St. Rose Star Newsletter

December 18, 2020

Let’s Eat… Lunch Menu Dec 21 - 22

M: A. Sloppy Joe / B. Grilled Chicken Sandwich T: A. Cheeseburger Macaroni Skillet / B. Popcorn Chicken W: Th: F:

100 Club Winners: December 13: $50 – Tim Heine

December 20: $50 - #260

Angel Tree: There is a tree set up in the lower elementary building with several white angels on it. Each white angel represents a classroom item, worth $10 or less, that our wonderful teachers have requested. There are also some royal blue angels in the office that represent items that are over $10. If you would like your child to pick an angel, either white or royal, please send a note to school and they can choose one from the tree. When sending your gift back to school please wrap it and attach the angel to the gift so we know who the lucky recipient is. Advent Friends: The littlest of gestures mean the most. During this season of Advent, remember to take a minute to write a note, make a craft, and most importantly pray for your Advent Friend. If you choose to purchase something for your friend, there is a WEEKLY spending limit of $1.00 and $5.00 for the FINAL WEEK. Our Advent Friend reveal is this Tuesday, December 22nd. Christmas Dress Up Day: On Tuesday, December 22nd, we will be having a Christmas Dress Up Day! Your child(ren) are welcome to wear their most festive Christmas shirt. It is a Mass day, so dress code bottoms still apply. If they choose not to participate, they must follow regular dress code. Face masks: With Covid-19 cases not going away, please make sure your child wears a mask to school every day. It might be beneficial to send an extra along in their school bag. 100 Club Cards: Are you looking for a great Christmas gift with no shopping involved? We have St. Rose 100 club cards available at the St. Rose Parish/School office. You can send payment with your student and we will get one sent back home to you. The funds raised help support St. Rose School and Parish throughout the year. Dress code reminder: Make sure to send weather appropriate items with your child every day. The temps are dropping and we will be outside enjoying the fresh air unless the temps drop below 10 degrees. WE MADE IT!!!! Just like that, our 1st semester has come to an end. Everyone did such a good job following the constantly changing Directed Health Measures. It hasn’t been easy, and we understand that, but we appreciate your willingness to mold to the new “normal”. Hopefully 2nd semester will come with less restrictions. Either way, we will make the best of it. We pray that everyone has a very Merry Christmas and stays safe and healthy this New Year!!! Bring on 2021 and 2nd semester!!

2 week snapshot… Tuesday, December 22: Advent Friend Reveal Christmas Dress Up Day End of 2nd Quarter

NO SCHOOL December 23 – January 4

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Tuesday, January 5: Report Cards go home Wednesday, January 6: JH B/G Bball vs. Wynot @ 2:30p Monday, January 11: Dress Code FREE Day

Mass is every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at

8:10am.

No School Christmas Vacation

Preschool News by Mrs. Morrison In preschool, we have been enjoying the Advent season preparing for the birth of Jesus. Our advent wreath has three candles glowing bright. We have been learning about who was all there that special night in Bethlehem. We have been enjoying so many fun books we have about that very special night. Also, we have been making some fun and cute crafts to display in our classroom. We have made some manger scenes, ginger bread men and women and some Christmas trees and many other crafts. Art is so much fun this time of year!! We want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I can’t wait to see what 2021 has in store for us here at the preschool.

First Grade News by Mrs. Beacom We are in the 3rd week of Advent and the kids are enjoying learning about the Jesse Tree. They are also enjoying the gifts they are receiving and the ones they are giving to their Advent Friends. They have made their own Advent Wreaths while learning about this season of Advent. In Math the first graders learned about surveys and filling out graphs from the tally charts and now they are going to start learning about tens and ones. While in writing we are working on using our own opinions to form complete sentences. The students did their mid-year DIBELS testing, STAR, and MAPS testing, it is so exciting to see the academic growth of each student. In science the students are learning about sound and sound waves. We pray that you all have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Second Grade News by Mrs. Steffen As we journey through Advent and set our sights upon Christmas Day, we anxiously await the celebration of the greatest gift ever… Jesus! We know that the first time Jesus came, he came as a baby. The next time He comes, He will come as king and judge. The 2nd graders made some beautiful Advent Lapbooks this December, filled with amazing advent things. As we do our best to always have our hearts prepared for Jesus, we are filled with joy that Jesus came to save us. This truly is the season of gifts. In fact, the 2nd graders recently received a very special gift… the gift of Reconciliation. How wonderful to have this gift of peace and forgiveness offered to us. Going to confession isn’t something we “have” to do; it’s something we “get” to do! The feast day of St. Nicholas also had us reflecting on the spirit of giving. We pray that we follow in the footsteps of this great saint, as we follow his example of love and generosity. A favorite part of our day is when grades 1-4 gather together for the Advent Wreath and Jesse Tree. We love learning about the significant bible people who are a part of the story of Salvation History. They were always pointing to Jesus, as should we. Do you know the story of the Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center? The 2nd graders do! We learned that the first tree was erected by construction workers digging the foundation for the Rockefeller Center in 1931. They wanted to show their appreciation for having jobs at a time – the Great Depression – when so many others were out of work. Since 1933, countless visitors have come to Rockefeller Center to marvel at the world’s most famous Christmas tree. We think this Christmas Tree tradition is pretty amazing! This led us into conversations about our own family Christmas traditions, which are very special too! We then read a new book called Red and Lulu, which is about two cardinals who make their home in an evergreen tree. One day, they become separated and it will take a miracle for them to find each other… luckily, this is the season for miracles! An art project showcasing Red and Lulu in a Christmas Tree culminated this beloved book. My 2nd graders are amazing artists! Our Advent Season has been filled with waiting, love, peace, joy, hope, and fun – and we hope yours has been too! Merry CHRISTmas!

