Thursday, December 19, 2013

ICS Newsletter 12.19.13


ICS Newsletter 12.19.13
UPCOMING EVENTS

12/19 - Philippines Relief Day; Family Supper / Irish Cup Activity; Chick-fil-A Spirit Night and Christmas Concert, 5:30 - 8:00 p.m., concert begins at 6:00 p.m.

12/20 - 1/2 Day of School, Skating Party and Polar Express Experience; NO AFTERCARE AVAILABLE

12/20 and 12/21 - ICS Live Nativity at Horsepower for Kids

12/23/13 - 1/3/14 - Christmas Break, NO SCHOOL

1/6/14 - Classes resume

1/10/14 - Geography Bee, a.m. activity schedule

1/11/14 - First Reconciliation, ICC

1/14/14 - Food and Fellowship at Tokyo Restaurant (Hillsborough Ave.)

1/15/14 - Family Meetings and School Mass, a.m. activity schedule (students will sit as Households at Mass); Food and Fellowship at Tokyo Restaurant (Hillsborough Ave.)

1/20/14 - No School, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

 1/22/14 - School Mass, a.m. activity schedule

 1/24/14 - End of Quarter 2 / Semester 1

 1/26/14 - 2/1/14 - Catholic Schools Week 2014

 1/28/14 - Spelling Bee, a.m. activity schedule

 1/29/14 - School Mass, a.m. activity schedule

 1/30/14 - Family Supper / Irish Cup Activity

 2/1/14 - 1/2 Day of School; Grandparents Day

 2/6/14 - No School, Diocese of St. Petersburg In-Service for all teachers (*please note that this is a Thursday)

PRAYER INTENTIONS
Please pray for Coach Garofolo and his family as they mourn the loss of his paternal grandmother. May God come and offer the Garofolo family comfort and peace during this difficult time.

We pray for the people of the Philippines as they recover from the aftereffects of Typhoon Haiyan. May God grant them relief and support.

We pray for the victims of all forms of violence, but in particular those who have been injured or lost their lives in school violence. May the God of peace be with all of those suffering from the aftereffects of these crimes.  

We continue to pray for Miss Connie Sikkema from Messiah Migrant Ministries as she battles hydrocephalus and prepares for surgery on January 7. May God offer Miss Connie health, courage and peace to fight this serious condition. 

Have a prayer intention? Send it to icsmzele@icstampa.org. Prayer requests will run for two weeks unless specified otherwise.

CHICK-FIL-A SPIRIT NIGHT AND CHRISTMAS CONCERT

Tonight from 5:30 - 8:00 p.m. Chick-fil-A on W. Waters Ave. will host ICS for our monthly spirit night. Remember that our school receives 10% of all profits (just submit your receipt) during this time.

In addition, ICS will perform a Christmas Concert at this location at 6:00 p.m. 

Students can earn a point for their priory by attending. Just be sure to see Mr. Woodward and have him check off your name!

We hope to see you there as we spread a bit of Christmas cheer!

POLAR EXPRESS EXPERIENCE

 This Friday December 20 ICS will sponsor its first ever Polar Express Experience for students in grades PreK - 2. 

 ALL ABROAD!

 This is counted as a day of school; attendance will be taken but absences will not count against any kind of reward associated with attendance. 

 Drop-off and pick-up for the Polar Express Experience is at ICS. 

 Drop-off begins at 8:15 and will take place in the Church (Hillsborough Ave.) parking lot.

 Pick-up will begin at 11:15 in the Pavilion lot (off of Webb Road). 

Believe!
SKATING PARTY

Grades 3 - 8 will participate in our annual Skating Party on Friday December 20. This event is held at Skate World (7512 Paula Dr., Tampa, FL 33615) from 9:00 - 11:00 a.m. Drop-off and pick-up will be at Skate World. 

Drop-off begins at 8:45. 

Pick-up lasts until 11:15. 

This is counted as a day of school; attendance will be taken but absences will not count against any kind of reward associated with attendance. Also, students must have a signed permission slip and paid fee in order to attend. Finally, remember that students should be dropped off and picked up directly to and from Skate World. 

FAMILY SUPPER / IRISH CUP ACTIVITY

Today Thursday, December 19, we will have our final Household gathering prior to Christmas. Please pray for the success of today's family get-togethers.  

The Irish Cup Activity will have a distinctly Christmas message and theme. Households will:

-Read a version of "Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry and watch a clip of "Christmas Eve on Sesame Street" that is associated with this story.

-Learn about the significance of the Jesse Tree and participate in building a school-wide version of this Advent tradition.

-Complete a Christmas ornament representing a student's Household and housemates that students will take home with them. This commemorative item will be given to all students just for being a part of ICS!

 Be sure to ask your student about his/her experience with today's event!

HOUSEHOLDS, PRIORIES AND THE IRISH CUP
After almost one semester of events, the quest for the Irish Cup remains close:

1st Place - E Priory, 132 points
2nd Place - O Priory, 131 points
3rd Place - H Priory, 122 points
4th Place - M Priory, 119 points

The totals above include participation in the 12/7 Santa's Breakfast event, but do not involve points awarded for attendance at last weekend's Live Nativity. 

 Priory points will be awarded to students in attendance at tonight's Chick-fil-A event. Just be sure to find Mr. Woodward so that your priory benefits!

 Students' attendance at tomorrow and/or Saturday's Live Nativity will also earn a priory point. Just turn in the green flyer at the ticket booth. 

 Stay tuned for more details about our Households, Priories and the Irish Cup in the second semester! 

