Weekly Howl

November is here and the students are experiencing wonderful things at St. Francis! The 2nd grade is preparing for their All-Saints presentation for Wednesday's Mass (November 9). We invite parents, family, and friends to join us at 10:00 a.m. for this special Mass. The students in grades third through eighth finished an art project for the Port Royal Sound Foundation Recycled Art Contest. (Please see the feature below.)

With Thanksgiving and the Christmas season around the corner, the students are focusing on giving. Each class is participating in the Mercy Mission Thanksgiving Food Drive. Canned and boxed items are being collected for families with need in the community. Students are also invited to participate in the Box of Joy program sponsored by the Beta Club. Students and their families fill a small shoebox size box with small items such as toiletries, small art supplies, socks, etc. The filled boxes get sent to over 136,000 children for Christmas! What a wonderful blessing your students are to others!

We are looking forward to our basketball home opener on November 17. The Junior Girls Basketball Team will kick off the evening with their game beginning at 4:00 p.m. We hope to see you in the Wolves' Den! (Please see schedule below).

Wishing you a wonderful week ahead!

Yours in Christ,

Andrea Smith, M.Ed., LPC, NCC

Principal

Respect: Be respectful to others in your words and actions

Our Prayer :

Dear Jesus,

Help me to give all persons the honor they deserve as your unique creations.

Amen

Congratulations to Troi Hopkins, Learning Center Coordinator, who was awarded the Palmetto Electric Bright Ideas Grant for our school! Palmetto Electric, along with the Palmetto Electric Trust, sponsors Bright Ideas, an educational grant program that provides funding for innovative classroom-based projects that fall outside of normal school funding. Thank you, Mrs. Hopkins, for applying for the Bright Ideas grant, and Palmetto Electric for recognizing our school!

Parents and guardians in grades 3 - 8th, please be sure you are snaking through the first section of the parking lot when picking up your student(s) in the afternoon. Too many cars are lining up on Beach City Road. In order to avoid this issue, please follow the blue arrows on the car line diagram above which indicates snaking around the first section of the parking lot. Thank you for your cooperation in helping to keep our campus safe.

The FSA is partnering with Marmalade Baking Company for a Thanksgiving Pie fundraiser. Pies must be pre-ordered, with orders in on or before November 8th! Pie pick up will be at the school on November 22 from noon until 3:00 p.m. You may want to consider purchasing a few extra for family, friends, and clients. Be sure to order yours today!

The Women of St. Francis are hosting "Family Dinner and a Movie Night" on November 19. The movie featured will be Lilies of the Field. Admission is free with pizza and snacks available for purchase. Please plan to attend this delightful movie and event!

It’s that time of year again! Please join us for the 4th annual Reindeer Run!

5k run/walk for our seasoned runners/walkers and a 1 mile fun run for those 8 and under. A mega buffet catered by the Salty Dog Cafe for all registered runners/walkers to follow.

New this year….not a fan of running/walking, no problem! Join us for a mega breakfast buffet at 9:30am for $15/person.

The first 175 participants to register get a custom St. Francis/Salty Dog Reindeer Run T-Shirt so don’t wait! Forms were emailed on October 11 and are also available in the School Office.

Join the St. Francis Catholic School community at St. Francis by the Sea Catholic Church for School Family Sunday Mass on the following Sundays:

November 20, 2022

December 18, 2022

January 29, 2023

February 19, 2023

March 19, 2023

April 16, 2023

May 21, 2023

Our official Facebook page is "St. Francis Catholic School". In an effort to consolidate communication, and have one central Facebook page for SFCS families to find announcements and learn about upcoming school events, the "St. Francis Families (St. Francis Catholic School, Hilton Head Island)" Facebook page is now inactive. As a reminder, the use of St. Francis Catholic School, or St. Francis by the Sea names, logos, etc., must be approved before associating any group with either name or SFCS. We appreciate your cooperation and partnership with this important policy and ask you to contact Mrs. Smith for school related requests, and the SFBTS Parish office for church related requests. Please join our school Facebook page! (scroll down to the bottom of the newsletter and click on link)

Surrounded by her literary action figures, Peanuts’ pictures, and Shakespeare memorabilia, Teresa Fitzgibbons, a.k.a “Mrs. Fitz” is right at home in her purple classroom, better known as the “Language Lair.” For the past 19 years, Mrs. Fitzgibbons has been sharing her passion for sentence diagramming, Shakespeare, and writing with the students at St. Francis Catholic School.

A graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Mrs. Fitzgibbons has multiple teaching certifications in secondary (6-12) English, K-12 reading, and 1-8 elementary. Before moving to the Low Country in 2000, Mrs. Fitzgibbons taught on the Stockbridge-Munsee Indian Reservation in northern Wisconsin and Milwaukee area schools. In her spare time, she enjoys travel and writing. She has written hundreds of published articles for local, regional, and national publications. Mrs. Fitzgibbons is an avid reader and can often be found at Barnes and Noble or lounging at the pool with a good book.

Her favorite thing about teaching at St. Francis School is the roughly 300 alumni she has been blessed to meet and teach. “There’s nothing more rewarding than seeing former students and hearing about their achievements. Their success is my success.”

Mrs. Fitzgibbons has been an active member of St. Francis By the Sea Catholic Church since 2000. She lives in Moss Creek with her husband, James, and her son, Michael – a former St. Francis School student and current JP2 student.

We are blessed to have Mrs. Fitzgibbons on the SFCS team!

The first graders enjoyed Trunk or Treat! They had fun using candy corn for their math lessons and playing Halloween bingo!

Mrs. Smith was the first grade Mystery Reader this past week. The children enjoyed the book she read.

Fifth grade presented their favorite Saint in celebration of All Saints Day!

6th grade viewed Egyptian paintings and the symbolism surrounding it. It makes us aware that certain Christian beliefs which had been seen in a veiled manner in the Old Testament were in some mysterious way partly grasped by the ancient Egyptians.

They believed in immortality, in a state of perfect happiness or eternal suffering according to one's conduct on earth. They even believed in a judgement after death and a process of purgation.

The students created their own wall and what they were to take to their "afterlife". They also created their own class hieroglyphics!

SFCS submitted an entry to the Recycled Art Contest hosted by the Port Royal Sound Foundation for judging on November 7. This art contest required artwork entries to be made entirely out of recycled materials. Taylor Kessinger, 7th grade, was the artist of the piece submitted. The piece depicted a loggerhead turtle with the shape of Hilton Head Island on its back. Students in grades 3rd through 8th assisted by cleaning and sorting recycled glass into colors and also positioning the sea glass on the board to incorporate into the artwork. The winners will be notified and announced on social media on November 14. All recycled art entries will be on display at the Maritime Center until January 1, 2023 and only the winning entries will remain on display through January 31. We are proud of our SFCS students for entering the contest!

The Turtle Trackers of Hilton Head Island visited SFCS and provided a presentation to Pre-K through 5th grade on the life of sea turtles. The assembly also addressed how God has a designed plan for the ecosystem too! The students asked wonderful questions as they learned about the life cycle of sea turtles and the importance for each of us taking care of their natural habitats.

Thank you to all who have given to the SFCS annual fund so far! The annual fund is one of the most important gifts we ask of our St. Francis community. Gifts to the St. Francis Catholic School Annual Fund provide students access to opportunities that distinguish the SFCS educational, spiritual, and social experiences. Your gift to the SFCS Annual Fund today, will make an impact on the lives of many young people at our school.

Come out to the Wolves' Den and watch the girls' and boys' basketball teams play on November 17 in the season's home opener! Game times are as follows:

Jr. Girls - 4:00 p.m.

Jr. Boys - 5:00 p.m.

Sr. Girls - 6:00 p.m.

Sr. Boys - 7:00 p.m.

If you would like to be a part of the FSA community, please contact fsa.sfcs@gmail.com to learn how you may get involved!

https://www.facebook.com/sfcshhi

Email: school@sfcshhi.com
Website: sfcshhi.com
Location: 45 Beach City Rd, HHI, SC 29926
Phone: 843-681-6501
Facebook: facebook.com/sfcshhi