Jeremy May, Pastor David Birnbaum, Principal Sunday Services: 8:30, 11:00 School: 580-762-9950 Sunday School: 9:45 a.m. website: flspc.org Church: 580-762-1111 E-mail: lutheransecretary@yahoo.com www.flcspc.com Child Care: 580-762-1124 FastDirect: fastdir.com/flcspc

January 7, 2015

Report Cards will be coming home with students this week; be

sure to ask your student(s) for theirs!

CARDINAL CHATTER 1/15 FLS Night @ Freddy’s! (Dine @ Freddy’s,

tell them you’re with us, and PTL gets a percentage of your purchase!)

1/19 No School; Parent-Teacher Conferences

1/23 Sock Hop 2/4 Mid Quarter Reports 2/5 Steven Fite Concert

PRINCIPAL – Mr. Birnbaum: Happy Epiphany! Yesterday - January 6th was the 12th day of Christmas. This is

the day we are to remember the Wise men or Magi bringing their gifts to the baby Jesus at his house, probably around the age of 1. The Magi followed the star until coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh (Matthew 2:11). What do you have to offer to the King of the World?

THANKS FROM DAYCARE to the 2nd Grade class! Instead of doing a gift exchange at Christmas, they brought toys to donate to the daycare! We greatly appreciate the students, the toys, and we know that the kids who come to daycare are just going to love them! What a thoughtful thing to do! Thank you!

CHAPEL OFFERING: Dimes for Downs will be our Chapel Offering this month; they will use the money donated to bring wishes to life for people with Downs Syndrome. Our guest speaker next week at Chapel will be Kelli Chamberlin; some of you may know Kelli as she is a member of First Lutheran Church, her mother works in the church office, and her brother Rick graduated from First Lutheran School 4 years ago.

SANTA TICKET DRAWING – We want to thank everyone who donated; we ended up with 2,696 tickets! Unfortunately, out of the millions of tickets given out, only a few were drawn, and ours was not one of them (but we were within 7 tickets on one drawing!). We appreciate everyone who donated tickets to the school! Thanks for giving us a chance to win!

SCHOOL OFFICE - Mrs. Erickson: Thank you for the gifts and cards at Christmas! You all are very kind to remember me at the holidays, and I appreciate your thoughtfulness! TAX STATEMENTS: If you would like a printout of your payments to First Lutheran during 2014 for tax purposes, please stop by the office/send me a FastDirect-mail/or call the school at 762-9950. You can also print them off yourself by logging into your FastDirect account, scroll down to the bar that says “2007 Tax Year Printout”, change the year to 2014, and click the box that has “Tax Year Printout” in it. (The statement also has our Tax ID # on it that you will need if you are able to write off any of your payments.) Remember that not all payments to FLS are tax deductible, and you should contact a tax advisor to find out what can be written off, and what cannot.

SNOW DAY NOTIFICATION PROCEDURE: In the event that school may be cancelled due to inclement weather, we will again follow Ponca City Public Schools schedule. Listen to your radio during the cancellation announcements, and if Ponca City Schools are cancelled, First Lutheran will be out, also; however, there will NOT be a separate announcement for First Lutheran. If you have any questions, please contact the office prior to the snow day event.

APPLICATIONS FOR NATIONAL FREE & REDUCED SCHOOL LUNCH AND BREAKFAST PROGRAM: DHS requires us to remind you periodically that we not only serve lunch, but breakfast as well! If your child would like to eat breakfast at school, it is served in the cafeteria between 7:45 – 8:05 each morning. The menu for breakfast is listed on the lunch menu that we send home each month, and also on FastDirect & in the Ponca News. First

Lutheran School participates in the National Free & Reduced lunch program; applications for this program were available at enrollment, and more applications are available in the office if you would like to apply at any time during the year. Please remember if your child qualifies for free or reduced lunch, that it applies to their breakfast as well. Reduced price lunches are $.40 and breakfast is $.30 for those qualify. Please contact the school office if you have any questions. Disclaimer: First Lutheran School is an equal opportunity provider and employer.

PRE-SCHOOL – Mrs. Herard: Welcome back! Break was nice but I sure missed everyone. Thank you so much for the wonderful Christmas gifts! You amaze me with your talents and creativity. My best wishes to the students joining Ms. Flaherty's class. You were a joy to have but I know you are in good hands. We welcome her son, Conway, to our PS class. SHOW AND TELL IS THIS TH/FRI! Our theme this week is "Space" and we will be learning the letter "L". God bless!

