9-29 Class Baptism

This week we did Chapter 2. 

Before we got going with class, we took care of housekeeping. MOST of the class did their homework from last week! We reviewed ways to check on the homework in case you can't remember what it is such as: checking the website or looking at the circle pages or post-it flags in the book. We also collected bulletins and song sheets for those who attended Mass last weekend. One classmate lost his bulletin, but Mom wrote a note about attending Mass. That was a great idea!

We began by praying around the Prayer Table and asking for special intentions for those in our lives who need extra prayer.

The next several pictures will show you the mobiles we made. We talked about being God's people and we drew pictures of people in our lives that are important to us. Some of us drew pictures and some of us wrote names depending on what was more comfortable for us. 

Chapter 2 was about Baptism. We talked about our own baptisms and some of us shared stories we have heard about our baptisms. Take a moment this week to talk to your child about his/her bapstism. Find some photos if you can and talk about the special day. 

We learned there are 4 important symbols at a baptism
water-to symbolize cleansing our sins away
oil-symbolizes the Holy Spirit
white clothes-symbolizes purity
candle-represents the light of Christ in our lives

When you look at your baptism photos, keep an eye out for those 4 things!

We learned that with baptism we entered in as members of the Church.

After learning about baptisms, we acted one out. We came up with ideas of who would be there such as: parents, godparents, grandparents, and a priest!

We followed along with the book and acted our a baptism.

(The garbage can was the baptismal font)

Pouring "water" over the baby's head

Rubbing oil on the baby

Making the sign of the cross

Giving the godparents a candle lit from the Easter Candle

Proud Parents with their baby

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Our closing prayer

Homework:

Chapter 2 review: pages 33 and 34

Preparation for Chapter 3: pages 45 and 46

Attend Mass and bring a bulletin or song sheet to class from each week

First Day of Class

We had a super first day of second year religious ed today! This year the class make ups are a little different. We have second graders and third graders that are all making their First Communion this year. 

Mrs. Barb (the DRE) came to visit us. We learned she is like the "principal" of Religious Ed

We worked together to set up our prayer table. We added a green table cloth for Ordinary Time. We learned that the church has seasons, but they aren't fall, winter, spring, summer, like we are used to! Right now we are in the season of Ordinary Time and the color for that is green. We see green in the church and the priest wears green. All of us helped come up with ideas of things to put on the prayer table. What we have: candle (because Jesus is the light of the world), cross (because Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins), rosary (to help us pray), Bible, and even a picture of Jesus. Someone had the idea to put a picture of Jesus, and even though Ms. Stephanie and Ms. Reema hadn't planned to use one, they found one in their supplies!

We all gathered around the table to pray for a good year of Religious Ed, to ask God to help us learn, and we also had a chance to ask for special prayers for people in our lives who need them. After each prayer request we said, "Lord, hear our prayer."

After that, we made nametags with our name and we drew two pictures of things that represent us. We shared them with the class. Ms. Stephanie drew a book because she LOVES to read and a pumpkin because she grows pumpkins and sells them at Halloween. Ms. Reema drew a book because she LOVES to read too and a craft table because she loves to do crafts. 

We are going to "grow in the spirit" this year, so we wrote names of people that are important to us, that can help us grow, on a flower and cut it out. Some of us wanted to finish coloring and took them home. But we need to bring them back! Ms. Stephanie took our photos and they are going to go in the middle and hang around the room.

We went through Chapter 1 in our books today. We talked about different communities that we are a part of such as: family, school, soccer, cheerleading, guitar, church. We all brainstormed was to be part of our family, neighborhood, and church communities. 

In our books, we read a story about Levi welcoming Jesus to dinner. We read another story about a young boy named Tommy who moved into a new neighborhood and how some people were caring and welcoming towards him. In our books we drew ways we can be caring and welcoming such as: bringing food, saying hi, inviting him to play, bringing clothes, teaching him about the neighborhood, etc.

At the end of class, we reviewed what we learned for the day. We learned that if we ever miss a class, we can still do the homework because Ms. Stephanie posts it right here on the website! We also learned that we are going to have a sticker chart for attending Mass and for doing our homework!

Homework:

-read the parent letter

-sign up for the Remind101 Text Messaging for Miss Stephanie AND Mrs. Barb

-fill out slip with email addresses and return next week

-Go on the BlestAreWe website and do an activity

-Do homework in the book with the post-it flags: 33, 34, 35, 36

4 pages may seem like a lot of homework, but don't worry! It won't take more than a few minutes to go through it together. A lot of it just just a quick review of what we did. The next two pages are preparing you to talk as a family about the chapters we will cover next week! I believe that YOU, the family, are just as important in the religious education process as me, the teacher!