Thursday Newsletter

FROM  THE  DESK OF  MS. HESED

OH, THIS WEATHER!

I certainly did not really believe that I would ever have to call off school due to temperatures in the 100s.  I am sure that back in 1918 the children and the nuns in their full habits simply endured the heat. I am just as sure that there was very little effective thinking and learning going on then or yesterday afternoon at school.  Good childcare, but not much teaching and learning.  The first graders enjoyed watching “How to Tame a Dragon.”  Cute movie, bad history, but great moral teaching on the value of making friends and teaching with a gentle hand rather than an iron fist.  Great comment on the importance of emotional intelligence.  The eighth graders experimented with heat! They discovered that by speaking and moving about they could increase the temperature in their classroom.  Their experiment was cut short when they realized that the thermostat did not register above 99.  Ms. Drackert’s little ones took advantage of the slightly cooler library for napping and stories. 
So what is lost by calling off school within the first two weeks:

• Tomorrow should have been our first Mass with our new pastor, Fr. O’Toole!  Next Friday will just have to do.
• Tomorrow we will have officially used our two snow days written into the calendar.  Pray for a mild winter!
• Quality thinking and learning requires a combination of effort, challenging the brain and resting the brain, and consistency.  The brain also requires that the body be comfortable.  In or out of school this week, optimum learning simply was not going to happen – our teachers will concentrate on making up for lost time.
• PTA Pizza – tomorrow was supposed to be our first pizza lunch!  PTA has agreed to move our first pizza lunch to next Friday, September 9.
• The greatest loss and one that teachers will concentrate on overcoming is the loss of quality time for building relationships and comfort with procedures within each classroom.  Like the brain’s thinking, relationship building takes ongoing, consistent effort.  This will be a priority in every teacher’s classroom.
• And, of course, I am very aware of how terribly inconvenient these last few days have been for those parents who work away from the house.  I wish we could have done differently, but I saw no other choice.

SO, WHY NOT JUST INSTALL AC?

Cost is the prohibiting factor.  It is not simply a matter of purchasing 38 high powered window units.  Admittedly even that would be expensive.  The problem arises when we attempt to plug them in!  Our outlets are not typically near windows and the current electricity is not nearly enough to run those units.  Several years ago, I insisted that we purchase an AC unit for the computer lab – talk about hot! We plugged it in, it ran although it did not fully cool the room but it was better than nothing and then we turned on the computers!  Within 15 minutes nothing was working.  We have since upgraded the electric in that room.  However they tell me that to upgrade the electric throughout the school would require not only an upgrade within each classroom but an increase in power from outside the buildings.  We have investigated by getting some bids – they are high. SO, does anyone want to join our grant committee to work on a grant that might assist with electric upgrades and AC installations? 

WE DO HAVE A SOURCE FOR ICE!

Until last week, the teachers shared ice from the faculty room refrigerator – just like the one in your kitchen, not big and industrial.  By the end of a hot day the ice was gone. But last week we added an ice-maker to the kitchen! School parent and caterer, Dan Sulz, did the leg work investigating sizes and specs over the summer.  Mr. Melsheimer, our maintenance man, hauled the ice-maker into school.  PTA covered the purchasing cost.  Jennifer Walker, school parent and plumber, installed it on Monday.  Already it has gotten a work out.  It has been a saving grace for our after care kids who remain in the building until 6:00.  Thank you, PTA!  Thank you, Jennifer!  Thank you, Dan! Thank you, Frank!  We will put this machine to great use.

By the way, does anyone have a kitchen-sized refrigerator they are ready to move out of their house?  We need more refrigeration space for milk and juice, aftercare snacks and pizza lunch foods.  More children means more food to be purchased and stored. 

ENOUGH ABOUT HOT AND COLD

Let’s take a quick peek at the week ahead!
September 6, Monday no school yet again, at least this day off was already planned!
September 8, Thursday is our Back to School night.  Parents of 1st through 8th graders are encouraged to come meet your child’s teacher, learn some of the expectations, get an introduction to the Fast Direct Teacher’s Bulletin Board and receive your revised Family Handbook.  For some this may seem old news, please make the effort to join us anyhow.  Please be kind to our neighbors and park on the school parking lot, not on Castleman.
We are also hosting a dress down day on the 8th. Cost to dress down - $1.00.  All proceeds will go to Catholic Relief Services to assist Somali refugees, especially women and children, who are being forced to flee their home country.  For more information on the situation in Somalia go to CRS.org.  This will be the first of many service projects over the course of this school year.
September 9, Friday is a FULL day of school.  We will not dismiss early for a faculty meeting and we WILL HAVE PTA PIZZA LUNCH!!!. 
September 10, Saturday from 5:30 to dusk is our annual PTA sponsored Back to School BBQ.  More information further on in the newsletter.

