Whirlwind Tour - Preparing for the Sacraments

We spent all of our April sessions learning more about the Eucharist and preparing to receive the Sacraments of First Confession and First Communion.

Father joined us and helped us learn more about examining our conscience. We reviewed The Ten Commandments together.

In May, when the day came for our First Confession, the nuns came to help us prepare.
We were nervous at first, but we loved adding our clean hearts to the big heart of Jesus.

Our parents came for retreat too. Afterwards, we practiced for our Big Day!

Finally, it was time for our First Communion!

Lots of anticipation as we waited for Mass to start.
Lots of joy as we could see the whole parish was so happy for us!
Lots of relief when it was finished and we could relax and enjoy our reception!
Lots of excitement at the spcecial prints of "The Last Supper" we received to commemorate our day!

Packing Light: I didn't prepare formal lesson plans for this phase of our activity. Here are links to the worksheets and activities we used:

• coloring page for understanding worthiness to receive Holy Communion
• booklet for examination of conscience using the Ten Commandments as our guide
• booklet for reviewing the steps for Confession
• note cards to hang on bathroom mirror to remember to learn the Act of Contrition
• booklet/coloring page for learning more about the Eucharistic Prayer
• "last ditch review" for Reconciliation and Communion

Thanks for joining us for our year. Our 2nd grade safari was a great expedition. Together, we explored and investigated lots of teachings of the Catholic Church. God truly blessed us as we grew in our knowledge and appreciation of our faith and its traditions!

See you next year, have a great summer! Here is a summer saints coloring book to enjoy.

Trip Down Memory Lane - We Receive the Gift of Jesus

Sunday March 30th was our twenty-fourth session together. This week we covered Unit 4, Chapter 14 "We Receive The Gift of Jesus." In preparing for the session, I established the focus that in the Eucharist, we remember the life, death, and Resurrection of Jesus and nourish our union with him. 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 coloring activity, word search, crossword and maze activity.

When we met in the common area for the whole group activity, we learned that Pragmatic Tiger, Fair Cheetah, Effusive Jaguar, Sweet Pea Elephant, and Rocking Horse would not be joining us, so we were a small group!

We started by reviewing a little:

Who is Jesus?

"God's son!"

What happened to Him?

"He died on the cross!"

Why did He do that?

(various expressions of 'hmmm' and 'I don't know' and then...) "for us?" (asked Courtly Polar Bear quite timidly)

Absolutely! He did it for us, to save us from our sins. He showed us the greatest love. And he also showed that God has power even over death. How did He do that?

"He rose up again on Easter!" (said Ingenious Giraffe triumphantly)

So then we spent a bit of time talking about the Last Supper, and how Jesus blessed the bread and wine and said "Do this in memory of me."

Why do you think he told them to keep doing that in memory of Him?

"Because He knew He was going to die?" (said Ingenious Giraffe)

That's true, He did. But let me ask you something. What did you have for dinner last night?

(various responses, but all quite confident)

OK, and what did you have for dinner last Saturday night?

(a couple of guesses, but not very confident)

OK, what did you have for lunch last Monday?

(again, a couple of guesses, but not very convincing!)

How about last Friday?

(a nearly unanimous PIZZA!)

And how do you remember that?

Because we ALWAYS have pizza on Fridays at school!

So then we talked about how it was easier to remember about dinner last night because it was more recent - it was close to us. And we could remember Pizza on Fridays because we do it every week. It's easier for us to remember things we do often. That's why when people want to remember something, they might keep a note and make sure to read it, or keep it near them, or make sure to put it where they can see it. So we decided that Jesus asked us to "do this in memory of me" because he wanted us to make sure to remember it and to keep Him close to us where we can see Him.

We talked about how today we still celebrate the Last Supper and the priest blesses the bread and wine too, just like Jesus did. We talked about how we believe that Jesus is present in the bread and the wine after the priest blesses it, and that is how we keep Jesus close to us. We remembered that the bread has many names after it is blessed, like "Holy Communion", or "Eucharist" or "Blessed Sacrament". We remembered that we have talked about Jesus in the bread and wine before, but it is still hard to understand, we decided we would talk about it more next time.

