Rosemont School of the Holy Child Profile On a wall outside the homerooms of 3rd grade teachers Helen Gambescia and Ann Hodgdon at Rosemont School of the Holy Child is a testament to citizenship, faith and unity. The display is entitled “Grade 3 Fits Perfectly.” It encompasses a collection of prayers and aspirations of each class member, an archive that is an extension of prayer circles that the teachers employ at the beginning of each school day. The students, said Mrs. Gambescia, sit together on the floor at homeroom before classes each morning in what is called “the circle of friends, the circle of helping hands,” she said. The students affirm their faith and include readings of prayers that they created in their religion classes. “After the students wrote their prayers, we typed them up on our computers and sent them to the print shop and had them laminated,” Mrs. Gambescia said. The laminated copies were stapled to the wall, situated around a core composite of the students’ headshots. The students select copies of the prayers from a folder each day to be read by the students during their morning prayer circles. The prayer circles were created after 9-11, said Ms. Hodgdon. The students look forward to having their prayers read as a feature of the circles, the teachers agreed. “Sometimes they will remind us, ‘we haven’t read our prayer yet,’” said Mrs. Gambescia. Religious education is only one component of the prayer circles, the teachers said. By including the headshots of the students in a mosaic on the wall the teachers emphasize the connection each student has with one another. “We try to instill both independence and consideration for others,” said Ms. Hodgdon. “We want the students to contribute to class, to get along with and support one another. Reading the prayers helps students recognize, appreciate and understand their classmates. We often get ‘ah ha’ moments when they’re read aloud, because the students’ true feelings come out.” “Stressing ‘community’ is important,” said Mrs. Gambescia, “and we feel that the prayer circles reinforce that for our class.”