Mrs. Arsenault and Miss Christina teach the youngest children in the CCD program.    Our approach is through games, songs, stories, arts and crafts and acting.   This year we already have 19 smiling faces! These children represent the future of our church. We joyfully welcome them.

We respectfully ask every parent to walk their child to our classroom, and at the end of each class, parents are invited to come into our classroom to have the children share what they have done that week.  This approach helps parents/grandparents be able to reinforce what we are learning about each week. It also keeps every child stay safe, so that no youngster is lost in the swarm of students entering or leaving the building and end up wandering out near the parking lot. We thank you for that "safety favor".

 We are excited about getting to know you and your child and working as a team to help your child master things like making the sign of the cross, learning that prayer is talking and listening to God, memorizing the Our Father and Hail Mary, growing in love of God, understanding that each of us is called to love and serve one another, and so much more.

March 19th in Kindergarten:  Kindergarten through 4th grade gathered in the gym for their one and only rehearsal for Stations of The Cross.  The date is Friday, March 24th.  Students are asked to arrive at 4, but the program honoring our Lord's walk to His death starts at 5 at HGA gym.
 
Here are the K level students  ideas for their own Lenten program.
 
Wren:  Help other people
 
Scout: Take on feeding my dog, Arthur.
 
Gabe: Cuddle my Mm and Dad because they like it.
 
Alyza: Help shop for my Grandma Peyton.
 
Lucas: ALWAYS pick up my toys.
 
Candice: Be good!
 
Yana: Help my Mom make the table.
 
Bert: Give my cat cat food.
 
Ira: Take my dogs out to go to the bathroom.
 
Arabella: Take my dog for a walk every day.
 
Chloe: Walk Grandma's dog.
 
Grady: Help my sister cause she's only 3 years old.
 
Lorelai: Be good EVERY day

March 12th in Kindergarten: The kindergarten class continued to focus on Lent by making thumbprint crosses with black ink pads and reviewed both the cross of Baptism and the cross of Lent.  They also got to use bingo dabbers as they each  made a giant Lent sign that   had ideas for what lent is "A Time For"; they gave their own idea for what they were doing for lent.  The high point was when Mrs. Bujold showed a video about our CCD's group effort to raise money  for Guatemala through the Heifer Project.   Bet those little guys will be doing extra chores, cashing in bottles, searching for change in their couch,  and finding many ways to be like Jesus and help others.

March 5th in Kindergarten:

Kindergarten plunged into learning about lent.  After looking at a real palm, and hearing the history of how they were used on Palm Sunday, that they really come from burned palms, and saw that the ashes won't burn you, as some thought .  Each child heard the famous "Dust thou art" verse and responded "Amen" as they got marked with ashes.  We took a tour of the hall bulletin boards to try and continue to learn more about lent and what happened to Jesus.  There was quite a reaction as they each got to touch a "Crown of Thorns". 

I am proud to say that now many more students are in the "Sign of The Cross Club", and have earned the cross of their choice.  We are now working on memorizing and saying independently the Hail Mary and Our Father.  Some of them will share their abilities with that at our upcoming Stations of The Cross

Week 13 in Kindergarten: This week the kindergarten class had their lesson right at St. Alphonsus.  The boys and girls got to practice blessing themselves in the holy water font as they entered the church, light their own individual candle and pray by the Sacred Heart of Jesus. They played their heart shape penny toss game that they learned last week so they could review that every baptized person has a job to "Love God, Love their neighbor, and Love them-self".

During the tour they got to go in the confessional, look at the stained glass windows, name and learn about the various statues of Saints, learn how to genuflect before going up on the altar,  and see the tabernacle, and The Precious Body housed inside. Their next stop was at the very Baptismal font that Father Decker baptized most of them at just 5 years ago.  Needless to say, baptizing our doll, with the children assuming the various roles, was  truly an educational and exciting moment!




Week 12 in Kindergarten: Kindergartners spent this week understanding that when their parents decided they would become a Catholic Christian they had them baptized.  That day, the day they were baptized, was their birthday into the Catholic church!:-) That's when they became part of our HUGE Catholic family.   All students got to observe a baptism,then role play baptizing dolls, and lastly learn that when you are baptized you have a job.  No matter how young or old a Catholic Christian you are, your job is to love God with all your heart.  You show this love not just to God but to all those around us.  So, the game of the day was to toss pennies mounted on hearts as they said,  "Love God, Love your neighbor, Love yourself".  Since Valentine's day is just around the corner, that works out very well. Here are a couple of pictures - check out more in the photo album on the right.

















