November Newsletter

This year marks my thirtieth year in education. Having taught for three decades, I have seen many trends in education come, go, and come around again. Yet through all these changes, these things remain constant: a teacher’s dedication and a parent’s unconditional love for their child.

When we say, "We are better together," we truly mean it. Having raised three daughters of my own, I know that I could not have guided them without the support of the schools that helped educate them. Communication is important for our students to be successful. Whenever a teacher or I reach out to discuss your child—whether to share a positive moment or to address a concern—it is always done with their best interest at heart. We value your input and hope you felt that collaboration as you met with teachers during parent-teacher conferences.

Conversations at home play an important role in helping our students follow both your expectations and the school's expectations. We both expect our students to respond to their teachers with respect and kindness. When challenges arise, we welcome the opportunity to work through them together. You know your child best, and your input is valuable as we collaborate to help them grow academically, socially, and spiritually. If you have a question or concern, please reach out directly to your child's teacher. Having an open conversation helps all of us see the full picture and work together toward a solution.

Choosing a Catholic school—whether as a parent or as an educator—is an intentional commitment to being part of something different for our children. Our community is rooted in our faith in God and the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

Nurturing a child’s spiritual journey is a meaningful conversation that naturally begins at home, guided by the faith and example you share as parents. When home and school work together hand-in-hand, we create a clear and consistent message for our students.

A central part of this shared formation is how we gather and worship together. Mass is a sacred time, and showing reverence at mass is one of our highest expectations. We ask for your support in guiding our students to demonstrate respect throughout the mass—sitting attentive in the pews, standing promptly when instructed (or when answering a homily question), and engaging thoughtfully and sincerely when responding during Mass.

When our students come together for Mass with mindfulness and prayerful behavior, their reverence reflects the growing love for God within their hearts. Thank you for your continued partnership as we guide our children in both academic and faithful living.

Fr. Ray has spent time at the school visiting our classrooms. He teaches at the School of Religion in New Hampton so he has only presided over one children's mass. The students look forward to his visits and discussions. Fr. Ray comes at least twice a week to visit a few classrooms.

Just a couple reminders:

• Please label your child's sweatshirt & 1/4 zips
• Girls may wear black or navy leggings under their skirts
• Students may wear long sleeve white or navy polos
• Students will need to wear their sweatshirts, 1/4 zip, or long sleeve polo as coats are not allowed to be worn in the classroom
• Emails from icuniforms will come if a student needs to change something in their uniform

Homework Policy (from Parent/Student Handbook)

Homework is encouraged in order to teach students the importance of practice, review, and application. Teachers will assign homework in accordance with the age of students. Typically homework is a result of not completing work during class work time. Parents/guardians should not have to instruct students, but are encouraged to support the process through questions and suggestions when appropriate. As a general rule, the expectations of homework are to read an average of 20 minutes a day and:

Kindergarten:

Practice identifying numbers 1-100, practice rote counting to 100, practice identifying letters and their sounds, practice prayers

1st Grade:

Practice sight words, practice addition and subtraction facts, practice prayers

2nd Grade:

Practice sight words, practice addition and subtraction facts, practice prayers

3rd Grade:

Practice addition, subtraction, multiplication facts, practice prayers

4th Grade:

Practice addition, subtraction, multiplication, & division facts, practice prayers, freewrite journaling

5th Grade:

Practice addition, subtraction, multiplication, & division facts, practice prayers, freewrite journaling

6th Grade:

Practice addition, subtraction, multiplication, & division facts, practice prayers, freewrite journaling

Have you and your family been using Hallow? It is a great way to pray together as a family. There are bedtime prayers that can be part of your nightly routine. If you haven't tried the Hallow app yet, here is something you can try.

We want to honor the Veteran's in your family. (& your friends) Please take a moment to provide the name and branch of service of your Veteran. They will be announced over the intercom with a special prayer on Wednesday.

We also ask you to invite your Veteran's to join us for mass on Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. The students wll have a special blessing after mass for them.

I enjoyed conference prep and seeing how far each student has matured already this year. Way to go Preschool Wildcats! We are headed into shape recognition and Thanksgiving. We are also practicing for our Christmas concert!

IC Kindness week is November 9th - 13th. We will participate in different kindness activities each day. Each IC Core Value: Scholarship, Kindness, Faith and Service has a designated week. Each core value also has a team of students kindergarten through 6th grade who exemplify that value and a team of staff that plan the week.

Our November Scholastic Book Club order form is available online. Our code is: TVQQ9 Orders are due Nov. 9th. Due to a generous grant from FMC Early Childhood Iowa each student will receive a book each month.

