Native American Shelters

Today the second grade students started to present their projects on different Native American shelters and their cultures. Everyone has done such a wonderful job so far and I have loved getting to see how creative their projects are and listening to all of the interesting facts they learned. Thank you for all the help with these projects at home and feel free to stop by our classroom to see the projects before Easter break.

Career Week

Last week, St. Sylvester School held its first ever career week. There were many different activities throughout the week to get students thinking about what they might want to be when they grow up. First, the students each wrote an essay completing the sentence, "When I grow up, I want to be..." There were so many awesome answers and great explanations of why they chose that career. The top three essay prizes went to:
1. Sophia A. - Scientist
2. Ezekiel G. - Farmer
3. Marisol R. - Dentist

All of the students also filled out a foldable with a picture of what they wanted to be along with ideas of what they might need to do in order to enter that profession. These were then hung up in Schwinn Hall for all of the classes to come around and read. You can see the display in the above pictures.
The teachers even got into the spirit by filling out "Teacher Talk" questionnaires about what they wanted to be when they were children and why they became teachers.

On Thursday and Friday, we had several visitors come into our classrooms to tell us all about their jobs. From nuns to firefighters and scientists to graphic designers, we had so may different careers to hear about and ask questions about. The week ended up being a huge success. Ask your son or daughter which presentation was the most interesting to them and what they want to be when they grow up!

Lenten Journey

On Ash Wednesday, the second grade class began to mark the path of "Our Lenten Journey" in the hallway outside of our classroom. We started that day by answering the prompt: " For Lent, I am giving up..." Each of the student had to write down a food, game, or bad behavior that they would give up for the forty days of Lent. This is one way to show God that we can make a sacrifice for Him in preparation for Easter. Everyday we have added one rock to the path, marking each day. On Sundays, there is a purple cross instead of the rock. On these days, the students must finish another sentence. The last three Sundays have dealt with how them will be kind to someone else, how they will make sure to say extra prayers, and how they will give something to someone. 

Now we are almost through the Lenten season! Discuss with your son or daughter what they wrote on the purple sheets that are along the Lenten Journey path and make sure they are sticking to those promises!

Last week the students also went to the live Stations of the Cross hosted by their seventh grade buddiies. The seventh graders read through the stations as their classmates acted out each one. Later, we met up with our buddies to put together a Stations of the Cross booklet. These are helpful in discussing the Triduum with your son or daughter. 

St. Sylvester Says Farewell and Welcome

Last Friday the St. Sylvester school children said a sad goodbye to Fr. Paul Stein. He visited one last time before he left the school campus. Fr. Paul has been here at St. Sylvester for five years and has done so much for our school including classroom visits and special Masses geared towards children. His work here will not be forgotten and we will keep him in our prayers as he transitions into his new full-time position at Loyola University. Above is a picture of the farewell poster the second grade class made for him with each of the children's fingerprints as leaves.

Today we also had an exciting surprise visitor - Fr. Sam! Fr. Sam is the new pastor at St. Sylvester parish and we are so very excited to get to know him. He will be saying the children's Masses starting this week. He promised to start learning the students' names one at a time starting today! We look forward to having him in the classroom more frequently as he settles in!

100th Day of School

Today, February 4th, is the one hundredth day of school here at St. Sylvester School. To celebrate this accomplishment, each of the students brought in their own collection of one hundred objects. During math class, we took a break from telling time and used our one hundred collections to see how many ways we could get to one hundred. The students made five groups of twenty, twenty five groups of four, and fifty groups of two! Each child made these and more groups with objects such as toothpicks, cottton balls, and even rocks! Thank you for assisting your son or daughter in collecting their one hundred objects. Ask them which other equal groups they made with their one hundred collection.

Catholic Schools Week

The second graders kicked off Catholic Schools Week with a pajama party! Everyone was able to wear their pajamas to school and enjoy an extended D.E.A.R. (Drop Everything And Read) time. They shared blankets, pillows, and books! We talked about how fun it can be to get cozy with a book, especially during these winter months.


On Thursday the students attended All-School Mass followed by our biannual awards ceremony. It was a tough choice, but some of the second graders really shined this past semester and received recognition for their hard work in second grade. The winners from Room 205 were:

Peacemaker Award: Ezekiel
Effort Award: Giselle
Poster Contest: Sydney
Handwriting Contest: McKayla

Congratulations to the winners and keep up the great work! The final day of Catholic Schools Week was most of the students' favorite one. That is because we celebrated the All-School Olympics. The second graders were split up among twelve different teams and worked along with students from every grade level to compete in different events. Below is a video showing all of the fun we had at the Catholic Schools Week Olympics!

Art Institute Field Trip

Today the first and second grade classes visited the Art Institute. When we arrived, the museum provided docents to take us through the museum. Some groups discussed clues from the past in art while others talked about the portrayal of animals in art. After enjoying lunch with a view of Millenium Park, the students broke into smaller groups to explore the museum. We saw so many beautiful piece of art, from Monet's pointillism to a smaller version of the Lincoln Memorial. As a parting gift, every student received a free family pass from the Art Institute. Be sure to use the free pass soon so that your son or daughter can be a docent for your family and show off all they learned today!

Merry Christmas

 Merry Christmas to all of our St. Sylvester families! Enjoy the time off with your second grade angels and have a healthy and blessed New Year!

Special Fossil Lesson

This year our school has been lucky enough to be chosen by the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum to partner with on how to improve learning in science. This partnership will afford many opportunities to our school, teachers, and students all year long. The teachers at St. Sylvester have already attended a few workshops hosted by the museum. Last week, two of the educational directors at the museum came to teach a lesson on fossils to our second grade class.

First, they presented actual fossils to each of the small groups of second graders to examine and discuss. There were remains from both plants and animals identified.



Then, the students listened to a description of the steps in which a fossil forms. The last portion of the activity was when each of the second graders made their own"fossils." Everyone put clay on the bottom of a cup and then pressed a seashell into the clay to make an imprint. Later, we filled each imprint and cup with plaster. Once these are set, the students will remove the clay and the imprint left on the plaster will act as a fossil. Look for these "fossils" to come home sometime this week and ask your son or daughter how it was formed!

 

Christmas Concert

 What a great way to get into the Christmas spirit! The whole school came together this past Sunday to share their singing and instrumental talents for all of their school peers and families to enjoy. After a lot of hard work by Ms. Fox, their music teacher, they were ready to perform! Thank you to all of the families that attended the annual Christmas concert and also the family potluck afterwards. We truly are blessed to have such an activity and vibrant community here at St. Sylvester School.