The Knight Light - December 2025
As we continue our preparation during this first Week of Advent; we are preparing our hearts for Jesus by showing love and kindness toward others. In Kindergarten, we are gratefully reflecting on our many blessings, especially God’s ever-present gifts of faith and hope.
We gratefully continue our Religion course of study in the form of the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. The children are deepening their relationship with God. We have learned about the Articles of the Mass, Liturgical Colors, and the Good Shepherd. We are also discovering that each of us has a unique place in the family of God. We have learned that offering forgiveness is how we work toward being images of God. Mrs. Washington is teaching us that we can show and share our feelings, and practice our Life Skills of Effort, Caring, Curiosity, Patience, Common Sense, Perseverance, Problem Solving and Initiative, as part of being responsible students.
The children are very excited to be reading and sounding out words! Super Kids and Board Work continue to instruct the boys and girls in phonics, reading, and handwriting. In Math we are working Chapter 5, where we identified and wrote numbers to 20; and we are counting aloud numbers 1 to 100. We could not be more excited to be working on our next chapter about two dimensional Shapes!
Now that each of the eight “Thinking Maps” have been introduced to the class, we employ every opportunity across the curriculum to further use these invaluable tools to expand and stretch the boys and girls reasoning and learning process.
Through Thanksgiving and art activities, the children learned about social justice, the importance of helping others and sharing, as well as being thankful for everything we have. They enjoyed special moments with their prayer pals and prepared a fun turkey dance.
Growth Mindset has been introduced in our classroom to help students recognize their abilities and think positively. This work will be connected to our life skills. The goal is for students to learn how to face challenges with a positive and resilient attitude.
Students of the Month
James Denton and Isabella Mijangos – Velazquez.
Scrip Purchase
Classroom supplies
All good wishes for the happiest of Christmas Days, surrounded by loving family and friends; God has truly blessed us all.
With much love,
Mrs. Wilske and Mrs. O'Sullivan
What a blessing it is to be celebrating Advent as we prepare our hearts for the birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ! We are learning about the events leading up to and including the Nativity, Church seasons, holy days, saints, scripture, and our Catholic traditions. We are practicing many ways to utilize our SLEs. As Active Faith Filled Catholics and Culturally Aware Global Citizens, we are participating in the schoolwide collection for Catholic Charities, the Animal Shelter, and Sunrise Children’s Hospital. These are such wonderful ways to teach our children to live the Gospel message (Mathew 25) and be Life-Long Learners. Thank you all for donating!
Our class has been reading a variety of stories and learning about genre, plot, settings, author’s purpose, and characters. Literature has been a terrific way to make our Life Skills and Ethics Across the Curriculum come alive. Some of our favorite books have been Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet, We Gather Together, Now Get Lost! Thank you, Mr. Falkner, and Leo the Late Bloomer. After reading each book, we discussed how they reinforce Tolerance, Common Sense, Perseverance, Initiative, and Problem Solving. Our Conflict Resolution lessons have included: respecting personal space, being aware of boundaries, anger management, and personal safety. As we explore Social Justice, we discuss how we are all made in God’s image. Accepting and respecting our differences and following the Golden Rule are a main focus. Some of the literature we shared include Celebrating Mimi, Tamales, Look What Came from Mexico, Spookley the Square Pumpkin, and the parable of The Good Samaritan.
As Lifelong Learners, we had a lot of fun with STREAM activities. We learned about sound, light, and liquids turning to solids while making butter. Our Turkey Hide outs were very creative. In Math we are continuing to use Growth Mindset as we work on proficiency in addition and subtraction facts and investigating new strategies for problem solving and place value. Having a growth mindset reminds us to be positive and patient as our brains are growing. It is a blast using our Kagan, cooperative learning strategies for these educational activities. We use Ipads for FRECKLE, IXL, and Seesaw to provide differentiated lessons that increase our individual skills. Additionally, singing our skills makes learning fun in all subjects.
Our writing progress skills continue to expand. We gather concrete details (CDs) and commentary (CM) while reading and writing. After brainstorming, we create word banks and use graphic organizers to help
us write sentences about a topic. We enjoyed writing about How to Carve a Pumpkin (expository).
