Second Grade Mass

Today our second graders hosted the 9:15 Mass. We took part in all parts of the Mass. Students from our class: handed out bulletins and greeted parishioners, read the readings, ushered, read the Prayers of the Faithful, and brought up the gifts. Many parishioners stopped Miss Stephanie after Mass to say that they LOVED having the second graders such a big part of the Mass and they were SUPER impressed with how they did with all their roles. 

Check out the video to see what we did today!

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Processing in as our saints:

The First Reading:

The Second Reading:

Prayer of the Faithful:

Presentation of the Gifts:

Explanation of Mass and Church Tour

Today for Religious Ed we had an explanation of the Mass by Father John and then a church tour. Unfortunately we don't have any pictures of the church tour because Miss Stephanie's camera battery died!

Fr. John taught us about the different parts of the church.

We learned about the Baptismal font. The word "font" comes from the word "fountain". Our baptismal font is new and has been in for about 8-9 months. It is filled with Holy Water. It is used to bless people when they come into church and especially for baptisms.

Fr. Jon had volunteers come up and try to guess the objects we were talking about.

Next we talked about the chalice, wine, and holy water. He is holding the chalice in his left hand and the wine in his right (in the photo below). The wine and holy water are in special cruets. The priest adds just a little bit of holy water to the wine.

Here he is holding the paten (plate) and the host.  The paten holds unleavened bread (which means bread that doesn't rise). The host he is holding is big so people all the way in the back can see it!

Next we learned about the Lectionary. That is the book that holds the stories we read at church. The 4 authors of the Gospel are Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John.

The lectors (readers) read from the Ambo. Stories are read from the Lectionary. The first part of Mass is the Liturgy of the Word and that is when we read and hear stories from the Bible.

The altar is the table where the priest prepares the Eucharist (Communion). The second part of Mass is the Liturgy of the Eucharist and that is when we prepare and consume Jesus' body and blood.

The next book we learned about is the Sacramentary. It helps the priest celebrate the sacraments and helps him know what to say during Mass and other special occasions.

This is incense. It is most often used at funerals, but also at other special times.

The Holy Water bucket it on the ground and the priest uses it to sprinkle Holy Water during Mass. We also learned about the Holy oils. There are 3 oils. 

Next we learned about the clothes the priest wears. This is the alb. It is the white garment he wears under everything.

Next is the chasuble (the big garment that covers the alb). It can be colored depending on the liturgical season. On top is the stole and it goes over his shoulders. It also changes color depending on occasional and season.

We really enjoyed learning a lot from Father John through his presentation and answering our questions and taking a tour around the church. 

Ask your child:

-Why does water baptize a baby? (The water and the words together welcome the child into the church). 

-What story the Stations of the Cross tell? (The Stations are the pictures all around the walls of the church and they tell the story of Jesus carrying the cross, dying on the cross, and then rising on Easter to save us from our sins). 

-Why are the extra hosts put in the chapel? (People can come during the week to pray in the chapel, these hosts are also used for Ministers of Care who bring communion to people who are sick).

Don't Forget!

Saint Projects are going to be presented next week at class! Dress up and be ready to present on your saint!

The 10 Commandments

Today in class we learned all about the 10 Commandments. 

We began class by checking in our homework from last class. Most of us did all of our homework! But some of us forgot. We also collected bulletins from those who have been attending Mass. We were proud to bring them. Don't forget, we are keeping track of both on a sticker chart!

After doing that housekeeping, we watched a movie called The Original Top Ten. 

It is Miss Stephanie's movie from when she was our age! We loved watching the movie and it was also funny to watch Miss Stephanie sing along with all the songs. She said that when she was little she would watch it with her sister all the time. They loved the songs. We thought it was a great way to learn about the 10 Commandments.

While we were watching the movie, we kept track of the commandments on a piece of paper. As the characters in the movie learned each commandment, we wrote them down. At the end we discussed each one. We brought them home in our folders to share with our families.

