ST. JOHN LUTHERAN CHURCH
(The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod)
Alma, Kansas
A family united by faith in Christ gathering around God's Word and Sacraments.
To reach out in Christ-like concern and Christ-borne love to each other and to those without Christ!
The Eagle Cry

FROM THE PRINCIPAL: 

Thank you!  Two words we say nearly every day, but I’m guessing they could and probably should be spoken more often by many of us.  January is National Thank You month.  Chances are the choice of January as the thank you month is due in part to its connection to Christmas gifts and New Year’s Eve reflections (and resolutions).  A holiday with the word thanks in its name and then another that involves, among other things, the giving and receiving of gifts along with the end of the year cause many of us to hopefully count our blessing and express some thanks.  What are you thankful for this year?  New births? Good health? Recovery from illness, injury or challenges? Growth – physical, financial or relational?  New or old friends and family? Milestones past? Where does faith and God fit on this list? That’s the great thing about God, he sends us little and sometimes not so little reminders that point us to the important things in life. He never gives up and never stops sending those reminders of his love for us despite our ability to forget those two little words – Thank You!
The first semester is in the books and it was eventful, exciting, and a blur. Students grew in their studies and they grew in their relationships. In the first semester we made new friends at the Manor and strengthened the bonds with old friends in the classroom. We become better readers, mathematicians, scientists, and citizens. We had our good days and not so good days. Most importantly, we spent time every single day growing closer to our Lord and Savior. We studied God’s Word with fellow Christians and with pastors and teachers. Thank you Lord for our school and our church where your Word is taught every day.  We were blessed through the gifts and prayers received from the St. John family. Countless volunteer hours, dedicated faculty, staff members and leaders whom God uses to nurture and grow faith in our students. Thank you for your support through your encouraging words, prayers, time and financial gifts give. Our New Year’s prayer is for God’s blessings to continue raining down on our souls, our church, our community and our school. 
Our school Christmas service has been rescheduled for Sunday January 5th. The service will begin at 6:30 (this is a change from earlier announcements).  Students will practice at 4:30 pm, have a little meal at 5:30 pm and lead worship at 6:30 pm.
Our next big event is a weeklong celebration of the gift of Lutheran schools starting January 26th. 
Thrivent: For the month of November, St. John Lutheran School was the recipient of $270.00 through the “Choice Dollars” program sponsored by Thrivent.The following patrons directed their monies to SJLS: Gayle Grimm, Norma Haefke, Brenda Meseke, Kip Meseke, Jared Palenske, Anita Rush. Thank you very much for remembering, helping with, and blessing the ministry of St. John.

Mr. Harmon Butler


GRADES KINDERGARTEN - FIRST:
   
     Kindergarten and 1st grade finished a science unit about animal habitats. We have since moved on to a unit about community workers. Mr. Butler's daughter, Jess Beers, visited with K - 3 and discussed fire safety. Jess is a San Francisco fighter.
    An exciting part of kindergarten is learning how to read and taking Accelerated Reading tests!  All of the kindergartners have started making this wonderful transition!  They are very motivated to reach their goals.
   K & 1 is also looking forward to a field trip to Science City in February. Not only will we get to explore that vast facility, but we will get to participate in a robotics class.
Wishing you a blessed Christmas & New Year!

Mrs. Murray        


GRADES SECOND – THIRD:

Happy 2020! A new year has arrived and this teacher is excited for all the new things coming up this year! We will begin the year with some extra seating to help student's focus; through Scholastic orders I have been able to get 3 child size weighted exercise balls.
We will be taking a small break from computation in 3rd grade math and start to work with measurement and different liquid capacities. 2nd grade will get to join in on some of the projects while still focusing on 2 digit subtraction.
In reading we are working on naming the characteristics of different genres as well as prefixes and suffixes on words and how they change their meaning. We have also been using the dictionaries this past month and will continue to do so this month.
We will begin our social studies unit on maps and cultures around the world. We are all very excited to travel to Mongolia for National Lutheran Schools week the end of the month.
The children loved getting to do some hand-eye coordination work on their parent's Christmas gifts with hammer and nails, along with some decorations for the Christmas dinner!
We ended the year Christmas Caroling around town, but due to snow had to postpone our Christmas Service to an Epiphany Service which will be held Sunday, January 5th at 6:30PM! Please come and see the hard work.

In Christ,
Miss Holle


GRADES FOURTH – SEVENTH LANGUAGE ARTS:

During language arts, fourth graders completed a literature study of the novel The Cricket in Times Square. They practiced skills such as predicting, summarizing, and inferring. Many were excited to learn that we have a few sequels to this classic book in our own media center. Fifth graders worked on reading comprehension skills and summarizing as they read portions of the book The Bridge to Terabithia. Sixth and seventh graders read Christmas themed novels in individual literature studies. They produced plot diagrams and identified specific places they could use various reading strategies in extended text.
During social studies, fourth and fifth grade studied about the founding of the original thirteen colonies. They continue to discover the powerful motivators the desire for wealth and religious freedom were in the founding of our country. Sixth and seventh graders classified characteristics of a variety of countries based on the five themes of geography: location, place, region, movement, and human and environment interactions.
Mr. “A” (Altevogt) has graciously agreed to substitute for me during the month of January, so that I can take advantage of an opportunity of a lifetime.  I look forward to sharing more about this adventure with my classes when I return.
I hope everyone had a joyous Christmas; may your new year is filled with blessings.

Mrs. Bonnema




PTL HAPPENINGS
Welcome to another great year at St. John Lutheran School! May you all have a Blessed New Year!  Our first event in the New Year is going to be lots of fun…you don’t want to miss this one!!
National Lutheran Schools Week (NLSW): The NLSW Committee has a fun-filled week planned for the school from January 26th through February 2nd. Each day will include games and learning about Mongolia, the country selected for the Mission Outreach program. NLSW is kicking off with the students singing at St. John on Sunday, January 26th at 9:30 a.m. A Family Fun Day at CATTS Gymnastics in Wamego will follow from 1 to 3 p.m. with pizza and drinks provided!  The week will finish with the students singing at Trinity on Sunday, February 2nd at 10:00 a.m.  Thank you very much to Mr. Butler, Sheila Walton and Debbie Burch for organizing this celebration for our school!
January PTL Meeting: The January PTL meeting will be Wednesday, January 15, 2020.  A taco soup supper with all the fixings will be served beginning at 6:00 followed by the meeting.  We hope you all can join us for our first meeting of the New Year!  

In This Month's
St. John Witness
JANUARY WITNESS
The Eagle Cry