Ice Cream Sundae Hat

This year's Catholic Schools' Week money raised went towards a program started by a young cancer survivor. Her name is Tatum. Before her 6th birthday, she was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer. She makes "Tatum's Bags of Fun" which she does in honor of a friend named Gabby. Gabby gave Tatum one when she was battling cancer. These bags are filled with all kinds of goodies that help children who are going battling cancer in Indiana.

St. Joan of Arc wanted to help Tatum by giving her money and goodies to help fill her bags of fun. We were proud to present Tatum with a check for $1,500!!!! WOW!!!! Our students and families at SJA are truly amazing. It was so great to watch the look on Tatum's face when Ms. Sharpe presented her with the check. Just think about all the smiling faces that Tatum will see when she gives those children a bag of fun that was funded by the students at SJA.

Ms. Sharpe challenged our school to raise a lot of money. She told the student body that if we raised a certain amount, she would allow the class that raised the most money to make an ice cream sundae on her head!! Well, of course SJA was up for the challenge. We exceeded the total and the 7th/8th grade raised the highest amount of money. They enjoyed making the ice cream sundae (which included vanilla ice cream, chocolate syrup, carmel topping, whipped cream, and sprinkles) on Ms. Sharpe's head. Tatum was given the opportunity to place the cherry on top.

Butterfly Pretzels

As a Thursday station, we created some beautiful pretzel butterflies. The children had a messy, but fun time making their butterflies. We had a few tears when the butterflies wouldn't do exactly what they wanted to do. This just gave us the opportunity to talk about patience and persistence. At the end, everyone had the perfect butterfly!

We will be getting some caterpillars in the next week or so. We will watch as our caterpillars start to crawl to the top of our observation container and spin their chrysalis. They will eventually turn into beautiful butterflies! This is a really neat process for the students to observe.

The kindergarten class also has their own plot in the St. Joan of Arc Community Garden. We will be planting some carrot and snow pea seeds next week during Thursday stations. We will be watching these grow as we anticipate our visit from the Purdue nutritionist. She will go with us when we pick our vegetables from our garden. She will talk with the students about the importance to eat healthy.

The Last Supper

One tradition at St. Joan of Arc is a school-wide weekly prayer in the gym during Lent. We learn about The Stations of the Cross through the eyes of Mary. The students sit respectfully and listen to their peers and teachers who read the prayers.
In our classroom, we read stories to learn about Jesus' journey to the cross. The students always have many questions about this subject. It is sometimes hard for them to comprehend why Jesus did this.

During Holy Week, Mrs. Schneider helps us further understand The Last Supper. The middle school students put together a performance where they reenacted The Last Supper. The student body entered the gym on Thursday morning and sat on blankets to view His last supper. We had our hands washed by maidens that represented when Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. When Jesus broke the bread and shared the cup with his disciples, we shared in this final meal. Each student was given their own cup and piece of bread.

On Good Friday, we were in the church watching the middle school students reenact The Stations of the Cross. They did a fabulous job! They are very talented.

I think it is so wonderful that our school puts great emphasis on the life of Jesus. It is important for our students to know the life of Jesus. It is a special part of being at a Catholic school. I really enjoy teaching these types of stories to your children.

Math

In kindergarten we try to use manipulatives during math class. Manipulatives can be anything from corn seeds to colored plastic bears. We recently did a math lesson for subtraction using the bear manipulatives. The students love being "the teacher" and telling a math story problem.
One of my all time favorite student-made story problem is, "Once there was a family of 5 eating dinner. Then, 2 didn't like the dinner, so they left. How many were left?". They are very creative at this age. I'm sure that didn't actually happen at their house :)