From the Principal - St. Martha Catholic School

January 17, 2014
Mission
From the Principal
The Mission of St. Martha
Catholic School is to provide a Greetings St. Martha Families and Friends!
quality education sharing in
the total Catholic formation of We are fast approaching the halfway point in the school year. The first half of the year seems to
each person by developing
fly and now we get into our very academic time. January 25 to January 31 is the annual Catholic
mind, heart, and spirit.
Right Choice Lesson
The Right Choice lesson for the
month of January is
Humility.
Schools Week that helps us all focus on a reason our Catholic schools exist. This year’s theme is
Catholic Schools: Communities of Faith, Knowledge and Service. Below is a general theme
for each day of Catholic Schools Week. We will send a Flocknote with the information and
more details.
Sat/Sun, January 25/26:
Faith, Knowledge and Service: In our Parish (Fr. Borski’s Wild
Game Dinner)
Monday, January 27:
Faith, Knowledge and Service: In Our Vocations
Tuesday, January 28:
Faith, Knowledge and Service: In Our Parents and Volunteers
Wednesday, January 29:
Thursday, January 30:
Friday, January 31:
How can you show humility
in your everyday life?
Faith, Knowledge and Service: In Our Community (National
Apreciation Day For Catholic Schools)
Faith, Knowledge and Service: In Our Faculty and Staff
(National Catholic Teacher Appreciation Day)
Faith, Knowledge and Service: In Our Students
Fr. Borski celebrated this week’s School Mass with us and gave a wonderful homily based on
the Gospel from Mark and the first reading from the book of Samuel, In the first reading,
Samuel was being called by God, but Samuel was not open to God’s call and thought it was Eli
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calling him. After several trips to Eli in the night, Eli finally understood that Samuel was being
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called by God to be the next prophet in the temple. Eli told Samuel to respond to God by saying
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that “his servant was listening”. When Samuel did this, God revealed himself to Samuel. In the
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Gospel, Simon Peter’s mother-in-law was sick and died and Jesus asked her to rise, which she
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did and began serving Jesus. Fr. Borski reminded us that in both readings God called people
who then responded to His call and served the Lord by serving others. Fr. Borski said the main
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purpose for our school is to learn to hear God’s call. We are called by God to serve others
Sold at Merry-Go-Round Con- especially by sharing God’s word in deed and through prayer. When you think about it, it is very
signment
hard to know if God has really called you. The call from God might come in the form of a dream
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like many in the Bible experienced. You might have an idea as someone shares a story with you
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to do. God calls many people in many different ways and it is up to us to be open to the
knowledge that God does call each of us to do something as part of the Christian family. He has
Office Depot 5% Back to called each of the staff and each family present at St. Martha Catholic School to come together
School Program
and share His love amongst our school community and the parish community and the greater
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community surrounding us. Thank you all for hearing that message.
Depot, please use our school
Have a blessed week.
ID for 5% cash back to
Mrs. Tina Lewis, [email protected]
SMCS.
Our ID# is 70098730
Tuition & Before and After
School Program
Please remember that tuition is
due on the 1st of each month.
All Before and After School
Program fees are due
by the 10th.
Knights of Columbus Council #12320
Rev. Msgr. Chester L. Borski’s
Annual Wild Game Supper
Saturday, January 25 5:30 - 8:00
at the Family Life Center
3702 Woodland Hills Dr. Kingwood
SATURDAY, JANUARY 25 - 5:30 TO 8:00
ADULT WILD GAME DINNER PLATE - $10.OO
CHILDS WILD HOT DOG PLATE - $5.00
SMCS Beta Wreaths Across America
and the
WILD HOT
DOG
SMCS Basketball
Headlines!
The SMCS Athletic Department
would like to send a GIANT
THANK YOU to Dr. Holly McIver
@ KINGWOOD ORTHODONTICS
for
the
wonderful
scoreboard which is now proudly
displayed in the Activity Center
just in time for our last home
games!
Thursday, Jan 23rd, Boys (all
three teams) vs St. Anne
Tomball, 4:30 start
Go Crusaders!
Congratulations to the Boys Varsity
Basketball team for finishing 2nd
place in our first ever hosted
basketball tournament here at St.
Martha. There were six teams in total
from all over, including Spring and
Conroe. Our boys ended up losing
by four points in the final seconds to
the Lake Houston Conquerors. We
also had two boys selected
unanimously by their opposing
coaches to the All Tournament
team.
