Holy Spirit School Friday Folder Newsletter, March 4, 2011

Notes from Principal Musolf’s Desk

A Prayer for Friday, March 4th:

God of righteousness,

help us to be reverent and open to you

in our houses of prayer

so that we can come closer to you

and learn to do your will.

We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen

Reflections from Mass:

Father Don introduced our March virtue of Self-Discipline. Father stated that this was the perfect month to honor this virtue as the Lenten season is among us. Self-Discipline reminds us of Lent in that we have to be disciplined to pray, fast and give to the poor. All disciplines initially come from external force. This force can be a teacher, parent, peer or employer. As we move away from someone encouraging us, we enter into our own self-discipline as our desire to be proficient at our goals is realized. During this Lenten season, I would encourage you to revisit your own self-discipline and ignite that passion again. Rejuvenate yourself and begin a journey into Lent that can have lasting benefits.

Holy Spirit School Vision Statement

In this week’s take home Friday Folder, each family will receive a green colored form requesting input for a vision statement at Holy Spirit School. Rochester Catholic Schools does have a mission and vision statement that is an overarching umbrella for us. A committee has been assembled consisting of Holy Spirit School parents and staff to create a vision statement specifically for Holy Spirit School. The hope is our vision statement will reflect the realities of our school now, but also include our future. If you would be so kind as to complete the three questions on the form and return them to school by Friday, March 11th, the committee can then utilize your input to create our vision statement.

Picking up Students Early:

We continually strive to take advantage of every minute of instructional time we have available during a given day. The office is receiving more and more requests for students to be waiting in the office when parents arrive to pick them up for an appointment. Sometimes students sit in the office waiting for several minutes, which is lost learning time for them.

With learning in the forefront of our mind, we will discontinue the practice of students being sent to the office prior to their parent’s arrival. Please do not request that your child wait in the office for you. Secretaries will intercom teachers in order to have the student sent to the office after the parent arrives. This will ensure that the teachers can continue to do their job of teaching and students can continue their job of learning.

With safety in mind too, parents must always come in the office to sign in/out their children. No adult in the office = no child released.

Written notice, in advance of picking your child up early, will support our goal of maximizing educational time. Teachers can prepare for your child’s departure and give them work that they will miss, instead of haphazardly sending them on their way. Emailing the teachers and office staff the night before is the most efficient and effective way to make this process go smoothly for everyone. Notice of less than 3 hours should be the exception and not the norm for picking up children early. Obviously emergencies and unexpected events can be accommodated.

We know this is a change for you as parents, but hope that you understand our reasons and support the learning and safety of all students.

I Love to Read Month Update:

The total minutes our school read for the month was 154,651.

As the committee tackled the actual “minutes read” vs. “the minutes that were needed to be read” in order to achieve our 200,00 goal, that is how we arrived at our winners…

Congratulations to Mrs. Gaines’ class for reading the most minutes in relationship to how much was expected. They will enjoy a pizza party in the near future.

Congratulations to Mrs. Pyfferoen’s class for being the runner-up. They will have a Word Game Party in the near future as well.

This was a great first year of I Love to Read month. The committee is already thinking about next year and exciting opportunities that await.

Enrollment for 2011-2012 School Year:

FAIR applications are due by March 18th. If you need assistance, please contact us at 288-8818. In order to be eligible to receive financial aid, you must complete the FAIR form either online or the hard copy version.

RCS preschoolers going into kindergarten next year, who have an older sibling in RCS, may simply be added to the family data sheet. There is no need for an enrollment packet for them.

If you are a current family of RCS and have not received a letter containing a family data sheet, please contact us immediately at 288-8818. These letters were mailed home and should have arrived on January 24, 2011.

We are a great place to be:

If you know of people who are "school shopping," kindly let them know that we would love to visit with them about the prospect of their family joining ours at Holy Spirit. Our doors are open. Registrations are still being accepted.

Summer Enrichment Learning Opportunity

At the last HSA meeting, during the open floor discussion, a parent brought up summer and activities that could be provided by the school to keep students learning throughout the summer. Some ideas that were tossed around included:

1. Additional Packets of work (units that you weren’t able to cover) for students to complete over the summer and return in the fall for a small treat.

2. Assigned Book Readings (specifically for JH students) that they then come ready to discuss immediately in September.

3. Potential Book Clubs or Read Alouds during the summer by a teacher or two.

By coincidence, the next day, a representative of ABC Toy Zone brought order forms for Summer Bridge Activities Books. The cost per book is $14.95. It is a large 160 page book, including all core subjects and are grade specific. The school will get $2.00 for every book sold. In addition, if students complete the book and return it to ABC Zone, they get a $2.00 gift certificate. Please watch for upcoming order forms.

From Fat Tuesday to Lenten Mission

The Lent Committee has met several times to plan a meaningful 40 day journey for our students. On March 8, your child will receive a little tube of M&M candies as part of a school-wide celebration of Fat Tuesday. (Tootsie Roll banks will be given to students who have tree-nut allergies). The candy tube will also be part of a school Lenten almsgiving project. Holy Spirit School is on a mission to collect money to feed hungry children both locally and globally.

