Newsletter

The St. Pius School Community, strives to follow Jesus as we Study, Pray, and Serve.

REMINDER: We’re going to the Masonic temple Monday to see Junie B Jones. Students are to wear their school uniforms.

March is Reading Month! In celebration of this, we are having silent reading time EVERY Tuesday and Thursday this month. Your child may bring in a blanket or pillow to use during that time. They will not however, be able to keep those items at school – we just don’t have the space. They will have to carry it to and from school each time.
This week in particular, we’ll have lots of guest readers! I can’t wait to hear from all our parents who volunteered to share their favorite books.

Reading: The students will be reading individual books this week of varying titles. They will read the books independently and then join in groups to discuss their stories. The focus will be on identifying the main ideas of the stories and on finding supporting details.

Writing/English: Due to lack of time last week, we did not begin our How-to stories. Therefore, we’ll begin drafting those this week. Each child will come up with their own topic. They will list the steps needed to get to an “end”. As a culminating activity, each child will make a presentation to the entire class.
Our grammar focus will be on pronoun/verb agreement.

Science: We’ll begin our study of the organization of living things this week. We’ll begin by classifying living things based on their observable characteristics. First we’ll look at animals. We’ll talk about how different body parts and the way certain animals are made can help them adapt to their daily lives.

Religion: We wrap up our study of Lent this week. From there we’ll move back to chapter 11 which focuses on serving others. The students will begin by taking a close look at themselves and the “good” qualities they possess. In particular, we’ll look at the gift of grace. Each child will be making a prayer card to pass along to others in need of hearing the Good News.

Handwriting: We continue practicing cursive writing and copying scripture this week! The children are now required to write their names in cursive and are copying their spelling words in cursive as well.

Spelling – This week’s words focus on the U sound at the “tail end” of words – spelled ew. The words for the week are: blew, chew, dew, few, grew, new, stew, view, brew, crew, drew, flew, knew, pew, and threw.

Social Studies – We’ll make our heritage mobiles this week. Then we’ll begin looking at when certain groups of people migrated to MI, and where they lived.

Upcoming Dates:
3/21 – Field Trip to Junie B Jones play
Last day of the marking period
3/25 – Lenten Fish Fry 4-7p.m.
3/26 – St. Pius School Auction @ Crystal Gardens
3/28 – NO SCHOOL!
3/29 – Read a Hat/Shirt Day
K-3 participates in the “Voracious Reader Eater” show
3/30 – PJ Day & All-school Read-in

Book orders are currently available online @ online at www.scholastic.com/bookclubs. Our activation code is GQ9YV.

Box Tops & Campbell's UPCs

A huge thanks to all families who help collect Box Tops and Campbell's UPCs for our school. Also, a huge thank you to Mrs. Mandernach who takes the time to reward the students with goodies, such as the brownies pictured below, each time we reach our goal. We love the thoughtfulness of it all!

HAPPY CUTTING!

March is Reading Month!

READING - one of my favorite things to do. What luck - a month to celebrate that! This year, for March is Reading Month, there are many exciting activities taking place. Currently, we are trying to read as many books as possible over the course of the entire month! Each child is keeping track of his or her books by putting a "petal" on their flower each time they complete a book. See our Reading Helps Your Mind Bloom display in the hallway to check our progress.