Preschool Mrs. Malone, Ms. Onkka “Baby Jesus, baby Jesus, fast asleep, fast asleep…” Christmas Day will soon be here and we can hardly wait!
Our classes have been busy learning about Advent as we prepare for Jesus’ birthday on Christmas Day. The joy of the Christmas season is evident in each and every one of our preschoolers! Thank you again for sharing them with us.
As 2023 ends, we would like to wish each of you a blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year!
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Kindergarten Mrs. Guinan, Mrs. Millar, Mrs. Vaughan
Throughout December, we've learned about the season of Advent. We have prepared our hearts for Christmas by brainstorming gifts to give Jesus and ways to be kind to others.
We are learning more and more sight words and are very proud of what we can read! Use flash cards to practice sight words with your child and see how many he/she recognizes!
In math, we are working with counting big numbers using tens and ones.
From our classrooms to your homes, we wish you lots of happiness and joy during this holiday season!
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First Grade Mrs. Kleffman, Mrs. Nigrin, Ms. Hermsen It has been a joy to watch your children prepare their hearts for the coming of the infant Jesus. Thank you for all of the help you provided for our classroom Christmas parties. You are a gift to us! In January, 1st grade students will be introduced to the Rocket Math program. You can find a link on the 1st grade News webpage to print out blank copies of the leveled tests. The goal for 1st grade students will be to get 30 consecutive correct in one minute and 15 seconds. This is a school wide-program that will assist the children in mastering their math facts. We encourage you to continue practicing facts regularly at home.
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Second Grade Ms. Hargens, Mrs. Johnson, Mrs. TruscottThank you to the volunteers who helped plan the Christmas parties. The students and teachers appreciate your kindness.
To help students prepare for third grade, they will receive a percentage score on tests only. Percentages will begin in January.
Students worked hard on 2-digit subtraction with regrouping. Please continue to practice this skill over break. Second graders also worked on identifying the main idea and key details in stories. Ask your child if he/she can identify these while reading a story.
We wish you all a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and many blessings in the new year!
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Third Grade Ms. Ruelas, Mrs. Baker, Mrs. Schofield
Thank you to the families of Giuliana Volpone, Evelyn Evans, and Luke Weiland for purchasing the SPREE Dress Down and Extra Recess for their classroom. We have already enjoyed or will enjoy using them.
During the first semester, third grade students have loved spending time with their seventh grade buddies. They have worked together on various activities, talking and laughing the entire time. The students are always excited to be with their new friends.
Thank you to the parents who helped organize and implement the games and activities and brought treats for our Christmas parties. Your creativity is greatly appreciated.
It has been a fast and wonderful first semester, and we are grateful for all you have done to make it a success.
We wish each and every family a very Merry Christmas and a safe and happy New Year!
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Fourth Grade Mrs. Madison, Mrs. Thede, Mrs. CaitoIn fourth grade we have been studying our Circle of Grace program. We discussed Internet terminology and various strategies to stay safe on the Internet. We will continue to reinforce Internet safety throughout the school year.
In science class we studied sound, light, the visible spectrum, the eye and different types of waves. We explored making different sounds using rulers, rubber bands, and tuning forks. The students enjoyed discovering color and light waves by using concave and convex lenses, color paddles, and a prism. They also loved seeing how light enters the eye and what happens to the pupil and iris.
We wish you and your family all the joy and blessings of this holy Christmas season and in the coming year.
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Fifth Grade Mrs. Dotzler, Mrs. Jones, Ms. Salerno
The 5th graders have been going through the writing process to write another paragraph for their research paper about famous people from their state. Again, thank you to the parents for being part of this process when the students needed someone to revise and edit their paragraph. Your help is appreciated! Students have begun studying about The American Revolution, and just finished taking their 50 state geography test. We will move on to learning the capitals for the third quarter. The students are also continuing on in their first unit of biology, having investigated how energy and matter move through organisms and the ecosystem.
Thank you to all of the parent volunteers who helped with the classroom Christmas parties. We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!
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Sixth Grade Mrs. Wane, Mrs. Johnson, Mrs. Guinotte
Literature students will work on poetry in January. Look for their poetry notebooks to come home as they learn various ways to express themselves through their poems.
English students will participate in the classroom Spelling Bee and learn about verbs during the month of January. Students will continue to write and revievw grammar daily as their knowledge grows.
Science students will learn about minerals: how they are formed, identified, and retrieved.
Religion students will focus on sacraments, our way of life.
Social Studies is just finishing our Ancient Egypt studies, which included making our very own pyramids! Next up in 6th grade we will be studying Ancient India.
Math students just wrapped up all operations involving fractions, everyone's favorite! We also will be discussing the various ways math is used in the real world. Our next unit will be ratios!
