Our school year has been off to a very exciting start. Our computer labs and classroom computers have new additional educational software. I know this will be a great learning experience for the students in the area of technology. All of our classes continue to se our newly developed and fully equipped science lab. Students really enjoy doing so many hands-on experiments and projects.

On Halloween, we had our annual parade. The costumes this year were outstanding and truly creative. Our Halloween Party, sponsored by the PTO, was a hugh success. The children enjoyed all the games and prizes the DJ awarded. Everyone enjoyed the holiday

The Student Council is very busy again this year. I thank Mrs. Olson, our eighth grade teacher, for being the Moderator of the Council. At Thanksgiving, they conducted a very successful food drive. Many students were so generous donating canned and boxed foods and money for turkeys. The Student Council is now conducting our annual Mitten Tree Drive during the Christmas Season. Again, so many students are so very generous and are showing the real meaning of Christmas.

The students have been very excited and have been practicing very hard for our Christmas Concert, which was held on Friday, December 10th. The students surely gave a special Christmas gift to everyone. Their talent and great voices gave their audience a special treat. The concert was certainly an enjoyable evening and gave everyone some time to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas - the Birth of Jesus. I thank Mrs. Rossana McLaughlan for her wonderful ability to bring out the best in each student. She did a spectacular job. I also thank all of our teachers for their help and patience during the practices and the night of the concert.

I look forward to our annual International Day, which will be held on January 30, 2005. Please keep the date available. It is always a great day.

We will have two Open Houses in the Spring; one on March 21st at 7:00 p.m. and one on April 10th at 1:00 p.m. If you know of any friends or neighbors that are looking for a school, please tell them about Saint Joseph's. Please help us advertise our school.

I would like to wish all of you a very Happy and Blessed Christmas. I hope 2005 will bring everyhone much peace, happiness and good health.

GOD BLESS YOU.

The Pre-Kindergarten started the school year in a wonderful way. They came to school happy and ready to begin. They met new teachers and made friends. Mrs. Elnahrawy showed them how to cut and paste in Art. Mrs. Perri showed them how to color nicely and pick out boos in the library. Mr. DeStafano plays games with them in Gym and Mrs. McLaughlin shows them how to carry a tune in Music.

The past couple of months have been very busy for the children. They have been learning many things. Some of their favorites are the alphabet, colors, numbers, shapes and senses. In October, the children were pretty excited about getting ready for Halloween. They came to school in their costumes and went to visit the residents at St. Joseph's Home. Following their trip that day, they marched in a parade and had a blast in a party at the school. In November, the students learned about the first Thanksgiving between the Pilgrims and the Indians. They learned that we should thank God for everything we have.

In December, they went on a trip to Pizzeria Uno, where they learned how to make their own pizza. The big event this month was the Christmas concert. They enjoyed practicing their songs, and were delighted to actually perform in front of an audience. Of course, they are also excited about Santa's visit. They are also learning about the birth of Jesus and how Christmas is not only about Santa, but much more. So, the Pre-kindergarten has a lot to look forward to as the year 2004 ends and 2005 begins.

The Kindergarten is off to a wonderful start. They have tried very hard to develop the work habits needed to make good progress during the Kindergarten School year. The children have been working to improve their penmanship and mathematics skills by learning important high frequency sight words. In Social Studies, they show a great interest in learning about the continents and people living in other parts of the world. Playtime is the time to be inventive, and the children are so proud of how they have used their imagination in building cities. I feel we may have some future city planners in our group, wouldn't that be wonderful!!!

The Kindergarten children took a trip to the local fire station and learned a great deal about fire prevention and safety. They so enjoyed trying on the fire hats and coats; they made such cute little firemen and women.

We also made our annual trip to Saint Joseph's Home on Halloween to distribute goodie bags to the residents. The residents truly loved having our happy, full-of-life children for a wonderful visit. We also enjoyed spending time with our parents, friends, and other school families at the PTO Halloween Party. It was a BLAST!

