Loving the Lord by Loving One Another!
Chapel is a time that we gather as an elementary team, grades K-6, to pray, worship God by singing psalms, learn more about God and the Bible, and celebrate the good deeds that elementary students have been doing around the school that week to bless others. A teacher or staff member (and perhaps on occasion a secondary rhetoric student) will explain God’s Word on a specific topic so that kids can begin to see how the Bible applies to their lives and grow their personal relationship with Jesus. Occasionally chapel will be replaced with an assembly on a specific topic (like why we celebrate Reformation Day) or for students to present to each other some of the memory work learned in different classrooms.
TRA’s mission is to partner with parents to educate the next generation of Christian leaders equipped to shape culture through faithful, wise, and joyful Christian living. In the elementary years, leadership training means teaching, encouraging, and giving lots of opportunities for students to practice and develop the habits of respect, obedience, attentiveness, and responsibility (ROAR). When teachers or staff notice a student showing exceptional kindness or leadership in one of these areas, the student is sent to my office to celebrate the good deed reflecting love for God and one another. (Hebrews 10:24, our elementary verse for 2023-24) This celebration involves writing his/her name, date, and description of the “good deed” in my special book. The star students are then given a big gold star sticker to wear on his/her shirt for the rest of the day, and receive a raffle ticket for a monthly drawing among all gold star winners. The winner of our Good Deeds raffle receives a pizza party on the first Friday of the month for his/her entire class during lunchtime, courtesy of generous elementary parents! We want students to know that thinking of others and developing the ROAR habits and leadership skills are a big deal here at TRA and something to be celebrated! Gold Star students are recognized weekly at chapel so that others can learn from and celebrate their good deeds too.
In addition to ROAR, this year we are cultivating some new good habits, called virtues, to help us act according to God’s Word and His love for us. Each month students will be introduced to one of seven virtues (prudence, faith, charity, hope, temperance, fortitude, and justice) and encouraged to practice living out that virtue. Elementary teachers will be on the lookout for students demonstrating specific growth in the monthly virtue and nominating a few students a month for a “Growing in Virtue” award. These awards will be presented several times at elementary chapel throughout our school year as another way to spur one another on towards love and good deeds. (Hebrews 10:24)
Click on the link to Elementary Chapel Schedule in the Parent Resources section of your FACTS account for information on chapel dates, speakers, and topics. We hope to see you there! If you are unable to attend, we plan to record all Elementary Chapel talks and post them in the Google calendar event details found by logging into FACTS. You also can find a YouTube playlist of the audio from the elementary chapel speakers we’ve recorded HERE.
-Lisa Hysom, Elementary Principal