Congratulations to all the performers at last night’s SJS Christmas Concert.  What an amazing job by all three bands and our 1st and 4th grade performers!!

This morning our kindergarten through 8th grade students celebrated the third week of Advent with a prayer service with Father Jaime.  Thank you to 8th graders Lauren, Cora, and Layne for assisting with the readings.  After the prayer service, Father Jaime visited (and sang Christmas songs!) with our Pre-K classes.

Varsity basketball home openers last night: The boys took home the win against St. Paul with both a strong offensive and defensive game.  The girls also played a strong defensive game, but in the end came up short against St. Paul. We are looking forward to a great season!

In keeping with tradition, our Pre-Kindergarten through 3rd Grade students left one shoe outside their classroom yesterday morning in celebration of St. Nicholas Day (Feast Day of St. Nicholas).  More commonly observed in Northern Europe, St. Nicholas Day is celebrated by attending Mass and leaving a shoe by the fireplace, in which children later find a treat or gift (the origin of our American Christmas stockings).

This morning, third grade students were surprised (and excited!) find their  classrooms transformed into “Reading Cafés” – each with a roaring fireplace (on the viewboard), decorated tables, and their teacher dressed as a maître d’. This special lesson was to teach the 3rd graders about different genres of books and to encourage them to broaden their reading horizons.