Preschool - Mrs. Malone, Ms. OnkkaOur themes for the month of October include fall, fire safety, pumpkins, and, of course, Halloween!
We discussed the job of a firefighter, the tools firefighters use, and ways we can keep ourselves safe. We have fire drills at school.
Does your family have practice drills at home? Our 3 & 5 day pre-k classes enjoyed their visit to our neighborhood fire station. Thank you to all of the parents who accompanied us on our field trips!
Fall means leaves and pumpkins, so we spent some time investigating their sizes, shapes, and insides!
We look forward to discussing your child’s progress next week during conferences.
Our Halloween parties will take place on Monday, October 30th and Tuesday, October 31st. We are very excited about Halloween!
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Kindergarten - Mrs. Guinan, Mrs. Millar, Mrs. Vaughan
The kindergarteners have practiced a lot with patterns in math this month. They used shapes, numbers, and cubes to create many different types of patterns.
The students had fun experimenting like real scientists this month. They made predictions and explored ways objects could be moved.
They are invited to the Parsons House for some Halloween fun! The residents will really enjoy seeing our students.
Sandy Knockenhauer came to do a butterfly presentation in kindergarten.
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First Grade - Mrs. Kleffman, Mrs. Nigrin, Ms. HermsenFirst graders have been very busy in math class! We have introduced both addition and subtraction, and will be reinforcing specific strategies with your student that will allow for further success. A great way to review this skill at home is to practice math facts on a regular basis.
The Book It program began this month in 1st grade. This program is a great way to motivate students to read for enjoyment and to practice reading fluency.
Thank you for all of your hard work preparing your child.
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Second Grade - Ms. Hargens, Mrs. Johnson, Mrs. TruscottThank you for helping prepare your child for the sacrament of First Reconciliation. You should feel very proud.
In Math, we started talking about graphs and data. Students will look at different types of graphs and learn how to read them. They will also get the opportunity to make their own graph and look at ways to compare information.
Continue working on math facts and reading with your child. Be sure to be filling in Book It calendars.
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Third Grade - Ms. Ruelas, Mrs. Baker, Mrs. SchofieldIt is hard to believe the first quarter has come to an end. Time flies when you’re working hard and having fun. Thank you for all you are doing at home to help your child complete homework and stay organized.
The students are using their Chromebooks daily with teacher guidance in the classroom and in specials. We will be placing more assignments in Google Classroom as the year progresses to help students navigate this learning tool and further enhance their education.
Circle of Grace, Safe Environment for children, will be taught during the month of November.
Thank you to the parents who helped with our field trip and will help with the Halloween party. We appreciate your assistance with these activities.
No “TRICKS” here! being back at school has been a real “TREAT!” We are blessed to witness the amazing growth of the students.
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Fourth Grade - Mrs. Madison, Mrs. Thede, Mrs. Caito
In grade 4 social studies, students are learning about national, state, county, and city government. They discovered that our state has a unique unicameral and know all the steps in order for a law to be made in Nebraska!
We will get to visit our county courthouse on October 30th!
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Fifth Grade - Mrs. Dotzler, Mrs. Jones, Ms. Salerno
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We’re excited to start the second quarter and have the opportunity to meet parents in person for conferences!
Fifth graders have had a great start to their second quarter! We are looking forward to our field trip on Tuesday, October 24th, where we will be visiting Boys Town and the Durham Museum. Students will be able to tour Dowd Chapel (where Fr. Flanagan is buried), his former home, and the Hall of History museum. Our visit to the Durham will include lessons about pioneer life, Native Americans of the Great Plains, a historic school room, and a tour of the museum’s train cars, caboose, and steam engine. Thank you so much to the parents who volunteered to help chaperone this field trip!
Fifth graders are diving into chemical changes right now in science and investigating how matter can change when it comes into contact with other substances. Finally, students will be randomly assigned their state for the State Fair and will begin the writing process for the first paragraph of their research paper in English.
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Sixth Grade - Mrs. Wane, Mrs. Johnson, Mrs. Guinotte
Math: Students are currently learning and practicing with expressions and inequalities, which is a great introduction to algebra! From there, they will continue to practice working with and solving formulas involving area, circumference, distance, etc. As we wrap up this chapter, we will then move into our unit on integers. Students will be practicing with number lines, negative numbers, absolute value, and order of operations. This is by far the most fun chapter this semester!
