Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Prinbcipal's Epistle



www.stmarksmilford.org            http://stmarksmilford.blogspot.com            
Calendar                   
17 Chapel at 9:15 AM
18 Science Club until 4:15PM, Last Stacking Club until 4:15, K-8 Christmas service 7PM
19 Last day of semester, Free Dress Down Day, Can the Principal, Water balloon at noon
Prayer Families
Ethan S. (7), Hunter C. (K), Bethany A. (P4)
Saint Salute
·        A big Saint Salute to those students moving up on the AR Wall of Fame
o   Alaina Scholl (4)                    1,100 points
o   Jake Schepmann (6)             2,400 points
Notes
Have you ever noticed how hard it is to be “the odd man out”? The only single at a party full of couples; a lone student at the table in the lunch room; the only man without a suit; or the only woman without a dress; are just a few examples. Yet sometimes being unique isn’t so disheartening. Having a winning ticket; getting a promotion at work; sinking the winning basket in the championship game; or being the only grandparent who remembered to bring pictures of the grandchildren are examples of times it can be a joy to be odd. You may have wondered what shepherds and wise men have to do with Advent. They are also all “Blessedly Odd!”  It is hard to know exactly how many shepherds lived in and around Bethlehem. There would have been shepherds a plenty. It may be like asking, “How many fast food servers are in Miami Township?” It was a lowly profession  with many practitioners.
Out of the vast number of potential people to hear the message of the angels only a few odd shepherds abiding in the field saw the awe of the angels and hastened to find Mary, and Joseph, and the babe. How blessedly odd they were!  Every nation is proud of its scholars, academics, advisers and wise men. Certainly Judea must have had more than a few learned individuals who were worthy of seeing the star announcing the birth of the king. Yet miles and miles to the east across deserts and dunes, mountains and valleys a few odd wise men packed up gold, frankincense and myrrh to kneel in joy before the new born King, the infant Savior. How blessedly odd they were!  While shoppers seek sales and grandma avoids reindeer; while atheists moan about nativities and cashiers mouth, “Happy Holidays;” while Scrooges declare “humbug” and commentators complain about countless commercials; there will be a few who are blessedly odd!  These odd few will join a long train of faithful who will step out of the crowd.  They will light Advent wreaths and have family devotions. They will read scriptures and teach children. They will bundle up on Wednesday nights and join other blessedly odd faithful believers in worship at midweek Advent services. They will delight in Emmanuel, who comes to ransom captive Israel. They will worship the Rod of Jesse and the Dayspring, from on high.  To these few blessedly odd, The Key of David will open wide their heavenly home. The Wisdom from on high will grant them the wisdom of the Wise Men and with shepherds they will rejoice to see the promise of Emmanuel fulfilled.

