Session Two – September 24, 2013: Mass and Bible Basics

Wow! I had to rush home from my VIRTUAL Pilgrimage to Italy to get ready for my class tonight! Thankfully, cyberspace was pretty clear so I made good time!

This evening will be my 2nd class with the 6th graders at St. Cajetan. One new feature that the parish is trying this year is to bring the young people to church once per month for Mass. This is a wonderful way to initiate young people into the liturgy and to build their love of the Eucharist. We purchased pew cards so that the young people can follow along with all of the Mass parts. I’ll be eager to see how the children behave in church…that’s always interesting!

Mass begins 15 minutes into class so I won’t have time to do much before we head to church but I do plan on having a “show and tell” about the faith symbols they brought in for our prayer center. It will also be interesting to see how many bring in their symbol!

When we get back from Mass, my guess is that we’ll have about 40 minutes left. We’ll do our prayer ritual and then it’s into BIBLE BASICS! I have 4 Learning Stations set up for my 6th graders and they will move from one to the other in groups of 3s, filling in worksheets with information about the following 4 topics:

The Learning Stations consist of Display Boards I created last year:

Here are the fill-in sheets the students will use…they will have 5-7 minutes at each of the 4 stations.

Bible Learning Stations fill in sheets – Bible Basics

Bible Learning Stations fill in sheets – Bible Basics – Answer Key

Because of Mass, I will not lead a guided reflection this evening. We will work on the Learning Stations right up until “closing time” before I gather them to send back home. For homework, I’m asking their parents to help them prioritize their goals for this year…this is the first time I’m trying this.

Prioritizing My Goals 

As always, you are free to use any of the materials above!

After class, I have to take a virtual red-eye flight back to Rome to meet up with my fellow pilgrims!

 

 

 

About Joe Paprocki 2742 Articles
Joe Paprocki, DMin, is National Consultant for Faith Formation at Loyola Press, where, in addition to his traveling/speaking responsibilities, he works on the development team for faith formation curriculum resources including Finding God: Our Response to God’s Gifts and God’s Gift: Reconciliation and Eucharist. Joe has more than 35 years of experience in ministry and has presented keynotes, presentations, and workshops in more than 100 dioceses in North America. Joe is a frequent presenter at national conferences including the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress, the Mid-Atlantic Congress, and the National Conference for Catechetical Leadership. He is the author of numerous books, including the best seller The Catechist’s Toolbox, A Church on the Move, Under the Influence of Jesus, and Called to Be Catholic—a bilingual, foundational supplemental program that helps young people know their faith and grow in their relationship with God. Joe is also the series editor for the Effective Catechetical Leader and blogs about his experiences in faith formation at www.catechistsjourney.com.

6 Comments

  1. Oops! — I see a typo in your pdf, “Bible Basics: How to find things in the Bible”. Your example of 1Pt:2:1-4 (pages #4 & 5) does not correspond with First Letter of Peter, chapter 4, verses 1 through 4 (page #6). Perhaps some of your students spotted it?

  2. Thanks so much for sharing your lesson and your summaries of the class. It made me feel so much better as a teacher to see your children were not able to recite the 10 commandments in order too. I can’t wait to use this lesson in class then pass it down to another teacher at our church.
    Thanks again!

  3. What a timely post! I am teaching from the 7th Grade Finding God textbook this year and we are learning to “Follow Jesus” – great lessons, but my students need a refresher course on how to find Scripture passages. This will help tremendously. Thank you.

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