From Christina Clem, M.Ed., Principal
Posted on November 30, 2011, by Christina Clem, under Principal's Desk.
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I would like to begin with a BIG APPLAUSE OF THANKS to all of our students and teachers, under the very capable and expert leadership of Mrs. Belcher, our Religion coordinator, for the fantastic St. Elizabeth of Hungary Feast Day Celebration this year. Both our saints and our students were absolutely magnificent this year! We all had a great time studying this year’s saints and seeing them in the Mass Procession and during the Saints: To Tell the Truth Game!!! Many thanks to all of you who helped dressed these little saints and also those of you who participated by attending on November 18th!!!!
This month we transition from the excitement of the changing weather and display of Autumn foliage to the more reflective season of Advent, a time of preparation. Not only are we preparing for our family celebrations of Christmas, but as individuals, we make our hearts ready for the coming of our Lord. Simple customs such as lighting an Advent Wreath in our homes can help our children understand the true meaning of the season.
Already, December looks to be a short but exciting month and will be flying by quickly! Among other things, we have the following events going on in December: The Fall Book Fair, the 1st Grade Field Trip to the Arboretum, the Kinder, 2nd, 3rd, & 4th Grade Visits to Nursing Homes, the Annual School Christmas Program, the Jesse Tree Celebration, and the Christmas Parties. This year’s Christmas vacation will be from December 19-January 2 with a NOON DISMISSAL on Friday, December 16th. Classes will resume on Tuesday, January 3rd.
Please be sure to attend our school Christmas program on Thursday, December 15th, at 7:00 pm. Your children along with Mrs. Kuterbach have been preparing diligently to provide you with an experience sure to get you into the holiday spirit!
At this point, I would like to “Toot our Horn” regarding the excellence of our academic program as well as the excellent caliber of our students. This year, as a school body, we continue to score between the 50-80 percentiles on all areas of the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, although many individual students score as high as the 99 percentile on the various subtests. The Duke University Talent Identification Program invites students in grades 4,5, & 7 who score at those high levels to apply for their summer program. However, to apply the student is required to take the SAT college entrance exam! In the past we have had students receive State Recognition for their high scores on the SAT, and we have also had students participate in the summer programs at Duke University. This year 33% of our fourth grade class, 30% of our fifth grade class, and 39% of our seventh grade class qualify to take the SAT college entrance exam! This is certainly not only reflective of a quality Catholic education, but also of a very effective Partnership between home and school! Congrats to all!
Thanks to Mrs. Michele Mills’ dedication and tireless energy, we finally have an updated St. Elizabeth School Parent/Student Handbook for the 2011-2012 school year. You can view it right now by logging into Renweb, clicking on “School Info,” and “Resource Documents”. The entire handbook is available online for all of our school parents. If you have any difficulties, please contact us, and we will be happy to help you figure it out. This year, we will again publish hard copies of the handbooks to send home. Our goal is to ”Go Green” (or at least with less paper usage) by the 2012-2013 school year. Please read the entire handbook with your child, sign the back page to verify that you agree to adhere to the policies and procedures of St. Elizabeth School, and then return to your child’s homeroom teacher. You may print out the page from the online version of the Handbook, or you may cut it out from the hard copy handbook that you will be receiving to return to school.
In case of inclement weather, you will be notified by phone through our new parent notification system, School Reach. Postings will also be listed on the following: the school website (www.stelizabethofh.org and www.saintspride.com ), Channel 8 TV and Channel 5 TV. Hopefully, inclement weather will not be the issue that it was last year, God willing.
Many thanks to all of our parent volunteers for your tireless dedication & commitment this year in helping the teachers in their efforts to educate your children! All of your work in assisting with the fundraising efforts of the school has truly been TERRIFIC!!! We continue to look forward to Catholic Schools Week, the Spring Book Fairs, the World’s Finest Candy Sale, the Spring Silent Auction, Young Authors’ Day, the Spring Arts Fest, and the other events that not only help the school but also do so much to build God’s kingdom here at St. Elizabeth of Hungary Catholic School!
In closing, I want to wish all of you a blessed Advent and a very holy holiday season! May the Christ Child of love and peace enter your hearts! God bless!
Christina Clem, M.Ed.
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From Beth Belcher, MTS – Director of Religious Education
Posted on November 30, 2011, by Beth Belcher, under Religious Education.
PrintHappy Advent!
