May 27 – 3rd Grade Field Trip LP Zoo May 27 - 8th Grade Graduation 7 pm Church May 30 – MEMORIAL DAY – NO SCHOOL June 1 - 6th Grade Field Trip – Iron Oaks June 1 – Last Day for PK – OL Children’s Museum June 1 – Current 7th Grade Parent Meeting 7 pm – Church Hall June 2 – Kindergarten Graduation 10:00 am Gym June 2 – Kindergarten Screenings June 2 – 7th Grade Springfield Trip June 3 – LAST DAY OF SCHOOL – 11:50 DISMISSAL

(NO AFTERCARE)

Weekly Newsletter May 26, 2016

In this issue

1

• Principal’s Corner • Letter re: Aspire Results • Imagine, Innovate,

Inspire • St. Barnabas Lost &

Found • Grade Spotlight • Scoop on Specials • 5th & 7th Grade

Reading Buddies • 8th Grade Trip to Dave

& Busters Downtown • 2015-2016 Yearbook

Order • From St. Barnabas

Religious Education Office

• Youth Leadership Retreat at Notre Dame

• St. Barnabas Boys Volleyball Clinic

• Jr. High Science Fair • Manna • St. Barnabas Golf

Team Takes 2nd Place • Lunch Volunteer

Schedule • BAPA Family Fun Nights • Marist Youth

Leadership Camp • St. Rita Summer Camps • Office Depot Give

Back to Schools • Amazon Smile

2

Congratulations to our graduates!

2 2

Aliquam dolor.

Principal’s Corner

Dear Parents, This past week has been filled with joy as our students shared their talents in the talent show, dunked our assistant principal at spirit day, and celebrated the successes of the Class of 2016. We look forward to another joyful week as we graduate our 8th grade and kindergarten classes. Before we close out our school year, I’d ask that you prayerfully and thoughtfully consider supporting the Imagine. Innovate. Inspire. Campaign. St. Barnabas School is an amazing school; this campaign will help us to allow us to enhance our educational programs and provide a state of the art facility. Today, we have an opportunity to imagine, innovate, and inspire our St. Barnabas community by supporting the campaign initiatives and investing in

our church and school.

Thank you for your consideration.

3 3

Office of Catholic Schools 835 N. Rush Street Chicago, IL 60611 tel 312.534.5200 schools.archchicago.org

!

May 19, 2016 Dear St. Barnabas School Families, Happy spring to all of you! I am writing today with an update regarding the ACT Aspire test. As you know, 3rd – 8th grade students across all Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Chicago recently completed the ACT Aspire test. The Archdiocese of Chicago’s Office of Catholic Schools (OCS) recently learned from ACT Aspire that there will be a delay in the return of the test results this year. Since learning of this delay, my team and I have been working diligently with ACT Aspire to try and speed up the process. However, despite our efforts the results are unable to be returned within the current school year. According to ACT Aspire this delay is due to the process of creating scaled scores for each grade-level content test and the significant amount of human scoring that needs to be completed for each written response on the test. As 8th grade students are most in need of timely results, your school will mail test results to the parents of 8th grade students by the end of July. Students in 3rd through 7th grades will receive their results in August or September during back to school meetings. My team and I will be working with schools to create presentations for parents to assist with understanding the data generated by the new Aspire test. I realize this is not an ideal situation, and on behalf of the OCS I apologize for the delay. I know everyone is eager to receive the test results. I am confident that the information we receive from the Aspire results will guide efforts to improve student achievement across the Archdiocese in the school year ahead. Thank you for understanding this disappointing news, and again on behalf of OCS I apologize. ACT Aspire has promised that the use of pre-equated student answer forms in the future will eliminate a significant scoring delay in results reporting in 2017 and 2018. I hope you have a wonderful close to your school year! If you have any questions regarding this communication, please feel free to contact me at mkearney@archchicago.org or 312.534.5255. Thank you, Mary M. Kearney, Ed.D. Associate Superintendent Archdiocese of Chicago Catholic Schools

Letter regarding Aspire Test Results

4 4

Imagine Innovate Inspire

In Mark 4:31-32, we find the parable of the mustard seed which reads, “It is like the mustard seed which, when planted in the soil, is the smallest of all the earth’s seeds, yet once it is sown, springs up to become the largest of shrubs, with branches big enough for the birds of the sky to build nests in its shade.” Our parish has a rich history of stewardship that mirrors this parable. You can see it when we celebrate the Eucharist, in our active ministries, and even in our youngest who are in our Catholic school and Religious Education program.

Today, we have an opportunity to imagine, innovate, and inspire our St. Barnabas community by supporting the campaign initiatives and investing in our church and school.

