On January 5, 2020, as a tradition, stars will be hung in the Church of St. Ann over the manger bearing the names of each child baptized at the parish during 2019. This year SAS 8th grade students with the help of Miss Meagher decorated and hung the stars over the creche as a service project in preparation for their Confirmation, showing that service, care, and helping one another is what God calls us to do.

Saint Ann School will be closed for Christmas Break from Monday, Dec. 22, 2019, till Wednesday, Jan. 01, 2020. School will resume on Thursday, Jan. 02, 2020. SAS staff and faculty would like to wish all our students and their families a very merry Christmas and a happy and blessed New Year!

Last year Mrs. Meyer applied for a grant to get Scotland in the Class from Jenny Licko at www.thecelticclassroom.com and Highland Echoes @highlandechoes www.higlandechoes.com. On November 5, she found out Saint Ann School was awarded the grant. Over the last week our Kindergarten through 3rd grade classes traveled around the world where they visited countries like Poland, Russia, Mexico, Germany, the Netherlands, and of course Scotland. Our students learned about the traditions of these countries, completed an activity, and had their “passports” stamped at each country. The classes had a great time traveling from classroom to classroom to learn all about countries around the world. Cultural diversity is a very important topic to teach our children from a young age and we try to do that throughout the year at SAS. Wishing all our friends and families a blessed Christmas Season.

Kindergarten and 1st-grade students did a Read-A-Loud of two special Christmas stories that helped us to better understand the REAL meaning of sharing at Christmas: The Legend of the Christmas Stocking and the Christmas Mitten. Mrs. Ortiz and the students read along with Christmas socks and Christmas mittens......and they didn't even have to go outside and get cold!

Saint Ann School 6th-grade students mummified an apple in Ms. Shield's social studies class as part of their ancient Egypt curriculum this week. Prior to the process, students had to answer questions and fill out an observation table on their mummy lab report. Hands-on fun and learning never end at SAS!

On Friday, December 13 the entire Saint Ann School community came together to have a Prayer Buddy Christmas STREAM Day. Each group of students was tasked with making handprint reindeer, building Santa a structure using only DOTS candy and toothpicks, designing an augmented reality Christmas tree and making mindfulness garland. Our older buddies were such a big help to our younger buddies. It was great seeing how well they worked together, how they looked out for each other, & just how creative they all were.

Saint Ann School students in grades 4th through 8th performed in the school annual Christmas Pageant & Nativity Story last Thursday, 12/12 and it was a success! Families and friends were treated to a variety of Christmas songs and to the storytelling of the Nativity of the Lord performed by our 8th grade graduating class. Great job SAS students! And a huge thank you to our music director Mrs. Moya, our pageant director Ms. Shields, and our choir director Miss Meagher and to all faculty & families for the support! Merry Christmas!

HoHoHo! Santa stopped by Saint Ann School on Saturday, 12/14 for a fabulous breakfast with our students in grades PreK through 4th and their families! Thank you to all who came out to join us! Thanks to our amazing PTA event chairs and volunteers for a wonderful breakfast!

Saint Ann School students PreK through 8th-grade will celebrate the Christmas season with class parties on Thursday, 12/19. Thanks to our wonderful room parents volunteers, children will be treated to games, activities, and snacks in the spirit of Christmas. Thursday is a full day of school and a dress down day. Times for the party will be at the teachers' discretion. SAS families, please check with your homeroom teacher for more information about your child's class. If you have any questions, feel free to contact the front office. Merry Christmas!

Saint Ann School PTA Spirituality Committee members planned a fantastic Advent Day of Giving with the help of many student volunteers from the school and parish! Children from Home Front attended the event and were treated to live music, line dancing, and a visit from Santa before they shopped for their families thanks to all the gifts donated from our community that filled our shelves. Everybody had a wonderful time in the true spirit of giving!

Dear Saint Ann School Families, this weekend a notice was printed in the Church of Saint Ann bulletin that erroneously stated that families must contribute at least $500 to the Church of Saint Ann during 2019 in order to earn the parishioner tuition rate at Saint Ann School for the 2020-2021 school year. This policy was changed last school year and there is no longer a required contribution to the church. The fee will be included in the 2020-2021 tuition costs. Sorry for any confusion this may have caused. Please contact the school office if you have any questions. ~ Mr. Chiaravalloti, Principal

Once again this year, Saint Ann School participated in the PTA annual service project “Students Change Hunger” Thanksgiving Food Drive. “Students Change Hunger” is a program sponsored by the Federation of New Jersey Food Bank, who every year challenges all students, staff teachers, and parents in the state of New Jersey to think of those less fortunate by organizing a food drive at their school. New Jersey schools compete with each other to collect as much food as possible for their local Food Bank. Schools submit their application to win the State Champion Governor’s Cup and two schools from each Food Bank are then entered for the final round. Saint Ann School earned its place in Division III with 1,203 items collected and it's been Division III champion for the past few years. SAS has now the chance to be one of the 5 Regional Champions, one from each Food Bank, in the final round for the Governor’s Cup! We want to thank all our SAS families for your support and generosity!

Saint Ann School Kindergarten students have begun learning to code as they start studying Computer Science and celebrating the Hour of Code in Mrs. Meyer's Technology class. They have been coding Scrat from Ice Age collecting his acorn in the fewest steps possible and they have been very successful. Mrs. Meyer is very proud of how hard they are working.

Wednesday, 12/04 Saint Ann School students in grades 4th and 5th showcased Christmas celebrations from around the world. Over the last several weeks they researched countries in Mrs. Laccetti’s Spanish class and created beautiful boards, slideshow presentations, and then made a traditional Christmas recipe to share with families and friends attending the program. A great time was had by all. Another successful SAS event in the books! Check out our Facebook page and Instagram for some pictures.

Saint Ann School families, to all those who made our Giving Tuesday campaign a success: Thank You!!! With your help, we were able to raise 68% of our goal! If you didn't get a chance to pledge your time, prayers, or financial contribution yesterday, our campaign is still open at www.LeadinFaith.org Thank you again for your support! We can't wait to share with you how your contribution to our Giving Tuesday will help Saint Ann School!

On Saturday, December 7, 2019, Saint Ann School will be hosting a Christmas Party for HomeFront kids in the Saint Ann School gym, our Advent day of giving. At the party, children from HomeFront will have an opportunity to “shop” for gifts for their family and friends. A gift drive is ongoing to fill our store shelves with a variety of gift items for the kids to select from for their family and friends. Please send in your donations with your child to school by Dec. 5th. Thank you for your support and generosity!