Chapel is central to our community life at SEA.  Chapel gives the school a common time to gather to celebrate God and his love and presence in our lives.  We do this in a way that is respectful to all denominations and faiths through a service loosely based on the Episcopal service of Morning Prayer, led by the chaplain.  Beginning by singing “This is the Day” and ending with the SEA school song “One in Love,” our chapel service emphasizes God’s love and our responsibility to one another through song, prayers, and a chapel talk. 

SEA chapel services are primarily for the children.  This means that we celebrate and encourage as much child participation as possible during our services.  This begins with the 5^th graders at SEA, who take responsibility for the work of making chapel happen, doing jobs as varied as leading songs or ringing the bell.  The 5^th graders also take special responsibility once each month, when they lead the entire service, from beginning to end, complete with a “chapel talk” that they create on their own.  Usually either a Bible or another story with a moral message, the 5^th graders act the story out and use media and other tools for getting maximum effect.  All the children love 5^th grade chapel talks.  Other grades participate in chapel by singing, sharing what they have learned in the classroom, and by reading.  SEA chapels are lively and fun! 

Our chapel is a time to celebrate our community.  Each week, students who have been “caught being kind” receive Rainbow Awards, SEA’s way of honoring those students who best enact the SEA mission of kindness to all.  Rainbow Award students receive a special ribbon to wear all day as a mark of their “kindness achievement” to those inside our community.  

But SEA students do not stop being kind when they exit the gates of the school.  Instead, all homeroom classrooms participate in a Homeroom Outreach Project (HOP) that offer assistance to some of the needs in the larger community of the greater Orlando area.  Each classroom chooses their own project, and with the help of parent volunteers, coordinates a project that lends a hand outside the school.  Some of the projects include a breakfast hosted by the Kindergarten class for community helpers, a PK pop-can drive that financed baby supplies, a 2^nd grade pajama drive for Harbor House, work with coalition for the Homeless (3^rd grade), and supplies collected for Families in Transition (5^th Grade). 

 With the help of the school-wide student council, the YES Team (Youth Encouraging Service), SEA participates also in school-wide outreach projects.  Last year, after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, SEA collected flashlights and batteries, diapers and formula, First Aid supplies, powdered milk and other necessities within a week, and sent these supplies to Haiti.  SEA also collected boxes full of coats for those affected by the cold snap last year.  Yearly projects include a food drive and a pop-tab drive benefiting the Ronald McDonald House.  

These projects are part of a school-wide desire to help our students grow not only academically, but also as people.  As students participate in the HOPs, they learn another part of being kind, the part that happens in the world.  The Religion curriculum at SEA fosters these connections to the world through stories of many different religious traditions.  Each student attends religion class once every week as part of the enrichment program.  Although expressly Christian in nature, religion class excludes no one, and the chaplain encourages discussion and difference of tradition in the classroom.  Students learn about how to better practice kindness, basic stories from the Bible, stories from other traditions, and through hands-on activities including art, discussion, and drama, students learn how to grow as  people.