GLVN News
Information for Parents ~ December 2016
Dear Families,
From all of us in the GLVN program – Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
It has been a year of many changes and many challenges as well plenty of joy and blessings in our GLVN program. Thank you for the trust you continue to have in each of us in the GLVN program to journey with you and your children as you grow in your faith. Each step with your children also helps us grow as catechists.
I have loved meeting so many of you during these past couple of months. We all have the same hopes and dreams for our children, and I’m thankful for the honest input that you’ve continued to bring to us. Watch for many more new and exciting things for GLVN in 2017!
As my family and I get ready to celebrate Christ (and enjoy a few weeks of rest and relaxation together), I want to wish all our GLVN families a peaceful and joyful winter break! I hope that you will find time to experience all the wonders of the Christmas season with your children and know God’s love in special ways we you celebrate Baby Jesus.
We’ll see you back at GLVN on January 8!
Warmest wishes from my family to yours ... Chi Pham, Principal
GLVN School Weather-Related Cancellation Policy
In addition, please read more about the REMIND text messaging system that GLVN will be using to more easily and quickly communicate with parents about school closures and other important information.
Sign Up for REMIND Text Messaging from GLVN
GLVN will be using a service called Remind to help keep you informed about all-school GLVN news. Remind is a free service that lets us send quick messages via text, push notifications, or email to parents. Signing up for my messages on Remind is easy.
Receive messages via text message
- Step 1: Text our class code @glvnsasjh to the number 81010
- Step 2: Reply to the message from the Remind team with your first and last name, and you’re in!
Please note:
- There is no charge to use the service. However, your standard text messaging charges will apply based on your personal phone service plan.
- Your personal contact information is not visible to the GLVN school. Personal contact information remains private, secure, and confidential, unless you agree to our sharing it for your benefit as it relates to the school communications.
- Remind is a text messaging app built for education, which means safeguards and protections are core to its service. Remind doesn’t sell or share information about its users. Remind uses both customized and industry standard practices, including encryption, to secure its service. They have built additional, customized security features to further advance Remind users’ data security. Learn more about security at Remind.
Christmas Project Update: The Gift of Hope!
Thank you students and parents for your support for our Christmas Giving Project! Students sold 87 boxes of Christmas cards and collected some donations to raise $530 for Hope Kids.
We still have 113 boxes of cards remaining that we need to sell. If anyone is looking to stock up on cards for next Christmas, please come by the GLVN office to buy some. We will be selling them at a reduced price of $15 per box of 25 cards (that’s only 60 cents per card!). If we can sell the remaining cards at this price we could have nearly $1,000 to give as a gift to Hope Kids.
On January 15, we will tally up the amount of cards sold by class. The class that sold the most will get an opportunity to help us bring our gift to the children at Hope Kids.
Hope Kids is a non-profit organization in the Twin Cities that reaches out compassionately to youth who are facing terminal illnesses. Our donation will be used to put together an event for these youth and their families to get away from the stress of the disease and enjoy life and time together as a family.
Going out and having fun with family and friends is an activity that most of our youth take for granted, and we hope that a project like this helped our students not only see the blessings in their own lives, but help them learn to sacrifice and share God's love, joy and hope with others their age who face larger struggles in their short lives.
Thank you for all your support with this project to help us teach our GLVN students how to give with love.
Visit the Nativity and Give a Gift to Jesus
With the generous donations from the Adopt-A-Class program earlier this year, we were able to purchase a beautiful nativity set for our GLVN program. The nativity was placed in the main hallway next to the GLVN office during December, and will remain there through Epiphany when the 3 kings visit (Sunday, January 8).
A basket of hay is at the nativity, and we invited all students and teachers to write on a piece of hay what their gift to Jesus is this Christmas season and place it in the basket. Before Mass on Sunday, January 8, we will bring these gifts to Baby Jesus in the church.
We invite parents to join us in these gifts to Jesus. Please come visit the Nativity in the school on January 8 and write your gift on a piece of “hay.” Your gift could simply be a prayer of thanksgiving for your beautiful children, or your gift could be the small sacrifices you make each day for your family.
Some of the ideas we shared with your children as wonderful gifts to give Jesus included:
- Listening to their parents more
- Helping their parents around the house
- Playing with their siblings
- Sharing with their siblings
- Smiling at someone who may be lonely
- Helping a friend in need
- Sacrificing something they love doing so that Jesus or others can be happy
- Going to Mass more, praying more during their day
During December, they filled the basket with their little gifts (see the photo below). We hope that you will also join your children in continuing to live a spirit of giving as we head into the New Year together!
Letters to Baby Jesus
A "Mailbox" has been placed in the hallway outside the GLVN office across from the Nativity for students to write a letter to Jesus. Teachers have been encouraged to do this project with their students, but we ask parents to also feel free to work with your child(ren) to write a letter as a family if you wish.
Some suggestions for what can be in a letter to Jesus -- tell Him all about your life today, who you/ are, who you dream to be, where your faith is now, about your family, what you like, what you hope for, what your fears are ... anything that they want to tell baby Jesus. Younger children can draw a picture of their family today or how they see Jesus today.
