Top 10 Commandments

We began the class by reviewing parts of Chapter 7 from before break. Then 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.

After that, we took 10 minutes and everyone tried to write down all of the commandments that they could think of by themselves. We thought about what we talked about in the book and saw in the movie.Then we worked at our tables and tried to come up with the rest. A few of the tables got stuck and sent a representative to another table to ask someone who had all 10 of them. We worked really well together to try to come up with them all without adult help!

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Then Miss Stephanie read from the Bible and we checked them off as we went along.

20 And God spoke all these words:

2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

3 “You shall have no other gods before[a] me.

4 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God,punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

7 “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day.Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

12 “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

13 “You shall not murder.

14 “You shall not commit adultery.

15 “You shall not steal.

16 “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+20%3A1-17&version=NIV

The Ten Commandments
-Do not covet. Don't want what belongs to someone else. Be glad for what you have!
-Do not lie. Tell the truth!
-Do not steal.
-Be loyal to the ones you love. That means people you are married to, your family, and friends.
-Don't kill.
-Honor your father and mother.
-Keep Sunday holy. Pray, rest, go to church.
-Use God's name respectfully. Only say the Lord's name when praying. Don't swear with it.
-Do not have idols. Don't put anyone else above God.
-Have only one God.

Here are some clips from the movie!




Homework: 
Chapter 7 Review and Beginning of Chapter 8
95, 96, 97, 98

Everyone should have received their First Communion books by now. There is a letter from Mrs. Barb inside with more information. If you did not get the letter, please contact the Religious Ed office.

Communion Books

If you haven't heard yet, you can pick up your Communion books in the office! You can check the hours on the website or by calling. 


 http://www.churchoftheholyspirit.org/


Merry Christmas!

A Day in Bethlehem

Saturday afternoon we had a fabulous Day In Bethlehem. Families came with their children to visit Mary and Joseph and the new baby Jesus, make crafts, bake bread, play the dreidel game, and make a keepsake ornament. Everyone had a great time!

You can see our pictures here:

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Ten Commandments and Christmas Caroling

At class on Saturday, we reviewed Chapter 7 (The Ten Commandments). We talked about making choices between right and wrong. We talked about sin and how there are really big sins that break our friendship with God (mortal sins) and smaller sins that hurt our friendship with God (venial sins). We talked about each of the Commandments and how they apply to us. I suggest you read Chapter 7 and go through the chart and talk about them as a family. We had a great discussion in class about this! 

At the end of class all of the other classes joined us and we sang Christmas carols together. We also "lit" the third Advent candle. It was a great experience to all come together and sing Christmas songs!

I especially enjoyed the enthusiastic rendition of "Happy Birthday Jesus". I got chills listening to it afterwards!

Check us out singing in the video below:

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Homework:

NONE! Merry Christmas!

Helping Children Deal with Tragedy

Reposted from my classroom blog:

http://missstephaniesclass.blogspot.com/2012/12/helping-children-deal-with-tragedy.html

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In light of the events of Friday, please visit Miss Erin's blog here 

http://misserinsclass.blogspot.com/2012/12/helping-children-cope-with-tragedy.htmlto check out some links that can help parents talk to young children when tragedy hits.

There are some other links here: http://www.naeyc.org/content/coping-school-shooting

This article gives some specific examples of what you can say to children when they ask about what happened or why the adults are sad:http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/family/2012/12/elementary_school_shooting_how_to_talk_to_your_kids_about_the_connecticut.html

One of the most important things is to limit what young children see on the TV. It is hard for young children to understand what they see and hear and we don't know how they rationalize it in their heads. 

Also, though we want to share information with kids, make sure what you share is developmentally appropriate. Your children of different ages may need to be told different things. You may want to warn older siblings to watch what they say to younger siblings. 

My thoughts and prayers are with all those touched by Friday's tragedy. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help you and your families.

All Saints Day

On October 27th, we presented our Saint Projects to the class. Most of of dressed up like our saints! We learned a lot of good information from one another. After each presentation, we asked A LOT of good questions about the saints. Some we had to look up the answers to, some were able to be answered right away. You can see a tidbit of information about each of the saints below. Ms. Stephanie took notes about what we presented. 

Homework: the chapter review for Chapter 3!

