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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“The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and
of great kindness.
The Lord is good to all and compassionate toward all
his works.”
Psalm 145: 8-9
A warm, warm welcome to Fr. Brian Wilk. We are so pleased to have him with us and very grateful that he, like Father Bernie, will be coming into the classrooms on a regular basis. What a blessing! Thank you, Father, for making our children and our school high on your priority list.
This Thursday and Friday we had six visitors in school as members of the accreditation visiting team. To give two full days of their lives here -- and hours before they come in preparation for their time here, these educators are certainly giving a great gift to our community. God bless them. The self-study report they read and their own final report -- which will probably be here for sure after Christmas vacation – both will be available in the office for your perusal. Feel comfortable asking to see them!
For those looking for “A Protecting God’s Children” workshop to attend as part of the diocesan policy requirements for any school or parish volunteers and employees, St. Bernard’s will be hosting one on Thursday, November 15th in St. Bernard School beginning at 6:00 pm. To register please go to the Virtus.org site and choose the Diocese of Madison to click on when you get the window for that. Then St. Bernard’s workshop will appear, and it will be obvious what to do from there. If doing that is not an easy task for you, you could also call Mrs. Caryl Getchell at St. Bernard’s to let her know you will be coming. Her number is 261-2582. By the way, if you need to get this workshop, don’t sign up for parent-teacher conferences that evening!
I want to remind you all about the school section of the parish website sainthenryparish.org . I know some recent school activity pictures have been added and it is also a good place to check for information if you have misplaced your newsletters. They can be found online! Just Monday of this week pictures were taken of Officer Dave Gilbert passing out football cards as part of Student Council’s Sports Teams Day and a little extension of last week’s Red Ribbon Days activities. Officer Dave is a wonderful police liaison for our school: he has a very genuine love for kids and yet certainly is a man who has earns their respect.
Because of the short week last week and no newsletter, I haven’t had a chance to publicly thank the many, many generous volunteers involved in all these activities over the last two weeks: the Book Fair, the Blood Drive, the St. Henry clothing sale, the league volleyball tournament, the Halloween Bash, the Fr. Bernie reception and lunch, the hymn folder compiling project, and the chaperones for various classroom field trips, the Middle School Rally, and Frightfest. Too bad nothing ever happens around here, eh? Please, please, volunteers, know that we are counting on God to reward your great generosity because none of us could ever come close to doing that adequately.
This is hopefully a little early to mention this, but in case of weather emergencies, St. Henry School will do whatever the public school decides since some of our children ride their buses. We are more than happy to turn over decisions for that responsibility to them. A number of different radio and TV stations make those announcements so checking in with them will certainly keep you informed as to no school or early dismissals due to developing possibly dangerous conditions. Take care and God bless!
LEARNING HAPPENS OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM
The
seventh grade has had many opportunities this year to “study” outside of our
classroom. Our first “trip” took us on our first class retreat to Camp
Gray in Reedsburg. The day was spent working on building a community and
helping each other. It was so much fun no one wanted to come home at the
end of the day. When the class hit the road again it was on a beautiful
fall day in the Horicon National Wildlife Refuge on Hwy 49. There was
water in the marsh this year and we were able to search for “critters” by
dragging nets through the water. The greatest find, besides the bloodworm
that was neat looking, was a leech! Our latest trip was to the Catholic
Youth Rally for Christ in Madison with the eighth grade. The day was
centered around the theme of being Real Life Transformers. We spent the
day together learning more about transforming ourselves. We celebrated
Mass with Fr. Eric Sternberg before returning home. Soon we will be
heading to Madison to attend a showing of A Christmas Carol.
A big
thanks goes out to all the parents of the seventh grade students. Without
your support, we would not be able to enjoy these activities. Your
generosity is greatly appreciated.
Mrs. Smedema
KINDERGARTEN CHILDREN GO TO MASS
The
kindergarten children went to Ebert’s in October for a wonderful field
trip. The children heard the story Click Clack Moo, Cows That Type. They
then made a delightful craft creation related to the story and finally went to
choose their individual pumpkins. This trip was a highlight of our
pumpkin – themed week.
We have
started to go to the all – school Masses. We will be going about twice a month
and I’ll put those dates on the monthly calendar. The children should be
able to sit, stand, and kneel reverently at the appropriate times and pray the
“Our Father” with the congregation. Please encourage them to do those
things when you attend the weekend Mass as a family.
Mrs. Lapp
Dates to Mark on Your
Calendar
NOVEMBER
Monday 5 Student
Council’s
Tuesday 6
Picture Retake Day – early morning
Wednesday 7 Seventh
grade fills liturgical roles at
Play Group in Parish Center,
Athletic Association Board
meeting,
computer lab
Sunday 11 Second
grade parents’ First Reconciliation meeting,
9:30 am, cafeteria
Monday 12 Home
and School Association meeting,
Tuesday 13
St. HENRY Clothes Day in honor of St. Henry whose feast
day is July 13!
Education Commission meeting,
Origami Class for adults with
Mrs. Misako Nimiya,
Wednesday 14 Fifth
grade fills liturgical roles at
Thursday 15 Grade
3, 4, and 5 to Jefferson for play
Protecting God’s Children Virtus training,
St. Bernard School Parent-Teacher
Conferences –late
afternoon and early evening
Friday 16 Student
Council “Wear Blaze Orange/Camouflage Day”
Last day of food drive for St.
Vincent dePaul
Sat-Sun 17-18 Parish
Holly Berry Fair after the weekend Masses
Sunday 18 School
Children’s Cantor Choir leads singing at 8:30 am Mass
Monday 19 Parent-Teacher
Conferences – late afternoon and early evening
Tuesday 20
Break until Monday, the 26th.
Tuesday 27 Origami
Class for adults with Mrs. Misako Nimiya,
Memory verse for week of November 5-9
“The Lord is faithful; he will
strengthen you and guard you from the evil one.”
2 Thessalonians 3:3