So then, we made little memorial ribbons to help us remember how Jesus blessed the bread and wine. As usual, the children did an amazing job decorating them and then they even wanted to wear them!




















We wrapped up the day by making birthday cards for the Pope...





















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 "Jesus is always with us" activity on Blest Are We
• For more in-depth activities, check out some of the links in the lesson plan there are many coloring pages of Psalms

Of Colts and Giraffes

Sunday March 16th was our twenty-third session together. As it was Palm Sunday, the Mass ran longer than usual so the group was delayed in getting together. After a snack and a prayer, the group participated as a whole in a special activity. We talked a bit about Palm Sunday and then we learned how to make a cross from the palm fronds.

We also learned that we have a new student joining us, so since we only had about 15 minutes together by the time we arrived in our room, we spent the time getting to know each other and making him feel welcome. We all introduced ourselves and identified our animals. He chose giraffe as his animal.

Welcome, Ingenious Giraffe!

Stuck In A Holding Pattern

Sunday March 9th was our twenty-second session together.

When we met in the common area for the whole group activity, we learned that only Fair Cheetah, Pragmatic Tiger, and Sweet Pea Elephant were going to be attending today. So I decided not to proceed with our planned lesson until we had more of the children in attendance. We're getting to the really important lessons about the Eucharist now, so I'd rather risk having to have a make-up session, than to have more than half the class miss one of these important topics!

Instead, the four of us reviewed our last lesson, and we remembered

Jesus really is the Son of God

Jesus really did come down to Earth as a man

Jesus really did die for us

Jesus really did rise from the dead

Jesus really will come again

And I tossed in ~ briefly, as a prelude to topics to come ~ that

Jesus really is present in the Eucharist

We decided that some of these are hard to understand and picture in our minds, but that they are part of our Catholic faith so we are going to keep trying.

There happened to be some shamrocks hanging as decorations in the room, so the children asked if they could draw some of their own. So while they colored pictures we continued to have a lively discussion. We talked about how St. Patrick used the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity: just as the shamrock has 3 separate leaves, but is still 1 plant, so we have Father, Son, Holy Spirit - 3 persons but 1 God.

Hopefully next week we will be able to begin our travels through Unit 4, Chapter 14, "We Receive the Gift of Jesus".

Nature Trail - Jesus' Sacrifice Give Us New Life

Sunday March 2nd was our twenty-first session together. This week we covered Unit 4, Chapter 13 "Jesus Saves Us From Sin". In preparing for the session, I established the focus as our mystery of faith: Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again. 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 matching activity, coloring, word search, and dot-to-dot activity.

We only met briefly with the whole group for a prayer, then we were off to our room. We learned that Fair Cheetah and Rocking Horse would be late, but it was the first time we have all been together in many weeks!

We had our usual conversation about what was going on at Mass this weekend. We talked about how Father is still wearing purple and how the Alleluia and Gloria are still locked up and can't come out. We talked about the Bible readings, how the Gospel was soooo long this week but we liked the story of how the blind man could see!

We continued by remembering what we have been discussing: that we Listen to God's Word, We Act on God's Word, and We Pray for Others. We talked about how in the Old Testament, God promised to send us a Savior, and in the New Testament we see that He did: He sent Jesus, His son. That is why we say Jesus is "the Word made flesh". Jesus came to save us. He died for us and then rose from the dead. We talked about how this is a very important part of our faith... in fact, so important that we say it every time we go to Mass. I took out a copy of the missalette and we read the parts together:

...We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made, one in Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered, died, and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in fulfillment of the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end. ...

We talked about things Jesus did to show us how to "Act on God's Word" and "Pray for Others". We decided he definitely helped serve other people, especially when he was curing people, like he did with the blind man in the Gospel.

We talked about how sometimes it is not easy to "Act on God's Word". Sometimes it is hard to serve others. Sometimes we have to give things up if we help others, and we don't always like to do it. Pragmatic Tiger told how one time he gave up watching his favorite show so that he could help his sister get ready for a special activity. Effusive Jaguar told how she is giving up attitude for Lent, and it is hard work. We talked about what it means to give up something so that we can help someone else, that we call this a 'sacrifice'.

