Awesome Auxiliary!

The Anticipated Finale
By Anna Katherine Meyer
Layout/Design Editor
 
            The elementary music students have never been busier than during this quarter. To explain the life of St. John Paul II, the first graders performed their annual Pope Play. They sang songs such as Great Big God, Lord I Lift Your Name on High, and Glory, Gratitude, and Praise. The second graders have worked on creating group skits. Each group member took turns being the director of the skit. The second graders also sang for their First Communion Mass. The third graders practiced playing with chimes. The fourth graders continued to practice on their recorders, and they worked on finally receiving their brown and black belts. The fifth graders created a test based on a composer they researched. Eventually, Mrs. Dao showed them a museum of composers. For Easter, she had her students go on a special Easter egg hunt. They “searched” for eggs by identifying the values of different notes.
            The Honor Choir had their long anticipated performance of The Lion King. The students got in some extra rehearsal time over the weekend the Saturday before the performance. The choir had two performances. The first was for their parents on a Tuesday night, and the second was during the afternoon the next day for the elementary school students. Mrs. Dao had many volunteers helping her such as Mrs. Mazzoccoli, Mrs. Weber, Mrs. Wilhite, Ms. Rawicki, and Ms. Casey. Thanks to their help, the play was a great success.
            With everything happening this quarter, Mrs. Dao was keeping busy to ensure that her students in the elementary music class and Honor Choir were successful in all their efforts.
 

Verano de Hola !
By Olivia Babasick
Sports Editor
 
              Se̴ñora Fasci’s Spanish students said hello to summer as the school year ended! During the final quarter of the school year, the fourth and fifth grade Spanish students improved their Spanish vocabulary throughout the fourth quarter by learning many new words. Their topics included school activities, activities after school, free time activities, vacation, pets, farm animals, and zoo animals. They prayed El Padre Nuestro, Ave María, Angel de mi Guarda, Arcangel San Miguel,and Nuesta Señora de Lourdes.
              The middle school students conjugated verbs in Spanish, and they also had a music project. They had to make up a song with the vocabulary they learned during the year. The seventh and eighth graders also went on a field trip to Studio Movie Grill to watch The Sandlot in Spanish. They learned about Spanish cultures and traditions in a warm-up that they were given daily. All students in Señora Fasci’s classes learned how to celebrate Easter in the Spanish speaking countries and they also learned about Cinco de Mayo celebrations.
The Spanish students said adios to school as they went on to summer!
 
From Spanish to Summer
By Larissa Lucas
Managing Editor
 
            Ending the school year strong, the elementary Spanish classes have been learning at an amazing rate. In the Pre-K and Kindergarten classes, they were informed about clothes and food items. The first through third grade scholars learned about animals. They also completed a project where the students brought in a picture and described their favorite animal in front of their classmates. In first grade, they also learned about Costa Rica, while second grade learned about Ecuador, and third graders learned about Colombia. This quarter, Ms. Linares said the students loved talking about animals and pets the most, while she loved talking about summer and what summer plans her students have. Though they have come a long way, they still struggle a bit with conversation and understanding instructions in Spanish, but now the scholars can understand key words, making it easier. Lastly, Ms. Linares is looking forward to her students continuing to enjoy coming to Spanish class next year. We can’t wait to see what’s in store for the elementary Spanish students next year!

Into The Spotlight
By Isabel Suschitz
Features Editor
 
            The middle school choir students and theatre arts students have had an exciting fourth quarter. The middle school choir has liked practicing their performance pieces, especially Pie Jesu, which means merciful Jesus, and Gesu a Latin song about Jesus. Some songs they practiced for Mass are Draw Near, Gather Your People, and On Eagle’s Wings. Some skills the middle school choir focused on are technique and articulation. Articulation means how clearly you pronounce words in a song, and the most challenging thing for the students is to find the same rhythm, for all students are on different skill levels. The middle school choir received a Superior rating, the highest rating, at their choir competition. The songs they performed were I Want Jesus to Walk with Me, River Song, and Ciaran Da Lau, which was sung in Portuguese. They worked hard on their Fun in the Sun performance and Spring Concert.
The theatre art students have worked hard on their play, The Audition. They have developed many skills during the fourth quarter such as becoming their character, articulation, performance speaking from stage, projecting their voices, and reading their lines over and over to gain memorization skills. It looks like the middle school choir students and theatre arts students have had a great fourth quarter.
 