Social Studies: Students just finished learning about Ancient Mesopotamia. We are now moving into our chapter on Ancient Egypt, which is packed full of interesting information and fun activities. Students will create an Egyptian pyramid that demonstrates their knowledge of the material as well as sing along to their favorite singer, Mr. Nicky (He’s a wonderful parody singer!) 6th graders will also be completing an activity for Veteran’s Day to honor all those who served and continue to serve.
English: Students are working with adjectives this month. What ways can you describe simple things? A freakishly humungous hairy beast sounds better than a tall monster with hair.
Literature: Students are traveling with Billy Colman and his two red hounds in the novel, Where the Red Fern Grows. This is usually a favorite of students, especially if they have experienced the love of a pet.
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Science: Students are working hard on their inventions and presentations. Please come see your child’s invention on Friday, November 10th, at 2:15 P.M. in the Parish Center. Everyone has worked very hard and they are excited to show you their inventions.
Religion: Students have finished their “God’s Wonder and Awe” mosaics. The mosaics will be displayed during conferences. Please come see the beautiful artwork, which will be hanging outside room 63.
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English - Mr. Leever
English 7
Students completed and I enjoyed reading their personal narratives. Having completed the initial noun review unit, students are currently studying regular/irregular verbs, transitive/intransitive verbs, linking verbs, and active/passive voice. Our upcoming writing project will be to write an analysis of a character they have studied in literature class.
English 8
Students have taken mastery tests over plural nouns and possessive nouns. Our next unit involves studying verb tenses and aspects. Our next writing assignments will be to research a vacation destination and write an expository paragraph citing the information they gathered through their research using the MLA Handbook.
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Science - Ms. Kolberg
8th grade
Eighth graders are finishing up the sound and light waves unit. We will dissect sheep eyes and compare them to our eyes as our last project in that unit. We will then start moving into chemistry!
7th grade Seventh graders are finishing up the Fungi unit. We have made bread mold, grown mushrooms, worked with yeast, and dissected a mushroom…………….lots of fun!
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Math - Mr. PolacekAs we finish up a fantastic first Quarter in 7th and 8th grade math, pre-algebra will be working on a geometry chapter. This will include shapes and a good deal of vocabulary that they will need to remember. The students at this level have done an excellent job this year of exploring some algebra topics and should be more than prepared for an algebra class next year.
The 7th grade math group is finishing up a last review of fractions and decimals.They will continue to review some arithmetic skills while working on proportions and percents along with being exposed to new pre-algebra topics along the way.
In algebra, we just finished our lines and slope chapter and are ready to start a chapter on systems of equations. We will solve them by graphing, substitution, elimination, and linear combinations. This is always a very challenging course; and with new concepts being shown daily, the amount of knowledge gained has been tremendous. I am so appreciative of the effort and focus all my students bring to my room each and every day!
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Religion - Mr. Dunn
Students in 7th grade are learning about the many images used to describe God and discovering how God’s attributes are reflected in human life.
Students in 8th grade are learning how living a Christian moral life is a path to freedom and the importance of developing a well-formed conscience.
Both 7th and 8th grade are attending our retreat today. Please pray for them. Maranatha!
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Social Studies - Mrs. Sullivan 7th graders recently finished a unit on human geography. We learned about economic geography, political geography, and population geography with much of our discussion being focused on cultures around the world. We were able to make many connections to recent things happening in the world. Our upcoming units include focusing on specific places in the world starting with the United States, Canada, and North America as a whole. The students will be making maps throughout the next several units to help with our study. In addition, they will work on individual and small group projects. We have also been working on how to take notes and using guided notes as a tool.
8th graders just finished up a unit on colonial government and the road to revolution. Upcoming units will include the Revolutionary War and reconstruction. We will talk about many of the reasons for the revolution, many of the historical figures who were a part of the revolution, and the outcomes of the revolution. The students will be making timelines and other visuals to assist with our study. There will be several individual and small group projects throughout this study. 8th grade has also been working on how to take notes and using guided notes as a tool.
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Literature - Mrs. Fosbender
The seventh grade literature students have started the seventh grade textbook. In unit 1 students will cosider "Does every conflict have a winner?" The students will be working on different strategies to help them find different ways to solve conflicts and will also have writing and research activities to complete.
