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

All Hands On Deck - Learning How To Serve Others

Sunday February 10th was our eighteenth session together. This week we covered Unit 2, Chapter 11 "We Act On God's Word". In preparing for the session, I established the focus as ways we show our love for God by helping 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 coloring activity, word search, word tumble, and matching activity.

When we met in the common area for the whole group activity, we started by joining with the First Graders in saying the Our Father, which they had worked hard to learn. Way to go First Grade!

Then we learned that each class was going to have a Prayer Bag that the children could take turns taking home to share with their families. The bag has prayer books, crucifix, holy water, cross to decorate and other stuff. Wow!

The first thing we did when we gathered in our classroom was to discuss the Mass. There were big changes to notice!

Did you notice anything different at Mass today?

"Father is wearing purple again! And who is that guy that was up there with him?" (said Rocking Horse)

You are right, he is wearing purple because it is Lent. The other man up there was a deacon. He is a friend of Father's and is visiting us this week. Was there anything else different?

"We sang the Our Father again, and the Holy, Holy - even though it was different. But I guess I missed the Gloria." (said Rocking Horse)

Oh no, you didn't miss it, we didn't sing it!

"Did we say it?" (said Sweet Pea Elephant)

Nope. We didn't say it either. During Lent we don't sing or say the Gloria. And you know what else? We don't sing or say the word "alleluia" either!/div>

(much amazement)

It's like we put them in a box and lock it up.

"Yeah, like we hide the key until Easter!" (said Fair Cheetah)

And so we talked a bit more about the happenings at Mass during Lent.

OK. Remember how we've been learning that the Bible is the Word of God and we listen to it at Mass? What happens after we hear the Gospel at Mass?

"Father talks for a while" (said Fair Cheetah)

... and after that?

(no takers)

And what does Father say at the end of Mass?

(again, no takers)

After the sermon, we hear what is called the petitions. We pray for our leaders, we pray for the sick, we pray for the parish...

"Oh yeah! Lord hear our prayer!" (said Rocking Horse)

And at the end of Mass, Father says 'The Mass has ended, go in peace to love and serve the Lord.' What do you think that means?

"That we can go!" (pretty much said in unison... duh!)

Well, yes... But he is saying that we need to SERVE the LORD! That means we can't just go away, we have to go and help others so we can show our love for God!

(much dramatics)

So then we read Isaiah 58:3-9 and Matthew 25:31-46. In both cases, whenever we read the part about "clothe the naked" there was a great uproar: "That's disgusting!" I had to calm them by adjusting it to explain that it could just mean the poor who don't have any money to buy any clothes.

Once we got past the clothing crisis, then there was great concern over "whatever you did for these least brothers of mine...". "Jesus didn't have any brothers!" Rocking Horse was quite emphatic on this matter! It took some convincing, but I think I was able to make the point that Jesus meant whenever we help others, we help Him. Tried to make the whole "Jesus is in all of us" point, which at least eased Sweet Pea Elephant's concerns.

(Maybe it would have been simpler if I just read the 'kiddie' version of the Bible verses, but then I would have missed all their wonderful questions and comments. And don't we all learn more by asking questions and solving problems than by sleeping through something that's easy for us?)

I went on to explain that we call these actions that Jesus taught us the "Seven Works of Mercy". I handed out the workbook pages, and Rocking Horse volunteered to read the section that talks about those works.

After she read the one about sheltering the homeless, Rocking Horse observed, "Well, it's not fair for people to be homeless. If someone lives in a gigantic house, it just isn't fair for someone else not to have any house at all." (she'll be ready for bear when we have the social justice discussion!).

We talked about how doing the works of mercy was being helpful to others. We talked about ways we could do some of those works: how we had brought food in at Thanksgiving time to give to the poor, how our moms save our clothes that are too small to give to others, how we visit our grandmas and friends when they don't feel good, how the priests go and visit people who are sick every day!

