Spotlight

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. John F. Kennedy

THANKSGIVING IS A SPECIAL DAY to express our gratitude to so many people who touched our lives in many ways. My gratitude to our Holy Angels School families, faculty and staff, benefactors, donors and friends for their support and prayers in the many events of our school that made a difference in the life of our school community. Let us continue to work together and pray for each other. Let the LORD be the center of our lives.

Thanksgiving is also a time to give back to God for our own blessings. Our school community is helping the less fortunate by collecting food items and toiletries to give to the poor through St. Vincent de Paul Society. In December, we will be donating items to the pregnancy center to support pregnant women in need.

On Wednesday, November 21st 2018, we will offer our Thanksgiving Communion Service in thanksgiving for the many people who have been generous to us. We invite you to visit our REQUEST FOR PRAYERS section in our website. We pray together as a faculty every morning and we pray for all the intentions entrusted to our prayers. Our Student Council members are prayer leaders as we pray one part of the rosary and the “One Minute with Jesus” everyday.

“Give thanks to the Lord and proclaim His greatness . Let the whole world know what He has done!” 1Chronicles16:8

TEACHING YOUR CHILDREN TO BE THANKFUL

Thanksgiving is the perfect time to teach your kids about being thankful. Here are some ideas from www.apples4theteacher.com website to teach your children how to appreciate the blessings in their lives.

Giving Thanks Placemats

The goal of this craft is to create a collage filled with drawings and pictures of all the things your children are thankful for. Cut photos from magazines, or print some photos from your computer. Older children can write captions under the photos or draw their own. Be sure to put the child’s name and the year on it.

If you make this collage from two standard letter size pieces of construction paper taped side-by-side, you can take the completed collage to a copy shop when you’re done and have it laminated. It then becomes a placemat that you can use every Thanksgiving for years to come.

Thankful Paper Chain

Another way to remind your children of their blessings is to create a paper chain. This is similar to a regular paper chain – where you cut strips of paper and connect them together as loops, but there’s one difference. You write on the strips of paper before you connect them. Write the things you are thankful for with your children. For instance, “Grandma plays games with me” or “My teacher is nice.” The fun part of this activity is to make the chain as long as possible – showing all your blessings. If you’d like to keep this up during Christmas, just use green and white paper.

Thanksgiving Tree

This is another take on the idea above and works really well if you have several children in the family. Get each child to trace their hand on yellow, red, or brown construction paper. Cut out the hand shapes and write (or have the child write) what they are thankful for on the hand shape. Cut a tree trunk shape out of brown construction paper. Glue it on a large piece of poster board. Let the children add their hand shapes as leaves above the tree trunk, turning it into a beautiful fall colored tree.

Thankful Book

This idea is similar to the others, except it’s more of a keepsake. Purchase a photo album or scrapbook kit and make a “blessings” theme. Add photos of loved ones, including stories about why they are special to you. Also, include pages of your favorite foods, favorite stories, favorite movies and all the other things that make you happy. Any time your children feel down, you can open your blessing book to see all the reasons you have to be happy – and thankful for the blessings in your life.

Email: office@holyangelscolma.org
Website: www.holyangelscolma.com
Location: 20 Reiner Street, Colma, CA, USA
Phone: (650) 755-0220
Facebook: facebook.com/holyangelscolma
Twitter: @holyangelscolma

Spotlight is a weekly newsletter showcasing Holy Angels School classrooms

November 20, 2018