Week 4

Late this week.  Here are the links.  Be sure to look over the session review (Chapter 5) for tomorrow
Here is a link to the online session review:
Study Guide Session 4
and the link to:
Living My Faith 

This section is for your parents but there is interesting stuff there for you too!
Raising Faith Filled Kids Week 4

If you want to try the Session Review game, the Link is here:
http://www.loyolapress.com/assets/fg-2013/games/grade6-session4-finding-god-session-review.swf
This is an interactive game and some computers might not be able to load it, if you have problems and want to take the review, e-mail me and I'll send you a pdf version.  I did the review and thought that it was fun- especially the hints and pop-ups with the correct answers whether or not you get it right.

At the end of the review, you can e-mail the results to me (mrmurrin@verizon.net)

If the whole class does the review and mails the results to me, we'll have a prize next week.

We'll play the vocabulary game tomorrow- the review usually does not take long- just make sure that you remember the main points from the first four lessons..You win coins for a correct answer (sometimes chocolate ones) and if you want, you can trade in the coins for prizes. 

See you tomorrow!

Review Weeks 2 and 3: God Creates the World- Sin and Salvation

You are really a great class.  I look forward to our sessions together every week.
Here is a link to the online session review for session 2
Study Guide Session 2 
and session 3
Study Guide Session 3

Here's the Living My Faith Page for Week 2:
Living My Faith Week 2

and for  Week 3:
Living My Faith Week 3

These are for your parents:
Raising Faith Filled Kids Week 2
Raising Faith Filled Kids Week 3

If you want to try the Session Review game, the Link for chapter 2 is here:
http://www.loyolapress.com/assets/fg-2013/games/grade6-session2-finding-god-session-review.swf
and the link for Chapter 3 is here:
http://www.loyolapress.com/assets/fg-2013/games/grade6-session3-finding-god-session-review.swf
This is an interactive game and some computers might not be able to load it, if you have problems and want to take the review, e-mail me and I'll send you a pdf version. 

At the end of the review, you can e-mail the results to me (mrmurrin@verizon.net)
If the whole class does the review and mails the results to me, we'll have a prize next week.

Here are the vocabulary words for the last two weeks (with definitions from your glossary)
culture= the collection of knowledge, belief, and behavior of a particular group of people. Culture expresses the shared attitudes, values, goals, and social practices of the group.  To take root in a culture, the Gospel must be adapted to live in that culture as well as transform it.

exile= the period in the history of Israel between the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BC and the return to Jerusalem in 537 AD.  During this time may of the Jewish people were forced to live in Babylon, far from home.

racism=the opinion that race determines human traits and capacities and that a particular race has an inherent or inborn superiority.  Discrimination based on race is a violation of human dignity and a sin against justice.

sexism= a prejudice or discrimination based on sex, especially discrimination against women. Sexism leads to behaviors and attitudes that foster a view of social roles based only a sex.

Garden of Eden= a garden created by God, filled with trees and lush vegetation, where God first placed Adam and Eve and from which they were later expelled.

When we have about a dozen words and time left in a session, we'll start playing the vocabulary game.  It might not sound like fun but every class where we've done it, loves it.  You win coins for a correct answer (sometimes chocolate ones) and if you want, you can trade in the coins for prizes.  That is one reason that you want to read your chapter ahead of time-so there is time for the game!

For next week: Read Chapter 4.
If everyone reads the chapter and sends me the chapter review for Chapter 4 before class, we'll watch the Noah movie.

Have a great week and I'll see you on Tuesday night!

Preparation: Lesson 2

These are my links to aid in preparation for next week's class.  For catchists these are resources that might help.  For students, you get to see what we're going to do (won't be able to link to online session plan). Teachers- found the access code  for findinggod.org on page OV-7.

Scripture Background: Genesis Introduction, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Psalm 8: 5-7
Catechism of the Catholic Church Creation: 282-289
Link to Art Print: Adam and Eve Expelled From Paradise

Link to Online Session Plan for this lesson

Movie that I will use just before the prayer: God's Trombones
Article: Caring for God's Creation on findinggod.org (this is very short)

September 13: Daily Readings

I promised you that I would send you links to daily readings and tell you my thoughts on them.
Here is a link to the readings from today:
September 13, 2012 Readings

Here's the thing I never really noticed before- it's in the gospel:

"Stop judging and you will not be judged.
Stop condemning and you will not be condemned.
Forgive and you will be forgiven.
Give and gifts will be given to you;
a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing,
will be poured into your lap.
For the measure with which you measure
will in return be measured out to you."
Luke 6:37-42

It really hit me that what this was saying was that if you want God's gifts in abundance, then you have to give God's gifts in abundance.  And of course, we know that the greatest of all God's gifts is love.  Another thing that I was reading today was talking about how all that we crave as human beings is acceptance- and that total and complete acceptance that we all crave comes from God.  It also talks about The courage of self-acceptance because if we good enough for God, then we should be good enough for ourselves.  That was another message that hit home.  The line that really hit me there was 
"I cannot be more demanding than God, can I". 

