Crusader 12-15-2015 - St. Martha Catholic School

December 15, 2015
From the Principal
“I come to proclaim good news to you-tidings of great joy to be shared by the whole people. This
day in David’s city a Savior has been born to you, the Messiah and Lord.”
Luke 2: 11-12
Mission
The Mission of St. Martha
Catholic School is to provide
a quality education sharing in
the total Catholic formation of
each person by developing
mind, heart and spirit.
Right Choice
Lesson
This week included a holy day of obligation, The Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Our
school Mass was very well attended by parents and parishioners. Fr. Richard was the
celebrant and he gave a memorable homily that many of the children remembered at the
end of the day in great detail. Fr. Richard showed pictures of a farmer and chickens and
told a great story that related to Adam and Eve in the garden. The parable then tied into the
immaculate conception of Mary to St. Anne. Take some time this weekend and ask your
children what they remember of Fr. Richard’s homily.
The season of Advent is now halfway complete and, as time progresses, the waiting builds
more anticipation for young children. We know what is coming at the end of Advent and
just as in the song “O Holy Night” there is “a thrill of hope.” The first week of Advent
helps us to focus on the hope that the Savior’s birth brings to people who await God’s
presence. The second week of Advent reminds us of the great love that God has for us as
Jesus is “incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man.” This past Sunday began the third
week of Advent as we feel the great joy in knowing that we each have many reasons to be
grateful and rejoice with the constant gifts God presents us every day. The final week of
Advent provides us with time to feel peace as we acknowledge that God keeps his promise
to us by sending his son to be salvation to the world.
There were many families who completed the Advent project I suggested in the last
Crusader. They spent time working with their children creating family Advent wreaths at
home. They then shared some photos with us and we have included some here in the
newsletter. Thank you for using this time of Advent to help your family focus on the true
meaning of Christmas. We appreciate all our families who choose St. Martha Catholic
School as we work together to develop mind, heart and spirit.
The Right Choice lesson
for the month
of December is
CHARITY.
How can you
demonstrate
CHARITY
in your
everyday life?
______________________
St Martha Catholic School
2411 Oak Shores Drive
Kingwood, Texas 77339
T 281.358.5523
F 281.358.5526
www.stmarthacs.org
The entire faculty and staff pray for many blessings to you all over this Christmas holiday.
Please be safe in your travels and we will see everyone on January 4, 2016, for the
beginning of a new and exciting year.
Merry Christmas!
Mrs. Tina Lewis
Principal
SMCS Alumni Spotlight
Look at what they’re doing now!!
Fr. David Angelino graduated from St. Martha’s in 2003 with
an 8th grade class of seven students. After graduating from
Kingwood High School he attended Holy Trinity Seminary in
Dallas and the North American College in Rome to study to
be a priest for the Archdiocese. Fr. David was ordained a
priest on June 6, 2015, and spent the summer at St.
Ambrose Parish before returning to Rome to finish an
advanced degree in moral theology. Fr. David enjoys
reading, spending time with friends, CrossFit and playing
board games. His favorite memory from his time at SMCS
was attending the Beta Club conventions. He is also
thankful for the English grammar preparation that came in
handy when he started studying Latin. We are so proud to
call Fr. David a Crusader!
If you have news to share about your (or any) SMCS alumni, please send to
Eryn Dodge [email protected] or Kelly Chesnut [email protected]
Like us on Facebook and Instagram. Spread the word to our alumni to like it and share their news, too!!
St. Martha Catholic School Alumni
Spelling
Bee
SMCSalumni
Congratulations to all of our 3rd
through 5th grade Spelling Bee
contestants! Each and every student's
hard work and preparation was
definitely evident. This year’s runner-up
is Nate Sison, an SMCS 5th
grader. Our 3rd-5th grade St.
Martha School champion is Sophia
Saenz, an SMCS 4th grader. Sophia
will represent St. Martha Catholic
School at the Archdiocesan Spelling Bee
in February. Great job by all of our
students— we are so proud of you!
St. Vincent de Paul
Advent Service Project
THANK YOU to all our SMCS families who so generously donated household items or
gift cards to benefit the clients of the St. Martha Chapter of St. Vincent de Paul through
our Advent Service Project. This is our sixth year for our school family to work with this
ministry in helping provide much needed assistance for families in our community during
this very special time of year. Our school family has shown great compassion and
kindness every year in this project and are appreciated not only by the families we help but
by the ministry who is overwhelmed with appeals from those needing assistance.
To help our students understand the plight of those less fortunate, we discussed
how our providing items that we may take for granted (and would not think of as “gifts”)
makes a huge impact on the physical and emotional needs of those receiving our care
packages. We also talked about how just receiving the beautifully decorated boxes and
sentiment-filled cards that the students made could make the recipients feel loved and
cared for – especially when they receive this from people who they do not even know.
While filling the boxes, we reminded students that we should continue to support those in
need all year long with prayer and providing assistance when we are able. It is beautiful
to hear the loving responses and feel the compassion that our students and families
demonstrated through this special project.
Thank you to parent volunteer Jenny Meyer who coordinated and worked with the
following volunteers in collecting items from the homerooms and assisting our students
in filling the boxes: Monica Aragon, Mindy Anderson, Emily Day, Celeste Fontenot, Letty
Grady, Jennifer Licona, Riley Ludlow, Nicole Lux, Gabriela Rondon-Fuguet, and Christina
Tower.
Our eighth grade students acted on behalf of our school family and presented the
St. Vincent de Paul ministry with the over $800 in gift cards and enough care packages to
help 30 families have a more blessed Christmas season. What a beautiful gift your
kindness and faithful stewardship will be to our brothers and sisters in Christ!
SMCS Athletics: The Beginning of Greatness
We are very excited to announce the addition of a program
to our list of SMCS sports teams!
Coach Scott Ferguson and Coach Robbie Bezner have agreed
21
Charlie Norman
20
Josh Keiser
5
Clayton Landry
27
Porter Dodge
2
Izzak Duran
23
Kasen Ferguson
6
Ryan Gentile
of basketball which will build upon a foundation for the
14
Andrew Dennis
future of our SMCS basketball program. They have had
15
Joe Diamond
19
Blake Bezner
13
John Jardine
to begin a boys developmental basketball program for
SMCS. Although this is not a part of the official GHCAA
league, it is vital to the future of our boys program.
This year we are in the 3A Division of GHCAA which means
that the C teams will now go up against 6th grade teams in
our district, leaving our inexperienced fifth graders at a
disadvantage. This new developmental team made up of
fourth and fifth graders will focus on the fundamental skills
several practices and are scheduled to have two scrimmages
with REGIS who started their developmental team a few
years ago.
St. Martha
Squires
"Happiness is life’s greatest
level of success.”
-Cristina Villalobos
Attention Young Men of SMCS:
St. Martha Squires has a fun outing scheduled for
December 12 at MaxBowl (2390 Wilson Road) in
Humble. We will meet at the FLC parking lot at 12:15
PM. The event is from 1:00-3:00 PM. Bowling, laser
tag, skywalk, games, and pizza are planned. Any young
man, ages 10-18, interested in knowing more about the
squires is invited free of charge.
RSVP via email: [email protected]
Santa’s Secret Shop
Santa’s elves were very busy this week helping our SMCS students find special
Christmas gifts for mom, dad, brother, sister and other loved ones on their
shopping lists. Beta Club’s Santa’s Secret Shop (SSS) was filled with beautiful
religious gifts, fun toys, Christmas decorations, items hand made by Beta students
and some awesome moms and grandmas, and many other great gifts.
The
proceeds of this annual tradition help our Beta students attend the National Jr.
Beta Club state convention, where our students
showcase their skills and talents as they compete
against other students from across Texas.
Many hands and much work are required to make
Santa’s Secret Shop happen. Beta students and
parent volunteers have been working many months
preparing for this major Beta fundraiser. A big
Crusader thank you to Jodi Diamond for coordinating
the event from beginning to end and to all the other
parent volunteers for their many hours of time
shared: Yvonne Bena, Cris Castillo, Kristen Varela,
Lynn Lucas, Christa Wilson, Diana Bocklage, Melissa
Leake, Tom and Anne Marie Watkins, Alma
Martinez, Larissa Teasdale, Lourdes Galvez, Susan
Cintron, Courtney Barajas, Tina Damratoski, Kelly
Chesnut, Monica Aragon, Julia
Hebert, Terri Altman, Tasha and
John Cox, Amy Kelly, Barb
Guillemette, Isabel Duran, Celeste
Fontenot, Joannah Landry, Gabriela
Fuguet-Rondon and Becca Overton.
