NEWSLETTER for JANUARY 27, 2006

CATHOLIC SCHOOLS WEEK

JANUARY 30 through FEBRUARY 5

Monday, January 30 Crazy Hat Day

Advanced Band during lunch

1:30 p.m.—Spirit Rally in Activity Center

2:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m.—School Newspaper Club (grades 5 and 6)

Tuesday, January 31 Teacher Appreciation Day

Favorite Sports Team Apparel Day

8:15 a.m.-8:45 a.m.—Teacher Swap

11 a.m.-12:30 p.m.—Teacher Luncheon provided by PTO

NO CHOIR PRACTICE

Wednesday, February 1 Crazy Sock Day

Cathedral Liturgy

12:45 p.m.-2 p.m.--All-School Bingo

2:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m.—Power of the Pen workshop

Thursday, February 2 Student Appreciation Day

Out-of-Uniform/No Homework Day

Beginning Band during Music Class

12:45 p.m.—Madcap Puppet Show with students from SPPS

NO DRAMA CLUB

Friday, February 3 OLSH Spiritwear Day

8:15 a.m.—All-School Mass (grades 6 and 8)

1 p.m.--Volleyball game—grade 8 students vs. teachers

LOOKING AHEAD…

Sunday, February 5 9 a.m.-noon—OPEN HOUSE

CATHOLIC SCHOOLS WEEK: We are excited about celebrating Catholic Schools Week! As you can see from the calendar above, we have lots of events planned. Students may participate in Crazy Hat and Crazy Sock Days and Favorite Sports Team Apparel Day by donating 50 cents for each event (or $1 for all three). Remind your children to bring in 30 pennies on Wednesday so they have markers to use for Bingo. All money collected will be donated to Right to Life, the charity we have selected as our recipient this year. Catholic Schools Week culminates in our Open House on Sunday, February 5. Stop in to see your children’s classrooms and chat casually with their teachers. Be sure to visit the cafeteria to see the great work our families have done in making their “bricks” that express what benefits they feel they and their children have reaped from a Catholic education. Please see the flyer coming home today with your youngest for further details.

PAWS (PAUSE) FOR PRAISE: Paws (Pause) for Praise recognition goes to: Henry Kuechly (2-R) for setting a good example; Lily Beck (3-P) and Lindsey Rinderle (8-S) for extra helpfulness; and Matthew Schneider (3-P) for being a friend to and helping out a first grader on the playground. Congratulations to these students.

SPELLING WHIZZES: In conjunction with The Cincinnati Post, our school’s spelling bee was held on Friday, December 16. The winners of this bee were: Keith Kennedy (8-S), first place; Holly Nurre (5-S), second place; and Zach Frey (6-G), third place. Keith Kennedy advanced to the Division 1 Regional competition, held this past Wednesday, January 25. Keith finished in fifth place—the first time an OLSH student placed that high in this competition. Keith was doing okay until he received the word “Bolshevize” and put an “s” in place of the “z”. Congratulations, Keith. Thank you for representing OLSH so well!

CHURCH DONATION ENVELOPES: Parents, your youngest child will be bringing home today a box of church donation envelopes. In years past, each child received his own box of envelopes; this year, families are being asked to include all children’s donations in one envelope to be dropped into the collection basket at Mass.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC GEOGRAPHY BEE: Students in grades four through eight participated in this question-and-answer bee. Questions, which came from National Geographic, pertained to their knowledge of geography. Ms. Willet and Mrs. Rogers used all the questions submitted by National Geographic to determine the two finalists. First runner-up was eighth grader Jake McCabe, and the winner and finalist was fifth grader Hallie Sansbury. Hallie then took a written exam which was sent to National Geographic. We are looking forward to the outcome of this written exam, as Hallie was competing with students from all over the country.

CHESS AND CHECKERS WITH MRS. ROGERS: Since Thanksgiving, students in grades four through eight have been meeting every Tuesday and Friday at recess and students in grades two and three every Tuesday to improve their chess skills. Students who are inexperienced are peer coached, with Mrs. Rogers supervising all sessions. The Chess Tournament (for students in grades four through eight only) will begin the first week of February. Checkers for all grades will begin in March. Studies have shown that playing chess helps to improve grades and thinking skills. The students certainly enjoy the challenge of these games!

HELP OLSH PTO EARN UP TO $500! OLSH PTO has been asked to participate in a market research study on Friday, February 10. Individual times will be scheduled from 2 p.m. ‘til 4:30 p.m., and the study will be held in the OLSH cafeteria with babysitting available in a nearby classroom. You will spend up to 45 minutes tasting food products, filling out questionnaires, and perhaps doing some other type of testing. We need a total of 75 people for this study. Please call Vicki Koppenhafer at 769-4318 by Monday, February 6, to schedule a time. Look for complete details on a separate flyer coming home in packets today.

PTO MEETING: The next PTO meeting will be on Wednesday, February 8, at 7 p.m. The deadline for new business items for this meeting is Wednesday, February 1. Please send items to school marked “PTO Mail”, e-mail to boomer473@aol.com, or call any PTO Board member. Thank you.

OFFICE DEPOT “5% BACK TO SCHOOLS” PROGRAM: Please continue to support this program. When parents and teachers provide our school’s 5% Back to Schools ID number while shopping at Office Depot, OLSH receives credits equal to 5% to use for free supplies! Our school’s ID number is 70077148.

YEARBOOK VOLUNTEERS: We will be having a meeting on Tuesday, January 31 from 7 p.m. ‘til 9 p.m. in the computer room to work on using the WebEase program. We now have photos on the program, and we will be doing some hands-on training with the photos available. If you have questions, please contact Alison O’Neill at 769-4853.

iPODS: Parents, please remind your children that they are not permitted to bring iPods or similar electronics to school. We have had to confiscate several of these in the last couple of weeks. While we understand from the students that they are permitted to use them on the bus, the fact is that they are not allowed to have them at school. Please refer to page 18 of the Parent Student Handbook—though not mentioned specifically, iPods fall into this collection of items that will be confiscated if found at OLSH.

STUDY PARTICIPANTS SOUGHT: The Blue Ash YMCA has received a grant from “Healthy Ohioans” to fund a ten-week fitness program aimed at obese and/or diabetic children and their families. The program is free to participants, and families who qualify and complete the course earn a one-year membership to the Y. If you are interested, please contact Adam Morton at the Blue Ash YMCA (791-5000).

NURSE’S OFFICE: Volunteers for the Nurse’s Office for Friday, February 3, are Gayle Lucas (8 a.m. ‘til 11 a.m.) and Karen Bigler (11 a.m. ‘til 2 p.m.). Thanks, moms!

MENU for the WEEK of JANUARY 30

Monday……………chicken nuggets, green beans, peaches, roll, milk

Tuesday…………..spaghetti with meat sauce, tossed salad, pears, breadstick, milk

Wednesday………cheese quesadilla with salsa, corn, applesauce, tortilla chips, milk

Thursday………….grilled chicken on bun, mashed potatoes with gravy, trail mix, pretzels, milk

Friday………………French bread pizza, peas and carrots, fruit cocktail, grahams, milk

THE CAFETERIA IS LOOKING FOR SOMEONE TO WORK ON WEDNESDAYS FROM 10:45 A.M. ‘TIL 1:15 P.M.

FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE SCHOOL YEAR.

THIS IS A PAID POSITION.

DUTIES INCLUDE SERVING LUNCH AND THE CLEANUP AFTERWARDS.

ANYONE INTERESTED MAY CONTACT EILEEN GALLENSTEIN THROUGH THE SCHOOL OFFICE.