We plan more exciting work in our science and computer labs. We have begun working in a new program called Kidspiration and find it a terrific learning tool. We will be learning about the foods groups and the importance of eating balanced meals and plan a future trip to Pizza Uno to tour the kitchen and make some fantastic pizza.

We will be participating in the GrowLabs program, an inquiry-based, hands-on science program that covers the basics of plant propagation. The children will be using their GrowLabs to grow flowers for the Grove of Remembrance and visit Liberty State Park to plant them. The Grove of Remembrance is a living memorial of trees shrubs and perennials for the NJ victims of 9/11 at Liberty State Park. We are looking forward to being part of this wonderful stewardship project through the GrowLabs for the Grove program.

A super new, active and enthusiastic class of 17 first graders attended school on September 9, 2004. We started the school year by involving students in making classroom rules, which they follow together with the school rules.

Science lessons especially in the Science Lab are always an enjoyable, interactive and a hands-on experience for their inquisitive minds. They like to experiment, classify and draw pictures to satisfy questions they ask. We have finished lessons on how people grow and change. They brought pictures when they were babies along with recent ones, and compared them. They also learned the different stages of animals and insects showing how each grow and become adults. We will be learning about plants, knowing the different parts and how we use them.

The new textbooks make our lessons in Social Studies exciting. The children love to look at the beautiful pictures, and learn about great men and women who made a big difference in our lives today. They also love to read and use maps to find directions. We will continue to expand our lessons about school, community and finding countries on the map.

The field trip to the firehouse in Newport Mall give the children an insight into what they would find inside a fire station, and how the firemen help other people. They were awed when they rode the fire truck and donned the fireman's suit.

In Reading and Phonics, we have learned to identify, read and also spell words with the short vowel sounds. We have moved on to recognizing initial and final consonant sounds. The children are also learning vcabulary words through picture and context clues. They love to draw pictures and write words and sentences about stories they have read. They enjoyed listing to rhymes and story tapes.

In Math they've learned numbers and number sense. The cildren have learned addition of facts to 12 and subtraction facts rom 1-8. Tey used different techniques to learn, including counting on number lines, counters and connecting cubes. They will also learn how to make a picture and bar graph and answer data using graphs.

Of course, they all look forward to going outside to shake their excess energies in Gym. They also like to express their artistic talent in Art and show their melodious voices in Music.

Finally, all their practice paid off for the Christmas concert, where they sang "I saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus: and "Go Tell It on the Mountain", which was directed by our Music teacher, Mrs. Rossana McLaughlin.

Twenty-one energetic second graders started this year learning about the different types of communities. They also learned how to read and understand maps and map keys.

Soon the second graders will be learning how to write in cursive. They are currently preparing for Reconciliation and are excited about making their First Holy Communion.

In November, they went on a field trip to Pizzeria Uno, where they enjoyed creating their own pizza. The best part of this field trip was watching the children enjoy eating the pizza they had made.

The second graders joined the third graders in performing in the Christmas Concert. They all did wonderful job.

The third graders started the school year ready to work! They showed great interest in all subject areas. They really enjoyed making writing journals that contained personal information about themselves such as their favorite hobbies, favorite subjects, likes and dislikes, etc. It also helped them discover things about their fellow students.

One of the highlights of their school year so far has been the tree decorating contest, which took place on November 23rd. The class competed with students from other surrounding schools. The contest was held at the Liberty House Restaurant. It was a very fun, entertaining and exciting experience. They ended 2004 with a wonderful Christmas Concert. The children enjoyed showing off their sing talent for a very appreciative audience. Everyone had a wonderful time! They are looking forward to finishing up the school year with the same energy and enthusiam!

Our fourth grade class has been learning many things in the various subjects this year. In Math, the students have been learning about place value through the millions. They have also learned how to round whole numbers and money. In Reading, the students have read stories about characters that have learned more about themselves through the discovery of skills and talents. In Religion, the students have learned traditional prays and the importance of having God in their lives. In the Computer Lab, students have been using Microsoft Word to create tables and type written assignments. Finally, in Science the students have learned about the Earth's movements, the force of gravity and the planets of our solar system.

