The Story of Our Faith From Creation to the Birth of Jesus

This is an outline for anyone in the universe who wants to reproduce this Christmas pageant. I used two resources
The Really Big Book of Bible Coloring Pages and the CD from last summer's VBS: Growing with the Saints
I also found this great link with 25 stories from the Jesse Tree and adapted them to fit with the pages in the coloring book and to give a more Marian focus.

Here are the stories and songs that I choose:
Ornament 1: God Creates the World:
(Song: God is great: Track 1)
Ornament 2: Adam and Eve disobey God.
Ornament 3: Noah thanks God.
Ornament 4: Abram travels to a new home.
Ornament 5: Isaac is born.
Ornament 6. Abraham obeys God.
Ornament 7. Jacob has a dream.
Ornament 7, Jacob and Angels Onstage
Song Your Grace is Enough: Track 2 on original
Ornament 8. Joseph’s brothers sell him.
Ornament 9. God gives the Ten Commandments.
Ornament 10. Rahab helps two spies
Ornament 11. Ruth cares for Naomi
Ornament 12. David is chosen as king.
Ornament 13. David fights Goliath.
Song: Supersize me. Track 5
Ornament 14. Isaiah writes God’s messages.
Ornament 15: Prophets tell of the promised Messiah.
Ornament 16: God protects Daniel in a den of lions.
Ornament 17: God protects Daniel’s friends in a furnace.
Ornament 18: Queen Esther saves her people.
Ornament 19: Jonah preaches in Nineveh.
Ornament 20:An angel visits Mary.
Ornament 21: Jesus is born.
Song: Queen of Peace. Track 10
Ornament 22: Shepherds come to greet Jesus.
Ornament 23: Wise men travel to find Jesus.
Ornament 24: Conclusion (picture from Live by the fruit of the Spirit)
Song: Growing with the Saints. Track 9 on original

Here is my introduction:
One of the great enduring traditions of the Catholic faith is the retelling every year of the Christmas story. One of the ways of telling this story is through the Jesse Tree. The Jesse Tree tells the story of our faith from the creation of the world through the birth of Jesus. The first ornament on the tree is always this verse from Isaiah (Isaiah 1:1), telling us about the birth of the Messiah from the family of Jesse. Here is our tree.

Here is my conclusion:
This is the beginning of the story of our faith. People believing in God. God keeping his promises. Saints overcoming great adversity. All part of God’s plan. God’s journey continues with us today. It is God’s plan for all of us to keep growing with the Saints- growing in our faith more and more everyday.

We took the coloring pictures for each of the ornaments, brought them into Word, put them into a 6.8 inch circle, copied them onto transparencies, then used an overhead projector to center each picture onto a 22 inch circle on poster board and traced out the lines. To put them into a circle in Word, you click on the picture, choose format-picture shape-then adjust until the height and width are 6.8 inches. We then gave them to each of 24 Faith Formation classes to color in using whatever method they desired. Some used crayon, some used markers, some painted, some did collages with tissue and craft foam shapes, one even sprinkled craft sand over paint to give realistic brick walls. There was a lot of glitter in all colors too. We then added an ornament holder shape, glittered around the edges of the circles and cut them all out. When you give these to the classes- make sure that the teacher knows that the craft workers need at least a day to work on them before the show after the class is finished.

The next step is to choose scenes for children to act out- we choose the scenes with songs. Kids love to be animals, royalty, angels, soldiers, and we had to have all the nativity players- so we choose scenes that used those elements.

Choosing the Creation story allowed us to use any animals that we wanted. We choose jungle animals: Lions, tigers, elephants, monkeys, giraffes, and zebras (two of each in case we wanted to do Noah too). Try to get the kids used to being the animals- take some practice time getting them to pretend being each of their animals. Making the vests was easy: we took 60 inch lengths of fabric, cut them 18 inches wide and cut a slit at the top for the head to go through- we were lucky enough to get cotton animal prints. I find that while fur may look great- it is better to go with light weight fabrics so the kids don't get too hot.

Choosing Jacob's ladder allowed us to get double-duty for our angels. We used a wing pattern traced onto cardboard, trimmed in silver- we tried pre-made but poster board angel wings are beautiful, sturdy, inexpensive, and no big deal if they get lost- and angel wings get lost because they are difficult to store. We used these halos and these robes. All our costumes were made to be worn over clothes- it is easier to change. It was hard to find someone who wanted to be Jacob because he is just sleeping. Found that with angels, the effect is awesome if you just have them go up and down a few steps in circles- looks stupid in practice but in costume it works.

