Halloween/All Saints Celebration

My RE class is different this year from previous years because the program changed from a traditional RE format where the kids are taught in a classroom by a catechist 3 times a month to being homeschooled by their parents.  Now I only have my students once a month and my job is to review and evaluate on what they've been learning.

My first review class was on Catholic Parenting and the families had been instructed to do various activities such as having a special dinner to honor your dad or father figure.  For this week's activity, they were told to tell their dad what they love about him and share fun memories with them.  Each week had a different activity with the goal of drawing the family closer together as a unit and towards God.  My students shared their experiences and then we reviewed the importance of prayer, especially before meals.  To build on the idea of prayer, I put a number of different objects in a bag and pulled them out one by one, asking if anyone knew what it was, i.e. rosary, bible, candle, holy medal, holy card, holy water, children's devotional...etc.  Then I asked what all of these items had in common and what they are used for... a couple of children responded correctly "to pray."

And since our class was right before All Saints Day, I made these saint cards emphasizing virtues:

I made each child a set focusing on girl saints for the girls and boy saints for the boys.

                        

With the extra time I had, I decided to have a mini All Saints party.

We had a Happy Saints Memory Game that I had printed on sticker paper and adhered to foam squares:

We used Jennifer's Saint Guessing Jar Game which was a huge hit.  Here was our set up:

Lastly, I sent my students home with a All Saints themed Halloween goodie bag:

Each bag included a Hershey's Chocolate bar with a Shine for Jesus wrapper, a holy card, a rosary, an angel coin and Halloween chocolate kisses.  

Happy belated All Saints Day!

Noreen

Lenten Symbol Box

I've been working on teaching my class about the different sacred vessels, vestments and sacramentals that are found inside the Catholic Church. 

 I had reviewed Monica's Catholic Lingo Bingo in a home setting HERE 

and have used it in my classroom.  

Her Lingo Bingo game is ideal for teaching these items that they see each week!

In fact, I encouraged them to challenge their family members to assess their knowledge of the sacred vessels, vestments and sacramentals!

It comes in a downloadable format to be printed at home.  

Then it's time to break out the colored pencils! 

Go check out her website Arma Dei Shoppe for this great resource and more!

While I was searching around looking for a new idea to use in my classroom, I came across this Lenten Symbol Box from Glitter Queen.  She was kind enough to leave the pattern to download for those who'd like to use it.  Thank you Glitter Queen for your idea, pattern and explanation!

The crown of thorns reminds us that Jesus was taken before Pilate who scourged him. Then the soldiers made a crown of thorns and placed it on Jesus’ head. They then dressed him in purple robes and pretended to worship him while they struck him and spit upon him.

The silver coins remind us that Judas Iscariot agreed to betray Jesus to the chief priests for 30 pieces of silver. Then he approached Jesus and gave him a kiss which led to his arrest.

The palm branches remind us that when Jesus came to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover feast, people ran to meet him, with cut branches of palm trees, shouting, 

“Hosanna; Blessed is the King of Israel that comes in the name of the Lord.”

The silver coins remind us that Judas Iscariot agreed to betray Jesus to the chief priests 

for 30 pieces of silver. He betrayed Jesus with a kiss.

I also included on our prayer table the "coins Judas took to betray Jesus" as a reminder to my students that we betray Jesus when we sin, even if we are not given a reward, it's still betrayal.

I printed out the Lenten Symbol box on cardstock and their little fingers struggled a bit 

with the assembly of them :)

I helped them tighten them up before they left for the day.

Our prayer table looked like this:

Yesterday I went to a Parish Leadership Workshop and was given these buttons, pray cards and

bookmarks to give to my class.  

In fact, a priest gave me a huge stack of these bookmarks and I gave them to my DRE to distribute to

all the students.

This was a prayer card for vocations. 

And this button is a plea for non-violence.

With the recent announcement from Pope Benedict XVI and The Feast of the Chair of Peter, 

I thought it would be a good idea to talk to my students about it.

Thanks to Lena from Joyfilled Family who pointed me in the direction of learning more about Pope Benedict

HERE.  It's dated, but there is a nice coloring page and other activities.

It was a good class!  Thank you to Monica for giving me the opportunity to be one of your reviewers and to Glitter Queen for sharing your creativity!

Blessings,

Noreen

Catholic Lingo Bingo Review

Monica from Equipping Catholic Families gave me the opportunity to review her Catholic Lingo Bingo Game that she created and sells online at her Arma Dei Shoppe.  If you want your children or students to learn "the lingo of the Catholic Church" meaning the sacramentals, vessels and vestments used in Mass, then this is the game for you!  I'm embarrassed to admit that I didn't know some of the names of the vessels until reviewing this game.  So thank you, Monica!

This game is quick and easy to receive because Monica sends it to you online so after you pay for your kit, it's sent instantly through cyberspace to your home or office computer.  I followed Monica's recommendation and printed out my black and white copies on white card stock paper for durability.  It comes with 15 black and white bingo cards, so yes, it's time intensive to color them all. However, if you're a teacher, you can hand them out to your students to color them and it'll be done lickety split.

