Father, Through our observances of Lent, Help us to understand the meaning of. Your Son s death and resurrection, and

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1 MARCH 2019 Lenten Prayer Administrators Message Dear Parents, Father, Through our observances of Lent, Help us to understand the meaning of Your Son s death and resurrection, and Teach us to reflect it in our lives. Change our selfishness into self-giving. Help us to embrace the world you have given us That we may transform the darkness of its pain Into the life and joy of Easter. Grant this through Christ our Lord. Amen Next week we will enter into the Holiest season of the Christian calendar Lent. We will begin our Lenten journey with our annual Ash Wednesday service and we will end with Easter. This is a time of preparation for the ultimate sacrifice Jesus made for us: He died on the cross. May we too sacrifice by giving up something that is dear to us or by doing good deeds. Last month was a very busy one for us, and we would like to extend sincere appreciation to our parent community for your support and positive involvement in your children s learning. We wish to acknowledge the volunteer efforts of many parents who assisted with fieldtrips, hot lunch, the Family Dance, and who will be helping with the upcoming Shrove Tuesday Pancake lunch. God bless you for your generous contributions of time and talent! We sincerely appreciate your continued support of our staff, the school, and our community. Sincerely, Ms. Silvia Franzese Principal Mr. Dan Alba Assistant Principal

2 Chaplain s Corner This month we prepare our hearts for Lent. Lent begins officially on Ash Wednesday and continues to the end of the Holy Triduum. Lent is the overall Season: the Triduum is a specific liturgy. Interestingly, the Holy Triduum (or Sacred Triduum) extends over a period of three days. The Holy Triduum is a Liturgy which begins on Holy Thursday with the Mass of the Lord s Supper, continues through Good Friday during the Lord s Passion, and finds its conclusion on Holy Saturday at the beginning of the Lord s Resurrection (known as The Easter Vigil). Therefore, the Liturgy of the Holy Triduum is included within the season of Lent. When counting those 40 Days of Lent it would include the Holy Triduum and exclude the Sundays within the same season; the 40 Days concludes on Holy Saturday evening at sunset. Sundays within Lent are considered minor Easters, and thus historically fasting was suspended on these days (due to the original severity). Our school wide Ash Wednesday Liturgy will take place on Wednesday, March 6 at 1:30 pm. Students will be asked to consider how they will use the 40 Days of Lent to pray and give to those in need. We look forward to seeing you! PLANNING FOR THE NEW SCHOOL YEAR It is once again time to begin planning for the next ( ) school year. To provide the best learning environment for your child, we need to have accurate information in order to plan for the upcoming year. Program planning, staffing for the programs offered at St. Lucy School, and setting the budget are all driven by enrolment. If you are planning to move out of the area or change schools, please inform the school office. Since we have many new families moving into the area and our student population is continually increasing, it is imperative that you complete the short questionnaire we will be sending home next week with your child. NEW REGISTRATIONS FOR We have begun accepting registrations for the kindergarten program for the school year. Please note, to be eligible for kindergarten, your child must be 5 years old by March 1 st, Interested parents are asked to call Mrs. Weleschuk at or drop by the office to pick up a registration package. Please bring your child s birth certificate and baptismal certificate. Parents, please talk to your friends about our school and encourage any interested families to come and visit. You are our best means of publicity!

