Catholic Academy of Sunnyvale Newsletter: Week Ending 1/8/16
Upcoming Events and Reminders
Teacher Inservice
Preschool and K- 8 grade will close on Friday, Jan. 15, 2016
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Observance
Preschool and K- 8 grade will close on Monday, Jan. 18, 2016
Revs vs. Sems Game
Tickets on sale in the main office.
Young Monets
3:15 P.M. - 4:45 P.M. Jan. 12 - Feb. 23
Young Monets is an after-school, art enrichment class taught by Janet Borg, a former CAS art teacher and secretary.
Kindergartners - Fifth Graders, join us for a free trial class on Jan. 12!
Fourth Annual Auction
CAS Gym
Saturday, March 12, 2016
The auction is coming...the auction is coming!!!! Tickets are on sale now but only through Friday, January 15 then the price goes up! Also, please see the attached list for current needs to help out the auction committee. E-mail CASSpringAuction@gmail.com if you have any questions.
Letter From The Principal
Dear Parents,
Please join me this weekend in saying a prayer for CAS first grade student Aidan Morales. Though we each face our own unique challenges, the accident that Aidan suffered was so unexpected and serious that it should give each of us pause to thank God for the health and well-being of our loved ones. In reading through prayers that might be fitting, I found and liked this simple prayer:
Prayer for a Sick Child
Heavenly Father, watch with us over Aidan, and grant that he may be restored to that perfect health which it is yours alone to give. Relieve his pain, guard him from all danger, restore to him your gifts of gladness and strength, and raise him up to a life of service to you.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
In any time of trouble, I am impressed by the depth of our connections to one another, and know that so many pour into our school a meaningful love of one another. How blessed we are to be called together. Moment upon moment, because of my position, I am fortunate enough to see what being part of our Catholic school means, and I can say it is often lovely and touching including events both large and small this week and every week. There is love without ego, without thought of repayment and this binds us to one another in a way that calls us closer to Jesus.
May Aidan and all children who suffer be made well in His care, and may all of those who love those who are suffering be made strong in light of the challenge.
Thank you for the privilege of knowing you and your children.
Susan Morrissey
Principal
Preschool
Welcome back to preschool! We hope you all had a fun and restful break. This week in preschool we are learning all about the letter H! Our virtue is helping. Please help us teach your children that their hands are for helping!
Kindergarten
We have been learning about the bible story of Noah’s ark. Students discussed God’s promise to Noah, and moved onto discuss the importance of keeping promises that we make. The Kindergarteners learned that rainbows remind us that God loves us, and they made beautiful watercolor paintings.
First Grade
"For where two or three meet in my name, I am there among them" (Matthew 18:20). This week in first grade, students met with their assigned prayer partners to grow in faith. They discussed prayer requests and made a commitment to one another to find a time and place to pray at home. Never underestimate the power of prayer!
Second Grade
As we returned from our Christmas break, the 2nd grade and the 5th grade were the hosts for our January Faith Friends assembly. The CAS students were introduced to the fictional Ordinary Mary, an ordinary little girl who changed the world. It's a story about paying a kindness forward. We learned that if we spread kindness to five people and if each of those people spread kindness to five other people that after only 14 days 6,103,515,625 people would be touched by love and kindness. The 2nd and 5th graders worked in their faith friends groups to begin our act of kindness. Each group completed a fleece blanket to be donated to the San Jose chapter Project Linus (http://www.projectlinus.org/).
After completing the blankets for Project Linus, the first graders selected one of the blankets to be delivered to their classmate as he recovers. The entire CAS community hopes that he will be comforted within this blanket that is sent with our love and support.
Third Grade
For the first week of the year, the third graders jumped right back where they left off. Students learn about different water ecosystems. They found out that not all bodies of water can support the same group of living things. Salt water is different from fresh water, and even among them lies differences. Salt waters differ with the saline content as well as temperature, while fresh water varies from the amount of stillness and movement water has.
Fourth Grade
Fourth grade starts the new year by practicing their knowledge of math in morning station rotations. Stations include multiplying and dividing using legos, figuring out the cost to a party, and finding patterns in pictures.
Fifth Grade
This Game is Not Fair! I Want to Go First!
How many times have you heard these complaints? This week the Fifth Grade math class is examining a set of basic skill games strategies. The first step is to play a popular, easy game and determine whether the game is really “fair” to all players. The next step is to examine another skill game set to determine whether the outcome changes if a player goes first or second. Students are also invited to play a popular pattern game using toothpicks. The goal is to develop a strategy that will allow them to improve their chances of winning. The final step will be for students to work in groups to prove their findings and present them both with both visual and oral presentations. Math can be fun!
Language Arts
Super Kids Super Bowl Service Project
The 8th grade class has teamed up with the NFL, the San Francisco 49ers, the Super Bowl 50 Host Committee, Verizon, and Santa Clara University for a service project that benefits local children in need. We are taking part in a Super Bowl donation project called Super Kids-Super Sharing. Under the direction of our service project leads, Katelin and Olivia, the class has formed committees and assigned tasks. The students will be working hard to collect sports equipment, books, school supplies, and cell phones. Collection week begins January 11th. Good luck, Class of 2016!
Math
Eighth grade math just completed a Proportion and Non-proportion Linear Relationship project on Adobe Voice in which they presented various fee structures at grocery stores and gyms, and spending patterns of gift card using algebraic equations, data tables, and graphs. Algebra I students just finished the project in which they presented simple interests in linear functions and compound interests in exponential functions.
Social Studies
After a relaxing Christmas break, the sixth graders have learned the story of Prince Siddhartha, an Indian royalty figure who literally gave up a life of perfect comfort and pleasure to found one of the great world religions known as Buddhism. The seventh grade learned about the Mali and Songhai Empires in West Africa, including the legendary Hajj of King Mansa Musa, perhaps the richest individual in history (based on today’s gold price).
The eighth grade is continuing their study of the United States Constitution, and the inner workings of our government. Next week we will be embarking on studying the Bill of Rights and how these elegantly written words protect the liberties that most Americans take for granted today.
Science
The middle school students are working very hard on completing their science fair projects. Catholic Academy of Sunnyvale 4th annual Science Fair is Thursday, January 28th, 2016.
The Sixth grade has began designing model buildings to test a structure's ability to survive an earthquake.
The Seventh grade has started learning about D.N.A., genetic diversity, and mutations. The class is having allot of fun creating various models representing D.N.A.
The Eighth graders are currently learning how chemical bonds form in metals.
Physical Education
While our PE program had been pre-emptied due to rehearsals for our play, that did not stop our Kindergarten and First Graders learning about health and better eating habits. These two grades got to have an inside-class' day with Mr. Lee talking about the four major food groups and how to make healthier choices and options for their most important meal of the day, . . . breakfast! Our students got to talk about their favorite breakfast foods and compared its nutritional value. We learned that some choices might be tastier, but also might be less nutritious. By learning about a healthy balance, children use these choices to build their own best breakfast menu ever!
Extended Care
Welcome back everyone! Now that the New Year is upon us, its time to see what Santa had brought all the good little boys and girls in the Extended Care, and they must have all been good! Since the children spend so much time into making our Extended Care so fun, its only fair that they get some say as to what they need to make it better, . . . and it seemed Santa was listening. Surprise packages, boxes, and gifts were found with some great new toys, games, and other fun activities for all ages including some from a long time ago, in a very particular galaxy so far, far away. From puzzles to games, to cute little "Chibis" (your kids can explain what they are), and a few more surprises on the horizon, 2016 looks to be one of the best years ever at Extended Care!