This month in Physical Education, we have used our volleying skills to play balloon noodle basketball, our team work skills

and soccer skills playing 4 goal soccer, played hand hockey, bean bag tag, eraser tag, and have started working on our

pickleball partner volleying. To finish the month, we will play a game of mousetrap and GaGa ball.

Health classes have been busy. Our youngest students have been learning about friendships and families. They will end the

month learning all about germs. Our older students have been learning about character, emotions, social health, relationships,

family responsibilities, and setting health goals. –Mrs. Day

The elementary Spanish students are graphing and sorting using their Spanish numbers and colors. The middle school

students are covering vocabulary and grammar concepts on verb phrases, eating in a restaurant, and healthy eating.

–Mrs. Patterson

Art: PreK- 4 students have been working with line, shapes and pattern made with rubbings. Kindergarten has been working

with cool colors for frogs, then oak leaves and acorns to make patterns. The first grade students painted multicolor butterflies

from primary colors. The second grade has created warm and then, cool colored landscapes and just finished a 12 point color

wheel from mixing primary colors . The third grade is illustrating a Swahili tale about Guinea Fowls and the fourth grade

just finished a fall landscape that emphasizes lines. The fifth grade has completed a realistic self-portrait and a fun portrait

with crazy hair. The sixth grade is now working on value scales and a black and white still life object. The seventh grade is

working on color value drawings and the eighth grade is beginning a vanitas still life with a “memento mori” included that

relates to the Dutch still life painters of the 17th century. –Ms. Anderson

On Saturday, September 19th, we held our first music program fundraiser of the school

year--our Annual Fall Car Wash and Hot Dog Sale. God gave us a beautiful day and the

event was a huge success. We had good food, wonderful fellowship, and raised $1500 for

our school music program. We also collected a huge tub full of canned food for ECCHO

ministry! Heartfelt thanks to all those who contributed in any way! –Ms. Finney

MIDDLE SCHOOL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL STUDIES

6th Grade Science - The 6th grade class is learning to use the International System of measurements to measure different

items. It is a tricky unit with all the conversions, and the students being more familiar with the American Standard of

measurements. We are beginning to learn how to measure items with irregular shapes by finding the items volume. They will

be using graduated cylinders with water to determine how much water the item displaces. 7th Grade Science - We are

learning everything about rocks in the current unit. We completed a fun experiment showing the steps in the rock cycle using

Starbursts, and the students loved it! So far they have studied the rock cycle, and will soon be learning about Igneous,

metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks. 8th Grade Science - The 8th grade class is learning about interactions of human

systems. So far they have examined the human organism and what is required for life. They created a drawing of a cell and

labeled all its parts, and also looked at cells under a compound light microscope. The next topic we will cover is how our

bodies work. 6th Grade Social Studies - The students are done learning about the events that took place during World War I.

I am very pleased with the progress they have made in this unit, and I look forward to teaching them about World War II. The

next unit we are going to start is WWII and the Cold War. They will learn about the rise of dictators, WWII beginning, the

allies in the war, the Cold War, and the end of an empire. I know that this will be a great unit, because the students are very

excited to learn about WWII. 7th Grade Social Studies - The unit that the 7th grade has be learning is on ancient Greece.

They examined what it was like to be an early Greek, and the great city-states on Athens and Sparta. We are moving ahead to

the time when Persia attacked the Greeks, and also the age of Pericles. We are also starting a Greek mythology research

assignment that I know the students will enjoy. –Mr. Burdick

September 2015

Our Lady of Fatima Parish School News RELATED ARTS

In Middle School Language Arts, students have been working on grammar units covering subjects,

predicates, and nouns. Students are also reading various literary works by authors such as Stephen King,

Madeline L'Engle, and Pearl S. Buck. We are also wrapping up units on descriptive writing in all three

grades, and students are hard at work reading for Accelerated Reader. –Miss Lafferre

In 5th Grade ELA, We are working on

Characterization, point of view, and adding dialogue to our

writing, as well as finishing our biography unit. We will begin

our mystery unit in a week. Math - We are learning how to write

larger numbers from scientific form to standard form and

multiplying larger numbers using the standard algorithm and

partial products. Science - Force and Motion unit. Social Studies -

We have finished up our mapping and timeline activities and will

begin our Colonial America unit Monday. Writing - Writing a

research report with accurate information that is in our own words

and citing references. -Mrs. McMillian

FIFTH GRADE

MIDDLE SCHOOL MATH

The sixth graders have been busy reviewing basic concepts such as factors, prime numbers, mean, fractions,

and have been introduced to negative numbers. The seventh grade has been learning about the metric system

and conversions, scientific notation, decimals, integers, and order of operations. Both PreAlgebra classes, a

mixture of seventh and eighth graders are studying one-step and 2-step equations, decimal operations,

simplifying variable expressions, and the distributive property. Also, the eighth grade Algebra students are

focusing on one-step and two-step equations, probability and odds, distributive property, matrices, and

integers. Finally, the 3 seventh grade Geometry students are learning about truth tables, quadrilaterals,

triangle theorems, proofs, polygons, slope, and midpoint and distance formulas. –Mrs. Cole

