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February Newsletter
Dear Parents and Students,
We are well into the second half of the school year. We
hope that everyone continues the solid effort and quest
for excellence that we have witnessed so far. We want
everyone to end the 2007-08 school year on a positive
note. We still have quite a way to go however but with
spring beckoning - Red Sox pitchers and catchers report
to Spring training in a couple of weeks -we look forward
to the next four and one half months with eagerness.
We initiated Catholic Schools week with a first time 8th
grade field trip to Trinity High School. This Catholic
Schools leadership Day coincided nicely with this year's
Catholic Schools Week theme of "...lighting the way."
Our 8th graders had an opportunity to mix with their
peers from around the diocese and engage in a number of
provocative and informative activities and seminars
which gave them a true sense of the importance of being
a catholic school student and the many positive
directions to which such an experience can lead them -
i.e., hopefully to "light the way" as our future
leaders! We hope this will become an annual event for
our 8th graders.
Ash Wednesday will begin our Lenten season at NC and we
will have a number of significant Lenten services which
will offer our students a heightened sense of their own
spirituality during this most holy of seasons.
Student Spotlight:
One of the reasons for our successful Step Up Day, which
was held on Friday, Jan. 25, was the fantastic
assistance we received from members of our Student
Council who, instead of enjoying their day off, gave of
themselves and served as "expert" student guides for our
visiting 6th graders. A sincere thanks to the following
for all their help: Matthew Zeeb, Mike Yu, Anya Clay,
Brianna O'Donnell, Casey Ragan, Alie Fahey, Julia Libby,
Naomi Noiseux, Morgan Fishe, Tia Avila, Frankie Bragan,
Maddie Lewis, Kasay Bond, and Marissa Bingham.
Also, Nashua Catholic's own Kai Chen will be giving a
solo piano concert at the Nashua Public Library on
Saturday, February 9th, 2008 from 2:30PM to 3:30PM.
Kai's performance will feature musial selections from
classical artists. Food and refreshments will be
available.
NEWS FROM THE SCIENCE
DEPARTMENT:
Our eighth grade students will be participating in the
"Junk Festival" sometime during the next two weeks. Each
student is required to bring from home five pieces of
"junk" that can be use to create one of the six simple
machines. This is to help prepare our students to begin
work on their Rube Goldberg Projects.
Each student will display their project on May 13, 2008
during our 6th Annual Science Fair from 6 - 7:30 PM.
Please mark your calendars. Our seventh grade students
are encouraged to come and take a look at all the fun we
will have during this event.
News from the English
Department:
The following seventh and eighth grade students
participated with great prowess in the school- wide
spelling bee during study hall on January 24, 2008: Emma
Brooks, Matthew Golden, Daniel Sypek, Avvin Radakrishnan,
Joseph Campenella, Thomas Hart, Dana Alabadi, Jonah
Soucy, Alex Ura, Sean Olbert, Allan McQuarrie, and Caleb
Mitchell. We wish to congratulate all these students for
their preparation and skilled performance in this year's
bee! Although all these students did very well, Avvin
Radakrishnan missed none of the difficult words
presented to him and will be our school's representative
to the Nashua regional spelling bee which will take
place at the Elks Lodge in Nashua, at 1:00 P.M., on
Sunday, March 9, 2008. Sean Olbert, this year's
runner-up and last year's champion, missed only one
word, and Emma Brooks gave both of these gentlemen
serious competition until the last.
The honors 8th grade is reading Pygmalion by George
Bernard Shaw and will be attending a professional
performance at the Opera House in Boston of a British
production of the musical My Fair Lady on Sunday,
February 17, 2008. All of the literature classes, both
7th and 8th grade, are presently involved in discussing
the history and elements of drama and reading an
assortment of radio, television, stage, and film scripts
as literature. The 8th grade literature classes are also
exploring the world of ancient Greece by reading a
re-telling of the epic poem The Odyssey originally by
Homer. Poetry will also be presented this quarter.
