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!