November 8, 2018

Upcoming Events From the Principal November 9 School Spirit Day & During this month of November, in addition to studying the virtue of courtesy, we are Feed Your Neighbor also focusing on Thanksgiving. Our students have talked and written about what they November 12 are grateful for. These things range from God, to family and friends, and coaches. All Book Fair of us at SJB are grateful for all the support you give us and your children. It is truly a November 13 joy to work with such wonderful students and families. We are also so very grateful Book Fair to all those Veterans and current service members for their sacrifice. Please remem- Gr. 7 TG Engineering Project ber to take some time out of this “early Christmas craze” to be grateful. SJB Information Night, 5:30-7 November 14 To celebrate our heroes this month, every student will be sent home with “A Salute to All School Mass, 8:30am Heroes” paper. Students can fill it out and either draw a picture of their hero or glue/ Preschool - Grandparent Day tape a picture. The paper should have the veteran’s name, the rank and branch of November 15 service, the student’s name and relationship to the veteran, and a sentence or two Book Fair about why the veteran is a hero. Please return them by Tuesday, November 13th so Gr. 5 - MN Arboretum Gr. 6-8 NET Retreat that we can put them on the wall. If your child would like to fill out more than one Preschool - Grandparent Day paper, please feel free to print out additional copies. November 16 No School - Teacher Workday November 13th is our SJB Information Night and Open House from 5:30-7pm. We will November 19 give school tours and hand out information on our school to prospective families. No School Please invite neighbors, friends, and family with children to this Open House. Book Fair Parent-Teacher Conferences Wednesday, November 14th and Thursday, November 15th we are celebrating Pre- November 20 school Grandparents Day from 10:15-11:00am each day in St. Joseph’s Hall. We are No School excited to welcome our preschool Grandparents! Book Fair

Parent-Teacher Conferences November 21-23 There will be no school on Friday, November 16th. This will be a workday for our No School teachers so that they can prepare for conferences. School will also be closed on No- Thanksgiving Break vember 19-23 for K-8 Parent-Teacher Conferences and Thanksgiving break. J-Care for November 26 our K-8 students will be available on Friday, Nov. 16 and Mon-Wed, Nov. 19-21 only. School Resumes Check with Mrs. Alison Wacek at [email protected] or see below for more infor- mation on activities for these school release days.

Reminder to our K-8 grade families: Sign ups for conferences are now underway. Please sign up for Parent-Teacher Conferences with your child’s teachers in grades K- 8. Conferences for most grades will be held on Monday, November 19th from 12:30- 8:00pm and Tuesday, November 20th from 8:00am-3:30pm (grades 2 and 4 will be on Mrs. Carroll and the a different schedule). To sign up go to the school website, www.stjohnnyb.org, click Student Ambassadors are on the Parent-Teacher Conferences link on the left-hand side of the page under looking for a ’Quick Links.’ When prompted, enter passcode 1119 and follow the directions for refrigerator-sized box. signing up. If you have one available,

please contact her at The St. John’s Book Fair begins next week. Our students will be visiting and have the [email protected]. option to purchase books during their classroom library times on Monday, Tuesday or Thursday.

The Book Fair will also be open during conference times on the 19th and 20th. If you can- not make the onsite fair, you may order online and items will be shipped to school for Flexible Seating for All free. To order online click here. on November 15! Since it seems as if the winter weather is upon us, now is a good time to remind our families of the following items: An area of improvement this year at St. John the Baptist Cath- 1) Please make sure your child brings winter clothing for recess which includes hats, olic Parish School is an upgrade mittens, snow pants, and boots. This will help keep them warm and dry. to our classroom furniture. 2) If there is inclement weather and school needs to be cancelled you will be notified in Thanks to generous donors at the following ways: an email will be sent through our Educate system, the school the Wines to Wishes fundraiser in January, we were able to fur- website homepage will have a notification (www.stjohnnyb.org), and we will post nish five classrooms with flexible the closure on the local media outlets (WCCO, KARE11, KSTP and KMSP) - look for St. seating furniture. It is our goal to John’s, New Brighton. Please note that in general we follow the Mounds View School outfit the rest of the school as District with school closures, but we do reserve the right to remain open with a no- the feedback from teachers, busing option. students, and parents is beyond Have a blessed weekend. positive. Flexible seating truly has been beneficial to the way Ann Laird, Principal each of our students learn, and we would like to provide this opportunity for every student in Scholastic Book Fair our building. All money raised Mark your calendar to join us for a from Give to the Max 2018 will be put towards this improve- celebration of reading! ment. Thank you for taking the time to think about St. John's. Book Fair dates/times: God Bless! During student Media classes on Nov. 12th, 13th & 15th Nov. 19 and Nov. 20 during Parent-Teacher Conferences Donation link: Visit the SJB Book Fair for more information or to sign up to volunteer. SJB Give to the Max

Shop online NOW at the SJB Book Fair Online Shop

Santa’s Shop

Santa’s Shop is an on-site, PTO run store where students have the option to pur- chase Christmas gifts for parents, siblings, pets or whoever they wish. Santa’s Shop will be held this year on December 11-12. Mrs. Julie Thomas has chaired this event for the last several years. She is looking for someone to shadow her this year and take over the event next year. If you are interested, please contact the school office.

More information on the shop will be communicated in the coming weeks! 2 J-Care during November Break

Join J-Care on the school release days during November!

