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The students at South Boston Catholic Academy celebrated St. Valentine’s Day last week! They made and gave their families, classmates and teachers St. Valentine’s Day cards. They handed out their Valentine’s Day cards to their classmates and teachers during their St. Valentine’s Day party in their classrooms before heading off for February vacation. Our Student Council members and students in Art Class, also, made special St. Valentine’s Day cards for our dear friends at Marion Manor. We hope that everyone had a Happy St. Valentine 's Day! Esperamos que todos tengan un Día Feliz de San Valentín! New applicants are welcomed to email Mrs. Jamie Brown at j.brown@sbcatholicacademy.org to learn more about South Boston Catholic Academy. Re-enrollment is due for the 2021-2022 School Year by Friday, March 5th. New Applicants: If you know a prospective family, encourage them to e-mail Mrs. Jamie Brown at j.brown@sbcatholicacademy.org to learn more. If you are interested in applying a sibling for 2021, you can do so in your parent portal, or by using the following link: APPLY NOW! Sibling applications due by March 5th.

The Theme: Catholic Schools: Faith. Excellence. Service. The week of February 1, 2021 was an exciting week for us! Students at South Boston Catholic Academy celebrated Catholic Schools Week. Monday, February 1, marked the Feast Day of St. Brigid of Ireland and the beginning of Catholic Schools Week. Father Casey, our Pastor, celebrated the Mass on the Catholic TV network. Also at this Mass with Father Casey were our Principal, Dr. Helenann Civian and Mrs. Denise Moriarty who did the readings at this Mass. Each day, at school, we start with a Morning Prayer. This week Grade 6 led us in special prayers reflecting the daily theme for Catholic Schools Week. In celebration of Catholic Schools Week, we also had a: Spelling Bee - Grades 3 - 6 hosted classroom Spelling Bees. As always, we continue to promote 'being kind', this week students seen being extra kind, received a special 'Bee' Sticker! Students wrote Thank you cards to their parents for sending them to our school. We had Teacher/Staff Appreciation Day and the teachers were treated to a special lunch! On Friday, it was Student Appreciation Day and it was Crazy Hair/Hat Day and many came styled to impress! Our Principal, Dr. Civian, treated the whole school to a ‘Pizza Lunch’! These are just some of the special and fun things we did during this very special week. A Big Thank you to all our wonderful Parents/Families/Friends, members of our Home and School, to our Principal, Dr. Civian, Faculty and Staff and our Pastor, Father Casey, for all their understanding, encouragement, assistance and support especially during this very different school year. Thank you and God Bless you all for helping to make this 2020-2021 school year possible for all the students at South Boston Catholic Academy! New applicants are welcomed to email Mrs. Jamie Brown at j.brown@sbcatholicacademy.org to learn more about South Boston Catholic Academy.

From our Grade 4A Teacher, Ms. Caitlin Gibbs…The students in 4A have adapted so well to all of the changes they have had to face this year, and we are all happy that we have the opportunity to be together every day! In science, we have been talking about minerals and rocks. To help our understanding of the rock cycle, we did a fun hands-on project where starbursts represented rocks and we used heat and pressure to change the starbursts into metamorphic, sedimentary, and igneous rocks! The students have been enjoying reading Shiloh during reading class and making connections between it and the book, Because of Winn-Dixie that we read earlier this year! In social studies, students worked hard on identifying the states in the Northeast and some of its special landforms! We have also been working hard on our multiplication skills in math. We are looking forward to the rest of the school year learning, laughing, and growing together. New applicants are welcomed to email Mrs. Jamie Brown at j.brown@sbcatholicacademy.org to learn more about South Boston Catholic Academy.

From our 3rd Grade Teacher, Mr. Cole Stautberg… The 3rd Graders had a chance to utilize our outdoor space in the school yard (even in January). The students had a chance to engage in such a fun, educational science lesson. The students are learning about motion, which is the process of an object moving or being moved. The 3rd graders are learning that motion that repeats is said to occur in a pattern. We can observe patterns of motion to make predictions about how things will move in the future. The force that slows down moving objects is called friction. The 3rd graders are loving the hands-on learning! New applicants are welcomed to email Mrs. Jamie Brown at j.brown@sbcatholicacademy.org to learn more about South Boston Catholic Academy.