Classroom highlights include painting, making ornaments, decorating Christmas cookies, creative writing activities, exploring literature, celebrating Whoville, spending time with our Prayer Pals, and singing songs for the Christmas Program!
Congratulations to the First Grade Trimester Award recipients. Keep up the wonderful work!
Accelerated Reading proves that practice makes perfect! I am so proud of our First-Grade progress. Twenty-four students have earned at least 5 points. Truly terrific! I am immensely proud of this amazing progress! Keep reading!
Independent Reader (10 points): Francesco Abboud, Kate Blackwood, Layla Cabanillas, Amara Cano, Nora Caruolo, Max Ibarra, Princeton Lovelace-Marstellar, Anhahi Margarito, Antonio Martinez, Aspen Pascual, Rylee Porucznik, Belen Salgado, Brennen Soriano, and Ashley St. James
Super Reader (15 points): Nora Caruolo, Max Ibarra, Anahi Margarito, and Brennen Soriano
I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to the dedicated First Grade parents for their continuous generosity, prayers, donation of time, assistance, and treats for our class. The First Grade wishes everyone a Merry Christmas and a New Year full of blessings, love, joy, peace, and health. God bless all of you!
Mrs. Thomas
We are anxiously waiting for Jesus' birthday as we come to celebrate the season of Advent! We know that Jesus is the reason for the season and that this Christmas season is about hope, peace, love, and joy. Each morning we light the Advent wreath and have a celebration in honor of Jesus. We have enjoyed reflecting on how we can be closer to God. Our favorite is seeing the flames go out because we know that our prayers and special intentions are being sent up to God.
Christmastime is here! We love listening to Christmas music in the classroom while we work quietly. Something else we really enjoy is reading next to our warm fireplace in the dark with the lights from the Christmas lights and Christmas tree shining. The classroom tree this year is so beautiful and we just love how much it adds to our Christmas spirit! The fireplace plays lovely Christmas music. Recently, Santa sent down an elf named Buddy Jingle to watch over us and we always are looking for him each morning and the silly things he does. We LOVED dressing up on Grinch Day while visiting the different stations for Whoville! Our favorite was the Grinch coming into our classroom and trying to steal our Christmas tree!
In Math, we just finished our chapter on double digit subtraction. We know that if there is more on the floor, we have to borrow 10 more! We really enjoyed using our highlighters in math! We are now working on measurement with rulers and it has been fun measuring Christmas objects in both inches and centimeters.
In Reading, we are currently in Unit 7! We learned that there are different types of projects the Superkids created for their Tree Projects. Our favorite is Icky’s play. We enjoyed rapping his song across the room! Something we also really enjoy each morning is our Dictation time. We love getting to grade our own work, like little teachers! We are mapping out letters and sounds and it helps us in our decoding skills.
In Writing, we just finished our third writing paragraph. This time, we wrote about the Pilgrims and their journey to America. We love using our colored pencils to write with. Our favorite phrase to say is “Use it and Lose it!” Our current paragraph is a creative writing paragraph on How to Catch a Gingerbread Man!
In Science, we ended our chapter on matter and learned about how matter changes by different forces. We just recently created our own Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade to incorporate our STEAM! We loved getting to construct our float by using a colored balloon, paper, and markers! We loved watching it on the screen and seeing our creations come to life.
In Social Studies, we just completed our learning about Economics and how people are producers and consumers. We are very excited to be hosting our Market Day next week. We remember being consumers last year in First Grade, but now we are the producers who get to create!
In our Catechesis of the Good Shepherd program, we are beginning to practice what it means to really carry our own light. We have recently been able to learn all the words to our Act of Contrition prayer. We have reviewed line by line what the prayer is asking. In Atrium, each student put the prayer together on their own like a puzzle. We love learning about God and Jesus, especially through all the parables Jesus taught us. Our favorite parables are The Insistent Friend, The Pharisee and the Tax Collector, The Wedding Banquet, and the Precious Pearl.
