What's Up at St. Mark's?
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA["Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?" Luke 2:42
Jesus words to his earthly parents when they found him in the temple after searching for Him for three days are appropriate for us to consider, too, as we begin a new year. Are we regularly in our Father's house, studying His Word? Make a New Year's resolution to spend more time with the Babe of Bethlehem, strengthening your faith.
Preschoolers finished their gingerbread books, worked with shapes and did show and tell about their favorite Christmas item. They hosted a New Year's Party for the Kindergarten and enjoyed delicious Orangey Umbrellas made from orange slices and pretzel sticks. Both classes began discussing their new winter theme. Watch the hall mural for more winter developments!
Kindergarten studied the letter Uu. They put "u" objects under an umbrella, read the book, Bugs on the Run, and created Snow Umbrellas. In math the students worked on showing time to the hour, and practiced positioning things before, between, and after. They created snowflakes to hang from the ceiling and started learning about evergreen trees.
First Grade has been working on reading. We are filling out reading logs trying to each read 16 books by the 100 Day of School - January 28. We have all been reading and have shared books with our classmates, and have taken AR tests. We will do lots more reading before the end of the month! We made snowflakes to put on the bulletin board out in the hallway. We also made snowflakes using a website. It was fun to see all the different flakes! We have learned about tally marks and subtracting 2 in math. We are starting to have worksheets about our Bible stories. This week we read about the wise men and Jesus in the temple.
Second Graders are continuing to work on addition and subtraction, classifying sentences, and dancing to music in P.E. They did "snowy" art and shared a book and a favorite item.
Third grade has been learning about folk tales written by Tomie dePaola. His story called "Tony's Bread" tells how panettone bread was first invented in Italy. We read about this special Christmas bread and made it. It has the whitest flour, sweetest candies, and plumpest raisins. It was yummy.
Fourth Grade has been learning about the "Six Flags" that have flown over Texas. This helped them learn about the history of the South Central Region. The class spent the first part of the week doing the classroom geography bee to qualify two students for the school bee on Tuesday, January 11. Chloe Gordon and A.J. Stearns are the class representatives and Kijah Banda is the alternate.
The Fifth Grade had an interesting end to their first week back after Christmas break. We were busy reading for AR so we could meet our goals for the quarter. We also had our classroom geography bee with the winners being Chase Ehlers, Daisy Vallett, and the alternate Aaron Austin. We are also making big plans for the 45th annual Boys All Lutheran Tournament to be held at St. Mark's the week of January18-21. It has been a tradition that the fifth grade class plans the dress up days for that week for the whole school. We have some great ideas and hope they meet our principal's approval!
The Sixth Grade also held their classroom geography bee, with Gracie Banda and Madalynn Gordon qualifying for the school bee. Brett Rickenberg is the alternate. They have been studying Solomon's reign in religion and are beginning to learn about ancient Greece in world history.
Seventh Grade is going "down under" as they begin a chapter about Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica, and the Pacific islands. The students who qualified for the school bee from this room are Alyssa Landmann and Hannah Trevathan. The alternate is Christopher Schwarz.
Eighth Grade is still studying the Revolutionary War. In science they are studying sound. The class representatives to the school bee are Mya Grimm and Aubrie Spinka, with Andrew Gordon as alternate.