Role Models - Picking Up Tracks

Sunday September 30th was our fourth session together. This week we covered Unit 1, Chapter 3 "Our Church Shows Us How To Live". In preparing for the session, I established the focus as being ways our Church shows us how to be good and holy members our 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 matching activity (they will need their books or another Saints resource), maze, and word search activity.

When we met in the common area for the whole group activity, we learned that we are being joined by a new animal. We wanted to make sure to make him feel welcome in our community, so when we settled in our room, we introduced ourselves, asked him what animal he would like to chose (he chose eagle!), and then we reviewed what we have been learning together. Pragmatic Tiger reminded us what is a community, and Courtly Polar Bear filled us in on what types of communities we might belong to. Fair Cheetah read to us from her journal entry last week to recall that in Baptism we belong to our Church community. We discussed briefly that in Baptism God calls us by name to be holy and good members of His community. We remembered that the Holy Spirit comes and, as Effusive Jaguar reminded us “we get rid of that original sin thing.” (She couldn’t have stated it better had I paid her to be my shill!) I used that conversation to ask if anyone knew what Sacrament the Church has to “get rid of” other sins that we might have after Baptism. We were stumped. So I started to write RECONCILIATION on the board, and then they remembered that was the big word we didn’t know anything about from our first day! I said “exactly!” And let them know we will be learning more about that very soon.

Distributing the worksheets, I asked if anyone knew what “role model” means. We needed some prompting. So I asked “Some of you told me you are on a team. Who shows you how to be a good member of a team?” Effusive Jaguar piped up immediately: “the coach! And we know this because we are on a team!”.

“So then, who shows us how to be a good student at school?” Earnest Eagle said it was his teacher.

“And what about at home? Who helps you know how to be a good family member and not pull your sisters’ hair?” A flurry of answers: My Mom! My Dad! Grandma! My Parents!

Alrighty then, so who helps us know how to be good citizens in our Church community? Rocking Horse said “Priests and those kids in white who go up there with them!”

We talked about how Jesus gave us lots of instructions of good and holy actions. Fair Cheetah read our first Scripture reading (Mark 10:17-22), and then we reviewed the commandments He listed.

We also talked about how Saint Paul also taught people how to follow Jesus. Effusive Jaguar read our second Scripture reading (Ephesians 5 1-2).

We’re on a roll… so I keep it going: “Who knows what a saint is?” In more of a question than an answer, Sweet Pea Elephant says “A really holy person?” So we have a discussion about how saints are holy, that they tried very hard to be like God and follow Jesus’ instructions. We talked about how the saints are good examples for us.

Still groovin’, I ask, “Does anyone know what it means to say ‘follow in his footsteps’?” OK, stop the bus. This one has everyone stumped, what in the world am I talking about?! No fainting this time, but lots of drama. So I explain how the saints tried to do as Jesus did, and we call that “following in His footsteps”. Rolling out the tracing paper, I say, “and we’re going to draw our footsteps of good and holy actions too!”. So one by one they took turns standing on the paper while one of the other children traced their footsteps. While their feet were being traced, we thought of 2 good and holy actions. Then, those who wanted to could embellish their footprints with markers, etc.

Here is what we came up with:

Rocking Horse:

• Honor your father and mother
• Tell the truth

Fair Cheetah:

• Help my sister
• Share my toys with my sister

Effusive Jaguar:

Say prayers every night

Help my mom with the dishwasher

Courtly Polar Bear:

• Help my brother with his homework
• Help my brother with his laundry

Sweet Pea Elephant:

• Help my little sister get dressed for bed
• Help my mom bake

Pragmatic Tiger:

• Help mom clean the toilet
• Go to church

Earnest Eagle:

• Help mom with clothes
• Help dad with yardwork

We decided that pulling sister’s hair was not good and holy (Fair Cheetah was particularly relieved about this), nor was telling lies or cheating.

The children knew I still had a hands-on activity and were chomping at the bit to get them! We were running out of time, as we had a special Parish event and we were trying to get out early. But I squeezed in just a quick hike over to the church and handed out the activity. We saw how the pictures on the holy cards were pictures of the stained glass windows in the church! I explained how we have these 10 special saints on our windows in the church, and we have a holy card for each one. On the back of the card is when we celebrate the saint and now we can think of these saints and how good examples they are every Sunday when we come to church and see the beautiful windows. This activity was a hundred-miles-a-minute so I might have pushed it too far and the children might not have gotten a lot out of it. We are so blessed to have such wonderful stained glass windows with the four Gospel evangelists (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John), Saints Peter and Paul, and four of the Doctors of the Church (Jerome, Gregory, Augustine, Ambrose). With such beauty before us as a constant reminder of their wonderful examples, I just couldn’t let the opportunity pass without trying!