As we begin the new Church year, we turn our attention to the comings of Christ; both as an infant in the manger, and also in glory at the Second Coming. Our preparation for this holy season traditionally includes an Advent wreath marking each week with anticipation and joy, and with Advent calendars which count down the days until Christmas. Both practices help us to stay focused on Jesus. But there are other events and devotions which can also help to turn our minds to Christ and all the joy of the Season. The St. Elizabeth Christmas Program, under the direction of Mrs Kuterbach, is a great way to see how children can lead the way in our desire to remember to joy of the Christmas Season. Our fifth graders traditionally depict the Jesse Tree and will do so under the tutelage of Ms. Vercillo.
The new translation of the Mass began the First Sunday of Advent and calls us to a greater devotion to the Mass. Your child should have brought home a Mass pamphlet entitled, The Revised Mass Texts. This pamphlet was offered to the school community in an attempt to help make the transition to the revised Mass a smooth one. Please let me know if you have any questions and I will do my best to answer them, or will find out for you.
The month of January will include Catholic Schools Week, and we will be sending out the schedule and information in the upcoming weeks.
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Mrs. Porter – Pre KA
Posted on November 30, 2011, by Pamela Porter, under Pre-kindergarten.
PrintI cannot believe we are already talking about Christmas and the New Year! Can someone please slow us all down? I actually look forward to the return from Christmas break with my class because they seem to truly grow up over the holidays, and when we all return, it is such a blessing because the class already knows one another, they understand the classroom rules and teacher expectations, and all the initial introductions of new classroom tools is behind us, so we are then ready to roll! But I need to slow down and remember that there is still time well spent getting through the first semester of basic skills!
In December we will spend what little time we have finishing up our lessons on the basic tools we need to complete our daily work. The last and biggest tool I will introduce are the scissor skills. The students will learn safety rules, proper mechanics of the scissor hold, and more challenging is the proper way to hold the paper being cut. It is a very difficult concept for a 3-4 year old to learn to ‘turn’ the paper as they are ‘driving’ the scissors around an object.
We will spend the first two weeks of January in review of the first semester concepts such as our letter sounds, counting, shapes, colors, two color patters, positional words, and of course, our pre-writing skills, to name a few. Once I fee confident the class is ready to move on, we will resume with the lessons already implemented and we will begin our new Sadlier curriculum, “The Investigator Club.” The students will become members of this club, meet the many different characters, and we will begin exploring the world around us to make the students more aware of the many life clues and lessons that are naturally presented in our world through nature, signs, exploring and investigating. I am anxious to get started on this program as it will be a lot of new learning methods for me too! This is also the same curriculum Mrs. Strunk uses in her older 4′s class, so I will be building the foundation and she will expand upon it next year, allowing the students to already be familiar with the characters and basic concepts for the next level of learning.
There is always so much more to say, but for now, may your holidays be blessed with the joys of little footsteps, high pitched squeals, contagious laughter, and lots and lots of hugs from your little ones. Merry Christmas to all!
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Mrs. Strunk – Pre K B
Posted on November 30, 2011, by Kathy Strunk, under Elementary School Notes, Pre-kindergarten.
PrintDecember 2011
HO HO HO! It is already December, and we are at the end of another year. This month the PreK B class will be doing many things. We will be practicing for the Christmas Program. We will be learning what Advent means and just having a merry good time.
RELIGION
We will be learning what Advent means and what the season of Christmas is all about. We will also be learning about Christmas traditions around the world.
LANGUAGE ARTS
During LA we will finish our unit on “All Kinds of Friends” and begin a new unit “Helping Hands”. The unit on “Helping Hands” is about community helpers. We would love for any parent to come and talk to the class about your job. Please send me an e-mail if you are available. In our Investigator Club we will begin a new unit: Healthy You.
We have been introduced to letters and sounds, Ss, Mm, Tt, Pp, Aa. We have also been introduced to high frequency words: my, and, the, and a.
MATH
We will be working with graphs and numerals. We will also be working with the Geo-boards.
IMPORTANT DATES
December 15, 2011 – Christmas Program – More information in the parent letter
December 15, 2011 – Buck-a-jean, Snack Sale
December 16, 2011 – Half Day – Make Gingerbread House more information in the parent letter
January 2012
Happy New Year! We pray God blesses all of our families with health, and happiness this year.
PreK B will be working very hard this month.
RELIGION
We will talk about the Epiphany and how the three kings came to visit baby Jesus.
We will be getting ready to go to church.
LANGUAGE ARTS
This month we will finish our Community Helper Unit. We have been discussing Community Helpers and what they do and what kind of equipment they may use. Open Court Series is now introducing the letters and sounds.
