Vol. 9 Issue 20

Our Lady of the Valley
Catholic School
News you can use
VOL. 9 Issue: 19
January 4, 2016
Wednesday, January 13, School
Advisory Board Meeting 6:00pm
Mrs. Cain’s room
Friday, January 15, 5:30pm PVO
meeting Mrs. Cain’s room
IT’S ALMOST HERE!!!
LIGHTS CAMER A Auction
A Night for our OLV Stars!
Friday, January 22, Auction Mtg.
6pm Mrs. Cain’s room
Friday, January 29th GEO BEE
11am at Mat-Su Central
4 16 16
HOT LUNCH
Price: $5
UPCOMING DATES:
January 31-February 6th Catholic School’s Week - Volunteers needed
1/30 Auction Ticket Sales begin
2/10 Ash Wednesday Mass 9am
2/12 & 2/15 No School Teacher Work Days
2/19 OLV Stations of the Cross & Soup Supper
2/22-29th Re-Enrollment &New Enrollment begins for current families
3/1 Open enrollment for PK-5th grade only
TUESDAY 1/12: Chef Marion
Meatloaf, vegetables, dessert and
drink
THURSDAY 1/14: Chef Liz
Spaghetti & meatballs, salad, dessert
and drink
GEO BEE: For those students that are in the Geo Bee the first competition is January, 29th at
11am at Mat-Su Central. Please inquire with Mr. Lund for more details at
[email protected]
ROBOTICS: A new vendor to Mat-Su Central, Learning Point Alaska, will be starting a robotics workshop in the new year (date to be announced). There will be an opening for up to 12
students in a week long after school Robotics program from 3:45pm-4:45pm or a two day a
week program for 3 weeks. It is open to K-8th students. The class will be held at the school.
The cost is $125 per student and it can be directly billed and paid through Mat-Su Central. If
you are interested please reply back or let the OLV office know.
Have a great week!!
~Karen Smith
907-232-6416
BIRTHDAY SHOUT OUTS
JANUARY
8-Dylan Hsu
15-Laurel
19-Edward
23-Phoebe
MRS. VERNA GIANI - PRESCHOOL
What a great first week back! We had a ton of fun exploring in our space unit, it was out of this world! Last Friday we made astronaut pudding,
ask them what they thought of having to eat out of a bag. This week we are going to introduce the letter Q and dive into the planets. If you
haven’t done one yet make a rocket with your kiddo this weekend to bring in and share with the class, it does not have to be big and fancy just
some tissue and cardboard, simple things that you have around the house.
I wanted to let you all know that I have been amazed beyond belief at how caring and helpful the children have been this week adjusting to the
crutches and my temporary lack of mobility. I appreciate it from the bottom of my heart and thank you all so much. I hope you all have an
amazing week, and as always please contact me with any questions or concerns.
MRS. WAISANEN’S WISE ONE’S K-1
YAY!!! Mrs. Verna is back and is doing well getting around with her crutches and walker. We were both impressed at how nurturing and helpful all the children were to be sure she stayed safe while getting around in the classroom. We made a rule that if you
need help, ask three people before asking her. My older children were quick to help take care of their younger friends and I am
thankful for all their help they display in the classroom with their peers.
We will continue to learn about the solar system this week and will make dehydrated food throughout the week to sample. Using
powdered milk and pudding, last week we made Astronaut Pudding in plastic bags and ate it through a straw. (Luckily we were on
earth for the King’s cake so we could eat it the normal way!)
Feel free to send in your rockets anytime during the week. There are no rules on designing one out of items found around the
room, except you MUST have fun working on it together.
Report cards will go home tonight and I want to take this opportunity to once again thank you for the support you give at home. It
is obvious and simply amazes me to see these young children come in learning letters and are now taking off on reading books by
themselves! Most important is that they all want to read and I can’t ask for anything more. Thank you!
Thank you, Dylan’s mom, for coming in to listen to the children read most mornings. If you are free to spend an hour to listen to
little ones read or play a reading game, please let me know. Have a great week!
MRS. LUND’S 2-3 CLASS
Bible Verse for this week is: “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven.” John 20:23
Religion words for this week are: confess absolve
2nd & 3rd graders wrote and illustrated incredible amazing Epiphany stories. Students incorporated their required vocabulary and
followed their amazing interpretation of that remarkable event.
Many of the students are experts at spelling the names of the gifts, naming the kings and understanding the profound consequence
when the Wise Men changed their return route. Students frosted their Kings’ bread and three happy students found the baby,
(almond) baked in each circular braided loaf of purple, gold, green and white sparking crown shaped loaves. Making and wearing
their cardboard crowns adorned with jewels culminated this biblical lesson. The liturgical season of Epiphany will end on Maudy
Tuesday, (Fat Tuesday) the day before Ash Wednesday.
Thank you parents and students for resuming our homework regime. Homework habits begin early in a child’s educational career.
The additional minutes each night results in a profound difference in your child’s ability to retain learned information.
