School Affairs

"St. Anne Elections and Council"

April 28, 2023
By: Sydney Abrams

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As the months go on, many students are noticing that May and June are upcoming! This means that summer break is coming soon, and students are doing their best to maintain their grades and finish their exams. These last two months are very important, especially for 5th graders and the Junior High, because Student Council Elections are coming up soon! At St. Anne, there is a student council that consists of many important roles that students run for. The first weeks of May are filled with preparations, speeches, and essential info for the future student council. In this article, you will learn about the important days coming soon and what is occurring on those dates!
   On April 27, there was a Student Council Informational meeting for the 5th graders and Junior High students, where everyone gathered in the lower cafeteria to listen to multiple speeches. Each council member prepared a speech for this date, and had the duty of informing everyone what their position is, what their responsibilities are and what traits and qualities would be fit for the job. The positions are the following: Religious Affairs, Publicity, Ecology, Safety Officers, School Spirit Squad, Treasurer, Recording Secretary, Girls and Boys Vice President, and Student Body President. Although some of these positions are for specific grades only, it is still very significant for students to listen to the speeches, filled with notable information for the future. Furthermore, high schools will be impressed if you’ve gotten elected and are on the council, especially if you’re in 5th or 6th grade. This can increase your chances of getting into many good Catholic schools as well!
   On May 9th, election day will take place in the cafeteria, where the whole school gathers to hear speeches of the candidates. They will share why they will be elected, what they will do and improve at the school, and more! Multiple presentations have been very entertaining in the past, so look forward to seeing the upcoming ones this year. Before May 9th, numerous students will be preparing speeches, posters, tri-folds, etc. to persuade you to vote for them, so look forward to seeing their work! Hopefully you have big plans for when you’re in Junior High, so you can run for council and see many events behind the scenes, help plan for them, and make our school community better!
 

"Shakespeare Taking the World by Storm through Poetry"

March 22, 2023

By: Tia Seeto

As you may remember, we had the wonderful opportunity to watch a Shakespeare play this Monday, the twentieth of March. The play presented to us was William Shakespeare’s famous comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Comedy in this poetic era didn’t just mean that it was humorous, comedy in this sense meant that the story ended happily ever after. Comedy’s opposite are tragedies, which, you should know, ends in misfortune for the characters.

In the play, the actors spoke in archaic English, so it was a tad bit difficult to understand the story. So here’s a basic summary of the comedy.

The story is set in Athens, where two lovers, Lysander and Hermia, are both helplessly in love. Unfortunately, Hermia’s Father declares that she must wed another man: Demetrius. To confuse us with a larger love triangle, Hermia’s best friend, Helena, is in love with Demetrius. To add on, in the forest of Athens, the fairy king, Oberon, plans to discipline his wife, Queen Titania of her disobedience to him. Oberon does this by ordering his naughty servant, Puck, to drip magic juice onto the eyes of Titania so that whoever person or creature she lays her eyes upon once awake she shall fall madly in love with them. Knowing that a love triangle (or square) of Athenians are within the forest, Oberon also orders Puck to squeeze some magic juice into the eyes of Demetrius so that he shall fall in love with Helena, resolving the love triangle. By mistake, Puck drops the magic juice into the eyes of Lysander too, since he and Oberon look so alike. This starts a quarrel between the two male Athenians, fighting to win Helena’s affections. The drama between the male lovers had also lit up some troubles between Helena and Hermia. Hermia, no longer loved by neither Lysander nor Demetrius, is furious and claims that Helena has betrayed her, stabbing Hermia in the back. Meanwhile, Helena accuses Hermia and the guys for playing a cruel joke on her. Helena had never been loved by either man, so that was the only logical conclusion that came to mind. Meantime, in the fairy kingdom, Queen Titania had fallen deeply in love with a foolish person, Bottom. Seeing all of this chaos and drama, Oberson couldn’t handle it. He had caused these troubles between the four Athenian lovers, and it nearly led to death between Lysander and Demetrius. To fix everything, he ordered his servant Puck to drip another kind of magical liquid into the eyes of these lovers, including Oberon’s wife Titania. This magic cured and rid all of the jumbled feelings of love towards the wrong person and directed the affections to the correct individuals. Hermia is to marry Lysander, Helena is to marry Demetrius, and Titania is back to loving Oberon. Happy ever after. This is a simplified version of the story, as a few characters, events, and groups were cut out.

The author of this play is William Shakespeare. He is an English playwright, actor and poet. Throughout his lifetime, he’s written about forty plays and around a hundred-and-fifty poems, many of his works being published to novels after his death. Some classics that you may have heard of include Romeo & Juliet, The Tempest, and Othello. He is also regarded as the best English writer of all time. His stories surely deserve being read and shared to everyone. Hopefully, you could read some of his dramatic, love-filled classics one day. Either tragedies that would make you weep bunches of tears with the characters or comedies that’d make your heart jump from page to page, I am sure that you’d love his stories altogether.

