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St. Mary’s School May Newsletter
May tends to be a rather bittersweet month. It’s a month full of
“lasts”. On one hand, you have the last math test, the last history
assignment, or if you’re a teacher, there’s the last week of cafeteria
duty or last writing assignment to grade. But then there’s the last
time that a particular group of children who have become so dear to you
will be “your kids”. The eighth graders leave the school one last time
as the eighth grade. We have finally arrived at the end of this school
year, which may be remembered as the “Year of Weird Weather”.
May started on a prayerful note. On May 1, the kindergarten through
eighth grades participated in the National Day of Prayer service held
in front of the city building. The prayers were led by religious, civil
and business leaders. Fr. White was the last of the group to lead us in
prayer. My class was standing behind a wall of adults, and since the
children were, shall we say “vertically challenged”, they could see no
one. When Fr. White began to speak, several of them excitedly turned to
me to inform me that “That’s our Father!” who was talking. On Friday
May 2, the school participated in the annual May Crowning ceremony to
honor the Blessed Mother. This year two eighth graders, Hayley Maher
and Paige Kreusch had the honor to place the crown of flowers on the
statue of Mary.
On May 5 the eighth graders left for their class trip to Atlanta,
Georgia. They spent four days exploring Atlanta. On Monday they visited
Olympic Park and the World of Coca Cola where they sampled Coke
products from around the world. They rode the Sky View which is a 20
story Ferris wheel for a bird’s eye view of the city. The next day they
visited Stone Mountain and toured Atlanta by bus and Segway. One of the
discoveries they made was that riding a Segway isn’t very easy if one
tends to fidget. On Wednesday they visited the Georgia Aquarium which
covers 9 1⁄2 acres and holds 10 million gallons of water. On the last
day of the trip, they attended Mass at the Shrine of the Immaculate
Conception. During the Civil War, Fr. Thomas O’Reilly, a confederate
chaplain, persuaded General Sherman, remembered for his destructive
march through Atlanta, to spare the church. Later that day, the class
visited the Atlanta Zoo. They saw the pandas that were on loan from
China. When the class returned to school on Friday, they visited the
other grades and shared their experiences with the students.
On May 21 most of the classes will be attending retreats. These
retreats give the students a chance to experience different ways to
pray and to reflect on the presence of God in their lives. The seventh
and eighth graders’ retreat will be held at the Bergamo Center and the
fifth and sixth graders will have their retreat at Maria Stein. The
third and fourth graders’ retreat will be at school. In March the
second graders participated in Jesus Day, which was a retreat for the
younger students preparing for First Communion.
I began this letter talking about lasts, so it seems appropriate that I
finish with a few lasts. For the preschoolers, May 22 is the last day
for the Caterpillars and May 23 is the last day for the Butterfly
class. Our eighth graders will graduate on May 28. This year the class
consists of four girls, Hayley Maher, Emma Jennings, Paige Kreusch, and
Sajoel Hauberg. To borrow a word coined by one of my daughter’s
friends, this was a “smighty” class, small but mighty. These four
students were great student leaders. We will surely miss their laughter
and kindness around here. Best of luck to all four, as they begin their
new adventures in high school.
June 2 is Field Day. Mrs. Foster and the student council have been busy
planning all kinds of fun activities for the day. Some of the
activities are tug-of-war, water games, and an ice cream eating
contest, (sign me up!) and beach ball volley ball. The last day of
school is June 3. We will begin with Mass. The fourth quarter and end
of the year awards will be presented to the students. School will be
dismissed at 12:30.
And now you have read a “last” ---the last column of the 2013 – 14
school year! Have a great summer.
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