Thank you for a great 2018-19 school year.  I hope you have a wonderful summer and I look forward to seeing everyone at our Open House on Tuesday, August 13.

Happy Catholic Schools Week to all of our wonderful families.  This is a week to reflect on how blessed we are to be in a place where our faith is evident throughout our day everyday.  Our week actually started last Friday when we got to welcome all of our families to mass with us.  To celebrate this week, we have some amazing activities planned:

Monday — In addition to our regular classes, we got to see a showcase of alumni from our school.  It was so fun to hear our entire student body singing along to songs about our faith led by graduates of SPSL.  We have alumni with so much talent; I reminded my seventh graders that could be them in a few years.

Tuesday — The seventh graders got to participate in a retreat given by Youth Frontiers with Courage as it’s theme.  Our discussion in homeroom after told me that the seventh graders truly took this in and listened with open hearts.  One comment in homeroom was about how they realized how long they have all gone to school together and how well they know each other.  From my own experience growing up in Catholic schools, I was able to share that some of my best friends today are people I went through school with.  These kids have a connection for life that they don’t even fully appreciate yet.  

Wednesday — We had a Spelling Bee scheduled for today, but as I write this we are currently on a “cold day”.  I hope all are staying warm and safe at home today. The Spelling Bee will be rescheduled. 

Thursday — We have do not have anything scheduled as of now, but we do get to celebrate mass with grades 5-8 tomorrow.

Friday — We will be able to watch our Speech and Drama Club perform “Peter Pan” for us.  That will be exciting to see our seventh graders and the others who have practiced so hard for this day!  In the afternoon, we will see the Omaha Street Percussionists.  I know from seeing them before that our students will be amazed with how they make music out of some surprising items.

Below are a few pictures of our students from the retreat.  In some they are getting ready to Boogaloo and in others they are playing “Mongo Volleyball”.

I wish all of you a blessed Advent Season!  Our theme at school is REJOICE in the Promise! I hope you and your families have wonderful prayer and family time as we prepare during this Advent season.

In our Religion classes we have been very busy as we begin to finish up our unit on the Rosary and Mary.  Students have learned that Mary has many titles.  They have learned that to pray the rosary is a very powerful way to pray and ask for the intercession of Our Lady.  While memorizing the prayers and learning about the mysteries that make up the rosary, students created their very own rosaries to be shared in class.  Those will be blessed by Fr. Craig before they are sent home.  I consider it a blessing as I hear the students talk about how and why they chose the beads, colors and putting together their rosaries.  Speaking of Fr. Craig, we were so excited that he was able to join our classes starting Nov. 27th and throughout the rest of this first semester. 

In our Math classes, seventh graders have begun to delve into some true Algebraic topics with Order of Operations and Combining Like Terms.  These can be very challenging, so we spend a lot of time solving problem after problem to try to practice any type of problem they will encounter!

Again, I wish you and your families a very blessed Advent season.