Dear Parents/Guardians:

 

Good evening. As our first month of school concludes, I hope you continue to find these principals updates informative and useful.

 

Please see below for some important updates and reminders.

 

Upcoming Events

 

9/25 8th Grade Graduation Pictures will be taken

Student Council Assembly

9/26 Final Day to order October lunch in Option C

9/27 Boy Scouts Visit to grades K-8

Bishop Loughlin Visit to 8th Grade

10/2 Candy Sale Ends

10/3 Xaverian Visit to 8th Grade

10/4 First Day of Band Practice

10/6 First Friday Mass at 11am/12:30 Dismissal for  Jr. Pre-K and K-8

FDNY Smokehouse – Grades 3-8

10/9 School Closed – Columbus Day Observance

10/12 Buddy Day for 8th Grade Girls at Fontbonne Hall Academy

10/13 Radio Bingo

10/14 Confirmation Retreat 11am – 3pm

10/10 Terra Nova Exams Begin

10/20 Terra Nova Exams End

Buddy Day for 8th Grade Girls at Bishop Kearney

Buddy Day for 8th Grade Boys at Cathedral Prep

 

Academic Highlights

 

From Ms. Dwyer – Pre-K B: Pre-k B has been off to a great start! We have had tons of fun getting to know one another and making new friends.The last two weeks have been focusing on what we will learn and do in Pre-k. We learned new songs, and read exciting new stories. We created name mosaics and last week, we explored feelings and what our feelings mean. We shared our feelings, and then we created feeling portraits of ourselves using paper plates, mirrors and art materials to decorate them. With this, we have been discussing everyday about classroom rules, and how we respect one another and make good choices in school. This week we just finished our unit on All about me and the people in my community. We created self portraits of ourselves using different materials to replicate our own physical features. They created beautiful work!

 

In our Building Blocks curriculum, we have been learning how to count verbally from 1 to 10 in connection  with the song ‘This Old Man’. We have been learning and practicing in centers in our small group how to connect number words to quantities they represent. We have been focusing  this week on grouping. (I.e. groups of 2, 4, 6 ) We have been learning through modeling. I will show each child a group of a number I have made using counters on a paper plate and they have to count and say how many counters are in the group on the plate. Once they have guessed the correct number in that group, they have to replicate the same number group using the counters on their own plate. We have some great mathematicians in Pre -K B!

 

From Mrs. Federico – 2nd Grade: Our Second Graders are off to a great new school year- filled with learning and fun! We especially enjoyed celebrating and wearing red for Johnny Appleseed.

In ElA, we just finished a Superkids warm up unit and started unit one. We’ve focusing on understanding characters and citing text evidence. We also learned and practiced how to write A-Get-to-Know-Me-Letter.

In Science, we were excited to visit the lab for the third time this week. We practiced our lab skills as we examined the weight and volume of solids and concluded that the larger object is not always heavier than a small object.

In Social Studies, we’ve been learning about compass rose and how to read map directions. To put our skill to the test, we created a map of a kings castle.

In Religion, we’ve learned about how God sent his son Jesus Christ to be with us and discussed how he continues to be with us always.

 

From Mr. Dillon – 6th, 7th, and 8th Grades:

 

6th Math: We learned how to find the part of a value given the percent and the whole.

7th Math: We learned how to construct graphs and identify proportional relationships.

8th Math: We learned how to find square and cubic roots on the calculator and perform operations with them.

6th ELA: We read several stories and talked about how to extract details in order to answer questions on plot and theme.

6th Religion: We discussed how humans are made in God’s imagine and responsible for looking over all of God’s creations.

 

Heard in the Halls

 

We used hydrochloric acid and nobody got hurt! – Teacher

 

Saliva is good. – Teacher

 

Words of Wisdom

 

Today is the wonderful feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, the Archangels. Allow me to share with you the great prayer of St. Michael:

 

Saint Michael Archangel,

defend us in battle,

be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil;

may God rebuke him, we humbly pray;

and you, O Prince of the heavenly host,

by the power of God, cast into hell

Satan and all the evil spirits

who prowl through the world seeking the ruin of souls.

Amen

 

Have a great weekend!