The eighth grade students finished reading My Brother Sam is Dead and will start the novel, Stargirl. The theme is based on friendship, bullying and being yourself. Students will complete activities to help reinforce the correct way to treat others, and also use strategies that will help with comprehension and writing skills.
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Art - Mr. Pflaum
Art projects are in full swing as we head into the fall. Here is a summary of each grade level:
Kindergarten - The students just completed their fall leaf watercolor paintings and are now creating Halloween themed expressive faces drawings.
First grade - The first graders have glazed they clay finger puppets and have started an oil pastel resist project.
Second grade - The students are continuing to sculpt their clay dot pots.
Third grade - The third graders are working with clay to create pinch pot creatures.
Fourth grade - The students have been introduced to hand built clay coil pottery and have started sculpting their masterpieces.
Fifth grade - The fifth graders are using special paint to glaze their fired ceramic crosses.
Sixth grade - These artists are working on a Days of the Dead illustration while a few students finalize their SVdP iPad illustrations.
Seventh grade - The seventh graders are in the last stages of their colored pencil grid drawings and have started working on a 'building stack' water color illustration.
Eighth grade - The students have been introduced to clay mask making and will be sculpting their own ideas with clay.
Samples of student artwork can be viewed on a SVdP art instagram gallery: https://www.instagram.com/svdpmrpflaumart/
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Computer - Mrs. Kuhr
Kindergarden - Students have been working on typing a sentence in Kid Pix. They have been learning how to use the Shift key and Spacebar when typing. Next, we will learn how to login to Teacher Your Monster to Read. This site works students through learning how to read and letter sounds in a game format. Their login is their first name and the first letter of their last name.
1st grade - Students have been learning about different technologies found around the home, and about what information they should not be posting online. We will then head to Kodable, a site they always enjoy, to code fuzzes through a maze. The class codes are - 11blue, 12pink, 13red.
2nd grade - Students have been learning what makes a powerful password. After learning the Dos and Dont's, they created secure passwords and tested them on How Secure Is My Password.
3rd grade - Students have been working with our Edison Bots and learning how to program them. We went through the barcode coding, and are now working on the block programming. The students have been having a blast.
4th grade - After taking their first keyboarding test of the year, they have started working with our Spheros. They have been working on coding the robot using block programming to move forward, turn, and make sounds.
5th grade - They finished their Choose Your Own Adventure group story. They did a great job. We will now be working with spreadsheets to create a battleship style game. They will use conditional formatting.
6th grade - They finished their Pop Art project using Google Drawings. I always love this project. Next we will talk about creating safe and secure passwords and a method hackers use.They will be using a spreadsheet and use the function concatenate to make multiple passwords to test out.
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8th grade - We started the year learning about and creating podcasts. The students did a great job. We had a wide range of topics from serious to humorous. Next, we will be using Javascript to create an online joke-bot.
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Educational Strategists - Mrs. Heavey, Mrs. Price, Ms. Bousquet
By the time November rolls around, thankfulness isn’t always at the top of any one’s mind. With the Thanksgiving holiday just around the corner, now is a great time to help your child focus on all the things we still have to be thankful for, during this challenging year. It is not easy to talk about being grateful and practice appreciation, but it is an important characteristic trait to teach our children.
A couple ideas may be to start a gratitude journal or play the gratitude game. Please copy and paste the link below in your browser to read on for some tools and activities you can use to get your children involved in this character-building practice.
https://www.discoverypoint.com/blog/november-a-month-of-thankful-thoughts/#:~:text=Maintaining%20a%20daily%20gratitude%20journal,the%20time%20you%20spend%20writing.
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Guidance - Mrs. Skudlarek
What a busy month it has been! Our theme has focused on being kind and not showing bully—like behaviors. Kindergartners learned about the importance of using caring and sharing rules when playing on the playground, eating together, and working in the classroom. First graders learned about ways to show kindness when working with others. Second graders learned about the different types of bullying and what to do when they see something that does not look quite right. Third graders learned about the three types of people that make up a bully situation: victim, bystander, and bully. They also discussed examples of bullying and acted out ways to put a stop to unkind behavior. Fourth and fifth graders reviewed the types of people that make up a bullying situation and we focused a lot on the role of the bystander. In sixth and eighth grade, students learned about harassment and how bullying and harassment differ. The conversations were very thoughtful and thought provoking. In all of the grades we discussed when a bystander has a positive impact the difference that can be made. We will continue to practice ways to be kind and compassionate inside the school as well as outside the school. Our kids amaze me each day with what they know and what they want to learn. Our 7th and 8th grade students spent Friday, October 20th, participating in a retreat day. 7th graders took part in a Courage Retreat put on by Youth Frontiers. It was a memorable day. Our 8th grade students had their confirmation retreat.
