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OLOF Winter Newsletter

Mission Statement:

Our Lady of Fatima Parish School is a

learning community founded and

supported by parishioners, rooted in

traditional Catholic values for the

purpose of educating our children to

become humble, faith-filled citizens

who generously offer their God-given

gifts for the good of all people.

Remember to collect box

tops and send to the school,

the next mail-in collection

date is March 1st.

The Putnam

Market

opened its

doors on

October 17,

2017.

Leah (Kinker) Meeks 2005 Graduate of Our Lady of Fatima Parish School

Featured Alum

Important Dates:

*Ash Wednesday Wednesday, February 14

School Mass 8:50am

*Lenten Fish Dinners Each Friday February 16 –

March 23, 5:00pm-7:00pm

in the Parish Hall

*Reverse Raffle April 28, 2018 6:30pm-

10:30pm in the Parish Hall

*Open House Sunday, March 4, 2018

12:00pm-2:00pm

January 2018 ● Volume 1, Issue 2 ● Our Lady of Fatima Parish School ● 304-523-2861

Fatima Alumna Opens Local Business

Thor and Leah Meeks are a husband and wife duo, both business owners, who reside in Putnam County, WV. Having lived in the area permanently for the past five years, the couple recognized a need for a local marketplace that offered flowers & floral design services, and a range of specialty, fine goods to residents of the community – hence, The Putnam Market.

The PM was inspired by their time living in New York City, while Leah was earning her Master’s Degree in Merchandising at LIM College and their travels through the years, The PM will be a marketplace designed to house the couples favorite things and finds. Their shared vision for The PM is to create a community market – an inviting space that offers flowers, fine goods, provisions, and artisanal gift items to the residents of Putnam County and beyond – a distinctive experience intended to

appeal to a wide market of consumers with a desire to indulge in some of life’s finest delights.

Leah has also partnered with her sister, Hannah Clark to launch their own wedding planning & design business, Two Fine Ways, in the fall of 2016. Leah knew she wanted to create a place that would go hand and hand with TFW and tap in to another sector of the $45 billion wedding and event industry – floral design. With a growing need and limited competition, one of the goals for The PM is to be the area’s premier source of flowers and floral design services, inspiration and go to event space for hosting all of life’s big and small moments.

Leah is a 2005 graduate of OLOFPS and Hannah is a 2004 graduate and current 5th grade and WV History teacher.

facebook.com/theputnammarket/

Page 2 January 2018 ● Volume 1, Issue 2 ● Our Lady of Fatima Parish School ● 304-523-2861

Thank you to everyone who

donated to our annual Tons of

Thanks canned food drive for ECCHO.

We were able to collect 4,650 cans, of

which feed 1,031 people in 348

families.

Congratulations to our 8th grade and

Kindergarten classes for collecting

the most!

Kindergarten Our kindergarteners just closed the book on their first semester! We have grown in so many ways throughout these 18 weeks. Our handwriting is neater, our glue isn't as clumpy, and we are cutting in straight lines. In spelling, our students have moved up to 5 spelling words each week. During our science lessons, we are conducting experiments with our middle school science teacher, Mrs. Dennison. We do this in addition to our weekly units; most recently, learning about the different types of plants and how to sort them. In math class we are learning to compare numbers and how to use a number line. The students have begun their 10th unit in the SuperKids Reading program and have been reading short stories about all of the kids we've met so far. Learning about the true meaning of Christmas through our time in Advent and finally the Epiphany has been the focus of our religion classes in addition to weekly school Mass.

1st Grade We ended 2017 working on specific comprehension skills to add to improving their reading fluency. They have excelled in reading and are eager every day to take Accelerated Reading tests. This group is highly motivated! They love to edit sentences, too! They worked hard in mastering addition and subtraction skills, graphing and solving word problems. We kicked off 2018 with new reading materials... informative and literary pieces, as well as poetry. We are beginning a new unit in Science about what makes up our earth. In Social Studies, the students will study about the diversity of people who make up our world. We will continue to work on writing skills with using graphic organizers.

