For the feast, the parents brought in food like macaroni and cheese, turkey, yams, greens, rolls, and a lot of other different foods.

You could kind of say it was a pot luck but with a special meaning to it.

“It was really good. I wish there was more left,” said seventh grade student Y’maia Jackson.

The feast at extended care is one Thanksgiving tradition that is done every year. The other is the Thanksgiving community outreach. As the school motto says “Do your best and let God do the rest,” the students do their best to help the community celebrate Thanksgiving as well.

The students donated $3 and also brought in canned foods / fruits that went to another school in Oakland where the students’ families are less fortunate. The school was very thankful for the donations.

This is just one of the many community outreach activities at Saint Leo the Great School.

The feast and the community outreach both help the students learn to be thankful during Thanksgiving. The feast is a celebration of the holiday with their “family” at school and by helping others in their time of need they learn to be thankful for the things they already have and also get to receive thanks from the people they helped.

by: Jordan Coleman-Stithz, 7th grade
Senior Reporter
THE LION LEDGER

The firefighters talked about things like how to know when to call  911.  They also talked about how at home, families should have an emergency plan for an escape route in case of a fire.

“I thought it was very cool and exciting,” Pre-K student Kellen Hampton said.

Kellen also said that there was a game played and it was about  a re-enactment of what to do in a fire.

One of the firefighters put on their suit and showed the students how staying down on the floor and crawling below the smoke can help save your life.

The Oakland Fire Department taught the students so much about fire safety. They took time out of their day to teach about safety and the students loved to learn with them.

by: Alyssa Hampton-Merino, 5th grade
Reporter
THE LION LEDGER

Mrs. Erin Lunde is the new second grade teacher here at St. Leo the Great School. Her favorite subject is language arts and she loves to teach children math.

She says she became a teacher because she wanted to make a difference and help students. “On a scale from 1-10 I would choose 11 for how much I like to teach,” she said.

Mrs. Lunde’s parents inspired her to be a teacher because they are both teachers. “My mom teaches at Corpus Christi and my dad teaches at Bishop O’ Dowd,” Mrs. Lunde explained.

The schools she went to were 4-H (a youth organization administered by the Cooperative State Research), Our Lady of Grace elementary, Bishop O’Dowd High School, and Holy Names University.

Some of her favorite things are the color purple, eating artichokes, and shopping at Banana Republic. Her favorite books to read are “The Hunger Games” series and her favorite show to watch is “The Big Bang Theory.”

In 2013 she is planning on going to Germany.

by: Makeda Solomon, 5th grade
Reporter
THE LION LEDGER

During the first weekend of October, Ms. Phillips, 6th grade teacher, and Ms. Watkins, director of extended care, took part in the “Swim-a-Mile for Women with Cancer.” They, along with two others who call themselves “The H2O Girls,” swam a mile to raise money for the Women’s Cancer Resource Center.

The center gives information about breast cancer and supports people who have been affected by breast cancer. The team raised about $800.

“It felt great, it felt like I accomplished something for the greater good,” Ms. Phillips said.

All of the people who swam have been personally affected by this disease. Breast cancer is when a tumor — a clump of useless tissue — forms in your breast and grows rapidly. It affects millions of women around the world and can also be fatal. We even have two faculty members at our school who are survivors.

St. Leo the Great has also had a few fundraisers this month, like a pink lemonade sale and a day where students paid $5 to wear all the pink they wanted. All the proceeds will go to the Susan G. Komen foundation.

Breast cancer has affected millions of people and there’s a good chance that you might know someone personally who has been affected by this disease. You can try to help out by donating money or even by just educating someone about it. For now, keep all of the people who have been affected by breast cancer in your prayers.

by: Saba Kinfe, 8th grade
Editor-in-Chief
THE LION LEDGER

It was only Friday the 28th, but St. Leo the Great Catholic School was already celebrating All Hallows Eve with students and teachers in costume during the day and the annual carnival and haunted house at night.

Even though Halloween wouldn’t arrive until Monday, students were already in the mood Friday morning to get in the spirit for the big event that evening. They came dressed up as superheroes, Disney characters (some from PIXAR), and classic monsters like Dracula himself.

One student was even in the real spirit — school spirit — by coming dressed up as a lion, the school’s official mascot!

There was of course, the traditional costume parade around the block, then the classroom parties got underway and before students knew it, it was time to go home for the day. Since it was only a Minimum Day and the crews of parent volunteers needed to transform the school for the big event!

After about five hours of work, the school was turned into a carnival area and haunted house and the party lasted from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM.

from Staff Reports
News Team
THE LION LEDGER

Starting this year, we have a new WEEKLY features section with new content to check out each week. This will contain content from the MCT Campus newswire service which will currently include (and expand later on):

     • Music Downloads
     • Movie Picks
     • Healthy Living
     • “Try This!” (science experiments)
     • Comics

These will appear each and every week and can be found at the section link at the very far top right of the page (next to VIDEOS).

Speaking of videos, we plan to expand that feature this school year with more clips posted online from various school events like sports games and some mini news broadcast-style updates from the reporters here at “The Lion Ledger.”

As far as the improvements go, we’ve increased the font size of the stories and headlines so that they’re easier to read and pop out at you on the page. (Well, we think they do more than they did before with the font size that was being used). Also, photos will now have captions underneath them.

These are just some of the small things we’ve done that we think will make your experience much more enjoyable.

Our student news organization continues to grow each year with this school year having the largest staff ever. We welcomed seven new reporters to the staff in addition to welcoming back all of those that returned from last year for almost 20 total.

Compare that to when we first started out with a team of about eight students. (We can’t even remember that far back, but who wants to look back at the past?).

Next year we have big plans for celebrating our fifth anniversary. We can’t tell you what they are yet but we hope you’ll be here with us when we do. In the meantime, see what’s new with our OCT 2011 “issue,” the premiere edition for the 2011-12 school year. Enjoy!

from Staff Reports
News Team
THE LION LEDGER

From reporter, to a quick promotion that same year to associate editor, then serving as The Lion Ledger’s editor-in-chief for the past two years, 8th grade student Zyhir Brown has reached the end of his school and newspaper career.

At St. Leo the Great since Kindergarten, Brown will be attending Bishop O’Dowd High School next year.

In his final “Editor’s Desk” letter, Brown stated that he was amazed at how long he had been on staff and that it was one awesome ride. (To read his entire letter, click on the EDITOR’S DESK section at the top of this page and find the letter for JUN ’11).

from Staff Reports
News Team / THE LION LEDGER

Promethean Boards are basically like dry erase boards but bigger and better versions that connect to a computer and can be interacted with by teachers and students. They are also known as interactive whiteboards. Each classroom in the school (including the science and of course, computer lab) will be getting a Promethean board.

(In the photo above, Bluffton Elementary School fifth-grader Paula Lusena touches the Smart Board in her science lab classroom, July 17, 2007 in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. The Smart Board operates as an electronic blackboard that allows students and teachers to project and manipulate graphic displays by touching and moving items around on the board).

The computers will be for the computer lab, the laptops for the teachers, and it is planned to get a set of iPads for students to share in the classrooms.

Getting all of this cool new stuff does not just come from a tree and neither does money. Having the opportunity to get all these new electronic devices is a true blessing. Our school applied for grant money and also had many fundraisers. With these funds we were able to pay for the new technology.

Many students are excited about this news. The students of St. Leo really cannot wait until next school year because having class is going to be so much fun!

There are some students who are not so excited about getting this news. You are probably thinking: who wouldn’t be excited? Well… when you think about it, it’s kind of obvious. It’s the eighth graders. They are not excited because they will not be here next year. (Sorry guys).

With the really cool new ways to experience learning with all of this new technology, such as using the Promethean Boards as a replacement for plain-old white boards — or even iPads — this will really make the students enthusiastic about learning and also enhance the different way St. Leo’s students can learn!

by Hiwot Dereje, 6th grade
Associate Editor / THE LION LEDGER

MCT is a joint venture of McClatchy and the Tribune Co.

Principal Mrs. Simril is involved in a couple of organizations and one of them decided to do community service work with our school. The purpose of  this project was to show students how to plant a garden and grow their own food. They built two small wooden garden containers to plant in.

This project is not necessarily a class subject but it does go along the lines of science. The students in 3rd, 5th, and 8th grades really enjoyed getting their hands dirty. You could say they were doing “hands on” learning! Not only did the students enjoy this but the fact that they all wanted to share this accomplishment with their peers made the project special.

The teachers, students, and also Mrs. Simril hope to keep this up. This project doesn’t only improve our ecology but it also open new paths of learning and different opportunities for the students. Soon St. Leo will be a greener school.

by: Alinda Amuiri, 6th Grade
Associate Editor / THE LION LEDGER

Don’t be alarmed. The school isn’t in any type of trouble. If you haven’t heard the news, the Western Catholic Educational Association (WCEA) comes to the school about every five years for an accreditation process.

It is basically a check up on a school to see how they are doing educationally and it is done at schools all across the United States.

This is a very important process and our teachers have been preparing really hard and putting in lots of extra time into it. Working together, they spent the past year-and-a-half creating a document of the school’s best aspects. All of this filled a huge binder about two inches thick!

Before the committee arrived, students and teachers spent the morning sprucing up the school to get ready for the special visitors. When they were finally here, student representatives from the upper grades met with the team who introduced themselves and then the students gave them a tour of the school.

After school, assistant superindent Kathleen Radecke (who a lot of the students know because she has been at the school helping out during the whole accreditation process) had a meeting with all the teachers so that they could meet the members of the committee and introduce themselves to them.

January 28 was just a pre-visit. The actual visit will be from February 22-24.

by: Zyhir Brown, 8th grade
Editor-in-Chief / THE LION LEDGER