The teachers and staff were treated to a tasty luncheon in honor of Catholic School's Week. Parents prepared and served an Italian lunch featuring lasagne, salad, soup bread and desert.  The meal was served on a beautifully decorated table and enjoyed by all.  Other parents covered classrooms and recess duty so the teachers could enjoy a more leisurely lunch time. Thank you parents for the treat!

St. Joseph students were treated to an afternoon at the bowling alley as a way to celebrate Catholic School Week.  The links below will take you to some photos from the day.  Enjoy!

http://animoto.com/play/0PKMwYlMTdvIYujVL2lmWw

http://animoto.com/play/hhTRcXq6LmPFQXOGvJVhuA

The St. Joseph School students will showing their gratitude to the greater McPherson Community by doing community service projects during Catholic School's Week.

Angel Depot will be collecting the following items for the Humane Society:  cat toys, small paper plates, dish soap, laundry soap, scoopable cat litter, and bleach.

Grades kindergarten through fourth grade will be collecting items for Mt. Hope Sanctuary:  40-60 watt light bulbs, sippy cups that are BHA free, paper towels, water softner salt, under bed storage tubs, mattress covers for full or twin size beds, swinging baby gates (3), Walmart and Dillons gift certificates.

Fifth and sixth grade students will be playing bingo with clients at Disability Supports.

All donated items can be sent with your child to school during Catholic School Week, January 30-February 3.

The St. Joseph School sixth grade class visited Trinity Jr/Sr High School in Hutchinson on Thursday, January 12.    The students were introduced to life at Trinity through presentations from the school counselor and the Chaplain, Father Brian Nelson.  Next they toured the building and spent some time in various classrooms.  They played Trinity jeopardy and loved the polo game in gym class.  After school the students stayed to watch the 7th and 8th grade students play basketball against the Inman Tuetons.  This was a great opportunity for students to learn more about Catholic Education in the middle and high school years, as well as, an opportunity to meet other Catholic school students their age.  Parents who would like more information should contact Mrs. Bahr.

Please mark your calendars now and save the date.  The Camp Invention Science Academy will be held at St. Joseph Catholic School this July 16-20. The program features hands on Science and real world problem solving.  A complete brochure is on my web page.  There will also be brochures sent home in a few weeks.  Please contact me if you have any questions. Thanks, Mrs. Tammy Gipson

Here are some of the real world challenges your child could encounter in the program:

"Saving Sludge City"

"Magnetropolis"

"Lost Treasure"

"Powered"

The sixth grade students in Mrs. Gipson's class studied the various Christmas traditions around the world.  Each student prepared a display complete with information about the country, artifacts and a food to share.  The displays were open for the public to enjoy following the annual St. Joseph School Christmas Program.  Click the link below to enjoy some photos from the evening.

http://animoto.com/play/g1XudxEdEB6jBM0Dea3wYg

Students making the second quarter Principal and Pastor Honor Roll were invited to a party celebrating their hard work.  During this time students used feathers and sequins to decorate Mardi Gras masks and discussed the tradition of celebrating Mardi Gras on Fat Tuesday before the start of the Lenten season.  Congratualtions to all the honor roll students:

Pastor's Honor Roll, 4.0GPA:  Lauren Grieb, Remington Creed, Garrett Farney, Jarrod Nowak

Principal's Honor Roll, 3.5-3.9: Tara Almquist, Gracie Archer, Mitch Harger, Zane Mainzer, Katie Bahr, Jaycee Burghart, Daphne Carrillo, Kailey Porter, Kassidy Schumacher,

Honors, 3.0-3.49:  Liam Brown, Baltazar Gaspar, Zachary Kley, Dayln Partain, John Suenram, Lucas Weigel, Jake Alexander, Noah Avila, Addie Fitzmorris, Kolbi Partain, Chandler Wiard

Various parish and school committees have been meeting to find ways to continue the positive growth of our parish and school and at the same time find ways to meet our financial obligations of both our ordinary expenses and our building debt.  No small feat!  Through this process it has been decided that the parish would be involved in a major Stewardship campaign during the month of January.  During this time the various school and parish organization will invite you to become familiar with their ministries in hopes that you will choose to share your time and talent with them.  Also during that time we, as a whole parish, will be asked to consider our gift of treasure in hopes of raising enough revenue to meet our financial obligations.  As a part of this Stewardship effort Fr. Birket will be providing parent education on the benefits of a Catholic education and the role of parents in that education. Therefore, please save the date of January 15 at 7:00 p.m. This will be a mandatory parent meeting in the parish hall.  Free babysitting will be provided as this meeting is intended for both parents in the family.  Plan on an hour to an hour and a half of your time.  If you can not attend on January 15 a makeup meeting will be held on January 22.  Parents not attending either meeting will need to plan to meet in person with Fr. Birket.

The School Advancement Committee is planning a dinner for all current and prospective school parents.  Plan to attend this important event on February 12, at 6:00 p.m. in the parish hall.  Current parents as well as former students and parents will be on hand to give testimonials on  the life long benefits students receive as a part of their education at SJS.  Free child care will be arranged and the dinner is of no cost.  Come join us in fellowship as we celebrate the many reasons we believe in Catholic Education.  More information will be provided as the date gets closer.

