Dear Holy Name families,

Advent comes to Holy Name. Following a Thanksgiving season of service and

gratitude, we look forward with anticipation to the celebration of Christmas. We

will begin each week with our Advent Prayer Service. Our yearly Lights for

Loved Ones tree lighting service will take place on Friday, December 13, and our

Festival of Lights will take place on Wednesday, December 4. Through the gen-

erosity and spirit of Allandale Farm each grade will decorate and light one of

nine trees donated by the Farm. Trees of Hope and Peace will reflect our commu-

nity of children sharing the joy and message of Christ’s birth. We welcome you

to join us at 4:00 PM out front of the school. The evening of December 19 will

be fun, fun, fun as our students place us in the spirit of Christmas during our

Christmas concert.

In the words of Saint Teresa of Calcutta, “It is Christmas every time you let God

love others through you...yes, it is Christmas every time you smile at your broth-

er and offer him your hand.”

I wish you and your families a safe and joyous Christmas and I am excited about

the new opportunities that await us on our return.

I pray that peace and contentment will be yours at Christmas and always.

Warmly,

Kathleen J. Caulfield

I N S I D E

T H I S I S S U E :

Principal

Welcome

1

Important

Dates

2

Quick

Reminders

& a Quick

Tip

3-4

Home &

School

Association

5-6

Service

Projects

and News

7

Holy Name

Happen-

ings

Spotlight

on Grade

ONE

8

D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9

The Value

of the

month is

JOY

December 2019

December 1 Advent Begins, Family Mass at 9:00 a.m. in the Upper Church, (hosted

by K2)

December 2 Advent Prayer Service #1

Confessions (Grades 5 & 6) at 8:30 a.m. in the Convent

December 3 Santa’s Workshop for K0, K1, K2 Grade 1 & 5

Project Pantry

Confessions (Grades 3 & 4) at 8:30 a.m. in the Convent

Student Council meeting from 2:35-3:00 p.m. in the fourth grade

Project Room

December 4 Santa’s Workshop for Grades 2, 3, 4, & 6

Bernardines Wreath Decorating at 7:00 p.m. in Parish Hall

December 5 Half day of school—Dismissal at noon

No Boston Public School Bus transportation at dismissal Faculty Meeting

December 6 Report Cards distributed

December 8 Feast of the Immaculate Conception

Second Sunday in Advent

Family Mass at 9:00 a.m. in the Upper Church (hosted by Grade 3)

December 9 Advent Prayer Service #2

Mass for Advent at 9:00 a.m. in the Upper Church (hosted by

Student Council), All are Welcome

December 10 Project Pantry

December 12 Half day of school—Dismissal at noon

No Boston Public School Bus transportation at dismissal Parent-Teacher Conferences from 1:00-4:00 p.m. and 5:00-7:30 p.m.

FACTS PartentsWeb Training during Parent-Teacher Conferences in

the ECC Extended Day Room, First Floor.

Home & School monthly meeting at 7:00 p.m. in the School Library

December 13 “Lights for Loved Ones” Prayer Service at 1:30 p.m. in

Parish Hall-(All are Welcome) hosted by Student Council

Faculty Christmas party (No Extended Day)

December 14 First Penance Retreat and Sacraments 10:00 –11:30 a.m.

Family Mass followed by Lighting of the Tree, 4:00 p.m.

December 15 Third Sunday in Advent

“Breakfast with Santa” sponsored by the Bernardines at 10:00 a.m. in Parish

Hall

December 16 Advent Prayer Service #3

First Penance Retreat and Sacraments 5:00—6:30 p.m.

December 17 Project Pantry

Student Council Meeting from 2:35-3:00 p.m. in the fourth grade Project

Room

December 19 Christmas Show at 6:30 p.m. in Parish Hall, All are Welcome!

