Christmas Chapel

Today we had our Christmas chapel. We were blessed to be led in worship by our students. 

Here are some moments from the chapel in case you missed it. 

We wish you a wonderful and peace-filled Christmas as you celebrate His love come down. 

Hallelujah!

JK/SK sing Happy Birthday Jesus.

Grade 1 plays Infant Holy, Infant Lowly.

Grade 2 plays Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord

Grade 3 plays Gloria.

Grade 4 plays O Come All Ye Faithful. 

Grade 5 plays Lo How a Rose E'er Blooming

Grade 6 sang Do You Hear What I Hear?

Hailee shared Mary's Song.

Our praise team led us in two songs.

O Come Let Us Adore Him

Our students in JK - Grade 3 shared some Christmas praise and joy with their parents and grandparents.

"Take Time For Jesus"

 Grades 1, 2 and 3 each played a song on the orff insturments (Grade 1 is pictured here)

It was great to see so many parents and grandparents there!

Here are a few snippets from our concert:

Grade 3 play and sings Gloria on the orff instruments:

...the JK/SK poem 5 Little Bells. Aren't they so cute?

...and our finale of Gloria in 3 parts:

We are blessed with the support of so many parents and grandparents. It was wonderful to see so many in our gym and to share in the celebration of His birth!

Mary's Servant Heart

This morning we had our second chapel on the throughline Servant Working. 

The second chapel is special because we have a guest pastor from one of our local churches come and tell a Bible story. 

The character and story selected has clear illustrations of the throughline. 

Today we welcomed Pastor Gianpaolo Galessiere from Central Community Church. 

He shared the story of young Mary (perhaps as young as 12-14 years old!) and her servant heart. We clearly see a servant heart in her reaction to the angel and her response of song. Her servant working continued throughout her life. 

We also learned a few new choruses led by a Beacon worship team from Grades 6,7 and 8. 

We continue to prepare our hearts for Jesus' birthday.

Servant Working at Beacon

This month our throughline is servant working. 

There are many ways we can be the hands and feet of Jesus. 

Here are just a few things we are working on at Beacon:

Our grade 6 students sold hot chocolate today to raise money for a local women's shelter. 

They are also baking cookies for city hall and our local firefighters. 

We have a mitten tree in our lobby collecting mittens and hats for community care .

We would love for you to drop something off for our tree as well!

Servant Working

This month our throughline is Servant Working. Today we gathered for our weekly chapel.

Our students were reminded that being a servant means to focus on others and never should be to draw attention or praise for ourselves. 

Philippians 2:3-8 tells us how we should act and how Jesus showed how to be a servant:

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of others. 

  

As we focus on servant working this month, we want to remember that we should never give or help to make ourselves look better. 

We are the hands and feet of Jesus and we want to share the love of Christ with them.
Others will experience His love as we serve selflessly.

We watched this video:

One way we can be servants is to provide mittens and hats for those in our community who have none.
We will be collecting on our mitten tree for the next two weeks. 

We can't wait to see the tree full of warm mitts and hats!

We heard the book 

Our kindergarten students encouraged us by singing their song:
If you're happy and you know it, clap your mittens
If you're happy and you know it, clap your mittens
If you're happy and you know it and you really want to show it,
If you're happy and you know if give us your mittens!

We would love it if you would drop of some mittens on our tree. It will be in our lobby until Christmas. 

Justice Seeking

God of Justice, Saviour to all

Came to rescue the weak and the poor

Chose to serve and not be served

Jesus, You have called us

Freely we've received

Now freely we will give

This is one of the songs we have sung at our chapels during this past month. We are reflecting on Justice Seeking and discovering what the Lord requires of us. 

(Our Grade Two class led our worship with song)

We must go live to feed the hungry
stand beside the broken

We must go

Stepping forward keep us from just singing

Move us into action

We must go

This week we are moving into action. In light of the great devastation in the Philippines, our students are gathering donations though a hot dog sale and through cash donations in order to send those who can help into action. They have been encourage to act by earning or giving their own money to send others. 

Our school nurse will be receiving these funds and sharing more with us on Friday. You can see her story in the Standard

We pray for those in the Philippines. 

Daniel is a man who risked his very life to seek justice, moving into action.
Today, all of our students participated in the monthly drama.

To act justly everyday

Loving mercy in everyway

Walking humbly before You God

Our students were also shown this brief clip about the Philippines.
We will be collecting donations until the end of the week.  