 

• Mr. OBrien

On Monday, September 18th, Good Shepherd Catholic Academy students attended an assembly with Dominican Father Michael Ford. The students had the incredible opportunity of seeing and venerating relics of several saints, including the Apostle, St. Jude. Click the link below for NET TV’s video coverage of the assembly, which was made by Good Shepherd graduate Michelle Powers.

http://netny.tv/episodes/currents/students-view-rare-relic-st-jude/

 

From Miss Rampulla – 6th, 7th, and 8th Grades: The 6th and 7th grade students will be introduced to Properties of Matter in Science. They will understand that elements are categorized by group and period in the Periodic table.They will be introduced to elements and compounds and the relationship between them. The 8th grade will be learning about Heat and Heat. Students will understand the relationship between heat, thermal energy, and temperature.

 

From Mrs. Seliste – 4th and 5th Grade: Welcome Back!

The fourth and fifth graders have been very excited to visit the new Science Lab. They are very serious about their investigations. And they look like real scientists with their lab coats on. The fourth grade is learning about the nervous system and the fifth grade is using the microscope as well as concave and convex lenses to conduct their activities.

The fifth grade is learning about order of operations in Math and looking forward to learning about the relics of St . Jude when we visit the church Monday afternoon.

The fourth grade is working on a chapter about Reconciliation and God’s forgiveness in Religion and in Math we are practicing multiplication and problem solving.  

From Mrs. Robin – Kindergarten: The Kindergarten class is off to a wonderful start.  We have explored the Story of Creation and know that God made each and everyone of us special in our own way.  We have promised to treat each other with kindness and respect.

In our new reading series, we have met our first Superkid Character and her name is Cass.  Please ask your child to discuss Cass with you over the weekend. They should be able to tell you about her pet, some of the things she likes to do and what happens when she is getting ready to go to school.

We made our first trip to the Science Lab on Thursday.  We read a book “Goodnight Lab” and we discussed different ways to make observations.  We explored some of the science tools we will be using in the lab this year.

Good Shepherd Catholic Academy is happy to announce it is hosting its first All Year’s Reunion on Saturday, October 21st. All alumni of Good Shepherd School and Good Shepherd Catholic Academy are invited to attend. The reunion will begin with the 5:00 pm Mass and will be followed by school tours and a reception.

The fee for the reunion is $50 per person. Checks, made payable to Good Shepherd Catholic Academy, can be mailed to the school, or you can click below to register and pay through PayPal.

 

Please be advised that our phone lines will be down today through Friday, July 28th due to a system upgrade. Please feel free to email the principal, Mr. O’Brien, at jobrien@gscabk.org or Mrs. Del Gaizo in the main office, at mdelgaizo@gscabk.org.

From Miss Andrezzi – Pre-K B: Pre-K B started our unit on Babies this week. We learned that babies need food, water, love and lots of sleep!  We began to turn our dramatic play area into our very own baby nursery. We were also lucky to have a visit from one of our moms who brought in her baby and taught us a lot about how the baby needs to be cared for in a special way. Nurse Joanne also visited us and talked to us about pediatric nurses, who are nurses that care for babies. Nurse Joanne read us a book about nurses and how important they are in caring for babies. We will begin learning about baby animals next week so we are excited to watch our ladybug larva grow. We ended our week with a very special Mother’s Day Tea. We enjoyed singing, eating and making a special craft with our moms and grandmas.

 

From Mrs. Suhovsky – 3rd Grade: Our third grade play has finally arrived. We have our costumes and know our lines and songs. Tuesday is our big day! Join us if you can at 9am.

Thursday we visited the Prospect Park Zoo. We engaged in a scavenger hunt and had a great day.

We are learning about Spain and have used our chrome books to gather information about the country.

In Science we are studying ecosystems. We are learning about how the plants and animals interact  with each other. We have also viewed several videos to learn more about them.

 

From Mrs. Gomez – 6th, 7th, and 8th Grades: and followers of Islam.  Students will be learning about the interactions across the eastern hemisphere.  We will have a culminating project in which we will create our own maps and explain how ideas and items spread along the Silk Roads, Indian Ocean and the Trans Saharan trade routes.

