St. Louis Catholic School Newsletter
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A Message from the Principal...
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Dear St. Louis Families,
The course of events surrounding the COVID-19 health crisis and subsequent closing of our building to students and face-to-face instruction brings two words to mind: balance and perspective.
Our virtue this month is temperance, finding a proper balance to your daily life. In other words, learning to find moderation in everything we do. Temperance compels us to focus on what truly matters rather than dwell on the little things. Everything about our virtue this month is a powerful reminder as we work to find new “normals” within our days and our home life while balancing all of our to-do list items. Now more than ever given the anxiety and uncertainty surrounding the health scare, we are reminded that every interaction and connection we make with our children generates true learning. Simple things like reading together, playing board games as a family, talking through a recipe, or riding bikes and looking for colors, animals, or various nature items are important ways we help our children learn.
As we navigated through the week, I am also reminded of a lesson in perspective. One of my Jesuit professors once asked the class what if you woke up one day with only the things you remembered to thank God for the night before—-how many of you would be naked in a forest? It’s an interesting question; it reminds us to give thanks for our blessings daily because we have many! I know I am grateful for my teachers, for our parish community, and for our school families. The strength and spirit I see exhibited daily from the teachers is incredible and the positivity and support that has been pouring out from our school families reinforces that we can get through this together! I am thrilled to see so many pictures of students embracing our new learning model! Know that I am most grateful for our Hawk community!
Wishing everyone health and wellness!
God Bless,
Anne M. Dyke
Principal
****Trimester 2 Report Cards will be mailed home the middle of next week****
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Tell us how the first week of e-learning has been! Please take the Parent Survey below:
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Despite the separation, we are still a family and here for you. If your family becomes sick, challenged in some capacity, or experiences overall hardship during the school closure, please let us know so that we may help.
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- Create simple routines throughout the day to help kids stay focused academically
- Foster independence in their work, so you don’t have to take on the role of ‘homeschool police’
- Set up a schedule for the right time of day and length of time for learning
- Create a balance of learning and free time to promote motivation based on your child’s age
- Encourage the right use of digital devices (not too much and just enough)
- Use the best tools and resources, even if you have no background in teaching
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Think Before Downloading that Online "Educational" Program
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Parents, please be mindful of the world we live in. There are a lot of free and new programs floating around online given our time of need. If your classroom teacher has not sent you an online program, please do the vetting yourself before signing your kids up. Most teachers play as students before making assignments. Many "educational" games include a chat feature that can be regulated by a class code. When you sign up on your own, you don't have that luxury. Please be careful.
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Morning Prayers, Stations of the Cross, Monday Assembly...
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If you have the School News app, you may have noticed that we are continuing to start our e-learning school day with
morning prayers
. We hope that you will take a few moments each day to pray with your children and share the daily announcement from Mrs. Dyke. We are working to maintain some of our weekly school-wide gatherings such as the Monday Morning Assembly and Stations of the Cross in a virtual world, and will push those out through the School News App.
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Stay Connected with the School News App!
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We have started to use the School News app by Edlio. It’s a simple way to view the school’s news feeds and calendars, and also receive push notifications directly from us.
It’s free to download to your iOS or Android phone and quick to set up:
- Go to the App Store or Google Play and search for “School News by Edlio” to install.
- Open the app and search for the school; tap “Add School.”
- Enable push notification by going to the Alerts tab and tapping “Enable Notifications.”
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We are working on lunch refunds for March 17-April 8. Refunds will be issued back to the credit card that was used for the order. Thank you for your patience as we adjust 350+ orders each for both March and April.
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We are busy working on our 2019-2020 yearbook and we are asking for your help. Please upload photos for the yearbook. These include CYO sports, field trips, class parties, cheerleading, scouting, etc. Eighth grade parents, please upload a labeled baby picture of your student.
This year, we are asking for something new – photos of the distance learning happening in your homes.
We want to document how the coronavirus pandemic impacted our school year. If you have trouble uploading photos, you may send them to Mrs. Ferguson at
[email protected]
.
To order a yearbook or upload photos for the yearbook, visit Pictavo Community at
commpe.pictavo.com
. Use Google Chrome for best results.
To upload photos:
Deadline to upload photos is 3/31/20.
- Find your school, St. Louis School, Alexandria, ID# 88425
- Enter information & ‘Create Account’
- Verify e-mail (This may take several minutes.)
- Click or tap ‘Upload Photos’
- Select the images for upload
- Click or tap ‘Upload Photos’
To order a yearbook:
The online order deadline is 5/1/20.
- Find your school, St. Louis School, Alexandria, ID# 88425
- Click or tap ‘Shop My School’
- Find your product & ‘Add to Cart’
- Enter student information
- Add to Cart’ & ‘Check Out’ to complete your purchase!
- The price for yearbooks ordered online is $25.
- You will receive an email confirmation once you have successfully purchased a yearbook.
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Virtual St. Louis Family Time
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Stay tuned as we roll out some fun virtual activities to keep our St. Louis family connected!
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Virtual Family Movie Night TONIGHT at 7pm!
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You're doing an incredible job!
We can't be together in person, but we can in spirit! Let's get together for virtual movie night tonight at 7pm. Get the family together, grab some popcorn and watch
The Incredibles
or
The Incredibles 2
on Netflix or Disney+. Let's see one another! Post pictures on social media of your family enjoying the movie - tag @stlouisschoolva #STLFamilyFun #STLMovieNight #STLStrong
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Hawks@Home! Share your Hawk's Nest with us!
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We'd love to see our students in their e-learning spaces or participating in activities - whether it be indoors for cooking or outside for weather, nature, PE and recess (we still need some breaks in our day!). Send your pictures to
[email protected]
and we'll share them daily.
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Social distancing doesn't mean that we can't continue to participate in acts of kindness and giving this Lenten season. Look for other ways that you can extend yourself to others...helping a neighbor with yardwork, putting together care packages or simply a card or phone call to check in, older siblings helping out younger with school work, etc. We're still collecting photos and will be posting to social media throughout Lent. Send us your photos of acts of kindness and giving to
[email protected]
.
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All school events for the remainder of March have been postponed.
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CHANGE IN CALENDAR:
There will be NO afternoon EDC on Friday, May 22 (11:30 dismissal)
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