April 4th - April 8th

Upcoming Events

Monday, April 11th - Thursday, April 14th ~ ERB Testing for Grades 3-7

Tuesday, April 19th ~ Exchange City Field Trip

Thursday, April 21st ~ Noon Dismissal, Professional Development for Teachers

Friday, April 22nd ~ WordMasters Challenge 3

Academics

In Language Arts, students finalized their music writing projects. We hope you had a chance to check out their work at the Fifth Grade Showcase on Thursday night! We also spent time preparing for our upcoming Standardized Tests, which begin on Monday.  Finally, we started our final round of WordMasters for the year. Students have a packet in which they can begin studying. Our final challenge will be on Friday, April 22nd. 

In Reading, Miss O'Connor's class continued reading Out of My Mind.  We have read through chapter 22 and continue to use sticky note annotations and writing prompts to deepen our understanding of this novel.  Mrs. Nash's class continued with Elijah of Buxton and Jayhawker. Students reading Jayhawker have read through chapter 14 of the book, and students reading Elijah of Buxton have made it through chapter 18. Both groups will finish reading the novels next week before beginning a small in-class project about each book.

In Social Studies, we wrapped up our short unit on the Constitution of the United States. Students took a quiz over the Articles of the Constitution as well as the Bill of Rights on Friday. Our next unit in social studies will focus on four major time periods in U.S. history from the 1790s-1850s. We will complete group projects for this upcoming unit. 

In Science, this week, students finished their 3D car designs in TinkerCad!  We also started our last major unit of the school year- the Solar System.  Students are working on completing a WebQuest to learn all about the planets.  They are filling out diagrams of information in their interactive notebooks as they go.  

Another major unit of study we have focused on this week is preparing for our upcoming Exchange City experience. Students have started working in their businesses to develop a business plan, determine their expenses, and apply for a loan with the bank. Next week our main focus will be on advertising and goods and services. We head to Exchange City on Tuesday, April 19th. 

March 28th - April 1st

Upcoming Events

Saturday, April 2nd ~ 2016 St. Paul's Auction

Thursday, April 7th ~ Haiti Kick-Off Chapel*

Thursday, April 7th ~ 5th Grade Showcase, 7pm**

Monday, April 11th - Thursday, April 14th ~ ERB Testing for Grades 3-7

Tuesday, April 19th ~ Exchange City Field Trip

 (Volunteer forms were sent home earlier this week.  We are still in need of a few more volunteers. If you would like to volunteer but have not yet turned in a form, please contact Miss O'Connor or Mrs. Nash.  Thank you!)

Thursday, April 21st ~ Noon Dismissal, Professional Development for Teachers

Please join us for a special Haiti Kick Off Chapel on Thursday, April 7th in the Second Floor Commons. Chapel begins at 8:20 am. We will share pictures and highlights from our recent trip, and will inspire our kids to get out there and work hard to raise money for Holy Cross School. Fundraising efforts will support the food program for the 2016/17 school year. The teachers at Holy Cross School are so grateful for our support.

Holy Cross is also in need of financial support to purchase the following items:
 

School Supplies – Story Books, Textbooks, Student Workbooks, French to Spanish Dictionaries
Furniture – Several teachers as well as our cooks are without chairs. They need money to purchase the wood and money to pay for the labor to build chairs that will be safe, lasting and durable.
Money to compensate the cooks for their hard work.
 
INFORMATION ABOUT HOLY CROSS SCHOOL
 
Salaries – range from $40.00 Month to $130.00 Month – 13 total teachers
Food Program - $2000.00 Per Month (Rice & Beans)
Textbooks/Supplies - $500.00/Month
 
The total cost to educate a child at Holy Cross School = $150.00 Per Student/Per Year
Current Enrollment
         Kindergarten through 6^th Grade = 371 Students
    7^th, 8^th and 9^th Grades = 43 Students (We currently do not provide funds to support the middle school, this is a future goal)

WE HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!

**Information went out about the rehearsals and performance for the fifth grade showcase. In addition to the information provided, Mrs. Everly has asked that each fifth grader bring a flash light for the performance. They are welcome to leave the flash light in the music room from now until the performance if they prefer.

