WALKATHON!

THIS THURSDAY, October 6, 9:00-11:30 a.m.

Students may be out of uniform and should wear comfortable clothing and walking shoes.  Please dress for the weather, which may be cool in the morning.  Walkathon t-shirts will be distributed in the students' classrooms on Thursday morning.  Please remember to turn in your pledge sheets and donations by the end of the day on Wednesday.  

If you volunteered to work at the Walkathon, you should have received an email regarding volunteer work.  If you did not receive an email or if you did not sign up but want to help, please contact Mary Anne Tankersley @ matankersley@fuse.net.   

Arrival and dismissal time will be in accordance with our normal school day schedule.   Please note that the streets surrounding the school will be closed during the event.  Please do not park in the upper parking lot near the main entrance or along the driveway on Thursday.  Thank you for supporting GSCM!

Montessori News

TONIGHT:  Lower Elementary Parent Education Evening

Tuesday, October 4, 7:00-8:30 p.m.

A Day in the Life of Your Child in the Classroom

Please join our lower elementary teachers for a  parent education evening designed to inform you about the wonderful, everyday experiences in  the 6-9 classroom.  You will learn more about the expectations of daily work and how your child's work is assessed.  You will also be presented with several language lessons in order to give a closer look at the Montessori materials.  We will also touch on this year's biome curriculum.  Hope to see you there!

Staff Retreat:  Friday, Oct. 7

Please pray for our staff as we have our annual day of reflection this Friday, October 7 at the Holy Spirit Center.  This year, we will be visiting the core themes of the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd at each developmental age and pondering their message for children as well as adults: 

Oratory Festival

Veteran GSCM elementary and middle school parents may have noticed that there has not been an Oratory Festival Packet sent home this year.  Our faculty has decided to celebrate the Oratory Festival on a rotating three-year schedule, rather than previously as an annual event.  The children will continue to develop outlining, speech writing, and public speaking skills in their regular classroom work.

Our three-year rotation of major 'festivals' will include the Oratory Festival, the Science Fair, and the Young Authors projects.  The key skills embedded in these projects will continue to be presented, assigned, and emphasized in our classrooms every year.  However, the big, school-wide, full-blown Oratory Festival, Science Fair, and Young Authors Celebration will happen on a tri-annual basis (one per year).    In this way, the classroom teachers will have more time to provide more specific, age- and classroom-appropriate projects for the children. 

Look for our Young Authors Celebration this spring!

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Mission Alive!

Each week, we share an aspect of our mission as it takes shape in the lives of the children.  This week, upper el teacher Jenny Griffin describes how she has integrating 6^th grade outings with the science curriculum. 

Burnet Woods Outings

By Jenny Griffin, Upper Elementary Teacher

When children go out, it is the world itself that offers itself to them.  The outing is a new key for the intensification of instruction ordinarily given in the school. The role of education is to interest the child profoundly in an external activity to which he will give all his potential.

Maria Montessori- From Childhood to Adolescence

The upper elementary curriculum encourages student outings.  Our 9- to 12-year olds have set up visits to the Newport Aquarium, Cincinnati Zoo, and Wright Patterson Air Force Museum, to name a few.   In addition to these, our 6^th grade students venture out to Burnet Woods to participate in a Nature Science Series. 

The intention of the Burnet Woods outings is to intensify the science lessons that take place in the Montessori classroom. The program was designed with the Montessori child in mind.  Each visit is filled with exciting presentations by a seasoned naturalist.    Botany, zoology, geology, chemistry and physics are all brought to life through demonstrations, hikes, experiments, planetarium shows and rich natural resources.   Activities support science inquiry as well. 

This fall, our students have been learning about light and its properties at school.   Through models and demonstrations we have established that white light contains all colors and that the color of light an object reflects determines the color of the object itself.  To support this aspect of the curriculum our Burnet Woods outing focused on photosynthesis as a light reaction.   The 6^th graders enacted and visualized this life giving process.  They collected leaf specimens and separated the pigments from their leaves using the principles of chromatography. They constructed models depicting the ideal arrangement of leaves to maximize absorption of light.  The outing was fun, extremely hands on and packed with science content.    

The children will return to Burnet Woods for seven more visits throughout the year.    Each outing will present new, deeper content and bring more meaning to the classroom experience.

Catholic Identity

In addition to Montessori education and the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, the third pillar of our school is our Catholic Identity.  Here is an excerpt from our Catholic Identity Statement, which can be found on our website, www.gscmontessori.org.

The Catholic School and the Church

In proclaiming "a Catholic atmosphere faithful to the Magesterium of the Church", The Good Shepherd Catholic Montessori places its mission in the heart of the activity of the Catholic Church.

