Connecting the Oct 2 Readings to Finding God, Grade 5, Chapter 3

Here is a link to the Loyola Press Sunday Connection
We're going to review the reading for Oct 2.
The Grade 4-6 connection does not tie that well into the theme of the lesson this week, but think that the Grade 1-3 lesson will do a great job- it's a little different and more active.
This lesson covers the Lord's Prayer, so I'm going to look at the Miracle Maker and see if there is either a connection to the Lord's Prayer, this gospel, or following God's revelation.  Nothing pops out right away.
Our classroom this year does not have a place for hanging posters- but when I was putting my posters away, I realized that the File 'N Save storage system that I bought at AOE last year would do a great job if it is propped up on the table at the front of the room- there would be room to hold two posters for each week.

This week, I will definitely use the first Order of the Mass poster- think that I will use these posters to help the children place the Liturgy link each week.

Catechist Preparation: Finding God: Grade 5 Chapter 3

Yesterday, I downloaded the Bill Moyer tape from Amazon because $3 is not a big deal to me.  Listened to the tape and found that it was something that I will use to prepare myself but don't think that it will be a hit with the children.  I will review it later when I have more time, as it deepens the story of Abraham for me. I'll let you know if I find anything useful for class in there.

Today, I read through the catechist's preparation.  Things that stood out was the enthronement of the Bible.  Feel that I definitely need to get the recovering of my classroom display ready for this week. Liked hearing the Old Testament referred to as a source of wisdom.  Did not know that centuries ago, Christians believed that they need to work to keep the Jewish people out of Israel as punishment for Christ's death. Of course, we need to affirm the mutual respect between all peoples- but when we see the Palestinians and Israel fighting over the same land, it is instructive for us to know that we helped create the problem.

Listened to the CD- Story of Abraham- it is very dramatic- I'm going to be looking for some pictures that helps to make that drama come alive.  Listened to CD2 reflective music- good in the beginning- thought that I would listen to it as I typed this- quickly became irritated. Maybe because writing is too much of a busy mind activity.

There were three black line masters recommended for this session.  All of them were puzzle types.  Whenever I see masters like these, I am reminded of the opening statement of a Group curriculum training I once attended.  When Group was researching why kids tuned out of religious education classes, one of the things that they learned was that kids had the idea that religious ed was hard.  God is not hard- it is not a body of knowledge- He is not a puzzle waiting to be solved.  That made an impact- and for that reason- right or wrong- I reject any activity like this.  My philosophy is the find ways to deepen the message of the lesson and to make it more meaningful and real to children.

Tomorrow I'm going to read the lesson.

Finding Resources and Ideas for Next Week

I'm hoping to post links and resources as I develop my lesson each day during the week.  If you are finding resources and/or links that you wish to contribute too, then e-mail them here.

Running through the scope and sequence for Lesson 3.  For Grade 5, the title is "God's Revelation".  This would be a good week for me to introduce my Books of the Bible lesson.  Need to get some new match books and the old ones need recovering.  But the real theme is "God's covenant with Abraham finds its fulfillment in Christ".  The scripture s Genesis 12:1-Genesis 17:16 (that's a lot to cover!) and Exodus 3:6.


CCC references are 59-63 (God Chooses Abraham and Forms His People Israel) and 1961-1964 (The Old Law).

Catholic Social Teaching Themes are Solidarity, Rights and Responsibilities, and God's Creation.

Vocabulary words: Hebrews, Islam, Jews, Judaism, Muslims, Revelation

Saints and Holy People: Abraham and Sarah

Basic Prayer's Lord's Prayer

Other Grades: This theme does not integrate with other grades this week.  However, Grade 4's theme is a lot like our theme last week, so look over yesterday's post for what we did in our class.

Think that our class yesterday was a wonderful gift from God enlightening and enriching the teachers as well as the students.  The movie clip from The Miracle Maker was a wonderful transition from the gospel reading theme of making good choices to the first part of the lesson and showed Jesus as the hero that the lesson was calling upon is to become. The meditation on finding Our Heart's home lead us to the kind of solemnity and union with Jesus, lead to a deeper appreciation of the wonderful lesson in Go Down Death- we saw the old woman going to her heart's home and saw how Jesus saves us and loves us completely in death.  It was so beautiful.  Hope that this week will be as wonderful.

Finding God's video recommendations for this chapter were:
Genesis: Call and Promise; A Family Affair
How Do You Spell God?
Abraham (The Genesis Project Inc)- can't find this too much noise.

Think I will check out the first one- there is one copy available in the library.

Finding God: Chapter 2 and Readings for Sunday September 25, 2010

Loyola Press has a short meditation on each Sunday's readings in their Faith Formation section.  This is the link to next Sunday's readings.  On the left there is a tab to a short scripture connection passage to whatever age group you are using.  Their is also a link to a family scripture connection.

To copy this into a Powerpoint lesson, copy each question onto a slide.  You can Google Matthew 21:28-32 and then click on images to get pictures for your presentation.

This is the coloring page I found to go with this lesson: http://sundayschoolsources.com/lessons/twosons.pdf
And here is one to go with the psalm: Psalm 25  This one goes with today's lesson well.


For Grade 5's lesson these two short videos go well: The Miracle Maker  
(Scene 1)- this shows Jesus defending a Mary Magdalene from people who are taunting her. This is a good opening video.
Then after the lesson where we have talked a lot about Jesus' saving action, the last video from God's Trombones Go Down Death is a beautiful depiction of God's mercy and love.


Both of these DVDs are currently checked into the Hillsborough County Library

Books of the Bible

For anyone who wants to create their own "Books of the Bible" for their class, here is a link to the document.  When this is printed and each book is cut out, they should exactly fit on empty match books.  One of the things that I love doing is shrinking coloring pages to fit each of the books of the Bible- then putting text on the back to match.  Kids love the challenge of coloring the tiny pictures and reading the text.  Most of the Bible pages I use are from the Really Big Book of Bible Coloring Pages. 

Here is the document.
Books of the Bible document. 

Printing this with default settings took an entire cartridge of color ink and 10 pages of sticker paper.  There is an error- Romans was originally colored blue for some reason- so I added it to the bottom in gold.

Tried to take some pictures but my memory card flew out of my computer! Guess that means I need to get down to work!  Say a quick prayer that I find that silly memory card!  Will post pictures when I get my books recovered.