 

7th Grade SS:  Students are nearing the end of the unit on Westward Expansion.  I look forward to our small in class webquest on the Trail of Tears by the Cherokee Indians and how they impacted the people and the culture during this time.  The following topic we will be the reformation movements in which we explore influential peoples that took part in the abolitionist movement.

 

7th Grade Religion:  Students recently completed a project about Religious Tolerance.  They researched a different faith, learned about the culture, compared it to Catholicism and wrote a letter to a religious leader in order to promote religious tolerance.  Students will be studying about the changes that occur during adolescence.  We will focus on living out our vocations and how to answer God’s call.

 

8th Grade ELA:  Students have been reading “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare.  The focus of in class discussions is around the cause and effect relationship between events that lead up to the tragic end to our play.  Students also have been evaluating the impact of big and small decisions that we make and how they affect the main characters in our play.  Students will continue to read the final act in our books and will celebrate with watching the movie in class.  At the end of the movie, students will compare and contrast the play to what we viewed.
8th Grade SS:   Students conducted a short research project about WWII and its causes.  Students also researched the history of William Shakespeare by selecting topics of interest and working in small groups.  The project was turned into a newspaper article with creative aspects added by the group.  Students will continue to learn about WWII and how it transformed the US and its effects globally.  We will soon learn about the struggle of nuclear superpowers that occurred during the period of the Cold War.  

From Miss Resciniti – 6th, 7th, and 8th Grade: The 6th and 8th Grade are all done with the State tests. In 6th Grade Religion, we are starting the “Family Life” series. This series is meant to assist our children and their families with support as we reflect on our Catholic faith. This includes understanding family influences, the uniqueness of individuals and much more. In 7th Grade Math, we are using our protractors and learning how to draw shapes with given conditions.

 

From Mrs. Federico – 2nd Grade:  This week the second graders are looking forward to receiving communion for the first time on Saturday, May 6th. We are excited to grow closer to Jesus and to form a special bond with him. Please keep them in your prayers.

 

In Reading, we are learning about comparing and contrasting texts. We learned that reading more than one text about the same topic can show us that not one author has all the answers on any topic. They have different opinions and we can learn more if we read more than one article.

 

In Math, we are learning how to read and interpret data from a Tally Graph to make a Pictograph and a Bar Graph.
In Social Studies we are learning about wants and needs. We learned that managing money is important and making a budget plan is a great way to figure out how much money should be spent on our needs and wants and how much of our income we should save.

From Mrs. Robin – Kindergarten – The children have just completed their segment on Life in the Rainforest and Under the Sea.  They are experts on the layers of rainforest, reptiles and mammals just to name a few.  They created an amazing environment in Mrs. Karolee’s Room and completed the segment by performing many songs and poems for their parents on Friday.  We are very grateful to Mrs. M, who works with the children every week teaching them the songs and poems that align with their specific segments.  We are very proud of the children, they did a wonderful job on the show.  Thank you to all the parents for arranging your work schedules to be at the show.  We are now  going to travel back in time to the Cretaceous, Triassic and Jurassic Period!

 

In Math the children have successfully completed our chapter on subtraction and are eager to explore money.  We are continuing our Lenten Journey by attending Mass and reading the Bible every week,  The majority of the class has already been “Caught Being Kind” and their fish are happily swimming in our pretend pond.

 

From Mrs. Seliste – 4th and 5th Grade : Grade 4 just finished a unit on  magnets and electricity in Science. We are working on fractions in Math and preparing for our Math State  test . Both grades 4 and 5 were excited to have Father Mel come and teach us about Passover and the Last Supper. Mrs. Seliste brought in grape juice and matzoh to share.

The fifth grade is just finishing a short unit in Math on coordinate geometry and Two- dimensional figures. In fact they have a test on Monday. In Science the 5th grade has  been learning about how animals interact with  their  environment and each other and one of our activities was to cut open an owl pellet and see what the owl had eaten. The students found skulls, jawbones, ribs, etc. from such animals as voles, shrews, mice and rats. I think this was their favorite lab so far this year.

