Happy glorious Sunday!  Here's what you should note for this week (and/or follow up on from last week) and then continue on with your beautiful day!  

 

In Homeroom news, conduct interims go home on Oct. 8. The conduct interim focuses on the work habits/social development areas on the right-hand side of the STM report card - these are not academic interims.  For academic progress, be sure to check PowerSchool for grades. 

 

Rm. 9 Student Council representatives are Darian Priddy and Christopher Bondgardt. Congratulations to these new STM students, and way to go by jumping right in to student involvement!

 

Rm.9 Safeties begin October 1. Mrs. Bauer may want students in Rm. 9 to begin on Sept. 30 and shadow the safety from Rm. 7. Stay tuned!  Mrs. Bauer has assigned am/pm safeties and your student has a copy of the schedule/duties and a letter to be signed by Tuesday. 

 

On October 8, there is also an Early Dismissal, as well as No School on October 11th. To clarify: when there is NO EXTENDED DAY (generally prior to holiday weekends, because there is generally very low attendance on early release Fridays prior to a holiday weekend) the pickup/dismissal begins a bit earlier, by 11:15. On the Faculty/Staff training days (like last Friday) the dismissal will begin at 11:30. 

 

October 20th is the Race for Education. The free STM Race for Education T shirt order date ended Sept. 22, but you can donate via https://www.pledgestar.com/stthomasmore/ We are on the Leader Board and are doing pretty well, with $802 in donations, and any amount helps! With 24 families in Rm. 9 potentially donating $50 each, we should reach $1200 easily! The 6th grade is running behind 7th in donations, but we are ahead of 8th grade! I will log in my donation this afternoon. 

 

Last two items: No School for Students on October 29th. Trunk or Treat is that evening as well. (Very, very fun costumed event on the STM parking lot in the early evening; more info to come via the PTO).

The Winter Uniform changes over on Nov. 1. Boys will be in polos and pants and girls will be in skirts/pants - whichever way you look at it, the goal is PANTS NOT SHORTS. Also, the STM v-neck and/or STM cardigan is a must, even now with a/c on. Be sure to get those sweaters/vests etc. soon as demand appears to be high and supplies appear to be low. (I have no first-hand knowledge, this is only what I've heard from kids.) Check out any used uniform sales as well!

 

Academic news:

Reading 7-3: The 7th Grade is finishing The Seventh Most Important Thing and will begin structured Literature Circles this week. We have tracked the plot, created a plot diagram, and learned literary terms. We will finish the book in the next two weeks. A chapter-by-chapter read-aloud can be found on YouTube at https://youtu.be/-_mupRt-PQU

Our Wednesday write this week was a great one - the mentor paragraph was an excerpt about being a new kid in a new town. Lots of author sharing and great writing! For Thursdays, please be certain that your student is bringing a book to class on Thursdays. They are welcome to shop from the shelves but it takes away from the time they should be reading. Thank you!

 

Reading 6: Our Tuesday writing was in the form of a list and the expanded topic was favorite movies/tv, etc. Vocab in Action this week ended with List 2 and the test on Thursday. Monday and Friday we finished the 32 words used in Nine, Ten and this week the students will work in small group literature circles to examine character action and plot events. Be certain that your student is bringing a book to class on Thursdays. They are welcome to shop from the shelves if they don't have a book to bring, but it really takes away from the time they should be reading.  Thank you!

 

LA 6: Hooray! Nouns are over and the tests will be returned to the students tomorrow. It is a good idea to encourage your student to complete the Extra Credit challenges from the Voyages textbook when offered at the end of each grammar until This week we began our personal narrative and we will complete the edits and publish this week.  Students are welcome to bring a photo or attach a digital photo to their work. 

 

Religion Rm. 9: We completed Chapter 2 last week and will begin Chapter 3 this week. Fr. Dansereau came to Rm. 9 for a classroom visit and we loved having him with us to give a GREAT talk and answer questions. This week during Religion we have two special lessons: a Diocesan-required "what constitutes sexual harrassment" and Formation in Christian Chastity. 

 

Have a great rest of the day and week!

 

Jodie Morgan