Today we are bringing to you two more of our favorite Catholic Schools Week lessons. Featured today are preschool and second grade!

 

Pre-K teacher Ms. Gina chose St. Therese, “The Little Flower,” for her class - a role model often looked to for doing “small things with great love.” When asked about St. Therese, Ms. Gina said, “She had such a beautiful soul for being so young. She was a hard-working, humble young woman who put other people's lives before her own.” 

 

Preschool students created three types of roses to represent St. Therese. For their first project, they painted roses using their handprints. They added a special St. Therese quote on their artwork that stated, "To live in love is to sail forever, spreading seeds of joy and peace in hearts." Next, the class made coffee filter roses by coloring coffee filters red and rolling them in the shape of the petals. The final activity - and the preschoolers’ favorite - was a celery stamping. They used the bottom of a celery stalk to create rose-shaped stamps.

 

The celery stamp roses and the coffee filter roses are pictured below.

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Ms. Gina is proud that her preschoolers are learning that “the true meaning of why we are here on earth is to love one another. She added, “They know that showing love and kindness for one another is a true gift.” 

 

When creating lessons on St. Therese, Ms. Gina wanted her students to realize how beautiful life is. “Just like a rose, it is so elegant that it needs our help. Without the little acts of kindness, it loses its beauty.” 

 

Meanwhile, second grade teacher Mrs. Borrasso also found profound similarities between her students and their patron saint, St. Hildegard. “When I was lucky enough to stumble upon St. Hildegard, she reminded me so much of the qualities that this class holds.” St. Hildegard was a Benedictine abbess, a Doctor of the Church, and a visionary mystic. “She was also a musician, an artist, a philosopher, a poet, as well as an author,” Mrs. Borrasso shared. She said her class was “immediately captivated by the life and gifts of this truly incredible woman.” 

 

Second graders explored many aspects of St. Hildegard’s life: recreating her healing herb garden, diagramming the Ring of Fire, composing creative constellation stories, and writing essays about St. Hildegard’s gifts. 

 

The most enjoyable activity, though, was the planet research project. Mrs. Borrasso explained, “It was fascinating to them to think about this whole other world that is above us, that only through the photographs in the books they were using for their research were they able to see it and know it. Then they created posters and got to use paint and glitter… what wouldn’t be fun about that?”

 

Pictured below are the planet research research projects as well as the Ring of Fire diagrams (featuring second-grade student Lorelei Pelletier).

 

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Mrs. Borrasso is thrilled to have provided such an enriching Catholic Schools Week for her students. When asked about why St. Hildegard is important to her students, she reflected, “It was satisfying for them to see a woman develop similar talents throughout her life. Through all of her varied passions, she honored God. She inspired them to nurture their own gifts and talents.”

 

Thank you so much for keeping up with our Catholic Schools Week 2021 activities at St. Laurentius. Check back shortly for more updates!