We can change the world together! The students of South Boston Catholic Academy celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday. K1 students celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by reflecting on how they could make the world a better place after reading stories about him. Students first created an earth by using blue and green ink. Next, they were asked what they could do to make the world a better place. They wrote their responses on a hand. Some of these responses included “Make people feel better”, “Be nice and kind”, “Wear my mask to help stop the Coronavirus” and “Say Thank You.” In celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, our Art Teacher, Ms. Valerie Szmurlo, read the book “Martin’s Big Words” by Doreen Rappaport, in Art Class and created a guided portrait of Dr. King Jr. Students were able to talk about the importance of treating people with respect no matter what they look like and how Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. changed our world for the better. In K0 Art Class, we read the book "Have I Ever Told You?" by Shani M. King and talked about how to be kind and how to respect everyone. Students then traced their hands so their thumb and pointer finger made a heart. They were encouraged to color the hands however they wanted using patterns. To honor the tremendous lifetime of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., our Music Teacher, Ms. Eleanor Tynan, helped students in 2nd grade Music learn a song about his “I have a dream speech”. After learning the song, students used words from the speech to compose a musical rhythm! What creative rhythms they came up with, too! Teachers, also, read several wonderful books about Dr. King, in their classrooms, books such as: Happy Birthday, Martin Luther King by Jean Marzollo; Meet Martin Luther King, Jr. by Johnny Ray Moore; “If you Lived at the Time of Martin Luther King” by Ellen Levine and “Martin’s Big Words…The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.” by Doreen Rappaport to their students. Grade 1 students learned about MLK leading peaceful protests. In class, students discussed many inspirational quotes by Dr. King, Jr. some of which are: “Love is the key to the problems of the world.” “The time is always right to do what is right;” “Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that;” and “If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.” Thank you and God Bless you, Dr. King for making the world a better place for everyone! New applicants are welcomed to email Mrs. Jamie Brown at j.brown@sbcatholicacademy.org to learn more about South Boston Catholic Academy.

From our Spanish Teacher, Ms. Taylor Avery…¡Bienvenido! Welcome to our Spanish class at South Boston Catholic Academy! We have had fun incorporating the Spanish language and culture into our classes. In December, we celebrated Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (Our Lady of Guadalupe, Feast Day December 12th), the day when Mother Mary appeared to Juan Diego, a farmer in Mexico, in the year 1531 and gave hope to the people of Mexico! Our Lady gave flowers to Juan Diego as a sign that she truly appeared, and our kindergartners and first graders made their own flowers that we put on our bulletin board (as shown in the picture). Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us! Most recently, we celebrated El Día de los Reyes Magos (Three King’s Day, January 6th) when the three wise men brought gifts to baby Jesus. This day is important in Spanish- speaking countries as many of our friends receive gifts on this day and leave out dulces (candies) for the three kings and heno (hay) for the camels, similar to leaving cookies and milk and carrots for Santa and his reindeer! The older classes (3rd-6th) have been working on a project “Planning a Trip to a Spanish Speaking Country” on the Chromebooks (as shown in the pictures). They chose one of the 22 Spanish speaking countries in the world and researched basic information about the country and sites they want to visit. We have enjoyed learning basic vocabulary in all grades and are looking forward to speaking, listening, singing, and writing more in Spanish in the months to come. ¡Gracias por leer! Thanks for reading! New applicants are welcomed to email Mrs. Jamie Brown at j.brown@sbcatholicacademy.org to learn more about South Boston Catholic Academy.