2nd

Grade Before Christmas, we finished our first reading book and began our second reading book. Also during the second nine weeks the students learned how to write the entire lower case alphabet in cursive!! This is a big step for second graders, and now we are ready to learn the capital letters in cursive and begin taking our Spelling Tests in cursive writing. It's been a busy time in math class with addition and subtraction of larger numbers in preparation for two and three digit problems with borrowing and carrying! In December our second graders made their First Reconciliation in church, and now we are ready to begin studying for First Communion which takes place later in the spring.

Elementary

PreK3 The 3 year old Pre-School class has made it all the way to the letter O in our "Letter of the Week" series. We are learning all about letters, numbers, shapes and colors. We are grouping by 2's and 3's. We are mastering our fine motor skills through many different activities and working hard on our self-help skills. We have enjoyed learning about estimation, graphing and measuring. We are looking forward to learning all about opposites, rhyming words, making predictions and sequencing. We are a happy group and love learning new things together.

PreK4 Preschool 4 is already hard at work in 2018! As we enter the room in the morning the children are signing themselves in by writing their own names. They are doing a fine job! We have covered letters A-Q and we will be reviewing those letters daily. In the next few weeks we will cover the following letters r, s, t, u, v, and w. In our Super Kids Reading Series we'll be reading the stories: “Tug of War” and “Peter and the Rabbit”. We will also be reviewing numbers 1-10 and discussing addition and subtraction. We will introduce money starting with pennies and nickels. In the month ahead we will discuss hibernation, polar bears and penguins. In Science we will experience different science experiments having to do with the weather: such as fizzy reactions, ice melting, and making real snow. It’s such an exciting time to watch the children learn and grow!

3rd Grade It is hard to believe that we are halfway through our school year. The 3rd grade class has been working so hard this last semester. We have become much more fluent with our multiplication facts, we have become proficient in counting money, telling time, and temperature and we have also started some division. In the next semester, we will continue learning division, as well as fractions. In Social Studies, we learned about our United States Government. This coming semester, we will begin studying the Earth's Geography. In Language Arts, we have been reading many realistic fiction stories and we have just started reading the novel, Mr. Popper's Penguins. We have also been spending time exploring the writing process and completing expository writing assignments. In Grammar, we continue to learn the parts of a sentence and identifying different types of nouns. In Religion, we just finished our chapter on Advent and we are discussing the sacrament of penance and reconciliation. We will soon begin our unit on the season of Lent. We are so excited for the next half of the year and all we are going to learn.

4th

Grade Our class has finished a great study of the 13 Colonies, including an oral presentation from each student on a particular colony. We will now begin another exciting period of history--the events leading up to the American Revolution. The students will use reading journals to respond to their reading. We will be identifying the author’s purpose, character traits, inferences, the use of figurative language, and comparing/contrasting characters. In science, we continue to study and identify the systems of the body. We will be focusing on fractions and decimals in math, including understanding equivalent fractions and decimals. The students all wrote an essay for the Cabell County Writing Contest, so we are hoping for some winners.

PreK2 As the cold weather heads our way, Pre-K2 is studying the winter season. We are using descriptive terms and memory skills while we make "snow" and experiment with ice. We studied the story of the birth of Jesus, singing Christmas songs throughout the month of December.

Middle School

Social Studies 6th Grade Social Studies We've been busy moving from the time of the American and French Revolutions to learning about various important waterways such as the Panama Canal and the Suez Canal. We have also been involved with discovering how countries colonized other areas of the world, in particular parts of Asia and Africa. Our study led us to the Boer Wars and will continue into World War I. We have begun to realize how decisions made in the past have affected what has happened in later times, as we see the seeds of World War I being sowed, and how these will lead directly to World War II as we continue our study of the 20th century. It will be an amazing journey as we take on the roles of soldiers writing home about life from the trenches, roles of the people at home doing whatever they can for the soldiers and how life changes with rations, changes in the work force, roles as both groups once they are back together and see how the world has changed.

7th Grade Social Studies We have been studying Ancient India and beginning a study of Ancient Rome. They completed an India A to Z project as well as participated in a CSI-like investigation into the death of Julius Caesar, among other lessons and projects. We will begin studying Medieval China, culminating in a Shark Tank-like project about Medieval Chinese inventions. Following their study of China, they will move into a study of Africa.

Art This quarter we have continued to

focus on drawing and painting early, then branching out into three-dimensional artwork. The Pre-K 4 year olds and kindergarten have worked with soft clay to model penguins and polar bears. The first grade worked with metal tooling. Second grade did a lovely winter scene while the third grade make geodesic domes and candy cane houses. The fourth grade worked on tile designs and the fifth grade did weaving. The sixth grade made ceramic effigy pots and sculpted snowmen in paper mache. The seventh grade sewed pillow heads that they painted self-portraits on and the eighth grade created lovely square silk scarf designs. Next quarter we will continue to work on drawing with letters for the Pre-K 4s, Celtic letter designs in first grade, letter forms that tell about the person and a dinosaur unit for the second grade. The third grade will work with soft cray-pas pastels to make an abstract mask from numbers and the fourth grade will make a prayer amulet in tooling metal. The fifth grade will work on crazy hair portraits and patterns while the sixth grade will create a painting of a bird or fish in the Pointillism style. The seventh grade will now do silk scarf designs and the eighth grade will make an edition of a 3 color reduction relief print.

Page 3 January 2018 ● Volume 1, Issue 2 ● Our Lady of Fatima Parish School ● 304-523-2861

Math

6th Grade Math

The sixth graders have been learning about least common multiples, reciprocals, protractors, areas of rectangles, expanded notation, elapsed time, writing percents as fractions, decimal place value, reading and writing decimals, writing decimals as fractions, subtracting fractions and mixed numbers from whole numbers, adding and subtracting decimals, squares and square roots, multiplying decimal numbers, circle graphs, finding percents, simplifying and comparing decimal numbers, dividing a decimal by a whole number and a decimal, circumference, pi, and subtracting mixed numbers with regrouping.

Pre-Algebra 7 and 8 These two classes have been studying about factors and prime factorization, greatest common factor, equivalent fractions, least common multiples, rules of exponents, negative and zero exponents, scientific notation, rational numbers, adding and subtracting like and unlike fractions, multiplying and dividing fractions, using multiplicative inverses to solve equations, and equations and inequalities with rational numbers.

Algebra 1 This class has been learning about rates, ratios,

and percents, coordinates and scatter plots,

graphing linear equations, quick graphs using

intercepts, the slope of a line, direct variation,

graphs using slope-intercept form, solving linear

equations using graphs, functions and relations,

writing linear equations using slope-intercept

form, the slope and a point, and given 2 points,

fitting a line to data, point-slope form and

standard form of a linear equation, predicting

with linear models, and solving one-step, multi-

step, and compound inequalities.

Language Arts Sixth grade students studied verbs and pronouns, read works by

such authors as Jean Craighead George and Philip Van Doren Stern, did weekly spelling and vocabulary, and worked on a Newbery book-themed writing project. Seventh grade students studied pronouns and adjectives, read works by such authors as Pearl S. Buck and Rod Serling, did weekly spelling and vocabulary, and worked on a spider research project. Eighth grade students studied verbs and pronouns, read works by such authors as Edgar Allan Poe and W.W. Jacobs, did weekly spelling and vocabulary, and completed historical narratives. During the third quarter, students in all three grades will continue to progress in grammar as well as continue weekly spelling and vocabulary. Additionally, sixth grade will work on a personal narrative and begin reading Tuck Everlasting. Seventh grade will also write a personal narrative and begin reading The Outsiders. Eighth grade students will begin work on their MLA research papers and also begin to read To Kill a Mockingbird.

5th Grade In English Language Arts, the students have been continuing to reading multiple AR books to reach point level goals, and are

using themes of “A Changing Planet” and “Express Yourself” in their textbooks/workbooks, to focus on reading comprehension, vocabulary

practice, and character referencing in their journals. The students have also developed stronger writing skills, created newspaper-style book

reports, practiced descriptive writing prompts, and submitted one poem and prose personal narrative for the Cabell County Writing Contest! In

Social Studies, the students completed a unit on Reconstruction after the Civil War, which transitioned into westward expansion and the rise of

new industries in the United States. In Math thus far, the students have demonstrated fluency in a variety of concepts such as advanced

converting and comparing of the measurement of length, capacity and weight; graphing strategies and graphing analytics; fraction

manipulatives as well as adding/subtracting and multiplying/dividing fractions, and comparing fractions with percentages.

