Communion Books

If you haven't heard yet, you can pick up your Communion books in the office! You can check the hours on the website or by calling. 


 http://www.churchoftheholyspirit.org/


Merry Christmas!

A Day in Bethlehem

Saturday afternoon we had a fabulous Day In Bethlehem. Families came with their children to visit Mary and Joseph and the new baby Jesus, make crafts, bake bread, play the dreidel game, and make a keepsake ornament. Everyone had a great time!

You can see our pictures here:

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

Ten Commandments and Christmas Caroling

At class on Saturday, we reviewed Chapter 7 (The Ten Commandments). We talked about making choices between right and wrong. We talked about sin and how there are really big sins that break our friendship with God (mortal sins) and smaller sins that hurt our friendship with God (venial sins). We talked about each of the Commandments and how they apply to us. I suggest you read Chapter 7 and go through the chart and talk about them as a family. We had a great discussion in class about this! 

At the end of class all of the other classes joined us and we sang Christmas carols together. We also "lit" the third Advent candle. It was a great experience to all come together and sing Christmas songs!

I especially enjoyed the enthusiastic rendition of "Happy Birthday Jesus". I got chills listening to it afterwards!

Check us out singing in the video below:

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

Homework:

NONE! Merry Christmas!

Helping Children Deal with Tragedy

Reposted from my classroom blog:

http://missstephaniesclass.blogspot.com/2012/12/helping-children-deal-with-tragedy.html

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In light of the events of Friday, please visit Miss Erin's blog here 

http://misserinsclass.blogspot.com/2012/12/helping-children-cope-with-tragedy.htmlto check out some links that can help parents talk to young children when tragedy hits.

There are some other links here: http://www.naeyc.org/content/coping-school-shooting

This article gives some specific examples of what you can say to children when they ask about what happened or why the adults are sad:http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/family/2012/12/elementary_school_shooting_how_to_talk_to_your_kids_about_the_connecticut.html

One of the most important things is to limit what young children see on the TV. It is hard for young children to understand what they see and hear and we don't know how they rationalize it in their heads. 

Also, though we want to share information with kids, make sure what you share is developmentally appropriate. Your children of different ages may need to be told different things. You may want to warn older siblings to watch what they say to younger siblings. 

My thoughts and prayers are with all those touched by Friday's tragedy. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help you and your families.