Then I described our craft for the day - that we were going to make a wreath out of the 7 Works of Mercy but tracing our hands and cutting them out and gluing them on. Construction paper! Tracing! Cutting! Gluing! Oh the joy! We got out our construction paper and scissors and got going!

Alas, I had forgotten my camera and even my cell phone and could not get pictures of all the wonderful designs the children created. But I did catch up with Rocking Horse on Monday and was able to snap a picture of her design. She had gone for the minimalist approach this time, choosing to use only white and green.




Time was so short it seemed... our session was over even as the children scrambled to finish the wreaths.

I handed out the worksheets, as well as the pages from the chapter in Blest Are We, and also the Family Time pages.

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 activities at MSSS Bible Lessons
• For more in-depth activities, check out some of the links in the lesson plan

Community Bonfire - Learning About Lent

Sunday February 3rd was our seventeenth session together. Having spoken to the DRE earlier in the week about the plans for the day, I realized that I wouldn't be able to start a new lesson from our workbook. Instead, I prepared materials to support the lesson on Lent that the DRE was going to cover with the entire group. As such, I did not prepare a lesson plan for this week.

Packing Light: I didn't prepare a worksheet of activities for this week, although I did put together a package of Lenten activities, they are listed below

When we met in the common area for the whole group activity, we were all so happy to see Pragmatic Tiger and Fair Cheetah back with us! Rocking Horse and Courtly Polar Bear were not with us though, so we were not a complete team.

We gathered outside to prepare some ashes just like the ones used on Ash Wednesday. We put some palms from last year in the bin and one of the teachers lit them. As they burned we talked about Ash Wednesday and how it is the start of Lent, and why the priest will put the ashes on our forehead. Once they were finished, since it was also the feast of Saint Blaise, we listened to a little history about the saint and how he healed the child who was choking on a fish bone. We all went over to the church and had our throughts blessed by Fr. C.

By the time we returned, the ashes had cooled down. A small amount was placed in a cup for each class. As we adjourned to our separate classrooms, I distributed a Lent Activity Pack to each of the children. These little kits contained

• a bag of pretzels, along with an activity to do with the pretzels as a symbol of prayer and penance from CatholicCulture.com, which you can find here


• a calendar spanning the season of Lent, with a sticker for each day, which you can find here.

We found we would be having the third and fourth graders joining us for the remainder of the day. The first thing we did was to talk a bit more about the ashes. I dipped a finger in the ashes and drew a "+" on the back of each child's hand. We talked about why we used ashes, and we noticed how each "+" looked different - just like each of us is different! I asked the children to be sure to listen to what Father says as he puts the "+" on their forehead and tell me next week what he said.

Since there was not much time left, we spent our remaining time playing a quiz game about Lent. The questions we used were from a game called "Journey Through Lent" posted at the OTHER_Creative_Kingdom Yahoo! group. I knew there were too many children (and not enough time) to play the full board-version of the game, so we simply split into two groups, engaged a score-keeper, and started reading questions. The children seemed to have a good time taking turns reading the questions, and several of the questions - especially those about fasting and abstinence - were source for quite a bit of discussion among the group.

Next week we will will the next lesson, Unit 3, Chapter 11, "We Act on God's Word".

Side Trips: if you want more information, activities, and games... check out some of the Lenten activities at catholicmom.com

On The Water - Casting Our Nets Into The New Testament

Sunday January 27th was our sixteenth session together. This week was part 2 of our two-part lesson that spans Unit 3, Chapter 9 and Unit 3, Chapter 10. In preparing for the session, I established the focus for this second lesson continuing the discussion of the Bible as a collection of books that are the Word of God, and then walking through the New Testament. 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 crossword, word search, and coloring activity.

When we met in the common area for the whole group activity, we learned that Pragmatic Tiger and Fair Cheetah would not be with us again today, we again said a special prayer for their intentions.

Like last week, we gathered together in a circle on the floor and started off by discussing our regular Mass observations. Earnest Eagle was the first in the circle, rarin' to go! We were again surprised that we sang the "old" version of the Gloria, but we decided that was ok because at least we were singing. Since today was the "family" Mass, we noticed that the readings were done by children.