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English Mr. Leever
English 7 and 8—I hope that everyone has a Christmas break full of rest, fun and family! We’ve had a very busy semester in English class. Students have made great progress with writing mechanics/conventions, organization, and using specific details in their writing. I’m looking forward to that improvement continuing next semester.
Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
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7th grade science
Seventh graders just wrapped up the cells and the organelles. We are now going into what those organelles do—photosynthesis and cellular respiration. We have looked at our cells (not as much fun as the pond water!) and at plant cells. Those microscopes have gotten a workout this year! I hope all the seventh graders have a fun and restful holiday break.
8th grade science
8th graders have been working on learning about the elements of the periodic table. Each student “adopted” an element and is finding out all kinds of information about the elements in our world. We also just finished working on the concept of density. We have been finding out how to find the mass and the volume of odd shaped items—just like Archimedes did (minus the going out into the street yelling “Eureka!”).
I wish the best to all the eighth graders for our Christmas break!
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Math Mr. PolacekWe are off to a great start here in 7th and 8th grade math in 2023. The 7th grade math class is going over some statistics to begin with. We have a chapter on geometry to get us going before working our way into some algebra expressions.
The pre-algebra classes will start the new year with some probability before setting our sights on some new algebra topics such as inequalities and slope. The algebra parts of the curriculum are always a good challenge as we work to be ready for a full-fledged algebra class next year!
The algebra classes finished solving systems and will continue with more great algebra chapters on factoring polynomials and graphing parabolas. After that we jump into solving quadratics by a variety of methods.
With continued work in our Simple Solutions books we are putting an emphasis on reading problems carefully and trying to be as meticulous as possible. The students have done a great job of showing work and we are looking forward to that continuing as we start this new semester.
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Mr. Dunn, Mrs. Fosbender, Mrs. Sullivan
The eighth grade teachers would like to wish you and your families a safe and blessed Christmas and New Year!
Looking ahead, On Thursday, February 1st, the 8th graders will be attending a city-wide 8th grade Mass at Cathedral. Parents are not able to attend because of space.
Boys will need to wear uniform pants with a long sleeve white dress shirt and navy tie (same thing they had to wear for graduation pictures). Girls will need to wear uniform skirts with a gray pullover SVdP uniform sweatshirt or a navy/red school sweater.
To finish off the field trip, buses will travel to Creighton University for lunch and fun in the student/fitness center.
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Art Mr. PflaumWe end the semester in the art room with a number of projects in each grade. Here is a quick summary of their work:
Kindergarten: The students will be starting a new project involving clay.
First grade: The first graders completed their Romero Britto-inspired illustrations.
Second grade: The students are working on a drawing using cones, shading, and chalk.
Third grade: the third graders are using Grant Wood’s American Gothic to inspire their own versions.
Fourth grade: The students are learning about the color wheel.
Fifth-grade: Georgia O’Keefe is the artist that is inspiring the students to create their own watercolor paintings.
Sixth grade: The students are in the final stages of their 2-point perspective drawings.
Seventh grade: The seventh graders have been introduced to printmaking.
Eighth grade: The students will be starting a Holocaust memory portrait project in January.
Samples of students artwork can be found on the SVdP art gallery Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/svdpmrpflaumart/
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Computer Mrs. Kuhr
Kindergarten - We have been learning about coding. We have used Code Monkey Jr., and now we are on Kodable. The students can easily practice their coding skills at home using Kodable, where they have to program a fuzz through a maze. The class codes are: k1cat, k2dog & k3pig.
1st Grade - Students were introduced to Apple Keynote. They filled in shapes to make different fall and winter themed puzzles. They also practice typing sentences for these slides.
2nd Grade - This was a big month for 2nd grade. They logged into their Google accounts and Google Classroom. They were introduced to Google Slides. They learned how to fill in shapes and practiced keyboarding skills. Now, they are learning about using keyboard shortcuts such as > Command+C & Command+V for copy & paste.
3rd grade - In December, it is an Hour of Code month. Many grades start to learn more about programming. Students in 3rd grade started practicing some coding skills this month. They were introduced to Blockly and coded a dance party on Code.org. They have now just started programming their own dance party on Scratch. Scratch is an online programming site, where students can create their own computer programs.
4th grade - Students started practicing coding skills this month, since it is Hour of Code month. They first started with Code.org. Using Blockly, they used problem solving skills in a Minecraft themed game. They have now just started programming their own maze game using Scratch.
5th Grade - This month we have started our robotics unit, learning how to program the Sphero. There are different activities they will be completing. When we get back from break, we will start our state project for the state fair. Students will be programming a game in Scratch that will be presenting information about their state. The program will be part of their state fair presentation. More information to come.