I sent home the Family Time pages for Unit 1, Chapter 4, which we will be discussing next session.

I also handed out all the pages from all the chapters we have covered from our Blest Are We workbook, now that we have the books for everyone we can use them more during class too.

I realize these blog entries might be a little long for many people’s tastes… but the children are so clever and their insights so precious. I am just so pleased they are all engaged and participating in the discussion, I just have to share it all!

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 saints coloring activities at Coloring Saints
• For more in-depth activities, check out some of the links in the lesson plan

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.
  
  

First Excursion - We Are Welcomed By Our Community

Our second session together was on Sunday, September 16th. This week we covered Unit 1, Chapter 1 "Our Church Welcomes Us". In preparing for the session, I established the focus as being about our church community and how we are welcomed to mass. 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 word search, crossword puzzle, and coloring activity.

Somewhat appropriately, we had a new student added to the class. So we made sure to make her feel welcome! She chose polar bear as her animal (photo forthcoming!).

I passed out the activity worksheets, which were very well received - the children wanted to work on the puzzles right away! But we decided we would have our conversation first and do the puzzles later.

We discussed "what is a community?". Our Pragmatic Tiger knew: "it is a group of people who come together." So we named some different types of communities we know about: neighborhoods, schools, families, sports teams. I asked "What about our church?". They weren't so sure about that at first, but then they decided since they do things together (like kneeling and Sunday School), church could be a community too.

We talked about ways communities come together to meet or celebrate. What kinds of things do we do when we get together? "Party!" "Eat!" Our Effusive Jaguar volunteered to write all these activities down on the white board. I asked for a volunteer to read from the scripture reading ( Luke 5:27-29) and our Courtly Polar Bear signed up. She did a terrific job! We talked about how Jesus liked to share meals with lots of different people and made them feel comfortable.

We talked about how after Jesus' death and resurrection, the early church still liked to get together to share a meal and tell stories about when Jesus was with them. Our Rocking Horse read the second scripture reading (Acts 2: 42-47) like a pro. We discussed how sometimes when the members of the early church got together they became one by sharing the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, and that is why today we still get together as a community, and how the Eucharist at mass is a special meal.

We tried to see how mass might be like a family gathering, like a birthday party. At a birthday party, when we first come together we greet each other and we also sing to the birthday person. Similarly, at mass we start off by singing and greeting the priest and each other. Sweet Pea Elephant noted that this week the priest was wearing Green. She said that was like regular mass. We agreed we would keep our eyes open for when the colors change - that must mean something important is going to happen!

Out of curiosity, I asked the children if any of them knew who King David was. Several of them knew he was a great king and our Pragmatic Tiger even knew he built a temple, but they didn't know how he liked to sing praise. They decided that was a really good thing he did.

It was then time for our hands-on activity. We cut out pictures of church doors, and glued the bread and wine and a "Welcome" inside. We are a community and we are welcome! As the children finished their crafts, they spent time talking and working on the activity sheets. We all had different ideas how to complete our crafts. Rocking Horse cut the back page and the inside designs to fit the shape of the doors and glued them all together. Pragmatic Tiger cut along all the intricate edgings of the bread and wine pictures. Courtly Polar Bear trimmed the "Welcome" letters to be individually glued. They all seemed to really enjoy the activity, and because I didn't have quite enough glue sticks and scissors to go around, they figured out how to share them and take turns so no one was sitting with nothing to do for very long!

Then it was journal time. I passed out journals for each of the children. Each journal had been customized with the picture they drew of their animal on the cover. They were so excited to see their very own artwork on their journals! I explained that after each session together we would talk about what we learned, and they would write down anything they thought they liked or wanted to remember. We took a few minutes to write our entries in our journals. As the children finished their entries, they drew on the white board. In fact, they worked as a team to locate enough dry-erase markers so that everyone could participate!

I sent home the Family Time pages for Unit 1, Chapter 2, which we will be discussing next session.

A successful outing, I'd say!

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
• For more in-depth activities, check out the lesson on the early church at Higher Praise

A note about journals: I am a strong believer in "we remember that which we write down". I use journals for myself and also with my own children when we are reviewing something we have learned. The act of formulating one's thoughts and crafting them into statements is in itself an activity that helps in retention... the actual writing out of the statements is even more reinforcement. Even if it is only one or two sentences, it still is a distillation - from the child's point of view - of what has been learned and what is to be remembered. You will be amazed at their entries and also how their entries mature over the course of the year!

Traveling Companions Check In

Sunday September 9th was our first session.


