Church School Safari Theme Ever Popular With Children

By Susan Coney

When entering the Trinity Episcopal Church last week the Sunday school classrooms seemed to have been transformed to resemble a wild animal theme park or jungle as part of the weeklong vacation church school program entitled Kingdom of the Son. The classrooms, decorated from floor to ceiling to create the feeling of visiting the jungle, provided the children attending the program with an exciting atmosphere in which to learn and socialize.

Four area churches — St Rose of Lima, Trinity Episcopal, Newtown United Methodist, and Newtown Congregational — worked together as part of the Newtown Ecumenical Vacation Church School to provide children ages prekindergarten through sixth grade with a rewarding experience.

Kathryn Wolf, a member of Newtown United Methodist Church, participated as a volunteer while her children 4-year-old Carolyn and 7-year-old Elizabeth attended the church school classes. “My children loved the program, especially the music,” Ms Wolf said. “We got to bring the music CD home that they played all week during the session and the children enjoyed listening and dancing to the songs they had learned at church school,” she remarked.

At the end of a week of activities such as arts and crafts projects, singing, performing skits, and experiencing religious teachings, the children gathered together as part of the closing program. The children enjoyed a slide show depicting various activities that took place during the week, sang songs, and watched a skit performed by older children Katie McMorran, Christine D’Alessandro, Anna Chamiec, and Rachel Petersen, who had helped out during the program.

All of the children sported straw safari hats and wore matching vacation church school T-shirts at the closing program, which was also attended by their parents. Everyone enjoyed an array of goodies attractively displayed on jungle motive tablecloths.

Ecumenical Vacation Church School co-directors Sue Vogelman and Jen Peterson were on hand all week to oversee the activities. Barbara Chamberlain was the musical director for the program. The vacation school received generous support and donations from Newtown Dunkin’ Donuts, Newtown Stop & Shop, Bagel Delight, and Newtown Hardware.