We encourage all of you who received a letter and a pledge card in the mail to prayerfully consider a personal gift to this campaign, fill out the card and return it to the parish office. Each pledge card returned brings us one step closer to accomplishing our goals. If a volunteer has called to meet with you in person, we ask that you please be responsive to their call.

As we enter the first weeks of our campaign, we appreciate the initial sacrifices our parishioners have made and we ask that everyone share a meaningful gift in this time of giving.

5 5

St. Barnabas Lost & Found

THIS IS A PARENT REMINDER TO COME IN AND CHECK OUT OUR LOST & FOUND. THERE ARE MANY VALUABLE ITEMS AND PERHAPS SOMETHING HERE BELONGS TO YOUR CHILD. ALL ITEMS REMAINING ON THE TABLE ON THURSDAY, JUNE 2, 2016 WILL BE DONATED TO ST. VINCENT DEPAUL.

6 6

Grade Spotlight: 1st Grade

The first graders are having fun in the month of May. On May 16 they visited Lincoln Park Zoo for their annual first grade field trip. It was a beautiful day! The students were able to see many animals. Among their favorites were flamingos, lizards, giraffes, and of course gorillas. They were eager to look for the almighty silverback like their friend Ivan. The first graders really enjoyed riding the carousel.

7 7

Scoop on Specials…Spanish

Hola St. Barnabas,

With the end of the year approaching so are our Spanish classes, here are some things we are doing through the end of the school year.

Pre-1st are finishing their unit on farm animals.

2ND-3RD are finishing some fun community projects and ending the year with fun Cultural activities.

4th and 5th are ending their Spanish class with a Final and a cultural movie and questions.

Jr High is ending the year with a final on their respective chapters and playing some games to review their test.

Felicidades Clase de 2016, mucha suerte en la secundaria.

Congratulations Class of 2016, best of luck in High school.

This has been an awesome year I wish all of you a FUN and SAFE summer

Adios,

Ms Sanchez

8 8

Scoop on Specials…Spanish

9 9

This year, all classes at St. Barnabas focused on increasing literacy skills. To support

this, Ms. Kotarski’s and Ms. Sheerin’s class integrated a reading buddy program

that involved Ms. Kotarski’s 7th grade English class and Ms. Sheerin’s 5th grade

homeroom. The students were paired with each other and met every week for 45

minutes. They worked on several projects that required technology, specifically iPad

apps. These assignments included creating their own Halloween stories, creating various

poems, creating and filming persuasive commercials, and creating “How To” videos to

improve cognitive. literacy, writing, and technology skills through cooperative learning.

5th & 7th Grade Reading Buddies

10 10

8th Grade Trip to Dave & Buster’s Downtown

11 11

2015-2016 YEARBOOK ORDER

12 12

From St. Barnabas Religious Education Office

13 13

Youth Leadership Development Retreat at University of Notre Dame

The University of Notre Dame provides parish youth ministries an opportunity to form young Catholic leaders to serve their parishes but the benefits extend beyond to the community and their schools. St. Barnabas High School Youth Ministry has been participating in this program for several years. The participants have gone on to become Lectors, Extraordinary Ministers/Eucharistic Ministers, classroom aides for RE, Peer Ministers, to lead Kairos and more in their schools. An example of how the Notre Dame Leadership Retreat has contributed to St. Barnabas School is our 8th Grade Closing Retreat that has been offered the past two years. The 8th closing retreat is led by high school teens of the parish, all of which have attended the University of Notre Dame Leadership Retreat in previous years and are active in our parish High School Youth Ministry.

Four of our current graduates from the Class of 2016 will be attending the Leadership retreat this summer; Jack Kelly, Rachel Stevens, Mary Devane, and Fiona Hurless. They are joined by ten additional young people from our parish High School Youth Ministry, four of which are also graduates of St. Barnabas School; Toni Reynolds class of 2015 and Quinn Gregory and Ryan Vogt Class of 2013. We are excited to share that Quinn Gregory from the class of 2013 is attending the Leadership Retreat for his 4th time and has received the Notre Dame Emerging Leadership Scholarship Award to attend along with 3 additional recipients from our parish. Emerging Leaders are young men and women who have demonstrated an effort to continue to grow as faith-filled and committed leaders for their faith communities today and beyond. Quinn as well as his brother Brendan, both from the St. Barnabas Class of 2013 serve on the Archdiocesan Pastoral Youth Council which serves as a voice for the young church of the Archdiocese of Chicago. The ND Leadership Retreat offered by the St. Barnabas High School Youth Ministry is a great way to foster leadership in our youth.

We are proud of the young people of our parish who have committed to an active routine presence to become leaders in their home parish. Congratulations to all the St. Barnabas High School Youth Ministry participants for applying for the Notre Dame Leadership Retreat 2016. We hope you have a great summer experience at the University of Notre Dame.

