South Boston Catholic Academy

The month of January was quite busy for K2B!  The Snowpeople family creations were wonderful.  This was an extension of the book: Snowballs by Lois Ehlert (one of the class favorite winter books).  The students graphed their favorite character in the book.  We enjoyed our author study on Jan Brett,  and according to the children, Gingerbread Friends was the best.  The Mitten, The Hat, Gingerbread Baby, Who’s That Knocking On Christmas Eve, The Three Snowbears were also read and enjoyed.  We’ve been learning facts on penguins and polar bears and created many winter art projects.  Literacy Centers are moving along quite smoothly, as the children are becoming more comfortable in completing literacy assignments in this manner.  We have started Guided Reading in K2B and this gives me the opportunity to provide more small group learning attention.  In Math, we are finishing up the topic of numbers 6-10, learning the different ways to make up these individual numbers (a prelude to addition).  We celebrate both Valentine’s Day and 100 Days of School this week!  Happy February Vacation!  Enjoy!

We will be having our Valentines day party on Friday, February 12, 2010. Students may bring in Valentines for EACH student in the class. There are 21 students in the class. I think the easiest thing to do, would be to NOT address the valentines to each child. This way no one will be left out by mistake. Thanks!

I will also be doing a little 100th day activity with students in the morning. Although the 100th day is important, it’s not as important as it was in 1st grade!

Lastly, thank you for the book donations from the Book Fair. They are greatly appreciated! Have a safe, happy and healthy vacation!

Ms. Johnson

The children in grade 1B enjoyed the “Power of One” presentation about what to do in case of a bullying situation. Sam did an awesome job as our super hero and showed us that each of us has the power to stop a bully!!

Congratulations to Abby Gwynn for being the student of the month. She joins Tim(November) and Emma(October). February’s virtue is,”honesty.”

A special thanks to the parents for the Teacher Appreciation Breakfast.It was delicious! The children enjoyed having Faith’s mom in the room-especially when she shared her M&M telephone.  The children did some excellent shopping at the Book Fair! Thanks for my “wish list” books.

The children are getting ready for their trip toVancouver, Canada for the Winter Olympics. The children have learned that it is our nearest neighbor to the north. We will be traveling on the Canandian-Pacific Railroad. We’ll be learning a little French. We’ve had a practice run for one of our Olympic Games. Thanks to those parents and children who checked out the website. If you go to Vancouver 2010.com/mascots or coloring pages, it will lead you other links too. As they say,”Let the games begin!”

Dear Families,

In math, we are starting our new unit on adding and subtracting with “regrouping”. “Regrouping” is the new word for carrying and borrowing.  I will still use the words carrying and borrowing, but when your children talk about regrouping, please be advised this is what it means! The concept can be scary and very foreign for some. Please be patient and work diligently with your child to help master this topic! We started today, and the students took to it very well and were excited about it.

On another note, we are looking for some classroom donations. We are looking for gluesticks and tissues! We are also looking for recess donations, such as nerf balls (no soccer or kick balls), jump ropes, skip-it’s and sidewalk chalk. I believe this will help the recess yard be less chaotic if students have something to play with.

Thanks so much!

Ms. Johnson

‘‘Scientists discover the world that exists; engineers create the world that never was.”  Almost everything you use – from your iPod, to your bike helmet to your toothbrush – was created by an engineer.  Engineers are experts at visualizing what people could use to improve their lives.  Do you think you would be good at designing and creating things on a computer that others could use?  Grade six recently had just such an assignment.   Design a cell phone for senior citizens. With the help of www.edheads.org students researched, designed, tested and got results. Some of the things that had to be taken into consideration were battery life, uses per day, button size, weight, size and price.  If client needs were met you were a profitable engineer, if not you were engineered back to the computer drawing board!

Reconciliation was a success at both churches! Students were well-behaved and forgiven! Thank you to all familes who helped prepare their children for this sacrament!

The art room has been immersed in sea serpent visions for the past several weeks.  Grade 6 will be putting together their 3 x 5 foot tile mosaic illustrating 1818 reported sea serpent siting at Castle Island.  Grade 3 has completed a 60 foot long painted sea serpent hanging in the cafeteria hallway.  Grade 4 will be creating “faux fossils” and grade 5 will be sculpting beginning this week. In grade 7 we have begun creating printing plates of sea serpents for our collographs.  Grade 2 is working on completing their self-portraits “I see a sea monster”. Pleas visit Artsonia.com to see our finished work. A big thank you to the Art Teachers Renewal group for funding this wonderful project.

Due to meetings with parents I will be unable to hold homework help on Monday, February 1, 2010.

Thank you for your understanding. 

Mrs. Reilly

Some Reminders about Reconciliation for the next two nights:

Readers please be at church by 6:10pm.

Other students please be there by 6:15pm.

Please have children in appropriate church clothes. No sweats, sneakers, or jeans.

Thank you and I look forward to seeing you!