Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Principal's Epistle



www.stmarksmilford.org            http://stmarksmilford.blogspot.com            
Calendar                   
4 Chapel at 9:15AM, Martial Arts Club 3:30 – 4PM, Science Olympiad until 4:30
5 Science Olympiad until 4:30, School Board 7PM
7 Science Olympiad competition 7AM – 6PM at UC Blue Ash
8 St. Mark’s has worship services at 8AM, 10:30AM, and 6PM with Sunday Sch. at 9:15AM, Grades K-4 sing
9 Strategy Club meets until 4:15
10 Science Olympiad until 4PM
11 Chapel at 9:15AM, Martial Arts Club 3:30 – 4PM
Prayer Families
Liam J. (3), Noah J. (6), Liam H. (PK), Molly C. (PK)
Saint Salute
A big Saint Salute to those students climbing up on the AR Wall of Fame
    • Ian S. (2)                                                        200 points
    • Markus V. (4) & Calvin B. (6)                     1200 points
Notes
            Jesus is our suffering Servant. During His earthly ministry, He was in constant service, healing the sick, feeding the hungry, comforting people and blessing children. These actions precluded His ultimate act of service, His suffering and death. In response to God’s service to us through the gift of His Son, Lutheran schools’ students and staff serve others. Christ-centered service to others aligns correctly with the purpose of our schools. During Lutheran Schools Week, we celebrate those teachers and students who faithfully serve in Jesus’ name.
In our schools, teachers serve students and meet their needs. Children are taught to respect, serve and care for one another. Schools intentionally seek ways to reach out and serve their communities. Students and teachers grow in compassion and grace as they model Christian service to others. Through it all, our school families are encouraged to explore new ways to serve one another in our communities and throughout the world. National Lutheran School Week provides our schools with the opportunity to come together in service. During this week of celebration, we pray that the events that you have planned and the opportunities that you provide give glory to our great God.”  From Terry Schmidt, Director of School Ministry, LCMS
Important Dates to Know
8 Grades K-4 sing at the 10:30 service
8-13 National Lutheran Schools Week (Please see info at end of this Epistle!)
9        Grandparents’ Day
17      Family Fun Night - Swimming
21      Father-Daughter Dance

Father/Daughter DanceFamily Ministries invites both school and church dad's and daughter's to ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK at our 50's themed Father-Daughter Dance here at St. Mark's on Saturday, March 21, 2015 from 6:30pm to 8:30pm.  Cost is $10 per couple ($5 for additional girl with a $15 cap).  Evening will include light snacks, flavored ice cream floats from the Soda Shop, a professional photo, and souvenir for each girl.  Registration forms can be found on display in the church Narthex or in the school lobby and are due this Friday.  Completed registrations can be given to Mr. Reisenbichler or placed in the church mailbox of Cathi Schulte.  Contact Cathi Schulte at schultecathi@msn.com for questions.
Strategy Club
St. Mark's will start a new club on Monday, March 9.  Mr. Mayo will host a strategy club.  This club will focus on playing games that deal with strategy – like chess, stratego, etc.
Student Art Show
St. Mark's Student Council is having an art show on Friday, March 13. Everyone in grades preschool-8th can bring a piece of art for our art show.  Kids can give their art to their teachers and student council will collect them at the end of the day.  No tracing or cut-outs.  Please make sure you have your name and grade on the front of the piece.  Thank you and have fun!
Science Olympiad
Thirteen students have been preparing since November 1 to compete in 23 events at UC Blue Ash this Saturday.  Competition starts at 8AM and ends around 5:50 PM.  They have built bridges, air trajectory machines, simple machines MA tester, cars, and robots.  They have studied anatomy, fossils, the solar system, and meteorology.  They tested many chemicals and practiced picture this.  They are ready.  Go team!
Happy Birthday
4          Haley E. (4)
11        Jade B., Jenna B.