Ms. Washington has really given us great conflict resolution skills in using Kelso’s choices. She helps us decide if problems are BIG or small and if we need to tell a trusted safe adult. She recently discussed with us how our emotions might affect how we react to others. She recently had a fun Christmas book showing us about our emotions and how we can handle them.
Using our iPads in the classroom is such an interactive way for us to complete tasks as well as enrich our learning further. We enjoy using Seesaw to do assignments. We love Freckle because we get to show how smart we are at our own pace! Our favorite is doing Math Fact Practice and seeing all of our correct checkmarks! We LOVE being able to use multiplication in Freckle and IXL!
In Accelerated Reading, we are just flourishing with books! I have never seen so many students who love to read! To date, we have taken and passed 862 quizzes. We awarded some students with AR awards:
Students of the Month
Eli Gougeon and James Chaidez
Scrip Purchases
Classroom Supplies
Parents, have a very merry Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year! As always, thank you so much for your continued support this year! I am looking forward to 2026 with everyone!
Lots of love,
Mrs. Banks❤️
In preparation for Christmas, we have been focusing on the love God has for each one of us as we prepare for the birth of Christ during this advent season. We are being mindful of doing good deeds and putting the needs of others before our own. We are praying and celebrating through this joyous season. Through living our lives while practicing our life skills of friendship, practicing patience, caring, putting forth effort and remembering to make time to speak to God, we live our lives as God wants us to.
We reviewed the Maxims recently to prepare our hearts for Reconciliation. The Maxims are Jesus’ words to us to teach us how to love God, our neighbors, and ourselves. In reviewing the Maxims, we look at the words such as, “Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’” With these words we ask ourselves, “If you say ‘yes’ when your parents or teacher ask you to do something, do you keep your word and do it?”
We recently finished reading, “Crenshaw” by Katherine Applegate. Jackson and his family are faced with financial hardship and must make difficult choices that are best for their family. During this holiday season, this book reminded us to be kind and care for others. Throughout our reading, we connected our reading to our Catholic values and the spirit of giving during this special time of year. Students were able to make connections between the book characters and our School-wide learning expectations (SLEs). I’m proud of how thoughtfully students reflected on ways they can show Christlike kindness in their own lives.
In math we have taken on multiplication and have learned songs and riddles to help us memorize our multiplication math facts.
In reading we have been working hard on reading comprehension and using context clues to find the meanings of new words. We have also been working on our reading skills to find cause/effect and main ideas with supporting details.
We are excited for our Christmas show and cannot wait for our family and friends to see all our hard work.
We would like to give a heartfelt thank you to all the parents and families that helped organize our Whoville celebration. It was beautiful. The students loved taking a photo with the grinch, enjoyed all the yummy treats, and loved the hot chocolate so much.
Third grade had the honor of hosting prayer and flag during the first week of Advent. Third grade is also blessed to host mass during this first week as well. Our students worked so hard to serve God and our community.
Our Accelerated Reading list looks amazing as well. We have so many wonderful readers in our class!
Accelerated Reading:
Super Reader (15+ points) - Liberty Springer, Ellie Freeman, and Sarah Garcia.
Advanced Readers (20+ points)- Olivia Byrd, Angel-Lynn Cantiberos, Vey Cohen, Eve-Marie Cretin, Violet Denton, Zoe Espinosa, Brayden Eugarrio, Brian Feesago-Torres, Giorgio Jarrous, Liam Miles, Atlas Pascual, Reese Porucznik, Kaliope Rosales, Reina Ruvalcaba, Daniel Stephensen, Caleb Vargas, and Adan Wandling.
Star readers (50+ points)-Olivia Hernandez, Calvin Marshall, Bella Romero, and Makayla Bass.
We hope you have a Blessed Christmas and a very HAPPY New Year!
-Mrs. Hernandez
This month is full of preparations! We are preparing our hearts and homes to welcome the Christ child more fully into our lives. One way we have done this is by using an Advent wreath that is lit each morning as we read from Scripture about the coming of our Lord. Especially during this season of Advent we are keeping the less fortunate in our thoughts and prayers. The fourth graders also decided on a gift of love they could offer to Jesus and placed it under our class tree on the bulletin board as a reminder of what is really important this season.