You have shown us, what You require

Freely we've received

Now freely we will give

Fill us up and send us out

Fill us up and send us out

Fill us up and send us out Lord

(Here is a link to this moving song if you aren't familiar with it)

Justice Seeking - Queen Esther

Today we had our weekly chapel. Our throughline this month is Justice Seeking. "God has decided to use us, His people, to do His work in this world. What a responsibility and privilege!

"We  lead our students to see the injustices in this world—the injustices of poverty, racism, war, exploitation in work places, abuse in relationships, poor governance etc.

"But seeing injustice can't be where we stop. That would leave us discouraged and hopeless." (Doug Monsma, Teaching for Transformation)

Today we looked at Esther as someone who put her life at risk to seek justice.

Using a reader's theatre based on what you see here, our students, in their cross graded GIFT groups, saw how the Bible leaves no doubt that Christian lives must be lives of justice. 

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We also enjoyed some praise songs led by our Grade 5 students. 

A Trip to City Hall

 Today our Grade Two students went on a trip to city hall to meet the mayor. 

This was in connection with their Creation Studies unit: 

One Body, Many Parts: Our Local Community.

Our students were able to sit in the councillors' chairs.

Our students have focused on the words from 1 Corinthians 12:The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 

 The mayor is the head of our body of St. Catharines, our councillors are important parts, but so also is each citizen of this city. And there is much our 7 year old citizens can do!

 They had many questions for Mayor McMullan, such as "What do you like about your job? What kind of education do you need to be the mayor? What are the biggest complaints that citizens have? 

What is your favourite colour? 

Where do you live? How many hours do you work a day? What is the biggest part of our taxes for? What can we do to be good citizens?

What can we pray for for you as mayor and for all of city council?

The students researched  what riding they lived in and who their councillors were. They then prepared a card for one of them and we presented them to the mayor to pass out to all the councillors at the next meeting. 

Being a good citizen means praying for our leaders as "No one rules unless God Has given him the power to rule". Romans 13:1 

We will continue to support them with our prayers and continuing to discover ways to be good citizens.

We Remember

Yesterday, we took time to reflect and be thankful for a peaceful country to live in and remember and be thankful for those who work to protect the peace in our country and in our world. 

We also remembered the many who gave their lives for this goal.

Our Grade 5 students shared Flanders Field at our Remembrance Day ceremony at school.

Our Grade 7 and 8 students went to the cenotaph for the

Remembrance Day ceremony and laid a wreath.

Our students observed a moment of silence.

Students also reflected through visual arts.

We also watched this powerful video created by a local woman.

We remember. 

Justice Seeking

This month, our throughline is Justice Seeking. 

The Bible is clear that justice is a central part of the shalom of God’s kingdom.  

The Bible leaves no doubt that Christian lives must be lives of justice.  

It is the first requirement listed in answer to Micah’s question, “What does the Lord require of you?  To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)

Today, we put a face on what justice seeking looks like in our local community. We were happy to welcome 3 guest speakers to share how they are actively pursuing justice in our community. It was great to hear from a lawyer, a police officer and a refugee settlement worker.

(And, we are proud to say they are all Beacon graduates!)

Fabulous Friday!

Today was a fabulous Friday in Grade Two.

Here's a snapshot of a few moments in the day:

We played some vowel bingo... long or short, which is it?

...posed for a picture with  friends...

Then, in connection with our Healthy Eating health unit, we took a walk to Zehrs grocery store...

...and met with a registered dietitian. 

She led us around the store, showing us all the foods from the Canada Food Guide. 

We got to see a lobster up close and personal. Some of us even gave him a touch.

Then we enjoyed a healthy snack of yogurt, granola and fruit!

..and finished the day with a little art. What a fun Friday!

An afternoon in JK/SK - From Music to Worms

This fall, we were very excited to add a full day JK/SK option at Beacon for interested families. Here is a peek into a typical afternoon in this classroom: 

 

We have been enjoying a special time of music and movement with scarves and other instruments like shakers and rhythm sticks twice a week. 

A view of a couple of our art projects on display in the hallway.

Children also have time for open ended art activities during the afternoon where they can choose their materials and explore.  This week porcupines were created with toothpicks and styrofoam.

 

 

We also worked on some paper tearing skills to represent feathery owls, these are on display in the hallway now.

 With the scattered showers this week, a couple of students found worms in our playground!  This led to a large excavation project and some inquiry into earthworms.

 
Students really loved the worms and  they drew a picture to show what they were observing and then found a book about worms to help learn some more.  

 The class worked together on a KWL chart that lists "What we KNOW about worms", "What we WONDER about" and later we will fill out "What we have LEARNED".