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!

Sightseeing - A Reconciliation Lesson

Sunday December 9th was our thirteenth session together. This week we had a lesson dedicated to learning more about the Sacrament of Reconciliation. In preparing for the session, I decided we would go over to the church and see the confessionals, talk about them, and talk about what goes on during the sacrament. I put together a pamphlet that walks through the steps of the sacrament, which you can find here. I did not develop a formal lesson plan for the session.

When we met in the common area for the whole group activity, we learned Earnest Eagle would not be joining us. We missed him, but hope he had a terrific time on his special camping trip!

The children were very excited to be taking a field trip to the church! We went to see the confessional (aka the Reconciliation room). They were completely fascinated with the room! We looked at the side that had two chairs. We learned how the priest sits in one of the chairs, and then when we come in we sit on the other chair and we see and talk to the priest while we have our Confession.

Then we saw another door and looked in there. No chairs, only a place to kneel. What was that for? I explained that if we want to use this side, we do not see the priest. We have our confession by having the same conversation, we just are not face to face. The children were amazed! Why would anyone want to do it that way! I explained that was the way everyone used to do it, and today we have a choice of how we want to participate.

We all went back to the other side and climbed in (yes, we are happy we are a small class!!). First, we talked about Father's homily today. He had talked about how when he first joined the Holy Ghost Fathers, he learned that part of their credo was that they had to be true to go to Confession every week. He told how he was challenged by that and thought it was "just a rule in the book". After all, he was studying to be a priest, he was harmless... why would he need to go to Confession every week? He went on to discuss how he came to have a change of heart and challenged us to think about how we feel about the sacrament and how true are we? (He picked a perfect day to have this topic and couldn't have given a better discussion about why to go to Confession if we had planned it! The Holy Spirit is certainly with us!).

Then, we took turns reading sections from the Reconciliation pamphlet, and learning more about exactly what goes on in there. We read the Act of Contrition together.

We wrapped up the time by talking about how we felt about what we are learning about the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Do we have questions? The children had LOTS of questions. And a couple of interesting observations as well:

• Rocking Horse noted that she finally figured out that the sacrament has 3 names: Confession, Penance, and Reconciliation.
  
• Effusive Jaguar said this sacrament uses a lot of big words.
  
• Fair Cheetah said we shouldn't be scared.
  
• Courtly Polar Bear said we shouldn't be sad.
  
• Pragmatic Tiger said he isn't sure how he feels about this whole thing.
  
• Sweet Pea Elephant said she needs to think it over some more.
  

Next week we will be joining the parish for our Christmas party and then we have a break until after the new year. Enjoy this time with your family and with the Holy Family! Merry Christmas!

Revisiting Covered Ground

Sunday December 2nd was our twelfth session together. This week we had a unit review for Unit 2, "We Ask God's Forgiveness". In preparing for the session, I wanted to again focus on phrases and images we have already used in our sessions together. The lesson plan for the session includes the topics discussion and craft activity. There is no activities worksheet for this week.

Packing Light: (The whole session was "light" - so just check out the end-of-unit review sheets from the Blest Are We workbook!)


As usual, we met in the common area for the whole group activity. We sang happy birthday to some children in other grades who have birthdays soon! We also learned Sweet Pea Elephant would not be joining us today as she is on a special camping trip. We missed her but hope she had fun!

We had a little excitement at the room because it was locked, so we found ourselves traipsing around the building looking for a room, but then found someone who had the key. Once in the room I had not even formed the words asking about mass when the children bombarded me with questions about why the priest was wearing purple today!

So we spent some time discussing how today was the first day of our Church year, and the first day of Advent. We talked about Advent and how it is a time of preparing for and waiting for Jesus to come. We talked about the Advent wreath and looked at an Advent calendar. We decided we would like very much to count down the days by coloring one star each day!

Then of course, I was curious about the rest of the Mass...

"What else did you notice at Mass today besides the purple robes? Did you all say the Penitential Rite like you promised?"