Congratulations to Sean
Bryan
and
Max
Vosloh
in
representing the Crusaders!
SMCS Beta
Singing Christmas Carols
SMCS Alumni Event
DECEMBER 19
SMCS alumni enjoyed a lunch social in the Youth Center hosted by our Alumni PLUS chairs, Christy Villarreal
and Casey Levy, with the help of Melisa Dion. After some social time, the alumni joined our middle school
students in the Family Life Center where our alumni shared some of their wisdom and experience gained in
high school and college. Our middle school students also had the opportunity to gather in small groups with
our alumni and ask questions they had about high school and beyond. The middle students then enjoyed a
special treat of a popcorn bar!
SMCS is proud of its alumni, and we thank them for sacrificing free time from their busy finals week to
come share their time and experience with our students. Our alumni serve as great role models and
inspiration for our Crusaders!
If you have any news you would like to share about your alumni, please contact Christy Villarreal
at [email protected] or Casey Levy at [email protected]. Like us on Facebook – St. Martha Catholic School
Alumni
Mrs. Castillo’s
3K Mighty, Tiny
Crusaders
We have spent the first
week celebrating the
2014 New Year with hats,
horns, noise makers, and
a parade!!
We are reviewing colors
and the five Right Choice
Rules. This month students will be introduced
to the season of winter,
letters B & E, white, diamond, and numbers 5 &
6.
We will also celebrate Dr.
King and his beautiful
dream, the 100th Day of
School, and Catholic
Schools Week. There will
be a special t-shirt project for the 100th Day of
School (1/28/14). Information will be sent home
by 1/17/14. May God's
peace be with you all in
the New Year.
The first mass for 3K will
be Wednesday, January
29, 2014.
Ms. Milewski's 3K
We are amazed at how much our students have grown
over the two weeks of Christmas break. We see a
huge change in maturity around this time of year
which is to our advantage since we have so much left
to learn. We will begin assessing students for progress
reports starting January 6. Please mark your calendars
for parent/teacher conferences, February 21, when progress reports
will be handed out. Please make sure you are receiving and reading
all of our Flocknote messages as this is a very important way of
communicating with parents. Please let us know if
you have any questions or concerns. We are
looking forward to a great 2014!
Ms. Jaspe & Mrs. Krauss’ 4K
We concluded 2013 with a Christmas Party enjoyed by parents
and students, and a Christmas Program sung by angelic voices!
Ms. Jaspe and Mrs. Krauss wish to thank all our parents for
their support and encouragement throughout the 2013 school
year and wish all of you a healthy and happy 2014!
Mrs. Carlson's 4K
Happy New Year from 4K! We enjoyed celebrating
Jesus's birthday. Our angels sang beautifully at our
Christmas program. We were very proud of them!
This week we kept the ball rolling on our letters and
sounds. We are talking about letter Tt as well as the
number 10. Our shape for the month of January is the
diamond and our color is white. We look forward to a
new year of learning many exciting new things!
Ms. Prisco's 4K class
The students in Ms. Prisco's Class are happy to be back at school. We are continuing to
work on many skills. We will be practicing more with scissor cutting, alphabet/Number
recognition, writing our first and last names as well as learning important pieces of
information, such as full name, address, telephone number, and emergency "9-1-1." Our
themes for this month include: winter weather (snow), Martin Luther King, space, and
Catholic Schools Week. The color of the month
is white, and the shape is the rectangle.
The students enjoyed dressing up as angels for
our Pre-K Christmas Show in December.
KINDER KORNER
Happy New Year! Kindergarten is already working so diligently. We are learning about
the following winter animals: the arctic fox, penguin, walrus, polar bear, and whale. Please
ask your student to show you how penguins walk or how a polar bear catches its
prey. This month kindergarten is starting to take spelling tests over their high frequency words. We are also going to start taking home readers this Friday to practice identifying letters, rhyming words, punctuation, plot, and working on comprehension. We are
looking forward to a wonderful new year of learning!
Middle School English
Mrs. Shurtleff's middle school
English students are relieved
to be finished with midterms! We have now moved
on to studying persuasive
techniques and persuasive
writing. Parents, be warned.
They are learning to debate
their
points
of
view,
respectfully, of course.