Writers Club continues to meet from 3:00- 3:45 on
Mondays. Students with a sincere interest in writing are
always welcome.
NEWS FROM THE MATH
DEPARTMENT:
MathFax Contests:
All students will take the third MathFax contest during
math class on February 7. Congratulations to the winners
of the second MathFax contest!
MATH 7 TEST (Math 7, and Advanced Math 7 classes):
1st Place: Brian Wells
2nd Place: Evan Johnston
3rd Place: Grace Bonenberger, Scott Mooney, Eden
Tomaszewski, Luke VanSeters
PRE-ALGEBRA TEST (Honors Math 7, Advanced Intro., and
Intro. to Algebra classes)
1st Place: John Bianco, Emma Brooks, Jonah Soucy
2nd Place: Yiran Buckley, Sam Fordin
3rd Place: Sara Beaulieu, John Chenette, Barbara
Duckworth, Connor Popik
ALGEBRA I TEST (Honors Algebra I Class)
1st Place: Marlen Mahendraratnam
2nd Place: Kai Chen
3rd Place: Scott Davidson, Nicole Parsons
Nashua Catholic
MathCounts team competes in Bedford's regional
tournament:
"What is the smallest positive integer that is a perfect
square and is also a sum of six consecutive positive
integers?"
"An opaque bowl contains 1 red marble and 5 blue
marbles. A dog comes along and eats one marble out of
the bowl, but you do not know which color. You add 2 red
marbles to the bowl (the bowl now contains 7 marbles).
If you randomly pick one marble out of the bowl, what is
the probability of choosing a blue marble?"
These are the types of questions the Nashua Catholic
MathCounts team learned to solve in preparation for
their regional tournament on Saturday, February 2nd in
Bedford, NH. They competed against several other teams
from schools around New Hampshire in rounds that test
speed and accuracy in solving complex problems.
During the last week of January, Nashua Catholic held
its School Competition. Greg McCutcheon had the highest
individual scores on the School Sprint and School Target
Rounds (followed by 2nd place Yiran Buckley and 3rd
place Frank Noah). In the School Countdown Round (a
fast- paced oral tournament quiz), Frank Noah placed
first, Jennifer Dai, 2nd place was Greg McCutcheon, and
in 2nd place was Jenny Dai. Based on the results of the
School Competition as well as participation in
MathCounts meetings, the following were selected to
represent the school at the Chapter Competition in
Bedford: Matthew Zeeb (team captain), Justin O'Malley,
Greg McCutcheon, and Yiran Buckley. Jennifer Dai,
Michelle Indelicato, and Frank Noah competed as
individuals. (Connor Popik, another MathCounts Team
member, was unable to attend the competition due to
prior commitments.)
Many thanks to the MathCounts Team coaches, Mrs. Meg and
Mr. Paul Noah!
MathCounts Club
The MathCounts Team along with a few other students will
be working to earn Silver Medal Status for the school.
This requires students to complete five math activities.
Any interested students should see Mrs. Reilly for
details. This must be completed within the next 3 weeks.
News from the Nashua
Catholic FIRST LEGO Team:
The Nashua Catholic FIRST LEGO League competed at the NH
state Tournament on Saturday, Dec. 8th at Nashua North
High School, and the team did very well. They competed
against 51 other teams from all over New Hampshire, and
won 3rd place for their research presentation and
received a LEGO trophy. The team's robot finished in 6th
place in the robot competition. Congratulations to the
following team members for a fine showing:
8th graders- Matthew Zeeb, Andrew Nissen, Greg Bilodeau
7th graders- Michael Raposo, Michael Aldana-Proulx, John
Morgan Wight, Andrew Sanborn.
ADMISSIONS CORNER:
Step-Up Day on January 25th was filled with 6th grade
enthusiasm! It seems our chicken patties are the best in
the area! We certainly need to mention the outstanding
job our student guides did getting the groups moved from
class to class and sharing their positive spirit for
Nashua Catholic. Thanks to all who helped!
