Thunder News Flash – October 7, 2023

We would like to wish all of you a wonderful Thanksgiving and a relaxing long weekend!  May you find opportunities to make beautiful memories with family and friends.  Here is a lovely Thanksgiving prayer:

Heavenly Father, on Thanksgiving Day, we bow our heads to you and pray.  We give you thanks for all you’ve done, especially for the gift of Jesus, Your Son.  For beauty in nature, Your glory we see, for joy and health, friends and family.  For daily provisions, Your mercy and care, these are the blessings You graciously share.  So today we offer this response of praise, with a promise to follow You all of our days.  Amen.

It is important for your children to keep well hydrated throughout the day.  Unfortunately, many children are coming to school without a water bottle.  Please ensure that your child comes to school each day with a water bottle, which can then be refilled using our water bottle filling station, if necessary.

There will be no school on Monday, October 9th as we all celebrate Thanksgiving with family and friends.  There is also no school on Friday, October 20th for the Provincial Pro-D Day.

Food drive for Poor Clares Oct. 3-13

Our school would like to welcome the new Sisters who are part of the Poor Clares, with a Thanksgiving Food Drive.  We are encouraging all students to bring in non-perishable items that are vegetarian, that we will bring to the Poor Clare Sisters.  If our students bring in 200 items, the school will have an extra recess and if we reach our goal of 300 items of food, we will also have a Dress Down Day.  Thank you in advance for helping with this important outreach initiative.

We are excited to offer the Fresh to You Fundraiser brought to us by the Agriculture in the Classroom program. You order BC grown produce and our school gets 40% of the profits!  There are 2 bundles available for delivery in later November: 

Bundle 1 ($25): 3 lbs Yellow Onions, 3 lbs Carrots, 5 lbs Red Beets, 5 lbs Pacific Premium Potatoes – smalls 

Bundle 2 ($30): 283g Shallots, 1 lb Parsnips, 5lbs Pacific Premium Potatoes – smalls, 5 lbs Red Beets 

You can order your bundles through our online order form: https://forms.gle/Yt9YLyzQwvr1z8x98

St. James Movie Night Fundraiser will be on November 3! We are inviting businesses to support us as a Movie Night sponsor. Help us make this night fantastic for our students & families while contributing to our school efforts. Stay tuned for sponsorship details!

Students are encouraged to enter our school’s pumpkin carving contest.  Please send in carved pumpkins on October 30th (names must be on the pumpkin). We will display them in the gym for our Halloween sock hop and you are welcome to take them home at the end of the day on the 31st of October.  Prizes will be awarded for the top 3 best pumpkins.  Have fun carving!

Rosary group meets every Thursday at 8.30 to 9.00am in the school library. Please join us to pray for our school community. Everyone welcome.

We would love for you to join us on Wednesday, November 1st at 6:30pm at The Townhall in Abbotsford for our first community building night. Join us for a fun, adult night out with other school parents while enjoying a challenging game of Music Bingo. Tickets will only be $20 which includes a burger, fries, a drink, and BINGO! Watch your email next week for more information on how to purchase your tickets.

Do you love to bake and want to share it with others? We are looking for a parent volunteer to do baking for our bi-monthly community coffee mornings. This does count toward parent participation hours and can be split between two people if there is an interest. If this sounds like something that you would be interested in helping with, please email Tasha at community@stjameselementary.ca

Please remember that if your child is sick, please keep them home until they are well enough to return to school.  Also, if your child will be away, please be sure to let the office know first thing in the morning, by sending an email to: office@stjameselementary.ca

Please check out our new St. James and St. Ann’s Social Media on Facebook and Instagram.  New posts are regularly being updated.

Did you know that October is Fire Protection Month?  Please spend some time with your family to discuss a fire safety plan.