We kicked off Day 1 with a "Comfy Clothes Day" for our students and staff, which was really nice after that disappointing Chiefs game yesterday!  Our students were greeted with a special sign to snap their picture with and then we headed into the gym for a Prayer for Catholic Schools.  We ended our day with a Panther Families activity where students worked together to create Valentine's Day wreaths for our parishioners living in nursing homes or assisted living facilities.  

It was a wonderful day of honoring those in our community and celebrating our Catholic school!

FIRST LEGO League introduces science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) to children ages 4-16* through fun, exciting hands-on learning. FIRST LEGO League participants gain real-world problem-solving experiences through a guided, global robotics program, helping today’s students and teachers build a better future together. In FIRST LEGO League, students engage in hands-on STEM experiences, building confidence, growing their knowledge and developing habits of learning. FIRST LEGO League’s three divisions inspire youth to experiment and grow their critical thinking, coding and design skills through hands-on STEM learning and robotics.

At St. Patrick School, our students in grades 4-8 have the opportunity to participate in a competitive First Lego League program.  Students meet after school two or three times a week to work under the direction of Coach James Prim.  

This year, one of our teams made it to Regionals held at Crown Center this weekend and came away with the "Motivate" award!   Our "all girl" team didn't get to this point in an easy way.  They were rocked by the tragedy of losing one of their beloved team members, Tena, but decided to keep working hard in her memory.  We are so incredibly proud of these girls and Mr. Prim for their perseverance!

The Motivate award winners embrace the culture of FIRST and clearly shows what it means to be a team. This judged award celebrates the team that represents the essence of the FIRST Tech Challenge competition through Gracious Professionalism and general enthusiasm for the overall philosophy of FIRST and what it means to be a FIRST Tech Challenge team. This is a team who makes a collective effort to make FIRST known throughout their school and community, and sparks others to embrace the culture of FIRST. Required Criteria for the Motivate Award:
• Team must show respect and Gracious Professionalism® to everyone they meet at a FIRST Tech Challenge event.
• Team must submit an engineering portfolio. The engineering portfolio must include a team organization plan, which could describe their future goals and the steps they will take to reach those goals. Examples of what the plan could include are team identity, fund-raising goals, sustainability goals, timelines, outreach, finances, and community service goals.
• The team must be an ambassador for FIRST programs.
• Team must be able to explain the individual contributions of each team member, and how these apply to the overall success of the team. Strongly Suggested Criteria for the Motivate Award:
• Team takes part in their presentation, and actively engages with the judges.
• Team shows a creative approach to materials that market their team and FIRST.
• Team can clearly show the successful recruitment of people who were not already active within the STEM community.
• Team could also summarize experiences and lessons learned from outreach.


The Robotics program at St. Patrick has grown immensely over the last several years at St. Patrick.  Mr. Prim has created a winning program that students can't wait to be a part of!  

Throughout the year, our students have the opportunity to participate in different sports such as: football, volleyball, cross country, basketball, and track.  It's a great way for our students to learn athleticism, sportsmanship, hard work, and teamwork!

One of our favorite weeks of the year is finally here - Catholic Schools Week!  This week we will be celebrating all of the special things about our Catholic school with "Dress Down" days, activities, and service.  We kicked it off today with a student led mass.  

Looking around the church today, I saw many of our students wearing their uniform and representing our school.  It was such a good feeling to have so many gathered together!  

We even had several students who participate in mass as lectors, cantors, servers, gift bearers, and special helpers.  This is one of the things i love most about our school!

This week, we will be kicking off our Unleashed Pet Rescue Fundraiser in memory of our sweet Tena.  Throughout the month, students will be asked to donate supplies for Unleashed as well as "change for cheeseburgers".  Today, our friends at Unleashed helped us give our students a more personalized feel as to where their donations are really going when they donate to Unleashed by bringing in some of the sweetest little puppies you'd ever meet!

Check out our photo book and learn more about Unleashed by clicking the buttons below!

We are blessed with an amazing art teacher at St. Patrick School!  Mrs. Haywood inspires her students to try new things, to push themselves, and to think outside of the box!  She teaches technique, concepts, style, skills, history and more.  

Check out some of the fabulous student work below!

Today, our 7th and 8th grade students led us in an all school rosary.  It is always a good day to come together in prayer for each other, our school community, our parish community, and the world.

Each year during Catholic Schools Week, we partner with different foundations to raise funds for different causes.  This year, in memory of our sweet Tena who absolutely LOVED her dogs, we are partnering with Unleashed Pet Rescue.  Our families will be asked to donate different items or make a monetary donation to Unleashed throughout the week. 

We'll also be collecting coins to go towards a special treat for the pets!  Each day, students will be able to watch the coin donation progress grow!

You can learn more about Unleashed Pet Rescue by checking out their website at:  https://www.unleashedrescue.com/
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Communication is key to your child's success in school.  Each Friday, I send out a school wide newsletter to keep our families informed about what's coming up at St. Patrick School.  You can check out my newsletter for this week at the link below. 

At St. Patrick School, we rely on our parent volunteers in many ways.  One of the special ways our dads can get involved is by joining our WatchDOG Dad group.  WatchDOG dads can volunteer in the school during the day, can offer to come in and read aloud to classes, can arrange fun projects to do with a certain class, help with lunch duty, and much, much. more!

One of the great things two of our dads have committed to doing is helping with arrival each morning.  Mr. Vides and Mr. Bui show up each morning, rain, snow, cold weather, or shine, to greet our students at drop off.  They open car doors, give friendly morning greetings, welcome parents, and make our morning drop off one that is safe, welcoming, and fun!