Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Pricipal's Epistle



 http://stmarksmilford.blogspot.com            
Calendar                   
24 Chapel at 9:15, PM
25 Runner’s Club meets until 4PM, Family Fun Night 6:30 PM
28 St. Mark’s has services at 8AM, 10:30 AM and 6 PM with Sunday School at 9:15AM
30 Runner’s Club meets until 4PM
1 Chapel at 9:15 AM, first day with chapel buddies
2 Runner’s Club meets until 4PM
Prayer Families
Taylor R. (7), Andrew B. (2), Lucy M. (PK), Lily M. (PK)
Saint Salute
v A big Saint Salute to Jake S. (6) and Maggie S. (4) for making their service hours goal.
v A big Saint Salute to A big Saint Salute to those students climbing the AR Wall of Fame: 
o   Aaron A. (5)                500 points                
o   Ava B. (4)                    600 points    
o   Taylor R. (7)                700 points
o   Calvin B. (6)               1100 points
o   Brendan B. (7)           1800 points
o   Jake S. (6)                   2200 points
Notes
If you had to name one characteristic of a child with the strongest connection to future success, what would it be?  IQ? Early reading?  Technology?  No!  The correct answer is a topic I addressed last year and wish to continue this year – delaying gratification, the ability to refuse a small treat now in order to get a bigger one later.  Several research studies have been conducted on this topic.   One tested young children on their ability to wait for 15 minutes for a marshmallow.  When he revisited those children 18 years later, he discovered that the children able to wait for the reward when they were young were more successful in school, had happier friendships, had higher SAT scores, were more likely to be college-bound, and were less likely to be in trouble in school.  Those students able to wait were goal-oriented, and they knew how to stay focused on that goal, whether it was marshmallows or a college scholarship.  When a child gets to school, they will have to wait for attention, for recess, for the purple marker or for the best swing.  Delaying gratification is not something simply learned at one age; it is a skill practices over a lifetime.  Don’t wait to start! 
Important Dates to Know
25 Family Fun Night 6:30 PM
30 Tuition for September is Due – No invoice is sent
Oct. 14-15  School Pictures

