Saint Ann School PTA has kicked off their annual Read-A-Thon on Friday, Jan. 15, encouraging all students to read as many books as they can between Jan. 15-Feb.15, to raise money for the St. Ann School PTA. Students are asked to read 20+ minutes per day for the duration of the Read-a-Thon and record their reading time. The more they read, the more chances they will get to win prizes and a dress down day pass. All reading counts! Books, magazines, ebooks, audiobooks! Families and friends can pledge their support for a student's reading. They can pledge online or send in a check. All money raised will help the PTA efforts to support Saint Ann School. So spread the word and get reading!

Saint Ann School and all Catholic schools around the nation are getting ready to celebrate Catholic Schools Week. National Catholic Schools Week (CSW - 1/31-2/6) is an annual celebration of Catholic education in the United States. Schools celebrate students during National Catholic Schools Week by planning enjoyable and meaningful activities for them and recognizing their accomplishments. We honor teachers, administrators, and staff who support them in their work and thank those who provide volunteer service. This year, CSW is going to be very different than normal. Because of COVID restrictions and guidelines, many of the activities and events will have to be canceled. Despite the challenge, our faculty and administrators are still planning a week focused on our students that will offer fun classroom activities, a virtual mass, and a chance to still do service and give back to our community even if from a "social distance". We invite you to celebrate with us! Visit our website to learn more about CSW, spread the word about our school community, and check our social media pages for glimpses of our celebration. Happy Catholic Schools Week everyone!

Saint Ann School families, as many of you have probably heard by now, we are sad to share the unfortunate news that Trenton Catholic Academy (TCA) will be closing its doors at the end of this school year. It is always difficult when a Catholic school closes, especially one in such proximity to us. Our prayers go out to all administration staff, faculty members, student body, and their families. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers as they cope with this upsetting news. To read more about this, visit www.trentoncatholic.org

On Monday, Jan. 4, Saint Ann School reopened the doors to welcome back staff and students after the Christmas break. Everything was ready to resume business as usual. Over the break, the school administration provided a deep cleaning and disinfecting of the building to provide a safe and healthy environment for all upon their return. As we move forward with the remaining of the 20/21 academic year, Saint Ann School keeps working hard and diligently to keep offering in-person learning. Thank you to all Saint Ann's families for doing their part outside the school to help preserve the safety of our school community. Welcome back and happy new year!

Saint Ann School students and staff had the chance to show some Christmas cheer during the week of December 14, before the school closed for the Christmas Break. With a different theme every day, they were able to sport different Christmas apparel and show their Christmas spirit; thanks to Fr. Dela Cruz, the school came together spiritually for a Christmas Prayer Service that was streamed on Friday, 12/18, in all classes; last but not least, thanks to our dedicated PTA members, students from all grades took a walk down "Candy Cane Lane" on Friday and filled their stockings with treats and their hearts with cheer. At Saint Ann School we are thankful for our committed principal and staff, faculty, students, and their families. We wish you all hope, peace, joy, and love this Christmas and always! Our doors will reopen on Monday, Jan. 4, 2021. Have a healthy and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Next week is the last week of school before the Christmas Break for our students and staff. This year we have to forego many of our beloved traditions, including the Pageant, class parties, and other events but that won't stop us from celebrating the Christmas season safely. In order to allow for some school holiday cheer, we will be having a few different dress-down days next week. Monday – Regular Dress Code (uniforms – gym or regular); Tuesday – Christmas Sock Day (students wear uniforms and Christmas socks); Wednesday – Christmas Hat/Accessory Day; Thursday – Ugly Sweater Day (students may wear uniform bottoms OR jeans); Friday – Christmas Dress Down Day (Students wear green/red). We are planning additional activities throughout the week to engage our students and to continue celebrating the Advent season. Thank you to all our families for the continuous support during these extraordinary times, and thank you to our principal, Mr. C for his leadership and constant effort in giving our students the best in-person learning experience they deserve. Merry Christmas!

Saint Ann School will be closed for Christmas Break from Monday, 12/21/2020, to Friday, 1/1/2021. We wish all Saint Ann School families a blessed and joyful Christmas and a very happy New Year! Enjoy the rest of the Advent Season and be safe!

Tuesday, Dec. 1, Catholic schools in the Diocese of Trenton celebrated Giving Tuesday, a day of giving in support of Catholic education. Faculty and students at Saint Ann School would like to thank all our families for their support over the last few weeks during our #GivingTuesday campaign! Thank you for your generosity and your prayers! It's with your constant help that we continue to provide you and the community with the best education and service!

Joyful, Joyful, sounds of joy...ADVENT begins this Sunday, Nov. 29, and Mrs. Ortiz has a lot of great resources from the library to get us in the Christmas spirit! Check out some of these popular Advent books and begin preparing to meet the Christ Child...

A heartfelt thank you to all Saint Ann School families who donated to the PTA Thanksgiving food drive! PTA members have dropped off our donations to Mercer Street Friends food bank. We have collected a total of 1,331 pounds (including 10% early bird additional points). Amazing turn out amidst the pandemic and this year's donations were up by 128lbs compared to last year's 1,203 lbs. Thank you very much for all your support!