In Reading, we were very excited to complete the novel, Riding Freedom by Pam Munoz Ryan. It told the true story of an orphan girl who made her way in the world disguised as a man so she could become a famous stage coach driver and the first woman to vote, only because she was believed to be a man. Most recently we started a wonderful story about the meaning of Christmas, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, by Barbara Robinson. Hopefully it will become a holiday tradition to read this book together each year. In our Reading series we have just completed Unit 2 which was a combination of biographies and fun fictional plays! Up next Unit 3 starts with natural disasters such as Hurricanes and Earthquakes. Lots of interesting facts to keep these pages turning!
Math has us dividing everything in sight! We are learning to divide, and it is a lot of fun! We are also trying to commit our times tables to memory. Please be sure to practice several nights a week on Freckle, or maybe have a friendly competition with old fashion flash cards at home. You can have fun while building a quicker recall of necessary facts.
In Social Studies we are learning about the trappers, traders, and mountain men who helped put Nevada on the map, literally! They had a hard job, and it is interesting to learn about the many misadventures and wild times they all had exploring the wild, wild, west! Up next will come the brave pioneers who settled the west.
The Fourth Grade also wants to be sure to thank all of the wonderful family members who volunteered to spend our Native American Craft afternoon with us. It was the culmination of all we have learned about Nevada’s first people. We had so much fun making sand art, fry bread, duck decoys, petroglyphs, and weaving! Thank you for coordinating everyone, Mrs. Cabanillas! We could never have done it without all your help, thank you!!!
Thanks also to everyone who helped with our annual Grinch Day! It was a wonderful Grinch Day, and all the children had a great time!
Finally, in Science, we have are starting a new unit about different landforms and the rocks and minerals that make up our Earth. Lots of fun information to dig up!
Thank you to Mrs. Cabanillas for organizing our first Spirit Point Sale! It is a well-deserved reward for our Fourth Graders who work so hard. Thank you to all the parents who donated generously to be sure the students had lots of fun rewards to choose from!
Students of the Month
Abel Anaya and Mabel Ibarra
Scrip
Classroom gifts
Finally, we wish everyone a blessed and peaceful Christmas holiday. May the Spirit of Christ fill your heart! Please be safe as you enjoy time with family and friends and come back to us eager to start 2026!
-Mrs. Tully
Fifth grade cannot believe it is already December! We had a great time during Whoville. The cooler weather brings us not only thoughts of “sugar plums dancing in our heads”, but we are all filled with the anticipation of the hope that Advent brings.
Reading is always so much fun. In Journeys, we’ve begun reading about the happenings during the American Revolution. We finished the book Holes, watched the movie, and took the A/R test on it. We will begin The Secret Garden in January. We are looking forward to the Battle of the Books coming in January.
In Religion, our class learned a great deal about Advent with a beautiful candle lighting ceremony. We will now continue learning about St Nicholas and the Immaculate Conception this week. It is a very busy week.
During Math, we recently learned how to compare fractions with unlike denominators. After the test on this chapter, we sill begin adding and subtracting fractions. The STREAM project for math this month is playing Snowman Sudoku. Wonder what the winner will earn?
In Social Studies, we’re learning about the first explorers of America. We will learn about maps, navigation, and elevation while finding artifacts on a sunken ship. The games online are so much fun. We can’t wait for the next unit on the beginnings of the 13 Colonies.
Science has been especially fun learning about the Earth’s Systems. Next, we will be delving into the weather. We love watching the Generation Genius videos that correspond to the lessons. Wonder what STREAM project will go with this? Stay tuned to find out more.
We continue to learn about and practice our life skills everyday such as Initiative, Problem Solving, and Common Sense.
Accelerated Reading
Super Readers-Kinley Ferreira, Ivan Garcia, Kiani St. James,
Delilah Uribe
Advanced Readers-Izabella Gagne, Leo Garcia, Zoey Green,
Kelly Mae Medallo, Alexis Rosales, Clara Shevorski
Star Readers-Erlise Saraste
Classic Readers-Rebecca Rickert, Lara Santos, Everett Ware
We wish everyone a Blessed and Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Can’t wait to see what blessings 2026 brings!