Our science focus will be investigations of “magnets and magnetism.” If you have any extra magnets and would like to contribute
to our magnet box, please label them and allow your child to bring them to school for the duration of this unit.
In geography, students are eagerly learning the names of all the continents and oceans for our study of maps and globes. I will send
home a study map guide so that each student can also locate the continents and oceans on a world map. The date of the test will be
announced next week. See the world study map in your child’s homework folder.
(North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and Antarctica)
(Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Arctic Ocean, Indian Ocean)
Have a blessed week and thank you for all the random acts of kindness and generosity you give OLV.
MRS. GRISSO’S 4-5 CLASS
Today the students will be coming home with their 2nd quarter report cards. Be sure to check their backpacks or ask your child to view them.
In religion, we studied the Epiphany which comes from the Greek verb meaning, "to reveal." The Epiphany marks the end of the twelve days
of Christmastide when the Three Kings come to pay homage to the Son of God in the town of Bethlehem meaning, "House of Bread."
In science, the students performed 2 labs which concentrated on color afterimages. When the eyes stare at a colored object or shape such as a
red square for 40 seconds or more and then quickly look at a white sheet of paper, the afterimage will appear on the white sheet as the color
blue-green which is red's complementary color. The cells in the eyes that detect the color red become fatigued by staring at the same colored
object, and for a few seconds the cells that detect the color red shut down; therefore, the human eye picks up only the color's complementary
color. These colors are located directly across each other on the color wheel.
The second lab the students performed focused on 3 dimensional images. The students made their own pair of 3D glasses and drew a 3D image
to view through their glasses. They learned the difference between monocular vision versus binocular vision as well as the fact that 3D objects
allow us to see height, width, and depth.
We also finished the book, King George: What was His Problem? This by far was one of the most interesting books written about the Revolutionary War for kids. It was clear and concise, and the students learned quite a plethora of information pertaining to the war and our great nation!
We are now beginning our reading study on the Civil War. Our new class novel is entitled, Meet Abraham Lincoln.
In history, we have reached page 100, and we learned about the settlements of New York, New Jersey, and Delaware. The students also wrote
persuasive essays on trying to convince a person from Western Europe to come settle in America.
Have a blessed and holy week!
Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.
--G.K. Chesterton
MRS. CAIN’S 6-8 CLASS
We had a wonderful first week back! We were very busy and accomplished a lot!
Here’s what we did last week…
Social Studies
We began our unit on the Revolutionary War and spent some time reading about the lead up to the war and working with maps of
the thirteen colonies. Did you know that present day Maine was originally part of Massachusetts and present-day Vermont was
divided between New York and New Hampshire?
Science
We are continuing our unit on Chemistry and have an upcoming test this Thursday, January 14. A study guide is going home with
this week’s homework packet. We had fun creating words using the periodic table and practicing our Bohr Models and Lewis
Structures!
ELA
We will continue working on vocabulary, grammar (diagramming sentences with adverbs and adjectives), and reading Johnny
Tremain. Check out our pictures of OREO persuasive writing! The acronym OREO helps us to remember to structure our persuasive essays with O-opinion, R-reasons, E-evidence, and O-restate our opinion. We tried out this structure with “The Correct Way
to Eat an Oreo!”
Religion
We finished our Nicene Creed puzzles and learned about some of the hard to understand words in the Creed. We also discussed
the origin and celebration of the Epiphany, read Ch. 2 in the Gospel of Mark (focusing on the Pharisees), and had a questionanswer session with Spencer Hodgson, a seminarian.
Reminder…Second quarter report cards, work, and graded book reviews/reports go home today! Check your child’s backpack!
Have a great week! Mrs. Cain
PVO CORNER
Dear Parents,
PVO meeting this Friday, January 15th at 5:30pm in Mrs. Cain’s classroom.
Upcoming activities:
Catholic Schools Week. January 31-February 6th. Volunteers needed to plan activities, carpool, etc.
Friday Stations & Soup Supper: February 19th 6pm. Volunteers needed for soup, bread, serving and clean
up.
Thank you!! Peter & Brenda Scott
If you have not had a chance please complete the Safe & Sacred certification. go to www.archdioceseofanchorage.org website Safe Environment
tab, adult online training etc.
Please make sure to login to Sycamore regularly for updates and volunteer opportunities.
Thank you for your active participation!
Peter & Brenda Scott, PVO President [email protected]
Amanda Weglin, PVO Vice President [email protected]
Ivy Massie, PVO Secretary [email protected]
Auction News Corner
Co-chair contacts: Verna Giani and Julie Gag
All hands on deck! We are roughly 100 days until the auction. We need your help and support now. Please attend the
next auction meeting on Friday January 22nd from 6-7pm. The auction cannot happen without everyone working together. This is a priority for our school right now and we still have so much to be done. Please allot the time to attend
the meetings, see you all there.
Thank you! Have a blessed week! Verna
Contact:
Verna Giani, email: [email protected]
Julie Gag, email: [email protected]