Our whole class

Ms. Reema, Ms. Stephanie, Miss Theresa

Things that we learned from our classmates' presentations

-St. Juan Diego: The first Indian State

-St. Matthew: tax collector, wrote a gospel, preached

-St. Nathalan-Bishop in Scotland, performed miracles during a famine

-St. Gemma: loved prayer, good students, helped the poor, died in 1903

-St. Asella-lived in a cell in Rome, spent most of her time praying and receiving psalms

-St. Alexandra: killed by her husband because she was a Christian, she stood up for beliefs

-St. Matthew: 1 of the 12 apostles, tax collector, wrote the first Gospel

-St. Bridget: from Ireland, gave food and clothing to the poor, loved and devoted to God, didn't want to get married, became a nun, very sweet girl

-St. Angela Merici: Saw her sister after she died, her sister told her to find other girls who also waned to help people, made order of Ursulines, helped sick people and educated girls

-Holy Ghost: A spiritual gift, is wisdom, healing knowledge, symbol is fire, came to Jesus' friends when Jesus went to Heaven

-St. Mary Magdalene: Jesus' disciple, most important female disciple, Jesus cleansed her, she was present at cross after disciples left, first person to see Jesus after he rose from the dead, sent away from where she was living and landed in France, spent rest of her life in a cave, angels brought her Eucharist daily

-St. Catherine of Siena: First vision of Christ when she was 6 years old, helped poor people, she died in Rome and when the people of Siena tried to sneak her head out in a bag, the guards only found roses, back in Siena they only found her head again

-St. Theresa: gave her life to God, what matters in life is not great deeds but great love, she loved flowers

-St. Raphael of Brooklyn: Bishop of Brooklyn, built 29 parishes in the area

-St. Mary Mother of God: Visited by archangel Gabriel to tell her she would become mother of Jesus, after Joseph's death she depended on Jesus, she was devoted to him, followed her son, stood near the cross when he died

-St. Benedict: died while praying, beliefs and instruction are known as Rules of St. Benedict

-St. Adela: youngest daughter of William the Conqueror  educated, deeply religious, spoke several languages, god married and had 11 children, heroine of first crusade, rules estates as husband was away

-St. David: Welsh Bishop, founded monastery, good example as spiritual leader

-St. Peter: Worked at multiple churches, use to be fisherman, one of 12 apostles  can open all doors, he was at last summer, he was first apostle to perform miracles in the name of the lord

-St. Jeremy: He and 4 friends were slaves, tortured because they were Christian

-St. Blessed Charles the Good: son of King of Denmark, kind to poor, shared food, made sure food prices were affordable

-St. Didacus: born from poor parents, helped poor, lived hermit life, helped sick by making sign of cross, saint because spent life serving God

-St. Catherine Alexandria: changed to Catholic, defended faith when asked if she still believed in God, she refused to betray God when when she was put to death

-St. Maria of Goretti: Maria was attacked, she forgave her attacker as she was dying and her attacker begged her mom for forgiveness

-St. Jessica: from Joanna, one of the women helped protect Jesus, one o f 3 women who discovered empty tomb

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Saints and Heroes

This week in class we focused on Chapter 3. 

We talked about heroes in our lives such as firefighters, our parents, police officers, doctors, soldiers, and teachers. We took the time to write letters to a real life hero that we know. PLEASE make sure your child is able to deliver his/her letter to the real life hero your child wrote to. We talked about heroes showing they are heroes by being brave and having courage even when they are afraid. 

Writing notes to our heores

We had dress up clothes on our tables to help inspire us to think of different heroes!

In our book we read the story of the Good Samaritan. We learned that in the story, the Good Samaritan was  probably scared because most people didn't like people from Samaria. But when he saw the injured man on the side of the road, he just couldn't pass him up. He stopped to take care of him, even though he knew people wouldn't like him. 

We made finger puppets to help us retell the story.

Retelling the story with finger puppets

You can watch a YouTube retelling of the story here:

We learned about some Saints that are also heroes. We talked about different things that one could do to be considered a hero. Can you think of anything?

We also drew pictures and wrote about heroes that we are going to hang up at church.

Homework:

-Tell your family the Good Samaritan story with finger puppets

-nothing from the book because of the Saint Project

-Complete Saint Project and be ready to present to the class on Saturday. Everyone should dress up!