Let Us Adore Him

This week we are blessed to experience a very powerful form of prayer called Adoration. Adoration is an ancient form of prayer. The root of the word is "adore". Essentially, Adoration is an opportunity for us to show our deep love for Jesus. 

What sets Adoration apart from other forms of prayer is that Jesus is present with us in a consecrated host. We are able to pray with Jesus before us, who is truly present in the Eucharist. 

After our school mass this Wednesday, we will be placing a consecrated host, the Body of Christ, inside this beautiful gold Monstrance. Jesus is truly present!

When we begin Adoration and we enter Jesus' presence, we will show our deep respect by genuflecting, bowing low on one knee. Today we practiced this in a prayerful manner.

Then we will be led through a series of prayers; Adoration prayer, Confession prayer ("I'm sorry for ... Please forgive me"), Thanksgiving Prayer, and a Supplication prayer (our prayers for others). This experience will draw us close to Jesus. 

Today we familiarised ourselves with the prayer format our adoration will follow using a little personal journal. We reflected upon and recorded our personal thoughts for the Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication prayers. 

Mass will be held in our school gym this Wednesday at 9:00 am with Adoration to follow for individual classes and small groups. Please consider joining us for mass and Adoration if you are able. This prayer experience is fairly new for most of us, but it is sure to be a powerful one. All are invited!

Please keep us in your prayers as we experience Christ in Adoration!

Adoration Booklet from Look To Him and Be Radiant. 

We are Called to Serve

Pope Francis not only urges us to care for those in need, but does it with his own two hands, day after day. 

For the last few years, our staff, students, and families have made an effort to reach out to "those who cannot repay us" by packing lunches for the hungry. 

This past week, every child in our school played a role in making 200 lunches. The students in grades 7 and 8 assembled fresh ham and cheese sandwiches. Students in grades 3 through 6 mixed and baked healthy & hearty cookies, filled with whole wheat and oats. Our Kindergarten, Grade 1 and 2 students wrote uplifting messages on paper hearts to tuck into each lunch bag. Families were asked to donate oranges and apples to round out the healthy lunches.

While the deed itself of packing these lunches made an impact on our students, what was even more important for our students were the conversations we had throughout the process. 

Who are these hungry people we are feeding? 

Why might they not have a lunch? 

How can we continue to share our blessings with those who so desperately need it?

Today a parent team delivered the lunches to an organisation in downtown Edmonton. Please pray for those who received these lunches today and for those who continue to be burdened with hunger. 

May we continue to urge our students to seize every opportunity to be the hands of Jesus to those in need. 

Big News!

Turns out LOTS of things qualify as BIG NEWS when you are in Grade 1!

"I lost a tooth!"

"I have sparkles in my hair!"

"I went skating last night!"

"It's my auntie's birthday!"

"Check out my socks!"

In the first 10 minutes of the day, my ears always ring with the students' news, excitement, and joy!

Channeling this energy, we now have begun sharing daily news! Each day one student is chosen to share something special in his or her life, and we are all so happy to help create the message!

"I got home on Friday night."

We work as a class to write a child's news, but it is led by that particular student. By using the Word Wall, finding words we need around our room, utilizing our children's picture dictionaries, and stretching out words we don't know together, the news of the day is crafted! 

Then we spend a few minutes working with the sentence, sometimes hunting for vowels, other times counting syllables. We have a catchy rap we always say to help us write a strong sentence. It takes about 10 minutes, but it's 10 minutes of really powerful, engaging learning!

This is a tremendously rich opportunity for countless Language Arts mini-lessons; capitals, end punctuation, rhyming words, environmental print, Word Wall Words, spelling, word families, vowels, phonic rules, blends, syllables, and so, so much more! 

Here is some of the news we've recently shared:

"I went to Launch Pad."

"I had a sleep over."

"My birthday is going to be soon."

Sharing our news is one of our favourite times of day! We collaborate as a class and have lots of fun along the way, and there is ALWAYS exciting news in Grade One!

Cozy Snow?

Cozy snow? Has Mrs. Beliveau lost her marbles?

Our current Science focus is on seasonal changes in Winter! We've been learning how some animals migrate, some animals hibernate, and others adapt. Today we were exploring how some animals survive the cold. 

Do you think it is warmer under the snow or on top? This generated an enormous amount of really thoughtful discussion and the students made predictions. Then, off to experiment!

Waiting for Mrs. Beliveau to start the experiment outside ...
while staying warm inside!

The experiment was simple: bury one thermometer in a snowbank, and leave the other sitting on top of the snow. To protect the thermometers, each was encased in a cracker box. (Honorable mention to the Beliveau children for eating so many crackers for the sake of Science).

Before lunch, we hustled back to check on our experiment:

Mrs. Beliveau checked the box sitting on top of the snow .....

The thermometer read -21 degrees C. Chilly!

Then Mrs. Beliveau dug out the buried box ...

The thermometer read -9 degrees C.

What?!?! 

It was much warmer under the snow!

We hurried back to class, and working with a giant paper thermometer, spent time exploring what this meant. 

Many animals have a better chance of surviving the cold winter when there is a lot of snow. This snow acts like a blanket. It traps heat from the earth, as well as an animal's body heat when an animal burrows deep. Turns out that winters with little snow are harder for plants and animals to survive!