3 REPORT CARDS AND DEMONSTRATION OF LEARNING Report cards will be available online for Grades 1 6 at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, March 15 th. Log on to Powerschool ( with your user id and password. Please review the report card with your child/children and together discuss and complete the plan of action for the remaining months of the school year. Each class will be hosting a Demonstration of Learning on Wednesday, March 20th. This will take place from 3:30 6:30 p.m. In this style of conference, the emphasis will be on having your son/daughter lead you through concepts learned and demonstrate to you the skills acquired. Demonstrations take place in your child s classroom. To get the most out of this time we suggest you print off and review with your child their report card and the comments offered by their teacher(s). 1. Go to your child s classroom. 2. There, the classroom teacher will have a slide presentation, or package for you to follow as your child guides you through subject activities. 3. If you require some brief one to one time with the teacher, he/she will be available for up to a maximum time of 5 minutes. If you wish to have more time, please phone the teacher to book an appointment for a one on one meeting. 4. Visit the Scholastic Book Fair, located in the Learning Commons. Report Card Tips for Parents: Attend the school s Curriculum/Demonstration of Learning nights. Expect homework. Provide a place to do homework. Consider designating a family reading time as part of weekly homework routines. Talk with our child s teacher throughout the year. Be aware of classroom project and test timelines. Celebrate project completion goals with your child. When you receive the report card, review the comments with your child. Celebrate report card success and develop a plan with your child for addressing the next steps. Recognize your child s achievements, accomplishments and steps toward improvement. DISMISSAL TIME FOR SPRING BREAK We will be dismissing students for Spring Break at 12:15 noon on Friday, March 22nd. Classes will resume on Monday, April 1 st.

4 SCHOLASTIC SPRING BOOK FAIR It s about books. It s about your children. It s about fun! It s our Scholastic Book Fair a special time for our entire school community, being held on; Wednesday, March 20 9:00-11:45 a.m. 1:00-2:40 a.m. During Demo of Learning (3:30-6:30 p.m.) Thursday, March 21 9:00-11:00 a.m. Final sales for any students wishing to make a final purchase Proceeds from this event benefit our school directly. For example; $5, in sales means we will receive a minimum of $3, in product profit. Our goal for this Book Fair is to meet or beat our previous book profit of $2, With your help we can achieve this goal! As well, when you attend the Book Fair on Wednesday evening, you can enter to win $50.00 worth of books for your family and your child s classroom! We encourage you to take time for this special literary event. You ll be glad you did! Can t wait to see you there! Please be advised that students are not allowed in the book fair without their parents during Demo of Learning. If you would be interested in helping out, we need volunteers. Please call Ms. Durante at Our Book Fair accepts cash and credit cards Visa and MasterCard are welcome! PLEASE NOTE WE DO NOT ACCEPT CHEQUES WE DAY LEADERS As February comes to an end, a big thank you goes out to our WE Leaders for their efforts and actions to help spread kindness throughout our school. In this short month, our student leaders collaborated to create inspirational posters, skits and a presentation to share with each class. In addition to creating daily kindness challenges for Random Acts of Kindness Week, our leaders also organized our Kindness Trees. The kindness trees were used to recognize kind acts that were taking place in our school. Every student and staff member had the challenge to catch someone being kind and share the kind act on a paper heart to add to the tree. Great work team! RUNNING ROOM GAMES 2019 RESULTS St. Lucy School sent 6 teams to the Butterdome to compete with hundreds of other teams in relay races. We are very proud of how well our school teams did. They had to make it to one of the top 60 teams in order to go on to the finals.

5 Girls A team came 1 st in their heat. On the race day, Merissa told us her dog died the night before and so she said Let s run for Tony. After the race, when they won, she said Thank you Jesus, thanks Tony! Thank you indeed. Overall, the Girls A team came 24th, the Girls B team was 159 th, and the Girls C team was 247 th out of 305 teams. The Boys A team came in 63 rd and needed to be one of the top 60 to go on, so they just missed the cut off. The Boys B team was 150 th, and the Boys C team was 246 th out of 310 teams. Thank you to ALL the relay team members and the substitute runners we brought as backup. Job well done! Thank you for representing St. Lucy School so well. It was nice to see congratulations being shared with other schools. Our bus driver was speechless with all the thanks you comments he received at the end of the ride. The Girls A team will continue to train for the day of the finals on March 16 th. Good luck, girls, on March 16 th. Special thanks to Mrs. Robinson and Mrs. Cimino for working with our Running Club students to prepare them for the races! A big thank you, as well, to our generous SAC for covering the cost of registration fees and transportation to and from the Butterdome! Girls Relay Race Teams Girls Team A: Girls Team B Girls Team C Subs: Makayla 5B Noelle Gabriela 4A Georgia 4B Cordelia 5A Alexis 6A Tia M 4A Gelila 5B Marissa 6B Sandra 5A Eldana 4B Savannah 4B Jael 6A Siena 5A Ava M 4B Jasmine 6A Michelle 5B Nyla 4B Danika 5B Kim 5A Carly 4B Juliette 4A Ava D 5A Valentina 4A Maribelle 6A Tia A 6B Shanayia 6A Boys Relay Race Teams Boys Team A Boys Team B Boys Team C Subs: Logan H Rheymarc 6B Samuel 5A Daniel 6A Jonah 5B Harvie 5B Logan D Brennan 4A Nicholas 6A Lyric 4B Ferah 4B Darius 4B Alden 5A Byron 6A Tristan 5A Marcus 5A Cole 5A Adonnay 5B Kayan 6B Brayden D 6A Rylan 5A Dan 6B Brayden M 6A Dominic 4B Gavin 6A Joe 6B Darren 5B

