Easter Joy

 There has been a lot of Easter joy at All Saints Academy this week! As Pope John Paul II said, "We are the Easter People and hallelujah is our song."

Baby Ducks

As a follow-up to our Holy Week & New Life post, the baby ducks were born this week! We counted 10 baby ducks, and Mom has already relocated her nest with her new babies.  Our toddler classes were very excited to see the new life!

Eat Pray Run

After being sidelined for two years, Eat Pray Run returned to celebrate our faith and school community. Our 7th annual Eat Pray Run unfortunately turned into Eat Pray as the race portion was cancelled due to storms. 

The morning started with Pack the Pews at St. Jude and then continued into lunch and Kona Ice at the Lower Campus. We announced our raffle winners and kids were able to play on the playground before the rain came. The race will be rescheduled for our students.

The purpose and energy behind Eat Pray Run is to support our tuition assistance program, Tuition Angels. Each year ASA along with our founding parishes provide assistance to one out of four of our school families. Rooted in our core belief that We Are One, families are asked to raise $50 for Eat Pray Run and Tuition Angels. Below is a testimony from an ASA family who previously benefited from Tuition Angels:

Our family can not even begin to tell you how much of an impact Tuition Angels has had on our lives. A few years ago, we were struggling to figure out how we were going to continue Catholic education. I had a change in employment which caused me to have to take a significant pay cut. Money was extremely tight and we had bills piling up as well. We approached ASA with our dilemma and were met with open arms. There was no judgment and the school was there to help get us through this trying time. I can say, without a doubt, that without the help of Tuition Angels, we would not be able to still be members of the ASA family. ASA has become our home and we feel truly blessed that we were given this opportunity. We never knew how much an impact the money raised from Eat, Pray, Run had on our school community until then and are extremely grateful.

Thank you for the hard work of our students and families and the generosity of all our donors. Together, we raised over $16,688, with a net income of $11,706.45 for Tuition Angels! 

Alleluia Day

Alleluia Day is a day where our students celebrate the Easter promise of eternal life with God, the joy of the creation of ASA, a new school born from four founding parish schools, and the new life we see popping up all around us in spring! After smaller celebrations last year, this year we finally celebrated as one school joined on one campus. 

Students started the morning with Mass at Blessed Sacrament. They then practiced for their afternoon Praise Concert before breaking into their classes for various activities. Our 3rd - 8th graders read to the preschoolers in the morning and then had various specials classes. After lunch and recess, they went bowling at Northfield Lanes. Our Kindergarten - 2nd graders started their activities with bowling and then returned for recess and specials. 

All K-8 students participated in our annual Praise Concert at the end of the day. This concert was a perfect way to sing loud for the Easter promise of eternal life. Overall, our students had a fun-filled day, and you could see the Easter joy on students faces throughout the entire day.

May we all rejoice in the joy of Easter for the remainder of the Easter season!

Classroom Safe Place

In January, Room 201 opened up a brand new center called their classroom safe place. It is proving to be a big hit among the students!

Preschool is a big year for social emotional learning. Many children are coming to school for the first time and may be experiencing emotions that they have never felt before. That is why it was so important to create a spot in the classroom that is specifically geared toward supporting this area of development. The cube is intended to give students alone time when they are feeling overwhelmed with big emotions.

 
The expectations of our safe place for students:
- You must ask a teacher before you go into the cube
- Safe place toys/books are for safe place only

The expectations of our safe place for teachers:
- Children are never sent to safe place when struggling with regulating emotions, rather they are given always the choice (i.e. "You seem very upset right now, would you like to take a break at safe place?)
- Encourage the children to reserve the safe place for friends that are feeling sad/mad/angry. This helps promote empathy in the classroom.

Our classroom safe place is a wooden cube with round cutouts on 3 of the 4 sides. This allows children to crawl in and out of the cube. The cube also has a cozy blue mat that the children can sit on. Once in the cube, the student has the option to use items from our calming kit (fidget toys, stuffed animals, etc.) or read/listen to a book. We also have photos inside of the cube that children can observe. We currently have a photo that lists different emotions alongside their facial expressions and a photo of Jesus; our ultimate source of peace and comfort.

 
Our classroom safe place helps students self-regulate by having the ability to "take a break" when needed. It takes a high level of emotional intelligence to be able to notice that your body needs a break. It is definitely a skill that will follow them into adulthood!

Holy Week & New Life

This Holy Week, we take a look at how God is good to us. We see all the newness of the work of God. Outside our toddler rooms, we were blessed with a mama duck and her 7 eggs. We patiently await their arrival. Everyday they are checked to see what is going on. A trail camera has been set up to watch for when the ducklings are born.

With many walks around the school, trying to keep off the playground so as to not disturb mama, there are many signs of God. Hearing all the birds and seeing the flowers coming up, the trees getting buds and the kids outside without winter clothes on!

This Holy week also brings out the thoughtfulness of our school community, As a school we collected donations of food to help out Kids Food Basket. We are so blessed to have a school with so much love for others.

Have a very blessed Holy week~ may this week be a time of reflection and new life. Enjoy the time with family.

"He Has Risen" - Matthew 28:6