The members of the Beta Club also
thank our families for their support
of Santa’s Secret Shop and wish them
a very Merry Christmas and a blessed
2016!
Crusaders of the Month
Right Choice for November: Reverence
Congratulations to our SMCS Crusaders of the Month!
What makes a student a Crusader of the Month? The candidates
for Crusader of the Month should exemplify the characteristics of
the Right Choice Lesson for the month. Students should be hard
workers in all aspects of academics and possess and demonstrate
a positive attitude towards their classmates as well as their
teachers. Students should be well-behaved in structured and nonstructured settings and should show responsibility in their work as
well as their actions.
Lianna Bolivar
Pre-K
James Stevens
Pre-K
Camdyn Clark
Pre-K
John Chris Nicholson
Pre-K
Sarah Brown
K
Lauren Jamieson
K
Matthew Julian
1
Kate Damratoski
1
Ava Smith
2
Sophia Castillo
2
Carolina Barrios Trejo
3
John Hayes, Jr.
3
Juliana Jordan
4
Diego Aragon
4
Ava Cintron
5
Rebecca Manosalva
5
Katelyn Hardy
6
Emily Chaires
6
Leah Lucas
7
Sienna Bryan
7
Grace Garwood
8
Jackson Landry
8
Faculty Crusader of the Month: Pat Conlan
Total Years Teaching-college attended
26th year - University of Southern Maine
Favorite Teaching Moment
When the “dots” connect and students’ eyes light up!
Tell us about your family
I have been married for almost 30 years and still love my
husband very much. My twin daughters are 27. Allison works for
the Houston Symphony and is the Associate Director of
Education. Meghan has just moved from Dallas to Indianapolis
and is an Area Sales Manager for Bridgestone-Firestone
Corporation. My son, Specialist Thomas Conlan, is 25 and
stationed at Fort Bliss in El Paso. I am looking forward to having
them all home for Christmas!
Anything else you want to share?
God led me to Catholic schools for my very first teaching job. Since then I have taught at six different
Catholic schools in four different states and have been a classroom teacher for every grade level
except Kindergarten, and that’s okay! It has been my joy to follow what I believe was God’s will for
me. I love being a part of the SMCS family.
Middle School English
Mrs. Shurtleff's middle school English students have completed essays
for the Do the"Write" Thing essay contest. This contest asks students to
think about the problem of violence in our society. Students are asked
to ponder questions such as: What is violence? Where do I observe
violence? What are the causes of violence? What can I do about
violence? Our students came up with some great ideas. We all agree
that the only real answer is love. After all, that's what Jesus urges us to
do—simply love one another.
Middle School Literature
Merry Christmas from the middle school literature classes!
All three grades have been working hard these past few weeks reading
their first novel of the year. We spend much time working on
background information the students need to know in order to
understand the novel. All classes had to learn information before they
could proceed into their stories.
Eighth grade had to go back to the 1800's and learn about blindness,
deafness, and muteness as they were preparing to read the play "The
Miracle Worker.” The students also reviewed the elements associated
with drama. While reading the novel, students worked in literature
circles. They had individual work to accomplish and group work in
discussing the acts. Students will finish the novel this week by
watching the classic movie and writing a compare/contrast paper.
Seventh grade journeyed to Nazi Germany to study the causes of the
Holocaust. We began the unit talking about the Pyramid of Hate and how hate begins with
something some think as small such as calling names. It can quickly move up the pyramid to
genocide. We then studied the timeline associated with the genocide of the Jewish people
starting with name calling, laws passed against them and finally the concentration camps and
death camps. It is a hard thing for seventh graders to understand, but something they will
hopefully never forget. Students created a Holocaust Memorial Hallway in our school with their
timelines, photos and ID information on victims. This memorial will
be up until Christmas—please feel free to come and visit it in the
morning between 7:30 and 8:00 am. Once we understood (as
much as one can), we began the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel.
