Gratitude: The virtue that pushes us

to recognize the good things we receive

and to reciprocate.    

From "The Virtues" atrium material

Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Parent Evening: Tues., Dec. 4, 7:00-8:30

How do children learn in the atrium? How do they work? How do they pray?

Have you wondered what your child does in the atrium? What is presented? What work do children use? How do they use it? How does all this help the child grow closer to God? How do the children learn and understand basic beliefs? How can the atrium serve both Catholic and non-Catholic children?

Catechist Dan Teller will present a variety of atrium materials to help you better understand the atrium experience for children of all ages. The atrium experience is not only a gift to children - it is also a gift for adults who experience it. It is a conversion experience. Please join us at our CGS Parent Evening to gain insights about, and most of all, to ENJOY the beauty and depth of the atrium experience. The evening is suitable for parents of all children at our school.

Please RSVP to  dteller@gscmontessori.org. Grandparents and non-GSCM parents are welcome as well. RSVP is needed to ensure adequate interest to offer this evening program.

Gala Planning Meeting, Wednesday, November 28

Please join us for a planning meeting at the site of the GSCM 2013 Gala, The Redmoor in Mt. Lookout, 3187 Linwood Avenue on Wednesday, November 28 at 10 a.m. Parking is available up the hill behind the theater. All are welcome. If your family did not help with the Walkathon, please do your part by helping make the Gala a success for our school. Questions? Contact Alicia Wilhelmy, Gala Coordinator at alicia@seemlessdesign.com

Science Fair

Join us for a Celebration: Friday, December 7th 5:00-7:00pm

This is the year of our triennial Science Fair.  Every three years the school celebrates the science happening in the classroom with a science night open to all.  Come see science inquiry at its best.

What is Science Inquiry?  Inquiry is a method of teaching science that employs hands-on and critical thinking skills. It enables students to learn about science the way a scientist would. Science Inquiry and the scientific method will be demonstrated through a diverse array of experiments.  You will see a wide range of projects like Can you train a cat?  Is a yawn contagious? and Where does mold grow best? 

Every year the GSCM curriculum provides the students the opportunity to apply science skills during lessons and class projects.  Some of these skills include observing, inferring, modeling, analyzing, classifying, predicting.   Last year the 9-12 students participated in an Egg Drop project in which they designed a container that would protect a raw egg from a drop out of the classroom window.   Through model making, observing, predicting and research, they witnessed success and failure along the way.   Even when an egg cracked there was something to learn.   

Recently, the 9-12 students created catapults and constructed pendulums, boats and planes to learn how to create a controlled experiment and work with variables correctly.  The more experience they have with this critical thinking the more confident and capable they become as learners.  

Please join GSCM students as they exhibit their science projects for the community on Friday December, 7 from 5:00-7:00 pm. Students will be displaying their individual projects from 9-12 and middle school and the 6-9 students will have class projects for all to view as well. 

Mission Alive

By Dan Teller, Principal

"Parents, your children's success as learners rests on their ability to read well. Learning to read is a process that takes time and effort...You are your children's first and most influential teachers. Teaching and learning happen when you and your young children do simple, fun things at home."

[From "Beginning Reading Instruction, Practical Ideas for Parents]

This year, our entire teaching staff is taking a 21-hour training course called LETRS (Learning Essentials in Teaching Reading and Spelling). We are halfway through our course with Dr. Richard Sparks, professor of reading science at the College of Mt. St. Joseph, and we are learning a lot. LETRS is an empirical, research-based approach to understanding the processes of reading and spelling, how the brain works in learning and using these skills, and best practices to teaching these skills.

Parents have the best opportunity to establish a firm foundation for a child's success in developing the skill of reading. Dr. Sparks shared an excellent article from the Texas Reading Initiative that lists many fun, easy things for parents to do. We will share these with you in small chunks. Below are the introduction and a few beginning ideas. For the entire article, please visit our website, www.gscmontessori.org.  

