December 14, 2022

Those visiting campus lately have witnessed a beautiful Atrium project come to life outside the Welcome Center and throughout our hallways. Guided by Sr. Theresa Josephine, Upper Elementary students have completed a spiritual exercise, learned how to ask for support, and created a Nativity scene.

The project began with students selecting a character from the story of Jesus' birth and visualizing an interview with them. During this spiritual exercise, students would reflect on the Nativity Story and ask their character questions such as, "What gift would you want to bring this year to celebrate our Savior and His birthday?"

Part two of the project involved writing letters to local businesses to request a donation of damaged plexiglass pieces, paint, and sandpaper.

Finally, Sr. Theresa Josephine cut the donated pieces into Nativity figures for the students to sand and paint.

Many thanks to the students' community donors, Mr. Tuan Nguyen and Court Hardware, for their help in realizing this depiction of the Nativity.

We invite you to attend Alumni Night on Thursday, January 5 at 6:30 PM in the gym. St. Catherine's will welcome home seven alumni for a lively panel discussion about their college experiences and how their time at SCM prepared them for life after high school. The event will be moderated by current high school students and include a Q&A session and time for audience members to visit with alumni and alumni parents after the panel.

Click here to RSVP by January 3rd. We strongly encourage parents of all levels and students Upper Elementary and above to attend.

SCM's gala season shifts into high gear in 2023, and we invite all members of our community to join us for this kickoff event on Saturday, January 21 from 3:00 to 5:00 PM. Guests will have the opportunity to explore our 3-acre Japhet Campus, see the renovation designs, and get hype for the gala. The event will feature refreshments and '90s beats and you don't want to miss it!

Event childcare for currently registered SCM students, ages 3-12, will be available at our Timberside Campus between 2:00 and 6:00 PM.

Click here to RSVP by Friday, January 13th. To guarantee childcare, you must RSVP by the deadline and include your child's age in the form.

Click here to order your pictures by this Friday.

Individual student album passwords: Student's 4 digit birth date (month and day). For example, if the date of birth were November 21st, the password would be 1121.

How to order:

• Families with more than one student can add items to the cart and just do one check out.
• Packages are set up for individual galleries and unfortunately cannot be combined for more than one gallery.
• Retouching (spot removal, virtual hair brushing, and skin smoothing) is available upon request for an additional fee of $20 per photo. Anyone who would like to add that service can email the photography studio to request this after purchasing pictures. No retouching will be done prior to picture purchase. 
• Each image is available in color or black and white.

Help Spread the Word: Open House for Prospective Parents is January, 19

Know any families interested in St. Catherine’s? Invite them to our open house on Thursday, January 19 from 9:00 to 10:30 AM! During this adults-only campus tour parents will learn about St. Catherine's Montessori and how the Montessori method embraces not only a unique education alternative but a way of life that values independence, respect, and inquiry. 

Prospective families interested in attending should RSVP here and contact Amy Walz, enrollment management director, with any questions about the event or our enrollment process.

Thank you to all who joined us last week for Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. It is a blessing for us to gather and worship together as a community. Click here to view more photos from the Mass.

All are invited to attend our next Mass on Wednesday, January 18, 2023 at 2:15 PM in the gym.

ADVANCING THE MISSION

Thank you to everyone who has supported St. Catherine’s Montessori this year with a gift to the SCM Annual Fund. Your gifts – now totaling $186,436 – help provide resources that are critical to the educational experience of every one of our students.

During this season of giving, know that your support is important to us. St. Catherine's truly is blessed to have you as members of our beautiful community and honored by your dedication to our shared mission.

As we look ahead to the close of 2022, here are a few reminders for those making year-end gifts to St. Catherine's:

• To receive a 2022 tax receipt, all gifts must be processed by 11:59 PM on December 31, 2022
• The online giving portal is accessible 24/7 for credit card giving
• Checks sent via the USPS must be dated on or before December 31, 2022 and must have a 2022 postmark

If you have any questions about your family’s giving, please do not hesitate to contact me at [email protected] or (713) 665-2195.

