Welcome to Middle School Religion

Mrs. Barbara Manley
Religion Grades 5-8
​Social Studies 5
Discovering and celebrating the joy of the Gospel together!

January 13, 2020
I'm amazed to see "2020" written here...I do not know where time goes! But before any more time goes by, I'd like to thank all of my students and their families for the thoughtful gifts I received for Christmas 2019. You are so generous, and I am truly grateful for your kindness. Thank you, all!

As you may know, we have been working each month to learn about and practice a different virtue. The virtue for the month of January is "Fortitude".
Fortitude is bravery in the face of trial or difficulty.  Difficulty may be a situation we face at home (such as illness or loss of a family member), at school (having a hard time with a particular subject, or feeling lonely), or in a time of emergency; we all face difficulty in our lives at some point. Our message this month is that through trust in Jesus, we can be brave and courageous, no matter what comes to us. The saints provide good example to us. This month the 5th and 6th Graders are learning about St. Joan of Arc, who as a teenage girl led an army into war, and was victorious, only to be persecuted and killed for her faith. The 7th and 8th Graders heard the story of St. Paul Miki and Companions, who were martyred in Japan in the 17th Century for teaching about Jesus Christ. The stories of St. Joan and St. Paul Miki are intriguing stories about being extraordinarily brave in extraordinary situations. Hopefully, we can all be inspired by them to trust Jesus and demonstrate fortitude in all the trials of our daily lives, whether big or small.  

Changing seasons!!!
Today (Jan.13) begins the shorter section of the season of Ordinary Time. This will last until Ash Wednesday, on February 26, which is the first day of the Lenten season.

Social Studies 5:
Our class has been learning about various ways that the United States and Canada can be divided into regions. We discussed geographical regions based on location (Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, Northwest, Southwest, West). More recently we have been studying the regions in terms of where valuable natural resources are located. We briefly touched on how the first peoples arrived in North America, and will soon be diving into a study of the various Native American cultures in North America, and learn how they depended on the resources available to them to live. There will be a group project involved, part of which we will work on in class, and part of which will be independent study. I'm sure the students will enjoy the project...details will be coming home January 26. 


REMINDER: IF YOU NEED TO CONTACT ME, PLEASE USE THE FOLLOWING EMAIL ADDRESS Barb.m@jp2parish,org
This is the address I use for all school and parish communication. Thanks!