ST. MARY S NEWSLETTER November 2, 2016 Upcoming EVENTS Wednesday, November 2 5:30pm-7/8 Girls Bball v Champaign St. Matthew s Thursday, November 3 5:30pm - 7/8 Girls Bball vs Lexington 6:00pm - Pk - K Family Literacy Night Friday, November 4 6:00pm - 6/8 Boys BB vs St. John's 7:00pm - Middle School Choir - National Anthem ISU Volleyball Saturday, November 5 10:00am - 5th Grade Girls Bball vs El Paso 10:00am - 7/8 Girls BBall vs Prairie Central Sunday, November 6-12 Vocational Awareness Week Monday, November 7 4:00pm - Family Fundraiser: Culver's 5:30pm - 7/8 Girls Bball vs LeRoy Tuesday, November 8 Principal Challenge: Read ALL Day 6:00pm - 5th Grade Girls Bball vs Epiphany 6:00pm - 6/8 Boys BB vs Calvary Christian Wednesday, November 9 8:00am - All School Mass (6th) Thursday, November 10 6:30pm - Education Commission Meeting Friday, November 11 End of 1st Trimester 9:30am - CCHS - Fall Play 6:00pm - 6th Boys BB vs Metcalf 6:00pm - 8th Boys BB vs St. Phil's Time for a Story Want to spend time with your youngster, build his/her reading skills, and help him/her learn to love books? You can do all three when you read aloud to him/her. Here are some suggestions. Read Regularly Try to read to your child every day. You might aim for 10-15 minutes of bedtime reading for a peaceful end to the day. Bring along a book, and read to him/her during a sibling s sports practice or game. Or curl up together with a book when you get home from work. Some good quality time together is the added bonus. Take Turns Choosing Books Your youngster may want to hear old favorites again and again. Use your turn for new titles and different types. Letting your child choose their own books is a skill that they should learn at a young age. By allowing children to choose their book independently, they learn to appreciate the different reasons that we choose to read in the first place. Let Them Participate Ask your child to turn the pages while you read. Also, he/she can finish sentences that rhyme or fill in words he/she knows. Go slowly so he/she has time to understand the story and look at the illustrations. They truly enjoy read-aloud time more if they play an active role. Be Playful You can use different voices for different characters. Or substitute your youngster s name for the main character s name, and use family members names for other characters. It is especially important to know that you don t have to be an expert reader -- your child will love it when you read aloud because it s you. Brought together by faith, St. Mary s School is a Franciscan family welcoming and inspiring all to love, live, learn and serve as Christ taught us! Issue 14 11/2/2016 Kulia I Ka Nu u ~ Strive to the highest summit 1
Family Fundraiser Nights Each month St. Mary s School organizes an opportunity for families to get together and enjoy a meal and conversation -- while benefiting St. Mary s School and the Home & School Association. Check out the Family Fundraiser Night Page on our website for the upcoming restaurants. November s Family Fundraiser Night is at: 1807 W Market St, Bloomington, IL 61701 November 7, 2016-4:00 P.M. - 8:00 P.M. NO FLYER NEEDED Harvest Angels--Feed the Hungry Be an angel! A Harvest Angel! November 9-November 16 Father Greg will be putting together Thanksgiving Baskets to hand out to families in need. If you are feeling blessed this year, please feel free to bring in canned food goods, boxed items and or money donations to help provide a holiday meal for families in need. Food will be collected and counted for two weeks and then the classes will use the materials to create a canstructions. The most important part of this project is you are doing what Jesus told us to do, feed the hungry! Items to be donated include: Turkeys will be distributed through Midwest Food Bank. We are collecting only side dishes and canned goods, anything non-perishable to have for Thanksgiving meal. (NO LIQUIDS) Boxed potatoes/pastas, Canned vegetables/fruit, Dessert mixes/frosting, Boxed crackers/cookies, Powdered milk/baby formula, Canned spaghetti/macaroni Christmas Eve Program *** ATTENTION PARENTS *** WE NEED YOUR HELP We are sad to say, due to low enrollment in Children s Liturgy of the Word (CLW), we may have to cancel our Children s Liturgy Christmas Program that is held before the 4:00 Christmas Eve Mass. To make the program a success, we need to have enough kids to fill the roles, but at this point we don t even have enough children to fill the main roles. If your child s age is 12 or under and they would like to participate in the program, either in the choir or play a role, please bring your child to the 9 am Sunday Masses and send them to Children s Liturgy of the Word in the basement. This is a traditional event that we would like to share with our new priests. Please consider Sincerely, St. Mary s Children s Liturgy Team (Jennifer, Jessica, Jeremy, and Hetta) Issue 14 11/2/2016 Kulia I Ka Nu u ~ Strive to the highest summit 2
All Saints Day by St. Mary s 3rd Grade A huge shout out to the 3rd Grade class...what an excellent job as Saints. The 3rd graders researched and presented in costumes about a saint. They presented their saint in costume during one of the Masses on 10-30 and then again at the School s All School Mass on Tuesday. Your costumes were amazing and your presentations were very organized and well researched. Great job, so proud of you! PreK & K Literacy Night St. Mary's PreK and K families are invited to join Ms. McClure and Mrs. Wilson in their classrooms for a fun night centered around learning about literacy skills and ways to get your child to love reading. Parents and student are encouraged to come on Thursday, November 3rd from 6:00-7:00 at St. Mary s School. Issue 14 11/2/2016 Kulia I Ka Nu u ~ Strive to the highest summit 3
