THE SHEPHERD'S VOICE
October 6, 2021

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


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

There are so many exciting things happening at St. Robert Catholic School! I am happy to let all of you know that our school will be going through the accreditation process next week, Monday and Tuesday, October 11 and 12! The team will virtually review our application, data, and evidence based on the National Standards and Benchmarks for Effective Catholic Elementary and Secondary Schools. Our accreditation will be through the Michigan Area Nonpublic Schools. Although we will not have the report on October 12, we will be told or our status at the end of the day, before the team leaves the building.
Because the team will be in our building on Tuesday, October 12, I am asking that all of you please send your student(s) in their “uniform best” that day! I understand that many of you are still waiting on uniforms due to Lands’ End’s backlog of orders. If this is the case, please know that we have quite a few uniform pieces that have been donated and I would be happy to share these items! Just contact the office and we can send a shirt, skirt, pant, or short home if we have the correct size in our inventory! Thanks!

We are all enjoying being able to welcome visitors back into the building. Deputy Dieppa, you may remember him from the Dunk Tank at the end of year picnic last June, has been reading to or with students once a week. The 3rd grade students read to him when they were in 1st grade and he is amazed at the progress they've made since he was last able to visit!

Several families took advantage of the beautiful weather last Friday and joined the HSA tailgate at Catholic Central for some pregame fun!  There is another HSA coffee planned for Tuesday morning, October 12, on the playground immediately following morning carline. Please come and enjoy a warm beverage and fellowship starting at 8:00am!

Our extracurricular/after school activity list is growing! We will have Brikz for Kidz here once a week on Thursdays from 3-4.. There will be several 4 week classes offered with specific themes. Jennifer Kohn (Avery Kohn is in 2nd grade) is organizing this for us. A flyer will be sent home this week with information and cost.

The cheerleaders are having a great time each Thursday from 3:15-4:00 pm. They are learning a lot about how to cheer and work as a team. Our cheerleaders will be cheering on the sidelines of the Catholic Central game again on Friday, October 22. Plan to attend the game and watch our team cheer!

I have been talking to a few other parents and we hope to have a couple more activities (drones, sign language, ski club, acting, etc...), to offer our Kindergarten-3rd grade students soon! Please let me know if you have a talent that you would like to share once a week, for a few weeks, with our students. 
Here are some ideas:
·         Learn to play chess/checkers
·         Bird watching
·         Cooking
The possibilities are endless…all we need is you!

Peace,
Liz 
Virtue of the Week...Self-Control
Joyful mastery over one's passions and desires.





Mighty Shepherd
Moment


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

A special day of "1st Times"
for our Kindergarteners...

First field trip since Covid 19...

and first ride on a big school bus...

Learning about the alphabet...
Important Note! The HSA is seeking silent auction donations.

If you are interested in donating an item to the silent auction, please contact the HSA via email at hsa@strobertschoolada.org.

Pack the Pews!
October 24 at 11:00 am Mass

To ALL of our Mighty Shepherd families, please plan to attend our
Pack the Pews Mass
on Sunday, October 24 at 11:00 am.

School families will all sit together in the section of the church to to far-left of the the Altar under the stained glass windows. Don't forget to wear your Mighty Shepherd school colors or
 Mighty Shepherd spirit wear.
Field Trips are Back!
What you need to know...

We are so excited that our students can once again
have field trips and we very much appreciate all of
our parent chaperone volunteers.

If you are planning to volunteer as a chaperone at
any time this year, please log on to Virtusonline.org to
set up an online account and then complete the
online Virtus training module for volunteers.

Note! If you have lived outside of Michigan any time
in the past 10 years you will also be prompted by
Virtus to get livescan fingerprints.

Important Date Change....

Please note the following change to our school calendar for the Mandatory Reading Development Session which was originally scheduled for September 23... we have cancelled this meeting and added two new meeting options to replace it...

Thursday, October 21 - 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Wednesday, October 27, 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Halloween Fun!

We are so pleased to announce that the HSA is partnering with the
Parish Faith Formation Team to
combine our Annual Pumpkin Parade with the Annual Parish Trunk or Treat!

Check out the details below and start brainstorming for your pumpkin carving and your costumes!

Please Help Us Reach
Our Goal!
Update - Fr. Len Sudlik Scholarship Fund

With the help of the our parish Knights of Columbus chapter and many parish families, we are steadily moving closer to our final goal to reach the threshold to allow for scholarship funds to be awarded.

We are so grateful for all of the generous donations already received.

We have already achieved our initial goal of $5,000 which allows for the fund to be established and we are steadily moving toward the final goal of $25,000 which is the threshold we need to cross to begin awarding scholarship money to our students. We are excited to report that we have already reached $14,600, halfway there!

We are asking our school and parish families to prayerfully consider making a donation to help us reach our final goal. Any amount is welcome!

If you are interested in making a donation... Please contact Liz Peters or Gen DeWildt. Donation checks can be made payable to "St. Robert Catholic School" with a notation of "Scholarship Fund" in the memo area.

We are so excited to announce our first parent-led afterschool
program for our students. As mentioned at our Parent Meeting, we would
like to begin building a dynamic afterschool activities program led by
our talented school parents.

