. Much of the interest has been for kindergarten these past few weeks! This is great news for our growing school! Thank you for the kind things you are saying about our school to your friends and neighbors. Many of the interested families have told me they heard great things about St. Robert from people in the area.
I am really enjoying the virtual tours because your students really are the stars! I have been meeting with 1-3 families via Zoom and taking my computer around the school so potential families can see what our classrooms look like with students in them. As I walk into the classrooms with my computer on a rolling desk, the children have been coming over and politely welcoming the people on the screen to St. Robert and telling them what they are doing in class at the time of the visit. I have been amazed at how well your students are able to explain their learning to our virtual visitors! The families who have toured have been very impressed with what they have seen.
As their parents, and first teachers, I want to say, “Thank you for raising such lovely children!” They are living and using their virtues each day and are happy to share how they are becoming the people that God created them to be.
We continue to learn about the virtues here at school each day and we are also teaching students the sign language for each virtue. Many students ask if we can recite all the virtues together that we have learned along with the sign language for each. It goes something like this, “St. Robert students are kind, patient, show respect, use self-control, courtesy, responsibility, orderliness, show gratitude, prayerfulness, perseverance, and obedience.” As we learn another virtue every other week, it is a challenge to remember them all, but they are doing it! Ask your student to share their virtues and sign language with you!
To share our love of living the virtues, we had a school parent and photographer take some photos for us to use for our 2020-2021 school poster. Michelle Smigielski (Andrew is in 1st grade) is an amazing photographer and the pictures turned out beautiful! You will start seeing these photos pop up everywhere. Some have already been used in the church bulletin, and we are planning a Facebook post and display for Catholic Schools Week, which is January 31-February 6, 2021. These photos feature our students and our virtues in a really fun way!
Be on the lookout for these photos around the parish and school soon and keep being the living role models of virtues for your children and our school!
Peace,
Liz
|
|
Virtue of the Week...Obedience
Assenting to rightful authority without hesitation or resistance
|
|
A peek at special moments of our school day...
Learning to Read Prayer Intentions
During Morning Pledge and Prayer
|
|
Continuous Enrollment is Open!
...for Current Families!
Great news! We have begun 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. followed by 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 Y5 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 is the link to our Continuous Enrollment/Reenrollment Application Form which is also included below for your convenience...: https://forms.gle/enbDPEVZAe6wHzwXA
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.
|
|
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
|
|
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
|
|
...and More Planned Events...
Sponsored by
Home and School Association
for
Catholic Schools Week
see below....
|
|
Parent /Teacher Conferences
for 2nd Quarter (Optional)
Parent/Teacher Conferences - 2nd Quarter
Thursday, February 4 - 3:30 pm - 7:30 pm.
Second Quarter Parent/Teacher Conferences are scheduled for
Thursday, Feb. 4 at 3:30 pm - 7:30 pm.
Please Note! 2nd Quarter Parent/Teacher Conferences are optional and by request only by either the parents or the teacher. Please feel free to schedule a conference with your student(s)' teacher if you would like to touch base for a few minutes to discuss your student(s) progress or any concerns you may have.
See below for the link to the Sign Up Genius...
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/9040E4EABAD2BA5FE3-parent
Conference time slots are 12 minutes each leaving a minute or two between meeting time slots for the teacher to connect or greet the parents of the next scheduled conference.
|
|
Reminder!
Mighty Shepherd Monday is coming up next Monday, January 25. Don't forget your student's $1 donation. We are still collecting donations for Kids Food Basket.
On Mighty Shepherd Mondays our students bring a $1 donation to wear their Mighty Shepherd gear to school
Mighty Shepherd Mondays occur on the last Monday of
every month.
|
|
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
|
|
Use this link to access the list of Box Tops for Education products... https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MjvRwNFRnZWz5fameHjXxCzMrc6IQHKW/view?usp=sharing
|
|
Young 5s Building
a Picture with Shapes"
|
|
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
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.
|
|
Please like and follow us on facebook, instagram, and twitter!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