From our Art Teacher, Ms. Valerie Szmurlo…Even though this school year looks a little different, it has not stopped students from being their most creative! In fourth grade, we read the book “The Color of Us” and talked about how we can make our cartoon portraits look like ourselves. Students explored how to create skin tones and focus on defining features (eye color, freckles, glasses, etc.). The second grade students created a pumpkin patch showing foreground, middle ground and background using paper and model magic. They even got spooky with witches and ghosts. K1, students learned about International Dot Day by reading the book “The Dot”. Students learned that no matter what their skills are, they can create their own masterpiece. They learned how to place and overlap paper circles to create their own dot art. In fifth grade we did a Nutcracker lesson where we talked about nutcrackers, their significance and finally how to draw them. The sixth grade, students learned how to draw realistic self-portraits by using correct proportions and also defining facial features. Third grade learned how to create hot chocolate mugs showing warm colors for the background and cool colors for the foreground. I can’t wait to see what else my South Boston Catholic Academy students create in 2021! New applicants are welcomed to email Mrs. Jamie Brown at j.brown@sbcatholicacademy.org to learn more about South Boston Catholic Academy.

Merry Christmas to all! From our Principal, Dr. Helenann Civian…This year we can all use some extra holiday cheer so the South Boston Catholic Academy Student Council hosted our first Holiday Spirit Week that began on Monday, December 14. The Student Council members decorated the hallways hoping to spread holiday cheer to all who are near! The students, faculty and staff dressed up to match the theme of the day! We started each day of the week with a Morning Sprite Week Sing-along led by our Music Teacher, Ms. Tynan and some of the Student Council Members. The Student Council, also, raised funds, with raffles, to be able to supply party favors to help all the students have a Christmas Party in their classrooms. On Monday, December 14, 2020, the theme was to come to school dressed in your coziest Christmas/Holiday jammies! Three of our Student Council Members in the 4th grade, started our Morning Spirit Week Sing-along off by singing: Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells. On Tuesday, December 15, 2020, the theme was to come dressed to school as either Santa, his elves, reindeer, or any other Santa related character. Four of the Student Council Members in the 2nd grade, started our Morning Spirit Week Sing-along off by singing: Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer. On Wednesday, December 16, 2020, the theme was: Dreaming of a White Christmas and we came dressed up in blues and whites to look like snowflakes. Some of the Student Council Members in the 4th grade, started our Morning Spirit Week Sing-along off by singing Winter Wonderland. We had a school Mass, our Parochial Vicar, Father Christopher Boyle, was the presider and the 6th Grade class did a great job participating at this Mass while the rest of the students and faculty were able to watch this Mass in their classrooms that was livestreamed on the Parish Website. The 6th Graders also did a fantastic job taking part in this year’s Christmas Pageant. They were able to record their Christmas Pageant, celebrating Jesus’ Birthday, so that the rest of the students were able to see this Christmas Pageant on their Smart Boards in their classrooms. Since, Thursday, December 17 and 18, 2020, were snow days, we celebrated the traditional Ugly Sweater Day on Monday, December 21 and on the 22 we all took part in a Christmas Prayer Service. A Big Shout Out to our Student Council Members, Class Representatives and to Ms. Eleanor Tynan for her guidance with this year’s Student Council and to Ms. Sarah Hoisl and her wonderful 6th Graders, to Mrs. Denise Moriarty, our Director of Curriculum and Instruction and to all our wonderful families, faculty and staff who worked so hard to make this past school week extra special for all the students at South Boston Catholic Academy. From all of us at South Boston Catholic Academy, we are all looking forward to Celebrating Jesus’ Birthday on Christmas Day, December 25, 2020 and we wish everyone a Blessed and Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year!

From our 6th Grade Teacher, Ms. Sarah Hoisl…The theme of the Grade 6 Enchanted Village is old fashioned. Each of the students picked a building that would be set up in an olden day village to make. This was however a very extensive project in math. They had to find the area of the front of the building, the volume of the building, the perimeter, along with hiring a painter and find the total amount of money to pay the painter. Then finally, they had to create an addition to the house and find the area of that. They did a phenomenal job. They did a number of different buildings from a firehouse, to a police station, candy shop, church, school, etc. To make it even more fun for the children, we also created a Scavenger Hunt for the students to go through the village and complete a sheet with 21 questions to note what they found. Some of the questions were… What is in the window of the firehouse? In what shop is there a Christmas tree in the window? What is your favorite building? Each class took turns visiting this Enchanted Village and were very excited to see for themselves this special class project made by the 6th graders. Shout out to all of our 6th graders and their teacher, Ms. Hoisl! All of us at South Boston Catholic Academy would like to take this time to wish everyone a Happy and Healthy New Year!