"(Some hemming and hawing on this one, but Rocking Horse definitely remembered that we said the whole thing instead of that short "Christ Have Mercy" version!)

"And how about the Gloria?"

"I'm guessing but we probably sang it"." (said Effusive Jaguar) "I don't know, I don't even think we said it today but that doesn't sound right." (said Rocking Horse)

"Oh, but you are right! During Advent we will not sing or say the Gloria! That way it can be extra special when we sing it on Christmas! And how about the Holy, Holy, Holy?"

"I do remember that - we sang it!" (said Rocking Horse, who was apparently my shill today!)

"Yep, you got it."

"Yeah, and today Saint Jan wasn't there except he did show up for a little while. That was different." (said Effusive Jaguar)

"Yes, Father Corry offered the Mass for us and Father Jan came to help minister Holy Communion. That is different for us, but it is nice, isn't it?"

(general agreement)

So then we proceeded with our primary focus for the day: we worked on some review booklets and read together the things we want to remember about forgiveness. The children colored their booklets and matched up the stickers. Some of them chose to start coloring their advent calendars instead. They each chose their favorite page to add to the gallery.





And then the big surprise was that the children took pictures of ME this time! This provided untold joy in the clasroom. My goodness! Turn about is fair play I guess. I would like to say that the photos didn't come out very well, but maybe it was the subject ;-) They made me promise to post them...














Next week we will be having a special session focused on the Sacrament of Reconciliation, so there weren't any Family Time pages, although I did hand out the Good News pages for the upcoming weeks. You can enjoy following the mass with them throughout December.

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 advent 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.

Exploring The State of Grace - Learning About Contrition

Sunday November 18th was our eleventh session together. This week we covered Unit 2, Chapter 8 "We Say We Are Sorry". In preparing for the session, I established the focus as understanding contrition and why we need the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The lesson plan for the session includes the topics discussion, the activities worksheet, and craft activity.

Packing Light: If you just want the activity sheet for this session, you can find it here. It has two crossword activities.

When we met in the common area for the whole group activity, some of us helped out the members of Society of St. Vincent de Paul by carrying the donated food from the front of the church over to the staging area. Then we received our awards from the All Saints parade! And, also once again we had many 2nd graders win the Perfect Attendence for October: Courtly Polar Bear, Rocking Horse, Effusive Jaguar, and Sweet Pea Elephant... way to go!

We also learned that for just this session, we had a visiting 2nd grader and also the 3rd and 4th graders joined us! Wow! We are not used to so many together with us! Especially the boys, since there are usually so few... we needed a few reminders on showing respect while others are talking.

So we started off by remembering that we need to say "I'm sorry" when we sin. I wondered whether we could just say "I'm sorry" and then we would automatically be forgiven? "No way, you have to pray first" said Effusive Jaguar.

But there's something else - can anyone figure it out? If I wallop my sister on the head and say "I'm sorry" and then wallop her again -- am I really sorry? "No, it doesn't sound like you mean it!" said Sweet Pea Elephant.

And what if I wallop my sister on the head and then say "I'm sorry" right as my mother is coming over so she doesn't get mad at me? "Still seems suspicious to me" said Rocking Horse.

So what is it I need? Do I need to really FEEL sorry and not just SAY sorry? "Absolutely, you gotta mean it or it doesn't count" said Effusive Jaguar.

Exactly! And when you mean it, it is called "C-O-N-T-R-I-T-I-O-N, contrition". That is when you really feel sorry for what you have done. And when we go to Reconciliation, we say a prayer called "Act of Contrition" that says we are sorry.

Effusive Jaguar noted that this whole Reconciliation thing sure has a lot of big words to learn. I had to agree... which is why today I brought some friends to help us learn more about it. My friends here are puppets, and they need you to help finish them so they can participate in some puppet shows today! (Luckily I had enough extra puppets and scripts to go around! I do not usually have that many extra available!!).

