Herald Schools

Catholic Schools Week celebrated in Lynbrook, East Rockaway

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Students at St. Raymond’s Parochial School in East Rockaway and Our Lady of Peace School in Lynbrook partook in a variety of academic and religious events for Catholic Schools Week, which ran from Jan. 29 through Feb. 2.

“It’s a busy week for us, but fun,” said St. Raymond’s Principal Ruthanne Gypalo.

St. Raymond’s students had a Game Day and assisted during a blood drive. They also showed off their academic skills with a trivia game and activities based on science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, subjects. First-graders imagined what classrooms in the future would look like out of LEGOs, and second-graders made rafts out of straws. They then tested the buoyancy of their rafts, by seeing if they could float with a paper penguin on top of them. Students also played math board games that were made by the sixth-graders.

“Even though they’re sixth-graders and they’re working with the math they know, they had to modify it for the kindergarteners,” Gypalo said.

At Our Lady of Peace School, the week began with a crowded Mass, during which the school’s choir sang. It continued with tours for the public, lunches with family members, a game show and a school Spirit Day.

This Catholic Schools Week was also the first that the students participated in a literacy-themed Olympics, to celebrate the upcoming Winter Olympic Games, which open in South Korea on Feb. 9. During the Literacy Olympics, middle school students used figurative language to describe their favorite Olympic event. Younger students used STEM projects to explain the sports.

“We’re really celebrating what Catholic education brings to our young children,” Principal Jineen Leach said. “The great academic work.”