St. Ursula Villa's campus foliage is beautiful and fall is definitely in the air. We have taken full advantage of the ability to hold classes outside during the recent pleasant weather and will now be more creative as needed. We are carefully monitoring COVID-19 cases in our school's demographic zip codes and are very mindful of our commitment to keep our students and teachers healthy while navigating this alarming pandemic. Thank you for your cooperation and support now and in the upcoming months.

While we truly miss gathering in person, we are pleased with the ways we have discovered to unite as a school community. In October, we worshipped together via live-stream for both the Liturgy of the Word and St. Ursula's Feast Day. Villa families supported "Pink Week" with generous donations and support of the event's activities to raise awareness of breast cancer and give to others. Many examples of our Villa Values - Education, Faith, and Community - are illustrated in this newsletter and lived out in home and school.

As we close this month, I wish you and your children a fun and safe Halloween!

Kent Halaby

Interim Principal

Montessori Kindergarteners read Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert and enjoyed the book's theme: "A Leaf Man's got to go where the wind blows." Inspired by the illustrations made of actual leaves, they gathered nature items on a campus walk to creatively design their own "Leaf Person." The project finished with an imaginative writing activity about their Leaf Person's travels.

Traditional 4-year-olds explored the use of color and created Henry Matisse-style paintings over several weeks of Art classes.

7th and 8th graders are making "racers" in STEAM class to compete in The Vineyard Place Pumpkin Race. The student-engineered racers will carry a 10-pound pumpkin down the course with awards for fastest time, best artistic flair, and most innovative design.

Kindergarteners used shaving cream to practice letter formation and review their spelling words.

These Kindergarteners eagerly shared their new Library books. The COVID-modified library check-out process now makes books available to all interested Villa students, thanks to the efforts of Villa Librarian, Ms. Hall.

In their unit on the metric system and measurement, 6th graders played "Rock, Paper, Scissors" to first earn a turn, then correctly convert a metric problem to advance on the game board.

7th grade Science students studied properties of water such as cohesion and surface tension. They added drops of water on a penny until the surface tension broke, noting the experiment's process and results.

The Toddlers dressed in costumes and enjoyed a small Halloween party in their classroom.

Each month, a Primary, Intermediate, and Junior High student is selected by our faculty for demonstrating one of the nine Characteristics of an Ursuline Education. We commend these Ursuline Students of the Month for exemplifying September's characteristic of A Strong Family Spirit Within the School: Lexi Sandker (Primary), James Krausser (Intermediate), and Macy Finn (Junior High).

The Pet Blessing, a cherished 3rd-grade Villa tradition for 23 years, was reinvented as a special Religion class event. On St. Francis of Assisi's Feast Day, students brought photographs of their pet or stuffed animals for a blessing and St. Francis medal. They also learned the Prayer of St. Francis, studied Francis' life and legend, and appreciated his great love for all of God's creation - especially animals.

8th graders led our school community in a virtual Liturgy of the Word streamed to all our classrooms. This Liturgy of the Word included student-led Call to Worship, scripture readings, reflections on our school theme of “In times of great need, true friendship is recognized,” prayer, petition, and closing.

Villa Campus Minister Ms. Riehle shared the story of St. Ursula and led classroom activities to deepen students' understanding of our school's namesake. On St. Ursula's Feast Day, our Villa community celebrated and worshipped together with a live-streamed mass officiated by Fr. Tony Stephens with assistance from our 7th graders.

Montessori B enjoy a virtual visit by a Mystery Reader every week and love seeing their family members and friends "in" their classroom. Students use clues to guess the identity of the Mystery Reader - a parent, grandparent, nanny, or friend - who is revealed on the classroom Smart Board and reads a story via Google Meet.

It's always fun to have lunch together as a class when weather and space permits.

During "Pink Week," the Villa faculty and students participated in several ways to wear pink and donate to The Karen Wellington Foundation for LIVING with Breast Cancer. Teachers sported pink neckties (gifted by Gym teacher Ms. Hake), students paid $2 to wear out-of-uniform pink shirts, and 136 students competed in the 11th Annual Free Throw Contest during Gym class - all raising a total of $1730.00! St. Ursula Villa Junior High Student Council coordinated the fundraiser as part of October's Breast Cancer Awareness Month to increase awareness of the disease and honor Karen Wellington, a Villa mom and active volunteer during her children's years at our school. Donations were also made in honor of Riley Mack, whose brother Casey was in our Kindergarten class last year during Riley's treatment at Cincinnati Children's Hospital.

We recognize the 8^th grade girls volleyball players who celebrated their last home game in the Villa gym and thank long-time coaches Bain Butcher and Chris Cavanaugh for their dedication and making this such a great experience for the girls.

Congratulations to our 4^th grade girls volleyball team, coached by Zorya Kluska and Dan Hass, on their 2^nd place finish in the GCCYS post-season tournament.

Ms. Linda Freese has been a Traditional 3-year-old Preschool teacher at the Villa for 4 years and shares: "I have a fun, loving and very patient husband, Gary Freese. We have five beautiful children, Emma 17, Noah 15, Andrew 13, Brooke 10 and Kate 8. We enjoy boating and vacationing in Cumberland. Our children are very active in basketball, cross country, wrestling, soccer and softball! Most weekends we are busy attending some sort of sporting event."