Chili Cook-off Tickets Calling all families...calling all families...it is time to turn in your Chili Cook-off Ticket money. We need to determine which Crusader sold the most tickets and reward them. Please turn in all unsold tickets and money to the school office by Friday, November 4th. Mrs. Hartrich will be calling if you don t turn in your money!! We will announce the top three families who sold the most tickets on Monday, November 7th! Angel Donor On Friday, October 29th my first phone call of the day was a from an angel donor who wants to send the school a $1,000 check. He knows we are always looking to improve the school and wanted to make a dream for a teacher come true. Well, I was able to surprise Ms. McClure and the PreK classroom at morning assembly with the amazing news. Ms. McClure had been dreaming of a SMARTBoard and because of the angel donation and other donations from various parents and grandparents, these funds were used to purchase one for the PreK classroom! We are truly blessed with amazing supporters who are extremely generous! God Bless you all! Thanksgiving Feast for PreK - 5th All Prek through 5th grade students have been invited to attend the annual Thanksgiving Feast located in the primary wing on Monday, November 21st starting at 1:30. Each child will be asked to bring in $1.00 to help purchase the supplies needed to create the feast. Parents please watch for a note from your child s teacher to help explain more about this event. Issue 14 11/2/2016 Kulia I Ka Nu u ~ Strive to the highest summit 4
Notes from Athletics Blue & White NIGHT Our 6th and 8th Grade Boys Basketball team will host a scrimmage night to show off this year s talents! Come and enjoy concessions and free admission on Wednesday, November 2nd (tonight) from 4:00-5:30 in our gymnasium! Fans are encouraged to come and watch the teams and cheer on our St. Mary s Crusaders! The Crusaders will open their 2016 season on Friday night at St. John s Lutheran in Champaign, Illinois with a 6:00 tip-off. Their first home game will be Tuesday, November 8th against Calvary Christian Academy with a 6:00 Tip-off time. Come cheer on our Crusaders! Pictures SPORTS PICTURES - Boys Basketball and Cheerleading photos will be Wednesday, November 2nd beginning at 3:00 pm. The order of pictures taken will be determined by the coaches and which team is ready first. Forms will be distributed by the coaches and available in the office; it is also attached. Please fill out one form per athlete per sport, one check for multiple athletes is acceptable. If you have a child that plays on both boys teams and you'd like a team photo from their "secondary" team please note that on the order form. Forms are also located on school website > LINK Issue 14 11/2/2016 Kulia I Ka Nu u ~ Strive to the highest summit 5
Notes from Home & School Association 8th Annual Chili Cook-Off A huge thank you to the St. Mary's Home & School Association for all the planning, organizing, and many hours of service towards our 8th Annual Chili Cook-off! You guys did an amazing job and because of your hard work we had a very successful Chili Cook-off! A special thank you goes out to Jennifer Aurora, Emily Casali, Chrissy White, Heidi Kelleher, Amy O'Donoghue, Melissa Teagarden, Sharon Hamaker and Katrina Alvarado Chili Chefs The Chili Chefs were unbelievable this year! We had a wide variety of chili to taste this year! I can't wait to see what you all bring next year! Thank you to the following Chili Chefs for a great tasting Chili Cook-off: Megan Namoff: Red Hot Chili Preppers -- 1st Place Winner Steve Carter with Meatheads: Carter's Awesome Chili -- 2nd Place Winner Dr. Pecora: Franciscan Perfect Joy -- 3rd Place Winner Tony Kiley Knights of Columbus -- People's Choice Winner Dave Smith: Well Diggers -- Best of Show Steve Silvey: House of Pain Mark Terven: Local 99 Plumbers Hall Joe Martin - Midwest AV Solutions: Home Run Chili Melissa Desanty: Old Man's After Burner Erica Alvarez: Carmela's Home Style Chili Donna Williams & Susan Daily: Three Padres David Welch & Tom Crawford: DT s Chili Bobby Crawford: Irish Zing Tim Crawford: Bad Booth Good Chili Nitin Aurora: Nitty's Chili Nicole Blankey and Quinn Whitaker: The White as a Ghost Chili Tim Solomon: Red Hot Chili Preppers Kyle Graven: Big Pa & the Kid Issue 14 11/2/2016 Kulia I Ka Nu u ~ Strive to the highest summit 6
Chili Cook-Off Sponsors The behind the scenes sponsoring made it possible for many games, prizes, food, decorations and much much more. The sponsors were very generous and most appreciated by St. Mary's School. The following were our gracious sponsors: Chili Champions: Bloomington Meats Mugsy's Pub Chili Patrons Grampp Family Koldaire JM Seidl Pediatric Smiles William Slingsby Sally Swiech Schooners Sysco Mike Wieland Yankee Doodle Witte Family Chili Supporters: 1st Farm Credit Back to Health Knights of Columbus - 300 Plumbers & Pipefitters McDonalds Sponsors Bower Ortho Carmody Flynn Don Owen Tire Winks Shell WalMart 5K Chili Crusade Race Another successful 5K Race! Thank you Billy Adelman, Marta Mason, Scott Mason, Rachael Kerrick, Cheryl Richards for countless hours that you spent preparing, organizing and creating the BEST post-race party in town!! You kept the runners safe, well fed, and offered many prizes during the post-race party. Thank you so much for all of your work! We had 3 students medal and a good handful of parents also medal! Great job runners - you represented the Crusaders with pride and speed! Lake Run Club has posted the race results on their website. Here is the link. Issue 14 11/2/2016 Kulia I Ka Nu u ~ Strive to the highest summit 7