call the diocesan offices of Catholic schools and catechetics first, as local parishes may have used books for you. Then try
communicationcenter.com (don’t know if there is an s after communication) or educational sales. both are clearning houses for used books and older versions of recently revised texts. Even when publishers put out a NEW version of an old text, usually it is just covers, artwork and some supplemental material that changes, the text stays almost the same, so look for older editions of We Believe. It is not the best, but one of the better series out there. Depends on reading level of your kids, and training leve of your catechists, and I like it because it is easy to use and very good catechist resources for new catechists.
We use WB/Creemos bilingual for the first 3 grades since even when the kids know English, the parents often do not, and using the books as intended, which is tearing out completed chapters and family pages to send home, helps educate the parents as well.
a work about sacramental programs. IMO they are just expensive add-ons with little real value. The 2d year text amply covers what kids need to know, and usually includes a free resource for sacramental prep such as prayerbook or Mass book. Sadliers is one of the more expensive and is essentially a scrapbook keepsake, not a text, and even with the freebies is not work it for a struggling parish, unless parents want to pay for it.
also get to know the website of your publisher, and other good ones such as
CatholicCatechist.com, with free downloadable, reproducible lesson plans, resources, worksheets etc.
We have several reproducible lectionary based resources, English & bilingual, for each year of the cycle which we use constantly. We have also built a library of blackline masters (your text usually comes with these for free, or they are in the catechist manual, or on the website) so we could easily run a program without textbooks if we had to.
Don’t get hung up on the books. They can be collected and reused each year (even the workbooks, altho that is not what the publisher intended) but giving children a spiral notebook and folder on which to do written exercises, and making use of reproducibles. DO NOT make copies of copyrighted material that is not intended for the purpose. It is against the law and against the 7th commandment.
flashcards
collect magazines and cut out pictures, or use coloring books and have kids color the pictures, to make flashcards on 5x8 stock or index cards, laminate with contac paper if you want.
Mass - actions, people, (what is the word for things used, dishes etc. duh)
Sacraments - words, actions, symbols
Vocabulary words
Prayers
Make posters of things you want to teach freqently and have memorized, prayers, commandments etc. and laminate them with contac paper from the dollar store.
make friends with your local dollar store. I got plastic bread, grapes, chalice, paten, corporal and everything except the crucifix and missal I need to set up an “altar” to assist in teaching about the Mass and Eucharist for under $10.
We use a lot of “visual aids” because reading level esp. in the 1st 3 grades is pretty low here, and the “read the book and answer the questions” method does not work very well here.
have parishioners collect and donate classroom consumables, craft supplies etc., be specific. We asked for old greeting cards and use them in dozens of ways, one was to illustrate the mysteries of the rosary.
ask for donations of those rosaries, medals and other premiums people are always getting from missions and fundraisers. use them as teaching tools and prizes
if you teach in an area where you cannot store supplies, invest in or ask for donations to pay for those rolling plastic milk crates on wheels from the office supply store (about $20 on sale) for each catechist, and a plastic shoebox from the dollar store for pencils, crayons etc. Those belong to the parish and should be returned at the end of each year.