December 20 Christmas Vacation begins

Half day of school—Dismissal at noon

No Boston Public School bus transportation at dismissal

No Extended Day

Holy Name Parish School Band Concert 9:00 a.m. followed by Student to Stu-

dent Christmas Show

December 22 Fourth Sunday in Advent

Family Mass at 9:00 a.m. in the Upper Church

December 23 Christmas Vacation

December 24 Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve Pageant at 4:00 p.m. in the Upper Church

December 25 Christmas Day, Merry Christmas!

January 1 Happy New Year!

January 6, 2020 School reopens

Quick Reminders

Come join in the holiday fun on December 15 after the 9:00 a.m. Family Liturgy and enjoy Breakfast

with Santa. Sing Christmas carols and enjoy magical fun all while visiting with Santa. A continental break-

fast of fruit, breakfast treats, bagels, pastries, milk, juice, coffee and tea will be served. Advanced tickets

only; no tickets will be sold at the door. The cost of a ticket is $10 each. Please return to school in an enve-

lope marked Breakfast with Santa. Make checks payable to the Bernardines. For more information, please

contact Kelley at 617-323-6432 or Robin at 617-323-2706.

The Holy Name Parish School Student Council is

sponsoring Lights for Loved Ones. Make our Christ-

mas Tree shine with “Lights for Loved Ones.” You

will receive a “Lights for Loved Ones” notice. Please

send in names of your loved ones. Enjoy the Spirit of

Christmas when you see the celebration of loved

ones on our front bulletin board. Tree lighting and

Christmas carols will be on Friday, December 13,

2019 at 1:30 p.m. in Parish Hall. All are Welcome!

(Sponsored by Student Council)

Gifts for the children at the Italian Home Your

generous contributions to the Book Fair raffle al-

lowed us to send much appreciated books to the

Italian Home for children. This Christmas we will

continue our relationship with the children. Help

make the holidays special. The wished for gift list

is online. They would appreciate any item you

would like to purchase from the online list.

https://www.italianhome.org/holiday/ A list will

also be sent home this week. As always, thank

you in advance for your generosity!

Our Gr. 2 students will receive their first Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation on Sunday, Decem-

ber 14, in the Upper Church at 11:30 a.m. or on Monday, December 16 at 6:30 p.m. Parents and students

are asked to occupy only the middle aisle rows of the church. The afternoon consists of a prayer service in-

cluding an examination of conscience, the act of contrition recited by all the children after the examination

of conscience and individual confessions. We ask that an atmosphere of respectful quiet be maintained. We

ask that no pictures be taken during the prayer service or individual confession.

The Sunday Family Liturgy is celebrated at 9:00 a.m. in the Upper Church. Please remember to attend

church with your family and pray together. The continuing participation of our children at Mass involves

assisting with the music sheets, collection and presenting the offertory gifts. The schedule of grades as-

signed to assist at the Family Mass are as follows:

Sunday, December 1: Family Mass at 9:00 a.m. in the Upper Church (K2 to assist)

Sunday, December 8: Family Mass at 9:00 a.m. in the Upper Church (Gr. 3 to assist)

Sunday, December 15: Family Mass at 9:00 a.m. in the Upper Church

Sunday, December 22: Family Mass at 9:00 a.m. in the Upper Church

Sunday, December 29: Family Mass at 9:00 a.m. in the Upper Church

Family Liturgy

Upcoming Parent-Teacher Conferences

Parent-Teacher Conferences regarding report cards and student progress are scheduled for Thursday,

December 12th from 1:00–4:00 p.m. and 5:00–7:30 p.m.

All parents and guardians are asked to meet with their child/children’s teacher(s) to share information and to

discuss their child/children’s progress. Parents and guardians for Gr. 5 and 6 may come at their convenience.

Parents of K0-Gr. 4 students should have received a link to sign up for a scheduled appointment, if not

please contact your child’s teacher. Conference times are slotted for 10-minute segments. Also, drop by the

ECC Extended Day Room to activate your FACTS ParentWeb account or to learn more about the many fea-

tures available.