Mary Devane, Class of 2016

Russell Egan, Confirmation Class 2014

*Quinn Gregory, Class of 2013

Fiona Hurless, Class of 2016

Jack Kelly, Class of 2016

Faith Lam, Confirmation Class 2016

Julia Medina, Confirmation Class 2016

*Buddy Reardon, Confirmation Class 2016

*Keely Reardon, Confirmation Class 2014

Toni Reynolds, Class of 2015

Rachel Stevens, Class of 2016

Ryan Vogt, Class of 2016

Henry Zapata, Confirmation Class 2015

*Emerging Leader Award Recipients

Class of 2016 University of Notre Dame Leadership Retreat Participants Jack Kelly, Rachel Stevens, Mary Devane, Fiona Hurless

Youth Leadership Retreat at Notre Dame

14 14

ST. BARNABAS BOYS VOLLEYBALL CLINIC

15 15

The 7th and 8th grade students at St. Barnabas School showcased their science fair projects at the Junior High Science Fair. The projects investigated a variety of questions that allowed the students to study the scientific inquiry process and how it leads to new ideas and experiments. Students were provided the opportunity to communicate their results and conclusions with the school, parish, and community through the science fair. The students were judged by some of their former teachers on their creativity, knowledge of the scientific method, parts of an experiment, technology, and presentation. The St. Barnabas community is very proud of the junior high students and is impressed with all of their projects.

The winners of the St. Barnabas Junior High Science Fair are below. 7th Grade

1st place: Thomas Rooney and Jimmy Valek- Bridge Breaker

2nd place: Ally Kallianis and Ellie Kurpeikis- Can You Take the Heat?

3rd place: Aidan Connolly and Kevin Devane- Mummified Apple

Most Creative: Emma Looney and L’Oreal Talley- Shades of Red

8th Grade

1st place: Brendan Mahoney and Ryan Fidler- Aw Snap Catie Murphy- Optical Illusion

2nd place: Evan Wojcicki and Ronan Dolan- Music Memory

3rd place: Rhiannon O’Keefe and Rachel Stevens- Textbook vs. Techbook

Most Creative: William Dunn- Energy Tug of War

Junior High Science Fair

ATTENTION MANNA FANS… MANNA WILL CONTINUE THROUGH THE

MONTH OF JUNE JUST PLACE YOUR ORDER ONLINE

BY MONDAY MORNINGS 9:00 AM AND YOU CAN PICK UP FROM

MANNA CHECK & CARRY ON THURSDAY EVENINGS 6-7:30

Please Note: No Manna TONIGHT Thursday, May 26 due to

8th Grade Dinner Dance

manna@stbarnabasparish.org

MANNA

17 17

The St. Barnabas Golf team finished up its season this past Sunday, where the Girls' team competed in the Southside Catholic Conference Championship and placed 2nd! In addition, Fiona Hurless placed 2nd overall as an Individual.

It was a great end to a fun season!

The St. Barnabas Golf Team:

Mary Devane Fiona Hurless Livvy Kallianis Tara McMahon

Jenna Ryan

Nick Acevedo James Cruz T. J. Murphy

St. Barnabas Golf Team Takes 2nd Place!

, 2015

18 18

Monday 11:24 MEMORIAL DAY HOLIDAY NO SCHOOL 12:00 12:30 Tuesday 11:24 Terese Cleary

12:00 Kevin Barry; Kristin Hilburger; Sarah Peterson 12:30

Wednesday 11:04 Cara Grant; Kerry Esselman

12:00 Jen White 12:30 Jeanne Byrne Thursday 11:24 Jan Lisanti 11:50 12:00 Friday 11:24 12:00

12:30

Lunch Volunteer Schedule 5/23-5/27

, 2015

19 19

BAPA FAMILY FUN NIGHTS

20 20

Marist Youth Leadership Camp

21 21

Office Depot Give Back to Schools

22 22

Amazon.com donates .5% of eligible purchases to charitable

organizations. Parents are encouraged to sign up for Amazon Smiles

and to select St. Barnabas School as their charitable organization of

choice. Please follow the directions below to sign up today:

Go to https://smile.amazon.com/ If you are an existing Amazon customer, sign in as you would at Amazon.com. Otherwise, create an

account. Once you sign in it will ask you to pick a charitable organization. Scroll down a little and there will be a search bar. Type in St. Barnabas Parish and click search. Choose St. Barnabas Parish,

Chicago, IL (there is another St. Barnabas Parish listed).

In order for STB to benefit, all orders have to be placed through https://smile.amazon.com/ and not www.amazon.com.

Amazon.com