St. Matthew Elementary Jaguar Journal

April 1, 2021

St. Matthew Elementary
Jaguar Journal

This week's to-do list:

Complete your transportation reimbursement form; this applies to all St. Matthew, Regis and Xavier students this year! See below!
REMINDER: No School on Friday, April 2nd and Monday, April 5th

Important Upcoming Dates

April 2 - No School; Good Friday
April 4 - Happy Easter
April 5 - No School; Easter Monday
April 8 - Casual Day (hats are ok)
April 9 - Spirit Day
May 3 - No School
May 13 - 4th/5th Spring Concert @ 530PM at St. Matthew Church
May 14 - Early Dismissal
May 14 - Rainbow Olympics
May 28 - Last Day of School

Action Item:

Throughout the course of this year, we realized that we have some gaps in our data that are important for us for strategic planning. If you could please take a few minutes and answer the following questions, it would be very much appreciated. We need a response from every family to ensure all the information we have is correct. Thank you in advance for your time.

PAWSITIVE STUDENTS

Each week we like to recognize students who go above and beyond to show positive interactions while at St. Matthew School. Here are this week's PAWSITIVE students...keep up the great work!

-- Duke Gogel

--Iris McDonnell

--Kaylee Wood

--Henry Lammers

--Luke Riesenberg

--Fiona Hartman

--Lucas Harken

-- Neveah Pewee

--Dominique A-Anthony

--Garrison Miller

--Sawyer Pompei

--Owen Ireland

--Anthony Tursi

--Nolan Larson

Assistant Principal, Gavin Ireland, has declared Thursday, April 8th as a CASUAL DAY (hats are allowed)

On one hand it seems like we just started the 20-21 school year and on the other hand it is hard to believe we are approaching the Easter holiday with only 8 weeks of school remaining. Nonetheless, here we are at the culmination of our 40 days of lent; a time of sacrifice and giving to those in need. Jesus is risen and the Easter season is approaching, this is the season of our faith that is ultimately the beginning and foundation of our faith.

As I reflect on the Easter celebration a year ago, I am so very thankful to be able to participate in church services and that we have been able to have quality holy week discussions at school this year.

Easter reminds us that hope must never be lost as dark as the road may seem (even as we look back on the last 12 months), there is always a light shining bright at the end of this road. Let our hearts be glad, should with joy and celebrate Easter; it is here, so is new life and hope.

I wish you all a blessed Easter.

--Mrs. Conlon

Please consider helping out in the lunchroom this month!

Please consider helping out in the lunchroom for the month of April, we are grateful for your assistance.

Sign Up Here

Transportation Reimbursement Time!

Second semester non-public transportation reimbursement forms for the area school districts are due on May 1st. Click the district in which you live to find the form you need to submit. Forms may be submitted anytime prior to the deadline.

Since there will be more applications this year, please fill out the information legibly, completely, and be sure to sign and date. Also, all students should be included on one application. Per the state of Iowa guidelines, we will not accept forms past the May 1st deadline.

Cedar Rapids Form

College Community Form

Linn Mar Form

Marion Form

Mardi Gras Update

We are excited to announce that due to the overwhelming generosity of our St. Matthew Parish community, we have raised over $63,000 for our virtual Mardi Gras Day of Giving! This is a nice increase in challenging times! The Fund-A-Needs for both the church and the school were a hit and we hope to offer more projects to fund in the future. If you have yet to make payment or give to Mardi Gras 2021, please do so promptly.

We continue to be blessed to be a part of this wonderful community and look forward to what the future holds. Mark your calendar for Mardi Gras 2022 – February 26, 2022!

Merci beaucoup!

--2021 St. Matthew Mardi Gras Committee

SUMMER PLANS

The ECC is starting to plan out our summer and is looking at what our numbers may be. If you know already what you are planning on doing this summer please let Heather or Jackie know. We are offering full time and part time for the summer for all ages. We would like to have everyone let us know your summer plans by April 30th at the latest.

The school age group will be going on field trips this year and to the pool. We will also be having in house field trips and special guests. I am finalizing the field trip calendars and will get them out by end of April.

For the preschool groups we are also trying to bring in some outside field trips and maybe plan a couple of bounce house days along with the weekly water days.

If you have any questions regarding summer, please let Jackie know at jluzum@stmatthewcr.org or by calling 319-363-9309.

Fall 2021 Saints Football Registration

Registration and initial equipment fitting for Fall 2021 Saints Youth Tackle Football for 4^th, 5^thand 6^thgrade will be held as follows:

Tuesday, April 20 from 6 to 7:30 pm at Regis Middle School, in the lower level RLC room
Monday, April 26 from 5 to 6:30 pm at the LaSalle Middle School, in the cafeteria

Registration and fitting will last 15-20 minutes. You may show up at any time within the above time frames and do not have to stay for the duration. Masks and social distancing guidelines will be required in the waiting area and during the registration process. A limited number of people will be allowed in the registration area at one time in order abide by social distancing recommendations.