The Final Chapter
By Jack Van Ryan
Features Editor
 
           Library for the 2015-16 school year has come to end, but the fourth quarter proved to be just as good as the first three. This quarter, Ms. Lamb taught the students how to create journals, and that writing is a critical skill. In addition, she taught the fourth graders about citing good and reliable sources. This included how to find the right citation info on the title page and verso page of a book and how to create bibliographies and resource lists. Some reliable sources are the SJPII library page, which is comprised of 100 great teacher and librarian approved sites, including three great databases. Furthermore, the final book fair of the school year took place in the fourth quarter. The book fair raised more than an outstanding $9,500 and added $2,100 to the library budget. In other news, the AV team is going great. Ms. Lamb says, “They are the quiet group that gets the job done.” She is very proud of her teams and hopes they will return next year. The final chapter of the 2015-16 library year has come to an end, but we look forward to the new book that will come next year!
 
Champion Band
By Olivia Babasick
Sports Editor
 
            For six years in a row, the advanced band has been number one! They went to a competition and played three songs, Normandy Beach, As Twilight Falls, and Accolade. They were also given a piece of music by the judges and had eight minutes to talk about it before playing it for the first time, sight reading the song. They placed first in both parts of the competition, and flutes, percussion, and low brass were recognized for outstanding sections.
Both of the bands played in the annual Spring Concert and Fun in the Sun Concert. They played Pirates of the Caribbean, Legions, Shut Up and Dance, Counting Stars, and the Star Wars Saga.
 The sixth grade band played Lamb Chop Rock, School Spirit March, The Dragon Slayer, and Liturgical Fanfare. As a warm-up, the brasses play long notes and lip slurs, the woodwinds soak reeds, and percussions play rhythms. As a group, the bands play a weekly written warm up.
            Overall, the bands had an amazing year!
 
Many Masses
By Madeline Bogard
Editor in Chief of Video Production
 
                There have been many opportunities for the students to participate in Mass this quarter. At the beginning of the quarter on April 28, Fr. Richard McNealy celebrated Mass for us and visited the seventh graders because he was their seminarian on their third grade field trip to the seminary. The seventh and eighth graders also participated in a Leadership Mass. At the end of the celebration, the eighth graders passed on a St. John Paul II medal to each seventh grade student giving them the responsibility to be leaders at our school next year. The second graders also received a pin at Mass to congratulate them on receiving their First Communion this year. On May 20, Fr. Jonathan Raia said Mass on Fun in the Sun Day and specifically dedicated it to Mrs. Hengst’s retirement. In addition, adoration had been cancelled for a few months due to the floods in April. Next year, Mrs. Richard hopes to give each grade a month to be in charge of adoration times.
            The altar servers had a busy year. To end it, the new head altar servers were chosen and trained by our present head servers. The new leaders of our altar servers will be Beatriz Eade and Beth Ventura. They will be leading at the last Mass and the Graduation Mass. Our year ended with one last Mass, the May Crowing. This was a great way to end the year, and we can’t wait to see what next school year will bring!
 
Serving Others
By Madeline Bogard
Editor in Chief of Video Production
 
            NJHS stayed busy all year and had tons to do at the end of the year, too. They started the quarter with making blankets for The Linus Project. The students paired up with each other to make a blanket for teenagers in the hospital. Soon, Mrs. Drewes will be dropping them off in Katy for kids to enjoy. Tutoring was a great success this year, and many kids from first grade all the way to eighth grade signed up. The students’ last project was for Teacher Appreciation week. Each member wrote a letter for every teacher in the school. On Monday, NJHS decorated the teacher’s lounge, and on Wednesday, the teachers were presented with their letters. To end the year, eighth graders had a wrap-up meeting, and the seventh graders had a meeting to create ideas for next year. 
            STUCO made boat loads of money this year. The Coin Clash money is still being counted by the bank, and our council is pretty sure we will have made about $7,000. STUCO had a great store this year and have also made a lot of money from this project. During the meetings, the council decided to give all of the profits to charity. The charities the students have chosen are Casa de Esperanza, MD Anderson Children’s Hospital, St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital in Memphis, and Make a Wish Foundation. The last few meetings were all about their last and final project, Cupcake Wars. Every year at Fun in the Sun Day, the students put on a cupcake contest. All of the students participated during the day. The winners were announced at the end of the day. Also, preparing for next year, Mrs. Berrie is trying to find a new STUCO sponsor. We’re sure the new sponsor will be great, and we can’t wait to see what STUCO and the NJHS students will bring to the school next year.
 
Ending the Year on a Good Note
By Andrea Colmenares
Senior Editor
 
                Ending the year right is the Wheel Spanish class. The students learned how to conjugate verbs such as ser, estar, hablar, usar, comprar, and necesitar to teach the students. Mrs. Fasci used a method that is based on coordination of language and physical movement. Every day, they start with prayers in Spanish like El Padre Nuestro, El Ave Maria, and El Angel de mi Guarda. Another way the students learn is by using Duolingo on their Chromebooks. They also used their Chromebooks to play Spanish games and to research their music project. In their group music project, the students memorized a Spanish song, created choreography, researched the singer, and provided a group presentation. The sixth graders have advanced in their Spanish knowledge this last quarter of school!
            In Wheel choir, the sixth graders performed with the seventh and eighth graders at Mass. They also practiced for their performances at graduation. Mrs. Hughes has taught them performance etiquette and helped them harmonize. She teaches them these things by helping them with simple songs. Mrs. Hughes also picked fun songs to help them connect with the music. The sixth graders also watched The Sound of Music. The sixth grade choir learned many things and ended the year on a good note!

