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The March 4th Roller Skating Party has been canceled. If you have any questions, please email Jennifer Rego or Gina McAveeney, chuckrego@aol.com or gmcaveeney@wowway.com.

Thanks - Jennifer Rego

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Tuition statements reflecting payments made thus far and the remaining balance owed, will be in your child’s Wednesday envelope today.

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A new “POP” coordinator is needed for the 2010/2011 school year. The position is usually held by a 7th grade parent as proceeds form soda pop sold goes towards the 7th grade field trip. Pop is sold at every Hot Lunch which is on Thursdays. Please contact Renny Bagdady at ibagdady@comcast.net  or call 630-437-5167 for details.  Training will take place on Thursday during hot lunch for the remaining pop sale days for the month of March 2010, at 11:30 in gym foyer across from Mr. Gormley’s room.———-
Discernment for New School Board Members

The process is now underway to discern new board members for the next school year. The St. Joan of Arc School Board includes eight members from St. Joan of Arc Parish, each of whom serves for terms of three years. Up to nine Discernment Candidates can undergo the discernment process, which includes an application phase and two mandatory meetings. The mandatory meetings for Discernment Candidates are scheduled for Monday, March 22 and Monday, April 19 at 7:00 p.m. in the Parish Center.

Discernment packets, which include a School Board application, are currently available in the School Office. Completed applications should be submitted to the School Office no later than Wednesday, March 10, 2010.

Interested individuals are invited to participate in the Discernment process at SJA. Please consider how your talents, time and energy can best serve the School Board.

Questions? Call Steve O’Reilly at (630) 527-0755.

St. Joan of Arc Jr. High Girl Scouts will be collecting new items to make Easter Baskets for area children who may not otherwise receive such gifts. The baskets will be distributed through The Sharing Connections. Students may place their donations in the box outside the Tech Center between Tuesday March 2nd and Monday, March 15th, 2010.

To ensure that there will be variety in each basket, may we suggest the following:

Preschool and Kindergarten: Small items such as bibs, bottles, sipper cups, match box cars, toy jewelry, chalk, bubbles, jump ropes, puzzles, decks of cards, etc.
First and Second Grades: Stuffed animals, small dolls, action figures etc.
Third and Fourth Grades: Chapter books, puzzle books or books for young adults Fifth and Sixth Grades: Markers, colored pencils, packs of pens/pencils, etc.
Seventh Grade: Personal care items such as individually wrapped toothbrushes, toothpaste, barrettes, hair brushes, elastics, jewelry, socks, etc.
Eighth Grades: Bags of individually wrapped Easter Candy or packs of gum for the older kids. Please do not include the small foil eggs as they open too easily.

All Grades: $5-$15 gift cards from major department stores and restaurants such as Target, Best Buy, McDonalds, etc. The gift cards will be placed in the baskets for the older children. Using the Script program makes this one easy!

Cash and gift card donations are greatly appreciated! The cash will be used to purchase the baskets and items needed to balance basket contents. Please make checks out to St. Joan of Arc. Please place gift cards or checks in an envelope marked “Easter Basket Drive” and send them to the main office.

Questions???  Call Nancy Remar or Karen Bickel-Girl Scouts Organizer.

This is a collaborated effort between the SJA Girl Scouts and the many volunteers who have served this project in past years. We would like to say THANK YOU in advance for opening your hearts to help bring joy to others.

Parent Letter Click here.

Confirmation Retreat Info Click here.

Through grant money Mrs. Joniak has added a smart board to the Supplemental Learning Center.
The SMART Board is a interactive, electronic whiteboard which can enhance instruction and learning. SmartBoards provide an exciting way to motivate students, streamline  lesson delivery, and save student work.

Student and teachers alike are thrilled with the Smart Board and all it can do.

A big thank you to the many people who answered the “Call”.

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PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING CHANGE TO THE  2009/2010 SJA SCHOOL CALENDAR

FEBRUARY 4 IS NOT THE CATHOLIC SCHOOLS WEEK OPEN HOUSE.

THE OPEN HOUSE WILL BE ON SUNDAY, JANUARY 31ST FOLLOWING THE 11:30 MASS RUNNING UNTIL 2:30.
The calendar for 2009-2010 can be found here.

February Calendar can be found here.

Word Wall Words:     me, yes, will

Phonics: The children seem to be struggling a bit with the short /e/ sound.  We are going to continue another week with this sound.  Ask your child if they can sing the short /e/ song for you.  They really enjoyed singing it with me.

Science: We are going to begin a very exciting unit.  The Solar System!  The children always love exploring the planets and learning all the cool characteristics of each one.

Religion: We are continuing with our daily Lenten prayer service.  The children each drew a picture of what he/she believe Heaven looks like and wrote about it.  All the drawings and writing gave me chills.  They did an amazing job!

Have a happy week

Miss Mayor

Religion: This week we begin our study of the sacraments. Chapter 16 focuses on the Sacraments of Initiation; Baptism, Eucharist, and Confirmation. We will take the chapter test on Friday, March 12. Also, this Friday is our third grade mass at 8:15. Please look for your Invitation to Worship in the Wednesday envelope.

English/Writing: This week we will review Unit 5; Capitalization and Punctuation. We will take the unit test on Thursday, March 11. In writing we continue on with our poetry unit.

Science: This is one of our more exciting weeks in Science class! All crews have been assigned their planet and are working on their planet webquest. They have designed a crew patch and are beginning to collect data to send to Mission Control (me) about their discoveries. On Monday we will make our three dimensional planets ( using balloons, kleenex,liquid starch, and water) and on Thursday we will paint them. Please send your child to school with a big old paint shirt and a plastic bag to put it in. They will bring it home on Thursday. Also, everyone will be creating a virtual postcard to email home about their amazing exploration. Your child will bring home an index card. Please write down the email address that you would like your child to send the virtual post card to. We are aiming for a launch of the post cards during the week of March 15-19.

Math: We begin Chapter 13 in which we will study the customary units of measure such as inches, feet, yards, and miles. We will do some measuring and also converting units of measure. Our problem solving strategy in this chapter will be using logical reasoning. From there we will measure capacity in customary units; cups, pints, quarts, and gallons, and weight in pounds and ounces. Look for opportunities around the house for measuring whether cooking in the kitchen or measuring while sewing….the more we use our customary units of measure the easier it is for us to understand them.

Reading: With a five day week we can begin to get back on our regular schedule. All groups will have story quizzes and Spelling tests on Friday as usual. Stories for the week are: Illustrators The Many Lives of Benjamin Franklin, Authors The Lost Lake, and Publishers Sarah, Plain and Tall. The Illustrators will work on an extended writing assignment about Benjamin Franklin, the Authors will review comprehension and study skills as we begin our new book, and the Publishers will begin their internet research for the decades project. I will remind all of the Publishers to bring the interview information they have gathered to school on Monday, March 8.

Music: Remember to bring recorders to school on Tuesday.

Continue to encourage accelerated reading. Everyone has done a fine job of pacing themselves so far this quarter.

A great, big thank you to Mr. White for his always fascinating Science demonstration last week. The children loved it and as usual Mr. White sparked everyone’s curiosity about all things scientific!

If  you are able to a donation of  paper towels or kleenex  for the classroom would be appreciated.

All in all that should cover it. Hope you have a great week!

Have a great 3-day weekend!

Sincerely, Ms. Coduto