A huge, heartfelt thank you to our amazing families for all of the food donated this week. We filled three tables full of food for our St. Vincent DePaul Society to feed the hungry in our local community.  

Next week, we have school on Monday and Tuesday only. Since it is a short week, we will not send an Ignatian newsletter next week. We wish you and your family a blessed Thanksgiving holiday. May you all be safe, healthy, and blessed to be with those near and dear to your heart.  

We would like to invite you to read about an update to our playground project and to consider donating to the project for Giving Tuesday on Tuesday, November 30th. Many companies will match gifts made to nonprofit corporations on Giving Tuesday.  
 
Since Giving Tuesday is the last school day in November, we will have a class color theme dress day. On Tuesday, November 30th, students may wear school appropriate clothing in their class color. Please help us by guiding your student in what ‘school appropriate’ means when selecting what to wear for their class color day. Your student may wear jeans or pants without visible rips, tears, and holes. Your student may wear leggings if their tops are a long  tunic style or dresses with a length long enough to reach mid-thigh. Dresses or skirts need to reach mid-thigh as well. Thank you for your assistance. The class colors are as follows:  

pre-K= yellow 
Kindergarten= lime green 
1st grade = tye dye 
2nd grade= purple 
3rd grade= pink 
4th grade= turquoise 
5th grade= orange 
6th grade= green 
7th grade= red 
8th grade= blue 

Please continue to use the home health screening questions before coming to school each day.  As the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays are quickly approaching, we have travel recommendations to share with you. As a school, we strongly recommend our families follow the CDC guidelines on safe traveling. If you will be traveling with family members that are not fully vaccinated, we strongly recommend that you quarantine the unvaccinated student(s) for a full seven days upon return and take a rapid COVID test 3-5 days after returning. As a school community, we really must work together on the CDC travel guidance, especially over the holiday season. Thank you for partnering with us to keep the community safe from future COVID cases by following the CDC travel guidelines. 
 
Please remember proper masking and maintaining social distancing are the best ways to keep our community safe both in and out of school. We are beyond thrilled to hear how excited our younger students are as many of them have already had their first vaccination shot. If you are looking for possible walk-in clinics for your child, we have compiled a resource list for you. 

Our students continue to learn and grow. Our pre-K students are exploring the growth cycle of plants and comparing weights of items in science. Our kindergarten and first grade students are exploring the properties of matter through making slime. The second graders are counting money and filling their cup of blessings. The third grade students are making snowmen out of wood rounds from a tree cut down on campus in 2019. The snowmen will be sold at the Feaste of the Nativity with proceeds benefiting our playground renovation. Our fourth graders are studying character traits through classic novels such as Island of the Blue Dolphins and Hatchet. The fifth graders are learning to simplify fractions. The sixth grade students are studying cell theory and microscopes. Our seventh graders are presenting the geography of their chosen country and will make an historical timeline. The eighth graders are studying the classic novel, The Outsiders, as they study literary elements in action.  
 
As we continue the search for a permanent middle school math teacher, we seek interim assistance for math for the remainder of this school year. Maybe you know a retired math teacher who may be able to lend a hand for math support a couple of days a week? If so, please direct them to our school office.  

May we take time to thank our Lord for all of the many blessings in our lives. As we hear in the first book of Colossians three verse fifteen, “And let the peace of Christ control your hearts, the peace into which you were also called in one body. And be thankful.” 
​
Peace be with you, 
Carol Pausz 
Principal

Next week, we will have a food drive for St. Vincent DePaul.  Please send non-perishable food to school with your student Monday-Wednesday, November 15th-17th. On November 17th, we will celebrate as a school, in a safe, socially distanced, and cohorted way, the food brought in by all of our students. In  addition to the typical pastas and canned goods, please  consider including cooking oil, boxed milk, sugar, flour, spices, and coffee/tea.  

We are blessed to have a supportive, diligent community during this challenging time. Please continue to use the home health screening questions before coming to school each day.  As the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays are quickly approaching, we have travel recommendations to share with you. As a school, we recommend our families follow the CDC guidelines on safe traveling. If you will be traveling with family members that are not fully vaccinated, we recommend that you quarantine the unvaccinated student for a full seven days upon return and take a rapid COVID test 3-5 days after returning. We have been informed that the rapid home test from Ellume has been recalled. Please remember proper masking and maintaining social distancing are the best ways to keep our community safe both in and out of school. We are beyond thrilled to hear how excited our younger students are as many of them have already had their first vaccination shot. If you are looking for possible walk-in clinics for your child, we have compiled a resource list for you. 