Mrs. Taubert
Growing and Glowing this Advent!
Hello 6th grade families! As we enter the Advent season, our classroom is full of warmth, curiosity, and purposeful learning. This month we’re focusing on reflection, kindness, and community: students are practicing habits of responsibility and respect, supporting one another during lessons and projects, and celebrating both academic progress and personal growth. Your partnership at home makes a real difference in how students develop academically and spiritually. Thank you.
In Math, students are strengthening number sense with decimals by comparing and ordering values, and performing operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division).
In Science our unit explores the microscopic world with age-appropriate explanations about the differences between bacteria and viruses, how they spread, and how the body defends itself.
In English, students are sharpening writing clarity by identifying prepositions and prepositional phrases and locating direct objects within them. Short writing exercises and quick formative quizzes will give repeated practice so students can apply these skills in their own writing.
In Religion class we’re exploring the historical context and lasting significance of the Ten Commandments, discussing how these teachings have shaped values, ethics, and community life. Lessons are age-appropriate and encourage students to reflect on how these principles relate to everyday choices and interactions.
In Social Studies our Ancient Egypt unit covers geography (including the Nile’s role), social structure, daily life, religion, hieroglyphic writing, and major achievements like pyramids and engineering.
We’re excited to spend this season learning and growing together. If you have questions, resources to share, or would like to volunteer, please reach out.
Accelerated Reading:
Advanced: Lesly Abarca, Tomas Cardona, Montserrat Carrillo-Fierro, Gunner Ellis,
Amy Estrada, Ethan Garcia, Leah Murguia, Matthew Neal, Zachary Osotio, Josiah Ramos,
Caleb Reyes, Benjamin Saba, Michael Springer, Kruz Uribe
Star: Joshua Baylon, Rene Duarte, Kaydence Lauria, Charles Mariani, Emma Nunez, Audrey
Shevorski, Calie Taylor, Chloe Taylor
Classic: Anna Rosenberg
Wishing your family a peaceful, joyful Advent filled with learning, light, and connection, let’s keep growing and glowing together!
- Mrs. Tupuola
The season of Advent is upon us, and seventh grade is preparing for the coming of our Lord in many ways. Advent is a season of not only preparation but a reflection of the past as well as how we want to live our lives in the coming year. It is a prayerful season also filled with much anticipation. The seventh grade class daily participates in Advent prayer service filling out thoughts and hearts with prayers and wonderful thoughts of the upcoming season of Christmas. Our focus this year during Advent will be praying for and helping those less fortunate or in need of our prayers. Along with being a global citizen and recognizing that everyone is equal in God’s eyes. As one wraps Christmas presents this year, remember we have been given the greatest gift of all the birth of our Lord.
Our classroom art project for December is coloring different “Nativity Scenes from Around the world” the students enjoyed learning about how different cultures celebrate the birth of our Lord. With the Christmas season upon us, seventh grade is striving to become lifelong learners who utilize critical thinking skills and become responsible citizens who make good choices.
The preparation for the science fair is well under way. We have completed the rough drafts for our research papers. We are currently working on Galaxies.
In Mrs. Studdard’s Math classes we are solving one and two step equations, along with solving inequalities. We continue to work on weekly practice sheets. We are very blessed to have two excellent math teachers who really care about us and our math skills.
In Social Studies, we are currently learning about how the English colonists settled in New England, where they planted many political and religious traditions.
In Spanish, we are learning to conjugate verbs as well as utilizing our speaking skills to pronounce our numbers, months, and colors. We all enjoy practicing our Spanish in class.
In English, we just completed a section on Prepositions and we continue to review other parts of grammar for our morning work each day. We continue to utilize the Jane Schaffer writing program; this year we are focused on Expository/ Informative essays. They included citing text evidence to support their ideas and well-thought-out commentary that relates to the concrete detail. We will continue to work on writing throughout the year on My Access along with thinking maps.