Our first acceptances for the 2008-2009 school year have
been sent! The Nashua Catholic Class of 2010 amazed and
pleased us on Step-Up Day and we look forward to
welcoming them in the Fall. Our enrollment remains open
to new students in both the 7th and 8th grades
particularly now before schedules are formed. Thank you
for encouraging your friends to check out Nashua
Catholic - Bless you for continuing the search for NC
families!
BOX TOPS FOR
EDUCATION:
Just a friendly reminder that Nashua Catholic is
registered in the Box Tops for Education program, which
is another easy fund raising opportunity for our school.
Look for the 10¢ Box Tops coupon on hundreds of your
favorite products. You can find Box Tops on brands such
as Cheerios®, Betty Crocker®, Pillsbury®, Ziploc®,
Kleenex®, Hefty® and more! Then just clip the Box Tops
and send them into the school office. At the Box Tops
Marketplace, you can shop at over 60 online stores
including JCPenney and Lands' End. A portion of every
qualifying purchase is donated to your school - all at
no additional cost to you! Please ask your family and
friends to help collect Box Tops too! Visit
www.boxtops4education.com to view a list of
participating products and to get fun recipes, coupons
and other specials.
Please send all of your Box Tops in by Friday, February
22nd. This will be the last collection of Box Tops for
the 2007-2008 school year. Please keep saving now and
throughout the summer for the next school year. Thanks
so much for your support!
Paper Retriever
Recycling Program:
Our first month with the Paper Retriever Program has
been very successful. All recycled paper means dollars
for Nashua Catholic. Please continue your efforts in
helping us raise extra cash for our school. Remember,
everyone wins. Recyle all your paper trash by dumping it
into our Paper Retriever Bin located near the rear of
the Cafe. All white paper products are welcome - old
newspapers, junk mail, magazines, and catalogs.
Please, no cardboard
and/or phone books!!
Athletic News:
The wrestling team is having a great post season finish.
They recently took Second Place in Division II at the
Tri County Athletic Association Championships. First
places finishers were: Patrick O'Connell, Angelica
Levesque, Mike Allard, Gabe Gosselin and Marcel LaPlante.
Second place finishers were: Cole Fokas, Zak Kemos,
Ethan Plumley. Preston Danielson took third and Eric
Dupont took fourth. This past week-end at the NH Youth
Wrestling Regional Tournament, Marcel LaPlante and Gabe
Gosselin again took first in their respective divisions.
Cole Fokas, Mike Allard, Preston Danielson all took
seconds. Evan Manns, Zak Kemos, Dan McCormick and
Patrick O'Connell took third place and Angelica Levesque
took a fourth place. All the above wrestlers will now
compete in the Meet of Champions on February 10th at
Concord high school. Best of luck to our student
athletes. The team's next big test will be at the Second
Annual Mark Thibault Wrestling Classic on February 17th
at Nashua High, where the four middle/junior highs get
together. Nashua Catholic won the inaugural event.
The basketball teams had a tough week of play-offs. The
varsity girls got by a tough West Running Brook squad in
the first round but unfortunately ran into tourney
favorite, Windham Middle School in the Semis. They lost
a hard fought battle to a very good Windham team. The
girls JV team received a bye to the Semis, having
secured second place in the regular season. They lost to
St. Joseph of Manchester, a team they split with during
the regular season. The game went down to the final shot
with time running out. The JV boys lost a stunner in the
first round to Windham Middle School, a team they beat
during the regular season. All four teams are getting
ready to compete in the annual Catholic Schools
Tournament, sanctioned by the State CYO Athletic Board.
Nashua Catholic will again be the host of this years'
event. The tournament will run from February 9th to the
14th. You can visit www.nhcyo.org for updates/results.
The cheerleaders are gearing up for their tournament
season. They are scheduled to compete in the NH Spirit
Competition on March 8th and the NH State CYO
Competition later in March. We want to take this
opportunity to say 'Thank you' to the spirit team for
their time and energy at all our home basketball games.
