Our 6th grade art students loved working on the Mother Teresa collaborative! Each student received a square to duplicate the drawing onto a larger square. They worked together with their classmates to make sure each of their squares matched up and together created one large piece of art. They shaded and again worked together to make sure their work "fit" together. All in all, there were 30 squares to complete. The students were amazed at the final project showing our Saint of the Month, Mother Teresa. Please take a look and stop by our front lobby to see their work!

K-8th Grade students are working on a collaborative project. Our inspiration is from the fabric artist, Tula Pink. Tula Pink creates gorgeous quilts along with designing fabrics. One quilt, called the TriDazzler is the inspiration for our diamond project. The students chose warm or cool colors to complete their diamonds and we are in the process of putting it all together. The older students were given a math problem to figure out how long our paper had to be! We need 25.5 feet in order to place 202 6" squares on our paper! Since we are placing our squares in the shape of a diamond, we will need even more! Thank you to the art teacher from ShinebrightZamorano for creating this lesson!

Our new Principal, Mrs. Aceste, welcomed all of our parents and guardians in the church for our opening Back to School Night. Father Sullivan , our Pastor, began our night with prayer, reciting the Hail Mary together.

We welcomed all students for our first day of school on Wednesday, September 9th. We could feel the energy light up the halls as the students entered the school and then gathered in the gym to join their teachers and begin our day with an opening prayer. Both Father Sullivan and Mrs. Aceste spoke to the children. Each student was directed to their grade and was greeted by their new homeroom teacher. We all had a great start to our year!

Last Spring, as Mrs. Doherty announced her retirement, Father Gerard and Mrs. Doherty announced the exciting news that Mrs. Adrianna Aceste would be the new Principal of Holy Family School. We are blessed to start off this new school year with Mrs. Aceste and also our new Pastor, Father Sullivan! HFS is preparing to welcome all our students in grades K -8 on Wednesday, September 8th, 2021. Our Nursery and Pre-K students will visit on Friday, September 10th, and start their Fall semester on Monday, September 13th. We look forward to welcoming all back to school!

Our Rachel's Challenge Club along with the help of our Faculty's Sunshine Club planted a flower garden around one of our trees on the school grounds. They planted and created this garden in memory of Mrs. Mary Ellen Schreiber, a 42 year teacher, at Holy Family School who passed away this past summer. Mrs. Schreiber was known to be a "bucket filler" and taught those virtues to all her students. A "bucket filler" is a person that spreads joy, happiness, caring and kindness to others. There are many other bucket filler qualities that Mrs. Schreiber. exemplified. Our Rachel's Challenge Club will continue to tend to the garden. They placed a memorial sign in the garden in remembrance of Mrs. Schreiber. Please stop by to say a prayer.

The older grades paired up with the younger grades and became Reading Buddies! The students have been taking advantage of some beautiful weather to head outside and meet with their buddy class. The children have been loving meeting their buddies and reading with them. Some classes are brainstorming and writing books together. They are also taking some time to dance or play with their buddies! Everyone is enjoying this time!

Mrs. Doherty, Mrs. Aceste, and Father Gerard welcomed Father Sullivan, our soon to be Pastor, to our school. Father Sullivan visited some of the classrooms and gave a blessing. Here is a photo of our kindergarten children listening to the prayer and enjoying the special visit.

Holy Family School celebrated Mass on the Grass this past Tuesday during Holy Week. It was so beautiful to come together as a family and celebrate Mass. Fr. Gerard also thanked our beloved Principal, Mrs. Doherty, and congratulated and thanked her for all her years of service and commitment to Holy Family School. He then went on to congratulate Mrs. Adrianna Aceste, our current teacher, on her promotion to Principal for next year! We are very blessed here at Holy Family School and truly are a wonderful family!

Fr. Gerard invited Sarah Hart, one of the leading figures in contemporary Catholic music today, to join him in prayer and reflection via Zoom during this Lenten Season. Sarah reminds us that “God created each of us with great love and great purpose and Lent is a time to reflect on that”. On a recent Friday afternoon, each of our HFS students listened and watched the song and prayer from Fr. Gerard and Sarah Hart and then they each created and molded their own piece of pottery. On another Friday afternoon, each student painted their piece of pottery and added their own special messages or designs to their work. The students all enjoyed working on this project.

Our Kindergarten children celebrated 100 days of school this past week! Each student dressed up as if they were 100 years old! We had canes, housecoats, pearls, suspenders, wigs and so much more! Each child also created a project representing 100! We had 100 eyeballs, 2 sets of 100 cheerios ( some shaped as hearts, a cereal rainbow, 100 eyes of a monster, 100 puzzle pieces, 100 puffs, 100 jelly beans, 100 dinosaurs, 100 animals, 100 stickers, 100 gems, 100 apple jacks shaped like hands, 100 macaroni, 100 gumball pom poms! Some of the students even counted their 100 by 10s!

The Kindergarten celebrated 100 days of school by dressing up as if they were 100! They had canes, suspenders, wigs, and so many more accessories! Each student created a project representing 100! We have a gallery set up in our lobby! We had 100 eyes, 100 cheerios (some shaped like hearts), 100 gems, 100 apple jacks shaped like hands, 100 gumball pom poms, 100 animals, 100 dinosaurs, 100 puffs, 100 jelly beans, 100 macaroni, 100 puzzle pieces, 100 rainbow cereal, 100 stickers, 100 eyes on a monster! Some students even counted their numbers by 10s! Wow!

Friday, we celebrated the teachers and the students dressed up like a teacher! The following week we had Spirit day and Cultural Day! Our kindergarten had celebrated their cultures earlier in the month so they had a Disney day with rides and all!

On Wednesday, we continued our celebrations back in school and all the students dressed in the career of their choice! Thursday, the students enjoyed ice cream and a movie as we celebrated the students! They also were allowed to dress in their pajamas or comfortable clothes!

We started off CSW with a beautiful Open House on Sunday and showed off our school to some prospective families. A snowstorm then blew in and we didn't miss a beat! The students all signed on to their Google Classrooms and enjoyed two full days of learning. They took some time out to complete a "snowman challenge" from Mrs. Doherty. Check out our photos page for some of the creations and the spirit! Tuesday was to celebrate all our many cultures that make our school so special. We postponed this special day until 2/9.

Kindergarten - Learning all about Clementine Hunter - Zinnias in a vase 1st Grade - Just finished up - Snowmen at Night - What would your snowman be doing? 2nd Grade - We are woven together - Painting the Colors of our Skin & weaving - adding heart around paper weaving 3rd Grade - Studied Artist Lorna Simpson - Adding crystals to replace our hair! 4th Grade - Studied Artist Kelly Pousette - Paper Diorama - layers of paper cutting - inspired by nature 5th Grade - 5A - cardinals in winter 5th Grade 5T - artist Wayne Thiebaud - cakes using oil pastels 6th Grade - artists - Sandra Dieckmann - whimsical Polar Bear (based on her book - Leaf) 6th Grade - Nigerian artist - Sokari Douglas Camp - metal sculpture ( using aluminum foil and tubes)

Our school spirit wear store is open for online ordering through 2/7/2021. Head to the "Parent" tab and then "School Spirit" tab to see the options and click "Order Now" button.

Catholic Schools' Week begins on Sunday, January 31, 2021. We will be scheduling tours between 11:30 AM and 2:30 PM by appointment only. Please call the school at 516-938-3846 ext. 329. We have openings in all grades from Nursery (3 year olds) through 8th grade. We will continue to celebrate with special events for the students throughout the week.