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SCHOOL NEWS December 2015

Mark Your Calendar! December 1: Classes resume after Thanksgiving Vacation

December 3 - 9: Scholastic Book Fair

December 5: Breakfast with Santa

December 8: Mass for the Immaculate Conception

December 11 & 18: Reconciliation for grades 3-5

December 12: First Reconciliation for Grade 2

December 13: Youth Ministry Live Nativity in front of the Main Church at 3:30 p.m.

December 14: Blue Knights at 6:30 p.m.

December 16: December Birthdays Casual Dress Day

December 17: School concert in the main church at 7:00, arrive no earlier than 6:30

December 19: Grade 4 retreat/ brownies served at the Lord's luncheon

December 22: Mission Casual Dress Day for December – monetary or canned good donation

December 23 - January 1: Christmas Vacation

January 4: Classes resume after Christmas Vacation

St. John the Baptist Catholic School Newsletter

From the Principal’s Desk...

At our recent Open House, I asked the 4

th and 5

th grade students to help us with

welcoming new families. The maturity and poise that they presented speaks to the confidence they have developed as individuals. I was very proud that they conducted themselves in a mature fashion and spoke with ease to the families about our school. In this this newsletter, you will see a photo of all of the children who have won principal awards because they have done thoughtful and kind things. Many of the students have won multiple awards. I thank you for raising thoughtful young people who will grow into loving and giving adults.

Continuing with the technology information that was provided in last month's newsletter is some information from our third grade. Third, Fourth and Fifth grades are working on STEM projects every other Friday and you will hear about the most recent one. We are always looking for experts in their fields to come and teach our children what they know. We have some topics already covered: physics, chemistry, ecology and the brain. If you have an area of expertise that you could share with us, please contact one of the teachers or myself. The more experience our children have, the more likely they are to find a field of study they will love. St. John the Baptist

Catholic School

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Decorated Pumpkin Contest

Congratulations to Mrs. Miller's First grade class for raising $257.00 for the Pontifical Missions from their beautiful and scary pumpkins! Mrs. O'Byrne's class will be decorating gingerbread houses in Dec. Students may again bring in their pennies to vote on their favorite gingerbread house. All proceeds ben-efit the Pontifical missions. Thanks for your support.

New Altar Servers Three of our 5

th graders recently trained to become

altar servers for our church. They will not only serve at the Sunday and Holy Day Masses, but also at our weekly Friday Masses. When asked about their new role at St. John’s, Kaitlyn responded that being an alter server has brought her closer to God, Cole enjoys carrying the can-dles and Jonathan likes the sprinkling of the water.

Congratulations to Cole Benesch, Kaitlyn O'Byrne, and Jonathan Wagner!

Breakfast with Santa Please join us on Saturday, December 5

th, for Break-

fast with Santa. There will be crafts for the children to make, a secret Santa gift shop and of course, Santa himself. Due to the popularity of this event and that space is limited, there will be no ticket sales at the door. Two seatings are available, 9:00 a.m. & 10:30 a.m. Tick-ets are $8.00 for adults, $5.00 for youth 3-12 yrs., and children under 2 are Free. The follow-ing donations are needed: baked goods, gift bags, tissue paper and wrapped chocolates. Bring your camera to capture those precious holiday moments with Santa!

Our Scholastic Book Fair will be open in the parish social hall from Dec. 3

rd – 9

th, from 9:00 a.m – 10:00 a.m. on school days, Dec. 3

rd from

6:00 p.m. - 7:15 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 5th

during Breakfast with Santa; and Wednesday, Dec. 9

th from 6:00 p.m. - 7:15 p.m. Please stop by to check

out the many books that will be on sale. They make great Christmas and birthday gifts.

Catholic Schools Week

To begin our Catholic Schools Week, the teachers and parents of St. John's school compete with the other schools in the York Deanery. More information will follow, but please mark your calendar for January 30th for our annual Battle of the Building held at York Catholic. Come and cheer for our school!