Students at St. Joseph School in McPherson recently collected food items for the McPherson County Food bank.  They had a classroom contest to see which class would contribute the largest number of items.  The third grade class used their graphing skills to prepare a display in the lunchroom detailing the number of items contributed by each grade.  Students and adult volunteers then delivered the items to the food bank.  St. Joseph School places a high priority on stewardship and service and students are continually involved in ways to serve their parish community as well as the greater community of McPherson. 

Many parents joined the St. Joseph students for a special Thanksgiving lunch that included turkey and gravy over potatoes and pumpkin dessert.     The extra adults and little siblings made for a very festive time.  Parents are invited to eat lunch at school any day.  Just call the office before 8:00 a.m. that morning to reserve a spot.

The results of the Kansas State Reading and Math Assessments have been finalized and the St. Joseph Students have reason to be proud.  Students are tested in grades three through six in both reading and math.  St. Joseph students scored high enough to be recognized as achieving the Kansas State Standard of Excellence in both reading and math for every tested grade level!  This is a huge accomplishment and speaks to the high  level of commitment of the teachers, students and parents.  St. Joseph school has a long history of academic excellence and this achievement is another step in continuing that tradition.

WALK IN SISTER'S SHOES CAMPAIGN

This is a campaign to raise funds for the poorest schools in our diocese and is named in honor of Saint Katharine Drexel. We raised $203 thus far. Maybe you saw our picture in the paper last week.

$1 Jean’s Days are our next venture to raise money for this fund. If you would like to wear jeans to school on Monday,  November 14, you may, but you have to bring $1 to school with you. Your $1 will be collected from you as you come into school on Monday. So mark your calendar. Other $1 jeans days are Monday, December 12 and Monday, January 9.

Another idea we plan to incorporate during Advent is the + and – game. Each class will have a box. Pennies count positively toward your total. Other coins will count against your total. The trick to this game is that when you bring your quarters, dimes and nickels, you will want to put them in the box for another class. You will want to put all your pennies in your own box. These will offset the other coins that students from other classes will be putting in your box. So, for example, if I put 4 quarters in the 6th grader’s box, they would have to donate 100 pennies to make up for that and get their balance back to $0. It will be a fun challenge between classes to see who can get the highest positive balance. All the funds will again go toward our “Walk in Sister’s Shoes” campaign fund.

Remember our jeans day Monday! Students will need to wear a school uniform shirt or St. Joseph t-shirt with their jeans.

The Religion Committee
Roberta Burghart
Raschelle Jirak
Diane Martinez
Laurinda Porter

The St. Joseph students held a walk-a thon to benefit the  Saint Katharine Drexel Fund for the Catholic Diocese of Wichita.  This fund was named for Katharine Drexel who was born in 1858 to a wealthy family in the United States.  Although she lived a life of privilege and wealth that allowed her to travel the world, her parents taught her and her sisters about helping those in need.  In a trip to western United States in 1884, Katharine saw first hand the poverty of the American Indians. After this experience she began her lifelong commitment of personal support to help the poor.

In the Catholic Diocese of Wichita the Katharine Drexel Fund was established to help the poorest schools in the diocese educate the poorest students. Although St. Joseph School in McPherson does not receive any of the Drexel funds, the students raised money to help support the cause.  This was their way of "paying forward" the generosity they receive from their local parish and the McPherson community that allows them to receive a Christian based education.  Students walked raised $203 and walked one mile for each dollar.

The results for week 4 are in and the sales for the week totaled $7,754! Way to go!  Mrs. Jenkin's hair is getting more pink.  Check out the picture below!  We need everyone to sign up to help cook the week of Oktoberfest and work the day of the event.  Please use the links below to sign up!

The following two signups are for helping out on the day of Oktoberfest, Saturday, October 8, 2011

http://www.mysignup.com/sjs_oktoberfest1

http://www.mysignup.com/st_joseph_oktoberfest_games

http://www.mysignup.com/oktoberfest_cooking

The pumpkins will be arriving Sept 30th @ 6:00pm for the annual GREAT PUMPKIN SALE at St. Joseph School.  Please bring the whole family and help unload pumpkins, the kids will enjoy it!!

We need everyone's help to fill all of the time slots for workers in the patch.  Click on the link below to pick several times during the month of October that work for you and your family to help in the patch.  This is a great opportunity to bring the whole family to the patch to give an offering of your time to the school.

To help in the pumpkin patch, please click on the following link to sign-up:

http://www2.mysignup.com/st_joseph_pumpkin_patch

The students continue to sell Oktoberfest tickets and had their third turn in day.  Families who had sold atleast $375 were treated to a jeans day at school getting a break from their school uniforms.  The following families made the goal:

Ticket Sales continue for the annual Oktoberfest.  Families selling at least $250 by the second week of sales were treated to a free recess at the end of the school day.  Thank you to the following families for meeting the goal:

Let's keep selling and making Mrs. Jenkin's hair even more pink!

Oktoberfest ticket sales were tremendous for the first week totaling $5,836.00!  This is a $1,000 increase over the first week of sales last year!  Families who sold at least $125 worth of tickets this week were treated to a prize bag at an assembly on Monday.  The following families were rewarded:

As tickets sales increase, Oktoberfest chairperson, Sonya Jenkins, has promised to color her hair pink.  Let's see if we can get her completely in the pink by Oktoberfest.