For David and Goliath, we just had 6 soldiers. Making soldiers was easy. We cut 6 lengths of black cloth with a hole for the neck- so that the cloth came down to about the knees or shorter on the boys- for these you want the width to be narrow enough not to have sleeves. Have the boys wear tee shirts, shorts, and sandals. I made belts and arm guards from large pieces of craft foam. The belts were 2 inches wide and the length of the large piece- this went across the front of the child. Holes were punched into the ends and ribbon tied it in the back. The arm guards were also craft foam with three holes punched along each side. Ribbon was threaded as if they were shoe laces and tied at the bottom. Soldiers were coached to show off like they just won a battle.

For our nativity characters, we just went out and bought one of each color from Oriental Trading Company. This makes things easy because you just tell each child the color of their robe. For the three kings we added crowns. We also bought matching hats for everyone else- hats did not always match the color of the robe. If you have people that have time and talent to sew- have them make over-robes, vests, and shawls for the characters. In my 20 years of experience, I have found that if you don't have the costumes in hand, you worry that they won't be made in time- and sometimes you are right. The last thing that you need is to find that you don't have costumes at 5PM the night before the show- which is when I heard that I didn't have the costumes one year- think it was 1994 or 1995. My advice is just to buy the robes and the hats- then let the costumers have fun with the non-essentials- if they make them you have a better pageant- and if not it doesn't matter. It is better for the people making them too- because then they know that if they don't have time, then they don't have to be up at 3AM the night before trying to finish (I've been there and done that).

This year, we just had a very simple nativity procession in during Queen of Peace. I told the children that the song lasted two minutes and to make the procession last the length of the song- and by some miracle they got the timing perfect. They came down slowly and stately and it looked magnificent.

For staging, we just put a chair in front of the altar and covered it with a purple tablecloth for a throne. We also put chairs on the top step on the side of the altar, cushions on the floor on the last step under the chairs (if it wasn't a stone floor you could skip the cushions).

Every child had a ticket with an ornament number on it. This is essential when assigning roles because as soon as you assign a role, someone wants to change it. Put their names on the tickets. When someone drops out- you cross off one name and put another on it. No one wanted to be an ornament bearer until I got the idea of having the ornaments be princes and princesses with crowns they made themselves. You can tie two lessons in with this one: that we are all priests, prophets, and kings by virtue of our baptism where we are made sons and daughter of Christ the King and that when they are holding the Bible story ornament, they are the Word of God and that the Word is being enthroned.

Have teens be readers. This is the part that needs practice. Before each reading have the ornament called out- this is the cue for each of the princes and princesses to go up and get the ornament- then go to the throne. After the reading,the child goes up to the Jesse Tree sitting area and holds the ornament. We tried standing but this is too much for some children- even sitting is difficult. But even with the most fidgety- they were fine for the one minute when they are enthroned- try to keep the reading to one minute- you will need to edit the longest readings.

For the stories, the characters go up to the stage when the ornament is called. Think it would be great to have someone work with the characters for motions- but then I think that everyone gets nervous that they will forget their part. We keep the song length to 2 minutes- for the first two songs we ended the playback just as the song was going into an interlude.

Two parts were added as the show was in progress and I recommend. When the procession was happening, the princes and princesses could not keep their seats- so I told them to stand and raise their ornaments. This gave them a chance to see the procession and was very effective. The other part that was added was having the children process through the church during Growing with the Saints. This puts them into the middle of the center aisle at the end of the show- the concluding remarks are delivered- and then the children gather around the nativity for a picture opportunity.

What did I learn from this show? Schedule 4 rehearsals and the show before sign-ups. Give each parent the schedule when they sign up. Don't tell them whether or not a rehearsal is mandatory- so they'll think they all are. If a rehearsal is canceled- don't try to make it up- you can handle the show in two sessions but you need to schedule four to ensure two. This show is simple enough so that if a child joins at the very last second, and the rest of the children know what to do, they will be able to figure it out. Get e-mails and phone numbers- use phone numbers when the e-mails fail to get the correct e-mail address. Send e-mail when you need to cancel and to remind about rehearsals.

This show was a lot of work but simple for the children. It was different enough so that it was a unique and moving pageant. The church was totally quiet the whole performance- so we kept their interest. When things started to get a little noisy, we had our procession- so the length is just about perfect. You can do just about anything you want with this show. Think it would be fun to have different classes dress up for their ornament and just go up on stage for that minute- but you would need a large sitting area for the cast. Try it and have fun with it!

