Superheroes and Sidekicks. . .against bullying

Our school recently celebrated a "theme week," with this year's theme being "Superheroes and Sidekicks." This was a theme that was centred around our Greatest Superhero, Jesus Christ, whose greatest gift to us was His saving love. We focused on the following verses:

Matthew 22:36-40

New International Version (NIV)

³⁶ “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

³⁷ Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

In this theme, we tried to foster positive character building and friendship traits by taking a villain--something that stops love from being spread--and to fight that with a superpower, which turned out to be the fruit of the spirit. The theme week overlapped "Pink Shirt Day," a day in which people wear a pink shirt to show their desire to take a stand against bullying.

The school's PAC so willingly decorated the display case in a "comic book"style. Our week included Captain Bucket-filler--a superhero we created in connection to the book about filling people's buckets--and our school's theme from last year about how God desires us to fill the buckets of others by doing kind and loving things.

One of the grade five classes created these banners for the "Pink Shirt Day."

Our staff room had a HUGE table filled with resources about friendship and bullying for teachers to use throughout the week.

Here is Captain Bucket-filler himself (our principal!) in a visit to each classroom to encourage the students to keep filling others buckets!

Pink Shirt Day was accompanied by pink lemonade for all the kids and treats to celebrate friendship!

Friday was a superhero dress-up day, closing chapel, and grade-level presentations.

Each class was responsible for creating a project of some kind to present to their grade level on Friday to show what they learned about friendship. My group of grade ones picked the villain, "The Meany Monster. We created "Wanted" posters with pictures of crazy monsters and wrote descriptions about what a mean monster might do. Then we talked a bunch about the Fruit of the Spirit.

With a little searching on google, I found colours that represented the fruit of the Spirit, so we made beaded bracelets for our grade one friends in the other classes, and also made a card that went along with it explaining how we wanted to practice "loving our neighbors" by letting the fruit of the spirit flow out of us instead of those mean traits.

Here are some of the kids working so hard on their cards. (We each had to make 2-3 bracelets/cards so that we could have one for ourselves and also share them with the other classes!)

It was a great week of watching the presentations of the other classes and spending a lot of time talking about how we can show love to God and our neighbor in the way we treat our friends.

The week started out with an opening chapel, featuring a teacher skit of a Sloth who saved his sleepy friends, even though they at first found him annoying.

The week ended with a worship chapel, where we also acted out the Good Samaritan story and sang our favourite song of the week, "Jesus, You're My Superhero!"

Teacher Appreciation Week

This year, the Staff Appreciation Week that is put on by the school's PAC, had the theme "Life's a Picnic." The PAC did a beautiful job of decorating an entryway bulletin board in a spring-like picnic theme. I love the flags!

Our Staff Room continued the theme with flags out of "picnic" themed colours.
Below are some of the gifts that were given out during the week. It's kinda too bad--I don't know who received any of them! I have no idea when they drew the names, but by the end of the week, all the gifts had disappeared! :) It was a very generous gesture, nonetheless!

The PAC also sent home some pages for the kids to decorate, draw pictures on, and to use for writing little notes to the staff. At least one parent brought in a treat for our breaks each day. It was wonderful! We were well-fed and spoiled all week!

My birthday fell on one of these days and here is a little gift from one of the parents for the class to enjoy together!

The PAC did special things each day for the staff: (I hope I remembered each day accurately--my blogging is a little late~this happened almost 2 months ago!)

Monday--a classroom visit by a cheerful (and cheering) ant to hand out the note paper to the kids and gear them up for the week. Smoothies and invites to the Staff Luncheon were handed out.

A card included the verses from 1 Thessalonians 1:2-3: "² We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. ³ We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ."

Tuesday-- we received a gorgeous rose, along with the verse from Jeremiah 17:8:
They will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.”

Wednesday-- we received a cute little bookmark with is verse and quote:
"Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. " ~1 Corinthians 15:8

Our bookmarks read: "So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is useless. 1 Cor. 15:58
Every calling is great when greatly pursued.-O.W. Holmes"

Along with this was a Bath and Body works hand sanitizer! :)

Thursday-- I believe this day's verse was Ephesians 2:10 (NLT): "For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago." And a few chocolates to go along!

Friday-- We were given delicious gourmet cupcakes (chocolate or strawberry cheesecake!) with the verse found in Galatians 6:9-10

Galatians 6:9-10

New International Version (NIV)

⁹ Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. ¹⁰ Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

Friday also was our staff luncheon. It was overwhelmingly too much food, served by many wonderful parents, and so delicious! For me it was an extra treat, as I had outdoor duty and it was covered for me so I could sit and enjoy this yummy lunch time!

Many thanks goes to the PAC and the parents of the ACS school community! It was a wonderful week, and it was nice to feel so appreciated!