6 KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS FREE THROW COMPETITION Congratulations to the 15 St. Lucy students, who were at St. Cecilia Junior High School on Sunday, February 24, to represent our school in the Knights of Columbus Basketball Free Throw competition. We did very well in this event and had 3 students finish in the top 3 places in their age category. These grade 5 students, Jonah, Alden, and Ava, will go on to compete at the next round of competition, which will take place this coming Sunday, March 3, at St. Joseph High School. Thanks to all of our participants for their hard-work, dedication, and trying their very best! We are also thankful to all of the parents, who supported these students by picking them up from after-school practices, as well as bringing them to and from the competition. Our Participants! Grade 4 Grade 5 Grade 6 Quincy, Noha, Carly, Eldana Samuel, Alden, Jonah, Ava, Miley, Sandra, Adonay Daniel, Jathaniel, Maribelle WE WANT YOUR CHILDREN TO SUCCEED PLEASE BE ON TIME Please be advised that Alberta Education states that a student who misses more than 20 days of school is jeopardizing their learning. The Alberta Education Attendance Review Board requests that schools contact them should 20 days be surpassed. This includes being on time for school. For every three lates, a student is considered to have one additional day absence according to the Attendance Review Board. We want all our students to do well in their studies and to feel good about attending school. We encourage everyone to be on time and to miss classes as little as possible unless your child is ill. We will contact parents when we feel there are too many absences or lates. THANK YOU SAC AND VOLUNTEERS! A very big and heartfelt thank you to all the parents who come out to organize and distribute hot lunches and helped organize our very successful St. Lucy Family Dance. The students very much appreciate both. Special thanks to our hardworking and dedicated School Council Executive for their leadership in planning, preparing and coordinating the many individuals involved in helping make these events so successful. We are so appreciative!

7 SCHOOL ADVISORY COUNCIL NEWS Family Dance THANK YOU to everyone who came out to the St Lucy Family Dance! A huge THANK YOU to all of the people and organizations that gave us donations: Sobey s Beaumaris 2 gift baskets with movies and snacks Live at the Roxy 2 tickets to a show The Comic Strip 8 tickets to a show Christina Wiwchar 2 bath bomb baskets Several other parents who also contributed door prizes Shrove Tuesday Pancake Lunch Our Shrove Tuesday pancake lunch is on March 5th. All students will be given two pancakes and a juice box. If this is not enough for your child please send in a snack / lunch for them. If you are able to volunteer please confirm with us at stlucychair@gmail.com Save On Foods Fundraiser Our last push for our Save on Foods ( Ave) receipts is happening now! This fundraiser is ongoing because it s so simple!! St Lucy will get back 5% of the total receipts (based on spending before taxes, excluding lottery, pharmacy, tobacco, non reducible products & non shopping 15% Tuesday). Simply write your (parent s name) on the back of the receipt and hand it in to your child's teacher. For example, if we had 200 families shopping at our neighborhood store once per week and spend an average of $150 that would earn St Lucy $6,000 in just one month! On top of the percentage that they will give back to our school they have added a fun bonus for the kids! Every time you come in and shop at the Oxford Save-On-Foods and put your child's name & teacher on the receipts, turn the receipt in, and the one with the most shops will win a pizza party lunch for the whole class! (If you have more than one child at St Lucy just mention the teacher's names of all your kids and each one will get an entry!) Little Caesar s Pizza Kit Fundraiser A friendly reminder that your Little Caesars Pizza Kit Fundraising order forms are due back on Monday March 4th/2019. Order (make sure you are on the Canadian website). Click on products and then shop. Our Fundraiser ID# is and pay with credit card. Please return the following: 1. Order form - Include your child s name and phone number. Teacher s name and room number. Make sure the Total box is filled in (ensure the total payment due matches the total number of items ordered).

