Class 12/12

Today we completed an ornament craft. Anyone who was at our last session had their photograph taken for the craft. The ornament talks about being unique. We talked about what unique means and how each of us are unique.

We also reviewed the chapter on Christmas and what Christmas means. We talked about the Christmas story and what Christmas means at church. We learned that Jesus is the light of the world.

After that, we reviewed Chapter 16. We did the chapter review at the end as a group so there isn't any homework for next session or over Christmas! We learned about the Mass and the Eucharist.

At the end of class, we practiced the song we are singing at Mass next week. All of the second graders will be performing a song at the Religious Ed Mass next week. Please listen for when your child should join us to do the song.

I look forward to seeing your family at Mass next week!

A Night in Bethlehem

Hi Families! You have received in the mail and will receive at Religious Ed Saturday a copy of the Night in Bethlehem flyer. It is a family Christmas event on Sunday from 4-7. I really hope to see you all there! If you haven't registered yet, but you plan on coming, please bring your registration to class on Saturday and I will turn it in for you. If you are unable to turn in the form by Saturday, we would love to have you as a walk-in! Just e-mail me to let me know you plan to come!

Click here to download the flyer/registration form.

Are you ready to take your family back in time?
Do you want to make family memories you will treasure forever?
Do you want to deepen your child’s understanding of the
true meaning of Christmas?
Would you like to have a blast as you do it?
Come join us at A Night in Bethlehem!

When is it?

Sunday, December 13^th

4:00-7:00 p.m.

Followed by a Family Mass at 7:00

Where is it?

Church of the Holy Spirit

What is it?

A hands-on Holy Land experience!

(From the group that does our Vacation Bible School program)

Register your children (preschool and elementary school), but come as a family!

Your family will rotate through the various “shops” in our Bethlehem village where you will complete crafts, make items from the days when Jesus was born, talk with Mary and Joseph who just had their new baby boy, and meet other interesting people from that time!

Cost?

$15 for the first child registered in a family

$10 for each additional child in the same family

*each family will receive one “Family Time Devotions book*

*each family will receive one set of Bible Buddies*

*additional sets of Bible Buddies can be preordered for $4/set*

*limited quantities will be available that night for $4/set*

*each child registered will complete each craft*

What else should I know?

You will rotate through the stations on your own time. Allow about 2 hours to complete all of the stations!

This is a family event-all children must be accompanied by an adult.

Contact Stephanie Atwell at StephAtwell@comcast.net with any questions.

Family last name___________________________________________________

Street address ___________________________ City __________________Zip___________

Home telephone _______________

Names of children registering:

1. Child’s name__________________________ Grade_________________ Age ______

2. Child’s name__________________________ Grade_________________ Age ______

3. Child’s name__________________________ Grade_________________ Age ______

4. Child’s name__________________________ Grade_________________ Age ______

For office use only: Amount due: $15 first child $10 each additional child $4 extra set of Bible Buddies Method of Payment: Check #:

Extra Bible Buddies $4/set ______

Chapter 15 and Sr. Marianne

This week we reviewed Chapter 9 from last week and the 10 Commandments. Then we began Chapter 15 about the Eucharist. In addition, we covered Chapter 13 about Advent. We were also lucky enough to have Sister Marianne come to talk to us about what Advent means.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

You can check our our sticker charts and see how it is going!

This is the "Going to Church" sticker chart. Many kids are having fun with the competition and are excited to bring in copies of the bulletin to earn their stickers each session. Some kids I have seen at church and haven't remembered to bring in any bulletins....but those I have seen, I gave one sticker!


This is the homework sticker chart! Make sure you check your child's book and/or the website each weekend and encourage him/her to complete the homework.


Homework:

• Review Chapter 15 with your family (we didn't finish it in class) and do the Review on pages 136 and 137. We didn't have a chance to flag the pages with post its in class.

Dec 19 Class

See the flyer below about the Session/Mass on December 19. The notes were supposed to go home on Saturday, November 7...however I forgot to pass them out. The information is here! Please let me know if you have any questions.

In place of our regular Hoover Session on December 19, the session will be a Family Mass at Church of the Holy Spirit from 9:00 to 10:00 (please note the shorter time). Mass will begin at 9:00. As this is a family event, children must be accompanied by an adult. Attendance will be taken.