Saint Ann School Families, The Mercer County area, and the Diocese of Trenton has seen a spike in cases and closures of schools due to COVID-19. I want to remind all that you need to notify myself and the school nurse (Krista Gladney, nurse@st-ann-school.org) if anyone in the household tests positive for COVID-19. If anyone in the household or a close contact through another manner has tested positive the student is required to quarantine and take part in virtual learning for 2 weeks. They can return to school following the quarantine and with a negative COVID-19 test result. It is extremely important that we all follow these guidelines for the health and safety of our school - the teachers, staff, and students. We are relying on everybody's honesty to keep us safe. God Bless!

"Moooove" over and make some room for second grade's class pet! A virtual pet that is. Mrs. Meagher's class has adopted a calf through the Discover Dairy, Adopt a Cow program. The calf has been born on the Zahncroft Dairy in Womelsdorf, Pennsylvania. Students took a virtual farm trip to the Marcoot Dairy Farm in Illinois to see how calves grow up on a farm. We can't wait to learn more about it!

Saint Ann School students and faculty celebrated Halloween in style last Friday with a costume dress down day, an indoor trick or treat event sponsored by our PTA, and the annual Pumpkin Design Contest. We are grateful for PTA members who set up the cafeteria with all kinds of treats and supervised the students who, class by class came to trick or treat. Although we weren't able to have our traditional Halloween class parties, students enjoyed their candy snacks while watching movies in their classrooms and awaited the announcement of the Pumpkin Design contest winners, who were revealed at the end of the day. Thank you to students and staff for a "spook"tacular and safe cele"boo"ration!

Saint Ann School PTA is hosting its annual Thanksgiving Food Drive now through Nov. 6. Again this year we are participating in the Students Change Hunger program to collect food for our local food bank, Mercer Street Friends. We have been Division Three heavyweight champion for the past years! We collected 1203lb of food in 2019, 1534lb of food in 2018, 2213lb in 2017. This includes poundage converted from our Dress Down Day cash as well. For more information about this program, you can visit www.studentschangehunger.org. For a list of items needed check the flyer on the online PIE page of our school website. We greatly appreciate your generosity in making this service project successful!

Make it ORANGE and make it stop! Saint Ann School celebrated National Unity Day yesterday, Oct. 21. Students and faculty wore orange to show that we are together against bullying, and united for kindness, acceptance, and inclusion. Thank you Saint Ann School for always choosing kindness! Every day should be Unity Day!

Saint Ann School families, on Wednesday, October 21 we will celebrate National Unity Day. All students and staff are encouraged to wear orange to raise awareness against bullying. This "wear orange" dress down day is free. Monday, October 19 in the evening I will be sending a test message for our emergency communication system. You should receive a phone call, text message (if you are opt-in), and email. If you have any changes to your email or phone number, it is extremely important that you inform the office. If you do not receive the email, phone call, or text (after opting-in) please contact the office. Please reach out to me if you have any questions. God Bless!

Saint Ann School families, this Halloween PTA members will be helping our students to celebrate Halloween! The PTA is sponsoring events during the day on Friday, Oct. 30, Since we are unable to have our traditional Halloween activities we will be hosting a Trick-or-Treat Trail for all in-person learners. Students will come to school in costume, and please remind them about headwear not interfering with the children’s ability to wear their mask. Also, note that students are not permitted to bring in any treats for their classmates this year. The PTA will be setting up stations outside with various treats and will also have music. Stations will be attended by one class at a time. The afternoon will include the ability to eat the treats provided by the PTA while enjoying a movie. We are hopeful that this will bring a little bit of the Halloween spirit to our students and I am grateful for the PTA’s funding of this endeavor, which is made possible thanks to all of your support of the PTA’s various fundraisers. As always thank you for your wonderful support. God Bless,

Saint Ann School Families, Saint Ann School is consistently seeking input so we can grow and provide what families need. In order to assist we are asking for your feedback. Please take the time to complete the three Family Engagement surveys that I have sent you in my latest email. They will be open until Friday evening. You can also find a link to these surveys on the home page of our website www.saintannschool.org. The purpose of these surveys is to find out a family’s beliefs and opinions about their engagement with their student’s institution; a family's opinions about their child's school, including questions about teachers, administrators, and other aspects of their child's and their own experiences with the school; a family's description of aspects of their and their child's experience with school. The term “family” refers to any adult who has some level of responsibility for the student. As usual, I thank you for your cooperation. God bless!

“What is the name of the Hispanic national holiday celebrating the heritage and cultural diversity of Latin America? What day is it celebrated on?” And the answer is... El Dia De La Raza! Observed on October 12 to celebrate Latin Heritage and cultural diversity in Latin America. The winners of this week's trivia are Ava Fallon, 7B, and Terrel Williams, 3A. Felicidades!!! This concludes our celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month. Thank you to all who participated and congratulations again to all our trivia winners! Hasta luego!

And the Oscar for Best Actor goes to... Jose Ferrer! He is the answer to Mrs. Laccetti's trivia question for this week. in 1951, he was the first Hispanic actor to win the Oscar with the movie "Cyrano de Bergerac". Congratulations to Jilian in 7B for being the first one to guess! Next week will be the last week to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month and the last week for Mrs. Laccetti's Trivia Tuesday! Stay tuned and good luck!