NEW CLUBS

 ICS continues to grow its after school offerings this year by hosting the following new clubs:

 -Coders Club (computer programming, grades 7 - 8)
-Lego Robotics Club (computer programming, grades 2 - 5), starting next semester
-Art Club (TBD), details coming in 2014
-Billards Club
-Bowling Club 
-Crossfit (outdoor Stations of the Cross with physical fitness)

FOOD AND FELLOWSHIP
Remember that our next event Food and Fellowship event is tonight at Chick-fil-A. This event will also involve a Christmas concert. Come out to catch the spirit, wonder, awe and excitement of Advent and prepare for the joy of Christmas, 5:30 - 8:00 p.m. The concert will begin at 6:00!

Mark your calendars for our first FAF events of 2014 - January 14 and 15 at Tokyo Restaurant (7911 W. Hillsborough Ave.)


HOME

 This week's quote (see image on right) on our theme was submitted by Mrs. Peach (Caitlin, Grade 7). 

 Have an AMAZING quote that pertains to this year's theme (home, family)? Send it to icsmzele@icstampa.org.
CELEBRATING SUCCESSES

Do you know of a current ICS student or an ICS alumnus who has found success in the areas of academics, athletics, leadership, service or ministry that should be featured in our Newsletter? 

 If so, please help us to recognize the sons and daughters of Incarnation Catholic School by sending notification to Mr. Zelenka: icsmzele@icstampa.org. GO IRISH!

INCARNATION PARISH HOME AND SCHOOL ASSOCIATION

Please visit SignUpGenius to sign up to volunteer for any of the many upcoming HSA events.

ADVENT INITIATIVES

Thank you to all of the families who have embraced our Advent journey to Spend Less / Give More, Love All and Worship Fully! May God bless our efforts and offer something truly surprising to us this Christmas!

LIVE NATIVITY

A note from Mrs. Carrier and Mrs. Bujak about our upcoming Live Nativity events:

"ICS families, please consider donating baked goods (homemade or store bought) for the Live Nativity Fundraiser. Drop them off to school on Friday December 20. Be sure to include your name and your child(ren)'s grade(s) so that you can receive commitment hours for your efforts. 

If students bring the green flyer to the performance and drop it off in the ICS bin that will be located at the entrance booth, they will receive a point for their priory.

Thank you so much for your help and support with this initiative." 

ICS HOUR OF CODE

Last week, Incarnation Catholic School accepted the challenge of having every student in the school participate in the Hour of Code: http://csedweek.org/  

Using the media and technology class time for grades PreK through Grade 4, and Information and Communication Technology time with Spanish class time for Grades 5 - 8, students spent more than an hour learning to code. The Hour of Code became a 2 - 3 week unit with students working on their projects during several class periods.



PreK through Grade 2 started the Hour of Code with a challenging game of Simon Says. This introduced the concepts that the computer can only complete tasks with clearly stated and correctly sequenced steps.
After playing Simon Says, elementary students began to write code to create a stack of cups. The code above says, "Pick up cup, move hand 1, move hand 1, move hand 1, put down cup, move hand back 1, move hand back 1, move hand back 1.

With practice in pairs, and then individually, students wrote code to stack cups.


Students in grades 3 - 5 applied their cup-stacking coding skills to creating code to solve problems on the computer using Angry Birds. http://learn.code.org/hoc/1 


Grade 5 students also participated in a class on Tynker.http://www.tynker.com/  They will continue to work in Tynker developing their coding skills for another month.

Grade 6 students continued to code using the Massachusetts Institute of Technology programming language Scratch, since it a part of their regular grade 6 curriculum, but they stopped their other Scratch assignments to complete the Hour of Code challenge. Students in grades 6, 7, and 8 completed the Scratch Hour of Code challenge to create an animated seasonal holiday card. The ICS version had an extra challenge however, since they were required to only use Spanish in their cards. http://scratch.mit.edu/ 

Sample Scratch Projects:

ICS has also started an after-school Coders Club for 7th and 8th grade students. They started Java Script tutorials on Khan Academy. https://www.khanacademy.org/hour-of-code/hour-of-code-tutorial/v/welcome-hour-of-code 
Some have also worked on HTML5 using Code Academy. http://www.codecademy.com/ 

Middle school students will continue to apply their coding skills throughout the year coding projects for their English and Spanish classes. 

Many thanks to Mrs. Carrier, Mrs. Doyle and Mrs. Casanas for their coordinated efforts in making this program a reality! 

GEOGRAPHY BEE

These are the homeroom winners that will compete in the National Geographic Bee on Friday January 10, 2014 (8:30 a.m., St. Michael Hall):

4th- Nadia Falcone and Sophia Torres
5A- Logan Maher
5B- Malio Mayo
6A- Jorge Arroyo
6B- Maria Paula Owens
7A- Adam Reciniello
7B- Gustavo Chaviel
8A- George Morgan
8B- Jacob Croskey

Congratulations to these students! Good luck on the 10th!

 MERRY CHRISTMAS

 On behalf of Fr. Michael Suszynski and the ICS faculty and staff, we wish you and your families a blessed Christmas! May the hope, joy, peace and love of the mystery of the Incarnation surprise and amaze you this Christmas and always!

 God is with us! Emmanuel!

 See you in 2014...
In keeping with our tradition, we at Incarnation Catholic School:
Inspire life-long learning,
Challenge each individual to be a disciple of Christ, and
Strive to live our Catholic faith through service to each other and the community.
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5111 Webb Rd. * Tampa, FL 33615 * Tel: 813.884.4502 * Fax: 813.885.3734 * www.icstampa.org
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