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. 

We have some great activities planned for our students outside of the classroom in October!  On the 16th, we will take a pilgrimage where our students will be walking in the footsteps of a future saint when we visit Boys Town. The seventh graders will have the opportunity to hear some of the history of Dowd chapel and the part that Fr. Flanagan played in choosing what the stained glass windows would depict.  They will see the home where Fr. Flanagan lived and worked hearing stories about the children he helped along the way.  Ask your seventh grader about the desk students built for the man they thought of as a father— one of the few secrets they were able to keep from Fr. Flanagan as it was being built.  Students will visit the Hall of History and hear more stories.  All of this and more will be our experience.  We encourage students to go back and visit with their families to take even more time to learn the history of this place and this man who may become a saint in their lifetime.  

Our day will end with the viewing of the Academy Award winning movie “Boys Town” starring Spencer Tracy.  It’s a wonderful movie and even more meaningful after visiting Boys Town, hearing the stories and seeing the actual Academy Award.  It is a day filled with prayer as we hear the good work of Servant of God Flanagan whose story is a part of our very own Omaha history.  

Also in October, we have been given the opportunity to attend Marian High School’s production of “The Sound of Music”. The cast includes one of our very own seventh graders, several other students from SPSL and several of our alumni.  It will be so fun to see current and former students in what I’m sure will be an amazing production!

In Religion classes, we are just starting to study the Mysteries of the Rosary.  Students will learn about each of the mysteries ending with the creation of their own website based on one set of mysteries.   My prayer for them is that at the end of this unit and after they leave seventh grade, our students will be able to pray a complete rosary without a prayer book in front of them.  

Seventh grade Math classes have completed reviewing are moving on with more algebraic topics!  Some of them are working with Scientific Notation while others are moving into learning about integers and using all operations with them.  One thing all of them could be doing at home is visiting that Diagnostic Arena in IXL to evaluate where they are in their math skills development   

It is a busy fall in seventh grade!