There will be no one at Hoover on December 19.

November 7 Class

Sorry this post is so late!

Last Saturday at class we reviewed Chapters 9 and 10 about the 10 Commandments. We talked about the meaning of the commandments and what it means to sin. We talked about what the 10 Commandments mean to us.

Readers for our prayer at the beginning of class.

Other Readers for our prayer

We watched a movie about the 10 Commandments called "The Original Top 10". It was one of Miss Stephanie's favorite movies as a child and we caught her singing along with all the songs!

Our notes about what we learned.

Homework:
Chapter 9 Review (2 pages) and Share with my Family

All Saints Day

On Saturday we enjoyed listening to everyone's Saint presentations. Most everyone in the class brought their presentation to share and several of us even participated in dressing up like our saint! We had a lot of great discussions about the stories behind the various saints. Check out the slideshow below to see everyone doing their presentations.

We also reviewed Chapter 24 which was about prayer. Below you can see the list that we came up with to describe what prayer is.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Homework:

• Chapter 24 Review (pages 208, 209, 210)
• Attend Mass next weekend for All Saints Day on November 1. Come dressed up as your saint to be part of a special procession!

October 10-Chap 3 and 25

This week we began by praying (as always). We divided up into 2 groups to read a prayer in our books.

Group 1:
Shout joyfully to the Lord, all you lands;
worship the Lord with cries of gladness;
come before hm with joyful song.

Group 2:
Know that the Lord is God,
our maker to whom we belong,
whose people we are.

Groups 1 and 2:
Give thanks to God, bless his name;
good indeed is the Lord,
Whose love endures forever.

Group 1

Group 2

Throughout Chapter 3 we learned and discussed several vocabulary words. We wrote them on our chart paper and tried to come up with our own definitions. Miss Stephanie says to please excuse her messy handwriting!

Here are the words we discussed in Chapter 3.

In Chapter 25 we learned about Mary and the saints. Below you can see some of the ideas that we came up with to describe Mary. Miss Stephanie didn't help us with them at all!

We also learned about the word Alleluia and we practiced saying it and signing it. We talked about Alleluia being a word of worship and praise.

Homework:

Chapter 3 reviews (40, 41, 42)

All Saints Day Project

-Choose a saint to research. You can choose your child's name saint (first or middle name), birthday saint (see website below), or another saint of your choosing.

-Fill out the "certificate" with the saint name, your child's name, and the information you come up with (pictures, drawings, stories).

-On October 24th, each child will present his/her research to the class, wearing a costume that can be as easy or creative as you get!

-On November 1 (or October 31) at all Masses, kids come to Mass in their costume for an All Saints Day procession.

Click here to download the certificate.

Click here to download the parent letter.

Useful websites:

Find saint names

Find birthday saints

Important Dates:

October 10-Project introduced

October 24-Project presented at class

November 1-Students come to any mass dressed as their saint

First Eucharist Parent Meeting

It was great to see so many of you at the First Eucharist Parent Meeting on Wednesday night. Sorry about the lack of space; such great attendance was unusual, however, wonderful to see! We hope it keeps up!

As there has been so much trouble with the books, I will be pushing back "checkpoints" for your child's First Eucharist book. I can't check them if you don't have them! I will post the updated schedule soon!

Just to clarify a few things:

-First Eucharist is a home study program for EVERYONE. Many people do First Eucharist AND the Hoover program, but First Eucharist is all home study. We do cover the topics of Eucharist and Reconciliation in class and "taste test" the bread and wine, but the specific "First Communion Prep" is all done at home.
-All First Eucharist candidates participate in a Reconciliation Mass. This is different than fifth grade Reconciliation.

If you have any questions, please feel free to call the office or email me (I will either answer the question or make something up!). =)

Also, if you were unable to make the meeting, please try to attend the make-up meeting on Tuesday, October 6 at 7:00.

Chapter 1 and 2 and Deacon Ray

The only homework that was due this week was turning in the Picture Permission forms. Most everyone brought theirs! If you didn't turn it in, please do so by the next class.

We handed out A LOT of stickers today for those we brought a bulletin or song sheet from Mass last weekend! There are 2 weeks before the next class. If you bring 2 weeks worth of bulletins, you will get two stickers!

