First Communion: What kids need to know

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There are only two religion classes left to go before the second graders at our parish receive First Eucharist. If you were their Catechist, what would you tell the kids to help prepare them? What do you think they need to understand in order to be really ready?
Pax Christi,
Ann
 
in the first place the most important thing they need to know we cannot teach in CCD, because it is how to participate in the Mass, and it is their parents, not us, who take them to Mass. In the second place, the actual instruction is pretty much done by now, the rest of the time is primarily spiritual preparation. I would certainly review how to process and how to receive again, but I would not spend so much time drilling and rehearsing that I neglected prayer, asking Jesus to come to me, and focusing on the Person of Jesus and their desire for Him. To that end we would be spending time with the Gospels of Holy Week and Easter.

Most dioceses require a first communion retreat of some kind. Ours is the weekend after EAster, and focuses on the Emaus gospel, relating it to the Mass.
 
puzzleannie said:
in the first place the most important thing they need to know we cannot teach in CCD, because it is how to participate in the Mass, and it is their parents, not us, who take them to Mass. In the second place, the actual instruction is pretty much done by now, the rest of the time is primarily spiritual preparation. I would certainly review how to process and how to receive again, but I would not spend so much time drilling and rehearsing that I neglected prayer, asking Jesus to come to me, and focusing on the Person of Jesus and their desire for Him. To that end we would be spending time with the Gospels of Holy Week and Easter.

Most dioceses require a first communion retreat of some kind. Ours is the weekend after EAster, and focuses on the Emaus gospel, relating it to the Mass.
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Good advise.

As for retreats, well my Arch-diocese doesn’t require a retreat for First Communicants but my Parish does require them to know their prayers and certain dogmas that they are tested on by someone other than their parents or their CCD teacher.

Brenda V.
 
puzzleannie said:
in the first place the most important thing they need to know we cannot teach in CCD, because it is how to participate in the Mass, and it is their parents, not us, who take them to Mass. In the second place, the actual instruction is pretty much done by now, the rest of the time is primarily spiritual preparation. I would certainly review how to process and how to receive again, but I would not spend so much time drilling and rehearsing that I neglected prayer, asking Jesus to come to me, and focusing on the Person of Jesus and their desire for Him. To that end we would be spending time with the Gospels of Holy Week and Easter.

Most dioceses require a first communion retreat of some kind. Ours is the weekend after EAster, and focuses on the Emaus gospel, relating it to the Mass.
Click to expand...
True, spiritual preparation is most important. 👍 And true, I have no control over who goes to Mass and who stays home to read the funny papers on any given Sunday. 😦

Yet I what I have is a total of three hours to spend with the kids. Kids this age can’t spend a total of two sessions that are an hour and a half long on spiritual preparation alone; gosh, they’d be bouncing off the walls! And so would I, lol! :tsktsk: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

How about some good old fashioned doctrines that they might do well to know? (Shhhhhh: don’t tell anyone I’ve told you so, but I think the FHC prep book we use is, well, um, how can I say it–less than excellent?)

Anything? 🤷 Anything? 🤷
Pax Christi,
Ann
 
I would spend the rest of the classtime testing their knowledge in creative ways. Organize your own retreat, with the help of the either teachers, and find games that either emphasize key concepts or test their knowledge.

Relay races where you have to answer questions, give the next line of a prayer etc. to advance.

We have a baptism water relay race that is very popular (fill paper cups with water from a pitcher using a plastic spoon), and similar games based on the signs and symbols of the sacraments.

Jeaparday where you use their vocabulary words

Holy-wood squares, where they answer true or false question, and take turns sitting in the square

crafts to enforce concepts–for our RCIA retreat tomorrow we are making Paschal candles for baptism, decorating wooden crosses from the dollar store, planting seeds for growth, making fruit salad for fruits of the Holy Spirit, and baking and eating bread for Eucharist. I use frozen roll dough which comes in little balls, thaws in an hour, they shape it into any symbol that has meaning for them, let rise about 20 minutes, bake according to package directions, serve with grape jelly.

for the second half of the year we have an “altar” set up for “Mass” in our assembly area, and each week spend time with the vessels, furnishings, vestments etc., then go through the parts of the Mass in detail, they take turns being priest, lector, server etc., also practicing posture, gestures, prayers, responses, and learning some of the hymns that are used in our parish.
 
Games, huh? Thanks for your ideas, puzzleannie. Maybe “Hollywood Squares” for the Eucharist?🙂

Now you have me thinking…What’s that game called where you turn pictures over and try to find two that match? I’ll do that today with the Stations of the Cross. I have some coloring book pictures that could work well for that. Thanks again.
Pax Christi
 
Mass and sacrament bingo, in fact, I am going to do this as a warm-up gathering activity for parents and kids for the retreat (I am such a genius, actually it was my secretary’s idea). We set up the room with an altar with all the Mass vessels to use when we walk thru the parts of the Mass. Another table is set up with symbols of all the sacraments, there are also various posters around the room with illustrations.

She is making up bingo squares with the pictures and names of every item, vessel, symbol, sacrament etc.,(we already have these in one of our reproducible resources) so there will be 5 or six different cards. Child-parent teams will go around looking for the items to complete their cards, and the first one with bingo will win a prize, and we will keep going. I have a lot of leftover stuff from the kindergardner’s end of year party last week for prizes. Since first communion photos are being taken first thing in the morning, there is a snack etc. this will fill time with an worthwhile activity until we are ready to begin the formal program.

I also found Mass and Sacrament flashcards I made years ago when I taught 2nd grade CCD, using magazine illustrations glued to 5x8 index cards, with the vocabulary word written on the back. We can drill on the parts of the Mass, and the sacrament symbols, maybe while they are waiting in the lunch line.
 
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