News for the Week of 12/19/18

Lessons & Carols

Our hearts were full of Christmas joy

watching the Nativity story unfold

on Monday evening.

Special thanks to Mrs. Jalinskas and Mrs. Work

for all their work preparing our students for this

prayer service.

Thanks, too, to our wonderful students

for such a prayerful and beautiful

retelling of the Christmas story. 

School will be dismissed early at 12:45pm on this Friday, 12/21/18.

There will be NO PreK Enrichment or Aftercare.  

School is CLOSED from Monday, 12/24/18 through Tuesday, 1/1/19.  School reopens for a regular, full day of school on Wednesday, 1/2/19.

Our January school Mass will be held on Tuesday, 1/8/19 at 9am in the Church.  All are welcome to attend.  Please remember that no PE uniforms should be worn to Mass.

Advent Service Projects - 

Thanks to all who participated in last Friday's Pajama Day to benefit CCMC.  Your generous support raised over $900!

There's still time to contribute to our toy drive for CCMC.  New, unwrapped toys will be accepted through tomorrow, Thursday, 12/20.   Collection boxes are located right outside the PreK classroom near our main entrance.

This Friday, 12/21, is our Christmas Carnival Dress Down Day - We will be collecting non-perishable food items for the food bank at Eno Memorial Hall.  To participate in the Christmas dress down part of the day, students need to donate as follows:

Bring 1 non-perishable item - wear a red or green shirt of your choice with the uniform of the day.
Bring 2 non-perishable items - add pants of your choice.  Pants must be appropriate for school.
Bring 3 non-perishable items - add a Christmas hat, socks or hair piece to your outfit!

Advancement News - Getting 2019 Off to a Great Start!

It's Jumbled Fairy Tale January at St. Mary's School! Please join us with your little one (all children under the age of 5 are welcome!) on Friday mornings starting January 4th for Story Time & Craft - 9:00 am - 9:30 am   ~RSVP to Toni Chagnon at 860-658-9412 or sign up at  http://bit.ly/ftjumbled

Keys to Kindergarten -  Families with students eligible for Kindergarten next year are invited to join us for a special evening on Wednesday, 1/9/19 at 6pm.   There will be a special storytime for children while parents attend an informative presentation regarding kindergarten readiness.  More details will be available in our next blog post.

St. Mary's School Open House for Prospective Families

 Sunday, January 26th from 2-4 pm

Encourage friends or neighbors who are wondering about SMS to come to meet our faculty, staff, parents and students. From cursive to coding, we'll be sharing what has made us a 2018 National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence! Contact Toni Chagnon for more information or to RSVP 860-658-9412 or  tchagnon@stmarysimsbury.eduk12.net .  Don't forget about our Family Referral Program!  Click here to learn more.

Students in PreKindergarten & Kindergarten collected personal care items
as an Advent service project to create Blessing Bags for those in need.

There's Still Time to Join the St. Mary's Parish Youth Christmas Choir -  The St. Mary’s Parish Christmas Youth Choir will rehearse for the last time on Thursday, 12/20, from 4:30 - 5:15pm inside the church. All children old enough to learn the words to traditional Christmas carols are invited to come to this final rehearsal to prepare and then participate.  The choir sings prior to the 6:00pm Mass on Christmas Eve starting at 5:30 pm.

Here comes "Santa Claus" in his sleigh pulled
by a "tiny reindeer" - A great job with creative coding
by our fifth graders, Giselle, Julia & Amelie.

As we look forward to Christmas and the promise of a new year, we are happy to share Google's Year in Search 2018.  May we all continue to search for, and be a source of, goodness and kindness and joy.