8 2. Payment - cheques should be made payable to St. Lucy School. Payment is due with the order forms. 3. Please write your child s name on every cheque that you submit with your order form so no cheque is misplaced. 4. Our delivery date is Wednesday, March 20 th, Pick-up time is between 3:30pm to 7:00pm in the gym (during our Demonstration of Learning) Thank You for Your Order! NEXT SCHOOL COUNCIL MEETING Wednesday, April 17, 6:30 p.m. All parents are welcome and encouraged to attend. ST. CHARLES PARISH NEWS Confirmation at St. Charles Parish for Children in Grade 6 or Older Registration for Confirmation will take place at St. Charles Parish on Thursday, March 7 th from 10am to 7pm, and again on Saturday, March 9 th from 9am to 12noon. These classes are open to children who are in grade 6 or older, are baptized Catholics, and have already celebrated their first Reconciliation and first Communion. At registration, please bring with you a copy of your child s Baptism certificate and their first Communion certificate, and a registration fee of $30 (cheque or exact change) to cover the cost of books and materials. Classes will be held on every second Thursday evening starting on April 11, Confirmation will be celebrated by Archbishop Smith on Thursday, June 6, 2019 at 6:30pm. For more information, please contact Linda Boire at St. Charles: Confirmation Classes for Adults Are you a Catholic who has received their first Communion, but has never celebrated the sacrament of Confirmation? Or do you know any Catholic adult who has never been confirmed? During the month of March, St. Charles parish will offer a series of classes to prepare adult Catholics for this important sacrament. Classes will be held on Sundays: March 10, 17, 24, and 31. Confirmation will be celebrated by Archbishop Smith on Thursday, June 6, 2019 at 6:30pm. To register, or for more information, please contact Linda Boire at St. Charles:

9 March 2019 Come back to the Lord with all your heart; leave the past in ashes, And turn to God with tears and fasting, for he is slow to anger and ready to forgive. (Cf. Joel 2:13) This beautiful antiphon is often sung on Ash Wednesday during the blessing and imposition of the ashes. It is a wonderful reminder for us as we begin the season of Lent that God loves us unconditionally. In our humanity we make mistakes, but all we need to do is ask and he is ready to forgive. He even sent us the ultimate loving gift in Jesus whose death was the greatest act of forgiveness. Edmonton Catholic Schools is very proud to have been named one of Alberta s Top 75 Employers! This is the fourth year that we have received this designation. Maintaining this designation over time is a significant accomplishment for our District. It affirms that we are able to provide an excellent work environment for all of our employee groups on a consistent basis. When our employees have great working environments, our students benefit as well. Our District is part of the Grateful Advocates for Catholic Education, GrACE, network. The mission of GrACE is to inspire, invigorate and embolden the spirit of Catholic education in order to unite, engage, educate and communicate with one voice on its behalf. GrACE is a partnership of stakeholders resolutely committed to Catholic education within Alberta. Each Catholic jurisdiction in the province has assembled a highly committed team whose members include Trustees, Superintendents, clergy, parish staff, parents, members of the Catholic Women s League and Knights of Columbus. Every day is a celebration of Catholic education. Let us be grateful for our blessings and commit our support to sharing the great work of our schools. Dual credit opportunities allow students to earn high school and post-secondary credits simultaneously. Edmonton Catholic Schools is working on a dual credit opportunity with MacEwan University in Police Studies. This unique program would provide a foundational experience that could lead to multiple career pathways for students ranging from community policing to social work to legal services. We will share more details as this new program for fall 2019 unfolds. Spring Break for our year-round schools begins on March 18, and for our regular calendar schools it begins on March 25. It provides a wonderful opportunity for families and for our staff to rejuvenate and spend time with loved ones.... 2