 And of course, I think that I am- a lot!  We probably all are- because we can see all that we could be and aren't- but God sees that too and loves what we do- which is better than doing nothing at all.

So let us go out today, giving God's gifts in abundance- and remembering that the greatest gift is accepting others as they are, knowing that God is accepting us as we are- with all our faults and imperfections- and that the more that we accept others as they are- the more that we will be accepted as we are.

Week 1 Review:The Bible God's Story

I was so glad to have met with you!  It was a fun class for me and I hope it was for you.
Here is a link to the online session review:
Study Guide Session 1
and another link to a page on ways that you can carry this session forward into your every day life:
Living My Faith 

This section is for your parents but there is interesting stuff there for you too!
Raising Faith Filled Kids Week 1

If you want to try the Session Review game, the Link is here:
http://www.loyolapress.com/assets/fg-2013/games/grade6-session1-finding-god-session-review.swf
This is an interactive game and some computers might not be able to load it, if you have problems and want to take the review, e-mail me and I'll send you a pdf version.  I did the review and thought that it was fun- especially the hints and pop-ups with the correct answers whether or not you get it right.

At the end of the review, you can e-mail the results to me (mrmurrin@verizon.net)
I did the review and got 1150 out of 1200, so I can't expect you to be perfect.
If the whole class does the review and mails the results to me, we'll have a prize next week.

Here are the vocabulary words for this week (with definitions from your glossary)
Inspired=Influenced by the Holy Spirit (The human authors of Scripture were influenced by the Holy Spirit)  The creative inspiration of the Holy Spirit made sure that the Scripture was written according to the truth God wants us to know for our salvation.

Interpretation=an explanation of the words of Scripture, combining human wisdom and the teaching office of the church under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Magisterium=the living, teaching office of the church.  This office, through the bishops and with the Pope, provides an interpretation of the Word of God.  It ensures faithfulness to the teachings of the apostles in matters of faith and morals.

Scriptorium=the room in a monastery in which books were copied by hand.  Often beautiful art was created on the page to illustrate the story.

Vulgate=the Latin translation of the Bible by St. Jerome from the Hebrew and Greek from which it was originally written. Most Christians of St. Jerome's day no longer spoke Greek or Hebrew.  The common language or vulgate was Latin.  (This was in the days of the Roman Empire)

When we have about a dozen words and time left in a session, we'll start playing the vocabulary game.  It might not sound like fun but every class where we've done it, loves it.  You win coins for a correct answer (sometimes chocolate ones) and if you want, you can trade in the coins for prizes.  That is one reason that you want to read your chapter ahead of time-so there is time for the game!

For next week: Read Chapter 2. 

Vatican Express: Links to Photos for Day 1

Here are some links to photos that could be used with the Day 1 theme of The Rock
Bible verse poster
Stained Glass
Statue of St Peter in Rome
Holy Father John Paul II
St. Joseph the Carpenter Mosaic

If you have more links, leave them in a comment and I'll add them here.

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.

See You at VBS

Sandra and I are going to co-lead a combined Arts& Crafts/Science section at VBS this year.  Hope to see you there!  Any ideas?  Share them here!

End of the Faith Formation Year!

This  week is the official end of the Faith Formation year and we ended it as usual with a Happy Birthday- Pentecost party- a little early but it's important to  celebrate!

The kids all agreed that they want us to teach 4th grade next year- Mondays at 6- and Sue agreed.

Next stop- VBS.
All Aboard for a Baobab Blast!
Details here (copied from St. Paul's Faith Formation Page:

June 14th—18th 9:00 AM—12:00 Noon

Baobab Blast: God’s Great Get-Together … an amazing African Adventure your kids won’t soon forget! Click here for Registration Form.