Great job girls!!
Spring sports news:
Many questions have come in regarding the boys and girls
lacrosse program this coming spring. We are only going
to have an intramural program this spring. We have had
much difficulty scheduling opponents at the middle
school level. We plan on having pick-up competitions
among ourselves once or twice a week depending on the
interest.
The Nashua Baseball Academy has contacted us in an
effort to reach out to our baseball players. They are
now taking applications for the February school vacation
week. You can contact them and Mr. Rich Loftus at
www.nashuabaseballacademy.com or email him at
nashuabaseballacademy@comcast.net The Nashua Catholic
Spring Sports tryout dates begin March 17th. A complete
tryout schedule for all spring sports will be posted the
first week in March.
And speaking of Spring, the athletic department is
seeking qualified coaches to coach the boys and girls
track team. Interested parties may contact Mr. B for
more information, at school, 882.7011 x 212 or at rbsnlt@ncrjhs.org
Development News:
Big 'Thank You' to all the dads who made the Father
Daughter a huge success. We had over 75 couples attend a
very special evening. Special thanks to Mrs. Perrotta
for taking portraits of the special evening. The CDs are
being created as we write and should be available in the
very near future. If you haven't received your pictures
please contact Mr B.
Catholic Schools Night at the Monarch's was also a big
'score'. Not only did we see a win by the locals (4- 0)
but the 4 goals scored entitled all attendees to free
french fries at local McDonald's restaurants. Thank you
to all who participated!
The 6th Annual Fashion Show & Silent Auction, Friday,
March 14th, 7-10pm
Model permission forms are out, those wishing to
participate this year must have a signed form in to Mr.
B no later than February 12th. Forms are available
online or through the office. We are currently seeking
sponsorships for the program book. Please contact Mrs.
Sue Mack, sue.mack@verani.com or Mr. B. if you are
interested or need more information. We have several
different opportunities to advertise your business, from
full page to ¼ page ads.
Silent Auction:
Once again we are planning a "red carpet" style silent
auction during the upcoming fashion show. For those of
you unfamiliar with this, historically we have had
wonderful auction items available for bidding during the
show. We have had Patriot's tickets, Red Sox tickets,
fine wines, handcrafted jewelry and furniture, blankets,
restaurant gift certificates, lamps, theater tickets,
retail gift certificates, theme baskets and many other
items. This is where YOU come in. Our staff and families
from Nashua Catholic have always provided these baskets
and other great items. If you have access to tickets or
specialty items, please consider donating them to our
auction effort. In the past, people have requested
donations of goods or services from businesses they
frequent, others have donated items from their own local
business, others have joined with other NC families to
put together and donate larger baskets. Please consider
helping us make this auction our BEST one yet! No item
is too large or too small as we often group smaller
items into theme baskets which are very popular. If you
have any questions, please email Mrs. Parolin at
jparolin@ncrjhs.org or Mr. Boissonneault at rbsnlt@ncrjhs.org
for more information. The March 14 date is coming fast,
so we would appreciate any and all donations as soon as
you are able. Thanks in advance as we get ready to "roll
out the red carpet" and welcome you to our best auction
ever!
February Calendar
6 Ash Wednesday Mass 9:00am All are welcome!
15 2008-2009 Registrations due into NC office
2 Basketball Championships
2 & 3 Wrestling Regionals
9 Tri-County Cheerleading Competition
9 &10 CYO Basketball Tourney
10 Wrestling - States
14 CYO Championships
17 Nashua's City Wrestling Tournament
18 No school
20 Progress Reports
25-29 Winter Recess - No School
NC March Calendar
6 School Mass 9:00 ALL are welcome!
7 Early Release 11:30a.m.
14 *****Nashua Catholic Fashion Show and Silent
Auction****
15 F.A.C.T.S. Aid Sheet Due in to Office
17 Baseball Tryouts
21 Good Friday - NO School
24 Easter Monday NO School
God Bless,
Thomas Kelleher
Principal
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