Weekly Newsletter

Congratulations on a stellar first three days of school! The students were able to meet all of their teachers and become familiar with their class rotations.

Since being inundated with information is the norm these days, I'll give you some tips for where/what to check to stay on top of things:

1.) Subscribe to your homeroom teacher's STM ("Edlio") webpage. If you subscribe, you'll have it delivered to your email directly. It is updated each weekend.

2.) Read the Wednesday Blast that is sent out from the office and the PTO newsletter sent out on Fridays.

3.) Students have a Wednesday Folder (it's green) where they are supposed to be bringing things home to you. It's intended to be a one-stop/one-location place for papers.

4.) Put the Google Classroom app on your phone. It requires an stmschool.org email address, so you'll need your student's email and password to put it on your phone.

5.) Sign the green sheet every week, whether there are missing assignments written there or not. By the end of the trimester, you will have completed signing in each space!

6.) So far, so good with backpacks, lunches, water bottles, books, uniforms, and school supplies!

For this week: if there is a change to your student's dismissal routine that they didn't know about at drop-off in the morning, please use the dismissal spreadsheet.

For the next week, three calendar notes: half day Friday, Sept. 2; no school on Monday, Sept. 5; and Back to School night on Wednesday, September 7th, beginning at 6:30pm.

Thank you so much for the gift of teaching these wonderful students!

Mrs. Morgan.

Happy Labor Day Weekend! We had a great week last week. The 6th grade met their prayer partners and we hope that they enjoy being a big kid buddy to their kindergarten students this year! We also have room parents - thank you to Julie Donovan and Karen Nimerick for filling an important volunteer job in supporting the classroom, with the hope that we are able to add many more activities to our calendar this year (fingers crossed!) We also received our One Book, One School copy (thank you, PTO!) of Crenshaw, by Katherine Applegate. This is intended to be a book to read at home together as a family. Need some suggestions for how this works? Send me an email! We also had our first Battle of the Books meeting on Tuesday in the Library with Mrs. Pacheco. Interest forms were sent home in the Wednesday (green) folder, along with....

Picture Day order forms! These were sent home in the Wednesday (green) folder as well, and while it is not strictly necessary to send them back (you can order online) the date is tomorrow, Tuesday, September 6th. Do NOT have your student wear the PE uniform tomorrow. Wear the neatest, nicest, cleanest school uniform and a big smile for picture day! On Friday, Sept. 9th, the 6th graders (and any new STM students in 7 th and 8th grades) will be sorted into the Middle School Houses! Each middle school teacher, assisted by 8th grade "stewards", serves as a house leader and we meet in these middle school groups (mixed grades 6-8) for fun activities. This year we anticipate meeting twice each month.

For this week, we hope to see you at Back to School Night, beginning with a prayer service at 6:30pm in the Cathedral, a short visit to your student's homeroom class, followed by an introduction of each of the teachers in Middle School, where we will all speak for about THREE minutes, and then you'll be able to go home! I hope you are available to attend Back to School Night!

In academic news, we've gotten rolling with our classes and coursework. The students appear to know where they are going now and are showing up for their classes on time and in the right room - hooray! In Language Arts, we're working on Nouns. No one cried over Nouns as Objects, so we're going to keep steaming ahead to Possessive Nouns next week. There will be a midweek/mid-unit miniquiz (based on checked homework) on Wednesday. In Bluebirds and Kestrels Reading classes, we are reading Nine, Ten by Nora Raleigh Baskin. in 7th grade C. S. Lewis, we're reading Towers Falling by Jewell Parker Rhodes. We are working on Wednesday Writing routines and are using their writer's notebook for the writing. In Religion, we are beginning with how the Bible's Old Testament books are organized. There will likely be the first Religion quiz on Friday, Chapter 1. https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/lpress-craft/files/col2016-files/Christourlife2016-study-gd-g6-ch1.pdf

.See you on Wednesday!

Happy Sunday! A few updates for this upcoming week:

For 6th grade, this is a relatively "normal" week. We are finished with MAPS Growth testing and life will return to a normal schedule! The only "not-normal" aspect of this week is that Mrs. Luna Miguel, an STM parent, will be substitute teaching in Rm. 9 while we are out of town for our daughter's wedding on September 24th. I will still be able to check emails, Google Classroom, and of course check in frequently with the middle school team to hear how wonderfully everything is going!

Fun things for this week for you:

Please order your student's FREE Race for Education shirt using this link:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfClTLgO0j6aJ4aRMvCBGd3zUh-yoLC0cnFhmo8uIg0WldTHg/viewform

On Friday the middle school students will enjoy a Neon Dance Party after school. Info on this was sent home via our room parents last week. These are such fun and I am sad I won't be there! There will also be House meetings on Friday afternoon as well.

Academic News:

7th Grade Reading: The students in the CS Lewis group will be working for the next week on stand-alone lessons each day in class. I posted information on the C.S. Lewis Google Classroom page re: turning in scheduled reading assignments. The students should finish the scheduled page number reading assignments and turn them in on the due dates. However, the daily lessons will be unrelated to Towers Falling while the students finish reading the book.

6th Grade Reading: Similar to 7th grade, during my absence I will be providing stand-alone daily assignments for Mrs. Miguel. They will be unrelated to Nine, Ten for the duration of my absence, and we will pick back up again when I return.

6th Grade Religion: The students will take the Chapter 2 quiz. A quick click here gives you an overview of the content in this chapter: https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/lpress-craft/files/col2016-files/Christourlife2016-study-gd-g6-ch2.pdf

6th Grade LA: The students will take the Nouns test on Friday. Extra credit available by completing the Noun Challenge, due by Friday. Time in class on Wednesday and Thursday can be used to complete this assignment as well. The Noun Challenge and Noun Review study guide will be posted on the LA Google Classroom page.

Have a great week!

Mrs. Morgan