6th Grade Camping Experience

6th graders enjoy attending an outdoor education camp each fall. At this time they participate in various activities such as pond life and wetland exploration, animal education, wilderness survival, team building, archery, tower climbing, and night hiking. This is a wonderful time for students to form new bonds of friendship and gain individual responsibility. 6th graders enjoy attending an outdoor education camp each fall. This is a wonderful time for students to form new bonds of friendship and gain individual responsibility.

Student Council Installation Mass

In August of each school year, the new members of Student Council are installed at an installation mass. Each officer and representative take an oath to follow the guidelines and take an active role in the school. The St. Charles Student Council sponsors many school activities, including, a toy drive, coloring contests, Just Tape It, and dress down days. The students and moderators meet each week to plan various activities for our school community.

All Saints Day

The fourth grade students celebrate Mass with Bishop Darcy each year. Students from all over the Diocese come together dressed as the saints they have been studying. During the month of October each child selects a saint to research. They find important facts about the saint's life. The students learn what beatitude the saint lived, and how they can live that beatitude too. They honor their saint at special Masses celebrating All Saints' Day.

First Reconcilitation

Each year, the second graders come closer to God through the sacrament of Reconciliation. There are two weekends set aside for the students and their families to ask God for forgiveness. This is another special way to live our faith. After the Reconciliation service, there is a reception to celebrate this day at school.

Christmas Musical

The Christmas play is presented each December by interested third, fourth, and fifth grade students. One afternoon a week, the students rehearse after school from September through mid-December. Traditionally, this musical production relates to the birth of Jesus. Members of the cast may try out for a speaking part in the drama, or they may be in the chorus. Contact person: Mrs. Till.

Buddy Mass

Every student at St. Charles has a buddy in another grade. Grades 1-4 are paired up with a buddy in grades 5-8. Each buddy class prepares a Friday mass for the whole school. The students plan the mass, sing, and read. It is a fun to come together, young and old, to show their love for God through the celebration of the mass.

Band

All students in grade four learn to play the recorder as part of the curriculum of their general music class. During the second semester of their fourth grade year, students are invited to join the Beginning Band. These students learn the basics to play the woodwind, brass, or percussion instrument of their choice. Students in grades 5-6 form the Intermediate Band, learning more techniques for playing their instrument. Instruction includes reading music, learning the dynamics in playing a composition, and learn to work with a group listening to each other to create a magical sound! In grades 7-8, students are members of the Advanced Band. These students play more complicated compositions and are challenged as their expertise with their instrument improves.
Band classes are held during the school day during lunch, recess, and enrichment periods. A winter concert is performed in early December by Intermediate & Advanced Bands as well as the String students, Chorus, and Hand Chimes group. A spring concert is performed in May and includes all of the above groups as well as the Beginning Band. The bands are directed by Ms. Christine Russell, BDHS director of bands and orchestra.

Plant Show

In the Spring the Parks and Recreation Department of Fort Wayne provides the students in grades 1-5 with flowering seeds, vegetable seeds and plants. The students take these home and grow their plants over the summer. The Saint Charles Plant Show was held on Friday, Septmber 8th. The winners than participated in the city wide Plant Show that Saturday. The Parks and Recreation Department has sponsored this event for several years. Saint Charles students continue to participate and do very well in the event.

Service

All students at St. Charles take place in a wide variety of service activities. Each grade level has various projects and trips. Some of the service trips the students go on include: visiting the Franciscan Center to stock and bag lunches, going to the Children's Cottage to play with the preschool age children that attend there, and the fourth graders visit Turnstone twice a year to read with the disabled children and in the spring they hold a read-a-thon to benefit Turnstone. Throughout the school, we hold various food drives to benefit our local St. Vincent DePaul pantry and the Associated Churches, a candy drive to fill Easter baskets and a clothing drive at Christmas for St. Pat's Closet, and a "baby shower" to benefit the Women's Care Center. On top of that, classrooms also sign up to clean up litter around the school campus, decorate grocery sacks for the St. Mary's Soup Kitchen, and the first graders put on a Christmas show for those at Arbor Glen Nursing Home. The students have a strong sense of service, to give back to those in need as part of our Catholic beliefs.

Fine Arts Fair

Each spring St. Charles holds a Fine Arts Fair. This is a weekend event featuring musical presentations such as vocal and various instrumental performances. There is also a large art show featuring student's artwork. Each child enrolled at St. Charles, including kindergarten, has one piece of artwork on display. The artwork is a collaboration of every project completed in art class thus far.

Kindergarten

In Kindergarten, we are always busy with a lot of hands on activities especially in centers. We are continuously learning our letters and sounds along with sight words to help us learn to read. We are beginning to learn to write sentences and learning to pray the Rosary. We attend church the First Friday of each month and the Holy Days. The children are beginning to learn addition facts nd soon we will begin susbtraction. The children will also be introduced to Otter Math. St. Charles Kindergarten is located over at Our Lady of Good Hope.

Field Trips

Field trips are educational opportunities provided for students at St. Charles Borromeo School. These field trips are not a right but a privilege. Field trips meet Indiana Standards specific to the the grade level curriculum. Examples of field trips include: Fort Wayne Philharmonic Young People's Concert, Lindenwood Nature Preserve, Hanson Aggregates, Fox Island County Park, Fort Wayne Children's Zoo, Fort Wayne Historical Museum, Forks of the Wabash, Kurtz Pumpkin Farm, Lincoln Muserum, and Art Museum.

Lego Robotics

The St. Charles Lego Robotics Team provides a hands-on learning experience that encourages team work, problem solving, and good sportsmanship, as well as the designing and programming of a robot to accomplish a set of tasks in competition.