Submitted: Catholic Schools Week at Guardian Angel School in Oran

It was a bustling week from January 26-31, as Guardian Angel School celebrated Catholic Schools Week.

On Sunday, January 26, students handed out thank you notes to the parishioners after the 7 am & 10:30 am Masses, as we celebrated our parish.

Monday was a fun day for everyone in school as we celebrated our community and volunteers. The teachers made breakfast for the students, staff and school volunteers. It was pajama day, so almost all the students wore their pajamas to school, ate breakfast, and then played board games with each other in the gym until 8:30 am. After lunch recess, the students played Bingo, with the older students helping the younger students to find the numbers to cover.

On Tuesday, the day started with Mass, as we celebrated our students. Beginning at 11:15 am, parents and grandparents were invited to a chili/cinnamon roll luncheon and were able to sit with their family members. After lunch recess, the students got to watch a movie and were able to bring blankets and pillows from home to get comfortable. They were also given a snack by the teachers.

Wednesday was a day to celebrate vocations. Students were able.to dress as their favorite character or Saint, or just wear their uniforms. Those dressing up were: In Pre-K 3, Jett Pinkston (priest); Pre-K 4: Tenley Glastetter (St. Gianna), Hudson Seyer (St. Michael the Archangel), Sophia Enderle (Blessed Virgin Mary), Addelyn Griffin (St. Gianna), Scarlett Crumley (Blessed Virgin Mary), Lane Overfield (St. Paul), & Kye Roper (Goliath); Kindergarten: Paxton Urhahn (St. Michael the Archangel); 1st Grade: Clara Vetter (St. Gianna), Sadie Seyer (St. Veronica), & Berkley Dennis (St. Gabriel the Archangel); 2nd Grade: Jameson Levan (St. Francis), Mae Roper (St. Teresa of Calcutta), Lane Seyer (St. Daniel), & Case Taylor (St. Francis); 3rd Grade: Kinsley Dunivan (St. Therese the Little Flower); 4th Grade: Laynie Priggel (St. Agnes); 5th grade: Chloe Caudle (St. Maria Goretti), Saydi Priggel (St. Bernadette), & Kambrie Seabaugh (St. Gemma); 6th grade: Cora Houchins (St. Catherine of Sienna); & 7th grade: Kyla Rains (St. Agnes of Rome). The students wrote letters to our seminarians thanking them for answering their call to God. After lunch, we had a guest speaker. Sister Sergon, a Little Sister of St. Francis, who works at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape. She talked to the students about her work as a spiritual leader at the hospital. Her order is from Uganda, where there are about 800 nuns in the order. She said, of that number, about 20 are in the United States. Most of them do their work with the people of Africa.

Celebrating our nation was on the agenda for Thursday. Everyone celebrated Mass and then wrote letters to our state elected officials, thanking them for their service and asking them to promote pro-life concerns. House games were played in the afternoon. Even the Pre-K 4 class got to join in on the fun of the games. The overall winner was St Raphael, with St. Gabriel in 2nd and St. Michael in 3rd place.

Finally on Friday, we celebrated the faculty & staff, by dismissing school at noon. In the morning, the students went on a field trip to Sikeston. PK & kindergarten classes went to Bootheel Gymnastics and grades 1-7 went bowling. They took a bus and returned to school by noon to get picked up and go home.

Catholic Schools Week is celebrated the last week of January each year throughout the Springfield-Cape Girardeau Diocese. The Southeast Missourian newspaper runs an ad in the newspaper just before the week, to promote the Catholic Schools in our area.