December 5, 2023



“The word Advent means “expectation.” What Advent can do for us is create a sense of hope.” Louie Giglio

Dear SPN Families,

The hope that Advent offers is palpable here at school with bulletin board displays and Religion lessons focused on preparing for Christ’s birth. Additionally our Student Leadership Council will lead us in Advent Prayer Services at Morning Assemblies on Wednesdays in December. As students practice singing the songs for the Christmas Concert on December 14, our sense of hope increases.

Looking for some holiday events to enhance your Christmas spirit? Remember Winter Wonderland is happening this Friday, December 8, 5:30-8:00 p.m. at Casitas Clubhouse on Harbor Bay. Reserve your family’s tickets soon so you don’t miss out on the food and festivities, including special visitors and more winter surprises.

You are all cordially invited to our Christmas Concert, “Jesus, Born for All the World,” featuring traditional songs and carols from around the globe. This is a mandatory student event for TK-Grade 8, and we ask that all students arrive to their classrooms between 6:40-6:50 p.m. on Thursday, December 14. The concert will run about an hour, 7:00-8:00 p.m., in the Church, and all students will be dismissed after the finale from the Church. Remember that this is a Nice Free Dress event (this refers to an event where "Sunday clothes" would be the expectation. The length of skirts and dresses must be no more than 3 inches above the middle of the knee. No tank tops, spaghetti straps, bare midriffs or halter tops are allowed. Blue jeans may not be worn. Girls may wear dressy sandals with low heels for Christmas and Spring Concerts. Flip-flops are not acceptable. High-heels are not permitted for safety reasons. Uniform shoes are always acceptable, however, boys may wear leather dress shoes.)

If concerts raise your Christmas spirit, please plan to attend the parish Christmas Concert, “Lessons and Carols,” on Sunday, December 17 at 2:00 p.m. in St. Philip Neri Church featuring our Children’s, Youth and Adult Choirs with selected scripture readings.

Our Christmas Eve Family Mass at 4:00 p.m. at St. Philip Neri Church needs children volunteers to read (middle school students, please) and perform the Nativity (Grades 1-5). Please see the flier below for more details and to reserve your student’s role for this very special Eucharistic celebration.

Our Adopt-a-Family project will end on Monday, December 11, so please remember to send in an item as requested (see below for more information).

There is no better place to be during Advent than in a Catholic school because the hopefulness of the season permeates all we do and therefore fills our hearts and minds as well. May you all continue to embrace the beauty of this Advent and prepare for the celebration of Christmas. Be sure to read through this Newsletter for important information you don’t want to miss.

Peace & Blessings,

Ms. Thomas

There have been zero (0) COVID cases since November 17, 2023.

Please continue to conduct Daily Health Screenings and inform the school office of any exposure or positive cases.

December 2023

December 8 - All School Mass: Feast of the Immaculate Conception, 9:30 a.m.

December 8 - Winter Wonderland, 5:30-8:00 p.m.

December 10 - 8th Grade Fundraiser, Elks Lodge, 8:30-11:30 a.m.

December 11 - Adopt-a-Family Gifts Are Due

December 12 - Free Dress for December Birthdays

December 12 - AB Meeting, 6:30 p.m.

December 14 - Christmas Concert, 7:00 p.m. Students' Attendance Required

December 17 - A Festival of Lessons and Carols, 2:00 p.m.

December 20 - Christmas Free Dress

December 20 - Noon Dismissal - No Share and Care

December 21 - January 3 - Christmas Break: NO SCHOOL - No Share and Care

January 2024

January 4 - Classes Resume

January 5 - Vision screening for all students

January 9 - PTG Meeting, 6:30 p.m.

January 10 - Information Night for prospective families, 7:00-8:00 p.m.

January 12 - NO SCHOOL, Elementary Staff Day, No Share and Care

January 15 - NO SCHOOL, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, No Share and Care

January 16 - AB Meeting, 6:30 p.m.

January 17 - Come and Play in TK and K, 9:00-11:00 a.m.

January 19 - 8th Grade portraits

January 22 - SAB Meeting, 6:30 p.m.

January 23 - Free dress for January birthdays

January 24 - Noon Dismissal, Teachers Professional Development

January 25 - School Spirit Day - Class theme

January 28 - Catholic Schools Week kick-off with All School Mass, 9:00 a.m.

January 28 - Open House, immediately following Mass/Science Fair 10:00-11:30 a.m.

January 28 - February 2 - Catholic Schools Week

Did you know that you can purchase Scrip online to be picked up in the front office? Enter group ID 510521SPN when you register a new account. Order by Tuesday, December 12 to have your gift cards before Christmas Break!

Join the Winter Wonderland team in bringing the magic of Christmas to our children and families. Volunteer opportunities and a supply list sign-up is available here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0D45AEA92CA6F85-45698145-spns 

Chocolate for a good cause, what could be sweeter?

The SPN PTG needs your support. We are selling delicious See's candies for our latest fundraiser. A portion of your purchase from our virtual storefront link, will go to the SPN PTG, for more fun events throughout the year.

The best part? Our store is open all year long!

We are open for orders now, and all orders will be shipped directly to you, and will be sent as soon as your order is placed. If you have any questions, please contact us at spn.ptg.alameda@gmail.com

Dear SPN  Families,

As we are approaching the Christmas season, we hope you will take part in the annual St. Philip Neri tradition of Adopt-a-family.