Theme Calendar

This is handy for me- thought it might be handy for others! Mary Rose
MRM 1/31: This is no longer accurate- stayed tuned for details!

Week of:
1/10 Theme 13 Loving Others
1/17 Theme 14 Living as Children of God
1/24 Theme 15 Making Choices
2/7 Theme 16 People of Prayer
2/14 Theme 17 Ways of Praying
2/21 Theme 18 Lord's Prayer (include Theme 26 Lent for next 5 weeks)
2/28 Theme 19 Mary
3/7 Theme 20 Early Followers of Jesus
3/14 Theme 21 Parables of Jesus
3/21 Theme 22 Teachings of Jesus
3/28, 4/4, 4/11 Themes 26 and 27 Lent, Triduum, Easter
4/18 Theme 23 Miracles of Jesus
4/25 Celebration/Recap

Note Theme 12: Loving God(first three commandments) is missing- might want to combine with Theme 13.

Theme 8: Eucharist and the Mass

This week our gospel lesson is on the Widow's Mite, Our Saint of the Week is St. Martin de Porres, and our theme is the Eucharist and the Mass.

Readings for Nov 8, 2009: 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Faith First Catechist Preparation (Note- Date on Faith First is NOT correct- Nov 8 is the 32nd Sunday (skipping 31st because of All Saints Day)
Gospel Coloring Activity
Saint of the Week: St. Martin de Porres
Faith First Primary Session
Catechism of Catholic Church Lessons on this theme: 1322-1405

Chapters:
Grade 1: Chapter 13
Grade 2: Chapter 15
Grade 3: Chapter 13
Grade 4: Chapter 12
Grade 5: Chapter 14
Grade 6: Chapter 12

Links to 2010 Catholic VBS Programs Out So Far

These are the links to the Catholic VBS programs that have announced so far. Feel free to comment!

From Growing with the Saints: Parade Around the Our Father
From OSV: Boabab Blast
From Liguori Press: SonQuest Rain Forest
From Harcourt: High Seas Expedition
From CatChat: Marvelous Mystery: The Mass Comes Alive
RCL (Faith First Publishers) has not put out a new one yet.
When it comes out, it will be here. God's Backyard is Last Years.

Any others?

Theme 7: Baptism and Confirmation

Readings for Sunday November 1 , 2009
Faith First Catechist Preparation
Primary Session for All Saints Day
Catholic Mom Activities for All Saints Day
Theme 7: Baptism and Confirmation
Grade 1: Chapter 11
Grade 2: Chapter 12
Grade 3: Chapter 12
Grade 4: Chapter 12
Grade 5: Chapter 12
Grade 6: Chapter 13
Catechism of the Catholic Church:
1210-1274 ; 1285-1314

Theme 6: The Church The People of God

Lectionary Resources for Sunday October 25, 2009
Readings
Catholic Mom (lots of fun activities for the lesson)
Faith First Teacher Prep
Faith First Primary Session
Our Catholic Church (Saint of the Day/Week)
Saint Luke
American Catholic
Catholics Online
St. Luke Coloring Page
St. Luke Painting a Portrait of the Virgin Mary
Theme 6: Faith First Catechist Pages
Grade 1: Chapter 8
Grade 2: Chapter 10
Grade 3: Chapter 8
Grade 4: Chapter 10
Grade 5: Chapter 10
Grade 6: Chapter 8
Catechism of the Catholic Church 748-780

Theme 5: The Holy Spirit- October 12, 2009

Sunday October 18th readings
Faith First Backround Preparation
Primary Session for these readings
Saints: Teresa of Avila
CCC readings for Grade 3: Chapter 7
687-741 (Section 2: Chapter 3: Article 8- I Believe in the Holy Spirit)

Theme 4: Jesus' Death and Resurrection

Readings for October 11:
Catechist Preparation for these readings
Faith First Primary Session for these readings
Saint of the Day: St. Faustina
Faith First Online Lesson Planning for Grade 3: Chapter 6
CCC references for this lesson: 599-623 624-630 631-637 638-658

Theme 3 Jesus the Son of God September 28, 2009

Readings for Sunday October 4
Faith First Teacher Preparation for these Readings
Faith First Primary Session for these Readings

