Do you like to paint? So does Akiane (ah-kee-on-a) Kramarik. She and her family are atheists (ay-thee-ists). Atheism (ay-thee-ism) is the belief that there is no God. Before you say or think “What is wrong with her?” or “I don’t like her!” that is just the way they think, and we know that God is real. But, the amazing thing was that she said that she was visited by God and He taught her how to paint. She painted the picture above when she was only 8. I’m NOT kidding! She painted many, many more unbelievable paintings when she was still young, most when she was 7 or 8 years old. No one would ever be able to paint anything like she does! Now she writes poems and her own music. She truly has a gift. There is also a book about her (The picture above is the cover of it.) The book is called: “Akiane: Her Art, Her Poetry, Her Life.” Akiane can also speak many languages and has been on “Oprah.” After being on “Oprah,” she met her mom backstage. She had a poem in mind about her experience on stage and told her mom to write it down and spoke in a different language so no one could understand her. Akiane’s poetry is as unbelievable as her art as well. You wouldn’t believe she actually wrote it and she’s still very young. Akiane Kramarik is amazing and has been blessed by God with this wonderful gift. If you happen to see the book or her paintings and poetry, you will know what I mean.
If you don’t know what a pareidolia is, a pareidolia is an illusion, which is something that you think you see. So, I was watching the news about a few weeks ago, and I saw something very interesting. A guy was eating a tortilla when he noticed that there was a picture of Jesus’ face on it. Isn’t that interesting? I think that is amazing because you don’t usually see Jesus’ face on food. I think that guy is very lucky.
Can you see George?
Maybe Jesus was trying to tell him something. There are a lot of other people who found pictures and other strange things on food too. There was another person who found a chicken nugget that looked like George Washington. That person with it was paid $4,000 for that chicken nugget. Wow! You can find some interesting things in food. Maybe if you look around, you can find a pareidolia too!
As you probably know, on or near Easter we paint or dye Easter Eggs, and they’re often given to celebrate Easter or springtime. But now I’ll give you facts that you don’t know about how these eggs came to be. The oldest tradition was to paint or dye chicken eggs. But now, they are substituted by chocolate or plastic eggs filled with candy. Usually, the eggs are hidden for children to find on Easter morning and are said to be hidden by the Easter Bunny. Sometimes they’re put in baskets filled with real or fake straw to resemble a bird’s nest. The eggs are wildly known as signs of new life. An example is a chicken hatching from an egg. Did you know that Fabergé eggs were commissioned by Czar Alexander III of Russia as an Easter surprise for his wife, Maria Fyodorovna? Also, in Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches, their Easter eggs are dyed red to represent the blood of Christ, and the hard shells of the eggs represented the sealed tomb of Christ. The cracking of the eggs symbolized Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. I hope you enjoyed and learned something new from my story. God bless!
This Lent we remember that it’s a time to focus on giving and loving, and that is why a group of fourth-graders decided to donate to a good cause. I put together a group of kids to make origami, duct tape bracelets, paper flowers, bookmarks, puzzles and posters. We are selling them to raise money for Make a Wish. The Make a Wish Foundation is for kids who have really bad diseases that can’t be cured, so the money donated helps them get their wish before they die. If you want to donate or buy these items, please come to Room 101 and let us know at any time. Thank you!
CLICK HERE to check out a cool slideshow I made about Make-a-Wish!!!
Did you ever wonder how Jesus felt on Good Friday? The fifth-graders are doing the Living Stations at Mass on Friday, March 30th. The Living Stations are where they have to act out 15 stations that show what happened to Jesus on the day he died on the cross. The stations go from the very beginning of that horrible day to the very end when he rises from the dead on Easter Sunday. We want the students to feel like they are there watching Jesus suffer. He was in so much pain that he fell three times! The soldiers hurt him. They didn’t believe he was the son of God, our Father. The Living Stations is an amazing way to see how Good Friday to Easter Sunday really happened. We will be doing another performance for the families at 7 p.m. the very same night. We hope you and your family will be able to go to this meaningful event.
Here at St. Ambrose School we care about our history, good messages, and most importantly our God. When you think of history, what come to your mind? What is your favorite part about history? In this video it has messages about God and some pictures containing history now. Enjoy!
You might have seen Noah around school, but how well do you really know him? Noah was a dog that nobody wanted, and his owners threw him in some dark woods. Mrs. J found him when our school’s Noah’s Ark Ministry hosted an animal fair. Mrs. J. saw him while looking for a special dog at the fair. She was so excited about Noah she brought him to Mrs. Bopp. Mrs. Bopp decided to research him on the website for Noah’s Ark Ministry. She found out that Noah was between 1 and 4 years old and was born in a puppy mill. She found out so many great things about him and loved him so much that she adopted him. Now Noah is in training to be a therapy dog. A therapy dog is one that goes to the sick and brightens up their day. He is training to be a therapy dog at Best Paws Forward Training Academy, and when he’s done, he’ll help out kids at school. A saying from Mrs. J: “When Noah is fully trained, he will be a full-time Angel!”
