Hi-lites
week of May 20, 2010
Lunch
News! Hot Lunch ends on
Friday, May 29th.
The HIVE
closes on Friday, May 29th. Your child
will have to bring a lunch (made at home) for
both Tuesday, June 1st and Wed., June 2nd.
PUT A GIANT
NOTE ON THE REFRIGERATOR!
Thanks to our
wonderful lunch volunteers. It's
been a great year.
Dear
Parents and Guardians,
I recently
attended a Theology Day sponsored by St. John's University. The topic was excellence in ministry
and what makes an excellent parish.
It was intriguing. Fr. Paul
and I were scribbling notes like mad.
One theme that
continues to circle in my thoughts is this notion of "A Radical Welcome." To truly be a place of excellence,
people must continually look for ways to make space for new members. So we are charged to constantly make a
space at the table, create space in our various committees and groups, make
effort after effort to invite new people to our community. We can get very comfortable being with
the old familiar group, but the Holy Spirit can empower us to break circles and
show interest in other people. I
have always found Highland Catholic School to be a very welcoming place. It is exciting to think about how much
more welcoming we can be!
Looking
forward to seeing everyone at the End-of-the-Year Picnic. What a perfect setting to practice a
radical welcome!
Jane
Schmidt
Principal
Extra Innings will close at 5 p.m. on the last day of
school, June 2nd. That
way our staff and all students will be able to enjoy the fun at the
end-of-the-year picnic!
More
Summer Fun
Highland
Catholic School has 32 season passes to Como Town left after our Swing event to
sell for $30 each. The pass is good for admission to Como Town for the
entire 2010 season. Quite a value if you enjoy Como Zoo with your family.
Please send a check to school made out to Highland Catholic with Como
Town pass in the memo line.
Interested
in Helping? Interested in Being Out-of-Uniform on Tuesday?
LCCC will be
hosting Families Moving Forward the week of July 11th. It is always a challenge to have the
goodies needed to make lunches for the families. HCS Students who bring lunch box items on Tuesday, May 25th,
may be out of uniform for the day.
We are hoping for all of those
pre-packaged
items like pudding, crackers,
fruit roll-ups, etc. Thanks for
helping.
Helpful
Eyeballs
Remember to
call the Non-emergency number for the Saint Paul Police Department if you see
skateboards or people loitering on our church and school grounds. The phone
number is 291-1111.
Honoring
our Veterans on Memorial Day
Recently some
of our fifth graders wrote letters of appreciation to veterans in our parish
community. Here are two heart-felt
replies to those students from the vets.
To the
Principal of Highland Catholic School,
I recently
received a very thoughtful and touching note from a fifth grader, Abigail,
thanking me for my military service.
It was such a surprise and is so meaningful for Memorial Day. I am very proud of my service in the
U.S. Army.
Please pass
on my thanks to Abigail. Thank you
also for starting this project.
Sincerely,
Karla
Wagner
Major
(Retired)
U.S. Army
My Dear
Will,
I can
hardly express my gratitude for your nice commendation on my service to our
country. I was pleased and honored
to be called to serve and go where I was sent and do as I was told, and return
to my home in good health and life a long and comfortable life.
Thanks for
your concern,
Sincerely,
Bob McLean
Win
a Night out of the Kitchen
Watch for the
raffle tickets coming home to support our global Destination Imagination
Team. Tickets are being sold now
and until the picnic concludes at 7 p.m., when the winners will be
announced. Tickets are $1/each or
6/$5. Prizes include: a $25
certificate to Louisiana Café (Great Breakfast) and 8 Chipotle Meals (2
burritos/guacamole/chips/two fountain drinks).
Our winning
D.I. Team leaves for Knoxville, Tennessee on Tuesday the 25th. They will compete on Thursday and
Friday. You can watch the awards
streaming live at www.globalfinals.org
Good luck!
Fore!
Fifth grader,
Parker Reddig, represented HCS in the CAA golf tournament on Wednesday. It was
a beautiful day for golf, and Parker shot an impressive 32!
The
Beatles, Doors, Jefferson Airplane...
Correction: Last week's Hi-lites listed the wrong
era of music for the Family Feud event in Performing Arts on Tuesday, May 25th. Students will compete against
parents'/teachers' knowledge of music from the 60's.
New
Sacristans
We would like to
acknowledge and thank our new sacristans for school masses for the 2010-11
school year: Allisa Ellingson,
Erin Gallagher, E.J. Peris and Joe Evans.
They were chosen for their leadership and responsibility. Thank you.
Music
in the Air
The Highland
Catholic School Beginning Band invites everyone to a very short concert on
Wednesday, May 26th, at 10:15 a.m. in the school cafeteria. Thanks to Director Mrs. Buffy Larson
and the students for their hard work this year.
Special
Thanks from Team Drew
Tony and I
just wanted to send a personal thank you to all the families that donated to
CCRF and Team Drew. We are deeply touched and humbled by your generosity.
