Upcoming Dates

Wed., March 28             Vision Screening

Thurs., March 29            Wizard of Oz Dress Rehearsal, 1:30 p.m.

                                     Wizard of Oz Performance, 6:30 p.m.

Fri., March 30                 Wizard of Oz Performance, 6:30 p.m.

 

Holy Week Schedule 

Stations of the Cross (Middle School leads 6^th graders)

During atrium times:      Lower El and Upper El Last Supper Celebrations

 

Tuesday, April 3            School Mass, 8:15 a.m.

                                    9-12 Hunger Banquet, 11:00

 

Wednesday, April 4       Stations of the Cross (4^th/5^th graders lead lower el)

                                    Middle School Seder Celebration

 

Thursday, April 5           Pre-primary Last Supper Celebrations

 

Friday, April 6               GOOD FRIDAY, No School

Sunday, April 8            Happy Easter!  He is risen!!!

April 9-13                      Easter Vacation

  

 

GSCM Presents Wizard of OZ

Thursday, March 29th and Friday, March 30th at 6:30 p.m. here in the church, come to see many of our upper elementary and middle school students perform Wizard of Oz.  Tickets will be on sale for $3 each after school at the front entrance.  The students have been practicing for some time now and this should prove to be a very entertaining evening.   

 

If your child is in the Wizard of Oz and you have not received an email from Shannon Lotterer regarding adult volunteer positions for the performances, please contact her shannon.lotterer@fuse.net or 777-0526.

 

Stargrams!

Show your support of an actor or advertise your business by purchasing a Stargram!  A Stargram is a message put into the program for the Wizard of Oz.  It can say "good luck" or whatever you would like and have the actor's name and who the Stargram is from, or it can be an advertisement for your business.  Stargrams cost $5 for a quarter page, $10 for half and $20 for a full page.  Please submit all stargram messages or ads to Elizabeth Lotterer at lizthelizard98@gmail.com.   

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Mission Alive:  Contemplating the Paschal Mystery

The atrium is intended to provide a gateway for the children into the life of the Church.  As the Church enters Holy Week next week, we contemplate the most important moments in the life of Christ.  We do the same in the atrium. 

 

The primary atrium materials at this time are the City of Jerusalem, which is the setting for narrating the Passion and Resurrection accounts; and the Cenacle, which is the setting for presenting the Last Supper, institution of the Eucharist, and the Mass as a memorial which has come to us through the apostles.

 

Sofia Cavalletti describes the City of Jerusalem and the Last Supper materials in her book, The Religious Potential of the Child:

 

City of Jerusalem:  "In relation to the Easter-Pentecost events, we concentrate our study on the city of Jerusalem.  We have built a relief model of the city to scale for the children to use.  The historical buildings and city walls are movable; they can be isolated and reassembled on a large cardboard that outlines the exact dimensions of the plastic model.  This is the way the children learn the names of the places where the most important events of the passion, death, and resurrection took place."

 

The Cenacle:  "The material for the children's personal work on the Last Supper presentation consists of a wooden reconstruction of the environment:  a small model of the Cenacle, a table, small three-dimensional figures of Jesus and the apostles, the bread and wine, and the Gospel text... During the Last Supper presentations we emphasize Jesus' will to remain with men of all times; therefore we focus on the words of the consecration with which He expressed this will, designating as the ultimate end of the bread and wine that they be the signs of His perpetual presence in the midst of mankind and of His continuing intervention in the life of humanity."

 

Holy Week and Easter Celebrations

The great events of the Passion and Resurrection lend themselves to be celebrated with the children.  We will describe these in next week's newsletter. 

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Unplugged Wrap-Up

Thanks to all those who participated in Unplugged Week last week. The results are in and all those children who gave up screens for 7 days will be receiving their out of uniform passes from their teachers tomorrow. Many children enjoyed choosing rewards from our Unplugged Boutique. Thanks to all those who contributed items. If your child did not have a chance to claim a reward, a bin will be outside the office this week. Feel free to choose one item as a reward for giving up screens.

 

Congratulations to 6-9 Scuglik and Leopardi for having the highest unplugged participation. 2nd place goes to 6-9 Sullivan and Olszewski. 3rd place goes to 3-6 Damico, with honorable mention to the 9-12 who were not far behind.

 

Special thanks to Alicia Wilhelmy for coordinating such a positive Unplugged Week. The "Unplugged Boutique" was a great idea, and the Family Games Night was very well-attended and blessed with beautiful picnic weather.

 

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Summer Camp News

Please visit our website  www.gscmontessori.org for a current summer camp brochure. Camps are offered the weeks of June 11-14 and 18-21:

• Nature Trail: Instructor: Jeanne Speier, M.F.A., Music Instructor at GSCM
• Let's Go Outside! Instructor: Jeanne Speier, M.F.A., Music Instructor at GSCM
• Drama for the Young Child: Instructor: Rhonda Hamall, Associate of Arts, Founder and Director of the Backyard Theatre Company;
• Drama for the Older Child:       Instructor: Rhonda Hamall, Associate of Arts, Founder and Director of the Backyard Theatre Company;
• Ultimate! (Frisbee, that is): Instructors: Evan Conrad, University of Cincinnati Ultimate Frisbee Team; Jack Teller, starter on 6-time
• Sculpture for the Elementary Child: Walking with the Gargoyles: Instructor: Shannon Treier, BFA, fine arts teacher at GSCM

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HHS Insurance Mandate News

Many may have heard of "The Parable of the Kosher Deli" in testimony given by the Most Reverend William E. Lori, Bishop of Bridgeport on behalf of the USCCB before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.  Following are the closing two paragraphs of his written statement:

"This story has a happy ending. The government recognized that it is absurd for someone to come into a kosher deli and demand a ham sandwich; that it is beyond absurd for that private demand to be backed with the coercive power of the state; that it is downright surreal to apply this coercive power when the customer can get the same sandwich cheaply, or even free, just a few doors down.

 

"The question before the United States  government-right now-is whether the story of our own Church institutions that serve the public, and that are threatened by the HHS mandate, will end happily too. Will our nation continue to be one committed to religious liberty and diversity? We urge, in the strongest possible terms, that the answer must be yes. We urge you, in the strongest possible terms, to answer the same way."

 

If you would like to read "the rest of the story", please see http://usccb.org/issues-and-action/religious-liberty/upload/lori-testimony-for-oversight-on-religious-freedom-2012-02-16.pdf

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