Week 11 in Kindergarten: After having had all of our  Advent and Epiphany lessons and a few Sundays with no classes, it feels like a long time since we have been in the church's calendar of "Ordinary Time."  So, this week we bridged the gap from Jesus just being born, to the few things we know about Him as He grew up.  We tried to draw parallels between Jesus and them going from a baby to a kid living with a Mom and Dad and doing chores, playing, and praying, and going to church.  We discussed how Jesus kept growing to be The Man that died on the cross for us.  He, is the reason we are called "Christians" and the reason we go to church.  We talked about how there are many ways to worship God and Jesus, but their parents picked for them to be Catholic  Christians and go to a Catholic Church. We learned sometimes people call that "going to Mass".  To help master these new terms things, review what we learned before and the old vocabulary, and practice making the sign of the cross, we played lots of movement games. For example: if you are a girl Catholic go find a Mary statue or picture in our room.  If you are a boy that goes to Mass, go find a church in our classroom.  Everybody freeze and sing our "In The Name Of The Father" song and bless yourself, all Catholic Christians freeze and make a funny face.  They loved it!  We concluded by making our own individual graham cracker Catholic church.  Any review you can give your child on these concepts or the making the sign of the cross while saying the words is truly appreciated!  God bless.

Week 10 in Kindergarten: January 15 marks the official end of the church's Christmas
celebration: Epiphany.  Since the Wise Men presented their gifts on this date, the Kindergarten class offered their gifts to Jesus during this class, heard a special story about a little angel who modeled what true giving is all about, and concluded by singing Happy Birthday to Jesus before blowing out the candles on their cupcakes. We are sure you will enjoy their ideas for gifts to the Christ Child.
 
    "My gift to Jesus would be-----":
 
     Yana Kucipak: "A baby doll to sleep with so He won't be scared at night."
 
     Alyza Symonds: "Some baby clothes, cause He just had a blanket."
 
     Lorelai Sears: "A milk shake".
 
     Wren Davis: "A gift of love."
 
     Chelsea Kohan: "A strawberry
                                          milkshake."
 
     Lucas Olds: "A toy lady bug with a winder."
 
     Samuel Scout Ellis: A dog like Arthur, to play with and hug."
 
     Grady Brunette: "A bunny."
 
     Hunter Lucy: "A real giraffe with a long neck so Jesus could ride on his head.
 
    Gabriel Colbert: "A robot dinosaur."
 
     Arabella Colbert: "A dog like my Paisly."
 
     Albert Colbert: "A cat cause I like cats!"
 
     Ira Kendall: " A crown!"


Week 9 in Kindergarten: The Youngest students in our CCD program have surely gotten in to the true spirit of Christmas.  In addition to making their own Nativity scene, they got another  chance to act out that story.  This gave any student who was absent last week a chance to participate in the activity and allowed those who had already starred to choose a new role.  It is clear their learning goals were met and the photos attest that they were adorable!  I think they could be heard throughout HGA as they concluded by singing The Little Drummer Boy and using their desks for drums.




Week 8 in Kindergarten: On the 3rd Sunday in Advent, the Kindergarten students continued learning about the real meaning of Christmas.  Those adorable kids just love gathering around the Advent wreath for prayer time, and were so excited to light the pink candle too. They were proud of the angels they made to use for a centerpiece or a puppet, while the Nativity story read this week stressed the  angels role.  However,  the true highlight of the week was their re-enactment of the Christmas Story.  The photos show just how cute each child was.

Week 7 in Kindergarten:  On this 2nd Sunday Sunday of Advent, the kindergartners were introduced to lots of new vocabulary words and customs through activities and music.  Words like Advent and  manger can be confusing.
 
They began their lesson by making their own Advent wreath. When gathered around our class altar, Scout immediately noticed the altar cloth was now purple. Grady asked, "Why is Santa kneeling to Jesus?". 

Peyton and Arabella spotted  extra candles and the advent wreath, and many got excited if that might meant even more of them would get picked to light candles at class prayer time. (When you are 5, your candle lighting turn is a delightful honor.)  While  singing "Oh Come Let Us Adore Him" at prayer time, they learned who the Him was, and what Adore means. When we read  The 1st Christmas, Gabriel and the class were delighted that the angel had Gabe's name.   A high point for all of them was seeing the scene in the entrance way of the way the village Jesus was born in looked.  The topics hit this week truly filled their little eyes, hearts, and minds with the real wonder that is Christmas.
 
P.S. I would like to give a shout out to Ira.  While playing our Saint's Fishing game, he "caught" St. Anthony.  Then he shared how he and his Mom said the prayer and found what they lost!  Way to go!

