Catholic Schools Week is here again, and this year, the theme is Faith, Academics, Service. The week will run from Sunday, January 29 through Friday, February 3. All St. Joseph students are very excited about this year's events! We have lots of activities planned which will make this year's Catholic Schools Week one of the most memorable! Click here or the picture at right for a complete schedule of events! Hope to see you there!

The annual Christmas program was held Thursday, December 15. The program began with the school band playing several Christmas songs. The main portion of the night featured the classes not only singing various Christmas songs, but also playing instruments.The night closed with the 8th grade reverently portraying the Nativity. Special thanks to our music teacher Miss Sarah Pschigoda, piano player Austine Dare, and band director Dave Stewart! Click at right for more pictures, or here for a very special video from Lisa Pallardy!

The 7th grade students at St. Joseph School went out on St. Nicholas Day to spread Christmas cheer to some of our homebound parish members. The students filled the homes with their voices and joyful spirits singing Christmas carols and visiting with the people. The students were blessed to have shared this special time with some of our parish homebound. Many life and faith lessons were learned this day! Click for more pictures or a video!

It's that time of year again: Christmas projects completed by St. Joseph School students! All of these projects were done in the computer lab, using our new computers. All the students did a fantastic job, and these projects are a joy to watch. Please click the video you want to see below.

The Discovery Days Preschool recently held two fantastic Christmas programs. Wearing red and green hats, the students sang such memorable songs as "Where is Santa?", "Mary Had a Baby," and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." Everyone was entertained by the terrific performance. Afterwards, everyone was invited to enjoy some delicious Christmas refreshments. Thanks to everyone who made the Christmas program a wonderful success! Click on the picture to see it full-sized!

While most schools were out for Veterans Day, St. Joseph's was in session and learning all about the great sacrifices our country's veterans make every day. After the morning's Mass, students and teachers enjoyed a presentation led by kindergarten teacher Mrs. McConnell and then classroom talks from our visiting veterans. During the talks, the students asked poignant questions and came away with a sense of what it's like to be a veteran. We'd like to thank all our veterans for their dedication and sacrifice! Click here or on the picture at left for more from this special day!

St. Joseph School Spanish teacher Senora Paola recently led the first grade in several activities which helped them identify parts of the face in Spanish. One of the activities they completed was a group exercise in which they used a Mr. Potatohead to place various part of the face and say in Spanish what they are. The class was terrific, working together to learn and be productive! Click the link at right to see a You Tube video!

On Monday, October 31 (Halloween!), the students and staff at St. Joseph School had their annual Halloween parade and parties! Check out the pictures at left or the You Tube video at right! Many thanks to our parent volunteers and everyone who helped out!

The first grade class visited the residents of Hallmark House Nursing Home on Oct. 31, 2011.  This was the first of four visits they will have with the residents this year.  The children dressed in their Halloween costumes, sang songs, and wished the people a Happy Halloween with hand-made cards.  The people of Hallmark House made the children ghosts created from lollipops and tissue.  It was a special time for everyone!

The Carnival recently came to the St. Joseph School gym and cafeteria! Students enjoyed such attractions as the inflatable obstacle course, soda ring toss, balloon animals, movies, face-painting, and drawings and prizes. One of the most popular attractions was the dunk-tank. The dunk-tank “victims” included our music teacher Mrs. Pschigoda, Father Jim, and our own principal Mrs. Rogers. Thank you to everyone who helped make this carnival one of the best St. Joseph School has had! Click here or on the picture at right for more pictures!

Mrs. Davis and the 5th graders are once again collecting batteries! Mrs. Davis started collecting batteries in January of 2009. So far, 3,512 batteries have been recycled and saved from the landfill. Please continue to send your batteries to the school office. We are making a difference for our environment! Remember, AA, AAA, C,D, watch, camera, hearing aide, computer, and other batteries used in mechanical devices can be recycled.

The 7th and 8th graders started off the new school year working hard to unite by participating in team-building activities. The students needed to develop strategies together to solve a variety of tasks, work cooperatively to create modern art, and complete a variety of physical challenges. As a result of team-building activities, they have developed into a cohesive junior high unit strengthened by shared experiences and opportunities. It is very obvious that now they are more prepared than ever to take on the challenges the year has in store.

For the 2nd year the St. Joseph School baseball team is competing in the IESA, improving from the moderate success from last season. The Saints have competed hard in every contest and put themselves in a position to be victorious a majority of the time. The team has played some tough competition and played many games against larger schools, and, win or lose, represented itself and the school as a program to contend with. 2011 can only be looked upon as a very successful season for the St. Joseph baseball team!

For St. Joseph School students, the morning of August 24 marked the beginning of a new year at school! We are all very excited to start this new year and to see what it brings! Students will be spending the first couple weeks of school getting to know their new teachers and settling back into routines. Don't forget that during the week of August 24-26, students are dismissed at 11:30 AM, and on the week of August 29-September 2, they are dismissed at 12:30 PM. Click the picture at right to see more!

The 11th Annual St. Joseph Golf Classic was a huge success this year! With over 14 teams playing at Lick Creek Golf Course, the outing was followed by the dinner and auction at the Pekin Country Club. At the dinner and auction, the 2011 Scion was raffled off to one lucky winner! All in all, the outing made over $65,000, helping to support our school! We are grateful to Fort's Toyota for donating the Scion, Brian Smith for organizing the golf outing, and to everyone who helped make this event a tremendous success!

St. Joseph School's annual Fun Day was Tuesday, May 17. Held at Pekin's Mineral Springs Park, the students were divided into numerous teams ranging in diverse ages. They then competed with the guidance of their team leader on a course consisting of such events as the water balloon toss, the wheelbarrow walk, and ping pong with tennis balls! Afterwards, the students got to eat lunch at the pavilion and then play games such as tug-of-war and bubble-blowing. Everyone had a fantastic time! Click here or on the picture at right for more!

Catholic Schools Week: A+ for America just wrapped up. In spite of the huge winter storm that shortened the week, the events we had were very successful and exciting! Some of the activities we all enjoyed were Jeopardy, the Book Fair, special persons lunch, a teacher vs. student volleyball game, and the junior high dance. Special thanks to all who made this week wonderful! Check out the Catholic Schools Week page for more!