Comments on: Top Ten LITTLE Things That Can Make a BIG Difference for Catechists

By: Joe

Joe — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 20:14:22 +0000

Sister Mary Anne, I love your “clean slate” story!

By: Sister Mary Anne

Sister Mary Anne — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 20:08:02 +0000

Thank you Joe. You are to be admired in your spirit of mission. I have the privilege of teaching a Catechetics course to seminarians who correspondingly go out for a faith formation/catechetics experience for their field education. I am always looking for practical suggestions; yours are very helpful. I heard a new one this week. So often catechists are using someone’s classroom or at least a space that is not totally dedicated to catechetics. One catechists has enough laminated sheets for each of her students and she brings them to her class and covers the desks they are using so that class begins “with a clean slate” so to speak.

By: Christine

Christine — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 21:39:31 +0000

Sr. Joanne, thank you, really meaningful. It would allow each child in my class to participate in the setting up the prayer table weekly.

By: Joe

Joe — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:04:03 +0000

Stephanie, WOW! What a lofty goal and a great way to imbue young children with the story of salvation!

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 13:50:58 +0000

I teach 5-6 year olds, and one of our goals for this year was to read through the whole Bible, from beginning to end! Now keep in mind that this was a children’s version of the Bible, complete with pictures and age-appropriate text, but we did it!! The children so enjoyed listening to the Bible stories, and after we finished, I had to find more Bible/religious stories to read to them!! This is a good activity to start the class…we begin with a prayer after which each child can mention the name of someone to pray for, then we settle in to listen to our Bible stories. You may also choose to end the class this way, with a Bible story and a prayer before you leave.

By: Joe

Joe — Tue, 26 May 2009 13:37:40 +0000

Andi, thanks for the great ideas about learning stations. I think this is a very effective method of engaging children.

By: Andi Little

Andi Little — Tue, 26 May 2009 11:11:40 +0000

I suggest to catechists that they assign spaces in their rooms as “learning stations” so that children can move from station to station as the hour progresses. The stations can include “reading/lesson,” “talk it out/discussion,” “activity/craft,” “breaking bread/snack” (if one is provided) or something inspired by the lesson but there’s always a station for “prayer.” For smaller children, they sing or suggest creative ways to move between stations; older children simply move. The idea is to allow the children an outlet for the squirms and wiggles and changes the people dynamics as children regroup. All supplies needed for each station already are in place before their time together actually begins. With practice, the lesson simply flows.

By: Joe

Joe — Sat, 16 May 2009 01:46:05 +0000

Bobby, thanks for sharing your idea!

By: Robert (Bobby) Reyes

Robert (Bobby) Reyes — Fri, 15 May 2009 04:44:58 +0000

Since I work with 5-8 year olds I think we ought to teach them the religious calendar so they know what season we’re in by creating a poster for each season throughout the 1st year but bring them out the next year to remind them the following year. And maybe the same poster technique with the commandments, since we only have a few hours each Sunday this may not take away a whole lot of time but will instill some basics that they need to know.

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 06 May 2009 17:57:29 +0000

Katie, great idea! Thanks for sharing!