 

From Miss Rampulla – 6th, 7th, and 8th Grade:

 

The 7th grade are beginning a new novel, Animal Farm by George Orwell. In Science the 7th grade is finishing up asexual reproduction.

 

The 8th graders continue to reviewing for the Science state test. In Religion the 8th grade​ are learning about how the faith of the Church was shaken by the Black Death.

 

The 6th grade is learning about Plate Tectonics and the different boundary Plates.

 

From Mrs. Grech – Computer: 2nd Grade is learning the basics of Coding with Blockly.  They have learned how to work within the Workspace and how to create algorithms to make characters move around the Stage.

 

3rd through 8th grade are learning Coding to create their own video games.  They are using Blockly and HTML.  They have learned how to move characters around the Stage and perform functions to earn or lose points using algorithms, loops and repeats.  They are learning to create characters and props using pixels.

 

The Students are catching on quickly and moving through the assignments with ease.

 

From Mrs. Neuner – Jr. Pre-K: Jr. Pre K has been busy learning many new things. We are practicing holding a pencil. In ELA we are working on the recognition and sounds of the letter Ii and naming things that begin with Ii.  We are also tracing the letters and beginning to write them.  In Math we are learning how to count objects to match the number.  In Religion we learned the Hail Mary prayer.  We learned that the cross is a sign of God’s love for us and that we belong to God’s family.  In Science we learned what a rainbow is, how they are formed, and where they can be found.  We had fun making rainbow rice and playing with in.  We are making our own rainbow book.  We have been busy getting ready for St. Patrick’s Day making a pot of gold, hats, shamrocks, and leprechauns.

 

From Mrs. Mangano – 1st Grade: First Grade is learning about the weather. On March 1, all the students made predictions if there would be more lion or lamb days. We are keeping a tally chart and recording each day. Every morning they copy a paragraph from the board about the day’s weather. Each student is getting a chance to be a classroom meteorologist. They report the weather using describing words and the daily temperature. We wrote about what you can do on rainy days and sunny days. So far we had more lion days than lamb days.

 

From Mrs. DeNonno – 4th and 5th Grade: Fourth and Fifth grade are finishing up their poems about the woman they admire most for a Poetry contest held by Councilman Alan Maisel. The students have just finished a Poetry Unit and the contest came at the right time! Both 4th and 5th Grade also completed their Poetry booklets. They did a nice job making the booklets filled with Figurative Language. Good job!

From Miss Amaya – Pre-K A: Where do we begin?  Pre-K A has begun the next unit on Water.  We took time to brainstorm on what is water, where can we find it, and different uses of it.  We learned water comes from rain that falls from the clouds and waters flow in streams, rivers, lakes, sea, and down waterfalls. We learned we can use water to create beautiful art using water colors palettes. In science we learned we can use water to make rainbows! On a sunny day, we went outside and using a spray bottle we were able to make our own rainbow, as the water reflected the sun rays. In Dramatic Play we are excited to be “going to the beach” and enjoy the ocean.  

In Building Blocks Math we continuing developing counting concepts and skills by producing the correct number of items and by figuring out hidden numbers in ordered sets using our “Xray glasses”!

 

From Mrs. Federico – 2nd Grade:   Once again second grade had an exciting and busy week. In reading, we  starting learning the beginning steps to writing a research paper. We learned we should carefully research our topic first and look at different sources to collect important facts about the subject before we start writing.

 

In Math, we began a new unit on money. We learned the value of coins and how money can be used in our daily lives.

 

In Science, we also began a new unit on “How People Grow and Change.” This week’s lesson was on what our bones and muscles do for us. We played games, watched videos, and participated in various activities to reinforce the concept of how our body parts help us.

   

In Religion, we are working on our Lenten promise. Each day, we come up with a good deed we want to accomplish. We began a new chapter titled “The Liturgy of the Word” and learned the first part of the mass and all the different ways we listen to God’s word.
From Miss Resciniti – 6th Grade: The 6th grade is working hard preparing for the state tests. We will begin our next novel, Bud, not Buddy next week.  In Religion, we are trying to remain focused on our Lenten promises.  In 8th grade Math, we will be moving on to our next unit, Geometry. The 7th grade will be finishing our unit on Expressions and Equations and begin Geometry next week.