Every month I go to the nursing home with my friends. When we get there we first do a craft with the residents. The crafts are really fun, like the one day when we made pumpkins and the seniors decorated them. After that my friend’s mom punched a hole in the pumpkins and put a piece of string through each. So now the residents can hang them up in their rooms! After the craft we sing songs with them, and some even sing along! After about 15 songs we hope that they have a great rest of the day and we say goodbye. When I leave the nursing home, I feel like I did something really meaningful.
On December 22nd, some of my fifth-grade friends and I decided to go Christmas caroling to collect canned goods for those in need. Natalie Pryatel, Katie Byram, Sydney Jenko, Haley Morgan, Anna Krizsa, Anna Cupach, and me, Maria Antonius, bundled ourselves up and walked around a local neighborhood singing some of our favorite Christmas songs. We collected more than 50 canned goods, a fruit basket, and five jars of peanut butter. The peanut butter was given to Parma Hospital, and the rest of the donations were delivered to the Brunswick food pantry. We had a lot of fun singing and laughing together, while doing something to help others in need. It was a good way to end the 2011 year. We plan to do more service together in 2012. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
On Christmas you think of a tree and gifts. Well, some people cannot celebrate all those traditions that we do. I mean, think about what you are doing now, reading off a computer. You are very lucky to have this opportunity, because not everyone does. I am talking about the homeless people who live in cars or on the streets. Think about Jesus, how he was born in a barn. It wasn’t the place he was born in; it was him. On a show called “60 Minutes” they did a report on people who live in cars or trucks. It was very moving, and it made me think how lucky I am.
How lucky do you think you are? There are many ways you can help the needy this Christmas season. For example, you can donate food. Together we can give hope for those people. Treat them like you are their brother or sister, because you are. I know I am going to pray to God to help them every day because it helps. Our school does help the needy all the time. Together we can make a change.
Part of being a member of a St. Ambrose sports team is representing the school in a positive way and helping others. This fall our football team had an opportunity to help the grandpa of one of our teammates. Colin’s grandpa was diagnosed with lung cancer and had to spend time at a hospital. We knew we had to cheer him up. His grandpa is a sports fan and played football when he was younger. He was a quarterback for the University of Akron and got into the Hall of Fame there. This fall after one of our football games, we gave him a St. Ambrose football team jersey that we all signed.
Colin with his grandpa, dad and brother
We also put our hands on him and prayed for him. My mom took some pictures of that moment. Then we got him a frame and gave a picture to him. At the end of that he was smiling, and I felt really, really wonderful. We are asking all of our students and parishioners to say some prayers for Colin’s grandpa.
Are you looking for excitement? If you are, you’ll be sure to find a lot of it in the sixth grade. The sixth-graders really enjoyed turning into saints and bringing their other classmates back to the past this week as we remember All Saints Day. They dressed up and acted like they are the actual saint while giving their speeches. The saints they picked had to do with their name or what they like to do. The students were very interested every minute they was doing their research and really enjoyed doing this project. Be sure to watch the sixth-graders process in with their creative costumes on Tuesday, Nov. 1, at the school Mass.
Have you ever wondered why some schools only help people and not animals? I know I have. But St. Ambrose is different. We recently added a new ministry about caring for God’s creation of animals. I interviewed the two wonderful teachers who are the ones who made the ministry possible. They are Mrs. J, our gym teacher, and Mrs. Hill, an aide to everything. Now I will share my interview with them.
Precious Pooch!
Q: What is the Noah’s Ark Animal Ministry about?
A: Our mission is to care for and celebrate God’s creation
of animals.
Q: What will the ministry do?
A: We’re going to promote adoptions from rescue centers
and shelters. Also we will promote therapy dogs to visit the homebound and those at nursing homes. Another thing we are going to do is collect donations for different shelters. We will also promote health/wellness, which means we will encourage people to walk their dogs.
For more information, send an email to NoahsArk@stambrose.us or
check out the parish website at StAmbrose.us. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on Community, and then click on the Noah’s Ark picture. The first meeting is at 7 p.m. on June 15th in Hilkert Hall room 3, but please send an email first and sign up.
Have you always wanted to help people but didn’t know how? My family and I recently went to a nursing home because after church we wanted to do good deeds. We decided to bring friendly cards to the residents. When we went, we met a nurse named Dawn. She told us she had some people for us to meet. After we gave our cards to them, my heart felt like I should do nice things like this always.
I believe that all of us here at St. Ambrose can put smiles on the faces of the residents who live there. Let’s give Easter baskets for Easter. They can be filled with chocolates, cards and coloring pictures. We would need to make about 90 Easter baskets, because there are 90 people who live there.
If you want to make a nursing home resident happy, why don’t you make a card or donate a basket or chocolate? I would really appreciate your help with this project. Bring all cards, pictures and basket/candy donations to room 101, and we will deliver them on our next trip. If you want to go with us to visit the residents, come to room 101 and ask for John. We’d love to have you go!
