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St. Mary’s School
Ohio
weather… you gotta love it!
By Kathy Ayette
Mother Nature has been temperamental lately, lots of mood swings.
As part of my second graders’ math class we graph the morning
temperatures. The range of our graph is 30 degrees. The
lowest temperature was 20 degrees and the highest, 50 degrees. (We
round off to the nearest ten degrees). The first graders have a
weather graph. They graph the prevailing weather conditions, and
have been thrilled because on two days there were several snowflakes
swirling in the air when we arrived at school so they were able to put
two snowy day tags on their graph. Ohio weather… you gotta love it!
Classes resumed January 3. Although everyone enjoyed Christmas
break, I think we were all happy to see one another again. The
Christmas decorations were still up in our classroom since we returned
before Epiphany which was celebrated the following Sunday. Each year I
explain to the students that I really didn’t forget to take down the
decorations, but left them up on purpose because Christmas lasts beyond
December 25 until the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, which is
celebrated the Sunday after Epiphany. I did remove the
decorations after Epiphany and now the room is adorned with snowflakes
hanging from the ceiling and on the bulletin boards. (I figured
if Mother Nature wasn’t going to cooperate, I was going to have my own
winter wonderland!) Naturally some of the snowflakes have a bit
of glitter, a sore point no doubt for our glitter-hating custodian. I’m
sure he thought since Christmas was over, he wouldn’t have to deal with
any more glitter for a while. Bwah-ha-ha!
We are beginning preparations for Catholic Schools Week which begins
the last weekend in January. The week will open with the children
participating in all of the weekend Masses. The “cherubs” will
again be singing at the 10:30 Mass. Throughout the week there
will be various activities and events celebrating Catholic Schools.
Some of the perennial favorites to be repeated are “Bubble Wrap
Popping”, Buddy Bingo, Parent and Grandparents lunch, and the Friday
afternoon movie. Each day has a special theme suggested by
the student council. Among the themes are Hat Day, Character Day,
and my personal favorite, Comfy Day on which staff and students can
wear comfy clothes all day. Now that is my kind of day.
Frankly I am at an age where comfy wins out over stylish any day.
In fact if I were in charge of the world, jeans and t-shirts would be
formal wear. Each morning one homeroom will lead the school in
opening prayers. One of the preschool teachers asked if we could
have an afternoon prayer service, since her class only attends school
in the afternoon. We decided to have representatives from each
class lead the school in a closing prayer on the last day after the
movie. Not only will the preschoolers now be able to attend the
prayer service, but we thought it would be a very appropriate and nice
way to close the week.
Students from grades four through eight will be participating in the
Geography Bee sponsored by the National Geographic on January 16.
The winning student will then take an online test at a later day as
part of the state contest. On January 23 Fr. Dan Schmitmeyer, the
Vocation Director for the archdiocese will be visiting our
school. Father will visit with the children from each classroom
to discuss the various ways that God calls us to serve Him. On
January 25 the science fair will open. Students from grades five
through eight are already working hard on their projects. Judges
from Wright Patterson Air Force Base will come to evaluate the
students’ projects. The projects will displayed during the
opening weekend of Catholic Schools Week. On January 30 the
fifth and eighth graders will take the ACRE test. This test is
given to students from fifth grade through high school in the
Archdiocese of Cincinnati to assess their growth in religion, and the
strengths and weaknesses of the individual schools’ religious
curriculum.
Starting this year, students in the third through seventh grades will
be taking the IOWA test online. Teachers from those grades will
be attending a webinar at the next faculty meeting to learn how to
administer the test. Kindergarten, first and second graders will
still take the test on paper.
The school received a grant to improve safety. The staff choose
to take ALICE training. In light of recent school shootings, we
felt we needed to be better prepared to protect our students. The
procedure taught in this training helps staff and students defend
themselves should such a situation arise.
First semester ended January 11. Hard to believe. So until
next month keep warm or cool, depending on whatever Mother Nature
throws at us!
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