Field Trip: In Baptism We Belong

Sunday September 23rd was our third session together. This week we covered Unit 1, Chapter 2 "We Belong to the Church". In preparing for the session, I established the focus as being ways we show how we belong to our church community. The lesson plan for the session includes the topics discussion, the activities worksheet, and craft activity.




Packing Light: If you just want the activity sheet for this session, you can find it here. It has a color-by-number, fill-in-the-blanks, and dot-to-dot activity.



After we met in the common area for the whole group activity, we started off by taking a field trip over to the church. First, we had a brief prayer to get us started. Since we had already said the "Our Father" with the whole group, the children decided a short little prayer would be better to start us this time, so we just asked Jesus to help us open our hearts to His word during our time together.

We remembered what we talked about last time - that we are a community with our church. We talked about ways we know we belong to different communities: we wear uniforms or we have flags. I told them how Baptism is a way we know we belong to our church community. I asked if anyone has been to a baptism. Most of the children had been to a Baptism. I asked what activities happen at a baptism, here is what we came up with:

• they pour water on the baby's head (Sweet Pea Elephant knew that the water was like being cleaned. We talked about Adam and Eve and "original sin". The children decided that Adam and Eve gave everyone a sin, but we could get rid of it with Baptism.)


• they light a candle (no one could figure out why we had candles, so I described that it represents Jesus who is our light and we receive Him at Baptism. He helps show us the way. We decided it was like a night-light when it is dark at night, so we can find our way to the bathroom).

I asked if there was anything else that happens at a Baptism. Our Pragmatic Tiger told us that he went to his cousin's baptism and the baby screamed a lot the whole time and the priest couldn't settle the baby down. The children agreed that babies do cry a lot at Baptisms, probably because of all the cold water they dump on them. I think I was successful in convincing them that wasn't one of the symbols!

I led them through the final two symbols:

• oil (I asked if anyone knew what we do with the oil and our Effusive Jaguar knew right away it was "like the Old Testament, when they break it on your head and then you are a king or something". We discussed that yes, it means we are called by name by God to be His children).


• white clothes (no one knew this one, the children thought that the colors were either purple or green, they were surprised it was white, like getting married or something! After that reference, I was quick to switch the whole "represents purity" conversation over to equate with "having had the sins washed"~~)

After the discussion, we trekked back over to the classroom. They all wanted to write on the white board but agreed they would wait until after we finished all our other activities. Rocking Horse helped hand out all the activity worksheets, which were received with great relish due to the color-by-number on the front! We reviewed briefly:

• why do we have Baptism? (So we Belong!)


• what happens at Baptism? (Our sins are cleansed and God calls us by name) (N.B. - I had mixed reaction to my spontaneous rendition of the "Name Game" song using their names. Fair Cheetah feigned fainting! Was it my voice?).

When she recovered, Fair Cheetah read the scripture reading (Matthew 3:11-17) for us. That was a tough reading but she hung in there with all those long words! We were amazed that Jesus was Baptized! We talked about why he did that when of course HE did not have any sins to cleanse!

The children were much relieved that is was FINALLY time for the hands-on activity. They each selected a bookmark of their favorite color, and I gave each of them a strip of the stickers. The stickers were of the 4 symbols of Baptism, and of Jesus' Baptism. After they applied all the stickers they wrote "We Belong" on the bookmark. They really seemed to like this activity, and once again each child was able to apply their own flair.

Pragmatic Tiger wanted to label all the symbols

Whereas Effusive Jaguar and Rocking Horse saved their bling for the backside

We wrapped up the session with journal time. Most of the children completed their entries quickly and so had plenty of time to write and draw on the white board.

Pragmatic Tiger took advantage of this time to complete his dot-to-dot activity, and check out how he embellished it!

And Sweet Pea Elephant did her color-by-number, lovely!

Rocking Horse actually finished all her activities, but I didn't get the snapshots in time.

I sent home the Family Time pages for Unit 1, Chapter 3, which we will be discussing next session.

Hope the children feel as good about today's session as I did!

Side Trips: if you want more information, activities, and games...

• If you just have a bit of time, definitely go for the online activity for this chapter at Blest Are We
• If you have two-bits of time, check out the Baptism of Jesus coloring activities at Catholic Mom and the Baptism of Jesus online word search game at Quia.
• For more in-depth activities, check out some of the links in the lesson plan.