I’ve had a few ideas for my next class kind of percolating for a while but haven’t had a chance to sit down and create an actual lesson plan until now. Here’s what I have planned for this Monday (Oct. 18), Session 5:
Theme: Jesus’ Law of Love
Big Idea: We imitate Jesus’ love
- Review last session
- Show can of Play-Doh and ask what we learned last session (God can shape us into holy people; God can shape our conscience)
- Show tape recorder and ask what we learned last session (We need to listen to good voices and erase bad voices when it comes to our conscience)
- Ask if anyone visited any of the kid-friendly Web sites
- Engage
- Opening prayer
- Distribute Halloween costume ads (pick up from party store) and invite children to select their favorite.
- Talk about how we dress up on Halloween and then imitate the character we’ve dressed as.
- Show a baptismal garment and explain how each of us has worn this outfit – at our baptism – and how we are called to imitate Jesus throughout our lives.
- Explore
- Read Finding God text pgs 44-47 (Jesus’ Law of Love, how we imitate Jesus, example of St. Vincent De Paul)
- Scripture search – distribute “How Did Jesus Love?” worksheet and have each student look up one of the Bible passages and describe how Jesus loved
- have each student report their passage to the class, describing how Jesus loved
- Talk about how we can imitate Jesus’ love
- Reflect
- Introduce St. Francis of Assisi as someone who tried to imitate Jesus
- Send students to their “sacred space” with lyrics from Make Me a Channel of Your Peace/Prayer of St. Francis
- Play recording of song as students reflect on the lyrics quietly.
- after the song, lead a brief guided reflection on the lyrics, inviting the kids to think of where/how they can bring light, hope, joy, etc. where there is darkness, despair, sadness, etc.
- Respond
- Tell students about the parish’s St. Vincent de Paul Society and give them a handout to take home inviting their parents to work with them to bring a donation of clothing to the St. Vincent de Paul collection receptacle in the parking lot as a way of imitating Jesus.
I really like your ideas. Your plan for the kids to pick out what they will wear for Halloween sounds like a real engaging activity. One thing we discussed in lesson 6 was how we can show our love to , friends, family, neighbors and people around the world. For people around the world we talked about donating a shoe box to Operation Christmas Child…this fit right in because during the last 15 min. of our session all Faith Formation classes watched a short film on Operation Christmas Child. We talked about how the kids can help by donating a shoe box. It was a short class and I never did get around to talking about current events and the Chilean miners 🙁
Josie, thanks for the summary of your class…sounds like you had some very substantive conversation. Don’t feel bad about not getting to the Chilean miners…you might get anothe chance next week!