Students should write their full name and grade on the envelope. Seal the envelope and place it in the mailbox. This will be a yearly Christmas project, and we will hold on to these letters each year and return it to the student when they reach their last year of the GLVN program. This is a fun and meaningful way for students and families to see how you’ve grown and changed in your love for Jesus and your spiritual lives over the course of your child’s time in the GLVN program.
The mailbox will remain there throughout all of January.
Advent Retreat & Santa’s Workshop
The students had a wonderful time with Frere Phong during the Advent retreat in early December. It was a great time of preparation for the students, as they participated in the Sacrament of Reconciliation to prepare their hearts to welcome Baby Jesus.
Students pray over Frère before he begins his talk with them ...
Such joy!
They loved Frère :-)
We also had a lot of fun during our early Christmas party. Students and teachers enjoyed fun, games and lunch in their classrooms together. They also visited Santa’s Workshop, where students really got into the spirit of giving. It was the perfect environment for the students to shop for inspirational gift items for their parents, family and friends. We hope that you were the recipient of some of these gifts!
It was busy day at Santa's workshop
A spirit of giving was in every student :-)
Gift wrapping services by Lớp 11 (our post-Confirmation students)
Saint Prayers
We had a blessed All Saint’s Day celebration at the beginning of November as Cha blessed the Saint images and classrooms.
Click here to view more photos from the day.
Each class prayed a special prayer of their patron Saint, and it is the prayer that our teachers pray with their students each week. The patron Saint for each class was chosen for the virtues that the Saint is recognized for and how their lives are great examples for the students in each age group.
We encourage parents to pray these patron Saint prayers with your students every day to help them grow in holiness at home, at school, at work and in life.
Click here to see the prayer for your child’s class; each prayer is on a separate page for you to easily print out.
All-School Prayer for 2016-2017
With St. Thomas Aquinas as our patron saint for GLVN, each Sunday our teachers pray this with their students. We invite parents to also pray it with your children each day before they begin their regular school day. You can also print out this prayer to post in your home; click here to get a printable version).
KINH NHẬT TỤNG THÁNH TÔ-MA AQUI-NÔ
Lạy Thiên Chúa của con, xin cho con một trí tuệ để nhận biết Chúa, một trái tim để tìm kiếm Chúa, sự khôn ngoan để gặp gỡ Chúa, mọi hành động được đẹp lòng Chúa một lòng kiên trì chờ đợi Chúa, và sau cùng là niềm hy vọng sẽ được ôm chặt lấy Chúa. Amen.
St. Thomas Aquinas Daily Prayer
Grant me, O Lord my God, a mind to know you, a heart to seek you, wisdom to find you, conduct pleasing to you, faithful perseverance in waiting for you, and a hope of finally embracing you. Amen.
Reminders of Upcoming Calendar
Parents can view the full GLVN calendar online at any time. Please check back regularly because some dates may be adjusted based on parish schedules, etc.
Upcoming important dates:
- Sunday, Jan. 1 – No School (Happy New Year!)
- Sunday, Jan. 8 -- GLVN resumes classes
- Sunday, Jan. 15
- Confirmation parents meeting at 12:00 in Cafeteria Room 13
- First Communion parents meeting at 12:00 in School Room 209 (upper level)
Important parking and drop off/pick up information
GLVN Communications
Did you miss our November News? Read it here:
English: https://www.smore.com/5wsam
Tiếng Việt: https://www.smore.com/v1dna
News and information about the GLVN program for parents and students will be posted in a few different places.
- Parish website at www.gxannagiusehien.net
- Parish bulletin
- Bulletin boards in the school at the main entries of the church and school and in the GLVN office (room 103)
- This newsletter (GLVN News) will be published monthly online to keep you updated on what’s happening in the program. It will be sent via email (if we have your email address) and on the parish website.
Contacting GLVN
Main GLVN Phone (general questions and student attendance): 612-470-2627
Please include student full name, grade and parent name/phone number when leaving a message.
Click here to meet the Administrative Team & read more about their roles.
Common questions or concerns listed below can be directed to the specific Administrative Team Member. Please call the GLVN office main number to reach these individuals or visit us in the GLVN office on Sundays from 10:00 to 1:00 p.m.
- Overall GLVN program (Principal)
- Absence reporting/early dismissal (GLVN office room 103 or via phone 612-470-2627)
- Spiritual needs of students/teachers, Mass or Confession (Chaplain)
- Student progress, homework and other class topics (Teachers)
- Giáo Lý curriculum or teachers (Religious Education Coordinator)
- Việt Ngữ curriculum or teachers (Vietnamese Language Coordinator)
- Student database (Secretary)
- Purchase uniforms (Treasurer)
- Student Code of Conduct issues (External Relations Coordinator)
- General security on school and church grounds during GLVN (Safety & Security Lead)
- Liturgical and Mass (Liturgical Lead)
- Children’s Choir (Choir Lead)
About GLVN
1) To support parishioners in the faith formation of their youth, helping them to know and love God, and preparing them to receive First Reconciliation & Communion and the Sacrament of Confirmation.
2) The Vietnamese language program is integrated into the parish to help our youth maintain their Vietnamese language and culture.
Email: chipham.sasjhparish@gmail.com
Website: www.gxannagiusehien.net
Location: 2627 Queen Avenue North, Minneapolis, MN, United States
Phone: 612-470-2627