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"St. Anne’s Graphic World"

March 10, 2023

By: Tia Seeto

Down in the lower cafeteria, by the ramp, you can see many comic strips pinned on a board. A few authors of these comics are Amelie Huynh from eighth grade, Lindsey Fowler from fourth grade and Thomas Hsiang from fourth grade. These are just a few of the authors. Many extended care students have made multiple popular comics to be shared with all of St. Anne. Maybe you have read a few yourself? A couple popular comics that have been made are Rainbow Friends, Dragon Club, and The Game. 

   Making comics may seem difficult at times, but it can be extremely simple, too. Of course, to make a comic you must have an idea first. Amelie Huynh told me, “I get most of my ideas from YouTube. Channels like Land of Boggs is one that I get a lot of my inspiration from.” Now after the first step, getting an idea, you would then sketch out the comic, outlining how you’d like the story to go. This outline could be done either digitally or on paper. After finishing the outline, you could now start on making the actual comic. Now you know how to make a comic of your own!

   If you get bored of some of the comics, which I highly doubt you would, there’s a new one coming out soon! The upcoming comic is about the journeys of Aphmau and her friends. The author, Michaela Lee from fourth grade, hasn’t decided on the title of this upcoming comic at the moment, but I’m very positive that it would be a great comic. We all hope for every single one of the comic writers to enjoy their work, and we thank them for creating a graphic world for us to dive into each time we walk by the board of comics.

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"Sixth Grade Goes to CYO Camp Occidental "

February 17th, 2023

By: Kira Tanaka and Kady Fong

On February 6th to February 10th, the sixth grade went to Caritas Creek CYO Camp. At camp, we learned about many things. We learned about nature, trust, change, ourselves, and many other lessons and values in life. But most of all, we learned about each other. CYO gave us an amazing opportunity to appreciate all that we have and the environment around us. 

   At Camp, we went on daily hikes in the forest. One day, we even got to go to Bodega Bay.  Another time, we did solo night hikes. Along the hikes, we played games and did activities and listened to stories that had to do with the theme of the day. The theme of the day was an important topic or value that we would later learn about. These themes taught us important lessons that we could take with us in life.  For example, some of the themes of the days were change, connections, trust, new discoveries, and equality. A few fun activities we did were campfire, skits, and electives. The electives were canoeing, gaga ball, arts and crafts, and archery. These electives were very fun and some even taught us teamwork. We also did serendipities, these were where we shared deep thoughts and answered emotional questions. At the end of camp we also shared things we were grateful for. Overall camp taught our class to be respectful, to get out of our comfort zones, and to trust others.

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"Grandparents Day"

February 3, 2023

By: Sophia Tanaka 

Do you know what day is coming up in February here at St. Anne School? Well, that day is Grandparents Appreciation day. This event takes place on February 14, starting at the beginning of school and ending after lunch. On this day, we appreciate all of our grandparents by hosting a day with their grandkids and a special lunch if they come to our school. During class, we will be doing art crafts, as well as getting to know each other’s grandparents. We will also play games and have fun in the classroom. After the classroom activities, then we would all go and eat lunch with our grandparents while the choir would perform for us. There would also be additional performers from this school who will perform. After, you get the choice to leave school earlier, so that you can spend time with them.

   Grandparents are always helping us, so we grow stronger and better as a person, especially since they have the most experience in life. This is why we have a special day for them and all that they do for us. They give advice, help us learn, and take care of us. In return you should visit them, call them, or make a card for them in return for all of the things that they do for you. 

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"How Covid Affected Other Schools"

September 23, 2022

By: Sydney Abrams

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As the population of the world knows, the Covid-19 is a dreadful illness, in which people have symptoms of fevers, chills, aching muscles, etc. This virus led to a lot of deaths, and, eventually, a pandemic. Most schools told us that we students would stay home for two weeks, due to safety precautions. However, those weeks turned to months, which led to two years. Like a lot of other students, our learning was cut short, and the motivation to learn was growing thin. Once everyone got back to in-person school, we realized that the pandemic left a bigger impact on students than we expected.

   Studies show that the main subjects that students were languishing in were reading and math. After taking their tests in-person again, most people had failed to learn things that they should’ve known at that point in their school year. More pupils were likely to drop out of school, and the money they would’ve earned at their future job—if the pandemic hadn’t occurred—decreased by 49,000 to 61,000 dollars. Not only that, but mental health was a big dread for students and adults alike. Although the pandemic was a way to reflect and be grateful for what we had, the worries and struggles of online school weighed heavily on them. 

   At St. Anne’s, a lot of students missed going outside and meeting friends. Even the customary routine of heading to school was becoming wanted each and every day. We longed to get out of the house and do something other than looking at a screen all day. This wasn’t healthy for our eyes or mental stability either. A good amount of students struggled more than they would’ve at home than at school. Learning new things became a burden, and our procrastination stretched. Fortunately, due to the lessening of the virus, St. Anne students were able to return to school. New bonds were created and grew stronger, and learning new subjects became more intriguing every day.