Academics

In Language Arts, students began writing a new paper about meaningful music in their lives.  We began by discussing the components of a five-paragraph paper and guided students in writing their thesis statement and topic sentences.  Students will revise and edit early next week, and the papers will be on display at the 5th grade showcase for you to see.  

In Reading, Miss O'Connor's class continued to read Out of My Mind.  We have read through chapter 12 and continued to practice annotating our books.  Students also completed a writing prompt focusing on the characterization of two teachers in the novel.  Mrs. Nash's class continued reading Jayhawker and Elijah of Buxton. Students reading Jayhawker have read through chapter 10 of the novel, and students reading Elijah of Buxton have read through chapters 12. As we are reading, we are focusing on monitoring our thinking by annotating with sticky notes and completing comprehension questions. 

In Social Studies, we have spent time learning about the articles of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. We will have a quiz of the first three articles of the Constitution which describe the three branches of government as well as the Bill of Rights next Friday, April 8th. A quizlet has been added to the right side of the blog to help students prepare for this quiz.  

In Science, we continued with our 3D printing unit.  Students learned what friction, force, speed, and aerodynamics are and how we can apply this knowledge to our project.  Students also learned how to draw to scale using graph paper and how to create a car with movable wheels in Tinkercad.  Students will work with their partners next week to design the fastest race car.  Once the designs are in, we will print the cars and compete to see which design had the fastest speed.  

March 21st - 24th

Upcoming Events

Tuesday, March 29th ~ Cultural Arts Field Trip to the Nelson from 12:10-2:10

Friday, April 1st  ~ Eucharist Chapel, 3rd-8th Grade

Saturday, April 2nd ~ 2016 St. Paul's Auction

Thursday, April 7th ~ 5th Grade Showcase, 7pm*

Monday, April 11th - Thursday, April 14th ~ ERB Testing for Grades 3-7

Tuesday, April 19th ~ Exchange City Field Trip

Thursday, April 21st ~ Noon Dismissal, Professional Development for Teachers

*Information went out about the rehearsals and performance for the fifth grade showcase. In addition to the information provided, Mrs. Everly has asked that each fifth grader bring a flash light for the performance. They are welcome to leave the flash light in the music room from now until the performance if they prefer.

Thank you so much to the parents who were able to help us with Exchange City Interviews this week! Our students did a fantastic job and worked very hard to prepare for the big day, and we are grateful we are able to get to continue this wonderful tradition with your help. 

We would also like to extend a huge thank you to Mr. Hess for sharing excellent interview tips with our fifth graders on Tuesday! They were very prepared for the big day.

Academics

This week in Language Arts, we completed some activities in preparation for our upcoming standardized tests. We also began a new writing project that will tie into our upcoming fifth grade showcase. For this writing project, students will share a story about an important moment and how music played a role in it. We brainstormed this week, and next week we will begin organizing our writing and drafting. Over the weekend, students should be finding the lyrics to the song they would like to use for this writing project. We also completed Wordly Wise 15 and took a test over the words. Students can begin working on Wordly Wise 16, which is due Thursday, March 30th. 

In Reading, Mrs. Nash's class began two new novels. Some students are reading Jayhawker by Patricia Beatty and others are reading Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis. Both novels are historical fiction novels set during the Civil War time period.  Miss O'Connor's class started Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper.  We are learning how to annotate with sticky notes to increase our reading comprehension.  We also wrote narrative papers from the point of view of one of the characters. 

In Social Studies this week, we continued our study of the government by focusing on the preamble and the first three articles of the Constitution. We will continue our study of the Constitution next week with Articles IV-VII and the Bill of Rights.  

This week in Science, we started our 3D printing unit!  We followed a step-by-step packet to create a ship using a software called TinkerCad.  This works to strengthen our technical reading skills as well as our engineering and design abilities.  