The puppets were met with great delight by the girls, but with mixed emotion by many of the boys. It took quite some repeated encouragement to get the hestitant boys to color their puppets. Even then, they only wanted to color the boy puppets. The girl puppets were quickly used as dive bombers (NB: they do not hold up well to repeated folding and crashing into the desk~). This surprised me just a little as the boys are usually equally excited to do the activities. I used the occasion to remind the boys that they were not being respectful of the time

and care I had put into the activity and if they didn't like them they should have offered to give them back instead of destroying them. We talked about how maybe we needed to think about whether what they were doing was a good choice or not. I am very happy to say we had significantly improved behavior after that small conversation! (I must mention that the sole 3rd grade boy did not participate in the wild rumpus, but rather did an excellent job and not only colored them beautifully, but was the first to finish both his puppets!).
Meanwhile, while all that conversation was occurring, the girls had clustered into several groups, coloring away. You know my usual, I started peppering them with the questions about Mass... they never cease to amaze me with their responses! At least they are trying to pay attention!

"What color was Father wearing today?"

"Green" (said Sweet Pea Elephant) "Yes, green AGAIN. Is he EVER going to wear anything else?" (said Effusive Jaguar)

"You will be surprised, you should definitely keep watching! Did you all participate in the Penitential Rite like we discussed?"

"Yeah - but it was that different one again" (said Sweet Pea Elephant)

"Yes, Father again chose to use one of the other options today." (The 3rd and 4th graders were fully engaged by this time) "...and you know what else I am curious about? What about the Gloria"

"Oh, I know! We sang it!" (said one of our visiting 4th graders)

"You got it! And what about the Holy, Holy, Holy?"

"Oh, I know! We sang that too!" (said one of our visiting 3rd graders)

"Yeah, buddy! And we had one more special thing at Mass this morning, didn't we?"

(no takers)

"You gotta be kidding me... Effusive Jaguar I KNOW you saw something you didn't see before!"

"Oh Yeah! My Grandma did some reading up there today!"

And so we talked a bit about how the different people go up from the congregation to read now. Then, with much more prompting, the children completed their puppets... as soon as everyone had at least one puppet completed, we could begin the show.

On with the show!

Now, normally, we have a very small class and the plan was that we would read through each of the two scripts twice, that way each child would have a chance to participate. But with such a larger group today, we just had to rely on volunteers who were ready. We were a little unsteady at first, as the two first readers had a hard time holding up their puppets and keeping their place in the script... but we soon figured out how to have helpers keep their places and they got into a great rhythm. The children even helped each other over the tough words. I interjected questions and "oh wows" at ~coincidentally~ appropriate times in the plays. And once I had the boys mixed into the group (instead of clustered to the back by themselves, where they were wont to stay), everyone participated very nicely and was very interested in the stories! Even though they were not well-rehearsed or smooth presentation, we had a lot of fun with them and we also had a nice conversation about the stories afterward. The first was called "Act of Confusion" and led us through the Act of Contrition prayer line by line (in a very humorous and memorable manner!). The second was called "I Don't Want To Say I'm Sorry" which helped us understand why we need to go to Sacrament of Reconciliation even when we already said we were sorry. They were both fun! (NB - because I was having the children read these 'extemporaneously', I definitely think each child having their own copy of the script to follow along helped as an engagement factor). I heard several of the girls say that they were going to practice the show for their parents. I hope they do!

We will meet again after the Thanksgiving break. Our next session afterwards will be a unit 2 review, so there weren't any Family Time pages sent home today, although I did hand out the worksheets, as well as the pages from the chapter in Blest Are We. You can enjoy following the mass with them through the Thanksgiving holiday!

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

• If you just have a bit of time, definitely go for the online activity for this chapter at Blest Are We
• If you have two-bits of time, check out more of the puppet shows at Catholic Mom Puppet Ministry
• For more in-depth activities, check out some of the links in the lesson plan there are many coloring pages of Psalms