Recently, 6th - 8th grade students from St. John the Baptist school gathered for a retreat in Daniel Hall at St. John Neumann Parish. There, they were greeted by a NET Ministries team of twelve young adults who were excited to share the love of Christ with them through games, skits, personal witness, small group discussion, prayer, and quiet reflection. The theme for the retreat was righteousness. People receive righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ as Savior. Christ, the sinless Son of God, took humanity's sin upon himself and became the willing, perfect sacrifice, suffering the punishment mankind deserved. God the Father accepted Jesus' sacrifice, through which human beings can become justified. But, we are not justified by faith alone. James 2:14 states, “What good is it, my brothers, if someone has faith but does not have works?” The definition of righteousness is very simple: it is a God given attribute that implies that our actions are justified. It can mean explicitly that we have been "judged" as leading a life that is pleasing to God. Students learned that prayer, sacraments, fellowship, and service are all important ways grow in righteousness. It was a great day of personal reflection and fun faith formation.

On Friday, March 23 St. John's 8th graders spent the day at Camp Kern in Oregonia, Ohio. The class was broken down into small groups where they completed an Adventure Challenge in the morning which is much like challenges from the TV show, The Amazing Race. The groups competed to see who had the most points from all the challenges. After lunch they were divided into two groups where one group completed the obstacle course and all of its challenges while the other group climbed Tango Tower and then the groups switched. Students learned to work together and push themselves beyond their limits while their classmates cheered them on. Everyone enjoyed the day being together with each other.

Third graders recently enjoyed an enrichment from Hamilton County Soil and Water. They compared six different types of soils by looking and feeling the soil comparing it to sugar (sand), silt (flour), and corn starch (clay). Thanks to our PTO for providing funding for our classroom enrichment programs.

Thanks to the help of a few of Mrs. Flick's 6th- and 7th-graders and the support of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation, Mrs. Sellers' first graders got to experience a classroom breakout challenge. The leprechaun's gold coins had been taken and stashed in a box secured with a series of five locks. To save the coins, the first graders had to solve clues to get the combinations to the various locks. The students worked in groups, employing teamwork and critical thinking strategies to decrypt clues, which called on their math and reading skills. They used skip-counting and patterns and word families and more to get to the end of the rainbow and unlock the box of gold. Each group successfully solved all the locks to open its own box. We are grateful to the Greater Cincinnati Foundation, who awarded us a generous grant to purchase the breakout kits of special boxes and locks. The grant supports early literacy skills in our school, as well as skills across disciplines in all grades, in a fun and challenging way that also allows students to develop their communication and collaboration skills.

First graders had fun investigating bones during an enrichment with the Boonshoft Museum.  Thanks to our PTO for providing funding for our classroom enrichment programs!

Congratulations to our fifth grade students for completing the D.A.R.E. program. D.A.R.E stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education and is presented by Colerain Police Officer Patrick Quinn at school over several weeks. The students wrote essays on what they learned during the program, created and performed plays on how to say no to drugs and alcohol, and received graduation diplomas.

The 4th graders are participating in Junior Achievement with the guidance of Mr. Tensing, a long time supporter of our school and businessman. Recently the students worked on being entrepreneurs by creating new businesses. They decided the products or services they wanted to provide, named their businesses, and discussed how to advertise. We appreciate Mr. Tensing for donating his time and efforts to our students.