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St. Marys School
October marks
jack-o-lanterns and clutters of spiders
By Kathy Ayette
Once again I am being observed by a pumpkin patch of grocery sack
jack-o-lanterns and a clutter of lunch bag spiders. (I actually
looked up what a large group of spiders is called and it is a
clutter. Learn something new every day!) This year the
pumpkins are really keeping an eye on me. While rummaging around
the art room, I found some extra-large shaky eyes. So after the
children painted on the jack-o-lanterns’ faces, they glued the shaky
eyes inside the traditional triangular eyes. It’s pretty
effective. In fact the one on the end is giving me the creeps. He
has a nasty sneer.
Last month I told you about the Knights of Columbus fund raiser that
was underway to collect money to build a well for the Ulu village in
Africa. Our goal at school was to raise $1000 to donate to the
project. I am proud to announce that the staff and students
surpassed the goal by collecting $1205 which was presented to the
Knights of Columbus, represented by Grand Knight Luke Stachler, and
Knight of Columbus Max Litke, who spearheaded the project. On
September 26 the Student Council sponsored “Favorite Color Day”.
Students wishing to be out of dress code and wearing their favorite
colors were asked to bring in a donation for the Darke County Humane
Society. A check for $177 was presented to the Humane
Society. Currently the students, along with the parish and the
Parish School of Religion are collecting money in baby bottles to
benefit the Elizabeth New Life Center, which serves women facing
unexpected pregnancies.
Our school participated in the Greenville Homecoming Parade on
September 27. I wasn’t sure if my new hip was quite up to walking
along the parade route so I opted to wave from the sidelines.
After all someone has to watch the parade, right?
This week is Fire Prevention Week. Each class entered a poster in
the Greenville Fire Department poster contest. Because I have two
classes in my room, we entered two posters, one for each grade. I
had the children make thumbnail pictures and then the class voted for
the best from each class. The voting process in my classroom is a
little different. I had all the children vote for the four
pictures from each grade that they liked best. This ensured that
I would not get 17 first place winners. After we narrowed the field
down to four for each grade, we voted again for the best two and after
one more vote we had the top winners. The winning artists then drew
their posters again on the required poster board. Of course it is
very gratifying to have one’s poster chosen to represent the class, but
the best part was that the artists didn’t have to do any seat work that
day. They just worked on their posters. It doesn’t get any
better than that.
This week the students made cards of appreciation for the veterans who
would be traveling to Washington D.C. on October 27 as part of the
Honor Flight. If you are unfamiliar with Honor Flight, the
organization flies military veterans to the capital so they can visit
the memorials that honor them and their service to our
country. En route the veterans have mail call during which
they received cards and notes of appreciation from children and adults
from around the country.
My class and I will be out and about this week and next. On
October 12 we will visit the FFA Farm and Safety Awareness Day
sponsored by the Greenville High School Future Farmers of
America. My second graders are especially thrilled. They
get to go again. Because I have a combined class, the FFA was
kind enough to invite both classes. The following week, on
October 17 the preschool through second grades will be going to
Brumbaugh’s Fruit Farm. It is probably the most highly
anticipated field trip of the year. The children get to see how
the apples are picked, processed and stored. They go on a hayride
through the orchard and get to pick their very own pumpkins. The
adults get to visit the bakery.
We will be celebrating Halloween on Friday, October 26 with our
traditional costume parade followed by the classroom parties. The
eighth graders will also transform part of the cafeteria into a haunted
something. So far they have been very tightlipped and I haven’t
heard anything about their plans. However the scariest part of
the day is that first quarter ends which means report cards are just
around the corner!
The kindergarten through fourth graders will don their Halloween
costumes on October 31 and travel to a couple of local retirement homes
to entertain the residents with Halloween songs.
Happy Halloween!
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