PRE-KINDERGARTEN - Mrs. Kelly: Happy New Year! I hope you enjoyed your Christmas and your break from school! Thank you for all of the wonderful Christmas gifts! Happy Birthday Relic! Report cards are in backpacks today. Please sign and return them to me by Wednesday, January 14th. Show and tell will be this Friday, January 7th. Donuts with Dads is also this Friday. Our Bible words this week are “God is with you wherever you go”. Joshua 1:9 We are learning the letter "D" and the number "10" this week. Have a blessed week!

KINDERGARTEN - Ms. Miller: Welcome back to school! I missed your children! Thank you parents for all the wonderful gifts you and your children gave me at Christmas. Also, thank you parents for making our Christmas party so fun! Please look in your child's backpack for their report card. Have a great week!

FIRST GRADE – Mrs. Birnbaum: Welcome back to school! Thank you to Kristen Zimmerman for planning our Polar Express Christmas Party and to all of the parents that helped. Thank you to all of the 1st grade class for the gift cards - I really appreciate it! January reading logs for Book It were sent home on Monday. Please sign your child's report card and return to me by Friday. You may have a copy to keep at home. Book orders were sent home today - they are due on Friday, Jan. 16. Just a reminder that we have PE on Mondays and Wednesdays. Please make sure that your child wears tennis shoes on these days - thanks! Blessings on your week!

SECOND GRADE – Mrs. Powell: HAPPY NEW YEAR! It's exciting to look for all of the many blessings we will experience this year. God is so good! Report Cards are coming home today. Please sign and return them. Let me know if you have questions or concerns. I'm proud of the class's progress. Thank you to Mrs. Hamre for planning the AR bowling event. We had a blast! Thanks to all of the parents who joined us. Our Christmas party was great and we thank you for all you did to help us celebrate! We will be memorizing the 10 commandments and their meanings. The first commandment and meaning is due to be recited on Thursday, January 8. I've sent a copy home for each child and they have an additional copy in their desk. We will read through them each week and help at home is vital. Thank you. Also, thanks for all you did to make my Christmas special. You are a blessing! Happy January Birthday to Connor and Riley! God's Blessings, Dear Friends! Stay warm!!!!

THIRD GRADE - Mrs. Steichen: Welcome Back and Happy New Year!! I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and a very blessed year to come. This week: memory: we will not have memory this week but we will pick up with the 9th Commandment next week. Reading: paragraph on Thursday, and Test on Friday. Math: test next week. Science: working on our unit on weather, test in the next two weeks. Social Studies: New unit on our history though time and place. A.R.: new goals have been set and a handful of us have already been taking tests. Remember that everyone has to meet their goal. Report Cards: report cards came home today, please look it over and sign it. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to stop by after school. Have a great week!

FOURTH GRADE - Mrs. Sibley: What a relaxing and refreshing break we had as we celebrated the birth of our Savior. Now we enjoy the Epiphany season, where the Magi came to give the gifts to our Lord. As Jesus was blessed with three gifts from the Magi, we are blessed with new students. We are off to a great start with Cash, Jonathan, and Titus! Keep reading for AR and Book-it as we are already taking AR tests. In math we will be working on division with a remainder! Make sure that we are checking assignments (especially Math) at night to correct the silly mistakes! This easy check will make the processes much easier down the academic road!

FIFTH GRADE - Mrs. Schatte: Happy New Year! Thank you so much for remembering me at Christmas with such lovely gifts. I have enjoyed using many of the things I received. I feel so blessed! I am now looking forward to the second half of our year. Time is just zipping by! This semester there may be a bit more homework as we pick up the pace a bit. It is so important to use time wisely in class and take time to do the very best job we can on the work before us. For memory we are learning the 10 Commandments with the meanings. We will do this consistently until we are done. The First Commandment with meaning is due tomorrow. Happy birthday in this fresh new month of January to Ally (12) and Gabby (25).