Theme 2: The Bible, The Word of God 9/21/09

Readings for Sunday September 27th
Faith First Teacher Prep for these readings
Faith First Lectionary Session Primary Grades
This Day in Our Church:St Matthew picture (background)
Works out well with the theme! Hooray!
Faith First Grade 3 Chapter 1 resources
Catechism of the Catholic Church link for Chapter 1
Part I: The Profession of Faith
Section 2: The Profession of the Christian Faith
Chapter 1: I Believe in God the Father
Article 1: I Believe in God the Father, Creator of Heaven and Earth
279-314 Paragraph 4 The Creator
325-349 Paragraph 5 Heaven and Earth
355-379 Paragraph 6 Man

Activity: Use books of the Bible display to cover the major parts of the Bible.
To make books of the Bible Display- get 73 match books (the small square ones that are little drawers). Remove the matches. Get 10 sheets of sticker paper or full sheet labels. E-mail me for my word document with everything measured out. Cut out each sticker (including the gold strip) and wrap around each match book (with lettering on one spine and gold strip on the second one). Find something to make tiny bookshelves. I found a golf ball display at a yard sale. Made one from inserting foam shelves into 2 shoe boxes but it was awful- use something harder for shelves and find ways to support them. Make sure there is a way to separate the new and old testaments. If you are really ambitious, you can even scan in Bible coloring pages and reduce them to fit in the match books- I try again and again but give up very shortly...
OR: google books of the bible poster and buy one for less than $5- may not be Catholic version.

Example of Class Outline

Catechist Preparation:
Read the Readings for Next Sunday- I go to US Catholic Bishops Site.
Read the Faith First Catechist Preparation for today.
Look over the Faith First lectionary reading session for today
Find and google the Saint of the Day- for today it is Exaltation of the Cross- this is the site I chose for backround. It has a great picture which I will print out to show the class.
You can also check out the Faith First Saint of the Week: Blessed Frederic Ozaman who is the founder of St. Vincent de Paul.
Find the theme of the day- Today it is Lesson 1: God Our Father and Creator.
Find the chapter of the week- for fifth grade it is Chapter 5: Great is the Lord Our God.
Look over the Faith First catechist resources for this lesson.
Find a coloring picture for the day based on one of the readings, a theme in the lessons, or a reading from the chapter.
Read the chapter of course, especially the page with ideas for enhancing the lesson- these make the class more fun and usually bring the point home better than the words.

Once that is done- figure out a way all these fit together.
From the readings and Frederick Ozaman, there is a clear focus on service
From the chapter and Exaltation of the cross, there is a clear focus on the nature of God.
From the Family Guide, we see that we show our love for God when we take care of creation. Man is part of creation- so caring for others will tie that into the theme. OR
we could concentrate on the Psalm and bring it back to the nature of God. Think I'll choose that direction.

Lesson Outline:
Always pick an opening prayer. I choose the one from the Family Guide Theme 1:

Lighting of the candle. Lighting the candle reminds the children that God is present in the room with us- especially as we read the word of God. You can choose your own way to represent this.

Calendar of the church year (optional)- I like to show the children where we are on a round calendar of the church year- this helps them understand the church seasons.

Reading: Have the reading printed out or have someone pre-select the reading from the Bible before class starts. Older children love to do this when it is their turn.

Discussion of the reading. Pick some questions from the online lectionary session or substitute your own. Good to have these in writing but don't be afraid to go the direction God leads when class is started. Take about 5 minutes.

Saint of the Day: Draw attention to the picture you have printed out from your online backround search. Spend a few minutes discussing the saint and tie it back to the lesson. It is good to have a few words from the saint (when using Faith First) or a prayer related to the saint (when using online resources).

Teaching the chapter.
The most important parts of the chapter are these:
The first question on the opening page on the bottom- ask this question to open the lesson for discussion- don't read it. This makes the lesson relevant.
Faith Focus: This shows what the most important points are.
Vocabulary: It is important to add one or two words to student's understanding each week.

Least important parts of the lesson- all the word games and fill in the blanks- do something more memorable to tie in the lesson. This week, I am going to illustrate the story of creation with 7 foam pictures that make each day of creation come alive.

Activity: Choose an activity for the lesson

Closing: Close the lesson with the chapter prayer.

We're done for the summer: See you at VBS!

We're done for the summer. See you at VBS!

Here is the link for the VBS program: Growing with the Saints- Go Around the World in 5 Days!
We'll be studying about:
Saint Juan Diego (Mexico): He believed Mary when she told him to get the bishop to build a cathedral- and when the bishop did not believe- Juan Diego showed the bishop that roses could blown in the snow- when he opened his cape, the portrait of the Blessed Mother known as Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared! Virture=Faith!

Saint Brigid of Ireland: Even though her father opposed it, all her life she wanted to be a nun. Staying the course paid off- she got her wish! Virtue- Hope!

