Read in your Pajamas

During Catholic Schools Week everyone comes to school in pajamas and we spend the whole day reading or participating in reading activities. That same night we come back to school and enjoy Reading Night planned by our wonderful librarian. This year Ms. Lucas led the literature jeopardy table, Mrs. Cameron's son Alex led literature Hangman, Mrs. Forcey helped kids make a Rainbow Fish art project and a very cute bookmark, and of course we had lots of cookies and lemonade to go around. Mrs. Cochran started the evening by reading Hooray for Reading Day! and the evening ended with ten winners going home with either a Jamba Juice or Barnes & Noble gift card. Thank you to all that attended and enjoyed a night celebrating a favorite pastime at OLPH--reading!

Wild About Reading

The Fresno Grizzlies mascot, Parker, came to visit on Tuesday to kick off the Wild About Reading program at our school. Each student received a bookmark to keep track of books read in the next 5 weeks. Parker's challenge is to read 10 books in 5 weeks to earn two free tickets to a baseball game. The school that reads the most books will earn $500.00 for their school library! We have a school that loves to read and we let Parker know it. Turn in as many completed bookmarks as you can and then come on out to the ballgame in April.

Catholic Schools Week 2009

Catholic Schools Celebrate Service is the theme for this year's Catholic Schools Week. Our Student Council has planned a great week of activities for us as we celebrate service to our community, in our students, in our nation, in our vocations, and in our faculty, staff, and volunteers. This week we will recognize the service our junior high students have done and award three students from grades 6,7,8 with a certificate. Bless us Jesus we celebrate Catholic Schools Week. May it be a time of thanksgiving for the opportunity to study and practice our faith every day of the week. Have a great week this week!

New Windows for our School

Last week our classrooms & computer lab windows were replaced. The project was started on the Monday we were gone for the MLK holiday and finished while we were on campus and could watch the action! Actually, classrooms had to to find other homes on campus to hold class for a few hours, but everyone smiled and remained flexible. The new windows will allow the heat to stay inside our classrooms better and they just look so good! We thank all the teachers and students for your patience during this process and hope you enjoy the windows built and installed by Gilwin Manufacturing in Modesto. (That's a picture of our great 3rd class being held in the Day Care room while their classroom windows were being replaced).

Tengo un sueno (I Have a Dream)

Sister Pilar has a dream that all her students will learn a language other than English during their lifetime. Today's 8th grade spanish lesson focused on translating the paragraph about her dream from spanish to english. The students did a great job with verbs, nouns, and adjectives and even pronunciation! Sister Pilar was born in Segovia, Spain and that is where her biological family lives. Sister Pilar's mission to have her students find success with Spanish and actually speak the language as much as possible. Thank you Sister!

Congratulations to our 44th President

Yesterday was a historic day in our country as we welcomed into office our first African American President. Our classrooms were abuzz with excitement as they watched the new president get sworn into office and make his first speech as the President of the United States. In his speech he quoted 1Corinthians 13:11, St. Paul's first letter to the church in Corinth, Greece, "the time has come to set aside childish things." In his inauguration speech he reminded us that as a nation we must roll up our sleeves and get to work. Now is the time to love our neighbor, help our neighbor, and truly put our faith into action. God bless the Obama family and God bless America.

4th Grade Read & Feed

This week our 4th grade class spent one whole day doing two things our fourth graders like to do best: reading and eating! Their awesome teacher allowed them free dress for the day and even invited them to bring blankets, pillows, and snacks for another great day in 4th grade. Ms. Garcia taught them how to make rice krispy treats and pudding too. For lunch they munched on pizza while reading some great poetry that fed their mind. The 4th grade class will soon choose their class poem for their entry in this year's Peach Blossom Festival at Fresno State on March 12 or 13th.

Birthday Book

Our school Birthday Book Program provides an opportunity to honor you, your teacher, or another relative, with a book purchased and marked just for you and placed in our school library for all to read for many years to come! When a gift book is purchased, Mrs. Cochran visits the classroom and makes a special presentation of the book to the child and of course we photograph the special event, and sometimes even post it on our blog. In the picture Mrs. Cochran is presenting a birthday book to Ethan in 1st grade. His parents honored him with two books! Talk to Mrs. Cameron our wonderful librarian for more information about this program or pick up a flyer in the school office. Readers are Leaders!

STAR Testing this week

This week all students in grades 2-8 will take the STAR reading assessment for the 2nd time this school year. The 10 minute test taken in the computer lab will determine the reading level of each student, measure individual growth in reading, provide strategies to improve comprehension, fluency, and vocabulary. Students in 1st grade will take the STAR assessment for the first time and Kindergarten students recommended by Mrs. Savino will also take the assessment. All results will be sent home in next week's Tuesday packet. Parents should contact your child's teacher with comments or questions.

Ready for 2009?

Welcome back to school and welcome 2009! After two long weeks at home, we're all back together and ready to continue with classwork and homework and chess and music lessons and PE and music and, and, and....Monday was a 12:00 dismissal day and you went home while the teachers stayed at school until 4:00pm having a meeting. Okay, now how fair was that? We missed you and we are all glad to be back in a routine, learning right along with you. Peace and joy in 2009!

Pottery Elective

Sister Pilar is teaching the pottery elective and the students are learning that clay is a wonderful, tactile medium to work with. Its three dimensional nature forces them to think about structure, shape and form & which work best for firing! There is something magical that happens when kids are thinking and working creatively. They are learning to express and execute their personal visions in clay and we're proud of them.

Food Collection

During the month of November, our families donated over 40 bags of food for St. Martha's Pantry. The pantry is undergoing some changes right now as the church is enlarging the pantry and moving it right next to Notre Dame Hall. Our families brought in mashed potatoes, yams, cake mix, and more to make sure families did not go hungry. We thank the Lucas family for helping to bag up the food and get it ready for our pantry friends to pick up.