Today at Religious Ed class we covered Chapters 1 and 2. We learned that we believe in ONE God that is three persons. Those 3 persons are God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. We also practiced doing the sign of the cross before and after we pray at the beginning and end of class. We learned that Jesus is the son of God and Jesus did things that only God could do. We learned about Jesus' disciples and the 12 that he chose to be the leaders are called Apostles. We heard a story about Jesus calling his disciples and they left what they were doing to follow him. We drew a picture of that and what it meant to us on a fish. We drew on a fish because Jesus is the fisher of men. Listed around the fish are the names of Jesus' Apostles. We also learned that WE are all disciples of Jesus.

After that, we went to Miss Jane's room to listen to a guest speaker. Deacon Ray talked to us about what it means to be a Deacon and a Pastoral Associate. We learned what he does with funerals, baptisms, weddings, and taking care of the sick. We got to ask him all kinds of questions!

Here are some pictures of us drawing on our fish.

Here we are listening to Deacon Ray.

Homework:

-Chapter review/Sharing faith with my family for Chapter 2 (Pages 32-34)

-Turn in Picture Permission Form if you haven't done so

Notes:

I understand there was some confusion with the parking situations and pick up today. The church across the street had an event so the parking lot was blocked. In the future we should be able to use that parking lot! The procedures will be changing for dismissal to ensure the safety of all students. Please watch the mail for a letter to arrive before the next session. If you have any questions, please feel free to call the office. We are sorry about the confusion today!

Session One and the Rosary

Yesterday was our first day of *real* class and we had a great session. We learned each other's names and made nametags that told about ourselves. We explored the first few pages in our book and learned about the different symbols we will find throughout the book. We also talked about what being Catholic means. Most of us were confused about the difference between ethnicity and religion and we had an interesting discussion about both. We thought it was really neat that we all come from different backgrounds, yet we share the same religion.

Take some time this week to discuss different religions with your child and people you know that have different faiths. We talked about how neat it is that we all share the same faith and it would be a great idea to carry that over to home.

Miss Stephanie had planned to cover chapter 1, but we were having such a great discussion we didn't get to it.

The last 30 minutes we spent in Miss Jane's room with the other second grade class learning about the rosary. Each of us received our own rosary to pray with at class each week. For now they will stay with Miss Stephanie so we can use them each week. Later we will get to take them home!

This is our prayer table. We begin each session with prayer.

Here we are looking at our books.

Miss Stephanie says when all of our parents sign the permission form, then she can take pictures of our faces!

Here we are drawing a picture of ourselves as a faith-learning second grader.

Here is one depiction of someone thinking and learning.

Here we are learning about the rosary in Miss Jane's class.

Here are some of us holding our rosaries as we prayed the Our Father and 10 Hail Marys.

Overall, we had a great class.
Check back next week for more about what we learned! Don't forget to make a comment on the post to let us know what you think!

Homework:

Sign and return the permission form

Open House and Homework

Thank you to everyone who joined us for the first day of Religious Ed today at our Open House. I do apologize for some of the confusion today, but I am happy so many of you were able to come, receive your books, and folders! I am excited to spend the year with your child on Saturday mornings and I am excited to share the Religious Ed experience with you through this blog.

Don't forget your homework for next week!

Because I am so excited about the Sadlier website and the neat possibilities it has, your child’s homework for this week is going to be to explore some part of the website (examples: play a game or do a worksheet). In order to “turn in” this homework assignment, I am asking that you either print off the portion of the website with the activity you did with your child with a note about what you did, or email me with a quick message about what you did with your child. We will talk about it at the next class.

Welcome!

Welcome to our Second Grade Religious Ed blog! Here we are going to keep you updated on what we are learning about, what is coming up and there are also neat links for families to use!

Check out the sidebar on the right. You will find a link for the CHS website as well as links for the books we use. Click on those! There are a lot of neat options for kids and families to interact and learn on the Internet!

On the right you will also find a schedule that includes Religious Ed class dates. As the year goes on, you will be updated with our topics and activities and homework in these posts. So keep checking back! I will also update with photos from class so you can have an insider view of what is happening in our class!

Please feel free to leave comments. This is a great opportunity for you to let me know what you think as well as interact with each other!

Happy Reading!

P.S. Don't forget to check back often for important updates!