Each day in Religion class, the students continue to take turns of saying a prayer from their heart, and together, we end class with a Hail

Mary. We joined Father Paul at church to ask him questions and to learn more about our Catholic faith.

January 2018 ● Volume 1, Issue 2 ● Our Lady of Fatima Parish School ● 304-523-2861

Music

For all music classes our year has gotten off to an excellent

start. Our 3rd - 5th grade sang at the 10:45 mass on October

22. We were so proud of the performance they gave. Our

middle school band and choir performed beautifully to honor

our Veterans with music on November 9th. Our entire student body performed beautifully at the

annual Christmas Concert. We had the largest crowd we have

had in quite a long time. Our middle schoolers are preparing for

the annual music trip in the spring.

Visit our school

website

olofps.org

Page 4

Spanish

The elementary students will be working more in depth with the sounds of the Spanish letters in order to help them with their pronunciation and reading skills; while continuing their interactive notebooks for vocabulary building.

The middle school students are diligently working on various grammar concepts and vocabulary building that will assist them in obtaining their Spanish 1 high school credit.

P.E In Physical Education classes, students finished their dance lesson, learning two different dances. Students then moved to partner badminton serving and volleying, sideline hockey, a competitive game of "steal the bacon", Frisbee tossing and catching, and Christmas themed games.

Health In Health, students have continued their Cancer lessons, focusing on lymphoma and leukemia, and studied the skeletal, muscular, and digestive systems. Students in middle school had a unique experience of seeing real human bodies preserved, seeing all systems of the body and how diseases can affect them.

.

Religion The middle school students sponsored a successful school wide toy drive. The

toys went to ECCHO to help the children of Eastern Cabell County have a merry Christmas. The seventh grade religion class has been learning about the Israelites, their slavery in Egypt, and all the way through their journey to the Promised Land. The students also studied the transformation of Israel under Saul and David and that Israel lived with peace and prosperity under Solomon. When we were studying the Ark of the Covenant students discussed times and places when they feel God's presence in a special way. We will continue reading stories from the Old Testament. Next we will begin learning about the division of Solomon's kingdom and how the prophets brought God's message to Israel.

Science

6th Grade Science We continue our study of the atmosphere and then our attention turned to chemistry. We have explored the atom and its basic parts, the periodic table, and physical and chemical changes and properties. It has been a study with mystery mixtures and amassing chemical changes. Our study will continue next nine weeks with energy and motion.

7th Grade Science We explored the physical and chemical properties and changes of matter, making our own oobleck and determining viscosity and density of various substances. We have learned about the pH scale and determined acids and bases in our lab. We discovered mixture and compounds and about the states of matter. After our conclusion of the chemistry unit, we’ve started our journey as biologists, learning about life—from cells to genetics and classification.

8th Grade Science We've been busy with being meteorologists as we determined the paths of hurricanes and other weather phenomena. We also have studied plants, learning about the basic parts and classifications of them. We also did a leaf collection and learned about the many types of trees in our neighborhoods. Our study of the earth then turned to learning about plants and animals in their communities and in the larger ecosystem. We discovered much as we investigated the various land and ocean biomes. It has been a busy time learning about our home planet, and some of the ways to care for it.

West Virginia History class is filled with exciting new lessons and research on the

“Mountain State”. After studying western Virginia's role in the Civil War and how that

ignited the conception of our state, the students focused on geography, and

memorizing the 55 counties. We then began to study a majorly important unit on

industries in the state- specifically, the coal mining industry. The students pursued the

effects of that industry throughout the 20th century, as well as its impact on modern

day West Virginia, and the country as a whole. One particular focus was on the PBS

documentary, “Mine Wars”. After which, the class participated in in-depth discussions

on the labor movement, unions, and the progressive reform movement in West

Virginia. We will begin rigorous reviews of what they have learned so far this year, to

develop in-class writings, readings of the archives, and planned, interactive

assignments for the 2018 West Virginia History Golden Horseshoe Exam. It is so

important for the students to have participation skills in whole-class debates and

discussions on the content we learn. Each student is assessed on these, as well as a

positive attitude to learn, in order to promote an effective learning environment!

WV History