Are You Ready for Advent?

Advent is a great time to help your child grow in his or her faith.  In our home we do a lot of things during this season to help our children prepare for Christmas.  One of our family's favorite Advent resources is Holy Heroes Advent Adventure.  It's a free program that includes a Jesse Tree, coloring pages, cross word and word search puzzles and fun and informative videos that will teach your child a lot about our Catholic faith.    My children have done the Advent Adventure the past two years and are already looking forward to doing it again this year.  You can sign up to get the Advent Adventure Emails which will provide links to the daily videos.

New Mass Translation

In just two short weeks it will be the first Sunday in Advent and the new translation of the Roman Missal will go into effect.  The publisher of our religious education text book is offering a free download of the the new responses.  You can access this resource here.

To help prepare your child for the new changes Catholic Icing has come up with a free Mass booklet that you can also download.  This is a great way to help your children learn the new responses.

September 18th and 24th Classes

First off, I want to apologize for not updating the blog sooner.  I've been a bit preoccupied with preparing for our baby on the way and the school and extracurricular activities of my daughters.  I'm hoping to be able to update the blog on time going forward, but please be prepared to bear with me for the next month or two since I'll have a newborn sometime in the near future.

Our first week of class was a busy one.  We covered chapter 1, God Made All Things, in our textbook.  We discussed how God created the world and all the wonderful things in it, including us.
We made two crafts in class.  The first craft was the sign of the cross prayer magnet.  Please work with your child to teach him or her to make the sign of the cross.  We practiced this prayer several times during circle time.  The second craft we did was the creation wheel.  This neat little craft tells what God created during the first week.

During our circle time we prayed the sign of the cross and listened to a story about creation from the Catholic Children's Treasure Box series.  I also introduced our class mascot, Flat Father Stanley.  Flat Father Stanley will be spending a week with each child in our class.  At the end of the year I will give each child a DVD with the story of Flat Father Stanley's adventures.

During our class on September 24th we covered chapter 2, God Gives Us Light, in our text book.  We discussed what wonderful gifts the sun, moon and stars are.  The children learned that God made these things because he loves us and cares for us.  The children also learned about St. Michael the Archangel who's feast day happens to be today.  I explained to the children that a feast day is a very special day in the church and is sort of like a birthday.

During circle time I read a story to the children entitled God Made the Angels.  The story tells the story of St. Michael the Archangel and the battle between the good angels who said they would love and serve God and the bad angels, or demons, who said they would not serve God.  The story also discussed how God created a guardian angel for each and every one of us.  To tie in with the story we made a guardian angel craft which features the Guardian Angel Prayer.   This lovely little prayer is one you could say with your child each night before bedtime.

I hope you are all having a great week.  If my new baby has not arrived by this Sunday I'll see you at our next class.  If I am not there this Sunday, Miss Kathy will be there in my place.

Welcome!

I'm thrilled that you have taken the time to check out the classroom blog resource I have compiled for your son or daughter's religious education class.  I would like to give you a brief overview of how this blog is set up and how you can use it to enrich your child's faith life.

First and foremost, I have set up this blog as a way of communicating what your child is learning in their religious education class with me each week.  Each  Sunday morning at 9AM I have the pleasure of teaching your child's Kindergarten religious education class.  I will blog about our Catholic Faith Adventures in each class once a week.  It is my hope that an account of the Sunday class will have a synopsis up on the blog by Wednesday at the latest.  In the very near future my family will be welcoming our baby, so please be patient with me if a few weeks go by where the blog isn't updated in a timely manner.

I have also provided a parents page filled with suggestions for enriching your child's faith formation.  Imparting the treasure of our Catholic faith to our children is one of our most important duties as parents.  It is my hope that I will be able to help you in doing so during the current school year.

Along the sidebar of this blog you will find links to various Catholic sites or products or resources.  Some of them are to Catholic storesand others are items that I either use in our classroom or use with my own children at home.  In the case of books, there may be a link to a review I have written on that particular book on my personal blog.

Third Grade-March 31st Class

This week our class covered chapter 22, We Continue the Work of Jesus, in our text book.  The children learned that Jesus Brings God's life and love to all people.  They learned that Jesus shared his mission with his disciples, and asked his Apostles to carry it on.  Ways in which the Church works for Justice and peace were also discussed.  And the children learned that we, as disciples of Jesus, are called to live out the gospel just as Jesus did.

This weeks' Rosary Mystery was the Third Glorious Mystery, the Descent of the Holy Spirit.  The children listened to a bible story that explained this mystery.  I wonder if any of the students pointed out to Mrs. Stefanelli that the Pentecost is the birthday of the Catholic Church.

This week's homework is the Project Disciple portion of the chapter on pages 192 and 193.

I was not in class this week as I had a concert to attend for my older daughter.  Mrs. Stefanelli was kind enough to substitute for me.  Thank you, Mrs. Stefanelli.  I appreciate your help.

I hope all of you have a great week.  I will see you next Thursday!

Third Grade-March 10th Class

This week we covered chapter 20, Lent, in our text book.  We discussed when Lent begins, how long it lasts, what the liturgical color for the season is, and what it leads up to.  We also talked about how Lent is a season where we fast, pray and give alms.  The children learned that Lent is a time to renew our baptismal promises, and that the sacraments of penance and Eucharist are important sacraments to receive during this season.

The students were given a Lenten calendar that works like a countdown to Easter.  Every day in Lent they can color one square purple (with the exception of the squares I had them color in advance with the correct liturgical color).

This weeks' homework was to complete the Project Disciple portion of the chapter, but we decided to complete the assignment in class much to the delight of the students.  Please have your child pray the Apostles' Creed each day.


Our rosary mystery for the week was the first glorious mystery, the Resurrection.

At the end of class we played a round of Lent and Easter trivia.  We will likely play this game throughout Lent.

If you are looking for a way to help your child learn more about Lent, please consider signing up for Holy Heroes Lenten Adventure.   It's free and your child will learn a lot about Lent.  I know I was surprised at how much my children learned from last year's Lenten Adventure.  Also, if your child signs up and completes the cross word or word search puzzles they count for extra credit stickers on their reward cards.

Hope you all have a great week.  See you next Thursday!

Kindergarten-March 6th Class

This week we covered two chapters in our text book, chapter 18, Jesus Teaches and Helps Us, and chapter 19, Jesus Wants Us to Love.  In chapter 18 the children learned that Jesus went many places and taught people about God and helped those in need.  In chapter 19 the children learned that Jesus wants us to show love to one another.   We talked about ways we can show others that we care about them.  We also discussed how we can pray to Jesus and ask Him to help those we love.

During circle time the children listened to the the chapter stories for both chapters.  First they listened to the story of the loaves and fishes and then they heard a story about St. John Bosco.  The children are doing very well with learning the Our Father and Hail Mary.  Please continue to work on these prayers with your child every day.

Our craft this week was a Jesus fish sun catcher.  The children were VERY quiet as they carefully strung the beads onto the pipe cleaner that became a Jesus fish.  When the job was done we had a classroom filled with very colorful Jesus fish sun catchers.

Since Lent began this week, the children were all given a cross with many different sections.  Each day they do a good deed during Lent, they can color in one section of the cross.  By Easter, the cross should look like a colorful stained glass window.

This week's homework is to pray the Hail Mary and Our Father every day.

I hope you all have a great week.  See you Sunday!