In Reading, seventh grade read about the historical writing about “Woman in Aviation” and the racial barriers they had to break through in a man’s world. Courage, Caring, Perseverance, Problem Solving are life skills we are discussing as we learn are Reading about different characters in our stories, and how they demonstrated those life skills through their own experiences.
Accelerated Reading:
Advanced: 20 points- Sango Akoh, Carson Bass, Chrystina Cantiberos, Melody Chavez, Ava Cosino, Gavina Diaz-Carpenter, Aurora Ellis, Eloy Dominguez Espejo, Colton Gardiner, Natalie Guerrero, Jacob Ibarra, Van Kirk, Frances Leveck, Esmeralda Luna, Stella Morales, Averyana Nunez, Terrance O'Donnell, Sophia Ramirez, Chase Reyes, Sloane Saville, Miguel Villegas
Star: 50 points- Rikki Banyai, Julian Diaz, Dean Ingram, Ian Lopez, Marlee Marquez, Roosevelt Mee, Rafael Ruvalcaba, Mateo Tapia-Zamora
Classic:100 points- Charlz Abboud, Brielle Angeles, Avalon Lambert, Isabel Zepeda
Wishing everyone a very Blessed Christmas
and a Healthy New Year.
-Mrs. Antos
The season of Advent is upon us, and eighth grade is preparing for the coming of our Lord in many ways. Advent is a season of not only preparation but a reflection of the past as well as how we want to live our lives in the coming year. It is a prayerful season also filled with much anticipation. Our hearts are filled with prayers and wonderful thoughts of the upcoming season of Christmas. Our focus this year during Advent will be praying for and helping those less fortunate or in need of our prayers. Our service project this year is Sunrise Children’s Hospital. We are collecting toys for those in the hospital and their siblings. As one wraps Christmas presents this year, put on meaningful Christmas songs such as Silent Night, O Holy Night, and Joy to the World and take a moment to reflect upon the true meaning of the songs and Christmas.
Our hallway art project for December focused on the “shining star” lighting the way to Bethlehem. So many times, we ask for so much, yet we need to reflect upon what we would give or do for the Baby Jesus on His birthday. Throughout December, we will continue discussing our very important life skills as we will soon be in high school and making some important decisions in our life. We also made our own crystalized ornaments – they ae awesome!
We had a busy end of October and early November! We created “Twinkie” Minions with our prayer pals. There were some very interesting Minions to say the very least! On October 30, 2025, we enjoyed “truck or treat” graciously assembled by the room parents and many other participating parents. November 7, 2025, had us headed to Bishop Gorman High School to see the amazing play, “The Addams Family” - snap snap! Finally, the Thursday before our Thanksgiving Break began, we had pie and ice cream with our Kindergarten Prayer Pals. Thank you to all the parents in both Kindergarten and Eighth Grade who helped prepare such a fun afternoon.
In Ms. Studdard’s math classes, we are working on two-step equations, irrational numbers, and scientific notation.
Mrs. Antos’ eighth-grade English class is studying adverb and adjective clauses and phrases. In writing, we are preparing for the Jane Schaeffer Assessment in mid-January. In reading, we are reading The Diary of Anne Frank. Additional topics of concentration in reading are vocabulary and accelerated reading books.
Our classes with Mrs. Tupuola include religion in which we are comparing the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. In social studies, we are studying the Reconstruction Era which is immediately after the end of the Civil War.
In Spanish, we are beginning our project on different Hispanic countries. We are also learning new verb tenses and the parts of the body.
Accelerated Reading:
Advanced: Presley Chirpac, Riley Holdsambeck, Alejandro Mora, Fallyn Napolitano,
Jayleen Orduna, Gabriel Ruvalcaba, Aaliyah Vigil, Piper Wells
Star: Anthony Alatorre, Daniel Batara, Kennedy Byrd, Samuel Cantiberos, Isaiah Carambas,
Jayden Carias, Chloe Cullum, Christian Duarte, Sebastian Garcia, Blake Hazard, Natalya Jarrous, Anthony Khayat, Jacoby Laranio, Lea Lopez, Gianela Martinez, Julius Nasiak, Juliette Rosales, Sophie Simon, Tyson Valdez
Classic: Blair Angeles, Alissa Balsicas, Alana Cano, Olivia Delgado, Josephine Ibarra,
Josslyn Kimenker, Layla Mariani, Dresden Reyes, Isabella Toledo, Eliana Valencia
Wishing everyone a very Blessed Christmas and a safe, healthy, and Happy New Year!
