Parent Connection
Wednesday, March 17, 2021
Easter Recess
There will be no school on Thursday, April 1st through Friday, April 9th for Easter Recess.
Athletics at DeSales
Happy Healthy Kids Coloring Contest:
All students are invited to enter the Happy Healthy Kids Coloring Contest! The Grand Prize is $5,000 towards playground and fitness equipment! There are a list of other prizes on the website as well as the different images kids can select from including designing their own!
Happy Healthy Kids Coloring Contest:
https://phitamerica.org/key-programs/play/10-000-romero-britto-coloring-contest/
Bid for Quality Education Auction
The Annual Bid for Quality Education Auction is our biggest fundraiser of the year! This year's event will be held virtually on April 16, 17th & 18th via the Auction Facebook Group. You and your family and friends will be able to bid on items from the comfort of your own home!
Classroom baskets descriptions are due this Friday the 26th with all baskets needing to be turned in by the 31st. We are still collecting donations of all kinds! We will accept just about any new item you can think of or wine/liquor bottles (please do not send with students), lotto tickets, gift cards, toys, purses, electronics, home items, etc.
Thank you for your support!
Auction Sponsors and Patrons
We are also still looking for event sponsors and patrons. If you would like to support the auction while promoting your business for as low as $100, please visit the link below:
Reading Raffle
Reading Raffle
Reading Raffle tickets are now available as part of the Bid for Quality Education Auction. You can get tickets by contacting a current DeSales family or emailing knuutilak@desalescatholicschool.org.
1st prize- $500
2nd prize- Kate Spade Handbag set
3rd prize- Beats by Dre
Meet our DeSales Teachers!
Each week we will be highlighting one of our incredible teachers. This week, we are so happy to introduce you to Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Heidi Marciniak.
Meet Mrs. Marciniak: Mrs. Marciniak has been teaching for almost 20 years, 5 of those years as a Kindergarten teacher. She has been married for 17 years and has two teenage daughters. Mrs. Marciniak enjoys travelling, whether it be to the ocean or a day trip. She enjoys going on long walks/hikes. On the weekends you may find her in her garden or doing crafts.
Mrs. Marciniak answered a few questions for us:
Choosing education as a profession: “I've known since high school that I wanted to be a teacher, more specifically a Kindergarten teacher! And...here I am! I chose teaching because I had a high school teacher who encouraged me to push my limits, want more for myself and to never give up. He was a difference maker and I knew I wanted to be just like that one day!”
Favorite Classroom Lesson: “If I were to pick just one lesson I would have to say it involves Pete the Cat, of course! I like kicking the year off by reading aloud Pete the Cat Rocking in My School Shoes. We then make a craft and sing along to the tune. It's fun and gets the students excited about school!”
Why DeSales: “I enjoy teaching at DeSales because I like how the smallness of DeSales helps to create bigger memories for the students. I enjoy teaching the students that God is in their lives. I also enjoy teaching the students how important it is to be kind to one another. I love that DeSales allows us to share in our faith!”
Favorite movie: “I don't have a favorite, but for some reason I enjoy movies or shows about law enforcement. I like to try to solve the mystery!”
Furry friends: “I have 3 cats, 2 who are rescued, and they keep us very entertained!”
Favorite quote: "And in the end it's not the number of years in your life that count; it's the life in your years." -Abraham Lincoln
DeSales Family Bowling, presented by the H.S.A.
When? Saturday, March 27th, 2021 There are 2 time slots available for families to bowl: 3-5pm or 6-8pm (we are down to a limited number of spots for this time slot).
Where? Brad Angelo Lanes 6280 S. Transit Road, Lockport, NY 14094
Last call to register! Registrations will be accepted through 9am Friday (3/26) morning at DeSales. The cost per family is $40. You may wear non - black soled & dry sneakers to bowl in.
In addition to following the NY guidelines, the Brad Angelo Lanes team maintains continual cleaning & proper sanitation. All team members and visitors are required to wear masks and practice social distancing. Each family will have their own lane for the event to enjoy the hospitality of Brad Angelo Lanes.
To print a flyer, please click here.