As always, a thank you to the generous donors who are leading the way in this year's SCM Annual Fund. We are grateful for your dedication to the Fund’s motto, Every Family for Every Child.

A big thank you to our amazing SCM community for your donations of PJs, socks and underwear-plus all the basic needs items-to the children of Casa de Esperanza! Some parent-elves worked hard to wrap your gifts in festive bundles and made the delivery this morning. The folks at Casa were thrilled to receive your generous donations. We look forward to sponsoring the children at Casa again this time next year.

The SCM Book Fair returned this year to its traditional after-Thanksgiving time period. From November 28 through December 2 the Welcome Center was full of many shelves of books for students and their families to explore. Throughout the week parent-volunteers helped to set up and take down the book fair, sell books, and welcome families to this community event. After a very busy week ending with the Christmas Concert, our library program received $1,142.11 and over 100 books purchased by our families for inclusion in the Sister Edna Ann Hebert Library.

Thank you to our parent-volunteers: PSO Book Fair Chair Karine Schepers-Cheng, Rachel Baker, Catherine Barber, Vy Collette, Douglas Haskovec, Christie Jones, Courtney Lerch, Sarah Lewis, Nicole Luijer, Misty Matin, Michelle Mayorga, Edith Napoleon, Brooke Nyberg, Mollie Pappas, Angela Schmeidel Randall, Mary Tysor, Adrienne West, and Jennifer Wu!

MUSIC

Thank you to everyone who attended our Christmas Concert on December 2nd! We loved seeing so many decked out in festive Christmas finery and hope our musical offerings put you in jolly mood.

Click here to view the photo gallery.

Click the image above for a Christmas message from our Beginning Strings players

Basketball season is well underway with both boys and girls varsity teams deep in their seasons and in the running for playoffs.

The girls and boys C-teams both played their first games in December and did a great job. (The boys posted a 16-5 win against St. Theresa Sugarland!)

We kick the New Year off with our co-ed C-team hitting the court for their first game of the season. We will also get to see our inaugural High School teams play for their first times ever. We look forward to seeing you cheer on our Owls in 2023.

Merry Christmas from the SCM sports program!

THE AC INSIDER

As we have finished our first trimester, we have delved into different aspects of Occupations (Science) and Humanities (Social Studies). During the first trimester, we studied water as a basic human need, and characteristics of religions with studies of Buddhism and Hinduism. Each half of the class ended their world religions unit with a unique display of their knowledge. The Hinduism group chose to perform a skit, while the Buddhism group recorded a newscast. Now, we are studying the chemistry of water as well as civil rights. A giant timeline spanning over 400 years of the history of civil rights in the U.S. was made for Humanities, and the other half of the class in Occupations competed in teams of two in the “Water Olympics” with games related to the properties of water.

Another part of our week in The AC is Creative Expressions. Every six weeks, we try new visual and performing arts. These past six weeks, we had the choices of cake decorating, improv, and silk screening. Because the last week of our creative classes lined up with our school-wide Christmas concert, the silk screening group printed their designs on tote bags, and the cake decorating group baked and decorated Christmas-themed cupcakes. In the classroom, everyone was abuzz as we scanned artwork onto cards, packed eggs in cartons, wrapped soap and wood-burned ornaments, and set up the AC Market table to sell items during the concert. All in all, these past few weeks have been very lively with all the activities going on in our bustling community.

Thursday, December 15

• Conferences (High School); 1/2 Day for High School Students
• Varsity Girls Basketball vs. Resurrection Catholic School, 4:30 PM (SCM Gym)

Friday, December 16

• Garden Work Day, 8:30 AM
• Christian Meditation, 8:40 – 9:00 AM

Monday, December 9 - Monday, January 2

• Christmas Break - No School for All Students

Tuesday, January 3

• No School - Employee In-service Day

Wednesday, January 4

• All Students return to school on regular schedules

Thursday, January 5

• Alumni Night, 6:30 PM (SCM Gym)

Friday, January 6

• Garden Teaching Day: Sustainability & Health, 8:30 AM
• Varsity Boys Basketball @ Holy Ghost, 4:30 PM (Holy Ghost; 6920 Chimney Rock Rd.)

For more calendar events please check our website.