I asked - what did Jesus give up? what sacrifice did he make? The children knew - "his life!".

How hard is that? Can you imagine that? We don't even like to give up a TV show, and Jesus gave up his life! It is truly a great mystery of our faith:

Christ has died,
Christ has risen,
Christ will come again.

We discussed that because Jesus gave up his life, we now have "new life", a "new life" where we can have hope and to be with God... and we often see signs of "new life" at Easter... signs like new flowers and baby birds. Working with this theme, we then did our activity, which was to color a flower that would "pop up" like a bloom when you open the card. The children colored them so amazingly beautiful! And then they did a terrific job following instructions to cut them out and attach them to the card...



























Next time we will cover Unit 4, Chapter 14, "We Receive the Gift of Jesus".


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 reading and puzzle activities on Jesus is the Way activity


• For more in-depth activities, check out some of the links in the lesson plan there are many coloring pages and pencil puzzles

Reviewing the Itinerary - A Day of Review

Sunday February 24th was our twentieth session together. This week we had a review for Unit 3 and also for Sacrament of Reconciliation. In preparing for the session, I decided we would focus on the forgiveness received during Reconciliation and for the Unit 3 review we would focus on the relationships between the topics of the Unit... in both activities I reused pictures and phrases that we have used throughout the lessons. The lesson plan for the session includes the topics discussion and the activities. There is no activities worksheet for this week.

Packing Light: The whole session was "light" so just check out the online activities at Blest Are We.


When we met in the common area for the whole group activity, we learned that Fair Cheetah and Pragmatic Tiger would not be joining us. We seem to be having a hard time getting everyone together this year!

Once we were settled into our room, we started with our usual discussion of Mass: what color was Father wearing? Did we say the full "I confess to Almight God" or did we say the "Lord Have Mercy"? Did we sing or say the Gloria? What about the Holy, Holy, Holy? What about the Our Father?

The children continued to be enthralled with the concept that we are not singing or saying the Gloria or Alleluia... they cannot wait for them to allowed to 'come out of the box' (as Rocking Horse says)!

On to the topics of the day...

I started by indicating that we were going to review the sacrament where we receive forgiveness. I asked - did anyone remember what it was called? As the children called out various answers, we discovered that we knew lots of names for it. I asked Rocking Horse if she wanted to make a list of them on the white board. Here is what we came up with:




So then we talked about what happens when we go to Confession: how we have to say our sins to the priest, how we have to say the prayer to show we're sorry, and then Father will give us the forgiveness. We talked a bit about the forgiveness. It was confusing for us why we had to tell him our sins and then get the forgiveness. We know that God can hear our prayers and knows if we are sorry for our sins. We learned that God always forgives us if we are really sorry, so how come we have to go to Confession?

So we talked about how God's forgiveness is like a gift. It is like a birthday gift from grandma. We know that grandma has a gift for us, but we can't receive it until we go and see her in person. Confession is the same way - even though we know God has forgiveness for us, we need to go and then we can really receive it. ("I hope it really is like when I get a gift from my grandma and I feel wonderful and never want to return it" said Rocking Horse. I love the amazing things these kids say!).

So then I mentioned that once we go to Confession and receive God's forgiveness and grace, then we are ready to go to Communion. I asked if anyone knew anything about it? Once again we discovered that there were a bunch of names for it, and Rocking Horse again wanted to write it on the white board. Here is what we came up with:




Other than that, the children didn't really know a whole lot about the sacrament. So I told them that was OK - because that is exactly what we would be learning together next!

After a bit of gabbing, I moved us on to the Unit 3 review...

We've been talking a lot about God's word. Where can we find God's word?

"Bible!"(in unison)

We can always read the Bible at home with our family. Where else can we hear the Word of God read to us?

"Church?" (asked Sweet Pea Elephant tentatively)

Exactly. And that was our first lesson for this unit - 'We Listen to the Word of God' - remember all the Bible stories we talked about?