• Board, staff, and committee decision-making:  When making decisions, Board members, staff members, and school committee members look to Church teachings for guidance when appropriate.

• Celebrations and the Liturgical Year:  Because the Christian life is fundamentally a relationship with Christ to be celebrated, important celebrations mark the cycle of the Church's liturgical year.   Most celebrations involve a para-liturgy designed for children, planned to some extent by the students, with procession, song, Scripture, and always an opportunity for spontaneous personal prayer and song.  The primary celebrations take place at Christmas/Epiphany, Easter, and Pentecost. 

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PTO News 
Box Tops for Education

It's time to start sending in all the box tops you have collected over the summer.  Each box top you send in helps raise money for our school!  Please check the expiration date on your box tops and then send them in an envelope or Ziploc bag with your child's name, teacher and the total number of box tops.  There will be a collection bin on the bookshelf outside the office and anotherone on the lower level.  The classroom that collects the most box tops by Oct. 21 will win an extra 15 minutes of recess!   Also the 5 students who send in the most box tops will get to eat lunch with Mr. Teller!  If you have any questions please feel free to contact Kim Gates.

Volunteers Needed  

Do your kids love field day?  Imagine how excited they would be to have YOU as the field day coordinator!  The PTO sponsors this fun filled, end of the year celebration, but we are looking for an enthusiastic parent to coordinate this years event or two parents to co-chair together.  We have numerous volunteers already signed up to help, but need one parent (or two) to step up and organize our team of volunteers.  Please contact Shannon Lotterer if interested !  shannon.lotterer@fuse.net

Being Yearbook Coordinator has never been easier...with our new software program, all it takes is some time on the computer to input!  This is a great position for a parent who wants to volunteer from home, at their convenience!  Several parents will support our coordinator by acting as photographers, but we need one computer savy parent to accept the title of Yearbook Coordinator or two parents to co-chair together!  Contact Shannon Lotterer if you are willing to help create memories.  shannon.lotterer@fuse.n

Book Club for Fun!

The first GSCM Parent Book Club is having its first meeting on October 12th, at 7:00 p.m. to discuss the book Rules of Civility by Amor Towles. You do not need to commit to attending and reading the book each month if you'd like to participate. Drop in any month you can! This book club was created to get parents together to visit and share enjoyable books. Come and get to know more parents! Stop in any month for a no-pressure book discussion. RSVP to Dinese Young, dyoung5281@gmail.com.  

Earn Free Materials for the School from Montessori Services  

Students in PreK - Second will come home with a" for Smallhands" catalog in their backpack today. Any orders placed between now and December 31^st designating our school as the recipient will earn 10% credit for our school. Check it out for Christmas and birthday gifts!

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Vision for Catholic Schools:  

For the past several months, an effort has been underway to establish a common vision for the future of Catholic school education in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. During the 2010-2011 school year, large amounts of data were collected on the current state of our Catholic schools. This data has been compiled in an initial Assessment Report that will be released to the public in early October. All are invited to attend a presentation in October regarding the vision. At each presentation, Dr. Jim Rigg, Superintendent of Catholic schools, will provide a summary of the key data regarding Catholic identity, academic excellence, demographics, finances, and other areas from this Assessment Report. The presentations will take place on the following dates:

                        Oct. 4: Chaminade-Julienne High School (6:00-7:30 PM)

                        Oct. 6: Roger Bacon High School (6:00-7:30 PM)

                        Oct. 11: Lehman High School (6:00-7:30 PM)

All are welcome to attend. Please visit www.catholiccincinnati.org/education/lighting_the_way for more details.

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Sports Opportunities at Nothin' But Net

Nothin' But Net is an indoor sports complex in Mt. Carmel that offers several opportunities for children's sports.  A summary of information is below.  For more  information, contact Dan Albrinck at danalbrinck@live.com or 528-1000.  Their website address is www.nbnsportscomplex.com. 

Basketball Leagues

Serves preschool through adult, year-round.  Register as a team.  Next session begins December 3, with registration due by November 12.  Cost is $300/team for 10 games plus a tournament (ref fees are additional).

Registration deadline for preschool only is October 10.

Volleyball Leagues

Serves 3^rd-8^th grade.  Leagues year-round.

Indoor Soccer

Winter leagues only.  Teams serving U8 to U18.

If you cannot organize an entire team, you have two options:

1. 1.      Register as a team (as long as you have the minimum number of players), and then pick up additional players from their bulletin board listings of individuals looking for a team.
2. 2.     Post your name on their bulletin board (see above) as an individual seeking a team.