Our next unit will be “Things That Go”.
MATH
Numerals are what we are working with this month. We will also be doing some measuring and weighing.
IMPORTANT DATES:
January 16, 2012 – Vacation Day
January 26, 2012 – Buck-a-Jean, Snack Sale
January 29, 2012 – Start of Catholic Schools Week – Open House
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From Beth Belcher, MTS – Director of Religious Education
Posted on December 8, 2010, by Beth Belcher, under Religious Education.
PrintHappy Advent!
This is a time to reflect on our lives and how we will await the coming of Christ. If you are like most people you hate to hurry up just to wait; we do this may times, such as, on the highway as rush hour begins and when we finally make it to the doctor’s office after preparing everything just so we can be away from our work for an hour or two. But Advent is a time to contemplate the two comings of Christ; as a baby in the manger on Christmas Day, and in His glory at the Second Coming. We see these events and in our heart of hearts, we desire to be ready to greet Him, to prepare ourselves and be at our best. We clean and decorate our homes for Christmas, and we should also consider cleaning and preparing our souls for Christ to come more significantly into our hearts. Going to the sacraments, especially Reconciliation, is a great way to prepare our hearts to meet God and connect with our families – to be ready to see Christ in others and know him in his comings. Please note that the St Elizabeth parish Reconciliation services will take place on both December 15 and 22. We hope to see you there!
Thanks to everyone who kept the 8th grade in your prayers earlier in December as we spent three days at The Pines in preparation for Confirmation which will take place on March 6, at the 12 noon Mass. I hope that you have had an opportunity to spend time speaking with your child or visiting the school as so many wonderful lessons are being taught and learned about our faith and this Holy Season. Please join the 1st grade class at the Children’s Christmas Eve Mass at 7:00pm, on December 24, as they depict the Gospel nativity story. It is a beautiful thing to see our children so reverently honoring Our Lord’s birthday.
Students have made special cards, written letters to service men and women, and have sung at the local nursing homes in order to celebrate the Good News of our savior’s birth. Thank you for sharing your children with us at St Elizabeth’s and for giving them a firm foundation in faith in order for us to build upon your good work.
Have a blessed and holy Christmas and New Year vacation. I wish you peace.
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Kindergarten – Mrs. Guerrero and Mrs. Burns
Posted on December 8, 2010, by Melissa Guerrero, under Kindergarten.
PrintImportant Dates for December:
December 1 The Creature Teacher will be visiting kindergarten and PK 3 and PK4.
December 13 Kindergarten and 4th grade will be visiting Williamsburg Nursing Home to wish the nursing home residents a Merry Christmas.
December 17 Christmas Party – We will make Gingerbread houses for our party; time will be announced; please look in your child’s folder more detail.
This is what we will be doing this month:
Religion – We will discuss the meaning of Advent and make advent wreaths. We will also practice for our Christmas Program on December 16 at 7 p.m. We will retell the story of Jesus’ birth. We will also collect items for the nursing home residents. A detailed letter will be coming home.
Language Arts – Our unit is Finding Friends. Our goals this unit are to learn about finding friends through books, learn about literary features of stories, and begin the story writing process. Students will explore the worlds of story characters who have goals and challenges similar to their own.
Math – We will continue to solve addition stories by acting them out and using pictures. We will understand and identify AB patterns with shapes and letters. We will identify and order numerals 11 – 20. Please practice with your child identifying numerals 1 – 20. We will continue to work with pennies and dimes. We will count dimes to 100 and identify that 100 cents is the same as 1 dollar.
Social Studies – We will learn how other countries celebrate Christmas.
Science - We will continue to work on our unit – PETS. We will identify, classify, and graph animals that are pets. We will identify how animals move, identify animal body coverings, describe how animals resemble their parents, and identify what animals need to live.
Have a great month! Merry Christmas!
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Mrs. Jurik – Second Grade
Posted on December 8, 2010, by Linda Jurik, under Second Grade.
PrintFor the month of December we plan to cover the following topics:
Spelling: We will learn about the long ‘a’ spelled ai, a_e, ay;
long ‘e’ spelled ea and or ee; and long ‘i’ spelled y, i_e, igh.
Reading/Phonics: The class will read Cinderella, I See Animals Hiding and Animal Camouflage this month. We will review consonant blends, diagraphs and ‘o’.
English: We will continue learning about homophones and homographs. Subject/verb agreements will be taught and the different types of sentences and punctuation will be reviewed.