Five Steps for a Successful Parent-Teacher Conference

Parent-teacher conferences are an important way to learn about your child. Listed below are suggestions to

help you have a more successful parent-teacher conference:

Plan for the conference. Before you come to visit the teacher, write out questions you

would like to ask:

Does my child get along with others?

How is my child’s behavior in class?

Does my child read and work at the level you would expect for this grade?

What are my child’s strengths and weaknesses?

Keep an open mind. Your goal is to work for cooperation between you and your child’s

teacher. Even if the teacher says something you disagree with, try to listen to what she/he has to

say.

Ask to see your child’s work. There’s no better way to see how your child is progressing.

Ask for suggestions. If your child is doing well, ask what you can do to keep things on a positive

track. If there are areas in need of support, ask what you can do to help.

Clarify and summarize as you go. Always make sure you are clear on your conversation before your

meeting is concluded.

Think-about Questions to Ask at Report Card Conferences

What will be covered in this grade or subject this year?

What are your expectations for homework? Has my child missed any assignments?

How are my child’s work habits? Does he/she use time wisely?

Does my child put forth his/her best effort? Does he work neatly?

What can I do at home to help my child/ren be more successful at school?

Quick Tip

Thursday, December 19, 2019

6:30 p.m.

Christmas Show Details: Children will enter through the Main Office front door at drop off, 6:00 p.m.

All teachers will be present for their students in their respective classrooms.

Children will be signed out by their parent and dismissed by their teacher

from their classroom.

Joy to the World A Savior is Born

Home & School Association Announcements

We hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and is looking forward to a joyous Christmas Holi-

day! Home and School is so excited to have some great events coming up. We are especially focused on

raising funds to support our signature winter event - The Holy Name Student Fun Glow Run. Please help

us spread the word and let us know if you are available to volunteer on the day of the event (February

14th) by emailing Volunteer Coordinator, Jenny Sullivan, at moorhejl@yahoo.com.

SPOTLIGHT: Student Fun Glow Run- February 14, 2020

SAVE THE DATE: Santa’s Workshop

Looking ahead….

Home & School’s signature fundraising event this

year will be the Fun Glow Run taking place Feb-

ruary 14, 2020. Home and School is soliciting

sponsors for the Fun Glow Run. If you are a busi-

ness or individual interested in sponsoring the

event, you can donate directly here and your logo

or name will be featured on the t-shirts that we are

creating for the event.

Don’t forget to take advantage of your company’s

matching policy if they have one.

What is it? The Fun Glow Run is a fundraising event that gets everyone involved-friends and families, local business-

es, and most importantly the students. The Fun/Glow Run takes place over 8 days with pep rallies leading

up to the final “run” for 45 minutes on February 14, 2020. The “run” consists of 35 laps around the gym

that are choreographed to a soundtrack that tells students what to do: slow motion lap, skip lap, silly lap,

etc. Home and School is asking for sponsors for the event, but students will also help to raise money by

asking friends and family to pledge a certain amount per lap.

Santa's Workshop will be held December 3rd & 4th for

all of Holy Name Parish School children. Santa's

Workshop gives students the opportunity to purchase

their own special Christmas gifts for family and friends

in an atmosphere that is comfortable and friendly. This

event really gets the children into the Christmas spirit

while they thoughtfully choose their presents.

We will need lots of volunteers for this event. Sign up

to help the students shop for Christmas gifts at Santa’s

Workshop and see the student shopping schedule here.

Scratch Ticket Raffle! We are fast approaching December 20th- the date when the scratch ticket winner will be announced. This

is the last opportunity to win $1,000 and earn up to 15 volunteer hours! Home & School is selling 1,200

raffle tickets at $10 each. The winner will receive $1,000 worth of scratch tickets. Tickets may be pur-

chased singularly or in multiples here.

COMING SOON: Spirit Wear!