March 7th - 11th

Upcoming Events

Friday, March 11^th ~ End of Third Quarter

Monday, March 14^th - Friday, March 18^th ~ Spring Break

Monday, March 21st ~ Classes Resume

Thursday, March 24th ~ Exchange City Interviews*

Friday, March 25th ~ No School, Good Friday

Tuesday, March 29th ~ Field Trip to the Nelson

Thursday, April 7th ~ 5th Grade Showcase, 7pm

*A signup genius was sent out earlier this week asking for volunteers.  Thanks to all of you who signed up to interview the students!

Academics

This week in Language Arts, we finished our unit on Verbs.  Students took a test over the unit on Tuesday.  We also finalized our Resumes for Exchange City.  Students completed Wordly Wise lesson 14 this week and tested over it on Friday.  Wordly Wise 15 will be due the Thursday following Spring Break (3/24).  We will also take our test on that day, since we do not have school the following day to celebrate Good Friday. 

In Reading, Miss O'Connor's class worked on fluency and reading with expression by doing two Reader's Theater plays in groups.  Students were each assigned a part and rehearsed with their groups before performing on Friday.  We will start our next novel after Spring Break.  Mrs. Nash's class focused on many different reading strategies, including making connections, inferring, asking questions, summarizing, predicting, and determining author's purpose. We also took our first look at questions similar to the standardized tests we will take in April. For this work, we focused on reading comprehension, vocabulary, and verbal reasoning. 

In Social Studies this week, we had our Exchange City Fair so students could begin to determine in which jobs they are most interested for our Exchange City experience. We also discussed students' opportunities to run for an elected position at Exchange City. If interested, students must turn in the official "Intent to Run" form by Tuesday, March 22nd. We we have campaign speeches and voting on Wednesday, March 23rd. Also in social studies, we began our study of the Constitution, beginning with learning about the first form of government in the United States, the Articles of Confederation. 

This week in Science, we learned all about sleep.  Students read articles covering sleep cycles, case studies, sleep disorders, and benefits of sleep.  Each student became an "expert" on a specific article.  In turn, they taught the rest of the class what they learned.  

February 22nd - 26th

Upcoming Events

Wednesday, March 2nd ~ Bake Sale During Lunch*

Thursday, March 3rd and Friday, March 4th ~ Parent Teacher Conferences, No School

Tuesday, March 8^th ~ Verbs Unit Test in Language Arts

Friday, March 11^th ~ End of Third Quarter

Monday, March 14^th - Friday, March 18^th ~ Spring Break

Monday, March 21st ~ Classes Resume

Thursday, March 24th ~ Exchange City Interviews**

Friday, March 25th ~ No School, Good Friday

*Miss O'Connor's class came up with a wonderful idea to have a bake sale in support of Spain Elementary School in Detroit, Michigan, and they have invited all of fifth grade to take part in this great service opportunity. Conversations about this school came about during their novel study of The Watson's Go to Birmingham when a student learned of this school's problems in the news. On Wednesday, fifth graders will be selling baked goods to first through eighth grades. All proceeds will be given to Spain Elementary through a GoFundMe page created by Ellen Degeneres. For more information about Spain Elementary and the GoFundMe page, please visit https://www.gofundme.com/spainschool.

 Miss O'Connor sent out a sign up genius if you would like to help with this fantastic opportunity, and she visited with both classes regarding the plans for the bake sale.

**We will be starting our Exchange City Unit next week! As part of this unit, students will create a resume and interview for three job choices. We will invite parents to come help us with this task. More information regarding these interviews and the Exchange City unit will be provided next week. 

Academics

This week in Language Arts, we continued our unit on verbs. This week, our primary focus was helping, linking, and irregular verbs. We will continue working on this grammar unit for the next couple weeks and test over what we've learned on March 8th. We also completed Wordly Wise 12 and took a test over the words on Friday. Students should begin Wordly Wise 13, which will be due on Monday, March 7th since we will be out of school on Thursday and Friday of next week.  Students will not be required to take a spelling test over the words in lesson 13 before moving on to lesson 14. 

In Reading, both classes worked on in-class group projects for our literature circles units. Each student has a different role that will come together to form a whole group presentation. We will present these projects in class next week. 

In Social Studies this week, we completed our final review activities for the American Revolution unit, and we took the test over this unit on Friday. Our next unit will focus on the Constitution. We will also begin Exchange City activities in class next week. 