We need volunteers to make this happen! Click here for Volunteer Form

VBS VOLUNTEER PLANNING MEETING = Tuesday May 11th 4:30PM Parish Center, with a follow up meeting Wednesday May 12th 7:30PM Parish Center for anyone who is unable to attend Tuesday.

Resource for covering teachings of Jesus, Holy Week, and Easter events

I have 15 coloring pictures with text that explains the events from the raising of Lazarus through the breakfast on the beach – these are the stories included.  Anyone who wants a copy- let me know or come by my classroom tonight before 6- I’ll try to be there at 5:30.

 

John 11:1-44 • Jesus brings Lazarus back to life 241

Matthew 21:1-11; Luke 19:29-44; John 12:12-19 • Jesus enters Jerusalem 243

Matthew 21:12-16; Mark 11:12-19; Luke 19:45-48 • Jesus clears the Temple 245

Matthew 25:14-30; Luke 19:12-27 • Jesus tells the parable of the talents 247

Mark 12:41-44; Luke 21:1-4 • A poor woman gives all she has 249

John 13:1-17 • Jesus washes His friends’ feet 251

Matthew 26:17-30; Mark 14:12-26; Luke 22:7-20; John 13:1-17 • Jesus eats a last

meal with His friends 253

Matthew 26:69-75; Mark 14:66-72; Luke 22:55-62; John 18:15-18,25-27 • Peter lies

about knowing Jesus 255

Matthew 27:32-56; Mark 15:21-41; Luke 23:26-49; John 19:17-37 • Jesus dies on

the cross 257

Matthew 28:1-10 • Jesus rises from the dead 259

John 20:10-18 • Jesus talks to Mary in the garden 261

Luke 24:13-35 • Two friends see Jesus 263

Mark 16:14; Luke 24:36-43; John 20:19-23 • Jesus talks to His friends 265

John 20:24-29 • Thomas believes when he sees Jesus 267

John 21:1-25 • Jesus cooks breakfast on the beach

 

Mary Rose

RE: Links to resources for Week of March 8 weekday classes

http://www.usccb.org/nab/031410c.shtml

 

This week theme is 20: Early followers of Jesus: Grade 3 Chapter 9/Grade 2 Chapter 8.

 

http://www.faithfirst.com/html/catechist/lectionary/yearC/Mar18Pri.html

RE: Links to resources for Week of March 1 weekday classes

http://www.prayerpress.com/images/ColoringPage.gif

http://prepareformass.wordpress.com/

http://www.usccb.org/nab/030710c.shtml

This week theme is 19: Mary and Lent  Grade 3 Chapter 3.

http://new.catholicmom.com/kids/lenten-activities-for-children/

http://www.faithfirst.com/html/catechist/lectionary/lectionary.html

 

The Lord's Prayer

Preparation for Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Feb 7th)

 Liturgy Preparation- Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Sunday's Readings
Catholic Mom (at this writing, these are the activities for Jan 31)
Primary Session

Saint of the Week: St. Blaisa
Picture of St. Blase along with an explanation about the practice of Blessing of the Throats
This week we are doing a review of Catholic Faith and Practices

Theme 15: Making Choices

 Liturgy Preparation- Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Sunday's Readings
Catholic Mom not out yet
Primary Session
Catechism of the Catholic Church 1020-1050, 1716-1724, 1997-2016
Saint of the Week: St. Thomas Aquinas- January 28th
Faith First Links to Online Lesson Planning:
Grade 1: Chapter 21
Grade 2: Chapter 22
Grade 3: Chapter 22
Grade 4: Chapter 17
Grade 5: Chapter 18
Grade 6: Chapter 20

For My Class: Earning Coins

For every chapter review that you complete at Faith First, you can win coins.

80%=3 coins
90%=4 coins
100%=5 coins

Send your scores to mrmurrin@verizon.net!

Here are the eligible chapters:
For those students studying for their first communion:
Grade 2: Chapter 3, 1, 5,  6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 15, 16, 17, 14, 11, 18, 20, 22

For everyone:
Grade 3: Chapter 2, 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 13, 15, 17, 11, 19, 20, 22

These coins can be traded in for prizes just like in the vocabulary game.

For parents, I'll be posting links for materials that will help you coach your children through the quizes in the coming days.  In the meantime, look at the background material for the in-class lessons posted so far- especially the Catechism of the Catholic Church links.
Theme 2
Theme 3
Theme 4
Theme 5
Theme 6
Theme 8
Theme 10