6th Grade - Students finished up their digital safety unit this month. They finished learning about password safety and creating safe passwords. They used Google Sheets for this project and use the CONCATENATE function to use for a dictionary attack on their passwords. Next, we talked about what students should and should not post online. They looked at fake user accounts, and tried to find out as much information as they could on these fake accounts. It is a great lesson on learning how big your digital footprint can be. When they come back from break, they will be creating an “Extreme Sports” game in Scratch.
7th grade - In January, 7th graders will be having computers and I can’t wait to see them.
8th grade - We learned something new! Students were introduced to Javascript in a simple program. It was harder than it looked. Javascript is one of the primary programming languages that they use in computer science. They created a Joke-Bot. 83 had time to also learn about our micro:bits. Micro:bits are little circuit boards they can program. It makes lights and sounds depending on what you code. On January, 8th graders will start seeing Mrs. Kaiser for Media. I have had a great time teaching and working with this group of students. I will miss seeing them in class and wish them the best.
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Educational Strategists Mrs. Heavey, Mrs. Price, Ms. Bousquet
Build your child’s reading skills by reading books together and having conversations about books. Research supports the use of interactive reading or dialogic reading as a way to improve oral language and reading comprehension. After rereading a book or passage several time, engage in the following types of questions.1. Ask “wh” questions (why, when, where, what and who).
2. Ask open ended questions which encourages your child to share what he is thinking about?
3. Ask questions which requires your child to “read between the lines.”
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Guidance Mrs. SkudlarekI cannot believe we are wrapping up this first semester of the school year. What a busy few months it has been. The students continue to work hard and practice things they are learning in Guidance Class. Kindergartners learned about their Circle of Grace and how it is a sacred space gifted to us by God. They learned about recognizing situations that may not be good for their Circle of Grace as well as identifying trusted adults who are there to help them. First graders practiced working in groups. They practiced taking turns, using polite words when things are not going smoothly, and they wrote kind things about one another. Our focus in second grade has been on emotions. We talked about feeing proud. They had so many great examples of a time they felt proud about their words or actions. We also talked about feeling disappointed. I loved their honesty with this lesson and their examples! Third graders have also been practicing working in groups. They have shown such great progress from the beginning of the year. Fourth graders are learning about the importance of rethinking when a situation does not go as planned. We have focused on the importance of balancing our thinking so we are not always leading with strong emotions! The focus in fifth grade has been on empathy. Students spent some time looking up examples of empathy in the community and discussed ways to show empathy here at school as well as at home. Sixth graders wrapped up a unit on bullying and harassment. We have started talking about emotions and will continue this into January. We have been discussing stress and how to handle stressful situations and people in eighth grade. I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and I hope you enjoy the time with family.
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HAL Mrs. MillerMerry Christmas! The students have been working on staying focused this month to finish the quarter strong. Fourth grade students learned how to add and subtract fractions and mixed numbers, while 5th graders learned about proportions and percents.
The pre-algebra class wrapped up their chapter on solving a variety of equations, while the algebra students learned how to solve systems of equations through a variety of methods.
Math is a subject that builds upon previously learned material, and the students are now realizing just how important it is to keep their skills sharp!
The junior high literature classes both finished their novels.
The 7th graders enjoyed learning about mysteries and how important details are in a story.
The 8th graders thoroughly enjoyed their novel and creating presentations about different topics relating to the 1960s.
This was one of our best novels yet!
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Media Mrs. Kaiser
December was a busy month in the library! Kindergarten students worked on distinguishing fiction from nonfiction. We are looking forward to expanding our checkout area into nonfiction beginning in January. Students in grades 1-3 discussed the Caldecott award and read many Caldecott winners. In January we will look at some of the contenders for 2023 and vote for the book we think should win this prestigious illustration prize. Fourth grade students have been learning how to insert and cite an image. Fifth graders designed a 3D pet or mascot and are awaiting the results of their work from the printer. Students in grade seven reviewed strategies for evaluating online information, both for school work and on social media.
Thank you to the following students and their families who donated books to the library: Rory Ping, the Menicucci family, Camden McDonald, Rowan Quance, Haley Armbruster, Cole Mackintosh, Max Hrabovsky, Emma Luetkenhaus, Brody Meek, Viv Peters, Evie Turner, and Sophina Holmgren.
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Music Mrs. LeMenseMany thanks to all of the 3rd and 4th graders who put on a wonderful Christmas program! They learned a lot of music for that show! Wow!
Our next program will be on Leap Day, February 29th, and will feature the 1st and 2nd graders! I think we’re going to go to the ocean for a sea shanty adventure!
The 5th graders will finish their recorder unit after Christmas and then will embark on the wondrous world of ukuleles!
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
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Music Mrs. Goodwin
It’s been a wonderful first semester here at SVdP! I’ve enjoyed getting to know your child(ren) and seeing them grow as individuals and musicians.
Beginning in January, sixth grade students will continue ukulele unit while 7 & 8th grade continue the composition unit.
