Stories from the Field Archives - Page 25 of 61

Facilitating Small Faith Groups for Lent

Reflecting on the Lenten Scriptures Cycle C Video Options

Last year I offered handouts for Reflecting on the Lenten Scriptures, to be used in parish small faith groups. Year C materials for 2016 are now available. This year, I selected some options for online videos for further reflection on each week’s theme. Always remember to preview videos before showing to your group, to determine appropriateness for your setting and be sure things work as expected. First Sunday of Lent, Cycle C Temptation: What Is […]

Bibles at Home

Lisa Jones

Every year part of our third-grade curriculum includes teaching children how to look up a verse in the Bible. In the past I’ve used fortune cookies with a verse from Scripture as the “fortune” to make the learning fun. We started out this class by handing out a Bible to each child and showing them the list of books of the Bible in the table of contents and finding where the Old Testament ends and […]

Finding God’s Love in Tragedies

Lisa Jones

In a recent lesson about the saints, my third-grade faith-formation class wanted to know how people become saints. They asked about the process of canonization by which the Church names someone a saint. While describing the process, we got sidetracked talking about miracles. The kids weren’t sure that miracles actually happen anymore; some thought a miracle was something like a magic trick. To help them see that miracles still happen in our world, I shared […]

Change in Plans

Denise Gorss

I walked into the building with a plan for the session, as usual, but as I was gathering supplies, the DRE introduced me to a woman from the parish evangelization team. She needed volunteers to make the ornaments for the parish prayer tree—that evening. We talked about the exact needs and the fact that she would also be asking the eighth grade class for help, so we could split the project time. We decided that […]

When Simpler Is Better

Lisa Brown

As a non-creative person by nature, I spend a good deal of time trying to think of ways to make my second-grade class as captivating as possible. As catechists we know that the subject we teach is the most exciting, life-giving topic ever to be shared. But finding new ways to engage our students is easier for some than others, especially for non-creative people like me. I always felt that I’d need to ramp up […]

Teaching the Trinity

Denise Gorss

Several of my students experienced a “light-bulb moment” in our recent discussion of the Trinity. So often we sow seeds never to see whether they take root, much less grow; seeing faces light up in understanding is always a fun moment. Our guiding text for the day was Finding God, Grade 7, Chapter 1. Even though this is the first chapter in the text, I usually skip over it until we’ve been in class together […]

We Are the Church

Lisa Jones

Third graders love to belong to groups. At their age they are joining sports teams, scouting groups, clubs, and more. I love teaching them about the Church; they get excited when they learn that they belong to a worldwide group. This group includes people from all walks of life and from every nation. It even includes people who’ve come before us. When I ask the children in my class the question, “What is the Church?” […]

At Home with Jesus the Teacher

Joe Paprocki

It’s not a surprise that the “Jesus the Teacher” figure created by Loyola Press as part of the Adaptive Finding God program for children with special needs has been quite a hit! What’s so impressive are some of the creative ideas that our Loyola Press customers have come up with for using the Jesus the Teacher figure with children and families. One customer shares that she has arranged for every child in her class to take […]

When Young People Don’t Want to Be in the Skits

Denise Gorss

I went into my session on the Beatitudes with a mixture of confidence and trepidation. Confidence, because after experimenting with ways to convey the Beatitudes over the past few years, I felt I had a solid lesson plan that would get the young people out of their seats and engaged. But I also felt trepidation, because the plan called for volunteers to do skits, and I wasn’t sure I could get the number of volunteers […]

When the Craft Is a Challenge

Lisa Jones

Crafts are an important part of any elementary faith formation program, and there are a multitude of great crafts that are perfect for our faith formation programs. After spending just a few minutes on Pinterest, I’m sure you’ll feel overwhelmed by the number of options. How do we select which crafts to use for our lessons? Sometimes, as a catechist in a parish, we might not even have a choice—the craft activity might be chosen […]