Advent

We had a very busy class this week at Religious Ed!

We began our class by gathering around the prayer table and thanking God for how lucky we are for all of the things he has brought us in our lives. Then we prayed for people in our lives who need extra prayers.



We talked about Advent this week because the first Sunday in Advent is Sunday, November 28th. Next week! We learned that Advent is a time of preparing for Christmas. We each made an advent wreath in class to bring home and "light" each week during Advent. We learned about the meaning of each candle and brought home a sheet with a prayer to say each week as we are lighting the candles.



After that, we had a visitor come to talk to us! Sister Marianne came to talk to us about Advent and about preparing for Christmas. She showed us a special advent wreath and read us a book about the story of Jesus' birth. We learned that the third candle on the Advent wreath is pink to remind us that we are *almost* there! It is almost the time to celebrate Jesus' birth!

While reading the story, we learned that Jesus was laid in a manger. Sr. Marianne gave us a good idea we could use at home. She said that if we have a manger at home, every time during Advent that we do a good deed, we can add a piece of straw. By the time Christmas comes, our good deeds will have made a wonderful place for baby Jesus to sleep!

We also decorated little blue squares of paper with Thanksgiving wishes for the family who is going to receive the Thanksgiving food we brought to class. We were very excited and honored to be able to bring something to help a family have a Thanksgiving meal who might not have otherwise. We brought up our food and gathered around the boxes. Then we read our notes aloud and taped them onto the box.

Homework:

-Page 120 (end of the Chapter on Advent. Discuss the Chapter as a family).

-Continue to review your First Eucharist and Reconciliation books

-Work with your child to pick our a toy for a child who may not receive toys otherwise and bring it to class December 4th.

-Don't forget to bring back the form regarding participating in the Christmas Eve enactment.

Have a wonderful and family filled Thanksgiving!

Make sure to take some time to thank God for everything you have been given.

Chapter 3

We had a very busy class this week!

We started off by collecting bulletins/song sheets for attendance at Mass and also for homework. This week we had a record number of stickers on both charts!

The kids were very excited to share about going to church and especially seeing each other at the Masses on the 30 and 31st.

After that we had a fire drill and then a guest speaker from the Archdiocese to talk to us about vocation in the Catholic church. We learned about listening to the call of Jesus in our hearts. We prayed together to invite Jesus into our hearts and invite him to be part of our lives.


We studied Chapter 3 this week and learned about the 7 sacraments. We made a Sacrament book where we drew pictures for each sacrament to represent what it means to the person receiving that sacrament. Take some time this week to look at your child's sacrament book and ask him/her about the meaning of the pictures. Miss Stacy and I were very impressed with the quality of the work and the effort our students were putting into their drawings.

We also spent time talking about our Thanksgiving project. We talked about things we are thankful for and I was very impressed and moved by the things the kids listed on their own:

-family

-friends

-house

-school to go to

-toys because not everyone has them

-pets

-parents having jobs

It also led us into a discussion about when people don't have some of these things and what we can do to help them. We realized that even if we can't do anything else, we can pray for people who need our help. We learned that some families don't even have enough money to buy food to have a Thanksgiving dinner. This can even be families in our own community. We each picked out something to bring to class next week to contribute to make a whole Thanksgiving dinner for a family who may not have had one otherwise. The kids got to choose themselves what they wanted to bring.

In addition, included in our note is a an explanation of our Christmas project. We didn't discuss it in class yet, we will do so on November 20th.

Homework
-Pages 40 and 41 Chapter 3 Assessment

-Go to Mass and bring the bulletin or song sheet

-Bring an item for our Thanksgiving collection (if you are unable to for ANY reason, please call the office or contact me and I will make other arrangements for that item)

Have a great week!