"Our Lady of Guadalupe School fosters Gospel values, inspires academic excellence, and develops service and leadership. We face this as a sacramental community united and empowered by the Holy Spirit."
December 8th Newsletter
December 8, 2016
Dear OLG Families,
As we take time this week to celebrate Mary, we offer you a reflection on the Annunciation story, told from Gabriel’s perspective. Please join us next Wednesday, Dec. 14th, at 9:00 for Mass in honor of our Feast Day!
Curriculum Notes…
See below for a glimpse into our classrooms this week…from art to coding. The kindergarteners were very excited about working with their 4th grade coaches! Second graders have been researching about South American countries and creating and giving some impressive presentations. The middle school teachers met this evening to design cross-curricular units with a sustainability focus and will be planting trees in Camp Long with EarthCorps on Tuesday. And much more…it’s a joy to work with such a creative and dedicated staff!
Parent Org invites the community to Dine Out at Shelby’s next Tuesday, Dec. 13th; 10% of all proceeds will be donated to OLG School. See below for details. Also, mark your calendar for Trivia Night on Jan. 14th; you won’t want to miss this fun evening!
Light Up the Night
Thanks to our wonderful Light Up the Night chairs, Yen Del Rosario and Minerva Del Rosario, for all of their work in making this year’s event a successful and fun community celebration! The middle school choir and 4th/5th grade chorus made it a festive evening of song, as we lit up the night and the OLG church grounds! Thanks to all who baked cookies and to the Knights of Columbus for the hot cocoa, as well as to Sal Pagan for assistance with the event, the Providence sisters for “lighting the night,” and to MC, Brian Callahan!
Sing Out Seattle & OLG After-School Cast: “Finding Nemo”
Our fall extracurriculars are wrapping up, and our performance of “Finding Nemo” will be Thursday, Dec. 15th at 10:00 am in the Walmesley Center. All are welcome!
Check out the parish website for information about Advent reconciliation services and Christmas Masses.
Remember, any snow updates will be emailed, posted on the website, and announced via KOMO and King5 news.
High school applications, projects, family meetings, and so much more make up the life of an eighth grader these days. Still we had the time to walk down the street to Providence Mount St. Vincent, where we sat with residents, making gingerbread houses and singing Christmas Carols. And one Elvis song. Ella strummed her ukulele while Daniella and Clare sang “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” Emily let her trumpet blare while Dominique led us in a rousing rendition of “Feliz Navidad,” and Kevin tickled the ivories playing a jazzy “Jingle Bells” with Emily adding vocals. A certain teacher may have been spotted caroling at gingerbread house construction sites as well. As always, it was a grand time at the Mount.
Back in the classroom, the eighth graders are gearing up for their Juan Diego Project Seminars, where they will lead a class lecture, discussion and activity based on extensive research on the social issue they chose for their project. Busy busy busy, but they’re doing a fantastic job, and looking more and more like high school freshmen everyday.
Computer Science in Education Week has been a success! This week students in grades K-8 participated in the largest worldwide learning event in history. The Hour of Code works in partnership with Code.org to help bring computer programming to students in schools throughout the world. Our students joined students from over 180 countries to earn about the opportunities within computer science, the importance of sequencing in writing code and they even practiced some beginning coding skills using the tutorials provided on the Code.org website. Ask your student about their Hour of Code!
It has been a distinct pleasure to spend my Wednesdays and Thursdays with the young artists of OLG! Students have been diligently working through watercolor and oil pastel projects, and constantly impress me with the wide range of talents and the imaginative ideas that show up in their work.
Here’s a little overview of what each grade has been up to in art class:
Preschool and Pre-K has been exploring many different
mediums and techniques – A favorite project of theirs hasbeen the chameleon they made by mixing primary colors.
Kindergarten hit the the ground running (or rolling, springing, or rocketing) with their watercolor robots drawn with basic shapes. They also have practiced two different resist techniques with oil pastel and watercolor in their Dali-inspired tall birds and their landscape paintings.
First grade put the “water” in watercolor with their waterlily paintings and swimming fish color wheels. They’re now working on patterned cat designs in oil pastel after looking at the artwork of Laurel Burch.
Second grade explored motion and emotion in their Keith Haring figures and are currently delving deep with yellow submarines in oil pastel.
Third grade created some fantastic James Rizzi-inspired anthropomorphic cityscape paintings and just finished some polar bears under the northern lights.
Fourth grade lit up the upstairs hallway with their serene lighthouses in watercolor, and are now working on Pacific Northwest Cowichan sweater designs.
Fifth grade rocked the oil pastel unit with some desert landscapes and portraits which combined front-facing and profile views in one face.
After finishing their cactus drawings and scratch-art vases, sixth grade is working on portraits with geometric shapes
inspired by Swiss artist Paul Klee.
Seventh grade learned about detail and one-point perspective in their architectural illustrations, and landscapes. Then they explored shape, form, and movement, through their manikin drawings and running basset hound pictures in oil pastel
Eighth grade started the year with some collaborative partner portraits using one continuous line to draw a friend. They gave their names some creative flair using bold shapes and colors to reflect their personality in their typography projects. Using oil pastels, they’ve explored some different blending techniques in their toucan drawings and fruit/veggie (plus a couple of hamburger) still-lifes.
Shelby’s Bistro and Ice Creamery is hosting a fundraising “Dine Out” for Our Lady of Guadalupe School!
Where: Shelby’s West Seattle 4752 California Ave. SW
When: Tuesday December 13th, 2:00 – 9:00 pm*
*10% of sales during this time will go to OLG School!
This is a great time to celebrate fall sports seasons, outstanding report cards, birthdays, or give mom/dad a break from making dinner! Hope to see you there!
Our Lady of Guadalupe School & Parish acknowledges that we are on the traditional land of the first people of Seattle, the Duwamish People past and present, and honor with gratitude the land itself and the Duwamish Tribe.