I opted not to color in the calling cards because after coloring a bunch of the bingo cards myself, I realized,  that my coloring was done at whim.  Which means that each picture of a sanctuary lamp is colored differently.  This was not an issue because when we played it with 5 children (ages 4-12), I showed them the card and helped them identify it if it was on their card.  We had a couple of young children so one of their moms helped out too.  Thanks Colleen!

This game is a great lesson in learning about our church's sacramentals, vestments and vessels.  It's beneficial for all ages including adults.  As I mentioned earlier, I learned a few things too!  It's perfect for younger children because there are 9 large pictures on each game card so it's easy for them to figure out what the picture indicates.  Another idea Monica suggests is to make it into a matching game by cutting out the bingo cards.

Here are some pictures of our game in process...

And yes, a dragon was also invited to join the game!  We played it so that we filled up the entire lingo bingo card so no feelings were hurt by not winning and for them to learn all of the items on their cards.  It's learning and fun all at the same time!  I would definitely recommend this game to every Catholic family and school teacher to instruct the children on these items they see in mass often or on occasion.

Monica gave me a free copy of her Catholic Lingo Bingo Game in exchange for my review.  My remarks are my own.

Blessings,
Noreen

And the Winner is...

Stephanie from Mostly Blue with a Touch of Pink!  

I will send Jennifer from Crafolic your email address so she can send you the e-file game.

Thank you to everyone who entered for a chance to win the Journey's End Game.  If you didn't win it and are still interested in purchasing it for a very reasonable price ($5.00) you can go HERE to do so. Lent is a perfect time to continue teaching our children about sin, grace that comes from confession and the importance of praying for the Souls in Purgatory.

Thank you Jennifer for your creativity and generous heart in sharing your God given talents with the rest of us!  You're game has enlightened and opened the hearts of my family as we played it.  I thank you for that gift!

Blessings,

Noreen

Reminder: Last Chance

Jennifer's photo

Today is the last day to enter the Journey's End Game giveaway created by Jennifer!  We'll be announcing the winner tomorrow!

This is a great game to teach children about sin and confession any time of the year but it's especially meaningful during Lent.  HERE is the review I did after playing this game with my son and his cousins.  I highly recommend this game and thank you Jennifer for being willing to give one away!!

Blessings,
Noreen

A Crafolic Giveaway!

Crafolic photo credit

This great giveaway is an e-file so is sent to you on the computer.  No mailing distance restrictions here!  So, my friends across the pond can enter as well!!

Jennifer from Crafolic recently hosted a Journey's End Giveaway at Catholic Bloggers Network Share-A-Thon and now she is generously offering to do another here at Rosarymom!  I recently tried out Jennifer's game called Journey's End and posted about it Here.  This was an active game where kids can learn about sin, the need for grace that comes through confession and eternal destinations. Faith formation occurs naturally while playing this game due to the many questions that are raised during it.

The kids were able to make the connection that their actions affect their souls.  

Whether their choices please God or not.  

It was a time of exploring, learning and fun for all.

If you'd like to win your own copy of Journey's End, all you need to do is leave me a comment of your interest.  We will select a winner on Friday, March 16th!

Blessings,
Noreen

Journey's End Review

Jennifer from Crafolic Blog created an active fun game for kids to learn about sin and confession. She gave me a free copy to review and tell others about it.  I am happy to do so!  I decided to test it out at a family gathering with my nieces and nephew.  Their ages ranged from 5 to 14 and there were 5 of them playing.  The premise of the game is for the children to walk the "Life Path" and randomly pick a card at each station in life.  Jennifer recommends using 3 - 2x4 boards, a fat rope or the edge of a rug.  I used 3 belts since that is all we had and it worked out well even though they were under 4 feet each.

Walked on the belts 

Along their "Life Path" they were to randomly pick a choice card that told them what they had to do at each station of life.  For example, 

"You chose to go to confession.  Walk forward with God's grace!!"  

or 

"You chose to commit a venial sin.  Walk the Life Path with one of your hands at your side 

and the other over one eye."  

or 

"You gave into temptation and chose to commit a mortal sin... Walk the Life Path backwards,

with your hands down and your eyes closed."

There were a total of 4 stations where they randomly selected a card and followed it's directions. The last station is a "Death Card" that again, is randomly picked and will tell you whether your actions will lead you to Heaven, Purgatory or Hell.

My youngest niece took a break with her dog!

Overall, this game is educational and it teaches children the relationship between sin and confession.  It's also a hands-on game that generated a lot of discussion of sin and the need for God's grace for eternal salvation.  My sister and oldest niece, helped me run the game and answer the questions that arose.  We answered questions as they were asked which caused some interruption to the game but it was a great way for the kids to make the important connections.

Before starting this game, I would recommend explaining to your students or children, that this game is played randomly and the "Death Cards" are not a predictor of their own future resting place.  We played the game several times and my son randomly picked the "Hell" card twice and asked "Do you think God is trying to tell me something?"  I used this as an opportunity to talk to him about the importance of God's grace that can be given to him through confession for absolution of his sins.

Thank you to my family for playing the Journey's End Game with me!

Thank you to Jennifer from Crafolic for giving me this opportunity!  You can purchase your own Journey's End game from her website here for $5.00.  This faith formation game is a great deal that will enhance your children's understanding of sin, confession and God's grace.

Blessings,

Noreen