Home and School has some awesome new Spirit Wear that is nearly ready to make it’s debut. Look out for a

flyer in student backpacks featuring HNPS winter hats, baseball hats, bags, water bottles, hoodies, t-shirts,

plaid pants and more!

Like us on facebook at Holy Name Parish School Fundraising to learn more about the upcoming Bazaar and

our other events!

Thanks Thanks Thanks No, I can’t say it often enough! Thanks again – for your support of the Scholastic

Book Fair! Thanks to all our volunteers who set up, publicized the event, helped the kids, sold raffle tickets and

then packed up the whole shebang again. Thanks to all our customers, all those parents, grandparents, friends,

teachers and students who found something wonderful to read. Your generosity helped us add lots of great

books to the Library and the classroom collections. Again this year our Student Council chose dozens of new

books to share the joy of reading with our neighbors at the Italian Home for Children, too. And it’s all thanks to

you! So thanks again…and again… and again.

Backpack Program The food drive this year benefited the Backpack Program, a program that provides food for

40 children over the weekend. These children are students at the Chittick School. The head of the program, Pas-

tor Abigail Henrick, Rose’s Bounty, shared that since the programs conception the outreach worker noticed a

change in the school atmosphere. The children felt less hopeless, felt like someone cared that there was sup-

port. Thank you HNPS for your generosity in providing such a bounty of food for this program and $230 in su-

permarket gift cards!

Each Tuesday at Holy Name is Food Pantry collection day. The Backpack program is always in need. Easy

meals such as spaghetti o’s, individual packets of oatmeal and a treat for dessert are some items that would be

Beneficial as well as other quick meals a child could microwave. Thank you in advance!

Thank you Roylance Family! Mr. and Mrs. Roylance made a generous donation to the

school’s library. Mrs. Rolance’s grandfather, Andrew E. Svenson, was a prolific author;

mostly of children’s books. As an author for the Stratemeyer Syndicate from the 1940’s-

70’s, he wrote under pseudonyms for the Hardy Boys, Bobbsey Twins, Tom Swift, and sev-

eral other series.

One book series he created, and was sole author of, were the Happy Hollisters. The Happy

Hollisters is a children’s mystery series. Each character was based on Andrew Svenson’s

own family. The series follows the children through adventures and mysteries the children

work together to solve. It’s like reading a Hardy Boys book for younger children. The Happy

Hollisters became an international success and sold over 16 million copies in several lan-

guages.

Publication of the series ended in the early 1980’s and

one of Mrs. Roylance’s brothers began reissuing them

in 2010. Mr. and Mrs. Roylance have made a donation

of a complete set of The Happy Hollisters, books 1-

33. They are now available for your children to borrow

from the school library. Happy Reading with The Hap-

py Hollisters!

Below is a link to the Hollisters’ website where you can

find more information about the series and the author.

https://thehappyhollisters.com/

Holy Name Puts Service into Action: the Backpack Food Drive and the donation of books

to the Italian Home for Children.

Holy Name Happenings

Spotlight on Grade ONE

December is an exciting month in first grade! In terms of learning, the students have begun to learn long vowel

sounds. This is such an important step in reading, so the children need to read, read, read as much as they

can! We just completed our first book report and enjoyed sharing the books we read.

In math, first graders have been spending a great deal of time learning addition and subtraction facts to 20. They

are introduced to several strategies ( doubles, making a 10), and practice these facts many different ways. We

strongly encourage practicing math facts to 20 at home to help your child improve his or her number sense at

school.

There are so many fun activities to look forward to this month! We will be putting out our Advent wreaths and

will celebrate the special time preparing for and anticipating the birth of Jesus. First graders will be going to San-

ta’s Workshop on Tuesday 12/3. They have been practicing for the Christmas concert and you will love their

songs! The most exciting day will be our annual Polar Express Day. We dress in our pajamas and watch the Polar

Express. There will be some special surprises too! We love experiencing the wonder and joy your children have

during this time. It truly is the most wonderful time of the year!

Mrs. Fitzgerald and Mrs. Gagnon