Remember what we talked about last week? Do you know what we are going to talk about this week?

"Last week was Old Testament so I'm guessing this week will be New Testament" (said Rocking Horse)

You got it! And just like the Old Testament, the New Testament is really a lot of books all together in one.

"Of course, we figured that out!" (said Effusive Jaguar)

But before we get into it too much, let's take a quick look how the readings at Mass match up. Remember last week we noticed that there were 4 readings, and 2 were from the Old Testament and 2 were from the New Testament? Did that happen the same way this week?

(looking at the readings in a Missalette I brought, they agreed it did happen that way again.)

During the Liturgy of the Word, we hear all these readings so we can learn and understand the Scriptures. The Old Testament looks forward to Jesus, the Gospels tell us about Jesus, and the Acts and Letters help us understand and learn about Jesus and how to live.

As this week's readings were a little tough to show how the readings are usually all related, we backed up a couple of Sundays and looked at the Baptism of Jesus. Those readings are very easy to demonstrate the relationship!

• First, Isaiah tells us "Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one with whom I am pleased" (Is 42:1).

• Then we have Psalm 29 with "The voice of the Lord is over the waters" (Ps 29:3).

• Then we have Peter describing John the Baptist's preaching and anointing of Jesus (Acts 10:34-38).

• And finally, John baptizing Jesus, with the voice from the heavens proclaiming again, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased." (Mt 3:17)

OK, they were done with that lecturing type stuff. So then I handed out the workbooks, and like last week we went through the pages, talking about the section of the Bible, and trying to figure out if we knew the Bible stories represented by the pictures in that section. The children knew so many of the stories - often in such detail - we often caught ourselves with three different children telling stories (the same or different!) at once! Courtly Polar Bear didn't want to fill in the blanks in her workbook, because she didn't know the stories and wanted to listen to the other children tell them. Once the other children realized this, they immediately made sure to point out to her which picture they were describing, and to give more details in the story. It was absolutely amazing to see them really want to share the stories with her. Even Earnest Eagle, who usually likes to stay quiet during our time together, jumped in to tell a story on two separate occasions (and not because I asked him to do it!).

We were so involved in the stories we didn't even get to cover the New Testament Letters and Catholic Letters books... but the children noticed that these sections were made as coloring activities and they said they were sure they would want to color them at home. I told them they could look at their Bibles and ask their parents if they had any questions!

Next week the whole group will be together for burning the palms to prepare the ashes for Ash Wednesday. It will be tough, but I will try to get us started on the next lesson, Unit 3, Chapter 11, "We Act on God's Word".

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

• If you just have a bit of time, definitely go for this conversion of Saul online jigsaw puzzle activity


• If you have two-bits of time, check out other New Testament online activities at Calvary Chapel.


• For more in-depth activities, check out some of the links in the lesson plan there are many activities for Bible stories.

Travel To Ancient Lands - Learning About The Old Testament

Sunday January 20 was our fifteenth session together. This week was part 1 of a two-part lesson that spans Unit 3, Chapter 9 and Unit 3, Chapter 10. The two chapters together teach us about the Bible and its role in the Liturgy of the Word during Mass. In preparing for the session, I established the focus for this first lesson as the Bible as a collection of books that are the Word of God, and then walking through the Old Testament. 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 secret code activity, crossword, word shapes, and word search activity.

When we met in the common area for the whole group activity, we learned that Pragmatic Tiger and Fair Cheetah would not be with us today as they had a family emergency. When we got to our room we said a special prayer for their intentions, and Sweet Pea Elephant lead us with the Prayer to My Guardian Angel.

After the prayers, we sat on the floor together and started off by our regular review of Mass activities. We talked a bit about why Father is now wearing Green, how we sang the "old" version of the Gloria, and just said the Holy, Holy, Holy instead of singing it.