Family Fun Night
September 25 is our first Family Fun Night of the year.  Several display stations that show students different aspects of life during the 19th century will be presented along with hands-on learning activities for the students to see and experience the daily life and work of their 1800s counter parts. Students will be able to try a corn grinder, use a drop spindle, card wool, stitch embroidery, play Jacob’s Ladder, carry wooden buckets and more.  The fun starts at 6:30.  We hope to see you then.
Box Tops for Education
St. Mark’s will be participating in the Box Tops for Education program.  My name is Gil Schepmann and I’m thrilled to be the Box Tops Coordinator for St. Mark’s.  Clipping Box Tops is an easy way for you to help our school buy what it needs.  Box Tops are each worth $0.10 and they quickly add up to real cash for our school.  This year, our school’s earnings goal is $1,000
To help our school, just look for pink Box Tops on products, clip them, and send them to school.  For more information on the Box Tops for Education program, including a list of  participating products and our school’s progress, visit www.BTFE.com  Be sure to become a member to receive exclusive coupons and recipes and learn about extra ways for our school to earn $.
I hope you’re excited for everything we can do this year with Box Tops!  If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me at gscepmann@cinci.rr.com.  I’m here to make our school’s Box Top for Education program a huge success this year.
Thanks for your help.
Parents’ Night Out
The 6-8 grade students of St. Mark’s school invite you to have a night out on Saturday, Oct. 11, 5-9PM.  Parents with children from infants to 6th grade may drop them at St. Mark’s so they can spend some quality time together.  The students will watch them under adult supervision with a variety of activities, games, pizza dinner ($3), and other forms of fellowship.  Children will be divided into groups based on age.  A free will donation fwill be taken upon pickup.  The proceeds will go toward their end-of-the-year trip.  When was the last time you had a date with your spouse or time to shop without the kids?
Fund Raisers
Another fund raiser that St. Mark’s has but isn’t used is a Kroger Plus Card.  If you have a Kroger Plus Card you can help St. Mark’s earn rewards.  Go online and register your card with our school.  Our school number is 81119.  This is the easiest way to earn rewards for our school without you having to donate or buy anything extra.  St. Mark’s receives a reward every time you use your plus card.  Please help us earn money for daily supplies and fees.
NLSA Committee Members Needed
Every five years St. Mark’s Lutheran School undergoes a vigorous process to attain accreditation with the National Lutheran School Accreditation Association.  This process will make our school improve significantly.  It is well worth the time and effort.            We cannot undergo this process without the help of parents and members of the congregation.  We would like you to serve on one committee.  Please contact the office or email me with a response by Friday, October 3.  This commitment would mean 2-3 meeting of about 1-2 hours each.  The committee chairperson will be contacting you if you agree to serve.
Sweatshirt Sale
Once a year St. Mark’s sells sweatshirt at cost.  The shirts sell for $16 each and can be ordered using a form found in the school hallway.  These are long lasting, embroidered with our school logo.  An example is also in the school hallway.
Happy Birthday
27        Gus H. (P3)               29        Kaitlyn B. (K)
Classroom information
Mrs. Schulte (Pre-2)
Our theme this week was “waddle, waddle, waddle like a duck” on our last day “around the pond”.  At Circle Time we learned the poem, Five Little Ducks and practiced our pond animal sounds and movements.  During Bible Time, we created the Day 3: Land and Trees page for our Creation Books.  In Art, we made Duck puppets that we used as we read the book, “One Duck Stuck” by Phyllis Root.  During Center Time we played in the duck washing station and cleaned those ducks that got stuck in the muck!  At Outdoor Play, we played a short game of Duck, Duck, Goose.    
Mrs. Reynolds (PK)
This week Pre-K is learning all about the letter A and apples. We will be taste testing different kinds of apples and voting on our favorites. We will be reading all about how apples grow and dissecting apples to find the different parts of an apple. We will be reading the story of Creation and learning that God created all of our fruits and vegetables.We are very excited to begin our lesson on the letter A!
Mrs. Frey (Pre-3,4)
Preschool will have fun with Letter A for Apples this week! We are excited to taste-test apples, graph our results, and use apples as stamps. We will fill our sensory table with apple pie scented mix and pie tins to create our own apple pies. We will also enjoy play dough scented with apple pie spice at Table Time. One of our story time books is Dr. Seuss’s Ten Apples Up On Top, which will help us learn to count apples. At Bible Time we will hear the account of Abraham and Sarah as they trusted God and moved to their new home in Canaan. They were blessed by God, and so are we! We will be blessed by a Mystery Reader visit in each class on Thursday/Friday.
Mrs. Sherman (K)
As the Kindergarteners welcome fall, they begin several seasonal activities.  They will paint watercolor leaves, create a torn paper tree and write about fun things to do in the fall.  During math, the boys and girls will work with shape puzzles and rotate through math stations.  The Bible lesson this week is "God blesses Abraham."  The boys and girls will learn of God's special plans for Abraham and that Jesus is a descendant of Abraham!
Mrs. Reisenbichler (1-2)
This week the children learned how God provides for our needs.  This led into a discussion on needs, wants and thankfulness.  First graders started a new unit in language arts based on the story of the Little Red Hen.  Their reading skills are improving daily.  The second graders finished their Frog and Toad unit. The web-quest was fun and they wrapped it up by making Frog and Toad snack using bagels.  With the second graders becoming experts on frogs, they helped the first graders learn about the metamorphosis of a frog in science.  The class had excellent math assessments last week!  
Mrs. Mayo (3-4)
Living in peace and love isn't always easy, but that's what our theme is this week as we learned more about Abram's move and his struggles and look at our own lives and our struggles.  In reading, read stories from different genres and looked at the characteristics of each.  In grammar we worked on compound subjects and verbs in sentences.  In preparation for Family Night on Thursday, we learned about pioneer times in Ohio in social studies.  In science we learned about compounds, mixtures, and solutions.  Last week we made a solution of sugar water and we're waiting "patiently" for sugar crystals to form.  This week we hope to make a mixture to drink....a fruit smoothie.  In math, the 3rd graders worked on word problems while the 4th graders finished their chapter on working with large numbers.
Mr. Postenrieder (5-6)
In our Bible time this week we looked at what angels do, who the devil is, and we worked on our favorite Bible verse book. In 5th grade math we worked with estimation, multiplying whole numbers and decimals, and chance events. In 6th grade math we took our second test! We also worked with estimation, fractions and mixed numbers, and line graphs.  In our Language Arts time we spent the week working on our reading comprehension and began reading our next story, “The Horse Snake.” In Social Studies we took a test over Africa’s physical geography. We also began looking at Africa’s history and constructed our own globes. In Science we worked on our observation skills and learned how to use a microscope.  In Spelling we studied words with the comparing suffixes –ness, -ful, -less.
Mr. Mayo (7-8)
In History, after we are tested on our knowledge of the Civil War, we will begin to learn about how the country will be mended after losing 620,000 men.  After the tragic death of President Lincoln, we’ll see how his vice-president, Andrew Johnson follows through on his wishes, or will he have an entirely different idea for how to reconcile the two halves of the country?
In Literature, we’re taking a look at one story from a printed news source, from an editorial, and from what a television news team reported.  We’ll compare and contrast bias in the media, which seems like a good thing to understand in our world.
Mr. Reisenbichler (7-8)
In religion we will study what God’s Word says about music.  In 7th grade math the students are learning about exponents, roots, prime factorization.  The 8th grade is studying triangles, the Pythagorean Theorem, and order of operations.  In science we will be continuing our study of photosynthesis.  The students are building and testing a catapult this week.

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