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Our school Christmas Concert will be held in the Main Church on Thursday, Dec. 17

th. The

children have worked very hard for this presentation. Please feel free to invite as many friends and family as you wish to come and see their perfor-mance. We also ask that each family donate a dozen Christ-mas cookies for the reception afterward in the atrium.

The entire program should last no more than 45 minutes.

Specials

Spotlight

Music

Our Kindergarten and First grade clas-ses decorated a tree in the school hall-way. The leaves represent things for which they are thankful. They collabo-rated with their families to list their thoughts on the leaves to show their many blessings.

Ravens vs. Steelers Game Raffle

Many thanks to everyone who has supported this fundraising effort. A special thank you to the Marchant family, McGraw family, McLain family, Maly family, Mazziott family, David family, Rogers family, Uphouse family, Struck family, Seel family and Mrs. Mareck for donating their time at the Christmas bazaar, area busi-nesses and after masses to promote this fundraiser.

It’s not too late to get a ticket for the Ravens vs. Steeler game raffle. The winning ticket will be pulled during Breakfast with Santa. The lucky winner will re-ceive two tickets to the game on Sunday, December 27

th. Raffle tickets are available in the school and

church offices. You do not need to be present to win. Good luck!

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Classroom Corner...

The week before Thanksgiving, Miss Sweeney’s third grade class was

given a STEM engineering challenge. Their challenge was to build a boat

that would carry the Pilgrims, their livestock, and their cargo without sink-

ing. They could only use aluminum foil to build their models of the May-

flower. The Pilgrims, their livestock, and cargo were represented by marsh-

mallows, Tootsie Rolls, and pennies. The students were given two class pe-

riods to build and prepare for the final testing of their boats on Friday.

While some boats were successful and others were not, all the students

learned a lot about floating, sinking, and engineering!

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Snow Closures In the event of inclement weather or for any other event that causes us to cancel school, it's important to know what procedures we follow. You will receive a notice from the school (One Call Now) to your home phone, cell phone or email (or all of the above)

if there are any chang-es to our school schedule. We also have announcements made on WGAL news 8 and FOX 43 if there is a delay or cancella-tion. Any change in routine will also be on Voice mail (Julie/Kim) for the school.

This bulletin board in our school features the many children who have received the Principal’s Award. These students have gone that extra mile to help others, volunteer their time, assist others in need and generously share with classmates. Their words and actions demonstrate the qualities and characteristics that we hope to instill in all our students.

Keep up the good work, St. John’s students!

Poinsettia Sale Our school will be selling Poinset-tia's in the atrium of the church on Dec. 12th and 13th. If your child can volunteer after the Mass you attend to help sell poinsettias and simply to greet the people in uniform, they will earn a free homework pass.

Knights of Columbus Coloring Contest

Our Knights of Columbus hold a drawing/coloring contest each year in our school. Rich Sayers, from the K of C, came into all the classrooms recently to speak to the children about this contest. They are looking for a student who can depict the true meaning of Christmas. All entries must be submitted no later than De-cember 8th.

Scrip

Don't forget to purchase your Scrip shopping cards for the Holidays from St. John's school. All the monies earned go towards helping students attend our school in the form of a scholarship. Scrip cards to many retailers are available.

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Principal’s Awards This award is given for being kind, helpful and compassionate.

The following students have earned the Principal’s Award

For the month of November

Politeness to the Kindergarten Class: Trent Mueck

Kindness to a teacher: Sophia Gordillo

Helped Mrs. O'Bryne: Stella McGraw, Alaina Udzinski, Owen Mayer,

Olivia Struck

Helped a friend: Emma Crone

Helped Mrs. Blevins: Gianna Margotta, Gabe McLain,

Annabelle Traband, Aiden Goloboski, Jake Causey

Being a friend: Easton Kanatzar

Helped a teacher: Morgan Campbell, Annabelle Seel, Sophie Sedgley, Nate

Marchant, Luke Manfredi, Roman Manfredi, Olivia Watson, Luke Watson

Helped Mrs. Mareck: Lydia Kachik, Bella Kachik, Wyatt Traband