School Release Days: November 16th, 19th, 20th, and 21st Hours of Operation: 7:00am – 6:00pm Pre-Registration Required by Monday, November 12th

Friday, November 16th – Zero Gravity J-Care will be going to Zero Gravity where we will do open jump trampolines, playing dodge ball, jumping into the foam pit, climbing the climbing wall and playing basketball where you can slam dunk it. We will be eating lunch at SJB. Please wear a blue field SAVE THE DATE!! trip t-shirt and each child must have a waiver to attend Zero Gravity. WINES TO WISHES 2019 February 2, 2019

Planning for Wines to Wishes Monday, November 19th - Make your own Pizza lunch! 2019 is underway! If you Do you want to learn how to make your own lunch? Mrs. B. Wacek missed our first meeting but will be teaching J-Care how to make homemade pizza, dessert and would still like to help, please then we get to EAT IT for lunch! reach out to Michelle

Barsness or Rita Arndorfer.

There are many opportunities Tuesday, November 20th – Grand Slam to assist! Currently, we are J-Care will have unlimited laser tag, unlimited mini golf, unlimited krazy looking for people to call kars, unlimited batting cages, 4 arcade tokens, a hotdog and pop. I real- businesses to find items for ize, one hot dog may not be enough for most kids, so feel free to send along a disposa- our silent auction. Other vol- ble bag lunch or extra money for food. You may also send extra money for additional unteer opportunities will also tokens. Please wear a J-Care field trip shirt. be available! Thank you for

considering!

Wednesday, November 21st – Everything turkey – Join J-Care for [email protected] turkey crafts, turkey bingo, turkey movies and turkey games. [email protected]

Questions? Contact Alison Wacek at 651.633.1522 X1127 or [email protected]

Wanted! Care Crew Teacher!

St. John’s Care Crew (preschool) is looking for an enthusiastic, creative, dedicated person Extra Food Shelf who loves children. The Care Crew Teacher would provide quality care of our 3-5 year old Collection students in an after school program. This position would include planning creative and fun November 14, 2018 activities, maintaining a safe and clean environment, greeting and communicating with parents and most importantly, engaging with the children. The hours are 2:30p-5p Monday We will be having a collection through Friday. For more information or to apply, contact Andrea Schroeder during mass on November 14 ([email protected]). as we will not have school for two Fridays in a row. Please consider donating food items that can be used for Thanksgiving (stuffing, potato Love Your Melon hats with the SJB logo are once again on sale. We mix, cranberries, etc.) have a limited number of hats available for $30 each. Hats can be purchased in the school office by cash or check (payable to St. John’s). 3 SJB Parish News

Memorial Mass for Sister Gwendolin Sister Gwendolin was principal of St. John’s School from 1982 to 2003. Sister passed away peacefully on Sunday, October 14th at the Motherhouse in Sylvania, Ohio. St. John’s will hold a memorial Mass for Sister Gwendolin on Saturday, December 1st at 10:00am. Reception will follow. Come share your stories and memories.

Sock Collection for the Homeless

The 6 year old was a hand- ful! He had wandered off and was lost at the mall. A securi- ty guard held him by the hand as they searched for his par- ents. Crying, he looked up at the guard and asked, “Do you think I’ll ever see my parents again?” “I don’t know, kid,” replied the guard, “there are so many places they could hide!”

Well the homeless are hiding in plain sight these days. You can see their tents along Hia- watha Ave in Minneap- olis. Others take refuge at Simpson Homeless Shelter, Peace House or St. Stephen’s.

Each November we collect white socks and thermal un- derwear (large sizes), boxer shorts and T-shirt’s, and wom- en’s underwear too. Dona- tions should go in the blue bins at church doors. Here’s a thought- involve the kids.

“Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for Me.” Mt 25:40

Sponsored by the St. Vincent de Paul Society

4 SJB Early Winter 2018 After School Classes

Clay Turkey (grades K-8) Tuesday, November 13 2:40-4:10 pm, Art Room Students will create a beautiful handmade clay turkey wall hanging, painted and glazed to decorate your Thanksgiving feast. Autumn Higgins, $15.00 (1 session) Checks payable to Saint John the Baptist Minimum students 7, max 15

Clay Cocoa Mug and Marshmallow Dish (grades 3-8) Thursday, November 29 2:40-4:40pm, Art Room

Keep toasty warm over Christmas break with this beautiful handmade mug accompanied by a little dish to hold just the right number of marshmallows! Image is the result of mug made by a 4th grade student. Autumn Higgins, $15.00 (1 session) Checks payable to St. John the Baptist Minimum students 7, maximum 15

Gingerbread Houses (grades K-8) Thursday, December 6 2:40-4:40 pm, Room TBD

Get into the Christmas spirit by designing your very own Gingerbread house using premade gingerbread, frosting and candies. Jenny Schmitz and Amy McNeil, $15.00 (1 session) Checks payable to Saint John the Baptist Minimum students 7, maximum 15

Poured Paint Tiles (grades K-8) December 13, Art Room 2:40-4:00 pm, Library

Students will create a set of 4 cosmic and colorful paint tiles perfect to hang on the wall as art or to use as coasters. A great gift idea as well!

Autumn Higgins, $15.00 (1 session) Checks payable to Saint John the Baptist Minimum students 7, maximum 15

Do you have a hobby or passion you would like to share with our students? If so, let me know!! We are always looking for new classes! Please contact me if you are interested. (763)291-2223 (cell) or [email protected].