Celebrate with us
PRE-K through 8TH GRADE
As one of our previous pastors, Fr. Jim Mifsud, often told the students: “This is your family, this is your home.”
Queen of Apostles has a long standing tradition of fostering a strong sense of family and community that is embodied in this 2019-2020 school year’s theme “Stepping forward as One”. Throughout the school year, a parent committee coordinator schedules monthly Community Dinners at local restaurants. Also, the Development Department and school hold a Community Dinner on campus once in the fall. These Community Dinners are festive events for the school’s families to join together to share a meal, share time together, and build stronger relationships. This year we are fortunate to have two of our alumni students Amanda Lahey and Victoria Staudenraus returning as teachers. Amanda, our K-3rd science teacher, brought in pictures of her family including her brother, parents, and grandparents so her students could analyze traits in her family such as similar hair color and eye color and face shape. Our principal, Mrs. Trela visited her maternal grandparents, who were celebrating their 70th anniversary. When she returned she brought her parents to visit the school and students that she now leads. Mr. and Mrs. Rodriguez each read a book to the kindergartners and then toured the school. Mrs. Trela said her parents engendered a love of reading in her and they spent time here doing the same with some of our youngest students. We look forward to having Grandparents and Special Persons on campus to visit at the start of November.
Often these reflections are about starting and continuing in school to the 8th grade and looking ahead a bit to high school, but many have ingrained these values and formed lifelong virtues that shape their outlook on life. Parents who are fortunate enough to get to see the presentation are often moved to tears along with the teachers who are there to see and support the presenters. Each student’s personal growth and readiness to move on to the next part of their education is shining.
When she arrived, she was able to accomplish her goals of serving and teaching. She led the hygiene education station, where she taught approximately 60-80 children/day. The main goal of teaching this topic was to educate children on the importance of washing hands in order to prevent common illness and disease. She taught the basic procedures, while making personal connections with each child.
Through the aquarium, they learned about the connection between water and life. They saw jellyfish, python, pipefish, snapping turtles, fresh water fish and seahorses. The most interesting meeting was with Claude, the albino alligator. The students learned that while Claude appeared to be all white, it was actually a complete lack of pigmentation that made him look that way.
Next, the third graders attended a Planetarium show called “Expedition Reef” where they were introduced to the endangered marine ecosystems. They watched how corals grow, feed, reproduce, and support over 25% of all marine life on Earth.
After the show, thanks to beautiful weather that day, they had lunch by the fountains and enjoyed exchanging notes on all that they saw. The final destination was an incredible earthquake simulator and a visit to a dome with a neo-tropical rainforest around them. They met sun beetles, leafcutter ants and an Amazonian tree boa!
Thrilled and satisfied, the students thanked their chaperones and headed back to school excited to write about what they saw, reflect about everything they learned, and ask all the questions they still had.
The eighth graders along with their Spanish Teacher Señora Colpo from Queen of Apostles School participated in a Spanish Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Joseph on October 28.
Two of the students were given an extraordinary opportunity to bring up the gifts to the priest. The school has made it a tradition to go every year, which has taught them more about their community. Before attending, students reviewed the order of the Mass. In addition, they also analyzed the Spanish readings in class prior to the Mass. Everyone at the Mass showed the students amazing hospitality and Father Hector announced their names.
After the Mass, students viewed the Días de la Muertos festivities.
With an intent to be inspirational and have each story encourage others within the school to be more considerate, thankful and supportive of each other at every turn, the school theme hopes to inculcate positive and healthy relationship skills among the students while at the same time forming responsible and enduring societal values. As Mrs. Weinstein, the first grade homeroom teacher puts it, “the kids are motivated to exceed their own expectations of what a good deed may be. They aspire to reach out to more people around them each time they think they can extend a hand or just say a kind word. The students are making an effort to go above and beyond their own classmates and spread positivity among the whole school.”
Besides the annual school theme, Queen of Apostles also has the school-wide learning expectations that form the corner stone of its mission. These include being caring Christians, active learners, healthy individuals and self confident and responsible individuals. Coupled with the school theme of thinking and being positive always, the thought they would like to leave the students with is to ultimately develop an appreciation for their blessings in the form of school, community and family, and take responsibility for their actions and never give up on their Catholic values.
Queen of Apostles School has collected school supplies for Talafo’ou Middle School in Tonga, a school affected by cyclone Gita. We hope that people helping with the repairs of Talafo’ou Middle School will display our Never Give Up attitude. The supplies will be delivered by the school’s 4th/5th grade instructional aide as she travels to help with the recovery. Pictured are the 5th graders who helped to lead the drive.
Our theme this year was “Catholic Schools Learn. Serve. Lead. Succeed”. Catholic School’s Week was held during the week of January 28 through February 3. The week began with a Mass at 9:00a.m. in the Church. ‘Student Appreciation Day” was celebrated on Wednesday with fun events in the classrooms and treats for the students. “Parent Appreciation Day” was celebrated on Thursday with Café Carrello once again providing morning beverages. A special thank you video featuring our students was produced for their families. We are blessed to have such a supportive group of parents at our school! We thank them for all of their time, talent, and energy in supporting the students and the school. “Teacher Appreciation Day” was held on Friday. A marvelous lunch was held in the Fr. Jim Mifsud Community Center along with a raffle and gift cards given out to the teachers. Catholic Schools week was a success at Queen of Apostles School!