Sunday November 18th was our eleventh session together. This week we covered Unit 2, Chapter 8 "We Say We Are Sorry". In preparing for the session, I established the focus as understanding contrition and why we need the Sacrament of Reconciliation. 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 two crossword activities.
When we met in the common area for the whole group activity, some of us helped out the members of Society of St. Vincent de Paul by carrying the donated food from the front of the church over to the staging area. Then we received our awards from the All Saints parade! And, also once again we had many 2nd graders win the Perfect Attendence for October: Courtly Polar Bear, Rocking Horse, Effusive Jaguar, and Sweet Pea Elephant... way to go!
We also learned that for just this session, we had a visiting 2nd grader and also the 3rd and 4th graders joined us! Wow! We are not used to so many together with us! Especially the boys, since there are usually so few... we needed a few reminders on showing respect while others are talking.
So we started off by remembering that we need to say "I'm sorry" when we sin. I wondered whether we could just say "I'm sorry" and then we would automatically be forgiven? "No way, you have to pray first" said Effusive Jaguar.
But there's something else - can anyone figure it out? If I wallop my sister on the head and say "I'm sorry" and then wallop her again -- am I really sorry? "No, it doesn't sound like you mean it!" said Sweet Pea Elephant.
And what if I wallop my sister on the head and then say "I'm sorry" right as my mother is coming over so she doesn't get mad at me? "Still seems suspicious to me" said Rocking Horse.
So what is it I need? Do I need to really FEEL sorry and not just SAY sorry? "Absolutely, you gotta mean it or it doesn't count" said Effusive Jaguar.
Exactly! And when you mean it, it is called "C-O-N-T-R-I-T-I-O-N, contrition". That is when you really feel sorry for what you have done. And when we go to Reconciliation, we say a prayer called "Act of Contrition" that says we are sorry.
Effusive Jaguar noted that this whole Reconciliation thing sure has a lot of big words to learn. I had to agree... which is why today I brought some friends to help us learn more about it. My friends here are puppets, and they need you to help finish them so they can participate in some puppet shows today! (Luckily I had enough extra puppets and scripts to go around! I do not usually have that many extra available!!).
The puppets were met with great delight by the girls, but with mixed emotion by many of the boys. It took quite some repeated encouragement to get the hestitant boys to color their puppets. Even then, they only wanted to color the boy puppets. The girl puppets were quickly used as dive bombers (NB: they do not hold up well to repeated folding and crashing into the desk~). This surprised me just a little as the boys are usually equally excited to do the activities. I used the occasion to remind the boys that they were not being respectful of the time
and care I had put into the activity and if they didn't like them they should have offered to give them back instead of destroying them. We talked about how maybe we needed to think about whether what they were doing was a good choice or not. I am very happy to say we had significantly improved behavior after that small conversation! (I must mention that the sole 3rd grade boy did not participate in the wild rumpus, but rather did an excellent job and not only colored them beautifully, but was the first to finish both his puppets!).
Meanwhile, while all that conversation was occurring, the girls had clustered into several groups, coloring away. You know my usual, I started peppering them with the questions about Mass... they never cease to amaze me with their responses! At least they are trying to pay attention!
And so we talked a bit about how the different people go up from the congregation to read now. Then, with much more prompting, the children completed their puppets... as soon as everyone had at least one puppet completed, we could begin the show.
Now, normally, we have a very small class and the plan was that we would read through each of the two scripts twice, that way each child would have a chance to participate. But with such a larger group today, we just had to rely on volunteers who were ready. We were a little unsteady at first, as the two first readers had a hard time holding up their puppets and keeping their place in the script... but we soon figured out how to have helpers keep their places and they got into a great rhythm. The children even helped each other over the tough words. I interjected questions and "oh wows" at ~coincidentally~ appropriate times in the plays. And once I had the boys mixed into the group (instead of clustered to the back by themselves, where they were wont to stay), everyone participated very nicely and was very interested in the stories! Even though they were not well-rehearsed or smooth presentation, we had a lot of fun with them and we also had a nice conversation about the stories afterward. The first was called "Act of Confusion" and led us through the Act of Contrition prayer line by line (in a very humorous and memorable manner!). The second was called "I Don't Want To Say I'm Sorry" which helped us understand why we need to go to Sacrament of Reconciliation even when we already said we were sorry. They were both fun! (NB - because I was having the children read these 'extemporaneously', I definitely think each child having their own copy of the script to follow along helped as an engagement factor). I heard several of the girls say that they were going to practice the show for their parents. I hope they do!We will meet again after the Thanksgiving break. Our next session afterwards will be a unit 2 review, so there weren't any Family Time pages sent home today, although I did hand out the worksheets, as well as the pages from the chapter in Blest Are We. You can enjoy following the mass with them through the Thanksgiving holiday!
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 more of the puppet shows at Catholic Mom Puppet Ministry
- For more in-depth activities, check out some of the links in the lesson plan there are many coloring pages of Psalms
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