Dear Families,

 

Now that Memorial Day weekend is here and the unofficial start of summer, I hear "Mrs. Morgan! Are you ready for the end of the school year?" and my response is usually "oh my gosh no" or something along those lines, because truly the next week and a half is going to fly by and keep us so busy!  Summer comes so quickly, and the crush of end-of-year events, such as Battle of the Books, the Band Concert, Arts Night, and field trips keep us on our skates.

 

To be sure that you know what's up at school, here is a helpful digest of what's happening between May 30 and June 7:

 

Tuesday, May 30: Field Trip! If you have not signed the online waiver, please do so ASAP to minimize hiccups in getting everyone on the bus. The PowerSchool parent portal will close on Tuesday at some point,, so I am working hard this weekend to update PowerSchool so that there are no surprises!

 

Wednesday, May 31: June and Summer Birthdays dress down day

 

Thursday, June 1: Mrs. Morgan's class takes over safeties for June, and last House Meetings for the year = find your House shirt!

 

Friday, June 2: Prayer Partner get together at 10am

 

Monday, June 5: Kickball Game 11:15 - 12 noon vs. 5th Grade Busekrus class

 

Tuesday, June 6: Assist and attend K moving up ceremony. On this day, have your student bring a sturdy shopping bag to take home all of their stuff, and a brown paper grocery bag.to package their textbooks for summer storage. 

 

Wednesday, June 7: Mass and Last Day of School! Please do not bring a backpack or a lunch to school that day! We will have a classroom get-together in the morning, followed by Mass and dismissal/farewells for students who are moving on to new adventures!

 

 

The 6th grade Kestrels and Bluebirds will continue to read, read, read their Middle Ages novels, which I will collect on Tuesday. On June 5 & 6 we are going to read from Good Masters, Sweet Ladies as a Reader's Theater. Book assignments and work will be collected and graded through next week. 

 

The 7th grade C. S. Lewis class is working on an online Travel Magazine assignment this week and will begin a Podcast assignment on Wednesday. 

 

6th grade LA will be backtracking a bit over Tuesday and Wednesday to complete their Sentences test. We will work on punctuation, diagramming, and spelling ladders as well as take the end-of-year Spelling assessment. 

 

*A note on assessments: all of the 6th grade students have "read with" their Reading teacher for reading records. STM is committed to the Fountas and Pinnell program for assessing growth in Reading. This data, combined with the goals from MAPS data, will be taken into account in assigning your student to a Reading class for next year. For 7th grade, the Reading teachers are Mrs. Morgan, Mrs. Stocker, and Mr. Godfrey. 

 

In Religion, we postponed the Chapter 23 test to Wednesday and we will zip through Chapter 24. 

 

Summer Reading will, like last year, be based on the Diocesan Battle of the Books selections, which were voted on last week by the Diocesan librarians. Once the list is available to me, I will provide the list to the rising 6th grade.  7th grade summer reading (a postcard project) will be posted on the STM main webpage and will be included in the report card. 

 

I will be sending a family survey to 6th grade parents about the Reading/LA program and overview of the 6th grade year in Reading and LA. Please complete the survey with your feedback (it is only going to me, to help pinpoint successes and areas for improvement)  and ask that it is completed by June 9th. Mrs. Pacheco and I are going to bribe your students with a treat (of some sort) when your family's survey is complete, so that we are getting a super level of feedback to plan for instruction next year!

 

Sincerely,

 

Jodie Morgan