Our Preschool - 2nd grade Christmas program will be held at 6:30 pm on Thursday, December 3rd. Morning students will not be participating in the 1:30 pm afternoon rehearsal concert the same day.

We have had such an exciting and busy time in our classroom! Here is a
look at what we’ve been working on and what’s coming up next.

Phonics & Literacy

We have been hard at work learning our letters and their sounds! So
far, our class has mastered:
Ss, Pp, Ll, Aa, Nn, and Tt

Tip for home: Ask your child to point out these letters when reading
bedtime stories or looking at food boxes!

Math Explorations
In math, we are building strong foundational skills every day.
Recently, we’ve been practicing:
Writing numbers 0 to 5
Identifying and naming shapes
Creating simple patterns
Sorting objects by size, color, and shape
Counting objects with one-to-one correspondence

Science & Center Time
Get ready to build! Up next, we are diving into an exciting unit on
Construction. During science and center time, students will explore
building materials, test how structures stand, and use their
imaginations to construct their own creations.

It's hard to believe we are already entering the holiday season. It feels like yesterday was the first day of school! During the month of November we will really start to see the students take off with their learning. In literacy, we will be learning about the new letters E, L, G, J, W , and U. We will also be digging more into characters, setting, and events in stories. In math, we’ll be working on adding within 5 and 2D shapes. We will finish up our first quarter of science with weather, and switch learning about Social Studies topics! Please practice letter names and letter sounds at home. When they know most of their letters, you can start practicing sight words! Please also continue to practice number ID and counting. We will celebrate Thanksgiving before the holiday break with a Thanksgiving Feast! Be on the lookout for more information. Thank you for sharing your students with me every day! I truly love watching them grow and mature.

Mrs. Cox’s class is looking forward to participating in the Kindness Week activities, which include thanking our Veterans for their sacrifice to our country. We are also excited to plan and cook our yummy Thanksgiving Feast to be shared together with a family member. Happy Thanksgiving to all, as we remember to thank God for our many blessings.

Hi first grade families,

November is here and I know it will go fast. In November, we are preparing our Christmas program songs, celebrating kindness week, and learning about the Macy’s Day Parade. In reading, we are continuing to learn about blends. Students are learning about light, sound, and communication in science. In math, we are working on making a 10 to add and subtract. Please read nightly with your child and practice math facts and sight words.

Learning is getting complex in second grade. In phonics we are learning some of the many bizarre ways the English language chooses to spell the long 'e' sound. We have eigh, ea, ie, ey, ee, e, y…and then we learn about words like great, sleigh, they, break, weight and prey…words that have those spellings but don't sound like long 'e' anyway! Please be understanding if they have headaches when they get home. Math right now involves regrouping so that we can subtract two digit numbers from two digit numbers. (ie: 52-17) Maybe have your child practice representing numbers in different ways - like 4 tens and 12 singles to represent 52. Have them count all those bills in your wallet and relate regrouping to "cashing in” a ten dollar bill for some singles. We are also working on writing opinions. When backing up opinions with reasons, we need those reasons to be specific and pertinent. Good opinion writing would include better reasons for our choices other than just because something is more fun. We have also started science and we are just beginning to classify animals like a zoologist might.

Thank you for the wonderful conferences that we had! November is full of exciting learning opportunities in 3rd grade!

Reading: We will continue exploring ocean animals and the special traits that help them survive. We will focus on point of view, cause and effect, and sequencing. Then, we will begin a new unit about how young children can make a meaningful impact on our world!

Writing: We will work through the writing process to draft an opinion piece. Students will learn to clearly state their opinion, provide supporting reasons and evidence, organize their ideas, and write a strong concluding statement.

Math: We are wrapping up our unit on multiplication and multiplication strategies. We will dive deeper into multiplication by exploring order and grouping (properties of multiplication) and using place value to multiply. Then, we will begin our exciting new unit on division!

Dates to Remember:

• November 9–13: Kindness Week

• November 25–27: No School – Thanksgiving Break

It was so good to see all of you at conferences! On November 11th we will be going to the public library. Please continue to work on math facts with your child as they are to be bringing home their flashcards for practice. Please continue to have your child read at home for 20 minutes a day. They can read to you, a sibling, the family pet, grandpa/grandma etc.

The season of Thanksgiving is upon us. Enjoy time with your family! We do not have school on November 25th-November 27th. The Christmas program is fast approaching on December 10th at

1:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. I will send out more about this as we get closer in Seesaw. Our class will lead Mass on Dec. 16th at 8:30 a.m.

Dear Families,

It is so great to be back in the classroom! We have gotten back into a great routine!

Reading- we will continue to work on the main idea of a text and how key details can help us summarize stories in our own words.

Writing- Before we leave for Thanksgiving we will finish another fun exploration of another country and fun things to do there. Students will begin to research somewhere they'd like to travel to and give an informational writing piece on that location.

