St. Joseph School teachers welcome and encourage communication with families regarding all aspects of a student's development.



Faculty Fast Facts

Contact Information
585.344.8451
Case.sjsbatavia@gmail.com

Why a Catholic Education Matters
As I continue to grow in my own faith, I find it very powerful to hear 1st graders understand and experience how their prayers impact them and others. It is also amazing to hear them pray for others around the world and to show compassion for others who are suffering on a personal and global level.

I had been looking for a full-time teaching position when my father told me about the ad at St. Joseph School.He has graduated from St. Joseph School and a life long member of St. Joseph School. I applied the next day, was interviewed and offered the position.That December my Dad died, but his love and lessons about Jesus Christ continue to guide me on this journey. I appreciate and treasure my job as I know how important God's mission is to our world. I've had many experiences through my family and the children at St. Joseph School which confirm in my mind and spirit that this is where God wants me to continue this mission.

Subject Area/Grade and Related Education
First Grade/N-6
A.S.    Genesee Community College
B.S.     SUNY Geneseo

St. Joseph School Advisor/Coordinator
Kiwanis Kids Club

Local Community Involvement
St. Joseph School Landscaping
S.O.S Past Faculty Representative

Religion

We are learning about the gift of the Holy Spirit and the Fruits of the Holy Spirit.

We will begin filling our “buckets” this week.  When we fill someone’s bucket we have recognized something positive about that person and we write a special note and put it in their bucket.  We have talked about how this gesture fills more than one bucket and it makes a connection to the Fruits of the Holy Spirit.

We will begin learning about the Sacraments.

We will be honoring Mary during the month of May and learn how to pray the Rosary.

Social Studies

I have sent home the guide lines for our Community Project.  Your child has chosen a career to research at home with the help of their families.  They will build a building and name their business using Lego’s and recyclables that I will provide.  They have to present their career on stage to an audience.  They will dress like the person they have chosen for their career and use tools to demonstrate the responsibilities that person performs at their job.

Community Projects are due on May 5th.

We are learning about neighborhoods, maps, careers, goods and services. 

We will be taking a walking field trip to several area businesses to learn more about businesses and careers in our communities.

We are making a Transportation Journal.

Career presentations will take place the week of May 8th.  Please watch for a scheduling notice. 

Science

We are incubating eggs.  The children are completing research and asking questions to determine what creatures could be hatching from our incubators. 

We will review the life cycle of the butterfly and compare it to the life cycle of a frog, ladybug, and bird.

We will begin units about plants, nutrition, and simple machines.

We are currently experimenting with objects that sink and float.

We are working on a list of ways to help keep the earth, people and creatures healthy.

On June 6th we will be going on a field trip to attend 1st Grade Dairy Days at Post Farms in Oakfield & the Iroquois Wildlife Refuge

May 16th we will be going on a nature fieldtrip.  Watch for more info in the next week or two.    

Reading

The children continue to apply their phonics skills as they advance and graduate to more difficult text. 

Fifty percent of the children are reading chapter books in addition to the stories in their anthologies.  The other 50% of children are reading additional stories beyond the stories in their anthology.

We continue to work on re-telling stories, applying reading strategies, using context clues, inferencing, applying emotion and punctuation to our text. 

The students are working independently on reading and answering comprehension questions using a complete sentence.

Math

The Saxon Math Series has helped our students gain the confidence and skills necessary to excel, understand and apply common core standards with mastery.  It is amazing!

These are some of the skills/concepts and vocabulary that I have introduced since my last update:  symmetry, fractions, adding and subtracting a number to/from its self, 0, 1 & 2, solving addition and subtraction math problems, skip counting forwards and backwards by groups of tens, two’s fives, identifying odd and even numbers, reading and recording analog and digital time to the hour, classifying, measuring with non-standard units, capacity of a container, weight, patterning, managing and reading a calendar, graphs, place values to one hundred, counting mixed change, and ordinal numbers.

Language Arts

The children are sharing their Easter Vacation books with the class.  When they have finished we will compare them to their Christmas Vacation books so they can see how much their writing, thinking, and illustrating skills have developed. 

We are creating a 12 Days of Spring book and a Transportation Journal.

The children are independently reading and recording their answers to comprehension questions using complete sentences.

The children continue to work on adding details to their illustrations and implement the Six Traits of Writing to their writing pieces.

Spelling lists are becoming more difficult as we apply the long vowel and r controlled patterns to words.

Congratulationsto the following students for completing seven hours of reading to earn a Read to Ride Pass to Darien Lake:  Jaden, Rebeka, Maylee, Jordan, Aaron, Owen, Autumn, Kaylie, and Clare.

We have had many graduations from Social Club and Super Star reading with Mrs. Glenn.  Congratulations to those hard working children.

Congratulations to:  Kyle Swift, Jaden Firmstone, and Maylee Green for being recognized as a recent Student of the Month.