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HAL - Mrs. MillerOctober has been a busy month in the HAL classroom. The 4th graders learned long division and the importance of divisibility rules. Fifth graders concentrated on computing with various fractions and mixed numbers. Exponent rules kept the 6th graders on their toes, while the 7th graders began their study of finding the slope of a line and graphing. In the junior high literature classes, the 7th graders began their mystery novel, The Westing Game, and the 8th graders embarked on a study of Shakespeare while reading Wednesday Wars.
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Media - Mrs. Kaiser
One topic we work on in the library all of the time is becoming readers who can select a satisfying book and read it for pleasure. In class this includes book previews, student book reviews and read-alouds. One of the challenges for students is finding time to read. A solution can be selecting an audiobook to listen to on the way to or from school. Research shows that listening to a book activates many of the same parts of the brain as reading print. For public library card holders, juvenile audio Books can be checked out on CD or downloaded via the Libby app. They can also be purchased through online outlets such as Audible or Libro. Below is a short list of audio books that students of a variety of ages might enjoy. I am also more than happy to provide a personalized recommendation for your car pool.
Back to the Bright Before by Katherine Nolte - a young girl searches the grounds of a convent looking for a magical coin to help her struggling family
Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume - fourth-grader Peter has taken all he can from his two-year-old brother, Fudge
Ramona Quinby series - Beverly Cleary - the trials and tribulations of Ramona and her four-year-old sister, Beezus
The Silver Arrow by Lev Grossman - an eleven-year-old girl receives a magical train full of talking animals for her birthday
Thank you to the following students and their families for donating a book in honor of their birthday: Ben Eichele, Luke Eichele, Ryleigh Robinson, Mila Stottle, Luke Fassero, Cassidy Royer, Mila Audino, Camryn Vaughan, Grace Fyfe.
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Music - Mrs. LeMense
On Thursday, October 19, the 6th graders joined our 5th graders for serenading us at the concert. The show was delightful! We all had so much fun watching and listening to you! Way to GO!! Next we’ll embark on recorders - year 2. Students will need to start bringing their instruments to music class!
Our newest crop of recorder players are the 4th graders and they are AWESOME! They are such fast learners and great musicians—it’s been fun doing some harder material (not just “Hot Cross Buns”).
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Our 3rd and 4th graders are already working on their Christmas Concert, which is set for December 14th!
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Music - Mrs. Goodwin The 6th graders just had an amazing music program! This would not have been possible without their homeroom teachers (Mrs. Wane, Mrs. Johnson & Mrs. Guinotte), our administrators, our operational staff, and countless others who gave up their time and talents to make it all possible. The 6th graders will take a much needed break with world music units.
A reminder that the 7th & 8th grade concert is on Thursday, November 16th at 6:30pm. Please let me know as soon as possible if your child cannot make it as grading arrangements will have to be made. Their program will be “Karaoke Night” - they have had a lot of fun so far singing some of their favorite tunes!
As always, don’t hesitate to contact me via email: goodwind@svdpomaha.org
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PE - Mr. Boone
One of my favorite times of the year is the fall! The changing weather, students settled into a routine at school, and the chance to review and introduce students to new activities—with a month full of excitement and great weather, October is just simply the best time of the year.
Kindergarten-2nd grade. Students in these grades started the month off with their foot skills soccer unit. The students worked on ball handling by doing toe taps, foundations, and dribbling. The students earned their driver’s license by using controlled dribbles and trapping so that they did not run into each other. Red light/green light was another activity that encouraged the students to use a controlled dribble with the ball. Next they were pirates and went on a treasure hunt where they dribbled and collected treasure one at at time. Lastly the students did soccer bowling. They worked on their accuracy by knocking a soccer ball off a cone.
