I Need Help Big Time

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decn2b

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I just found out that I am teaching the junior high (public shcool kids) Catechism class tonight. The topic is revelation( not the last book in the bible, more like how god is revealed).

One thing I do know I need and activity or game or some sort to help with this lesson.

ANY SUGGESTIONS would be greatly appreciated. Oh by the way I have 3 hours to put this together.

I was thinking on playing the game where you tell one kid a story then he repeats the same story to another student etc.etc. until the final student gets the story then you compare it to the original t see how messed up they got it etc. etc.

HELP
 
What textbook is your parish using?
Ours has a website catechists can use to download activities and such.
I’d start there…while
 
What textbook are they using?
Visit the website of the publisher…there’s usually a section for catechists with activities and such you can download/use…

That’ll be a place to start while you wait for more responses.
 
ANY SUGGESTIONS would be greatly appreciated. Oh by the way I have 3 hours to put this together.
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If I were in a such a pinch I would first print New Advents page regarding ‘Revelation’.

newadvent.org/cathen/13001a.htm

It would provide an outline of some things to speak about,. I’d glance at the page then speak extemporaneously. 🙂

One though for youngsters would be to have them provide what they see as evidence of God in nature. Natural things they see beyond mere coincidence.
 
is this the first class? spend it playing around with the Bible getting to know how to find stuff. have some little prizes-skittles, m-n-ms etc. for first person to find the story about the Whale, story of Jesus’ birth, a letter by Paul, Moses, David, characters they may already know.

how to find Testament, book, chapter and vese.

is this class mainly OT or NT?

if you make tonite fun they will stick with you the rest of the year, boring tonite and you will lose them.

how about a quickie quiz, make up 10 easy questions.
Name a prophet.
What is the first book of the bible
Name an apostle
Name an evangelist (a gospel-writer)
Name a city that received a letter from Paul
What books of the Bible has the 10 Commandments (Exodus and Deut.)
Name an ancestor of Jesus.
Name an importan woman in the Old Testament and say what book has her story.
Name an important woman in the New Testament and say what book tells her story.
Find 5 foods named in the Bible
Find 5 animals named in the Bible
Find 5 cities named in the Bible
Find 5 Kings named in the Bible
 
I am currently teaching 7th grade.
The first class I introduce my self, tell them what is the theme of this year’s lesson (Ours is “Jesus in New Testament”). Share with them a short story of my personal faith.
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Then I hand out the typed class rule, ask each student and parent to sign their name and return it to me. The first class I had all the parents and students for the whole session. There are 22 students with their parents.

Then I ask the students to pair up, introduce themselves. Give them some guideline what to cover, such as Who am I? Who are my parents? What do I like to do the most? etc…
When they are done, I ask each pair of partners to stand up introducing each other to the class.

Then we pray.

Then I hand out assessment questions for them to do, explaining the correct answer afterwards.

That’s about it for the first session.

From then on, I prepare one game for each time.
The first game is “Unscramble” the words to do with the lesson.
The 2nd game is “Word Puzzle” to do with the lesson.

That’s what I have so far. Best Wishes!
 
All of the students attend the same small public school so they all knew each other. They have LOTS of energy and were borderline unruly. (there was 18 of them)

THis was not the first class for them but it was for me and they knew it but were actually pretty decent. THey do want to learn but they also want to goof off. Thankfully I had another experienced adult male parent as my helper. I think everything went well. I did an outline on how God sreveals himself. I started with an opening prayer and told them about St. Louis DeMonfort. (feast day) They were receptive but full of energy. New week I am back with the regular teacher (he has been doing it for 10 years) So we will have 3 fathers teaching the class. None of us have children in this particular class though. I think it went pretty well. I must admit I am quite knowledgeable about our faith and my adult helper came up to me afterwards and said he learned more in that hour than he did his whole life about our chruch. (which sorta frightened me)

Thanks for the suggestions I used them

Decn2b
 
InLight247 said:
Good job!!👍
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Ditto!

Btw, thanks! Nice to see Catholics taking the time and energy to teach others.

The note you had regarding the adult helper is quite interesting. I have often encouraged our parishes religious ed director to focus on offering education to adults (especially parents) more than the kids. The parents teach more of the faith, by example, and word than any teacher can. Many times this is overlooked?
 
decn2b said:
All. New week I am back with the regular teacher (he has been doing it for 10 years) So we will have 3 fathers teaching the class. None of us have children in this particular class though. I think
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forgot to thank you for coming forward for this critical ministry. it is so valuable for youth especially of this age to have good men teachers modelling Christian life. You may never know the impact this has on some of these kids but I assure you a male the age of their parents has a lot more credibility than an old grandma lady like me.

I strongly encourage my catechists not to teach their own child’s class, for many reason. Not just favoritism, or the opposite, being too tough on your own kid, but because kids can resent the time a parent spends with other children, or can use the opportunity to act up and make the parent look bad, or can be very demanding and manipulative. It depends on the child and the parent, but in general, it is a good idea to teach at the same session for convenience, but not the same class, as your child.

there is also I think an issue of trust. To be effective as a catechist, the parent has to be able to trust the other catechists and the parish program, and to allow their child to be part of it without their own direct supervision.
 
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