MIDDLE SCHOOL 1/8 3:30, 4:30, 5:30 @ Wesleyan Christian (6B, 8G, 8B) 1/9 Middle School Dance, Gym, 7-9

1/12 FLS @ Tonkawa; 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, & 8 1/13 DCLA @ FLS; 4:30, 5:30, 6:30, & 7:30 1/15 FLS @ Newkirk; 4, 5, 6, 7, & 8

MIDDLE SCHOOL DANCE: The Student Council in sponsoring a Masquerade dance on Friday, January 9 from

7:00 – 9:00 in the gym. Max Jackson will be our DJ. Kids should bring a canned food item for the food pantry. StuCo members should remember to bring their food item. Punch will be provided. Mrs Harbo and Mr. Covert will chaperone along with several parents.

Mrs. Harbeson: Welcome Back, Everyone! I hope you all had a restful and blessed Christmas Break, and I hope you're looking forward to a great new year in 2015! As I've said to the students...I absolutely love the beginning of a new year, semester, nine weeks or any other "new" beginning! It's the perfect time to get a fresh start. All students will be cleaning out and reorganizing their folders on Monday. This would be the perfect time to inventory your student's supplies. Does he or she have plenty of pencils, pens, and paper? Are all folders in good shape or do they look like they've gone through the wringer? Please take time to evaluate your student's supply situation. Congratulations to the 8th graders who won the second quarter spelling test challenge! We will be planning our trip to Sonic this week. The third quarter challenge for all classes is to receive the highest class average on all vocabulary tests we take for this quarter. The winning class will receive a Sonic drink/movie day during one of the long study halls on a Wednesday. Remember that I always supply your spelling and vocabulary lists on Quizlet. This is a fun way to learn those words! The middle school winter dance is set for 7:00-9:00 p.m. this Friday night! The dance is for FLS students only and the dress is semi-formal. (No jeans. Girls wear dresses, and boys wear pants with button-down shirts or polos.) Student Council Members and Parents, Mrs. Goll should be getting with you to help with decorating, clean-up, and bringing snacks. I'm not sure what time the dance starts, but check back on my school announcement page, and I will post it. Please check the rest of my website to stay up with this week's assignments. Stay warm this week!

Mrs. Hanson: All classes have started new chapters and will continue with business as usual. I asked all students to replenish their school supplies at the beginning of the week for which they received a grade. If they did not receive full credit, as soon as they show me the missing supplies, they will receive a complete score.

Cheer practices will remain the same as well, during school practices Monday/Friday and after school practices Tuesday/Thursday. I am missing warm-up money from a few people still; please get this to me as soon as possible.

I am always looking for parents who are willing to come speak to the class about their career or hobby if related to science. If you are interested, please let me know and we can schedule a meeting.

Mr. Covert: Welcome back to FLS as we start the third quarter! I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year’s Day, and is ready to get back to it. In 6th grade, we’re starting a unit on the Roman Republic, looking at how they influenced our government. In 7th grade, we’re wrapping up South America as we look at the Pacific countries. In 8th grade, we’re starting up a chapter on the Constitution, and the work it does in our country.

I hope everybody has been well and healthy, and blessings on the rest of your week! Mrs. Goll: Happy New Year! And Welcome Back! January always reminds me “His mercies are new every

morning”. What a blessing it is to be able to begin again! Report cards look good overall. Good job, Students! Parents, if you have particular concerns about your student’s progress, please contact us so we can sit down together to discuss the concerns. Sixth graders are working on increasingly complex fraction problems; seventh graders are working on increasingly complex equations and inequalities; pre-algebra students are reviewing some geometry concepts (remember “congruent shapes”?); and algebra students are having fun exploring compound inequalities. God bless you in 2015 as you Seek Him First!

First Lutheran Church & School—Growing up into Jesus, Reaching out with

Jesus, Walking together in Jesus

DON’T THROW THAT AWAY!!: First Lutheran School collects, and benefits from, donations of used/empty ink/toner cartridges, old cell phones, BoxTops for Education, Campbell’s soup labels, and Coke points! Do you throw away ink or toner cartridges @ work? Do the kids on your child’s team drink Powerade’s or Dasani water (with Coke points under the lid)? Possibly your youth group had a lock-in and served cans of Coke, Sprite, Minute Maid or Fanta, (with Coke points on the inside flap of the box they came in?) Those ring binders that your office uses may have BoxTops points on the labels! Please send all of these items to school with your child or drop them off at the school office, and your school will benefit from it! We can use the proceeds/points from these companies to purchase playground balls, classroom and office supplies, and discounts on our toner/ink needs, which all helps to keep your costs down! THANKS for your help!