Middle School Social Studies
6th- Students are on a whirlwind
tour of the Middle East where
they are learning about not only
the geography of the region, but
the history, culture, and modern
issues facing many of these
countries. Students anxiously
await an adventure to Egypt to
unwrap
all
the
wonderful
treasures waiting for them!
7th- Hints of revolution are in the
air and students cannot wait for
the battles to begin. Before
Texans take up arms in their
struggle
for
independence,
students must wait for the
Spanish to leave, Mexico to
increase control over the
territory and the arrival of
settlers, led by Stephen F.
Austin.
8th- The Constitution of the
United States and government
systems are the focus of our
current examination. Students
will see the impact of this special
document on both our history
and our future. I charge my
judicial branch with taking this
knowledge and applying it in
debates
and
also
mock
trials. Maybe a future lawyer or
Supreme Court Justice will
emerge during
the process!
Middle School Literature
Middle school literature classes are once again working on learning
Greek/Latin root words. Students are learning the meanings of
these roots to help them increase their vocabularies. It has been
proven for every root that is learned, a student may have an
understanding of up to 20 English words. These lessons also enable
students to comprehend words that they may not know the definition to but are able to figure its meaning by knowing the root.
Sixth and seventh grade students are working with nonfiction. Both
classes have visited the library to look for text features or information found in reference materials. They will continue to learn
about text structures as well as comparing different types of
nonfiction writing.
Eighth grade is well into Lord of the Flies. We are experimenting
working in literature circles in class; moving at the students' own
pace. Both classes are learning how easy it could be to go from
civilization to savagery under the right conditions. Frequently asked
questions: Is there a beastie? If there is a beast, what is it and
where is it? Will the boys be rescued? Only time and the end of the
book will tell.
Middle School Math
6th Grade: For a couple of weeks, we will be focusing on all the
operations with fractions and using our skills to solve equations
with fractions, measuring elapsed time and converting units in
the customary system. After our unit on fractions, we will be
learning about ratios, proportions, scale drawings and then move
into percentages.
7th Grade: This week we have been focusing on inequalities,
graphs and learning to solve inequalities involving negative and
positive numbers. Our next unit will be going deeper into our
understanding of ratios, proportions, similar figures and maps/
scale drawings. We will make a scale model of a room given the
actual measurements as one of our activities.
8th Grade: Students taking the HSPT will be relieved to have the
test behind them. The test is January 25. This week we have
been learning the Laws of Exponents and how to simplify
expressions using the rules. We will then be learning about
functions, linear equations and how to graph and find the slope
of a line.
Mrs. Conlan’s Religion
Middle School Science News
Happy New Year! May God
bless our year as we begin
to journey through it.
6th grade is studying animals and has experimented with
earth worms. The students quickly discovered that they need
to expect the unexpected! Many worms were tired or just did
not cooperate and do what the students anticipated they
would do.
The Middle School Religion
classes have been noticing
the rapid changes in their
"spiritually adopted" babies' development. We are
in awe of
how great
the
good
God is!
January is set aside to
pray for the unborn. We
are doing our very best to
say a decade of the rosary
daily for all expectant
mothers. January 22 is set
aside by the Church as the
"Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of the Unborn." We will mark the
day with a special remembrance of the unborn.
7th grade is continuing their study of body systems. They
have been learning about the heart, lymph system and blood
types. They have been amazed at how intricate the
circulatory system truly is!
8th grade is reviewing the water cycle and
nitrogen cycles. They are "debating" which
is most important to protect.....the air,
water or soil. This has made for some
interesting conversations!
Order your 2013/2014 SMCS Yearbook
now for the Gift That Keeps Giving!
Why order? ALL SMCS students are pictured!
The 80 page full color yearbook will be delivered in the
spring.
Pre-order now….last year we sold out!
Cost is $35/book
Personalize your book with a special message to
your child (children).
A “Business card” sized ad is $15
A 1/9th page ad is $25
A 1/3rd page ad is $35
All ads must be purchased & designed online.
Deadline for Ads is 1/31/14
______________________
St Martha Catholic School
2411 Oak Shores Drive
Kingwood, Texas 77339
T 281.358.5523
F 281.358.5526
www.stmarthacs.org
Order Books and Ads online at
http://shop.balfour.com/smi102636/catalog/
category/view/s/your-yearbook/id/312623/