Please consider dusting off your favorite interest or hobby and design a
short or long term weekly activity for our students to participate in for an enrichment of their minds or to learn a new skill or activity.

We do have classroom space available after school that can be used
for these opportunities. Please feel free to contact Liz Peters to discuss any afterschool activities you might like to offer to our students.

We are so grateful to the school parents who have come forward recently to offer their time and talents for some afterschool activities...stay tuned for
more new exciting afterschool activities coming soon!





The school is in need of the following items...

  • Children's and adult paper masks
Classroom Wish Lists!

If you are looking for a way to help our school check out our current Wish Lists to see if there is anything
you might be able to contribute...
Library Wish List
Our new Librarian, Mrs. Wharton is working diligently to create our school library. Feel free to stop in anytime to see the progress! See below for her wish list to help us complete the library space.
Mrs. Sass' Preschool Classroom Wish List
https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/3A3S54VFADMJ5?leftNavSection=SharedWithYou&ref_=abls_lnv_us


Miss Hall's Kindergarten Classroom Wish List
https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/2NTQI522R4EF3?ref_=wl_share

Mrs. Russell - Gym/Recess Wish List

All-School Masses

Some things to know...

  • Mass is every Wednesday at 9:00 am
Exception - No mass this week, Wednesday, October 6.

  • We have a new seating section of the church for our school students and families located in the center front section directly in front of the Ambo. Please note, the students will sit in the front of this section with their teachers and all parents attending Mass will sit behind the school section with their students and other family members. All family members are welcome! Parents, please remember to wear your mask if you are sitting in the student section.

  • Preschool 4 students will attend once a month on the last Wednesday of the month. Mrs. Sass will keep the Preschool parents informed of the dates when her students will attend.
Tailgating Fun
at the C.A.T.!

Report Cards
and the
Infinite Campus
Parent Portal

Report cards will be available for parent access online on Tuesday, November 2. At St. Robert School we have transitioned to online report cards.

To access your student's report card, please log in to your Parent Portal on Infinite Campus.

If you have not yet established your Parent Portal account on Infinite Campus, please use the following link to set up your account...
infinitecampus.com/parents-students

Please answer the first prompt for the "district" with "Diocese of Grand Rapids". If you have any trouble setting up your account, please contact Gen DeWildt
at gdewildt@strobertschoolada.org or at ph 616 455-4966.
Home and School News
A few notes from the HSA...


Tuesday, 10/12 - Morning coffee mingle after drop-off. Join us at the playground area.

Thursday, 10/28 - Bring a carved or decorated pumpkin to school to decorate the walkway! 

Fri 10/29 - Trunk or Treat Event 5:30pm to 7:00 pm 
More info to come!

Sat 11/13 - HSA Adult Putt Putt Golf “Fun”-raiser - 5:30pm

SCRIP - sign up for SCRIP on the RaiseRight app using the school enrollment code B73466F963125 and start using today to save on your student’s tuition! 

HSA is Selling Mask Lanyards for sale $5. If you would like to purchase lanyards for your student(s) please contact Becky Mott at RebeccaMott.RM@gmail.com or Suzanne Fuchs at SuzanneFuchs1@gmail.com.
Have you started your
holiday shopping?

Are you using our AmazonSmile account tag on your Amazon Prime account?

See below for details that could help our school earn free money!


Please consider adding Amazonsmile
to your Amazon Prime Account for your summer purchases...

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.

Kindergarteners


Exploring with Apples...




Preschoolers using books to inspire building...
Applesauce oobleck!




Finding just
the right letters!

1st Graders Learning About Light and Shadows...



... learning how to measure and about units of measuring!


2nd and 3rd Graders measuring and adding measurements...
Use this link to access the list of Box Tops for Education products... https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MjvRwNFRnZWz5fameHjXxCzMrc6IQHKW/view?usp=sharing


October Birthdays
Mrs. Hiltz - October 12
Vivian Bowers - October 14
Raegan Mott - October 18
Meg Blum - October 22
Eamon Baylog - October 23
Madeline Dondzila - October 27
Abigail Smith - October 31



Upcoming Dates


Thursday, October 21 - Mandatory Parent Reading Development Session - Option #1 - 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm - Location - PLC

Friday, October 22 - Diocesan PD Day - No School

Sunday, October 24 - Pack the Pews - 11:00 am Mass

Tuesday, October 26 - Wednesday, October 27 - Re-Screen Vision and Hearing

Wednesday, October 27 - Mandatory Parent Reading Development Session - Option #2 - 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm - Location - PLC

Friday, October 29 - Pumpkin Parade and Trunk or Treat
  • 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm

Tuesday, November 2 - Election Day - No School

Tuesday, November 2 - Report Cards Available on Infinite Campus Parent Portals

Wednesday, November 3 - Parent / Teacher Conferences
  • 3:30 pm - 5:30 pm

Thursday, November 4 - Parent Teacher Conferences
  • 3:30 pm - 7:30 pm

Friday, November 5 - 1/2 Day of School - 11:00 am Dismissal - No After Care

Saturday, November 13 - HSA Event - Doors open at 5:30 pm
Adult Putt Putt Golf “Fun”-Raiser 

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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