Math- we are going to explore more about the relationship between multiplication and division. Then end out the month multiplying by 1 digit and 2 digit numbers.

Every night keep working on those math facts, spelling words and reading 20 minutes! We are not song leaders or leading mass this month.

We’ve been busy learning and exploring in our classroom! In 5th grade reading, students are using context clues to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words, while 6th graders are working on identifying themes in literature. In writing, students are learning how to organize information and share facts through informative writing. In math, we’re strengthening our skills in multi-digit division. Our 5th grade scientists are exploring the water cycle and how water moves through Earth’s systems, while 6th graders are learning about the engineering design process and investigating the properties of waves. Lots of exciting learning is happening!

I have loved being back at school throughout October! We continue to review and practice expectations in the classroom including: raising hands to speak, working quietly during independent work time, and being silent in the hallways.

We enjoyed reading Bridge to Terabithia for OBOS and the activities that went along with it. While reading, we reviewed literacy standards already covered for the year.

In music we have been learning about Rock Music through different decades and look forward to our Decades Ballad in the Christmas program!

6th grade math students have worked HARD to understand long division. In 6th grade writing, students are working on a narrative picture book. 5th and 6th graders are looking forward to learning about figurative language in preparation for Fairy Tale Plays. We highly encourage all students to practice their math facts daily at home!

In November, our Physical Education curriculum will focus on building stamina, physical strength, and lifelong health habits. In accordance with new Iowa state law requirements, we are introducing targeted practice for the Presidential Physical Fitness Assessment. Throughout the coming weeks, students will engage in fun, age-appropriate activities designed to build cardiovascular endurance through cardio exercises, core stability through curl-ups, and upper-body strength through push-ups. Our goal is not just meeting fitness benchmarks, but fostering perseverance, teamwork, and personal growth in a supportive, Christ-centered environment where every child is encouraged to do their personal best.

We enter the month of November, a beautiful and reflective time in the Catholic Church, our religion classes are turning our hearts toward heaven, honoring the saints, and giving thanks for God’s abundant blessings. This month offers a rich tapestry of liturgical celebrations that we will explore in class, beginning with All Saints' Day on November 1, where our younger students will discover that saints were real people who loved God and that we are all called to holiness. Families can easily celebrate this day at home by hosting a saint-themed dinner, playing trivia games, or lighting their children's baptismal candles to discuss their own call to saintly life.

On All Souls' Day on November 2, we will learn the Eternal Rest prayer and discuss why we pray for our deceased loved ones; at home, families can beautifully mirror this by setting up a small remembrance altar with photos of deceased relatives or keeping a family notebook of the faithful departed to pray for before meals. To help us prepare for the Feast of All Souls, please consider sending a picture of a deceased loved one to school so that we may display them and pray for all our saints in heaven.

Finally, as the month closes and we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King, we look forward to a beautiful spiritual milestone: the First Sunday of Advent on November 29, which marks the official beginning of a brand new liturgical year in the Church. Families can usher in this fresh season at home by gathering to bless and light the first purple candle on their Advent wreath, entering a time of quiet, joyful anticipation for the birth of Christ. Thank you for your continued partnership in nurturing your child's spiritual growth, and may your families have a deeply blessed and peaceful Thanksgiving holiday.

Guidance Corner: Caring & Inclusiveness

Students have been wrapping up our Caring Unit by putting what they've learned into practice. We've been talking about how our choices can affect others, how kindness can spread from one person to another, and why it's important to do the right thing even when it isn't easy. Through different activities and challenges, students have had opportunities to think about how they would handle situations they might face at school or with friends. We have also started our new Inclusiveness Unit, where we'll be focusing on appreciating our differences, welcoming others, and helping everyone feel like they belong.

We had a fantastic IC Spelling Bee in October! Congratulations to ALL of our finalists who competed during Scholarship Week, and an extra round of applause for each of our grade-level champions! We are so proud of everyone's hard work!

Students are busy reading, and we're excited to see so much enthusiasm for Battle of the Books!

• Grades 1–4: Team registration is due Friday, December 4! Teams may include up to four students from either Unit A or Unit B. Competitions will take place in April. Information is available outside Mrs. Hansen's office, and she's happy to help students register or answer questions!

• Grades 5–6: Students are encouraged to read books from the Iowa Children's Choice Award list. Copies are available from Mrs. Hansen, the IC library, and public libraries. Students who read the most titles will be invited to join our Mac Reader Battle of the Books team, competing against dozens of schools from across Iowa at a big competition right here in Charles City at the fairgrounds!

Keep reading, IC students! We can't wait to see all the great things our readers accomplish this year!