Important Dates to Know
18 K-8 Christmas Service (7PM), January lunch orders due
20-Jan 4 No School – Christmas vacation
Christmas Program
The K-8 musical is on Thursday, December 18 at 7PM.  Both programs are not services and therefore photography is allowable.  However, please do not make it a distraction. 
Market Day Coordinator Needed
St. Mark’s is in need of a Market Day coordinator.  This job would take about 1-2 hours per week.  It involves entering paper orders and calling customers that have not yet ordered for the month.  Please contact the office if interested.
Lunch Server Needed on Mondays
St. Mark’s needs a lunch server on Mondays since one of our present ones has a job schedule change.  This would be a 11:30-12:30 commitment.  Please contact the office if interested.
AR
The AR site will be available during the Christmas vacation 8AM – 8PM.  The site can be found on our web page under parent resources.
Dance Club starts January 6 for grades 1-4 and Jan. 8 for grades 5-8
Can the Principal and Box the Pastor
On Friday of this week the students have the opportunity to can the principal and box Pastor Fenker.  This is done by having enough food in cans and enough boxes of food.  All donations will be distributed to MMM (Milford Miami Ministry) for Christmas meals for those in need.  Please bring items by Friday morning.
Spelling Bee
The St. Mark’s Spelling Bee will be on Monday, January 12, starting at 10:30.  Students may start studying the words found at www.spellingbee.com.
Happy Birthday
17        Ethan Q. (K)
19        Markus V. (4)
21        Seth B. (5), Heidi B. (2), Ava A. (1)
Classroom information
Mrs. Schulte (Pre-2)
In our classroom this week we finished “Celebrating Christmas” by reviewing the First Christmas Story and having a Christmas Party together with our family and friends.  During the party we sang the two Christmas songs we have been practicing.  At Center Time we played with a remote control train set.  We will close our time together in prayer thanking God for the Greatest Gift of All, Jesus.
Mrs. Frey (Pre-3,4)
Preschool will focus on letter J for Jesus’ birth. We are excited to present our Christmas program to our families on Tuesday night and celebrate Jesus’ birth with a class Christmas party on Thursday/Friday. Both classes will create nativity artwork and learn about the reason for Christ’s birth: to come to Earth to be our Savior!
Mrs. Reynolds (PK)
This week in pre-k we will be reviewing the letters y and g and talking more about the nativity story. We are excited for our christmas program Tuesday night and our Christmas class party on Thursday!! This is our last week with our classroom elf it will be sad to see him go but we sure have enjoyed having him and cannot wait to see what he does this week.
Mrs. Sherman (K)
It's beginning to look and sound like Christmas!  The Kindergarten boys and girls are crafting and wrapping gifts for their parents and singing favorite Christmas carols.  They are rhyming around the Christmas tree and using their 5 senses to make observations about candy canes.  During math, they are helping elves identify 10's and 1's in teen numbers.  During Bible time, the class is focusing on the birth of our Savior, Jesus.  The full day Kindergarten students are making a book of Christmas words, practicing addition and completing a study of reindeer
Mrs. Reisenbichler (1-2)
This week, we got to learn about the birth of John and Jesus.  Our devotions have been leading up to these events.  The joy of celebrating Jesus' birthday is finally here.  In language arts this week we learned about synonyms and antonyms, singular and plural  nouns, suffixes, and much more.  In math, the second graders completed their unit on three -dimensional shapes, symmetry, and other geometric shapes.  This week we were able to finally finish our STEM project of designing a candle holder.   Merry Christmas
Mrs. Mayo (3-4)
We will be reading the Christmas account in the Bible this week, after looking at some prophesies.  In language arts, we will write a Christmas haiku and then type and illustrate it on the computer.  If we have time, we'll try our hand at other poetry types.  In math, the 3rd graders will work with numbers to the millions and explore polygons.  The 4th graders will review and take a chapter tests.  In social studies we will continue studying Ohio Indians as we learn about the Shawnee and Miami Indians.  In science we will be learning about different inventors and inventions.  Along with all that, we'll do some Christmas crafts and play some Christmas review games.
Mr. Postenrieder (5-6)
In our Bible time this week we heard from Andy Griffith to help us understand the true meaning of Christmas. In 5th grade math we worked with percents, bar graphs, and circle graphs. We also enjoyed our Unit 5 test! In 6th grade we worked with circumference, dividing by a decimal number and dividing by fractions. We enjoyed our 9th test! In our Language Arts time we worked with context clues to define words.  In Social Studies we continued to study African culture with a focus on languages, music and dance, and farming. In Science we continued our study of plants by replanting green beans and figuring out the problem with the ones we had already planted. We also took a test on Chapter 4.  In Spelling we studied words with alternations long to short and included the schwa sound.
Mr. Mayo (7-8)
All of history points us to this one, rather tiny, but yet transformative night of Christmas.  Calendars change, a new major religion begins, the very relationship between God and mankind is forever set on a new path.  We thank God that we get to tell that story, in all its truth at St. Mark’s Lutheran School.  Parents make sacrifices to send their children here, so that we can tell them about Jesus, whose sacrifice for us is greater than we can ever repay.  God bless you for supporting this school.
Mr. Reisenbichler (7-8)
In religion we will study what God’s Word says about decision making.  In 7th and 8th grade math the students are reviewing for a test and then testing.  In science we are finally finishing our study of cells and heredity.  The students are planning and making a game in STEM.


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