When we arrived, all the children and teachers from all the classes met in the common area for the kick-off. We learned that Friday the 14th was going to be the Triumph of the Cross and in commemoration our DRE asked that we all watch for crosses wherever we could find them throughout the week. Then we received paper crosses with our names on them and learned who would be in the 2nd grade class... there were 5 children present, and another due next week.


So we found our classroom together and got to know each other a bit. In planning for our first day, I did not know how many children to expect (or even an order of magnitude!) nor how much time we would have together. My main goals for the session were to introduce myself, have the children introduce themselves, and "break the ice" a little. I put together a mini lesson plan for it and in review, we followed it pretty closely.


After a few minutes of free conversation, I asked if everyone knew the "Our Father". They did, so we started off by saying the prayer together. Then, I introduced myself, then I took some pictures of the group (this forced them into close proximity~). After that, I asked the children to volunteer to introduce themselves and tell us how old they are and "what animal" they are. I explained that I was a mule... stubborn but hardworking.


The children wanted to come up to the white board and write their names on it as they introduced themselves, which was great. As each child came up I snapped their photo. We have quite a variety of animals:

cheetah

tiger (originally, he stated he was a mammal, and so we all encouraged him to pick a specific animal, at which time he said he was a human being! Later, he got into it a bit more and said he wanted to change his animal to tiger.)

jaguar

elephant

horse

(Although not the original reason for asking for their animal choices, here in the blog I will refer to the children by their animal choices instead of their names.)


Then we had a discussion about how we will interact with each other. The children decided that we should have some rules... but not too many. Here are the rules they came up with:

1. No standing on the desks


2. Be on time


3. Be nice and don't make fun of other people

The children decided we didn't need any rules like "be polite" or "share with others", because they were for little kids who were just learning.

Then we talked about what we will be learning together this year. For each topic, I asked "What do we know?" and "What do we want to know?" Here are the results:


Holy Eucharist
What We Know

• You walk up with your arms crossed.


• You hold out your hands.


• They give us a piece of white bread.


• First time getting communion.

What We Want to Know

• Why do we eat Bread?


• Why do we walk with our arms crossed?

Reconciliation
What We Know

• (nothing)

What We Want to Know

• What is it?

Mass
What We Know

• We pray.


• We sing.


• There are gifts to take up.


• We kneel.


• We sit.


• We bow.

What We Want to Know

• Why do we kneel?

Then we had a craft activity. Each child drew a picture of the animal they had chosen, using crayons, colored pencils, or markers. I collected these up with a promise to return them next session.


As the children finished their pictures and while they waited for their parents, they just had free time to talk together and draw on the white board. They sure love that!


I distributed a letter of introduction, and the Family Time sheet for Unit 1, Chapter 1 for the children to take home to their families. And we called it a day!

Forming the Expedition

Hello,
I’m Shirley, the 2nd grade Religious Education teacher at St. Paul’s. It’s my first year teaching this program, hence, the safari: "a journey or expedition, for hunting, exploration, or investigation". I will be learning and exploring every bit as much as the 2nd graders will!

Even though we have had 2 classes together, I am even now still organizing my thoughts. I decided I'd keep a log of our activities so we can look back at all we've done during the year and have a centralized place for collecting the resources we use. The log may also be benefit future planning as I take away lessons learned from our endeavors.

I was a little intimidated to take on 2nd grade without benefit of prior experience. After all, it is during the course of this year that we will have the great joy of introducing the children to 2 sacraments: Reconciliation and Holy Eucharist. But then again I know I will be so blessed to be able to participate with the children and their families throughout these special events.

In addition to the sacraments of Reconciliation and Holy Eucharist, along the way we will also learn about the Order of Mass.

We are following the Blest Are We program, which is arranged in 5 Units:

Unit 1: We Gather As Believers
Unit 2: We Ask God’s Forgiveness
Unit 3: We Celebrate the Word of God
Unit 4: We Celebrate the Gift of the Eucharist
Unit 5: We Go in Peace

Each of these Units in turn will have a Chapter dedicated to one of the 4 “pillars” of the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

· What Catholics Believe
· How Catholics Worship
· How Catholics Live
· How Catholics Pray

Each week, in preparation for the next week’s chapter, I'll post links to the Family Time pages from the Blest Are We website. These pages contain readings and activities for the children and
their families to do together in preparation for the upcoming lesson.

Then, as we cover each chapter, I’ll often supplement the Blest Are We program by posting additional activity sheets and website links that have additional interactive and printable activities.

So break out those khaki shorts, let's get the adventure started! Remember, I'm a novice at this so all advice and prayers are greatly welcomed and appreciated!