In Science, this week, we started our unit on Health and Wellness.  We learned about each of the 6 essential nutrients and 5 main food groups.  We compared Michelle Obama's My Plate plan to the old Food Pyramid.  Next week, we will finish up nutrition and look at sleep cycles. 

February 16th - 19th

Tuesday, February 23rd ~ Math Club - arrive between 7:15-7:30

Friday, February 26th ~ Social Studies Test

Thursday, March 3rd and Friday, March 4th ~ Parent Teacher Conferences, No School*

Tuesday, March 8^th ~ Verbs Unit Test in Language Arts

Friday, March 11^th ~ End of Third Quarter

Monday, March 14^th - Friday, March 18^th ~ Spring Break

*Please make sure you have signed up for Spring Conferences!  Here are the links to the Sign Up Geniuses:
Mrs. Nash: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0e4bafae28a46-parentteacher3
Miss O'Connor: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0d4eafaf29a4f49-parentteacher 

Academics

This week in Language Arts, we began our unit on verbs.  We focused on action verbs, noun-verb agreement, verb tenses, and spelling present- and past- tense verbs.  We will continue working on this grammar unit for the next couple weeks and test over what we've learned on March 8th.  On Friday, students participated in the second round of our WordMasters competition.  We are starting right back into Wordly Wise, with lesson 12 due next Thursday.  

In Reading, both classes finished up literature circle novels.  We will have our final discussions on Monday and then start a group project.  

In Social Studies this week, we learned about the final events of the Revolutionary War by visiting several stations that highlighted the last several events.  Students also received a page to help them begin preparing for their unit four test over the American Revolution, which will be Friday, February 26th.  The timeline foldables will be their primary study guide for this unit.  Next week we will complete several review activities to prepare for the test.  

In Science, students took a test over the human body.  We are currently transitioning straight into our next unit, Health and Wellness.  We will begin this unit by studying nutrition.  

February 8th - 12th

Thank you for joining us on Wednesday for our Presidents’ Celebration! We are very proud of the effort our students put into this entire unit, and we hope you enjoyed celebrating with us.

Upcoming Events

Monday, February 15th ~ No School- Presidents' Day

Wednesday, February 17th ~ Science Test

Friday, February 19th ~ WordMasters Challenge Round 2, Resume Wordly Wise
Tuesday, February 23rd ~ Math Club - arrive between 7:15-7:30

Friday, February 26th ~ Social Studies Test

Thursday, March 3rd and Friday, March 4th ~ Parent Teacher Conferences, No School*

Tuesday, March 8^th ~ Verbs Unit Test in Language Arts

Friday, March 11^th ~ End of Third Quarter

Monday, March 14^th - Friday, March 18^th ~ Spring Break

*Please make sure you have signed up for Spring Conferences!  Here are the links to the Sign Up Geniuses:
Mrs. Nash: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0e4bafae28a46-parentteacher3
Miss O'Connor: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0d4eafaf29a4f49-parentteacher 

Academics 

In Language Arts, we spent the first part of the week practicing and preparing for our Presidents’ Celebration.  We also spent time in language arts practicing analogies and preparing for our next WordMasters Challenge, which is next Friday, February 19^th. Students should be studying in preparation for this challenge. We will resume Wordly Wise after the challenge, and Wordly Wise Lesson 12 will be due Thursday, February 25^th. Finally, we began our next grammar unit over verbs.

In Reading this week, both classes continued their literature circle discussions. Students have been rotating jobs each day. Each group will finish their books towards the end of the next week before beginning a group project.

In Social Studies, we spent time focusing on the Declaration of Independence. Students took pieces of the Declaration and analyzed the meaning and importance of it before sharing it with the class. Next week, we will focus on the differences between the Continental and British armies before learning about some of the later battles in the war. Our test over this unit will be Friday, February 26^th.

In Science this week, we finished off our unit on the human body with a short experiment to learn about the digestive system.  We also reviewed for our test next week.  The test will be on Wednesday, and there is a link to the Quizlet under the "helpful links" section of this page.  Students have a study guide for the test as well.