From our 3r Grade Teacher, Mr. Cole Stautberg…Recently, in 3rd grade, students have been learning about the indigenous populations that lived in this region prior to Europeans arriving in the early 17th century. They have specifically studied the Wampanoag tribe and their way of life. Students have explored the culture, the survival skills, and the crafting skills that the Wampanoags needed in order to prosper in the region. The class thoroughly enjoyed molding pinch pots and painting them with patterns and petroglyphs--a small glimpse of what one chore might have been for a citizen of the Wampanoag tribe. They have also learned some of the games that Wampanoag children would play not only to have fun, but to also practice necessary life skills, such as hunting. The 3rd grade class has also been observing the Advent season. Each week, students have "lit a new flame" in their Advent Wreath. As each week begins, students have been discussing what Hope, Love, Peace, and Joy mean to them. They are critically thinking about how they already do employ those values into their lives, and how they can allow them to have a stronger presence in their everyday actions. Students have seemed to enjoy expanding their worldview and learning about spreading light to all those who may find themselves in darkness during this difficult time in our world. On Wednesday, December 10, 2020, we had a school Mass and the 3rd grade class did a great job participating at this Mass. While the 3rd graders and their teacher were at church, the rest of the students and faculty were able to watch this Mass livestreamed on the Parish Website in their own individual classrooms.

SBCA will be closed on 12/17/20 due to the pending Snow Storm. Be Safe

From our Music Teacher, Ms. Eleanor Tynan…This year we are focusing on the fundamentals of music, and emphasizing the "fun"! During this year of challenges, the students are exceeding expectations and showing great resilience in the face of so much change. As the older students study music history and famous composers, fourth grade works on building their ukulele skills and creating their own books of chords, with which they will write songs later in the year. K1 is working on developing our sense of pitch by playing with various silly songs, folk songs, and sliding scales. Our lovely Kindergarten students are studying American and international folk songs, while learning to play simple songs on the xylophone, and identify high and low pitches within a song! They love playing the high low game, where they get to jump up and fall to the ground to demonstrate low noises and high sounds. In first and second grade we are working on learning our rhythms! They impress with their ability to internalize a beat, and write their own rhythmic patterns. For a fun change of pace they used their musical notes to create silly pumpkin faces, as seen here. Overall, the children of South Boston Catholic Academy are showing me every day that music and joy cannot be thwarted by quarantines, or pandemics. Their sense of play abounds, and I am blessed to help guide them in their musical journey.

South Boston Catholic Academy recently held their Student Council Elections. Congratulations to all the students who participated in the Student Council Elections! We are excited to see what our class representatives achieve in this 2020-2021 school year. One of the first projects our new Student Council members, led by our Student Council President, Vice President and Secretary in the 6th Grade, was on this month’s Annual Food Drive to Benefit St. Vincent de Paul Food Drive. Our Student Council members helped organize this food collection drive with guidance from Ms. Tynan, our Music Teacher, along with help from their classmates, families and friends at South Boston Catholic Academy in hopes that this drive will provide food that will help families and neighbors have a Happy Thanksgiving. Thank you to everyone who helped make this food drive possible. From all of us at South Boston Catholic Academy, we wish Everyone a Happy and Healthy Thanksgiving!

The 6th Graders continued to help serve the school and raked the leaves surrounding the school on Friday. We are so grateful for our community helpers.

South Boston Catholic Academy News Grade 4B Highlights From our Gr. 4B Teacher, Mrs. Maryann Dawson…Class 4B has gotten into the swing of things quickly and just finished writing, addressing, and mailing personal letters to friends, family members, and quite a few authors. We are eagerly awaiting any responses. We finished up a study of Because of Winn Dixie, by Kate DiCamillo, and completed our first book report of the year. We have included a picture of our "Ghost Tree", which symbolizes all of the lessons we learn through a lifetime. In math, we are learning various strategies for solving multiplication problems. Games are set aside for Fridays to practice those skills in a more entertaining way. We have included some pictures showing our favorite game of X's and O's being played with flashcards, dice, and Unifix cubes. We are learning how to move about the room and confer with our classmates, during Writer's Workshop, while still observing distancing protocols. What started out as an overwhelming checklist of things to do and not to do, has transitioned into the normal operating procedure at this point. Masks are beginning to feel normal, but the mask breaks are delightful! The month of November offers us the chance to reflect on all God provides for us and to practice feeling grateful for the gifts in our lives. We are most especially grateful for our family and friends. We also watched a favorite clip by Kid President and then we listed those things for which we are most grateful; hot cocoa, pizza and books were some of the items on the list!