Classroom information
Mrs. Schulte (Pre-2)
March marks the beginning of our "S'More Camping Fun" month.  At Center Time the children gathered around the 'campfire' and talked about what we would need to bring on our camping trip.  We read the book Just Me and My Dad by Mercer Mayer.  During Center Time, we made a hand print campfire craft, filled our bubble Letter N with noodles, and played in the 'belly of a whale".  At Bible Time, we shared the story of "Jonah and the Whale" and learned a few songs about this story.  We ended the day playing some camping games and singing some silly camp songs. 
Mrs. Frey (Pre-3,4)
Preschool is studying letter D for Dr. Seuss! It is his birthday on March 2, so we will spend the week reading his books! Threes will read The Cat in the Hat and One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. They will create their own hats and fish artwork. Fours will read The Cat in the Hat, The Foot Book, and Bartholomew and the Oobleck. They will learn about opposites and create their own oobleck. In Bible Time both classes will journey to the cross starting with Jesus’ ride into Jerusalem on what we now celebrate as Palm Sunday.  
Mrs. Reynolds (PK)
It is Jack and the Beanstalk week in Pre-K! A beanstalk has started growing out of our bulletin board! We will make beanstalks of our own as well as plant some lima beans in hopes that a "magic" beanstalk will grow for us. We will also be talking about the characters and sequencing the story of the week.  Letter J is the letter of the week and in its honor we will do some jumping jacks and walk over a taped J on the floor. As part of our sensory this week we will be making beanstalks from play-doh and spaghetti noodles and counting how many cheerios we can fit on our beanstalk. In Bible we will be discussing the story of the Good Samaritan and how God asks us to be kind to our neighbors. With the fantastic fantasy of Jack and the Beanstalk and the wonderful words about kindness in the Bible we are sure to have a great week!!
Mrs. Sherman (K)
Goodbye, February!  Hello, the busy month of March!  Kindergarten begins studying the works of Eric Carle.  They will model his writing and illustrating style in classwork and artwork. During Bible time, the class will hear about two miracles performed by Jesus.  They will hear about the healing of a paralyzed man and the feeding of the 5,000.  Through faith, they can know, that Jesus can heal their bodies and their souls.  He cares about the next meal and the future! The class will practice standard and nonstandard measurement in math.  They will also review 2-D shapes and be introduced to 3-D shapes.  The full day students will play new math games that review counting by 5's and attributes of shapes.  They will conduct a study of Koala Lou and compare Koala Lou to real koalas.
Mrs. Reisenbichler (1-2)
This week we learned more of Jesus' miracles.  We focused on the feeding of the 5,000 and Jesus walking on the water.  With Jesus the impossible can happen.  The first graders finished their unit on Africa this week and started a new unit of study based the on book Pet Show by Ezra Jack Keats.  The first graders played with homonyms this week, while the second graders learned more about synonyms.  We made chef hats and had lots of fun with "synonym" rolls.  Second graders are also started a new unit in language arts based on the book Happy Birthday, Grampie.  The second graders are learning what stereotypical means and learning to support their opinions with fact.  In math, first graders are working with geometric concepts, and second graders are expanding their knowledge of measurement to include fractional portions. 
Mrs. Mayo (3-4)
In religion we will study the accounts of David and Jonathan during the time King Saul was trying to kill David.  For Dr. Seuss's birthday, we'll be making a breakfast of green eggs and ham, truffala tree bagels, and pink ink Yink drink.  In reading, we'll spend the week looking at the lessons Dr. Seuss is trying to teach in several of his books.  We'll also be going on a scavenger hunt through his other books. In math the 3rd graders will extend their multiplication and division facts.  The fourth graders will work on equivalent fractions and decimals.  In social studies we'll study the battles the U.S. had with Britain and Tecumseh. We'll also learn about Germany from a classmate who just visited there.  In science we'll learn how scientists classify life into kingdoms.  This week we will also take 3 of the PARCC tests.
Mr. Postenrieder (5-6)
In our Bible time this week we looked at what we should pray for as well as when to pray. The lessons on prayer are also a look at our Lord’s Prayer. In 5th grade math we worked with fractions all week.  In 6th grade math we worked with The Coordinate Plane, and worked with fractions and decimals. In our Language Arts time we completed answering the question: What would you do for family? In Social Studies we began our study of Asia by looking at relative and absolute location, physical features of Asia, and the countries by region. In Science we continued to work on a project of building a model of the layers of Earth. We also read and noted Chapter 1 Section 2 of our textbook. We enjoyed a quiz over our reading! In Spelling we continued working with adding the suffixes -ing and –ed where you double consonants in some words and others you don’t.
Mr. Mayo (7-8)
We’re spending time studying poetry this week (Doesn’t that just send feelings of wonder and inspiration through your mind?).  I’m hoping to introduce my young charges to Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, and several other poets of note.  In History, we’re learning about child labor and are horrified to find that parents lied about children’s ages to get them to work.  We’re VERY happy we are alive NOW, and in a country that values education for each child.
Mr. Reisenbichler (7-8)
In religion we will study lesser known accounts in God’s Word.  In 7th grade math the students are studying percent word problems, area of a circle, and multiplying scientific numbers.  In 8th grade math we are studying central angles, graphing equations, and probability.  In science we are learning about the periodic table.  The students are building a greenhouse in STEM.  We are taking 4 of the PARCC tests this week.