Math: The students will begin adding two-digit numbers and be introduced to regrouping.
Social Studies: The students will learn about the American Revolution, the Oregon Trail, and the growth of the United States. They will also learn about key historical figures who influenced the nation.
Science: Students will identify and explore rocks, minerals, and granite.
Health: The class will learn about promoting good health through medical checkups and physical activity.
Religion: We will focus on Advent as we enter the Christmas season, continue to learn the Act of Contrition, and practice for out scheduled trip to a nursing home.
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From Beth Belcher, MTS – Director of Religious Education
Posted on October 29, 2010, by Beth Belcher, under Religious Education.
PrintHello, everyone!
Can we possibly be at the end of the first quarter already? I am amazed at how quickly the time has gone by! I hope that you have been able to join us for at least one Mass so far this year, or possibly the Rosary which each department has said on Wednesday’s during the month of October. We have also shown our respect for LIFE and all LIFE issues through our Hike last month, posters around the school highlighting different aspects of life from birth to the elderly. Mrs Porter and Mrs LeRosen have also spearheaded the Military Prayer Project which focuses on our loved ones who are serving in the Armed Forces either at home or abroad. Lastly we have made a concerted effort to bring bullying to light with our students to help them see that there really is something that can be done when someone bullies you or you see someone else being bullied. We have actively been making LIFE a priority over this past month.
We head into November as we learn about twelve saints whom we have not learned about before. Our annual Saints Game will take place on November 19 at 2:00. We hope that many of our parents will be able to join us! This game is fun, shows how much your children have learned this year, and so many students get to participate! Students will also be in the Mass procession that morning! It is quite wonderful! Our second graders will lead us in an all-school Thanksgiving Prayer Service on Tuesday, November 23 at 9:00am.
We will head into Advent shortly after Thanksgiving and begin the new Church year. Please pray for us at St Elizabeth’s and we will continue to pray for you and your intentions. All intentions sent to my attention are mentioned at Mass on the closest Friday to the time I received your email. Please be sure to contact me at bbelcher@saintspride.com I will be happy to add your intention to our list.
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From the Principal’s Desk
Posted on December 10, 2009, by Christina Clem, under Principal's Desk.
PrintDuring December, we experience the season of Advent, which is a time of preparation. Not only are we preparing for our family celebrations of Christmas, but as individuals, we make our hearts ready for the coming of our Lord. Simple customs such as lighting an Advent Wreath in our homes can help our children understand the true meaning of the season.
Already, December has started out to be an exciting month and is flying by! Among other things, we have the following events going on in December:
- The Destination Book Fair
- the 8th grade trip to The Pines
- the Fall Sports Pep Rally
- the 1st Grade Field Trip to the Arboretum
- the PK, K, 2nd, 3rd , & 4th Grade Visits to Nursing Homes
- the Annual School Christmas Program
- the Jesse Tree Celebration
- the Christmas Parties.
This year’s Christmas vacation will be from December 21 – January 1 with a NOON DISMISSAL on Friday, December 18th. Classes will resume on Monday, January 4th.
Please be sure to attend our school Christmas program on Thursday, December 17th, at 7:00 pm. Your children along with Mrs. Kuterbach have been preparing diligently to provide you with an experience sure to get you into the holiday spirit!
In case of inclement weather, you will be notified by phone through our new parent notification system, School Reach. Postings will also be listed on the following:
- the school website (www.stelizabethofh.org and www.saintspride.com)
- Channel 8 TV
- Channel 5 TV
Hopefully, inclement weather will not be an issue this year, God willing.
On behalf of the entire school community, I wish to thank Mr. David Cardoza who has planted rye grass on the area surrounding our newly landscaped baseball field! He has also graciously offered to donate 9 yards of dirt to replace that which has eroded around that area. Please be sure to tell him “Thank You!” when you see him!
Many thanks to all of our parent volunteers for your tireless dedication & commitment this year in helping the teachers in their efforts to educate your children! All of your work in assisting with the fundraising efforts of the school has truly been TERRIFIC!!! We continue to look forward to Catholic Schools Week, the Spring Book Fairs, the World’s Finest Candy Sale, the Spring Silent Auction, Young Authors’ Day, the Spring Arts Fest, and the other events that not only help the school but also do so much to build God’s kingdom here at St. Elizabeth of Hungary Catholic School!
In closing, I want to wish all of you a blessed Advent and a very holy holiday season! May the Christ Child of love and peace enter your hearts! God bless!
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