Preparations for the Princess Whatsername musical are underway! Rehearsals will begin on January 10th at 3:15pm.
So many students are eager to participate in our cast and crews (Set Stars, Prop Pros, Costume Crew)! If you have experience with sewing, please reach out as our costume crew could use your help!
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PE Mr. Boone
First let me wish you and your families happy and safe holidays. Be safe and enjoy your time off.
K-2. These students worked on their listening skills, teamwork, and following directions as they worked with the parachute. Students did a variety of activities with the parachute that included the three grips that we use, understanding clockwise and counterclockwise, color races, hot air balloon, merry go around, selfie, igloo, bear in the woods, mouse trap, headless horseman, and alligators and lifeguards. The students really focused on controlling their impulse control by not waving or shaking the parachute before directed. The last week heading into break we did several Christmas games such as feed the reindeer and reindeer relays.
3-5. The students in these grades worked on health activities such as one minute fitness challenge, invisible dumbbell challenge, and taking a fast food quiz. During this activity, the students learned about the muscles that they used for an assortment of exercises. The learned techniques to move their bodies. During the fast food quiz, the students learned about the contents of the foods and drinks that they consume when going to 10 different restaurants. They learned about protein, fat grams, cholesterol, sodium, and fiber and what they mean to their bodies while doing an interactive quiz. After that, the students were able to work on their mindfulness while doing yoga. During this, the students focused on their balance, flexibility, strength, coordination, and breathing while maintaining these poses. Lastly, the students concluded the semester with Christmas games such as feed the reindeer and reindeer relays.
6. Our 6th graders tested their skills with single and doubles table tennis. Their reflexes were put to the test by returning the ball back to their opponents. They learned the rules for singles and doubles play. After that, the students were able to work on their mindfulness while doing yoga. During this, the students focused on their balance, flexibility, strength, coordination, and breathing while maintaining these poses. Lastly, the students concluded the semester with Christmas games such as feed the reindeer and reindeer relays.
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PE Mrs. Conry
The 7th & 8th grade played volleyball in many ways in December. There was such a variety of skill levels it was fun to watch how skilled many of the students are. We were all learning and refining our skills.
Volleyball includes several different skill sets. Players must be able to play both offensively and defensively. Offensively, the students tried to score points on the other team using serves and spikes. Defensively, the students tried to keep the other team from scoring a point on them using blocks and digs.
Students with practice were able to serve, set, pass, attack, block, and dig. Serving started the ball in motion from behind the baseline. Setting gently hitting the ball high into the air to set up another teammate for an attack. Passing seemed to be used the most by everyone. A block was usually used mostly by the more experienced players, but many tried to jump up with hands outstretched to stop the ball as soon as it crossed. An attack is an aggressive hit of the ball to try and score on the other team. A libero is a defensive specialist player who wears a different jersey than other teammates.
We also played 4 corner volleyball with a lighter ball, bigger in size, and changed some of the rules. Lastly, we talked about the rules, scoring, and finished up with a test.
Happy Holidays to you, and you family. All the best in 2024.
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2nd-4th Spanish Mrs. McDermott
Students in 4th grade Spanish are practicing the months of the year by answering the question “Cuando es tu cumpleaños?” (When is your birthday?) with “Mi cumpleaños es ……” (My birthday is……). They are also practicing how to read and write any date in Spanish.
Students in 3rd grade Spanish are learning the names of clothing and accessories. They are also reviewing the colors by drawing clothing on a paper doll and labeling the clothes with the name of the clothing and its color in Spanish. Did you know that in Spanish adjectives go after the noun? For example, la blusa azul (blusa=blouse, azul=blue)
Students in 2nd grade Spanish are practicing the names of 13 colors including gold (oro) and silver (plata) by playing a game called "Caliente ó Frío.” (Hot or Cold) They are also becoming pretty proficient in saying the Ave Maria (Hail Mary) in Spanish.
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5th-8th Spanish Mrs. Singh
Hola!
The 8th graders have completed the Ser and Estar (To Be) unit, which they worked hard on all semester long last fall! They are now starting a new lesson over Tener (To have) and Hay (There is/There are).
The 7th graders finished learning all about Gender in the Spanish language, which they will continue to use from here on out. They are now on the La Casa (The House) lesson!
The 6th graders are done with Los Saludos (Greetings and other common expressions) directly, but will always continue to use the vocab from these lessons. Next up, we will be discussing all kinds of fun facts about the Spanish speaking countries, starting with our neighbor Mexico!
And finally, the 5th graders are learning how to use “Me Gusta…” (I like…) in Spanish. The 6th-8th graders observed the Feast of La Virgen de Guadalupe on December 12th, and they recalled the story about how Mary appeared to Juan Diego in what is now Mexico City!
¡Feliz Año Nuevo to everyone!
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