(various expressions of assent)

Since Rocking Horse was in 'writing mode', she asked if she could write this down on the white board, I said 'sure!'.

OK, then... what did we talk about after that?

(various strains of "uh?")

You know... with the helping hands?

"Oh yeah! Those works of mercy or something like that"(said Sweet Pea Elephant)

You got it... we listen to the Word of God, then we act on it by serving others. What is the third piece of the puzzle?

"Praying using those finger reminders!"(said Courtly Polar Bear with GREAT enthusiasm! She was so happy she remembered ALL the fingers and who to pray for!)

Yes - so you see there are 3 pieces we studied, and they work together like a triangle. Do you see it?

"Hey, it IS like a triangle!" said Rocking Horse, "First you listen to the Bible, then you have to serve others and pray for others". And so she drew it on the white board that way!

So then I handed out the two activities: The first was for the Unit Review. It was a little triangular-shaped booklet for the topic: listening to God's word, Serving others, Praying for Others. The children carefully cut out the triangle and folded along the lines to create their booklets. When I asked whose booklet I could photograph, they ALL wanted theirs photographed. So they worked as a team to make a design out of their booklets:

Finally, I handed out a little Reconciliation activity I found at catechiceticalresources.com. The children had quite a time trying to follow the instructions and comparing their results.






Next week we will be having a starting Unit 4, We Celebrate the Gift of Eucharist.

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

• If you just have a bit of time, go for any of the online or printable activities for the chapter if you missed them the first time - they can be found at Blest Are We
• If you have two-bits of time, check out the check out the lent activities at CatholicMom.com
• For more in-depth activities, check out some of the links in the lesson plan from Unit 2, Chapter 6 there are many activities related to forgiveness and the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

The World in Our Hands - Learning to Pray for Others

Sunday February 17th was our nineteenth session together. This week we covered Unit 3, Chapter 12 "We Pray for Others". In preparing for the session, I established the focus as ways to pray for others. 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 dot-to-dot activity, decode activity, and coloring activity.

We really didn't have an activity with the whole group, so we went directly to our room. We started off with our usual discussion about Mass. The children noticed Father was still wearing Purple, and that we are still singing those 'old' versions of the Holy, Holy, Holy and the Our Father. They miss singing the Gloria, and we talked once again how the Gloria and Alleluia are 'put away' during Lent.

We tried to remember those "7 service things" from last week. We didn't really remember too many of them... but at least they remembered that they existed (and that there were 7 of them!).

We talked again about the petitions that we hear after we listen to the Gospel during Mass. We tried to remember the kinds of things that the reader lists. We remembered ones like praying for the sick and the Pope and the soldiers. We definitely remembered the "Lord, hear our prayer" that we say.

Then we created a "prayer web". I then asked the children to volunteer ideas of ways we could pray for others. As each child volunteered, she or he was handed the ball of yarn... then he or she would wrap the yarn loosely around his/her hand. So as we went around - which was in whatever order the children were ready to volunteer - we created a "web" with our prayer ideas. So then I reminded them:

See, we are all connected. We remember that God is the Father of everyone in the world, so we need to care about others because they are like our brothers and sisters.

The children had great fun with this and wanted to be able to give 2nd and 3rd ideas so they could really be connected!

So then I asked if anyone knew how we could remember who we should pray for? I told them it is hard sometimes, and I forget how to do it too sometimes. So I asked them to hold their hands like they were praying. Using the "5 finger prayer" that I found at sermons4kids.com, I walked them through it:

What finger is closest to you as you hold your hands that way?

"Thumbs!"(in unison)

Since the thumb is closest to you, you use it to remind you to pray for people who are close to you. Who are some people that are close to you?

"Parents" "Brothers" "Sisters" "Grandma"

...and so we continued for each finger... the children were quite engaged with this activity! When we finished, I handed out the coloring page and asked them to label each finger on the page with the "who we should pray for" reminders and then they colored them and decorated them. It was great to see them working together to figure out what hint they should write on each finger.














Next week we will be having a unit 3 review.

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
• If you have two-bits of time, check out the prayer card activity at We Believe.
• For more in-depth activities, check out some of the links in the lesson plan