OUR LADY OF FATIMA PARISH SCHOOL NEWS

MIDDLE SCHOOL LANGUAGE ARTS

PAGE 2

MIDDLE SCHOOL RELIGION

Middle School Religion classes have been following Pope Francis’s historic visit

to the United States. The students have learned about the Pope’s life. They

learned he has a Twitter account. We looked at some of his tweets to the people

and chose our favorite. We will be following the Pope’s statements on Twitter.

The students looked at the steps in becoming a Saint and discussed our newest

one, Saint Junipero Serra. We began our Faith Centers . The students rotate in

groups to various stations in the room. They are the Reading Corner, I’ve Got the

Spirit, App it Up, YouCat, Meet a Saint and Sharing and Caring. Each group will

read, research, play a game, or discover something related to our faith.

–Mrs. White

Matti and Matt White go to see the Pope!

Emma Fleckenstein as Joan of Arc

Luke Brent, Torin Fisher, and Leah Brent at Gritt’s Fun Farm

4th grade is learning about Johnny

Appleseed and Christopher Columbus. We

are doing many activities to learn about

these two men. In math we are learning

about factors, multiples and multiplying 2

digit numbers. In science we have been

learning about plant cells and flower parts.

We are enjoying our chrome books

everyday. Some sites we like to visit are

Dance Mat, Brain Pop, and Spelling City.

We have already learned many new things

this semester. -Mrs. Dailey

where we will learn more about

fire safety as well as pedestrian

safety. We are enjoying taking

Accelerated Reader Tests and

already have a student reach the

25 Point AR Club -

congratulations to Alaina Day

for reaching this milestone so

early in our school

year!!

–Mrs. Brewster

In Second Grade we are

very happy to see Fall arrive

with beautiful leaves and

cooler temperatures!! After a

wonderful field trip to Gritt's

Farm and seeing all the

pumpkins, we feel like fall is

really here. We have been

talking about what causes the

seasons to change and also

why leaves change color in

the fall. October is Fire

Safety Month so we will be

completing activities to learn

about fire prevention and fire

safety and anxiously await

our much anticipated trip to

Safety Town next month

SECOND GRADE

THIRD GRADE

The third grade class has been very busy learning the sacraments of initiation and their importance in

laying the foundation in every Christian life. They were also very excited about leading our school Mass

on September 24th. We have also been busy studying the continents and oceans in social studies and

identifying their location according to the hemispheres. In reading, we are learning about the author's

purpose for story writing and how to develop effective paragraphs in writing our own story. We have been

working on fractions and measurement in math and preparing to dive in to multiplication. –Ms. O’Connor

PAGE 3 SEPTEMBER 2015

FOURTH GRADE

Matt and Alaina Day at Gritt’s Farm

Fourth Grade at Gritt’s Fun Farm

First graders at Gritt’s Fun Farm

Giuliana Kelly and Alex Oliashirazi

KINDERGARTEN

Pre-K2 is getting ready for fall

and studying the different types of

weather and seasons.

-Miss Summer Haynes and

Miss Stephanie

PRESCHOOL

Wow! Our kindergarteners have really taken off! We are rocking this year and learning so much. In reading

we are learning about initial sounds and working with our weekly sight words. Our math lessons are all tied

into sorting shapes. We are also learning ordinal numbers. The kindergarteners are working hard to perfect

their handwriting skills. We also enjoy our center time learning hands on! We love school.

–Mrs. Sias and Mrs. Yocke

The 3 year old Pre-School class has

made it all the way to the letter F in

our “Letter of the Week” series. We

have been working on our fine motor

skills and are learning how to prop-

erly use our scissors. We have been

painting, reading, singing, counting

and sorting. We enjoyed a “Sink or

Float” science experiment that in-

cluded making predictions. We are

looking forward to the fall season

and the month of October.

-Mrs. Vassar and Mrs. Sam

Preschool 4 class is hard at work

learning words that start with

letters E and F. We have also been

discussing rhyming words. In

Math we have learned about

sorting, counting and labeling

items with the correct numbers. It

has been a very productive month.

We are looking forward to the Fall

season.

–Mrs. Phillips and Mrs. Bates

FIRST GRADE

Happy Fall! The first graders are on a fast

track to become wonderful readers! They

have already started taking AR tests! The

kids are learning to become more independent

in reading and writing which will allow them

to develop a love for the two. They are

enjoying math using hands-on manipulatives.

This group of 22 first graders have hearts of

gold and are eager to learn! -Mrs. Gatewood

Corrin Robinson