After the soccer unit, these students worked on their underhand tossing, throwing, and catching. Activities such as Banana Buckets, Monster Ball, Cornhole, Battleships, Fire and Ice Tag, Ghost Busters, and Hocus Pocus had the students tossing and throwing at objects.
3rd-6th grade. Starting the month, these students worked on soccer skills as well. Keep Away, Shooting Thunder, Shark Attack, Scramble, and Pinball soccer involved more dribbling and shooting. These students were able to move from one activity the next while enhancing their soccer skills.
Rounding out the month, 3rd-5th worked on their invasion skills and strategies. This involves going into another team’s territory to either grab and object and bring it back or make it to a zone safely. Yoshi, Tit For Tat, King Pin, Mobile Fill Your Own, Capture The Flag, and Trick or Treat were the activities that got the students to think of different strategies to be successful.
Lastly, 6th grade worked on their football skills. Students were taught the proper grip, throw, and catching techniques used for a football. Perfect passer, Pass and Score Tag, Tic Tac Toe, Quarterback Rescue, Air Force Football, and Capture The Football emphasized those skills.
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PE - Mrs. Conry
We finished up with football with the completion of the written test. The students' test scores were very good.
We moved into the five health-related fitness tests that are evaluated with the FitnessGram Assessment, including aerobic capacity, muscular strength, muscular endurance, and flexibility. FitnessGram is designed to help students understand their health-related fitness and NOT to compare themselves to one another. The students made pre-test goals before taking the test, and recorded the scores they got. We will re-test in the spring to see how well they have achieved their goals.
After completion of the fitness testing, the students were given a test so I can see how much they learned about themselves and fitness.
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Gr. 2-4 Spanish - Mrs. McDermott Students in second grade Spanish are learning how to respond to 1) “Como estas?” (How are you?) with “Muy bien“ (very well), “Mas o menos" (so-so), “Muy mal "(very bad), and 2) "Como te llamas?” (What is your name?) with, “Me llamo_______” (My name is______).
Students in third grade Spanish are learning the names of dinner foods such as el biftec (steak), la chuleta, (pork), el pollo (chicken), el pescado (fish), el jamón (ham), el arroz (rice), la sopa (soup), and how to use “(No) Me gusta________ (I (don’t) like) when speaking about food.
Students in fourth grade Spanish are learning the months of the year (enero, febrero, marzo, abril, mayo, junio, julio, agosto, septiembre, octubre, noviembre, and diciembre).
Note: the days of the week and months of the year in Spanish begin with a lower case letter.
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Gr. 5th-8th Spanish - Mrs. Singh¡Hola!
Second quarter is off to a great start. Hoping to ask a favor of you… if you email me with any questions, please let me know which homeroom your student is in.
Thank you to all who honored St. Francis of Asisi by bringing in a picture of a beloved pet or a picture of their favorite location in the world. We will display those pictures in class to enjoy. As Hispanic Heritage month comes to an end, we move our focus from famous Latinos to an important Catholic holiday in México—El Día de los Muertos / Day of the Dead.
8th graders have been practicing using Spanish personal pronouns and beginning to use that knowledge to start conjugating verbs. We have started with sports vocabulary and will expand that vocabulary to include favorite pastimes/hobbies.
7th graders created a spooky Halloween themed image to label “Las partes del cuerpo” / the parts of the body. They are working on a short skit with a partner to describe a body part that is hurting. We have been reviewing numbers 0-100 and we will start learning how to state the time in Spanish as well as use ordinal numbers. Students will also learn how to say the their classes in Spanish and will be able to state which class they have at what time.
6th graders created a calendar page of their favorite month. We are practicing using the terms for “day, week, month, year, season” and writing the date in the Spanish format of day/month/year. Don’t be confused when looking at dates in Google Classroom or on homework! Students are also presenting their first skit talking about their birthday and how old they are turning this year. We will start learning about weather terms next.
5th graders are continuing to practice numbers and are having fun playing “buzz.” It’s a number game where each student says one number as we count to 50. BUT, they can’t say “siete” / 7 or a multiple of 7…instead they say “buzz”! Next we are going to practice Saludos y Despedidas (greetings and goodbyes). Students will create a mini cartoon strip.
It’s wonderful to hear students speaking more Spanish in class and in the hallways. ¡Gracias!
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