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Intermediate Grades

David: Shepherd and King—Session 16

Tonight we will be focusing our attention on David: shepherd and king who points the way to Jesus, the Good Shepherd and Christ the King. Here’s the plan. David: Shepherd and King BIG IDEA David: shepherd and king, points the way to Jesus: the Good Shepherd and Christ the King PRELIMINARIES (15 mins) Return corrected Ten Commandments quizzes. Opening procession to set up prayer table Opening prayer ritual ENGAGE (20 mins) Invite volunteer to come […]

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Intermediate Grades

If I Were King or Queen for a Day

As it turns out, our session was canceled last evening due to the extreme conditions here in Chicago. Thankfully, temps are on the way back up to more normal frigid Chicago standards! In the meantime, I took the opportunity to look ahead and rearrange the schedule a bit, and I see that after we review next week, we’ll be ready to begin exploring the establishment of the Kingdom of Israel, beginning with a couple of […]

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Intermediate Grades

David: Shepherd and King – A Summary of Monday’s Session

We had a very nice session last evening on the topic of David, shepherd and king. I hadn’t seen “my kids” for 3 weeks due to traveling and a holiday so it was great to see them again. I had 3 absences so the room seemed a little emptier and, for the most part, the kids were very cooperative and in good spirits. Here’s a summary of some of the high and low points: The […]

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Intermediate Grades

A Happy Shepherd!

Had a very nice session on Monday about David, shepherd and king. Here’s a pic of one of the boys who quickly volunteered to dress as a shepherd. I added a graphic to hide his face for privacy reasons but left his smile for all to see! For the rest of the session, anyone who volunteered to read or to answer questions got to hold the shepherd’s staff (kinda like holding the conch in Lord […]

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Intermediate Grades

David the Shepherd – Instant Costume

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Tonight’s lesson is going to focus on David – shepherd and king – who points the way to Jesus, the Good Shepherd and Christ the King. With that in mind, I quickly assembled a shepherd’s costume to bring tonight which I am modeling below. I don’t intend to wear this myself (although many catechists effectively teach in costume) but instead plan to invite one of the students […]

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Intermediate Grades

Calling an Audible

If you know anything about football, you know that sometimes, after a play is designed in the huddle and the team lines up to snap the ball, the quarterback may see something he didn’t expect and doesn’t like. At that point, he calls an audible…he changes the play on the fly. This is something that can only be done if the team has prepared well and knows what the alternative plays are. In religious education, […]

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Intermediate Grades

Teaching About the Kingdom

My lesson tonight includes the concept of God as king and of how we pray for the coming of the Kingdom. In American society, we sometimes have trouble teaching about the concept of the Kingdom of God – afterall, we won our independence from the “tyranny” of the King of England. Our present day understanding of a king is someone who is rich, powerful, self-centered,tyrannical, and arrogant. (In fact, once, on the Feast of Christ the […]