I asked whether anyone knew what part was called "Liturgy of the Word"... no takers. I explained that this is when we hear the readings from the Bible. Effusive Jaguar happily reminded us that this is when her grandma went up and read. Exactly! Her grandma read the first reading, then the choir mistress went up for the Psalm, and then another parishioner for the 2nd reading, and then Father for the Gospel. So, 4 readings in all. I showed them how the first 2 were from the Old Testament and the second 2 were from the New Testament.

Tell me some things you know about the Bible?

"It is a big book" (said Courtly Polar Bear)... "it has 2 parts, Old Testament and New Testament. Jesus is in the new part." (said Rocking Horse).

Oh, I think you know more than that! (and I dumped out a whole tote bag full of bible story books onto the floor). Did you know it is really a whole bunch of books put together?

(lots of wows!)

Can you imagine having to carry around all those books when you get your Bible?!

(a general sense of 'oh my gosh!')

It's definitely much easier to have them all together as one. (and then I pulled out 5 or 6 Catholic Bibles, all different looking - some with leather covers, some with gilded pages, some with pictures, some large, some small) Look at all these Bibles... they all look different but they all contain the same "Bible", the same books, the same stories.

(a general sense of appreciation as they touched the Bibles and looked at them)

(getting back to the stack of story books...)Did you know that there are lots of authors who wrote those books, but they are all the Word of God? That's right, God inspired them to write.

And you know what else? I bet you know a lot of stories from those books! Today we're going to focus on the Old Testament. The Old Testament has 46 books in it! They are separated into 4 main parts, which we will look at together soon, but first, I know you want to have a look and see some of the stories and books!

And we dug through the pile, with the children happily (and proudly) shouting out when they found stories they knew: Samson and Deliliah, David and Goliath, Adam & Eve, Jonah, Noah's Ark, Queen Esther, and so on. We took turns telling the parts of stories we could remember, and sometimes peeked into the books to remember the rest.

At this point I handed out the activity books, so that we could discuss the pictures and the stories they represented together as we looked through the books. We had fun trying to match the story names with the pictures with the correct section of the Old Testament.

Next week we will be continuing this two-part lesson, so I did not hand out the workbook pages yet. I did send home the Good News pages for the upcoming weeks. You can enjoy following the mass with them through the rest of January.

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

• If you just have a bit of time, definitely go for one of the online jigsaw puzzles at Word of Truth
• If you have two-bits of time, check out the Bible Story activities on Calvary Chapel
• For more in-depth activities, check out some of the links in the lesson plan

Waiting At The Station

Sunday January 13th was our fourteenth session together.

When we met in the common area for the whole group activity, we learned that only Effusive Jaguar 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.

Instead, the three of us colored pictures and had a lively discussion. We of course talked about all the things we usually talk about Mass (what color was Father wearing, did we sing the Gloria, etc). Turns out, we all have the same favorite version of the Gloria, and it was the one we sang this morning during Mass. So we sat and hummed and the girls decided to color pictures of their pets. We talked about how much they love them (even when they are a 'handful' or snap at them). We talked about how it's the same as how much our parents love us and that Jesus loves us too, even when WE are a 'handful'!

Hopefully next week we will be able to begin our travels through Unit 3, "We Celebrate The Word of God."

Stories Around The Campfire - A Midyear Review

Happy New Year everyone! Hope there are still a few of you out there and that you feel fresh and renewed after a lovely break!

Sunday January 6th was our thirteenth session together. Can you believe we are half-way through already?! This week we used the session as a midyear review of what we have learned. In preparing for the session, I created an activity and coloring book where I re-used as many phrases and pictures as I could from our previous sessions, and created activities similar, but not identical to, activities we have completed in those sessions. I did this only partially to be lazy ~ really! The real goal was to provide reinforcers for the lessons we have already covered. In this way, each lesson's theme (pictures, phrases) will have been presented to the children 3 times (the original lesson, the unit review, and the midyear review).

Packing Light: You can find the activity book here. It has coloring, word searches, mazes, stickers, and other pencil puzzles. (It is a large file and may take a minute or two to open.)