-Ms. Studdard and the Eighth Grade Class
6th Grade: Living Science
6th grade students have had an exciting few weeks preparing their projects for the upcoming SFDS Science Fair. We are all excited to see their finished work! Recently students just wrapped up a chapter on Viruses and Bacteria with a fun hands-on approach! Students swabbed different areas of the school and classroom and by placing them in a petri dish, they were able to see what types of microscopic communities are living in Vegas! 6th grade just started a new chapter on Protists and Fungi. We look forward to what the next month will bring!
7th Grade: Earth Science
7th grade has had an exciting few weeks exploring how the continents move with Plate Tectonics and learning all about plate boundaries! Students were able to identify Convergent Zones, Divergent Zones, & Transform Faults. 7th graders also enjoyed cracking open their own geodes to understand how crystals form with heat and pressure. Students are also working hard on their final research papers for the upcoming SFDS Science Fair. We are all excited to see their finished projects!
8th Grade: Physical Science
8th grade has had an ‘electrifying’ week studying various sources of energy and an introduction to States of Matter and Chemistry. Students had fun with their first chemistry experiment, using borax and hot water to make crystalized Christmas ornaments! 8th graders are also working hard to finish their final research papers for the upcoming SFDS Science Fair.
Wishing all of you a blessed Christmas and a very Happy New Year!
- Ms. Cogan
As we wrap up 2025, we are proud of the service, scholarship, and leadership our members have shown. We can’t wait to continue making a positive impact on our school community in the year ahead!
We will see everyone in 2026!
Because of your incredible generosity, our Advent Service Project was a HUGE success! With over 300 toys and games collected, the children at Sunrise Children’s Hospital are sure to feel the joy and magic of Christmas.
We are so grateful for your kindness and your willingness to brighten someone else’s holiday season. May your Christmas break be filled with laughter, love, and lots of family time.
Get ready… because when we return, Catholic Schools Week is packed with fun and exciting events! We can’t wait to celebrate together!
Respectfully,
Mrs. Wilson and Mrs. Chirpac
Dear Parents,
It is truly amazing to realize that we have already reached the third week of Advent and that Christmas vacation is just around the corner! This beautiful season has been filled with joy, celebration, hope, and heartfelt prayers for peace. As Christmas draws near, we pause to count our blessings and reflect on the true meaning of the season. This is a time set apart to prepare our hearts for the birth of the Christ Child, the everlasting hope and joy of the world.
May this Advent inspire each of us to enter more deeply into the spirit of Christmas, preparing not only our homes and festivities, but also our hearts. We pray that the days ahead are filled with grace, wonder, and joyful anticipation for you and your families.
We are especially excited for the “event of the season” our annual Christmas Program! Our students have been practicing with great enthusiasm to share a truly special performance and a big thank you to all of our teachers for the hard work and preparation for this night! We cannot wait to celebrate this magical evening with all of you as we come together to focus on the true joy of Christmas.
Throughout the month, our students have delighted in many cherished St. Francis traditions. They created treasured memories through festive projects, special moments with prayer pals, collecting blankets and toys for those in need, participating in Advent prayer ceremonies, and of course, enjoying the fun and excitement of “Whoville!” It has been a month filled with smiles, laughter, and the warmth of community.
We also extend a joyful thank you to Mrs. Chirpac for putting together this month’s newsletter.
On behalf of our Faculty, Staff, and Students, we wish you a blessed, joy-filled, and holy Christmas. May our Lord surround your homes with peace, love, and abundant blessings throughout this Christmas season and the coming New Year.
Respectfully,
Mrs. Carol Wilson
Principal
