What an exciting year for the eighth graders. They are in the final year of their grade school journey. One leg of that journey involves service, S.I.G.N., Service in God’s Name. Many students have already accumulated service hours at the Saint James festival and helping to open up our school. The students are required to earn twenty service hours at St. James. Many activities throughout the school year will offer students a chance to serve. Some have already received 20 or more hours, but they are encouraged to do all they can. God luck 8th graders.

Mrs. Blaszczyk

PLEASE HELP

Save aluminum cans and send them to school. From the proceeds we pay for school bus field trips.

Look for this label on many products. Send to school as we can get cash for them.

May we ask that you continue to same Campbell product labels that appear on many products?

SUPPORT OUR SCHOOL

With you we share an important goal: to provide for your children an education devoted to academic excellence and committed to Catholic values and ideals.

Our school staff recognizes the sacrifices you have made to send your child to a Catholic school. You have shown your determination to give your child a Catholic Christian outlook on learning and life.

Now may we ask even more of you? We urge you to share with us your time, your talent, and your prayers. We are in need of cafeteria helpers. Any number of hours that you can give will be appreciated. Call the school and tell us that you will help. The need is great, and you will find your own life enriched as you share in the life of our school community.

CELL PHONE POLICY

Each morning before classes begin the children bring to the school office their cell phones. They pick them up at 2:45. The children are not to keep cell phones in the classroom. Consequences if they do! We will keep the cell phone for 3 days. Second offense - $10.00 to get it back.

F.R.O.G. takes on a whole new meaning for Grade 3. It stands for Fully Rely On God. We all need to remind ourselves that with God all things are possible. So as you enter our room a variety of frogs in many shapes and colors greet you. Also, we added a science center to display a variety of educational hands-on activities. Our theme for this quarter is weather. With all the unusual weather events in the world, it is helpful to learn about what makes the weather. Understanding who, what, when, where, and why saves lives and provides a future of hope. The science center will change themes each quarter. Working with ecology, space, and geology will make our tree house the best place to investigate as we expand our knowledge.

Also, Grades 3 and 3A are working on a weather project. Each child will present it in class and later put them on display for others to learn about what we did. We are following the state standards for weather by:

* Observing, describing, and recording daily weather conditions over a period of time

* Discussing seasonal weather changes

* Identifying cloud types and relating them to weather

* Constructing simple weather instruments and using them to measure weather conditions

* Describing climatic zones of the earth.

Mrs. Case

Welcome Back! Grade 2 is excited for a new school year with lots of learning. We have been busy with getting to know each other and school rules. Grade 2 is ready for a wonderful year.

Please remember, and this is for everyone, to bring in any used printer ink cartridges. We recycle these and this is a competition between all the grades. So who can bring in the most we shall see.

Mrs. Keinath

We are proud to announce that for the second consecutive year Jacob VanSlyke of Grade 8 is the diocesan golf champion! Jacob shot a 39 the first day and a 37 the 2nd day. He won all three of the parochial tournaments this year.

In the championship game, two of the four players in the finals were from St. James. Ben Ladaika of Grade 8 came in 3rd. Great job, golfers! We applaud their coach, Mr. Tom Blais.

Sr. Mary, CDS

Welcome to our new school year. Grade 4A has been working on some new things in our classroom. This year the students get to use pens to write with. They also are learning how to take notes. This also is a year of becoming much more responsible and independent. Please try to encourage your child to complete his/her own homework and also to be well prepared for school each day. Finally, encourage your child to strive for nice cursive writing. I am very excited for our new year.

Mrs. Sigler

Welcome to Fifth Grade! This school year we welcome five new students to our classroom: Andriana Post, Erin Fleming, Rebekah Hollenbeck, Sophia Plyler, and Ketara Hinman! This is a time for change for many of our students, not just our new classmates. It is the first time the students get to have different teachers for main subjects. Mrs. Pacinelli, teacher of grade 6, teaches English and Social Studies to grade 5 while Mrs. Astemborski teaches Mathematics, Science and Health to grade 6. It is the firs time the children get to change clothes for gym classes. They can purchase green St. James shorts from Mrs. Schaaf. They will wear them with a green, gold, or white St. James shirt.

Fifth grade is also the students’ first experience with Accelerated Reader. Our school has a set of over 200 titles in our Accelerated Reader program. Once a student reads one of those books, they are able to take a multiple choice test about that book. If they pass the test, they receive a certain amount of points (the more difficult the book, the more points it is worth). Our back board is sued to keep track of how many tests are taken and passed. We will also continue the “First in Math” computer program. These are just a few of the “new” adventures the fifth grade students are encountering this school year. Welcome!

Mrs. Astemborski