Beginning Reading Instruction: Practical Ideas for Parents

Parents, your children's success as learners rests on their ability to read well. Learning to read is a process that takes time and effort. At first children hear stories and poems, learn the alphabet, understand how speech and print go together, and learn that printed words mean something. After much practice, children soon read and understand many books and stories. In their growth as readers, children move from "learning to read" in the early grades to "reading to learn" in the upper elementary grades and beyond.

You are your children's first and most influential teachers. Teaching and learning happen when you and your young children do simple, fun things at home. Reading books with your children for just a few minutes each day can make a big difference in how easily and how well they learn to read. Trips to a grocery store or a shopping mall can be used to help your children understand why we have print and how we use it.

As your children are learning to read, keep in touch with their teachers. They can help you monitor your children's reading progress and can tell you ways to help at home. If your children's first language is

Helping your children at home . . .

TALKING AND LISTENING

❖ Begin talking, singing, and reading frequently to your children when they are babies.

❖ When giving directions to your younger children, use short sentences and explain clearly what you want them to do. As they grow older, increase the length of the directions using words that describe (for example, instead of saying, "Get the book," you can say, "Please bring me your favorite storybook. It is on the desk in your room.").

❖ Ask your children questions that require more than a "yes" or "no" answer. Some questions that help them to talk more openly are "Why do you think that happened?" "What do we do next?" "What would happen if we did it this way?" "What can we do about that?" "How can we make this better?"

❖ Listen carefully as your children talk to you. Answer their questions and take time to explain things to them.

❖ Teach your children songs and poems that are fun to sing and say (for example, songs like "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and poems like "Wee Willie Winkie" or "Little Miss Muffet").

❖ Play games such as "Red-Light Green-Light," "Mama, Puedo," and "Simon Says" that require talking, listening, following directions, and giving directions. 

Backtotop 

Year of Faith

The apostles said the to Lord, "Increase our faith" (Lk 17:5)

CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH ON FAITH...

When Faith is Forgotten ...

[Faith,] this "intimate and vital bond of man to God" can be forgotten, overlooked, or even explicitly rejected by man. Such attitudes can have different causes: revolt against evil in the world; religious ignorance or indifference; the cares and riches of this world; the scandal of bad example on the part of believers; currents of thought hostile to religion; finally, that attitude of sinful man which makes him hide from God out of fear and flee his call.(CCC, 29)

God Who Never Ceases to Call Every Man ...

"Let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice." Although man can forget God or reject him, He never ceases to call every man to seek him, so as to find life and happiness. But this search for God demands of man every effort of intellect, a sound will, "an upright heart", as well as the witness of others who teach him to seek God.

You are great, O Lord, and greatly to be praised: great is your power and your wisdom is without measure. And man, so small a part of your creation, wants to praise you: this man, though clothed with mortality and bearing the evidence of sin and the proof that you withstand the proud. Despite everything, man, though but a small a part of your creation, wants to praise you. You yourself encourage him to delight in your praise, for you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.(St. Augustine) (CCC, 30)

Office and General News 

Jelly / Jam Collection Update

GSCM students and families contributed 46 jars of jam and jelly last week to the choice food pantry at Inter Parish Ministry. Thank you very much for your generous contributions.

The next collection will be Thursday, December 13th.

"Maria, Maria, Wherefore Art Thou?"

With our impending purchase of the property, Fr. Dave recently moved the parish's statue of the Blessed Mother from the hillside to the SJV-SM Memorial Garden by his rectory. It was certainly a blessing having Our Lady 'looking over' our school in a figurative way (as a sign of her real ongoing matronly intercession), and a number of children immediately noticed her absence from her hillside pedestal.

Would you like to help us re-establish this reminder of Mary's presence? We can search for a used statue that may be currently sitting unused in a church basement. We can consider how to develop the hillside with landscaping, perhaps a level gathering place and some simple stairs, so children and adults can gather there for devotions and prayers. We can consider if we prefer a totally different place for a Marian statue.