National Lutheran Schools Week
Standing in Christ, Serving Others
March 8-13

Sunday, March 8  Grades K-4 sing in church at 10:30 service
Monday, March 9 Theme: Service at Home
                                      Special dress:  Aprons
                                      Event: Grandparent’s Morning – breakfast of baked goods 8:15 – 9:00, opening chapel 9:00, craft with grandparent at 9:20, take your grandparent to class 9:45- 10:30.  Grandparents are dismissed at 10:30.
Tuesday, March 10      Theme: Service at School
                                      Special dress:  Dr. Suess character
                                      Event: Clean Sweep of Classrooms 10:30-10:40  Kindergarten will clean Mrs. Reisenbichler’s room, grades 1-2 will clean Mrs. Mayo’s room, grades 3-4 will clean Mr. Postenrieder’s, grader 5- 6 will clean Mr. Reisenbichler’s/Mayo’s classroom, grades 7-8 will clean Mrs. Sherman’s room.
                                      10:45: Raptor Assembly
Wednesday, March 11  Theme: Service for the Church
                                      Special dress:  Crazy Hats
                                      Event: Cleaning the sanctuary and narthex
                                      Kindergarten – dust the pews in the balcony
                                      Grades 1-2 – dust pews on the lower level
                                       Grades 3-4 – sharpen pew pencils, dust window ledges, collect attendance sheets and take to the office
                                      Grades 5-6 – clean the narthex and clean entry doors
                                      Grades 7-8 – dust the chancel lectern, pulpit, communion rails, and clean inside windows to the narthex
Thursday, March 12     Theme: Service to our Community
                                      Special dress:  Super Heroes
                                      Event:  Firemen coming to lunch 11:50
                                                 Kitchen shower for Rylan Maple’s aunt, who lost her house to fire in early February.  Each classroom has the following contributions:                                              Pre-school – a large set of glasses
                                      Kindergarten – baking pans
                                      Grades 1-2 – kitchen towels and washcloths
                                      Grades 3-4 – utensils and serving bowls
                                      Grades 5-6 – silverware
                                      Graders 7-8 – dishes
Learning fair presentations grades 4-8     2:00-2:30
Friday, March 13        Theme: Serving our World
                           Special dress:  Occupational dress
                                      Event: Skype with Benjamin Helge
                 Care package collection of Benjamin Helge.  Details to come.
                   Learning fair presentations grades K-3 11:00-11:30.

                                       

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