Sixth grade students ventured into Victorian England to do
background work before reading A Christmas Carol by Charles
Dickens. Students learned about London, Charles Dickens, poor
vs rich, Christmas celebrations in Victorian England, and the story
itself—how it has been reborn over and over during the last
century. Students all had some knowledge of the story, but it is a
very different experience to read the original version. Students will
also finish the unit off with the movie and writing a compare/
contrast paper.
Middle School Math
It is a very busy time for
middle school. Teachers are
making sure we get all
necessary lessons in before
our long Christmas
break. When we return it will
be time for mid-terms. Study
guides will be available upon
our return to school. The
math mid-term is scheduled
for Tuesday, January 12.
SMCS Beta Club students paid
their respects to our country’s
fallen heroes by laying wreaths in
Houston National Cemetery for the
annual “Wreaths Across America”
event on December 12. Wreaths
were laid upon headstones by
thousands of volunteers at the
annual event. Thank you, Beta
students, for participating every
year in honoring and thanking
our military veterans for their
service and sacrifice.
Wishing each of you
a very blessed
Christmas!
Middle School Science
6th Grade Science: Students have been learning about renewable resources
and building a solar powered "amusement park." Hopefully the sun will shine
next week as they discover how well their rides work!
7th Grade Science: Students have been tackling Newton's three laws of
motion. They "played" with cars and different surfaces to reinforce the
concepts.
8th Grade Science: If you walk across the bridge near the Borski Activity Room,
you will see 8th grades "art work." They discovered the relative closeness of
each planet to other planets. They were quite surprised at how distant the
outer planets really are!
Noticias de la Clase de Español de la Sra. Nájar
Sixth Grade: Students have filmed a video where they make a prayer in Spanish called "Ángel
de mi Guarda" (Guardian Angel). This is part of the program for the Catholic schools. Please ask
your student to recite this prayer in Spanish. It sounds very nice!
Also, both classes have been presenting their projects in Spanish titled "La Familia.” In these
projects they talk in Spanish about family members. Please stop by the K-2nd grade hallway to
look at these beautiful projects!!!
Seventh Grade: Both grades have been memorizing the entire “Hail Mary” prayer in Spanish—
please ask your student to recite it for you. Class 7A made a video in Spanish with this prayer,
and the video was also sent to the Archdiocese of Houston. Ask your student for this prayer!!
8th Grade: They had learned about adjectives in Spanish, and they have created a project in
Spanish called: "Poemas en Diamante" in which they talk about adjectives and verbs in Spanish.
Middle School Religion
Middle School and 5th graders have joined the Advent preparation!
We should all know that the Church has celebrated her new liturgical year beginning on the
first Sunday of Advent! Ask your students just to be sure they remember.
Fifth graders made and presented their last Jesse tree ornament to be
strung in the hallway. Their ornaments are hanging in the Middle School
hallway, and they look absolutely beautiful. Sixth graders students
worked at creating their own symbol for the Jesse Tree hanging outside
the religion room. Seventh and eighth grade students have outdone
themselves creating Advent calendars. Terrific job, middle schoolers!
Development Updates
The 2015-16 Crusade for Excellence Fund is off to a great start. So far SMCS has raised $82,760 and
is 69% of the way to our goal of $120,000. Our participation rates are 89 percent of the Local
Advisory Board, 72 percent of the staff, and 43 percent of current families—our goal is 100 percent.
There is still time to reach 100 percent. Remember that each class that reaches 100 percent
participation before the end of the year will ear n extr a recess (or equivalent) with Fr. Richar d
and receive a classroom treat.
Registration is open for the 2016 Steps for Students.
Mark your calendar for February 20.
You can register for the event and
begin fundraising at
http://www.firstgiving.com/team/299696
______________________
St Martha Catholic School
2411 Oak Shores Drive
Kingwood, Texas 77339
T 281.358.5523
F 281.358.5526
www.stmarthacs.org
Please note: Those who register as runner/walker will
receive t-shirt privileges on Thursdays in March. Last year
St. Martha came in 8th place for number of registered
team members. Let’s make it 1st place this year!