Third Grade News by Ms. Loecker Third graders have been working hard to complete the second quarter, which came up all too quickly! In Math we are through introducing multiplication and division facts 0-9. Now we are working on the fluency of those facts and will be moving on to bigger multiplication problems with multi-steps! In Reading we have been working on the skills of learning how to ask/answer questions within a story, picking out the theme, recognizing the point of view of the author, and working with word parts: prefixes, suffixes, and root words. We have read a variety of genres: realistic fiction, historic fiction, expository texts, and folktales. In Science we have wrapped up our unit on simple machines and are diving into a fun topic of life cycles! In Social Studies we are learning about how we can protect our Earth’s resources. In Religion, we are discussing the mystery of the Holy Trinity: Three Divine Persons in One God. We will soon be learning about Jesus’ Paschal Mystery and what that means for us! We hope you are having an Advent season full of spiritual growth and we wish you a Merry Christmas from third grade!

Fourth Grade News by Mrs. Kaiser Happy Advent! In fourth grade, we have been preparing our hearts and souls for the coming of Jesus during this Advent season. The fourth graders love adding new ornaments to the Jesse Tree every day and learning more about important stories from the Old Testament. While Advent is a time of patiently waiting, we have been busy working on our long division skills, learning about the different parts of waves during science, and finishing up our unit on verbs. We have had many fun Christmas writing prompts this month like imagining what it would have been like for Mary and Joseph on that very first Christmas. During Nebraska history, we took a trip back to what it would been like to be a homesteader. Most of the fourth graders agree that we are very thankful for the machines and technology in our lives. While our main focus has been on Advent, we also celebrated the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. On this feast day, the fourth graders learned all about how Mary appeared to Saint Catherine Labouré and told her how to create the Miraculous Medal. The fourth graders were overjoyed to have received their very own Miraculous Medal. We are eagerly awaiting the birth of our Savior and want to wish everyone a very blessed Christmas and Happy New Year!

December 2020 St. Rose of Lima Classy News

Fifth Grade News by Mrs. Melena It is hard to believe that we are already so close Christmas! We are thankful that we have been able to be in school together this semester. In math we have are into our second chapter about fractions. We are beginning to multiply and divide fractions. The kids are working hard to get better at it every day! We have been learning about Sacred Scripture in Religion. The students are realizing that the stories in the Bible can be related to our lives and we can learn so much about Jesus by reading Scripture. In History we have started a chapter about the colonists and the Declaration of Independence. We have learned about motion in Science, and we got to do an experiment to demonstrate inertia. In Reading we are learning about context clues, theme, and main idea. The students have also started giving their Advent friends special gifts and offering prayers for them in preparation of Christmas. We hope you all have a safe and happy holiday season.

Sixth Grade News by Mrs. Schieffer Happy Catholic New Year! Our Church’s new liturgical year began on November 29, the First Sunday of Advent. During this beautiful season of Advent, we patiently wait for Christmas, remembering the first coming of Jesus as a baby and preparing our hearts for his Second Coming in glory. We have many opportunities to prepare our hearts: gifting our Advent Friends with small handmade items, friendly notes, and prayers; listening to the readings from salvation history that correspond to the leaves on our Jesse Tree; going to Confession; sharing our kindness and joy with others; and spending quiet time in prayer. The 6th graders learned about various ministries in the Church, made cards congratulating the 2nd graders on their First Reconciliation, learned how to make God’s Eyes (a festive decoration and ornament), and continued watching the epic miniseries, “The Bible.” Students are enjoying seeing salvation history come to life on the screen. The 7th graders studied the Sacraments of Healing and had some great discussions about various topics of life and death: suicide, euthanasia, abortion, violence, and capital punishment. They also studied the Beatitudes and the 8th commandment. The 8th graders learned about some tough times in the early Church, including heresies, councils, persecutions, and the Great Schism. Through it all, the Church was a bright light during those dark times. In History class, the 6th graders learned about Ancient China and the Ancient Hebrews, while the 7th& 8th graders have been working hard on their History Day projects: reading, researching, creating, and writing. Students are creating virtual exhibits, a performance, and a documentary. Peace, joy, and blessings to all this CHRISTmas!

Seventh Grade News by Mrs. Dather Students have been moving forward in their studies and will enjoy the break next week. 6th grade physical science class has started the wave unit. In math they are working with the dreaded fractions: adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing. 7th grade life science class is working on body systems and in math they are finishing up with converting customary lengths and will be heading into all things integers. 8th grade Earth science has been learning about volcanos, eruptions within Earth and mountain building. In math the inequalities with graphing have led to the system of linear equations, distance formula and the midpoint formula. Maps testing has shown that students are remembering and are able to apply it to their test. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. As we bring the year 2020 to a close let us pray for 2021 to be a better year. We have been staying healthy and we are so blessed to be in school, in person teaching and learning. Thank you for the continued prayers and God Bless you all.

Eighth Grade News by Mrs. Arens It is hard to believe that it is almost the end of the second quarter. The 8th grade class is finishing the novel A Christmas Carol and then will be watching the movie while the 7th graders are finishing the novel Across Five Aprils. Grades 6-8 are all working on the 6 traits writing skills of voice and word choice and using them to expand their writing. All three grades have worked on writing descriptive paragraphs. The 7th and 8th graders have finished chapters in English on sentences types which include simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences only for the 8th graders. For English, the 6th grade is learning about helping verbs, main verbs, linking verbs, and verb phrases. In 6th grade, we finished Dibels testing and grades 6-8 finished their STAR tests. Each student should be bringing home a sheet with their results from the STAR test. All three classes should continue to read Accelerated Reader books to accomplish their goal of reading four books a year. Check with your child to see how many books they have read.