Pre-School Religious Education

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This will be my third time in 10 years teaching CCD…my second time doing Pre-K. The first time was when I was 13 years old (I wasn’t in CCD myself because I was home schooled and did religion studies every day, and could have taught the class myself) and I was one of 2 assistants…the other time was 5th grade and again, one of 2 assistants. I originally wanted to do 3rd grade this year at my new parish, but the gentleman I turned my paperwork into made it very clear that they GREATLY needed Pre-k teachers and kind of convinced me to switch over.

My problem is that I haven’t been around Pre-k kids in a long time, and I’m only around toddlers, really, so I have no idea what level these kids are on. That, and the Parish doesn’t have ANY pre-k teaching materials! They want me to focus on stories for the kids, which I agree with, but I have no guiding points.

My basic question: How much can Pre-schoolers understand and how should I approach this? Class starts in a week and I’m kind of pulling my hair out trying to figure out how my first lesson plan. I looked at the readings for Sunday, and none of them are really ‘story’ ish. 🤷

I’m sure the kids will be fine with whatever, I just don’t want to do anything over their head…

I REALLY want to incorporate prayers, and some Saint stories…but I’m at a loss of how to incorporate the non-story like readings from the bible.

Any help or insight would be GREATLY appreciated!
 
4 year olds are a fun age, but can be a hand full!

My biggest advice is to keep them active. Just sitting down and reading the story won’t work will for all of them. Have the kids act it out, use puppets, use a flannel board, something to help keep them engaged.

Kids this age also like routine. I always start my class with a prayer, we light a candle (you can use those battery lighted ones for this age) and each kid either says someone they want to pray for or something they are thankful for.

Creative activities and coloring pages are great for this age too. It keeps their hands busy and gives them something to take home. Catholic Icing is a great site with lots of fun ideas to go with all kinds of Saints days.

As for what to teach, two ideas. Go with a story from the Sunday lectionary. Usually the gospel reading at least is an actual story. If there isn’t a story, you could pick a Saint for that week.

Another idea is to go through and count how many classes you have and find that many major Bible stories. I would just start with creation and work my way through the Bible hitting the hot spots.

As for your first week, I would spend some time establishing a routine and the rules. Kids this age may or may not have had much experience in a school like setting, so this is an important place to start. I would also spend some time getting to know them, names, what they like that kind of thing.
 
See if you can get a copy of the CCE text “Image of God - Who Am I?”. Our program uses this for our PK and Kindergarten classes. This should give you some good ideas of topics, activities and crafts you can incorporate into your classroom. You can get a used copy for a couple of dollars on Amazon.
 
Our Sunday Visitor has a new pre-K program that looks great
will the parish pay a modest amount, about $10 per child, or would the parents pay?
 
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