Spiritual Life - Little Bites from Heaven
What are Little Bites from Heaven? The Spiritual Life Committee knows how important faith is to our families at DeSales. However, we also know families lead busy lives and finding time to sit down to foster that faith, read the Bible together and answer the questions our children have about God sometimes takes a back seat to other things. That’s why we think Little Bites from Heaven is a great tool to do just this. Dinnertime allows an opportunity to connect over food while having fun, joyful and meaningful faith-building conversations with your children. Little Bites from Heaven provides devotional time for all family members that includes scripture, questions to discuss and a short devotional. It’s as simple as read the scripture and devotion and discuss the questions together. We believe Little Bites from Heaven will help to prioritize what is most important and at the same time, foster and grow a deeper understanding of your family’s faith rooted in Jesus Christ.
Devotional: Is God Mad?
It never feels good when you know you‘ve done something that has made someone really mad at you. Worse yet is being afraid of what someone is going to do to you because he or she is really mad at you.
A lot of people believe God is mad at them, and they fear what he is going to do to them. But is God angry and fuming, waiting to take his anger out of us?
The Bible says, ”God is love” (1 John 4:8; 16) It never says “God is anger” . But God’s anger show us how serious his love is. You see, God is mad about sin because sin hurts us and distances us from him. His anger is not like human anger. It is an appropriate and fair reaction to our indifference and disobedience. Because he cares about us and the way sin hurts us, he can’t sit back and do nothing. And because he is perfectly holy and just, he has to pour out his anger on sin.
So here is how much God loves us :God offered up a willing substitute – Jesus – and poured out his anger over our sin not on us, but on Him. We don’t have to fear God’s anger; Jesus experienced it in our place.
Scripture:
You can have a Bible close to the dinner table to use during devotions. The kids can take turns reading the scripture each week out of the Bible!
“God chose to save us through Jesus Christ, not to pour out his anger on us”
1 Thessalonians 5:9
Discussion Questions (pick a couple or all questions and allow for everyone to answer. There’s no answer key! As parents, we sometimes think we have to have all the answers, but we don’t. It’s ok to sometimes not have all the answers! But God does and it’s good to let our kids know when tough questions arise that some things only God knows, and we can’t always understand, but we can always trust Him )
1. When you’re mad at someone, how do you treat the person?
2. How is your anger different from God’s anger?
3. Why did God have to punish sin? Why couldn’t he just excuse it?
Little Bites from Heaven are excerpts taken from Dinner Table Devotions written by Nancy Guthrie
Breakfast & Lunch Menus
**Update: Breakfast and Lunch will be a provided FREE to ALL DeSales students through June 2021.**
DeSales Catholic School
Email: knuutilak@desalescatholicschool.org
Website: www.DeSalesCatholicSchool.org
Location: 6914 Chestnut Ridge Road, Lockport, NY, USA
Phone: (716)433-6422
Cardinal O'Hara HS Open House
OPEN HOUSE: Cardinal O'Hara High School is offering its annual spring open house with a few choices. The in-person event from 4 to 7 p.m. April 20 will be by appointment only. We have added a second day on Sunday, April 25th from 9am-12pm.
A virtual tour will start at 6:30 p.m. April 27. Each will give visitors an opportunity to meet students and faculty and learn what O’Hara has to offer. O’Hara students will lead tours of the 17 acre campus and discuss the opportunities available including more than 50 sports teams and clubs. Explore the school’s culinary professional kitchen, new science labs, fine arts, engineering and world languages. Faculty members will be on hand to answer questions. For more information or to make an appointment, contact Thomas Wilkie, admissions director, at 695-2600 ext. 357 or visit www.cardinaloahara.com.
CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOLS PRACTICE ENTRANCE EXAM
MAY 8, 2021 9 -12:30 P.M.
The Catholic High Schools Practice Entrance Exam gives seventh grade students the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the exam they will take in November, 2021. The exam will follow the same format and will be given under the same conditions as the actual exam in the fall. Students may take the practice exam in-person at Mount St. Mary or virtually from home. A detailed report with exam results will be shared with families.
COST: $20 PER STUDENT REGISTRATION DEADLINE: 5/3/2021 SPACE IS LIMITED, SO SIGN UP SOON!
www.msmacademy.org/prep-course-registration/
Contact Mrs. Elizabeth Suchan-Reitz, Admissions Director, at esuchan-reitz@msmacademy or 877-1358 ext. 413 for more information.