Thunder News Flash – April 17-21

The Grandparents’ Tea will be taking place on Friday, April 21st from 1:00 – 2:30pm in the school gym.  We hope that many of the grandparents or seniors in our community will be able to join us for tea or coffee, goodies and entertainment.  In order to help us with the preparations and set up, we are asking that guests RSVP by Tuesday, April 18th by calling the school at 604-852-1788.  This year we are fortunate to have our “baking/cooking” group of parents taking care of the goodies for this event, so you are not required to bring goodies if you have guests coming to the Grandparents’ Tea.

All students and their families are welcome to join us at the Abbotsford Regional Hospital for the Hospital Outreach Mass on Sunday, April 23rd at 4:00pm.  The Mass takes place in the Chapel on the main floor.  Students in Grades 6 and 7 are invited to be the readers.  If you would like to be a reader, please arrive at 3:45pm. Mrs. Wakely and Mrs. Dos Santos will be there to help supervise and prepare the volunteers.  We also appreciate lots of young voices to help with the singing!  We hope to see many of you there.

St. John Brebeuf is running a toy drive in the month of May in support of the Prison Ministry, and we would like to help by collecting toys as well.  These toys are used by children who are visiting their mom or dad for an hour or two in prison, or if they are having a weekend visit.  The ages of the children are from 2 – 10 years old, and toys may be new or gently used.  In particular it would be wonderful if we could collect colouring books, crayons, dolls, trucks, toy tools or toy kitchen items, books, balls, sandbox toys, children’s DVDs and bubbles.  We will be collecting these toys from May 1st to May 18th, and they may be dropped off in the large collection box by the office.  We thank you in advance for your generosity.

The Grade 2 class will participate in a special mini retreat with their parents and will make banners in preparation for their First Communion.  This activity will be taking place on Wednesday, April 19th, and will begin at 6:30pm in the school gym.

On Tuesday, May 16th St. James & St. Ann’s School will be hosting a Ready, Set, Learn event in the Kindergarten classroom from 1:00 – 2:20pm.  This early literacy and numeracy event is for 3 and 4 year olds, or 5 year olds who have not yet entered Kindergarten.  Come and learn how you can support your child with early literacy and numeracy skills, and help your child develop a love of letters and numbers.  You certainly won’t be disappointed!

St. Ann’s Parish invites all parents and caregivers to join them for “The Parenting Teenagers Course” (produced by ALPHA).  Enjoy dinner and a first-class parenting video-and-discussion program to build our parenting skills.  This course is for anyone involved with children aged 11-18.  Those with younger children are also welcome.  A preview of the course can be viewed online by clicking here.  Topics include:

• Keeping The End in Mind
• Meeting Our Teenagers’ Needs
• Setting Boundaries
• Developing Emotional Health
• Helping Them Make Good Choices

Dates:  April 21st & 28th, May 5th, 12th & 26th

Time:  6:30 – 9:00pm

Cost:  $20 per person (This fee includes all five sessions)

To register click here.  To email for more information click here, or call 604-683-0281 ext. 50221.

The date for the Primary Speech Arts Festival has been changed due to the Track Meet on May 2nd.  The Primary Speech Arts Festival will now be held on Wednesday, May 3rd.  Specific times of this event will be sent home at a later date.

Just a reminder that the summer uniform takes effect after the Easter weekend.  Boys and girls may wear the walking shorts from Neat Uniforms, or the girls may wear the skort from Neat Uniforms.  For a complete description of the summer uniform, please see the Parent Handbook on the school’s website.

We have been going very carefully through all of the Re-Registration Packages, and if we have discovered any errors in your package such as a wrong date on a form, or a missing piece of information, your oldest child would have brought home a bright pink piece of paper letting you know what errors need to be taken care of.  If your oldest child does not give you this paper today, please check their backpack.

• We hope that students are busy collecting pledges to raise money for Phase 3 of our school’s technology plan – technology items for every classroom in the school!  Together we can raise $25,000!
• Every student who collects Walkathon pledges WINS A PRIZE and there are lots of exciting Walkathon prizes to be won!
• THERE ARE TWO WAYS TO PLEDGE FOR WALKATHON 2017:  IN PERSON using the pledge sheet (cash or cheque and tax receipts are issued for donations of $25 or more).  Please click here if you need additional pledge sheets; ONLINE through our school website (Visa, MasterCard and Amex accepted online and tax receipts are issued for donations of $25 or more)
• Look for more Walkathon 2017 information each week in the Thunder News Flash.

We will once again have the opportunity to collect or make donations for our Walkathon online through the CHIMP website.  However, it is important to note that this year due to some changes at CHIMP, we will simply be building on last year’s page.  So, while it may appear that we have already collected quite a bit of money for Walkathon 2017 through CHIMP, please note that these are last year’s totals, which we unfortunately cannot remove from our donation page.  The amounts that we collected last year were:

• Kindergarten – last year’s total was $25
• Grade 1 – last year’s total was $490
• Grade 2 – last year’s total was $482
• Grade 3 – last year’s total was $120
• Grade 4 – last year’s total was $175
• Grade 5 – last year’s total was $335
• Grade 6 – last year’s total was $265
• Grade 7 – no online pledges were collected

Due to the fact that some donors did not specify a Grade or student when they made their donations, the total that we collected through CHIMP last year was $2,677.  Let’s try and double these classroom amounts and the total donations collected so that we will raise at least as much as we did last year through CHIMP.  However, it seems like last year the class to beat was Grade 1, so let’s challenge ourselves to meet or beat what they collected last year, to come up with an even larger total amount collected through CHIMP this year!

We wish all of you a very blessed Easter weekend.  Please remember that the school is closed on Good Friday and Easter Monday, and will reopen on Tuesday, April 18th.  Also, now that Lent is over and the Grateful Giving Calendar has been completed, we would ask that students bring their Lenten offerings back to school during the week – this might be in the form of donations to Chalice or their mite boxes.  We will gratefully accept either of these, and the money will go to two very worthy causes.