When we met in the common area for the whole group activity, we learned that Pragmatic Tiger and Fair Cheetah would not be joining us this time. But we had some good news: Courtly Polar Bear, Effusive Jaguar, and Rocking Horse all received "perfect attendance" awards for December! Way to go!

Once we were in our room, we talked about whether we had fun over Christmas and what our favorite gifts were. We also discovered that some of us were able to stay up late on New Year's Eve and even made it to the new year! Wow!

The children settled in surprisingly quickly given the long break, and it wasn't long before they were clamoring for some coloring to do... what a coincidence since what I had with me was... coloring! But first, we talked about how we were half-way done with our learning already! And so, today we were going to review everything we have talked about so far.

I distributed the review books and sticker packs, and together we looked over each page and remembered what we talked about. We tried to find the right sticker to go with each page, and took turns reading from the stickers. The children did a great job with it, and really seemed to recall the key messages (or at least the activities we did) for each lesson:

From Unit 1, We Gather As Believers, we have

Our Church Welcomes Us - we remembered that we are a community and we come together to celebrate. Rocking Horse said she remembered making the church doors and the Welcome inside.

We Belong to The Church - we remembered that we have Baptism to show we are members. We talked about the 4 symbols used during Baptism: water, oil, white clothes, and candles. Sweet Pea Elephant remembered them all!

Our Church Shows Us How To Live - we remembered that we have holy people like priests and deacons to give us examples, and Saints as role models. The children definitely remembered tracing their footsteps!

We Praise And Thank God - we remembered how we can pray by saying our prayers or by singing. Earnest Eagle remembered the story about King David and how he was so strong and won lots of battles and sang lots of prayers.

From Unit 2, We Ask God's Forgiveness, we have

We Can Choose What Is Good - we remembered that we make choices, and that God wants us to make good choices. Effusive Jaguar remembered that this is when we talked about Max and we were all Wild Things!!

We Celebrate God's Forgiveness - we remembered the ways we can ask for and seek forgiveness. Everyone remembered the 4given card game!

We Think About Our Choices - we remembered the rules are called "commandments". We reviewed them together. Courtly Polar Bear remembered "that game" we played with them (fortune teller/cootie catcher).

We Say We Are Sorry - we remembered that Reconciliation is a way to say we are sorry. Rocking Horse remembered being in the puppet show!

Then, we had a review of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The children remembered the little room and we read through the prayers and activities that happen when we participate in the sacrament.


After we finished reviewing the lessons, the children each chose which lesson they liked the best (or all of them), and wrote about it in their journals.

Then at last, we had one more segment to review: I reminded them that there were other things we have been learning too, about Mass:

We learned to notice what color the priest is wearing, and know that something special happens when he wears a different color. (And there was great discussion over why the priest was wearing white with red today and not just all red or all white!)

We learned to participate in the Penitential Rite, and notice that sometimes it is short like an answer and sometimes it is like a long prayer. (And there was indecision about how we did it today, but I reminded them that today we said the 'long' version)

We learned to participate in saying the Gloria, and notice that sometimes it we say it and sometimes we sing it. (And we just said it today, and Effusive Jaguar noted that we always just say it when Fr. C says the Mass. She likes the version we sing at Christmas and she and the others started to sing it! Wonderful!).

We learned to participate with the Holy, Holy, Holy, and notice that sometimes we say it and sometimes we sing it (today we not only sang it, but we are still using 'that new way' that we started using).

We learned to participate in the Our Father, and notice that sometimes we say it and sometimes we sing it (again today, we apparently just said it because that's the way Fr. C likes it ~ I reminded them that it is not just what the priest likes but also whether the community likes it and what is happening in the Mass and so forth).

The children finished up the session coloring (finally!) and working the puzzles. It was wonderful to see the children today and they were all in such good spirits. Next week we will be starting Unit 3, which focuses on the Bible as the word of God, the Liturgy of the Word section of Mass, works of service, and Prayer of the Faithful section of Mass.

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

• follow any of the links above to find the activities and worksheets for the original lessons!