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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“Whoever loves me will keep
my word, and my Father will love him,
and we will come to him and make our
dwelling with him.”
John 14: 23
Imagine,
if you will, being completely in charge of twenty children for seven and a half
hours. You must keep them safe. You must keep them all focused on the same
ideas and working on the same goals at the same time. You need to have each of them learn numerous
important concepts and skills in subjects as varied as religion, math, science,
social studies, phonics, spelling, reading comprehension, grammar, penmanship,
composition, speaking – despite their interests (or lack) and wide difference
of experience and abilities. You are to
work on having these very different personalities interact cooperatively,
civilly, and fairly together throughout the day. Now remember these children come from
different home environments and have parents whose parenting styles and
discipline expectations vary universes apart.
Yet you must keep these youngsters engaged, interested, working, and
behaving well for a full day. That means
you have to be “ON” every moment that they are in your charge. You have to move quickly from one activity to
another, from one subject to another with little time in-between time to
breathe, much less get papers corrected, recorded, and new work prepared. No, all that must be done after the children
have left for the day. Think how much time THAT must take! How many subjects, how many papers, how many
activities and projects. Then there are
parents to contact by phone or email or notes.
No wonder teachers are among the most exhausted of laborers in the
Lord’s vineyard. Having one’s own
children to care for all day can prove quite the task. Try teaching them all those subjects, whether
or not they are particularly interested in doing that at the time it must be
done. And then multiply them by many
children and do that day after day after day.
Teachers do. They certainly
didn’t go into this profession for the money.
They went into it because they felt CALLED to contribute to one the most
important tasks in the world – contributing in a major way to forming the young
for their roles as the adults of tomorrow.
No wonder there is such a thing as TEACHER APPRECIATION WEEK! May the Lord who has asked that we bring the
young to him bless our teachers abundantly for their efforts on his
behalf. Please support these good, good
people with your understanding, appreciation, cooperation, and assumption of
their good will and good sense.
Lest
I forget the request, there is an agenda item to add to the Home and School
Association “New Business” list -- September Dance. By the way, the other day there were only 46
tickets turned in for the car raffle so far.
Please!! Also, if you need the
TUITION AID APPLICATION for 2007-08, please don’t forget to contact us for
one. It is due back June 1st. Oh,
Finally,
in prayer, dear Moms and Dads, please know that you ARE making the right
decision to have your children here at St. Henry. God truly blesses those parents who care
enough about the commitment they made at their child’s baptism to bring their
child up in the faith to make the sacrifices necessary to have them here. As it says in the bishops’ document, To
Teach as Jesus Did, “This integration of religious truth and values with
life distinguishes the Catholic school from other schools. This is a matter of crucial importance
today in view of contemporary trends and pressures to compartmentalize
life and learning and to isolate the religious dimension of existence from
other areas of human life. A Catholic
for whom religious commitment is the central, integrative reality of his life
will find in the Catholic school a perception and valuation of the role of
religion which matches his own.” If
this commitment isn’t the “central, integrative reality” of one’s life, isn’t
it time to respond to the challenge of Jesus and make that commitment and learn
what true peace and joy that a committed life in the Lord brings? Your children deserve to be in this
environment that challenges them to become disciples, to make the world better
for their Christian presence. This
school has been a gift of this parish to its children for over a century and a
half. Give it to your children. Continue to make this gift possible for other
generations of parish children with your wholehearted support for decades to
come.
THIRD GRADERS AND KEYBOARD SKILLS
We have some keyboarders to add to our typing list. Congratulations to Mara Lapp, Rochelle Gray,
Trey Jahnke, Josh Schroeder, Jenny Brebeck, and Sarah
Bradow. We
have a total of ten typists in third grade.
Awesome!
The third graders have completed their unit in science on states
of matter. Many thanks to Katie
Schroeder for demonstrating states of matter and their different properties as
well as chemical and physical changes.
Did your third grader tell you about the yummy marshmallows?
Thanks also to James Conant who shared information about his job
as a lube and oil technician with the children for career day.
You can definitely feel it in the classroom, see it on the
playground, observe it in the hall – these third graders are on the way to
becoming fourth graders. I would like to
thank each of you for sharing your child with St. Henry’s. Each of these children bring precious gifts
to each other that are nurtured and shared – EVERY DAY!
Enjoy your summer.
Mrs. Zache
AMAZING MUSIC
What an amazing opportunity students had last Wednesday, May 2, to
attend the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra concert!
It is so important in this day and age to be a well-rounded and cultured
person, and music is certainly one piece of that puzzle. Isn’t it incredible that music written
hundreds of years ago creates the same emotions in people today? Talk about a universal language! And music knows no age limit. Everyone can enjoy all types of music, at any
age. How lucky our students are to have
this marvelous trip.
Looking forward to Thursday, June 7 and our spring program, grades
preschool through four will be performing a short show titled “Get America
Singing” while students in grades five through six will be showing off their
World Music Drumming skills! Students
are asked to wear red, white, and blue, and blue; jeans are ok as are black
slacks. More details will follow as we
discover some characters we will become.
Mrs. Oestreicher
Dates to Put on Your Calendar
MAY
Friday 11 Mid-quarter
reports go home.
Monday 14 Home
and School Association mtg.,
Wednesday 16 Grade
eight fills many liturgical roles for
Thursday 17 Grades
one and two to Marquardt Manor
Friday 18 Safety
Patrol THANKS trip to Wisconsin Dells
Market Day
Open gym for parish youth, PC,
Fri-Sun 18-20 St.
Henry School Families Weekend in Wis. Dells
Tuesday 22
“Protecting God’s Children” workshop for volunteers,
St. John’s Jefferson,
Thursday 24 All
school LIBRARY books must be returned today or tomorrow.
Dream Team visits the fourth
grade class
DARE graduation for grade five, Watertown
High School,
Friday 25 Student
Council Tee Shirt with a STATE on It Day
Grades 4 and 6 to Buckskinner
Rendezvous
Monday 28 NO
School Memorial Day
Wednesday 30
May Crowning after
up and have liturgical roles
Preschool class to farm field
trip
Thursday 31
St. Bernard and St. Henry Band and Choir Concert,
JUNE
Friday 01 Last day for APPLICATIONS for 07-08 TUITION
AID
with all required paperwork to be in.
Thursday 07 Spring
Program, preschoolers through grade 6 in it,
Monday 11 Graduation,
Tuesday 12 Last
day: Mass at
Sunday 17 Protecting
God’s Children workshop for volunteers,
St. Bernard’s Watertown,
Memory Verse for May 14-18
All you
peoples clap your hands, shout to God with cries of gladness for the Lord, the
Most High, the AWESOME, is the great King over all the earth.”
(Psalm 47: 2-3 used in
Sunday, May 20th’s Ascension Celebration Mass)