News for the Week of 11/1/17

How About Dinner Out?  or Take Out?  Tomorrow - Thursday, November 2 

is the Gr. 8 Puerto Vallarta Fundraiser!

School will be closed on Tuesday, November 7th.  This is Election Day and while SMS is not a polling place, our school will be closed for professional development.  Faculty will participate in a full day's worth of Apple Professional Learning regarding iPad use in the educational setting.

The votes are in and our new Knight has his official name! 

Congratulations to 3rd Grade for submitting the clever winning name, Sir Ted (#uknighTED).

Make sure to look for Sir Ted in front of the school very soon. 

He will be announcing fun facts, important events and messages throughout the school year! 

School will be open for a regular, full day of school on Friday, November 10th.  There will be a prayer service in observance of Veteran's Day.  All are welcome to attend this prayer service in the Parish Center beginning with Morning Prayer at 8:45am.

SMS was well represented at this year's HOPES dinner.  Our recipients of
the St. John Neumann Award for Volunteer Service were Blair Wlochowski (far right)
and Frank Conde (to the left of Blair).

Need to be somewhere bright & early?  Have just one child coming in for tutoring?  Our Early Drop Off Program is here to help you! 

Click here for more information and registration forms and reservation calendars.

Thanks to all who supported the HSA Lyman Pie & Otis Spunkmeyer Cookie Dough Fundraiser.  Pick up of pies and cookie dough will be on Friday, 11/17/17.  If you can help sort and distribute pies and cookie dough, please use the Sign Up genius to volunteer - click here.

Senior Thanksgiving Luncheon -  Our annual Senior Citizen Thanksgiving Luncheon is coming

up on Wednesday, 11/15.  About 200 area senior citizens will enjoy a delicious Thanksgiving dinner served to them by our 8th grade students and parent volunteers.  This annual event requires lots of help in the form of food donations and volunteer time.  Next week, Sign Up Geniuses will be available with donations needed at every grade level.  With everyone's help, this event has become a cherished tradition here at SMS - we are counting on your support again this year! PLEASE NOTE THAT NO HOT LUNCH IS SERVED ON SENIOR LUNCHEON DAY.  ALL STUDENTS MUST BRING A BROWN BAG LUNCH ON WEDNESDAY, 11/15/17.

Our 8th grade students chose a Christmas theme for their Halloween costumes

Get a Peek at PreK Fun Times! Miss Kane has launched a new blog that features lots of fun photos from the PreK Class. Click here to visit the blog. PreK parents are strongly encouraged to subscribe to Miss Kane's blog using the "Follow by Email" gadget to receive all of Miss Kane's posts directly to an email inbox.

Minutes from the 9/20/17 School Board Meeting are available for your review.  Click here.  The next School Board Meeting will take place on November 15 at 7pm in the lower church.  All are welcome.

Just in Time for Holiday Decorating & Giving!  Get some shopping done and support the music program here at SMS!  We are excited to announce plans to introduce a new third grade recorder program that will be facilitated by our FMI instructor, Debbie Morse.  Additionally, we are planning to replace some of the older music stands used by our band students.  Your support of our music program through your voluntary participation in this Yankee Candle Fundraiser will help us defray the costs associated with these plans.  Your order will ship direct to your address!  No school pick up or sorting! How convenient is that?  Orders may be placed until 1/11/18  BUT orders placed after November 17th cannot be guaranteed to arrive for Christmas. All orders must be placed on-line.  Click here to start shopping!  Please feel free to share this link with friends or family that might like to support our school.  Please note - when checking out, no need to fill out a Seller ID, our group number will be prefilled and that is sufficient.

Faculty & staff give a big Halloween thank you to
Clarissa A., Gr. 6, for the delicious pumpkin treat!

The Holidays are Coming - Have you started sorting out your recipes?  The new SMS Family Cookbook is coming soon and we want to share your family's favorites!  We have seen first hand the many culinary talents of our families, faculty and staff here at St. Mary's School and are looking forward to creating a cookbook filled with tasty and creative recipes!  We invite you to submit at least two recipes in different categories.  The process is simple and we hope that as you head into the holiday season and are pulling out your favorite family recipes, you will take a few minutes to share some of them with us.  

Recipes can either be typed into a submission form or handwritten on a 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper. Recipes can be emailed to tchagnon@stmarysimsbury.eduk12.net or dropped off in the office.  Click here for a submission form.  All recipes need to be submitted no later than January 6th. Our plan and goal is to have the cookbook available for sale late February and feature it at our Annual Art Show on February 23rd.  We are hungry just thinking about it!  Thank you in advance for your participation.

Our Shakesperience Residency is Featured in the Latest Edition of Valley Life!  Click here  to read Life in the Classroom.

Grades 7 & 8's residency will culminate with a performance in the Parish Center on Friday, 11/17, at 2pm.  Guests are welcome.

Box Tops for Education may be sent in at any time.  All homeroom classrooms have a collection box.  Keep those box tops coming!

Community News

Thanks to all who contributed to our Pumpkin Bingo collection of non-perishable food items for this year's Turkey Trot.  Your generosity helps neighbors in need via FoodShare.  Below are details regarding how to help even more.