Since one of the best parts of being schooled at home is staying in your pajamas all day, and last Friday, March 27, was supposed to be our annual Donuts with Dad celebration, we ended our Virtual Spirit Week with celebrating our dads from home in our jammies. We missed seeing all of our dads at school, but really enjoyed seeing all the photos. Visit our Facebook page to view the entire album from Donuts with Dad. Link in full story.

Thursday, March 26th was Jersey Day. Wow...we have a lot of Reds fans! Thanks for sharing the ❤️ for our Cincinnati Reds ⚾️ on the day that would have been Reds Opening Day.

We’ve got SPIRIT yes we do! In keeping with our Wednesday tradition of wearing Blue Jay spirit wear, students wore their blues on Wednesday, March 25th. Click on the title of this story to see more photos.

In honor of hair stylists and salon employees that have been affected by the shutting down of all salons due to the Corona-19 Pandemic, on Tuesday, March 24, we had some crazy hair-dos going on at home. Some of them made us laugh, and that is something we all need right now. Click on the title to view some CRAZY HAIR!

In an effort to keep our school families more connected, we decided to have a Virtual Home School Spirit Week. On Monday, March 23, students dressed as super heroes in honor of all doctors, nurses, hospital employees, first responders, grocery store employees and all other essential personnel. Click on the title to see more of our student super heroes.

Getting it done on day one of distance learning! Our students have set up school in their homes and thanks to technology today, are able to continue learning and complete assignments. Thank you to all our wonderful families for your cooperation, patience and understanding during these challenging times. We are truly all in this together. Want to see more photos? Just click on the title of this story. We would love to see more! Please send your distance learning photos to lheidorn@stjohnsdrschool.org. You might just see them featured on social media, in the newsletters or in the yearbook.

We recently welcomed accomplished author, Jeff Alt, to share with our students information about his books. History came alive for grades K-4 as they explored our national parks with time traveling Bubba Jones and his sister Hug-a-Bug, the main characters in Alt’s National Park book series, ”The Adventures of Bubba Jones.” Students especially enjoyed participating in several short interactive skits. Grades 5-8 had a more mature version of what Jeff Alt experienced while walking the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. They heard about his motivation for walking the trail, the preparation, how he accomplished the endeavor, and his encounters with nature's friends. Thank you to Jeff Alt for sharing your adventure and knowledge of National Parks. Also, a special thank you to all who supported our extra book fair in the fall to make this visit possible.

Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden brought a few small friends to share with our third and fourth grade classes. Third graders had their own little encounter with Mataco, a three banded armadillo and Cueball, a python snake, while fourth graders were entertained by Snuffles, a screaming hairy armadillo and Sapphire, a blue tongued skink. Thank you to our PTO for providing us with these fun learning enrichments!

Mrs. Anne Flick, our Accelerated Math & Reading and Gifted Specialist, has been guiding students in grades 4-8 in hands-on spatial reasoning learning activities supported by the grant she was generously awarded by the Greater Cincinnati Foundation.

Our third annual PTO Mother Son Dance, Fly Me to the Moon, was a fun night of Old Hollywood glam with dancing, desserts and a few crowned Kings and Queens. Thank you to the dance committee members that planned this fun event for our students and their mothers/special persons. Click on the title to view more photos.

Kindergarten students recently celebrated the "100th Day of School". They counted by tens to make caterpillar hats, enjoyed a snack of "100" themed cheese and crackers, and sported their "100" eyeglasses.

Wow! We were overwhelmed with the outpouring of donations to our Catholic Schools Week Service Project for Pregnancy Center West. Along with the monetary donations, all of the baby items will help benefit those served by Pregnancy Center West. Thank you to all of our school families for your generous support.

Congratulations to all of our seventh and eighth grade 2020 Science Fair winners. First, second and third place winners were chosen in both categories of LIfe Science and Physical Science. A special thank you to our team of volunteer judges and to those who helped to tally the results.

Student Council members proudly represented St. John's at the Archdiocese Catholic Schools Week Mass on Tuesday, January 28 at St. Peter in Chains Cathedral. Did you know that there are a total of 40,000 students and 3,900 teachers that make up the 105 schools and three colleges/universitiies in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati?

Seventh grade students recently attended the SEMA cuSTEM Car Experience at the Duke Energy Convention Center for an interactive learning experience. After touring the car show floor to gather ideas, they worked together in small teams to design a car. Connecting #STEM activities to the car industry helps students see the application and need for science and math in real world scenarios. Hosted by Ten80 Education.

Please join us in welcoming our new Art teacher, Ms. Beth Hull. Beth graduated from Northern Kentucky University in December and is beginning her teaching career with us at St. John's. We are very excited to have her join our faculty team.

Mary & Joseph, Elizabeth, all the little angels, shepherds and townspeople did a great job in their kindergarten pageant. Thank you to all of our parent volunteers that helped with practicing and costumes.

Our first graders learned all about giving to others during this Advent season by collecting coats, hats, mittens and baby wipes for a needy preschool in Camp Washington. Thank you to our first grade families for all of your generous donations and for helping your children live out our school mission of being "heralds of God's love in the world"

Our junior high science students are very excited about the two newest residents to the science lab. Squirt and Crush are semi-aquatic turtles. The seats next to the turtle tank are now coveted seats!

Second graders took a trip around the world as they explored cultures from Africa, Asia, Australia and South and North America through clothing, crafts, games, celebrations, music and photographs during a classroom enrichment with The Cincinnati Museum Center. Click on the article title to see more photos.