For many years, our school has sponsored organizations that assist members of our larger community that are in need of help. This year we are sponsoring Building Futures formerly Midway Shelter, Alameda Point Collaborative and Welcome the Stranger. Our hope is that each student will purchase one or two items from the list. Collection boxes will be placed outside each classroom.

• Pre-School-7th grade: please return the unwrapped gifts no later than December 11, 2023.
• 8th Grade: please return you wrapped gifts no later than December 11, 2023.

Thank you for your generosity and support.



Blessings,

Remely R. Laguicao

Adopt a Family Chair

Pre-School, TK and Kindergarten - FOR BUILDING FUTURES

Children (infants to 12 years old, older kids especially need items) 

• Educational toys
• Dolls + action figures - (multiracial preferred)
• Underwear + socks

1st, 2nd and 3rd Grades - FOR BUILDING FUTURES

Teens (ages 13-17, highest need) 

• Body spray, full-sized
• Bath + body kits
• Underwear + socks
• Gift cards to activities: movies, ice cream shop, bowling, Exploratorium, etc. 

4th and 5th Grades - FOR BUILDING FUTURES

Women 

• Full size bath/body kits
• Adult coloring + journals
• Underwear + socks
• Gift cards Target & Walmart (increments of $25 ideally, but $25 or less is important) 

6th and 7th Grades - FOR ALAMEDA POINT COLLABORATIVE

• Target, Safeway, Grocery outlet, Amazon and Kohls gift cards. 

8th Grade - FOR WELCOME THE STRANGER

• Guster (Dad) - either a warm jacket or a rain jacket with liner, size M
• Berliane (Mom) - either a warm jacket or a raincoat with liner, size XL
• Ruth (almost 2 years old little girl) - a warm jacket or raincoat - size 2 yrs, and one toy
• A couple of umbrellas thrown in would be great.

8th Grade, please wrap gifts for your Welcome the Stranger recipients.

Hello Spartans!

We had such a great time at our last hosting date, seeing volleyball and basketball games all day and experiencing all of the Spartan pride our fans and teams showed. Even Sparty was able to make an appearance and support our athletes! Our 8th grade volleyball team capped the day off with a three set win against cross town rival Saint Joseph's Elementary. Our next hosting date is in two weeks and once again we are looking for volunteers to help us out and make the day another soaring success!

Happy Holidays and Go Spartans!

https://volunteersignup.org/YYHDQ

--

Jeff Croft

PE Teacher and Athletic Director

Saint Philip Neri Catholic School

(510) 219-0773

Go Spartans!

The second graders who read their part of the Novena to Ms. Thomas

4th Grade Field Trip to Kids Against Hunger

Middle School Trivia

Ms. Kristen and the Alameda Backyard Growers hosted a Holiday Wreath Making Workshop this past Sunday in the SPN Garden. This annual fundraiser draws in about 30 individuals, including some familiar faces from our school community! 

Hello SJND Potential Students and Families!

The Christmas season begins in earnest with our annual Christmas Concert hosted by One Voice. The concert will be held Saturday, December 9 at 7:30 p.m in St. Joseph Basilica. Students are free and entrance donations are encouraged for adults. 

Happy Holidays!

SJND Admission Team

Hello St Philip Neri Community,

We wanted to share that the Fernside Traffic Calming & Bikeways Project has launched with a survey and two public workshops. This project aims to create a design concept to update Fernside Boulevard from Tilden Way to San Jose Ave. It will also develop an interim concept for Fernside from Tilden Way to High St that can be implemented with pavement resurfacing in the near term.

We’d love to work with the SPN community.

Key information:

• Survey open now!
• 12/4 Community Workshop, 7-9 pm, Edison School
• 12/11 Virtual Workshop 12-1 pm, via Zoom
• Join the Fernside mailing list
• Learn more: www.alamedaca.gov/fernside

Best,

Lisa Foster, Acting Transportation Planning Manager, City of Alameda (she/her)

510-747-6833 | AlamedaCA.gov/Transportation

Dear SPN Community,

We are excited to invite you to join Konstella if you haven't already! It is a web-and-mobile-based app service with various tools that help parent organizations streamline communications, centralize information, and build engaging parent communities. You can create sign ups, share photos, post alerts, and see what's happening in our SPN community with a handy red bubble on your phone. Currently, about half of the parents are on the platform and we would love to get more signed up to really start to use it as a centralized system. Please use THIS LINK to sign up and get an introduction. We will then follow up with an invitation link to join.

Sincerely,

The PTA and SAB

Lunch Servers Needed

Help serve lunch. Please contact Janelle Sheets with any questions.

Log your volunteers hours HERE! Please contact Ms. Trujillo for help.

Families can now get volunteer hours for buying items from Grade Level and Department Amazon Wishlists. You will get 1 volunteer hour for every $20 spent. If the class does not have any items available on their list, Amazon gift cards are welcome, too!

Please include a gift receipt so we know who to thank!

Please contact Ms. Trujillo with any questions.

Preschool

TK

Kindergarten 

1st Grade

2nd Grade

3rd Grade

4th Grade

5th Grade

6th Grade

7th Grade

8th Grade

Art/Spanish

Library

MakerSpace

Music

Office/Shared Areas

PE

Resource

Share & Care

Have you joined SPN on social media? 

We would love to have you as a part of our social media community.

It only takes a few seconds to join.

Check us out on Instagram at “spnalameda”.