10 Pope Francis provides a message for Lent each year. You can find them, and so many more of his writings on the Vatican website, In his message last year, our Holy Father shared the following: Dear Brothers and Sisters, Once again, the Pasch of the Lord draws near! In our preparation for Easter, God in his providence offers us each year the season of Lent as a sacramental sign of our conversion. Lent summons us, and enables us, to come back to the Lord wholeheartedly and in every aspect of our life. I wish you a spiritually uplifting, sacramental Lenten experience and a refreshing Spring Break! Yours in Christ, Joan Carr Superintendent

11 BE THE CHURCH The Church is more than a building that we come to each and every Sunday. The Church is people; believing people, baptized people, confirmed people, surrendered people, people in whom Christ dwells, people who listen to the voice of God, people who abide by the commandments of the Lord, people who have truly committed their lives to Him as Lord, people who have a personal relationship to Him, people who obey His voice. Bishop Demetrius wrote "the Church is the company of those who have put on Christ by being baptized in Him, sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit in Confirmation, forgiven of their sins in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and nurtured by the Heavenly Food in the Holy Mystery of His Body and Blood.... The Church is a divinely instituted unity of people, united by the Catholic Faith, the law of God, the hierarchy and the Holy Sacraments. The Church is the Mystical Body of Christ." One of the holiest moments of the Eucharistic Liturgy is the moment when the Church - God's people, strengthened by the Word of God and nourished by the Sacrament of the Eucharist, go out the church door into the world to be the Church. We don't just go to church; we are the Church. A student was telling his parish priest about a conversation he had with a fellow student in the school. The fellow student did not believe in God. The student said to his pastor, "How can I get this fellow to church, so he can get some help?" The pastor replied, "Don't try to get him to come to church. He'll probably refuse anyway. You must be the Church to him where you are... in the classroom, in the locker room, in the cafeteria, on the soccer field, on the bus. You are the Church to that fellow student." The reason we come to church every Sunday is to listen to Christ, to praise Him, to receive Him within us that we may go out into the world and be the Church for the rest of the week. This Lent let us be the Church to everyone we meet. Resources: A Byzantine Rite. Liturgical Year. Julian J. Katrij, OSBM. Basilian Fathers Publication. Detroit, "Daily Vitamins for Spiritual Growth." Anthony M. Coniaris. Light and Life Publishing. Minneapolis Minnesota, Fr. Julian Bilyj District Chaplain

12 March 2019 CALENDAR OF EVENTS St. Lucy Catholic Elementary School Growing With God Sunday M onday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Teachers Convention 1 Teachers Convention Avenue Edmonton, Alberta T5X 4L9 PHONE: FAX: PRINCIPAL Silvia.Franzese@ecsd.net 3 K. of C. Free Throw Semi Finals (St. Joe s High School) Deadline for Ordering McDonald s Hot Lunch for Friday 10 Deadline for Ordering Little Caesar s Hot Lunch for Friday 17 Knights of Columbus Free Throw Finals (St. Joseph High School) 4 Order Deadline for Little Caesar s Pizza Kit Fundraiser 11 Numeracy Week 18 Microbits Coding for Gr. 5 Classes 5 Shrove Tuesday SAC Pancake Lunch U. of C. Dental Researchers Gr Scholastic Book Fair 1:30 p.m. Alberta Opera Performance Pinocchio 6 Ash Wednesday Service (1:30 p.m.) Gr. 6 Student Passports Due Back Kinder In School Fieldtrip 20 Scholastic Book Fair Demonstration of Learning 3:30 6:30 p.m. Pizza Kit Pick Up 21 Full Day of Classes Gr. 4B Fieldtrip to Waste Management Centre 7 8 SAC Hot Lunch McDonald s SAC Hot Lunch Little Caesar s Report Cards Posted On Line 22 Early Dismissal For Spring Break Spring Break