Kindergarten-January 23rd Class

This week we covered chapter 11, We Learn About God with Our Families.   In this chapter we discussed the many ways we can discover God's world with our families.

During circle time the children listened to a story about our Blessed Mother from the Catholic Children's Treasure Box series.  We also introduced a new prayer that we will say each week during our circle time, the Our Father.

The children decorated a cross magnet (very handy for holding prayers they are learning) for a craft.

The homework for this week is to pray the Hail Mary and the Our Father every day.

I hope you all have a lovely week.  I'll see you next Sunday.

Third Grade-January 20th Class

This week we covered chapter 9, The Church Teaches Us.  In this chapter the children learned that the Church is the Body of Christ and as baptized members of our faith, they are part of it.  We discussed the Apostles' Creed and what we are saying we believe when we say this prayer.  The class learned that the Church is guided by the Holy Spirit who guides the pope and the bishops who teach the truth about Jesus Christ through their words, writings, and actions.  We also discussed some of the Church's teaching that is known as Catholic social teaching.  The children learned about human rights and how we should treat everyone fairly and with respect.

Our key words for this week are Apostles' Creed and justice.  Students are responsible for learning the Apostles' Creed.  A copy of this prayer was sent home in October.

This week's decade of the rosary was the fifth luminous mystery, the institution of the Eucharist.  

This week's homework is the Project Disciple portion of the chapter found on pages 88 and 89.  Students do not have to do the Celebrate section.

I hope you all have a great week.  See you next Thursday!

Third Grade-January 13th Class

This week we covered chapter 8, The Church Has Four Marks, in our text book.  We talked about how Jesus chose St. Peter and the Apostles to lead the church.  Upon arrival at class, the students worked on a word find activity to find the names of the apostles.  We learned that the pope and the bishops are the successors of the Apostles.  We talked about how the bishops lead locals areas of the church called dioceses.  They also learned that the pope is the bishop of Rome and he along with the bishops, leads the whole Catholic Church.

I told the children that we are part of the Camden diocese and our bishop is Joseph Galante.  I let them know that if they listen closely at Mass, they will hear his name and the name of the Pope, Benedict XVI, mentioned during the Eucharistic prayer.  We also did a brief lesson on roman numerals as I explained how the XVI  in the Holy Father's name translates into 16.

We discussed the marks of the Church, namely, that it is one, holy, catholic and apostolic.  Each characteristic was explained, but I fear the anticipation of a four day weekend made it difficult for some of the class to focus on the fact that the word catholic meaning universal or open to all people, didn't mean the fun amusement park in Orlando, Fl.

Our key words for the week are: bishops, dioceses, pope, and marks of the Church

This week's decade of the Rosary was the fourth luminous mystery, the transfiguration.  I read the children the story of the transfiguration from The Rosary Comic Book.  Some of the students were rather surprised to learn that there is a comic book about the mysteries of the rosary.  It's a book that has been a favorite of my girls for the past year and a half and I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in it.

To wrap up our class this week we played a game called Catholic Lingo Bingo which was sent to me to review by the publisher, Arma Dei (latin for Armor of God).  The class had a little difficulty playing the game because I absentmindedly forgot to bring the cards to call the pictures, but we managed to play it in spite of that.  The game is actually pretty cool because it teaches the children the names of items they see being used at Mass.  It's a great primer for any children who hope to be altar servers in the future.

This week's homework is the Project Disciple portion of the chapter found on pages 80 and 81.


I hope you all have a great weekend.  See you next week!

Kindergarten-January 9th Class

This week we covered chapter 10, God Helps Us to Discover, in our text book.  This chapter covered the five senses God gave us so we can discover and enjoy the world around us.  We did a couple of related activity sheets where we discussed what we might see, hear, smell, taste and feel at a carnival, and we also discussed and drew some of our favorite things to see, smell, and taste.

During circle time we listened to a short story about our senses which tied into the chapter for the week.  We also listened to a story about this week's gospel, the baptism of our Lord.  Children colored a search and find page that was related to this gospel reading when they arrived at class this morning.

Next week we do not have class.  Our class will meet again on January 23rd.  Until then, please have your child continue to pray the Hail Mary each day.  When we resume classes on the 23rd, we will begin learning the Our Father.

See you in two weeks!

Third Grade-January 6th

This week we covered chapter 7, Ordinary Time, in our text book.  We discussed how we learn about the life and teachings of Jesus during Ordinary Time.  We talked about how Ordinary Time is not only the longest season in the liturgical year, but is also the only one that is separated into two parts.

Our rosary mystery for this week was the third luminous mystery, Jesus proclaims the Kingdom of God.  Students were sent home with a coloring page representing this mystery.

We had a small party after we completed the chapter and rosary.  While the class ate, we played Bible Trivia.

Homework for this week is page 70.


See you all next week!