What's happening in Grade 5? Well, Gabrielle and Gilberto are busy running our class library. Dayvon, Darius and Gilberto have already conducted experiments in the science lab, while Riaz and Michael are working on one involving the green house. Dennis and the rest of the class are pleased with the poems they've written for a National Poetry Contest. Joel liked our home language day when students spoke to the class in the language of heir family tradition.

Kristine enjoys our current reading project with books that Mr. Barnes generously gave us. Jennifer enjoyed "The Wizard of Oz", which we read aloud. Michelle looks forward to reading the New York Times each day. Dennis, Gilberto, Dayvon, Michelle, Michael and Gabrielle are proud of being altar servers.

Riaz and Gabrielle took part in St. Joseph's Thanksgiving liturgy. Darius and Michael like writing in their personal journals. Kristine, Riaz, Michelle and Michael are proud of making the honor roll for the first marking period. Anisha, Jennifer, Kristine, Riaz and Michelle are proud of winning the first marking period's Principal's award. Michael and Gabrielle work hard at being our student council representatives.

Jennifer looks forward to working on our jigsaw puzzles. Dennis and Gilberto have logged a lot of time on our computers. Riaz, Mary, Jennifer won our first spelling bee. Joel and Riaz won our Halloween costume prizes. Dennis was our student of the month for October. Mary is looking forward to the completion of our new set of the World Book Encyclopedia. Anisha is proud of her artwork on the green board. Fifth Grade is a blast!

The sixth grade has been getting adjusted to the new school year rather well. They have been working hard and making new friends.

In October, we celebrated Halloween with costumes and a class party. That day, everyone was someone different. We had dead brides, pregnant men and vampires. It was quite entertaining! Stephanie Vazquez took first place in the costume contest for grades 5-8, and we were all very happy for her.

The sixth grade is also enjoying learning about the arts. In November, we saw a production of "The Wiz" performed by Marist High School. It was fantastic! They all did a wonderful job. We also enjoyed "The gift of the Magi" that we saw in December.

We all practiced for the Christmas concert very hard, and loved singing in front of our friends and family.

We are all learning new things, but our favorite was learning about the Titanic in reading and then watching the documentary about the ship.

All in all, it's been a good year and we know it's going to get better!

The Seventh Grade worked diligently to prepare for the Writing Assessment Test that took place in December. In the subject area of Mathematics, students have been studying formulas in Pre-Algebra in order to solve verbal problems. In Literature, the students completed a novel called "The Witch of Blackbird Pond", which is set in Colonial America. After completion of the novel, the students wrote a comprehensive report on the ideologies and literary terms discussed in the novel. In Social Studies, students studied Colonial America, and learned how each of the thirteen colonies were found. In Religion, students made an Advent calendar describing each day. The calendar ended with a picture of the Nativity. The students then wrote an essay on the Season of Advent.

Grade 8 was very busy from September to November reviewing and preparing for their High School entrance exam. They took the test on November 5th and are anxiously awaiting the results, which are due back in January.

They ordered their school rings in October, and they will receive them at their ring ceremony in December.

A group of students went to St. Joseph's School for the Blind on Halloween to help those students go trick or treating. The eighth graders enjoyed themselves just as much as the students from the School for the Blind.

In January, Mr. Richards and Mrs. Olson will take the class to a holiday Luncheon at Houlihans. Everyone is anticipating having a special time together outside the classroom.

Also in January, the class will begin working on their yearbook. They are looking forward to this project and want it to be a great success.

St. Joseph School now includes music as part of the regular curriculum. All students, pre-k through grade 8 enjoy a weekly 40-minute music class where they prepare for concerts and school liturgies, as well as learning other musical facts.

Also offered in our school are after-school private and group lessons in flute, guitar and piano. New to our school is a school chorus. The chorus will perform at our school concerts, help lead the music at ouir school liturgies and also plan to have several performance level increases and improves.

For more information, feel free to email Mrs. McLaughlin at RossanaMac@aol.com, or call our school.