The Good News
Saint John XXIII October 26, 2018
Leadership Message
A Story for Every Child: Our SJ Village
What started as a carefree suggestion about having a group of seniors come to read to our students sparked life into our, “A Story for Every Child” event today. As our Read-in-Week team generated ideas, our love of literacy got the best of us and, Read-in-Week quickly turned into Read-in-Month with a finale where we set a goal to have a story for every child! We connected with our Saint John XXIII village and they responded! We had stories today from friends, family, neighbours, former SJ teachers, staff and students, government representatives, OLA parish members, St. Andre Bessette students, and members of our community.
Our guest readers delighted students with their gift of time and storytelling. I believe the feeling was reciprocal as I witnessed the joy in our guest readers' faces. There is power in connection and strength in believing that it truly does take a village to raise a child. I was overwhelmed with a sense of pride as I watched my own dad share a story today, a full circle moment that I will not forget.
Our sincere gratitude is extended to everyone who made today possible!
“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”— -Albert Einstein
“One of the greatest gifts adults can give—to their offspring and to their society—is to read to children.” —Carl Sagan
“Only for today, I will devote ten minutes of my time to some good reading, remembering that just as food is necessary to the life of the body, so good reading is necessary to the life of the soul”.
-Saint John XXIII (Daily Decalogue)
Blessings,
Mrs. Boehm
Faith Corner
Our sincere blessings and prayers are extended to our SJ students who will celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation tomorrow.
EICS Social Justice Project: Valeda House
Parent Information Night: Catholic Education:
Ever wonder why we have two school systems in Alberta? Why does the Catholic Church seem to have “pride of place” among other Christian and non-Christian faith groups? How is Catholic education different from that in the public school system? Why should I care?
Join our expert panel to learn more about Catholic education in Alberta and what you can do to preserve it for future generations.
Monday, November 5
7:00-9:00 pm
Sanctuary - OLPH Parish
13 Brower Drive, Sherwood Park
Panelists:
Archbishop Richard Smith, Catholic Archdiocese of Edmonton
Dean Sarnecki, Executive Director, Alberta Catholic Schools Trustees Association (ACSTA)
Anna Laparco, Partner, Dentons Canada LLP, legal counsel to ACSTA
Paul Corrigan, Assistant Superintendent, Elk Island Catholic Schools and Division Principal of Faith and Wellness Formation
For more information contact Pat at pat@olph.ca or 780-467-5470
Mark your calendars: Catholic Education Sunday: Sunday, November 4, 2018 at the 9:00 am mass Saint John XXIII and OLA
We Love to Read: We recommend...
New K-4 Draft Curriculum: Alberta Education
Alberta Education has released the draft curriculum for K-4. All the information is available on the new LearnAlberta website which is located at https://new.learnalberta.ca
Highlights of this website include:
Draft K-4 Curriculum
Access to online resources for all grade levels
Government has also launched a new platform for Albertans to access the draft curriculum on the new LearnAlberta.ca website.
Upcoming: Student-Parent-Teacher Conferences
An opportunity for the student, parent and teacher to engage in conversations around the strengths, area of growth and next steps of the student is coming up. These three-way conferences will occur on:
November 8, 2018
Please book your time
Grade 4 Leadership: Saint John XXIII Servant Leadership Squad
Many thanks to our staff team leaders who will guide our Servant Leaders this year:
Mrs. Comartin (School Spirit Team)
Mrs. Boehm and Miss WIlson (Faith Team)
Mme Dargis-Boucher and Miss Clarkson (Young Citizens Team)
Ms. Astalosch (Healthy Living Team)
Thank-you to our PSC for their sponsorship of our t-shirts!
Halloween
Halloween is approaching and is a very fun time of year for children. Our commitment is to ensure the safety and well-being of all of our students and we appreciate your cooperation. A couple of reminders as you begin preparing for Halloween at school:
Students will be invited to change into their costumes on the afternoon of October 31st, after lunch at 12:37 pm.
Students who are dressing up are asked to keep costumes school appropriate (not too scary or gory) and leave any weapons at home. We have very little people at Saint John XXIII and we want Halloween to be a positive school experience for all.
There will be a "Halloween Congo Parade" that begins in Kindergarten and ends in Grade 4 for the students to share their costumes with our school friends.
Individual classes will be doing their own Halloween activities during the afternoon.
Please note, in alignment with our Nutrition AP, we will not be able to distribute any Halloween treats or snacks sent in from home. Some classes will be having healthy snacks as part of their afternoon, those teachers will communicate with those families. Thank-you for your continued cooperation with this.
SJXXIII Family Dance tonight! Friday, October 26, 2018
Candy Swap: We are Healthy Champions
SCHOOL COUNCIL NEWS:
Volunteers are needed for set up and take down the night of the Halloween Dance. Please contact stjohnxxiii.psc@gmail.com if you can help out.
We are GOING PLACES: Celebrations of Learning at SJXXIII
OLA Parish News
Reconciliation
Oct. 27: Reconciliation Celebration 10 am OLA Church
LOOKING AHEAD...
Oct. 27: Reconciliation Celebration 10 am OLA Church
Oct. 29: Picture Retake Day
Saint John XXIII ECS Pumpkin Carving Event
Oct. 30: Assembly 9 am (Rich Horning from Valeda House coming)
Nov. 4: Catholic Education Sunday at 9 am mass OLA Church (Saint John XXIII & OLA)
Saint John XXIII Catholic School
Email: stj@eics.ab.ca
Website: https://stj.eics.ab.ca/
Location: 9526 89 Street, Fort Saskatchewan, AB, Canada
Phone: 780-998-7777
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stjohnXXIII/
Twitter: @St_JohnXXIII