Saints Youth Football, is available to any Cedar Rapids Catholic School youth entering 4^th,5^thor 6^thgrade in the fall of 2021 and begins the week of August 16 for 5^th/6^thgrade and August 23 for 4^thgrade. Registration is $160 for 5/6^thgrades and $120 for 4^thgrade payable to Youth Sports Foundation. There is also a local facility and equipment fee of $30 for all players payable to Saints Football. Registration includes the following:

Introductory fundamental and skill development for team and individual advancement
Personal, spiritual and academic priorities are emphasized, building on the Catholic school/parish experience
USA Football/Heads Up Tackle trained and certified coaches leading all football activities, teaching safe, logical and thoughtful transition from flag to tackle football
Practices, scrimmages, YSF league games and all equipment is included

KIDS HEART CHALLENGE IS IN FULL SWING

St. Mathew Students and Families!

I am SO excited for this year's KIDS HEART CHALLENGE! When you take the Challenge this year you get to choose to BE KIND, MOVE MORE or Choose Water?! You can even have your families join you. I am choosing to drink more water! What will you do?

I wanted to share some fun things with you!

1. Any student who signs up for the Kids Heart Challenge BEFORE kicking off will be entered to win a SPECIAL MYSTERY PRIZE from the American Heart Association! 5 random students will win just for taking the FREE Challenge!

2. When we HIT our GOAL of raising $6,000 we will get to SLIME Miss Carney!!!!!!!!!! Who gets to SLIME Miss Carney? Any student who raises $150+ AND 5 randomly drawn students who also signed up will get to SLIME Miss Carney when we hit our goal!!!

THANK YOU to your school, students and families for the support you've given over the years to the American Heart Association. Each student who signs up makes an impact by taking the healthy challenge for their own heart and every dollar raised does make an impact on lifesaving research.

Here’s all you do:

Go to www.heart.org/kidsheartchallenge.
Search for your child's school and click "Sign Up".
Choose Option 1 (Yes, Log in) because you participated last year.

Once you’ve registered, download the FREE mobile app for iPhone or Android by searching for Kids Heart Challenge. See your Heart Heroes come to life, take selfies with your Heart Heroes and do some fundraising from your mobile device.

You’ve been at the heart of our program, and your support will continue to make a big difference in the fight against heart disease and stroke by assisting families just like Alexa's.

Thank you for helping your child's school and the American Heart Association, which has been supporting schools like ours for 41 years.

Grant Wood AEA Hearing Screening

April 12, 2021

The Grant Wood Hearing van will be here on April 12th to conduct hearing screenings for students attending in person preschool, kindergarten, first grade, and known hearing losses in other elementary grades. Parents who do not want their child's hearing tested for the 2020-2021 school year need to notify the school in writing each year that they do not want this service. Please see document below detailing how Grant Wood AEA is putting into place new procedures for hearing testing due to COVID-19.

COVID hearing procedures memo.pdf

Rainbow Olympics

As we look towards the end of the year, we are starting to make a few plans. While we can't celebrate our annual Rainbow Day celebration as we would with teams made up of students from all grades, we do plan to have a modified Rainbow Day celebration to commemorate a one-of-a-kind school year. Each classroom has been assigned a color, they are as follows:

Mrs. Moser- Grey
Mrs. Kane- Sapphire
Mrs. Driscoll- Mint Green
Mrs. Sitter- Orange
Ms. Watson- Violet
Ms. Nepola- Yellow ("daisy" on the web store)
Mrs. Adams- Carolina Blue
Ms. Worley- Maroon
Mrs. Smith- Azalea
Ms. Wareham (5A)- Purple
Ms. Bacon (5B)- Teal ("tropical blue" on the web store)

Your student(s) will be allowed to wear a shirt that is their classroom's color for our Rainbow Day activities on Friday May 14th. We are offering the option to order a shirt of that color through our web store. The link is below. Orders must be placed by April 4th. You are not required to purchase a shirt through the web store, but we wanted to make this offer as a simple option for families. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to us.

Click below to purchase your shirt, don't forget just a few short days remain!

Purchase Rainbow Shirt Here

Zoom to the Future with

Regis Middle School!

Regis Middle School invites you to their virtual fundraising event, Royal T Night on Saturday, April 10th, beginning at 7 pm. This year we are going to ZOOM TO THE FUTURE to raise monies to support current and future Regis families with tuition assistance as well as to support future programming for ALL Regis students. The evening will include family-friendly Back To The Future and movie themed Trivia Game, silent and live auctions, raffles and delicious dinner packages!. Go to our event website to order dinner packages from Fong's Pizza and Sires Sweet 'N' Smoke Barbecue (home cooked with loving care by Regis parent Devin Sires!) and to check out all the silent and live auction items available, especially the Everything A Regis 6th Grader Needs basket!

And take a chance at winning tuition to Regis (or tuition credit to another Xavier Catholic School) with the 2021-22 Tuition Raffle -- just $20 per ticket! Or win half the total amount of tickets sold with our 50/50 Raffle -- $5 a ticket or 5 tickets for $20! For more information on our raffles, click on link below.

Raffle Ticket Here

Event Website

Upcoming Birthdays

April 2--Sawyer Pompei

Make sure to follow us on social media:

Twitter - @StMattsJags

Facebook - @StMatthewCedarRapids

App - Android or Google Play Store