Parents of Kindergarten Aged students mark your calendars and hire your babysitters for an important meeting on September 15 at 7:00 pm at school.  The presenter will be a child psychologist from West County Psychological, the presentation will be about helping your child transition into Kindergarten, school and new friendships.  Please park on the school parking lot.

Parents of 7th graders mark your calendars and plan your menus for lunch with your 7th grade adolescents on September 16 at 12:45 in the school cafeteria.  The parking lot will be available for parking.

Welcome Back……some info and announcements…..

Buzz Book – Hopefully, the Buzz Book will be going to the printer next week, please update your information in Fast Direct by Wednesday, Sept. 7th.  Your child(ren) / family information will be published in the buzz book unless otherwise noted in Fast Direct.  At the bottom of the information page Fast Direct asks if phone number should be published and also if address should be published you have a yes / no option. 

Thursday Newsletter  - If anyone has a note to be typed in the letter, please e-mail your message or your flyer to cstephens@smos-school.org no later than Wednesday and it will all be put online. 

Paper – If your office or anyone you know uses office paper just on one side, such as lead sheets for a shared printer, reports run off in error, etc.  Please bring it into the school office.  We will make use of the other side.  By printing our student’s worksheets, tests, homework on recycled paper, it saves SMOS a tremendous amount of money and also saves our trees.  It is never too early or too little a task to teach our children how to take care of our earth.

PTA Back to School BBQ - Just a reminder that the Back to School BBQ is Saturday, September 10th from 5:30-8pm at SMOS.  This year the BBQ will be held outside in order to keep our school clean.  Please consider bringing lawn chairs for your family as we will have limited seating. We also ask you to send your potluck dish in a disposable container.  If you do not bring it in a disposable dish please mark your dish and utensils with your family name so they may be retrieved.

Maggie’s Closet will be open along with other SMOS gear sales.  Plus we will have school activity sign-ups available.

If you are interested in volunteering to help with set-up &/or clean-up please contact: Nicole Mohler ngallimohler@earthlink.net.  See you all rain or shine!

Girl Scouts - The SMOS Girl Scouts are busy preparing for a fun filled year of scouting, including the celebration of the 100th anniversary of Girl Scouting in 2012.
We have scouting opportunities for all girls Kindergarten through 8th grade. We are looking for leaders for 4th grade Juniors and Kindergarten and 1st grade Daisies.
Please contact Troop Organizer Emily Martin for more information, or stop by our table at the Dragon BBQ on 9/10! 314-776-6478 or emilyamartin@yahoo.com.
Dragon’s Grove – Do you want to get your hands a little dirty?  Consider coming to the garden work day next Saturday, Sept. 10 from 9am-11am.  

Bread Company  - bread pick-up will begin on Tuesday, September 13th.  If you don’t mind day old bread/bagles, you will be able to pick up bread / bagels in the kitchen on Tuesday mornings.

No cost fundraisers for our school…
“Box Tops” – please make sure you clip off your box tops for education and  send them into school.  They really add up!

Campbell’s Soup Labels – the UPC CODE is the section of the label that is collected.

EcoPhones – please bring in your old cell phones, ink jet printer cartridges, dvd movies and videogames, laptop computers, MP3 players, digital cameras, or digital video cameras.  We send them to EcoPhones, for safe recycling and we then receive a check.

Target – get a Target Red Card and SMOS receives 1% of all your Target purchases; or simply purchase your Target gift cards from the school office and we receive an even greater kick-back.

Office Depot – Tell the cashier at checkout that you support SMOS and 5% of your purchase will be donated to our school.

Abitibi Paper Recycling – the big yellow and green bin on our parking lot, takes office paper, junk mail, magazine, catalogs and newspapers – please recycle all your paper here.

SHOPS program (e-scrip) – as follows:  for in-stock items – more info to come…..keep looking!!! – This is a dollar for dollar fund raiser, you buy a $25 or $100 gift card – you actually receive a $25 or $100 gift card.

Please, remember to buy your grocery / shopping certificates through our “SHOPS” program. Below are the certificates we always have in stock.  There are dozens more vendors to choose from.  These make great last minute gifts as well!!!
 
The certificates are being sold directly from the school office for your convenience.  Please participate weekly!!!  Simply send in the order form, provided below.  Your child will bring the certificates home to you!

Name:__________________________________

Child’s grade:____________(to send home)

Shop and Save ________$25.00
Shop and Save  _______$100.00
Dierbergs  ________$25.00
Dierbergs  _______$100.00
Home Depot            ________$25.00 
Lowe’s  ________$25.00 
Starbucks  ________$10.00 
Walgreens  ________$25.00
Panera (Bread Co.) ________$10.00
Target   ________$25.00
Target   _______$100.00
BP Gasoline  ________$50.00
Shell Gasoline ________$25.00
Papa John’s Pizza ________$10.00

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