St. Edward The Confessor Third Graders Prep For Living Nativity

Story and Photos By Beth Donze
Kids Clarion

Even after 39 years of teaching third graders at St. Edward Confessor in Metairie – 20 of them as director of the school’s Nativity play – Aimee Gardner admits she is still brought to tears whenever she sees her little ones reverently re-enacting Christ’s birth on the altar, at the close of the final school Mass of the calendar year.

True to form, as Gardner watched her students run through this year’s final dress rehearsal on Dec. 13, she welled up as the Three Wise Men presented small inflatables representing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

A shimmering gold star, held aloft by a cast member, lit the way for a trio of brown-robed shepherds and lent a joyful note in front of the church’s large crucifix.

“Third grade is self-contained, so we have a little more flexibility to schedule practices and the time to memorize the lines together,” said Gardner, supervising the action inside church with Raegan Rivere, her fellow third-grade teacher.

Students begin preparing about two weeks before the actual presentation date, reading various Nativity books, memorizing the lines together as a class with their teachers and blocking out the play in church. All “costumed” roles are selected at random, out of a hat; but to make sure each student has a part, those who are not in a featured role form the chorus and must memorize the lion’s share of the lines as narrators.

“The lines rhyme and make a poem, so it is a little easier to memorize,” Gardner said, noting that studies have shown that the brains of 8- and 9-year-olds are the most receptive to memorization. “The memorization of all those lines is a little difficult and it takes patience. When we start to practice, the kids need to be patient and quiet, since we are in church.”