All our spare change totaled just shy of $1000, pushing Team Drew over
their goal. We appreciate all the donations, prayers and friendship you
have provided to our entire family, as we continue on Drew's path to be cancer
free. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!
Tony, Heidi,
Jack & Drew
PS. Watch the
blog at the end of June for a video of Team Drew in action: http://www.drewgiuliani.blogspot.com/.
Alumni
News
- I hope you read
the great article on alum, Erica Dombro, a junior on Highland Park Senior
High's track team. She is ready to
once again break records as the Class AA state champion in the 400. I remember her being fast in
kindergarten.
A
Lovely Legend
From Izzy Griffin's first grade animal report: An old British story tries to explain
why the Robin has a red breast.
The story has it that when Jesus was dying on the cross, the Robin, then
only brown in color, flew to Jesus' side and sang into his ear, to comfort him
in his pain. The blood from his
wounds stained the Robin's breast, and now all Robins have the mark of Christ's
blood upon them. (You can find
other animal reports on the first grade blog.)
Tuition is
all due at this time. Thanks for
your attention to this.
Dates
to Remember
Sunday, May 23 Choir/Band
Concert in cafeteria 4 p.m.
Tuesday, May 25 Bring
Lunchbox Items and Come out of Uniform
Family
Feud
State
Cakes for Lunch
Kindergarten
Potluck
Friday, May 28 Last
Day for our 8th Graders
L
Monday, May 31 Memorial
Day - No School
Tuesday, June 1 Graduation
Breakfast, Mass and Reception
Fourth
Grade River Trip
Wednesday, June
2 Last Day! Field Day fun in morning for Grades K-4
Prayer
Service at 2 p.m. Students will be dismissed from classrooms.
Please
join us!
Extra
Innings closes at 5 p.m.
End-of-the-year
Picnic 5-7 p.m.
Take
Me out to the Ball Game
Several HCS
parents have expressed an interest in earning additional money toward their
school tuition by working at the concession stands at Target Field, Xcel Arena
and the University of Minnesota's new stadium. We have information about this program, The Pioneer
Foundation for the Performing Arts, in the school office. Please contact Peggy Gernes for application
forms. We have an inside
connection too, as Rob Petersen's (our phy.ed. teacher) mother is the creator
and director of this program.
Check it out!
Responsive
Classroom
I have witnessed
so many wonderful Morning Meetings during my "walk-arounds" each day in the
building. I asked fourth grader,
Shea O'Rourke to share his perceptions with Hi-lites.
Room
1 Morning Meeting
by
Shea OʼRourke
Every
morning we start our day by reading our morning message from Mrs. Diffatte, and
do whatever the message tells us to do that day. Sometimes we write something,
or write our names, or draw something special for someoneʼs birthday. Then we are excused from our desks to bring our
chairs into the cafeteria, where we form a circle and start our morning
meeting. Lately we have been doing our morning meeting outside because itʼs been so nice out.
There
are three things we do at our meetings: the greeting, share, and activity. For
greeting we mostly greet each other with some special way to say hello. One fun
way we greet each other is do a dance type greeting or cheer, where we all say,
"1,2,3,4, Come on (studentʼs name), hit the floor. Weʼre so glad youʼre here today. Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!"
While we do that the person goes into the middle can dance around or act goofy,
or do whatever they want to do.
After
the greeting, we do share. We share stuff about ourselves with the rest of the
class, like about our families, what we did on vacation, what we ate for
breakfast, where we are going on summer vacation, or sometimes we share just
one word. Sometimes we do joke share. We get to know a lot about each other
during share.
After
share we do our activity. That is most peopleʼs
favorite part of morning meeting. For activity we play fun games or do other
activities. One of my favorite games is North- South-East-West, which is also
like 4 Corners. One person is in the middle and closes his eyes and counts to
10, while everybody else runs to 4 sides in the cafeteria. Then the person in
the middle calls one of the sides, and that side is out of the game. We play
until only one person is left. It is a very fun game.
Morning meeting
is one of my favorite parts of the day.
Art
Displays
You may want to
stop into school to see the beautiful three-dimensional work that is on display
in the cafeteria. The presentation
features weaving, masks, clay figures and other student pieces. I would like to thank HCS art teachers,
Jeanne Engel and Alice Stahlman, for their excellent work this year. Look for the self-portraits of our
graduating eighth graders on display in the hallway of LCCC. The likenesses are so amazing. It makes me miss them already!
HCS Choir CD
The new choir CD
is lovely. I have been enjoying it
during my commute and frankly, I no longer care how long I sit in traffic. The students' voices are as clear as a
bell! I couldn't resist putting
one of the CDs into the mail for Archbishop Neinstedt. He will hear them in person on October
13th. If you are
interested in owning a copy, please send $20 to the school office. You will be glad you did!