Saint Martin de Porres (South America): Born as an undesirable by his society, he decided to follow Jesus and minister to others. Although he was very poor himself- he was able to feed 160 poor people every day! Virtue- Love!

Saint Nicholas(Ancient Asia Minor): He decided that poor children should not be sold into slavery-so he dropped gold down the chimney so the family could keep their children! Virtue- Virtue of Virtues!

Blessed Kateri Tekawitha (USA and Canada wilderness): She wanted to follow Jesus so much that she left her people and traveled by foot to a strange land where she could worship in peace! Virture: Be a Missionary.

To sign up, see the Sunday bulletin for information.

Dates: June 8-14. Cost $30.

Theme 22: Holy Week/Easter

We covered pages 262-282 for the Holy Week/Easter cycle and had our Easter celebration.
We made these wreaths for your Easter decorations.
We took class pictures that Sue Sferra wanted potentially for the bulletin.
There was only one student in the class, but sometimes that is what God wants.
I have plenty of extra wreaths if you want your child to get one contact me- or see me after the 10:45 Mass on Palm Sunday or Easter.
Here are the photos of the project, the completed Lenten Jesse Tree, and the class picture.

No class April 6 or April 13th.

The next class (Aprill 20) we will be covering the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary and praying in St. Paul's outside rosary garden. The theme will be Trust in Jesus- Conservation of God's Great Gifts. We hope to get in some time with the vocabulary game. Maybe we'll try again for a class picture.

The last class will be April 27th. We will be taking the 5th grade progress test. This is not a test of your child- but instead an assessment of how well the St. Paul Faith Formation program is meeting it's goals. Please make a point of being there on that date. Here is a link to the Jeopardy Game Preview at the ACRE test site.

Theme 20: Parables/Lent

There is no chapter correlate to this lesson, so we will discuss several of the parables of Jesus in this class.
Lectionary: Background materials from Faith First
Next Sunday's Gospel from USCCB

Theme 19:Early Followers of Jesus/Lent

Today's theme is on the early followers of Jesus.
We will be reading Chapter 15.
Gospel reading for next Sunday that we will be covering will be:Matthew 9:2-12
Backround materials for the intermediate class is here.
Saint for today is Katherine Drexel.
We will be doing a coloring picture and the vocabulary game today.

For the family:
Here is a link to a set of Family Lenten Activities
Faith First latest Just For Parents article

Theme 18 : Lord's Prayer- Lenten Season: February 23th 2009

Today we are covering the Lord's Prayer- Chapter 26- and the Lenten Season. As we are going through the prayer theme, we came to realize how important it was to have a small place where the family can get together to pray, so today's craft will be a simple foam cross and a prayer cloth to help set up a small spot where the family can gather to pray.

I was at The Living Eucharist Convention at the Tampa Convention Center this weekend and learned a lot about the Mass that we will pass on to the children throughout the years. The predominant speaker was Fr. Edward Foley who nourished us with his knowledge, his meditations, and his song. Here is a link to our diocese Living Eucharist Event web site, where you can see what was presented on this day. Mary Rose attended Eucharist 101 and Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament sessions. She was very impressed with Fr. Edward Foley- here is a link to his website.

That is all that I have for today's class at this time- see you this afternoon.

February 9th: Ways of Praying

This week we are studying Chapter 25. If you have a chance, please read it.
The lesson is based on the following passages from the Catechism of the Catholic Church: 2623-2643, 2650-2660, 2663-2677.
The Saint of the Day will be St. Valentine. You have to scroll to the bottom of the page to get to his story. There are also suggestions for family activities to reinforce the Catholic tradition underlying this holiday. Ms. Martin wants to back cookies with molasses. Here is a recipe for heart-shaped St. Valentine's Day cookies that uses molasses! Hopefully it is good!
Our liturgical lesson will be on Mark 1: 40-45. Here is the catechist preparation. Here is the family preparation. Here is the link to the coloring page for this week- we'll do it in class.

Note that all these links are choices. Not all parents are expected to use all of them. Let me know if you are finding this useful. See you next week!

Class for February 2, 2009

Today we will be covering Chapter 24.
Please read this chapter before class.
The Saint/Celebration will be Presentation of the Lord

January 26, 2009 Class

Today we are covering Chapter 18.
Here is a link to the family gospel discussion for next Sunday
Here is a thought exercise for Chapter 18
Here is a link to today's Saint for Today Saints Timothy and Titus
Please bring your books and try to read over the chapter. See you at 6PM!