After the M&M tubes are empty we are encouraging students to fill that M&M tube with quarters. We would like the students to participate as much as possible. This shouldn’t be parents just writing out a check. We want the kids to take action. This is a chance for them to make a difference! We suggest that children do extra chores to earn the quarters or possibly give up a treat and put the quarters that would have been spent in the tube. Participation is optional. We ask that students return their filled or partially-filled M&M tubes to school by Friday, April 29.

One tube filled with quarters is enough to provide a meal to 74 kids through Channel One’s Food for Kidz program!

Food for Kidz is an organization that packs and sends meals consisting of rice, soy, dried veggies and powdered nutrients to starving children all over the world. A half cup serving contains all the nutrition needed for one day. Holy Spirit students in Gr. K-8 will have the opportunity to taste these meals sometime between March 9-11. Please contact your child’s teacher if your child has an allergy to any of the ingredients listed.

Save the date: A neat thing about this project is that families may also get some hands-on participation. The money Holy Spirit School raises will be donated to a Food for Kidz food-packing event to be held here in Rochester on October 15, 2011. People of all ages will be able to sign up next fall to volunteer to pack food that day. Last year, volunteers packed over 116,000 meals in one day! Over 11,600 of these meals were donated to Channel One here in Rochester.

It will be wonderful to see how many children we will be able to feed after the tubes are turned in! We’d like to thank the Holy Spirit HSA for sponsoring this project.

Lent the Journey Begins

On March 8, to celebrate Fat Tuesday, students may wear purple, green and gold on this day. Beads will be given to students, and they will receive a tube of M&Ms as a special treat. Traditional “King Cake” will be served at lunch. Per tradition, prizes will be given to the class who finds the toy baby hidden in the cake. Our French teacher, Mary Nowakowski, will incorporate a project for Mardi Gras into French for grades Kindergarten-6.

Each classroom will have their prayer corner prepared for Lent. It will include a dish of holy water, purple fabric and a barren twig. A holy water bottle will be given to each classroom teacher. The bottle will be filled from the baptismal font reminding us of our baptism. Students may use the Holy Water to bless themselves at any point throughout the day.

The Holy Water could also be used upon entering the room, before morning, lunch and/or afternoon prayer.

Ash Wednesday, March 9th, Lent begins. The school will attend Mass, and all will receive the traditional ashes.

Beginning on March 9th and going through Holy Thursday, our afternoon prayer with announcements will be taken from a Lenten prayer book. The prayers end with a reflection and we will all be challenged to change our hearts. Morning Prayer will remain our respective virtues prayer.

The Hop-A-Thon will begin the week of March 13th with pledge collections due on March 24th (the day before spring break). This almsgiving opportunity benefits the Minnesota Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. More information is pending.

March 17th is St. Patrick’s Day. This will be a non-uniform day IF students wear green (jeans or comfortable pants are perfect). Students who decide not to wear green must stay in uniform.

April 6th will be a school-wide Communal Reconciliation at 9:15 AM.

On Wednesday, April 20th, the whole school will participate in a Lent retreat. It will be held at Holy Spirit School in the afternoon, preceding Stations of the Cross.

Our local parishes invite all of our families to celebrate the Triduum: Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Vigil.

On Friday, April 22, there will be no school so families may attend Good Friday services, and travel to be with family.

Needed: Children's Magazines

Does your family subscribe to any children’s magazines? Do you have old issues that your children are done reading? Please consider donating your old magazines to our school. The library is looking for children’s magazines (appropriate for grades K-6) that are less than one year old and in good condition for students to read in the library and check out. If you would like to make a donation, please contact the librarian, Colleen Streefland, at cstreefland@rochestercatholic.k12.mn.us. Thank you!

Box Tops for Education

Recently we completed the second collection of Box Tops for this year. Our totals this time were incredible - we earned nearly as much as the first count, in a much shorter time frame! Thanks to all students and teachers for your great efforts in saving your Box Tops. Holy Spirit will receive nearly $2000 this year, thanks to you! A special congratulations to Miss Thome's class, who were the top collectors with 1418 Box Tops. Second place goes to Mrs. Kuisle's class with 988, and Mrs. Wells' class came in third with 849. Keep saving for our final count of the year in May.

Upcoming Events at Holy Spirit School

Mar. 8 Fat Tuesday (Non-uniform Day-wear gold/green/purple)

Mar. 9 9:15 a.m. Ash Wednesday Liturgy

Mar. 11 Gary Vanselow Memorial Fish Fry

Mar. 14 Hopathon Week

Mar. 14 No morning bus. School starts at normal time.

Mar. 14 6:30 p.m. H.S.A. Meeting

Mar. 17 St. Patrick’s Day (Non-uniform day—wear green)

Mar. 18 FAIR Due

Mar. 25-Apr. 1 Spring Vacation

Apr. 14 Graduation Photo

June 2 7:00 p.m. 8th Grade Graduation

Friday Folder Attachments

Please click here for the following attachments:

Walkathon T-Shirt order form due March 11

Junior High Track & Field

Junior High Softball

Mayo Clinic Pre-participation Physical Examinations for Athletes March 5