Please send your child to school with a uniform sweatshirt in addition to a raincoat. Our boiler is currently working at a limited capacity while we await parts to fix the issue. Since we open the windows for ventilation as much as possible, the classrooms can sometimes be a bit chilly when the heat is not on full capacity. Students are allowed to wear their sweatshirts and coats in the classrooms while the heat is not running at full capacity.  Our students continue to learn and grow. Our pre-K students continue to develop their skills through sculpting, painting, drawing, and coloring, including turkey feathers. Our kindergarten students are learning their addition facts through pictures and manipulatives such as small erasers. Our first grade students are busy learning to count by fives with tally marks and developing their place value concept for ones and tens. The second graders are learning about storms and identifying the main idea and details along with decoding consonant blends. The third grade students continue to write and revise their own stories and study about the saints.Our fourth graders are diving into long division in math and continuing novel studies in reading. The fifth graders are studying saltwater and freshwater in our world and the challenges surrounding water on our planet. The  sixth grade students are in a novel study of the Newberry Award winning novel, The Giver. Our seventh graders chose a saint role model to study and actively look for ways to perform loving deeds of kindness throughout the week. The eighth graders are studying the Earth’s gravitational acceleration and the effects of free fall. 

As we continue the search for a permanent middle school math teacher, we seek interim assistance for math for the remainder of this school year. Maybe you know a retired math teacher who may be able to lend a hand for math support a couple of days a week? If so, please direct them to our school office.  

May we take time to thank our Lord for all of the many blessings in our lives. As we hear in the first book of Chronicles, chapter 16, verse 34, “Give thanks to the Lord, who is good, whose love endures forever.”  

​Peace be with you, 
Carol Pausz 
Principal

How did November arrive so quickly? As we celebrate our beloved saints  and remember our dearly departed this month, may we take time to count our blessings. Our fourth grade class recorded a wonderful All Saints Day  prayer service for our school. I know we are all thankful to have the students back to school, in person, learning and growing week by week. We are grateful for our deeply caring and talented staff. We appreciate how our families partner with us in their child’s learning journey.  

Our students are learning and growing each week. Our pre-K students are busy exploring and learning about the beauty of God’s creation in the falling leaves, forest animals, and varieties of squash. They continue to build their skills through imaginative play, painting and sculpting. The kindergarten students have been studying the saints and learning about Veterans’ Day. The beautiful voices of our first graders singing, “God Bless America,” fill our halls most mornings as they learn about our country and the amazing people that protect our freedoms. In second grade, the students are busy making an “array city” with repeated addition sentences and exploring math through the website Boddle. Our third graders are practicing their writing skills by typing stories through a Scholastic story starter website. The fourth grade students are writing about their favorite foods and studying why the leaves change color. In fifth grade, the students are studying character development through historical fiction readings. In sixth grade, the students are studying the novel, “The Giver,” and comparing the rules for the society in this novel with their own lives in school and in the United States. Our seventh grade students are learning about financial literacy and comparing the economies of countries from around the world to the United States. The eighth graders are studying force and motion by building car kits to experiment with weight, distance, and tracking as they launch their car creations from a ramp in the hallway. 

We are blessed to have a supportive, diligent community during this challenging time. Please remember proper masking and maintaining social distancing are the best ways to keep our community safe both in and out of school. Please keep in mind each time a student tests positive for COVID-19, we must seek guidance from our Local Public Health Authority of Multnomah County (LPHA). When we speak to our LPHA, they walk us through the contact tracing process and provide us with guidance on how to proceed based on the circumstances of each individual case. We appreciate your patience and understanding as we deal with the outcome of each case. 

Please send your child to school with a uniform sweatshirt in addition to a raincoat. Our boiler is currently working at a limited capacity while we await parts to fix the issue. Since we open the windows for ventilation as much as possible, the classrooms can sometimes be a bit chilly when the heat is not on full capacity. Students are allowed to wear their sweatshirts and coats in the classrooms while the heat is not running at full capacity.  
 
Our school safety committee will study our arrival and dismissal procedures in the coming weeks to determine if further adjustments are needed to keep our students and families safe to and from school. We must continue to reduce the amount of people crossing 43rd Avenue during our arrival and dismissal times.  The drive up car line is the safest drop-off and pick-up option for our students. If you wish to use the car line with no waiting time, drive through at 8:20 for drop off and 3:20 PM for pick up. 

May we take time to thank our Lord for the many wonderful people in our lives, especially those who have protected our freedom.  As we hear in the first book of Thessalonians 5:16-18, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing. In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.” 

​Peace be with you, 
Carol Pausz 
Principal