South Boston Catholic Academy News Highlights from Halloween 2020! South Boston Catholic Academy is a proud partner with the Lynch Foundation. With the help of Lynch and our amazing Early Childhood Educators, we are creating a strong learning environment for all our young students. K0 and K1 celebrated the Halloween season by creating “Franken-faces”, Halloween shaped collages, bat marble painting and listening to Halloween stories. All the students had a chance to wear their Halloween costumes and have a Halloween party in their classroom! All of us at South Boston Catholic Academy, hope everyone had a very Happy and Safe Halloween!

Article and photos by Ms. Peggy Byrne’s our Grade 1B teacher…The children in Grade 1B watched a video and listened to a story called-The Lego Ocean Mystery! It was a story about a container of Legos that ended up falling off a ship and opening so all the Legos ended up floating in the ocean. It was more than 21 years ago!! Lego pieces are still being found today all over the world! The children did some brainstorming... They pretended to find some of THOSE Legos! Their Stem Challenge was to think of what to build and see how high it could go without falling! The children realized that it all depended on a strong foundation! They wrote where they found them and what they made. Grade 1B students, also, surprised Dr. Civian, our Principal, by making handmade cards for her, in honor of Boss’s Day, thanking her for all that she does for us at South Boston Catholic Academy. One of the students wrote: “Good Afternoon, Mrs. Civian, We love you so much for being our Principal.” Students that are celebrating their Fall birthdays have been sharing all of the various activities they’ve enjoyed including pumpkin carving and apple picking.

South Boston Catholic Academy students practiced Fire Safety Week with their first fire drill of the year. Dr. Civian, our Principal, was very impressed with how efficient and cooperative South Boston Catholic Academy’s students were. Students continued to learn about Fire Safety throughout the week and even got the chance to thank South Boston's Local Firefighters. K2 students made cards to say thank you to our firefighters for keeping us safe. A few students were kind enough to hand-deliver their cards to the South Boston Fire Station. We are so thankful for our local heroes and for our incredible students who continue to support our community!

From Ms. Michaela Johnson…K1-C students are off to a fantastic start this school year at South Boston Catholic Academy! They have done a wonderful job adjusting to new routines and precautions in order to maintain a safe and fun learning environment. It has been a very busy few weeks in K1-C! We start our day with a morning meeting, a read aloud, and a question of the day. This is a great way to learn more about our classmates. We have started our OWL (Opening the World of Learning) curriculum which emphasizes the importance of hands on, center based learning. Play dough, water play, apple printing with paint, name writing, sand, blocks, and dramatic play are some of the centers we have been working on so far. Recently, we took advantage of the beautiful weather and had recess and a picnic lunch at the park!

 From our Gr. 1C Teacher, Ms. Caroline Gannon…Although things are different this school year, as a class we are working together to learn in creative and innovative ways. Twelve students are able to sit on the rug, while other students pull up their chair to join the class. Students keep a 3 feet distance at all times and it is nice to be able to sit in another area than their desks. During the morning meeting, I read a morning message to the students. The students are then able to circle sight words, two-syllable words, high frequency words, and proper nouns. Because we can’t share the same writing utensil, the students are able to use their personal crayons/markers. This allows the students to still be involved in activities. The students also have jobs to help me in the classroom that follow CDC guidelines. This allows students to have different responsibilities in the classroom by helping me and their classmates. During math, students use their own expo markers to come up to the board and solve problems and write equations. We have read many books as a class thus far. We are starting our second Junie B. Jones chapter book this week! It is great having students involved in discussions about the text and working together to learn.  We are all looking forward to having a great year in Grade 1C here at South Boston Catholic Academy!