Week 6 in Kindergarten:  As Thanksgiving approaches, the kindergarten class combined reviewing last week's lesson about the Bible with the story of Noah's Ark, and how important it is to be like Noah and say "THANKS!" to our good God who gives  us everything. From the students' viewpoint, the high point was singing The Lord Said To Noah There's Gonna Be A Floodie, as a girl and a boy marched on to "the ark" 2 by 2,  portraying the animals they were.     
    We concluded by making our sign of the cross, and saying the grace printed on the back of their rainbow of thanks painting, before we ate animal crackers.  

    While Mrs. Donnelly is very thankful for such a great group of kids and the parents sending them, here are some of the things the students want to thank God for.

    Wren: All the people on earth and the whole world.

    Gabe: The road and my Daddy

    Scout: Everything on earth and my Grandma

    Alyza:  The trees and the snow that came.

    Lorelia: The houses and my big sister, Margaux

    Yana: Cars, My Mommy, Daddy, my cat Cocoa, and our new home

    Lucas: For rainbows and snow

    Albert: Cats, Penny, Hopey, and Paisley

    Arabella: Dogs, Hopey, and spaghetti

    Chloe: My little sister, Sydney

    Grady: My 2 Grandmas and my 2 Grandpas

    Ira: Water like lakes and seas

    Happy Thanksgiving to all and we hope to see you all on Dec. 4th.

Week 5 in Kindergarten: The K level kids are just little sponges when it comes to absorbing things about their faith.  This week they learned about God's book, the Bible.  They sang "The B-I-B-L-E" song,  played a game to help their recognition of a BIBLE from other books,heard a few Bible stories, and then got to act out the story of when Jesus said "Let the little children come onto me".  Mr. La Vigne, played Jesus, Mrs. Kucipak acted out the Mom bringing boys and girls to see, or be healed by, Jesus, and Mrs. Donnelly acted like the disciple who thought Jesus was too busy to be bothered with children. The photo shows each child wearing a hat representing a child from a different country.  This helped them learn that not only does Jesus loves them,  but ALL the children in the whole world.


Week 4 in Kindergarten:  October 30th saw the Kindergarten class celebrating 2 things.  First of all,our classmate Alyza Symonds got baptized! We all are excited for her, and celebrated her "birthday into our church family".

Next, we learned about All Saints Day.  What a fun time the kids had finding statues and pictures of the Queen of Saints, Mary, hidden all around our classroom!  We also got to use mini fishing poles with magnets to go fishing for saints and learn a little bit about some of the many Saints.  Most importantly, the students learned that each of us is called to be a saint.

Here is the way the children completed the sentence, "I am trying to be a saint and be more like Jesus, when I ______.

     Ira: Snuggle with Mom

    Lucas: Share with my brother

    Gabe: Make a pizza

    Grady: Help my little sister, 
                                           Emmie

    Arabella:  Help Mommy make
                                         brownies

    Scout:  Help my sister with her
                                             chores

    Chelsea: Help my Mom

    Wren: Share with my sister and brother

    Yana: Help my cat, Cocoa, get out of the mud

    Alyza: Give my Mommy hugs

    Zachoriah:  Pick up my room

     Brady: Smile and help my brother
 
     Anderson:  Am nice to my sister
 
     Hunter: Help my brother
 
     Peyton: Hug my little brother


    Their answers remind me of the advice of St. Mother Teresa, who  said--- To be a saint, we just need to "do small things with great love".  Looks like our little ones are on the path to sainthood.

Week 3 in Kindergarten:  Kindergarten was happy to welcome another student, so we are up to 20 cuties who are excited to learn about God, Jesus and our church.  This week we read the story of The Creation.  Mike LaVigne superbly played the voice of God. Our room reverberated with the voices of Mike and the kids as they imitated God's famous phrase, "This is good!".  To conclude, we all hiked outside to find things that God made as we sang "He's Got The Whole World in His Hands". Here are 2 pictures of our God's World Adventure.

Week 2 in Kindergarten:  We welcomed more new students and learned not only did God make us, but He made each one of us special. The book Just In Case You Ever Wonder, by Max Lucado helped us understand.   Next, we cut an apple in 1/2 to discover the star God hid inside that apple.  We learned, He loves us so much that He put something special  inside each 1 of us, and God made each of us to be a star in His world!  To help us remember that, after they ate their apple,  they used the star inside as a stamp to make this picture by Wren.

Week 1 in Kindergarten:     Today we learned you are in Sunday School to learn about God and Jesus. Our 1st lesson, is one of our hardest concepts.  We try to teach that: 1. God made you.  2.He loves you even more than Mommy and Daddy. 3. You will not see God till you go to heaven.  You see what He made, but not God. You can see pictures and statues of Jesus, but not God. This is a hard concept!  Favorite class activities were singing and dancing to "Children Of God",and playing "Hi ------, Glad God made you!" ball toss.   We did self portraits like this one, and will hang in our room all year.