As we conclude the month of March, I reflect on how much we have accomplished and how varied our children's experiences are. Our Early Childhood students grow and learn through lessons, crafts, playtime, and countless teachable moments throughout their day. Main School classrooms and hallways are filled with projects, dioramas, and visual representations of academic learning in addition to technology used for educational presentations and videos. Our students always impress me with their curiosity, dedication, and creativity nurtured by our Villa faculty.

We will continue to accomplish much when we return from Easter Break and finish this school year, but I hope you and your families enjoy and benefit from a restful time together. I wish you a very blessed Easter and look forward to seeing you again in April!

Kent Halaby

Interim Principal

We congratulate Colin Chimento and Christine O'Donnell for recently receiving high school scholarship offers and raising the Class of 2021's scholarship totals to more than $900,000. We commend all 20 scholarship recipients - 69% of the 8th grade class - for their academic achievements and earning 100% placement into their first choice school.

Traditional 4-year-old preschoolers learned about community helpers through lessons, books, and activities such as this puzzle.

2nd graders studied tropical rain forests, learning about the geographical locations of rain forests and their ecosystems. Students created posters about each rain forest layer and categorized animals into one of the four layers based in its habitat. They also selected a rain forest animal to research and portray in a creative diorama.

3rd graders read and discussed Stone Fox, the classic novel about a young boy competing in a dog sled race and use the prize money to save his family's farm from foreclosure.

Traditional 3-year-olds participated in a Science experiment and observed how colored water travels up a celery stalk as part of their unit about healthy eating and nutrition.

Traditional Kindergarteners designed and engineered "traps" to catch mischievous Leprechauns - unfortunately with no success.

4th grade Language Arts students created a dodecahedron 12-sided ball as a book report on a fiction book of their choice. The project required many elements, including researching the author, analyzing the characters, and creating an advertisement for the book.

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 March's characteristic of The Christ-like Spirit of Saint Angela Merici: Penny Schmidt (Primary), Faith Kluska (Intermediate), and Gavin Gilreath (Junior High).

Traditional 3-year-olds created handprint shamrocks and related the shamrock to the Holy Trinity. They discussed the shamrock's three leaves as similar to the three parts of the Holy Trinity - first is God the Father, then Jesus His only Son, and the Holy Spirit together as One.

Junior High students participated in a Confirmation Retreat led by a team from the Jesuit Milford Retreat Center. The day was spent in prayer, discernment about their relationship to God, and taking part in team-building activities.

Preschoolers celebrate Jesus' love for them and the true meaning of Easter.

7th graders created a special Power Point presentation of the Stations of the Cross by adding audio and narration to beautiful illustrations of each Station. The school shared the prayerful experience together as a special part of Holy Week and a powerful reminder of Jesus' Passion and suffering for us. We are happy to share it here.

In December, Villa students participated in a school-wide service project to demonstrate Jesus' message "I was a stranger and you welcomed me." They created hundreds of Christmas cards that were distributed to outreach centers, nursing homes, hospitals, and other agencies. A group of University of Cincinnati Medical Center nurses and doctors sent Valentines back to several grades to show their deep gratitude for the students' love and support.

Instead of sharing Everybody Counts presentations by visiting classrooms, 8th graders prepared videos about each disability. Each morning, younger students viewed a video presentation of topics including hearing and visual impairment, learning disabilities, and motor impairment. The goal of the Everybody Counts program is to build understanding, inclusion, and ease with one another’s differences and to teach students about various disabilities and how children with these challenges cope with them.

Have you RSVP'd for our first opportunity to gather together IN PERSON and support our wonderful school? We are planning a very special evening of fun, food, and fellowship and hope you are planning to join us on the tented Villa Way Saturday, April 17th. You can buy event tickets here or Grand Raffle tickets here. We look forward to seeing you at Villa Royale!

Villa spring sports are up and running with games underway! We fielded 5 GCCYS boys volleyball teams in 3rd - 5th grade with exciting matches in the Villa gym. Over 160 boys and girls ages 5 -14 are participating in SAY soccer and playing for the Villa on soccer fields around the city. We wish everyone a successful season - GO, EAGLES!

More fun facts about Ms. Driggers: