website watertownhistory.org
ebook History of Watertown, Wisconsin
Set of weekly School Newsletters
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St. Henry School Newsletter
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“When supper was ended, he took the cup.
Again, he gave you thanks and praise,
gave the cup to his
disciples, and said . . .”
March is turning
into VIOLIN month here at St. Henry.
Last Friday we were treated to three separate violin presentations (for
three different age groups) by the Zelinski family of
our parish. The two older girls and three of the elementary age boys played a
number of different tunes that demonstrated both the versatility of the
instrument and the talent of the youngsters.
Mom also shared interesting facts about the violin. It was such a
delight, and we are so grateful they gave their morning to us. Then THIS week over a dozen youth violinists,
a cello player, and a piano accompanist from Maranatha College came for a half
hour presentation in preparation for the concert grades 1-4 will be attending
this coming Thursday. They too were
awesome. Amazing what persistence in
practice can do for one’s proficiency!
Finally, on March 20th we will be treated to another half
hour pre-May 2nd concert demonstration by a few members from the
Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra. Any of you are certainly welcome to come. They
will begin at
MONDAY is an
Our annual Lenten Penny WAR starts Monday. It’s a grand and glorious tradition here at St. Henry. Its main purpose is to answer the call of Jesus to truly care for the less fortunate. We in America are SO blessed materially compared to so many people around the world. Of course we are called to share our riches -- “almsgiving” is the churchy word. God expects it of us all. Best to start when we are young. Parents, we’d like to encourage you to not just give money willy-nilly to your children for this endeavor. They should be giving from their allowance, their earnings. Asking them to do extra chores over and above their regular ones would be a great idea. This Lent’s project will be centered on donating to the Missionary Society of St. Columban. The Columban Fathers work in many places around the world helping the poorest of the poor. During Global Solidarity Week in February every class viewed a video and received some instruction about the peoples among whom they work. The kindergarteners learned more about the people of the Philippines, the first graders about the people of Korea, the second graders about the people of Fiji, the third, the Chileans, the fourth, the Japanese, the fifth, Peruvians, and the sixth again the people of the Philippines. The seventh graders had a unit on “World Poverty” and the eighth on “World Hunger.” Even the preschoolers had an age-appropriate introduction to caring about others in a little presentation narrated by a South American toucan! So, hopefully, the children will be motivated to share what they can to further the work of these good men. By the way, you could learn more about them by going to their website www.columban.org.
For the newcomers to school this
year, a word about why this collection is called a Penny War. A class wins the war by having the highest
pennies total. That happens by 1) having
a lot of pennies and 2) offsetting other classes’ penny totals by dumping in
nickels, dimes, quarters, half dollars, silver dollars, green money, and even
checks (made out to St. Henry School) in the other classes’ collection
jars. We allow a few minutes every
morning to do this during the two weeks.
It is a lot of fun. The students love “bombing” other classes when they
hear their penny totals are getting high.
So Monday we begin!
ART NEWS
For the past month the children in grades four through eight have
been working on the “Design an Ad” contest sponsored by the Watertown Daily Times. I really like this program because it truly
gives the children a real opportunity to be an advertising artist. In advertising, the power of words and how it
is all laid out - in addition to a unique drawing - play a huge role in
creating an effective ad. It was also
wonderful to see many students used their computer at home to complete this
project. The selected ads should be in
the paper in April.
The first through third grade have completed a tropical themed
unit. (Can you tell I’m ready for spring?)
Paul Klee inspired the first grade by painting with warm and cool colors
that embellished his tropical scenes.
French painter Paul Gauguin inspired the second grade by taking them on
a trip to Tahiti and they then created postcards about the activities that they
experienced. And finally the third grade
took a wild trip to Africa that ended up to be quite the crazy adventure
complete with gators and your common flying monkey!
Happy soon-to-be spring!
Mrs. Kemp
GRADE FOUR NEWS
As always, it seems we are busy as beavers in fourth grade. In social studies we have been looking at out
states “firsts.” Did you know that Wisconsin’s assembly was the first to use
electric voting machines? These were
installed in 1917 when the new capitol building was opened after the fire.
We have also been getting more hands on knowledge in science by
exploring the properties of magnetism.
We have been able to find what is magnetic and what a magnetic field
looks like.
Math has definitely put a sparkle in our eyes since tackling two
digit by two digit multiplication. This
has put some excitement into our class work, with doing a lot of board work and
checking our work. We have also
discovered a way to check if our answers are close by using estimation.
English has us working between two different projects. One is a newspaper. The students love the idea of being able to
report the news. We are also working on
our story unit. We are learning more
about the parts of a story and wrote our own short stories.
In religion we met Moses and learned about the obstacles he
faced. We have had discussions on how it
must have felt to have God ask you to do his work when you are afraid and
doubtful like Moses was. We will be
focusing on the Lenten season and what Holy Week truly means and celebrates in
the days ahead.
God’s blessings!
Miss Haberkorn
Dates to Put on Your Calendar
MARCH
Friday 09 Parish
Youth Underground Church experience in the evening.
Sunday 11 Daylight
Savings Time begins
Monday 12 Lenten
Penny War begins.
HASA mtg.,
Tuesday 13 Education
Commission mtg.,
Wednesday 14 Children
from grade six fill liturgical roles during
8:15 am
Mass
Thursday 15 Grades
1-4 to Calvary Baptist for a Maranatha College
Concert,
Friday 16 Student
Council “Wearing of the Green” Day
Younger children attend St.
Bernard’s Parade in the morning.
Market Day
Sunday 18 First
Communion Parents mtg. in cafeteria at
Tuesday 20 Special
presentation by musicians from Wisconsin
Chamber Orchestra at
Wednesday 21 Children
from grade four fill liturgical roles
during
Friday 23 Penny
War ends.
Second set of AR points for
the third quarter due.
Saturday 24 Dr.
Paul Gasser “Love and Logic” presentation at
WTTN High school,
School Children’s Cantor Choir sings at
APRIL
Monday 02 Spring
Break begins. Students return to school
on Tuesday, April 10th.
Last day to make reservation for St. Henry
School
Families Fun Weekend in the Dells at
Treasure Island
Waterpark and Resort for May 18 and 19th.
Call 1-800-800-4997. Pick “Reservations.”
Share “lead off number” 468507.
Wednesday 18 NO
SCHOOL! Only St. Henry off so faculty
can attend
a seminar on 6-Trait Writing.
Memory verse for March 12-March 16 from Eucharistic Prayer II
“Take this, all of
you, and drink from it.
This is the cup of my blood,
the blood of the new and
everlasting covenant . . .”