Here are some clips from the movie:

We also went through chapters 6 and 7 in our books. In those chapters we also learned about Jesus as a child. He visited the temple with his family. One time they left, thinking he was traveling with them, but then they realized he was gone! They were very worried and they went back to find him. They found him in the temple with the elders learning from them. He wasn't worried at all. He felt at home in the temple with God. But he knew he should obey his parents and he returned home with them. 

We talked about how Jesus obeyed his parents and that tied in with the 10 Commandments because one of them tells us to honor our mother and father!

Saint Project

Today your child came home with a letter and blank certificate. Our whole religious education program is participating in our annual saint project. Each person is researching their name saint or birthday feast day saint. You will put the information your learned on your certificate. On November 5th, we will all come to class dressed like our saint and give a brief presentation on our saint. You can use your first name, middle name, or birthday saint.

Look up saint names here: http://www.catholic.org/saints/stindex.php

Look up by birthday here: http://www.catholic.org/saints/calendar/october.php

Homework:

Living My Faith Chapters 6 and 7

Saint Project for November 5

Sessions 2, 3, 4

Today we had a very busy class! We were a little behind from last week so we covered 3 chapters in our book. Yikes!

We started class by gathering around our prayer table.We prayed together starting with the sign of the cross.

Here is a clip about making the sign of the cross:

After making the sign of the cross, we said a prayer about readying ourselves to learn about God. We asked for prayers for those in our lives that need extra help. We learned that we can pray by ourselves or with a group. But many people praying for the same thing is very powerful. After someone asked for a prayer we said, "Lord, hear our prayer."

After that we talked about our families and how they are the same and different. Some of us have brothers and/or sisters. Some have none. We held up our hands with the number of people in our families. Some have 2. Some have 10! Even though we are all different, God loves us all the same.

We talked about important names for Jesus such as: Jesus (which means God Saves), Emmanuel, Christ, Messiah, and Savior. Some of us know what our names mean. Stephanie means crown! Part of your homework is to look up the meaning of your (the child's) name. Here is a link where you can do so:

http://www.babynames.com/Names/search.php

After you learn the meaning of the child's name, please post a comment on this blog post sharing what you learned! We will talk about them at the next class.

We learned to Trust in God. Jesus teaches us that we can always place our trust in God. We even circled that heading in our books to remind us when we go back through the chapters.

We also learned in that chapter that Jesus teaches us that we don't need to worry. There are so many things that we can worry about, but when we place our trust in God, he takes our worries away. We talked about different things that worry us. Some things that we said are: getting in trouble at home if we got in trouble at school, what will happen in the future, our parents dying, and being scared of certain animals.

We took our worries out of our heads and put them right into our hands and closed our fists.

Then we lined up at the sink and threw them right in! We don't have to worry about them! God will take care of it for us.

We read the story of Simeon and Jesus. Simeon had been praying and praying to the Holy Spirit to meet the messiah when he comes. Simeon was very old, so he wasn't sure that would happen. When he was praying the temple one day, Mary, Joseph and Jesus came in! He knew when he held Jesus that he was the Messiah. Simeon prayed to the Holy Spirit, that he could go in peace now that he had met the messiah just like the Holy Spirit promises. 4 of us held pictures from the story and with a helper, put ourselves in order. Then one of us retold the story to help us remember it.

While the 5 of them were putting the story in order, the rest of us reviewed the story in our books.

After that we went outside with....
bubbles!


We blew bubbles all over the place. 
Then Miss Stephanie asked us to count them. 

WHAT???

We realized there was no way we could begin to count the bubbles. Just like there were too many bubbles to count, God's love for us is too big to measure. He loves us so much!

At the end of class, we took a quick little quiz to see what we learned. Miss Stephanie collected them to see how we did.

Today was one of the parent sessions for parents whose children are making a sacrament. If you didn't make it today, please make sure you call the office and get the information you need.

Homework:

-Living My Faith for chapters 2, 3, 4 (pages 17, 25, 33). They are marked with post-its in our books.

-Leave a comment on the blog after looking up your child's name on the website. To leave a comment, click on the button at the bottom that says "comments". You can sign up for a free Google Account or leave it anonymously.

-See you in a couple weeks!