Post date: Jan 25, 2015 10:07:38 PM

Dear Parents of Kindergarteners and 1st Graders,

Below is a summary of the lessons for the past few classes. We hope that you find this helpful when you discuss church school with your children. We have been focusing on the parts of the Divine Liturgy and we are trying to help the children understand what is happening in church and what they are seeing. Also, Attached are photos of the children and Father Nick during our visits to discuss the Divine Liturgy with him. Please also check out the bulletin board in our classroom which has the Divine Liturgy projects and other activities that we have worked on.

Lesson 13: We worked on a coloring sheet of Epiphany and talked about Jesus as a little boy. And what kinds of things he might have done as a little boy. We discussed John the Baptist and how he is an importnant Saint in our church. His icon is to the right of Jesus on the iconostasis in Church. We looked at an icon of Jesus’ Baptism and the children were able to identify John the Baptist, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Trinity and we made some connections to what we see in the other icons.

Lesson 14: We discussed St. Basil and how he helped the poor and orphans and we talked a little about why we collect coins for St. Basil. Thank you to everyone for bringing in coins. We practiced the hymn, Agios O Theos and the children did a great job! We then continued our discussion about the Divine Liturgy and the important parts. This lesson focused on the Great Entrance which is when Father Nick comes out with the altar boys in a procession with the gifts, wine and bread. We talked about what the altar boys carry, candles, the cross, the incense. We then cut the Vasilopita which was generously made by Karen Kolias and Mrs. Kolias, Thank you them both for their hard work, it was delicious. Congratulations to Dimitra and CJ who found the coins!!!

Lesson 15: In this lesson we focused on the Creed and introduced the children to the verses and discussed what they mean. We talked about how we believe in one God and how the Creed talks to us about Christ’s life. The kid’s also continued to work on their Divine Liturgy posters.

Just a reminder, we will be making Valentine’s for the Shut-Ins on Sunday February 1.

It has been a pleasure to teach your children so far. Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.

Have a Blessed Week!!

Maria Hochendoner

Andrea McRae, DVM

Margarita Bekiares

Dr. Karen Kolias