Principal Notes 04/24/2015
St. Cecilia School
Notes from the Principal
Before and After School Childcare
Parents, we have confirmed the meeting to review our plans for day care for next year. ACPC will host a meeting at 5:30 p.m. on May 5th to explain the plans for next year. After compiling the survey numbers, the hope is to have the program at St. Cecilia's in the afternoon. Unfortunately the numbers were too low to support the AM program, however, ACPC would offer an AM program, but it would be off site.
For parents unfamiliar with ACPC more information can be obtained from their Website at www.acpc-childcare.org,
information on the tuition rates for the program are available at the following website.
http://www.acpc-childcare.org/content/tuition-rates.
I hope you can join us in Room 530 if interested in day care before or after school. If you cannot attend, please contact the school for more information and you will be added to the list of parents that will be using the program next fall.
Jeans Day - May 1
On Friday, May 1st, we are holding a blue jean day for the cost to ship books to Honduras for the students to use in their classrooms. Your student may wear jeans with a spirit shirt or uniform polo shirt. These are the books that we replaced at the start of the school year. The students in the school will benefit from the use of the books that we no longer use at this time and rather than discarding the books we will be sharing them with students that can benefit of using these materials. We thought it would be useful to share some information on the school.
The school is a parochial school that is a bilingual school located in Western Honduras at the base of Celaque - Honduras' tallest mountain. The public education system in Honduras does have shortcomings. Many of students never finish elementary school (estimated at 50% recently). Some parents who can afford to send their students to the bilingual school do so because it's by far the best educational option around, and then a lot of students who can't afford it receive partially scholarships or full scholarships. North American teachers (or sometimes bilingual Hondurans) teach the main classes such as reading, writing, spelling, math, and science, and help the students develop their English through these subjects. Then Honduran teachers teach social studies and Spanish and the weekly "special" classes such as music and art. The school has the opportunity to share Christ with the students through weekly chapel, morning devotions, and throughout-the-day-conversations.
I hope you will take the opportunity to support this effort for students that as not as fortunate as our students at St. Cecilia School.
Ames Middle School Orientation
AMS 5th grade orientation is scheduled for Thursday, May 14th. 5th grade students will be visiting AMS during the school day from 9:00-10:30. We are asking parents to transport their students to and from the school this day. During their visit they will take tours of the building, meet teachers, and get a taste of life as a middle school student.
A parent meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. that evening in the auditorium. AMS administrators will be providing information about middle school and answering parent questions. The building will be open for parents to tour after the meeting.
Gilbert Middle School Orientation
GMS 5th grade orientation is scheduled for May 7th for parents and May 14th for students. On May 7th, parents can attend a meeting at 7 p.m. at Gilbert Middle School.
On May 14th, 5th grade students will be visiting GMS during the school day from 9:00-10:30 a.m. We are asking parents to transport their students to and from the school this day. Those living in the Gilbert district should have or will be receiving a letter with more details.
May Calendars
It’s hard to believe that May is right around the corner. Please see the attached for our May Hot Lunch and Events calendars.
Reservations Due 04/29 for 05/22 End of Year Family Picnic
Our last day of school is Friday, May 22nd with an early dismissal of 1:30 p.m. May 22nd is a very busy day as our kindergarten through fifth grade students will have Field Day from 9-11:30 a.m., with our family picnic starting at 11:45 a.m. Picnic reservations are due Wednesday, April 29th!
You can bring your own lunch or join us for a school lunch. If you are having school lunch-every man, woman and child (students and siblings alike) needs to have the meal pre-ordered. On the menu: hot dog on bun, chips, carrots, applesauce cups, cookie and milk. The price for guests will be $3.40 each. If your student has lunch money he/she only can use their account, however you still need to RSVP him/her for the meal, otherwise, you may pay $2.85 per meal for kindergarten through 5th grade students. If you are going to order a school lunch, the order form needs to be returned to the office no later than Wednesday, April 29th. Due to our ordering process, no reservations can be taken after April 29th!
Serving will start at 11:45 a.m. Once you arrive, you can pick your student(s) up from their classroom and go through the lunch line. Stay after lunch and enjoy the family activities provided by F.S.A, from 12:15-1:15 p.m. It promises to be an exciting day! Remember to bring a blanket to sit on and sunscreen.
If you did not receive a paper copy of this letter and reservation form in your child’s Friday folder (see attachment), please print off the attachment. Thank you.
Student Lunch Accounts
May will soon be here! May is always a hectic and super busy month. Please make sure to check your child's Power Lunch account to make sure they are not in the negative or will not end the school year in the negative. If you have any questions, please email me. Thank you for your assistance.
Tilda Thompson
Kindergarten Career Day
The kindergarten classes are finishing up their unit on careers. On April 29th, kindergarten students are asked to bring a costume to school of what they want to be when they grow up. They will change into this costume in the afternoon. If you have any questions, please email Mrs. Sloan or Mrs. Campbell.
3rd Grade May Basket Sale
On May 1st, the 3rd graders will be selling May Baskets at the end of the school day for $0.50. Money collected will be donated to a charity.
Spring Concert
Please see the attached letters (one for preschool students and one for K-5 students) from Mrs. Wendt and Mr. Stanley for updated Spring Concert details.
Judge it by the Cover
Dear St. Cecilia parents and students,
It's time for the annual Judge it by the Cover contest to celebrate Children's Book Week, May 4th - 10th!
Students may choose a book they have read this school year or are currently reading and design a new cover for it! They can use any materials they want, pencils, crayons, markers, paint, etc., but nothing printed off the computer please. Use nice paper (no ripped out notebook pages, etc.) and make sure the title of the book and student's name is clearly written on the front.
A panel of judges will be selected to choose the winners. The covers will be judged on (age appropriate) creativity, neatness, originality, and how well it represents the book.
The covers are due Friday, May 8th.
They will be displayed in the library so come on in and take a look!
Good luck and have fun!!
PLEASE NOTE:
Friday, May 1st is the last day students can check out books. ALL books are due Friday, May 15th.
Please help your children find and return any library books they may still have. It is a huge job trying to get all the books back to the library before the end of the school year, so I appreciate your help with this.
Thank you!
Mrs. Terri Simodynes
May Crowning
We hope you can join us for our May Crowning, which takes place after our May 6th All School Mass. We will be choosing two fifth grade representatives to crown Baby Jesus and Mary and they will walk up an aisle that will be formed by our second graders, dressed in their First Communion outfits. It is a very special event and we hope you can join us.
Scrip Volunteer Needed
The Archdiocese requires 2 people (Shannon is graduating and Bev would like some help next year!) It requires 2-5 hours of time per week. So much fun and a great way to give back to the school and teachers. If interested, please email scrip@stceciliaschoolames.org
Upcoming Events
- Wednesday, 04/29: 9 a.m. All School Mass followed by Kindergarten Reception
- Monday, 05/04: 7 p.m. Spring Concert at Ames City Auditorium
- Tuesday, 05/05: 7 p.m. Catholic School Board Meeting
- Wednesday, 05/06: 9 a.m. All School Mass followed by May Crowning
St. Cecilia School
Website: www.stcames.org/school
Location: 2900 Hoover Avenue, Ames, IA, United States
Phone: (515) 232-5290
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stceciliaschoolames?