           
The eighth grade journalism class visits weatherman Brooks Garner at KHOU.

The Future of KHOU-TV
By Larissa Lucas
Managing Editor
 
            With summer quickly approaching, the journalism team was as busy as could be. The newly added Halo News came to an end this year, and everyone would agree that it was a huge success. This quarter, the students worked hard to complete the yearbook and meet their deadlines with 20 pages left. With such fast-approaching deadlines, the students struggled a bit with cutouts, stories, and finishing all their pages, but luckily have met all the deadlines. This year, they excelled in the responsibility of rising to challenges. As the seventh graders came to an end of their first year of journalism, they have almost completely adapted to all the programs. The eighth graders went on their yearly field trip to the KHOU-TV studios where they were given a tour of the building, studios, offices, and control rooms. They met some of the people who work behind the scenes and even some who go on the news! After, they went to The Printing Museum and learned about the history of the printing press and some journalism history. Our eighth graders will be greatly missed, but we can’t wait to see what the seventh graders can do next year!
 
Stretching to the Stars
By Alexa Halim
Technology Editor
 
            Ending the year with a smashing success is the Stretch program! There were many great moments throughout this year for the students, from the seventh grade Wednesday Stretch group coming together as team, the beginning readers finally being able to independently read, and the Robokids winning the Robot Performance Award!
            The beginning readers made a lot of progress this quarter! The beginning readers worked on phonics and letter recognition. The third and fourth graders finished the basic language skills program for reading and literacy. The middle schoolers worked on reading comprehension. Kindergartener Max Vasquez said that his favorite thing about Stretch was “playing on the iPad.”
            The exceptional learners have been wrapping up the year with many projects. The seventh grade Wednesday group made an end of the year presentation in the form of a parody of Halo News, the sixth grade group made biomes of different animals, and eight fifth graders finished their certification for Junior Master Gardeners. The exceptional learners have also used different kinds of technology or apps like iMovie and the Scratch program on architecture. Eighth grader Caitlyn DeCorte’s favorite memory from this year was when she, Janea, and Jenna went to get Coke bottles from the soda machine for their project. Ms. Ickert let them drink sodas while they were working.
            This year brought many exciting projects and awards. Next year, there will be new coaches for Robotics as Coach Cano and Coach Watts retire. What exhilarating and cool things will next year bring?
           
Painting the Last Picture
By Jack Van Ryan
Features Editor
 
            The Elementary, Art 1, and Artisan fourth quarter classes started and ended with a splash. The Art 1 and Artisan students participated in the Society of Performing Arts art contest. In addition, some fifth graders’ Rodeo Art work tied in with the Society for Performing Art’s art contest theme of the country of Cuba, so some fifth grader’s Rodeo Art work was entered into that contest as well. The students competed with other public and private school art students in Houston. Fifty two SJPII students were entered into the contest, and seventh grader Emily Cabello won the Society for the Performing Arts Staff Selection Award! Also, the elementary students collaged parrots with a template focusing on repeating patterns, and the Art 1 students worked on pointillism, crayon art, recreating famous paintings, baskets, Japanese paintings with India ink, and leather macramé with a cross. Lastly, the Artisan students worked on 36 gauge copper lanterns, wood-burning crosses, mosaic trivet or picture frame, and Navajo weaving. It has been a very busy and great fourth quarter for art, and they will hopefully pick up where they left off next year.

Computer 101
By Sarah Schott
Sports Editor
 
            The students in elementary computer have worked very hard and accomplished a lot. They have completed many projects such as animal PowerPoints in second grade, Google Classroom in third grade, poetry animation in fourth grade, and vacation PowerPoints in fifth grade. The students enjoyed coding the most. They usually start the computer class off with a warm up, such as a video or a question on the board. These students have learned keyboarding, Excel, coding, Tux Paint, and Google Classroom for grades first through fifth grade. In the fourth quarter, the students also worked on creating bar graphs and line graphs.
            The Advanced Computer has worked extremely hard to complete the fourth quarter. They have made sumobots, catapults, and racers. They did a robot talent show, and they have worked with PowerPoint and Excel. They had warm ups of keyboarding and watched videos about what they will be doing for the day. Computer I have also had a great fourth quarter and created projects in Animoto, Thing links, PowerPoint, and Excel. Some programs that the Advanced and Computer I used are Web links, Web design, and research sites. They have had a great year, and learned so much about computer programming.