Resources for teaching catechism

[maryelizabeth2]

Hi everyone!

This year I’m co-teaching 5th grade catechism! It’s my first year and I’m SO excited. But, I was wondering if anyone had some resources online that I could use. I’m trying not to feel overwhelmed. They have an awesome religious formation room at the school, but I was interested in something online for those ideas I have late at night.

Thank you,

 

[kage_ar]

Been teaching 5th grade CCD for 3 years now. I am NOT a teacher, and I have lived through it

What course/series are you using?

 

[puzzleannie]

Hi everyone!

This year I’m co-teaching 5th grade catechism! It’s my first year and I’m SO excited. But, I was wondering if anyone had some resources online that I could use. I’m trying not to feel overwhelmed. They have an awesome religious formation room at the school, but I was interested in something online for those ideas I have late at night.

Thank you,

welcome and thank you for answering the call of the Holy Spirit in this work.
try your textbook publisher, most have terrific on-line resources for catechists.

 

[YinYangMom]

Well I’m starting my 3rd year of 8th grade. I have a good bunch of kids so far, diverse, from three separate communities (so I hope we can build bridges). This group is a TV/MySpace set. They use computers for IMing and socializing (no gamers here this time).

I’m looking into board/card games for our ‘fun’ time in class. Googled and found the following as ‘possibles’:

Journeys of Paul
Catholicopoly
Prayer Path Board
Redemption (It’s Christian, so I’m a little leary, but the ‘collectible’ concept is appealing 'cause the added cards could be used as reward things??)

(CatholicCompany.com seemed to have the wider selection)

I’m really wanting something do do with saints, too.
I’m looking for games that accommodate 8-10 players or more, of course. If I can’t get all the class to play one game then I’d like to let two or three games go on during that time span (each game using 4-6 players).

Have any of you RE teachers used these games? Did the kids enjoy them? If so, please share your thoughts. If not, well, I’ll be sure to come back here around advent to let you know how they fared in my class.

 

[leonie]

Well I’m starting my 3rd year of 8th grade. I have a good bunch of kids so far, diverse, from three separate communities (so I hope we can build bridges). This group is a TV/MySpace set. They use computers for IMing and socializing (no gamers here this time).

I’m looking into board/card games for our ‘fun’ time in class. Googled and found the following as ‘possibles’:

Journeys of Paul
Catholicopoly
Prayer Path Board
Redemption (It’s Christian, so I’m a little leary, but the ‘collectible’ concept is appealing 'cause the added cards could be used as reward things??)

(CatholicCompany.com seemed to have the wider selection)

I’m really wanting something do do with saints, too.
I’m looking for games that accommodate 8-10 players or more, of course. If I can’t get all the class to play one game then I’d like to let two or three games go on during that time span (each game using 4-6 players).

Have any of you RE teachers used these games? Did the kids enjoy them? If so, please share your thoughts. If not, well, I’ll be sure to come back here around advent to let you know how they fared in my class.

I think you’d be better off designing your own games that can be used for the whole class.

Last week, we talked about the gift of faith. I made a shield out of posterboard, wrote Faith on it and devised a handle from duct tape. Then I had the kids play dodge ball. My teacher’s aide (my daughter) first had to receive a few hits from a soft plastic ball. Then, I handed her the shield of faith. then other volunteers tried to block the balls (symbolizing sin) with the shield while the another kid tried to hit him. We talked about how faith is our shield in times of temptation.

Another version of this game that requires more room is to have the kids run across the gym/yard to “Heaven.” If one of the ball whielders hits them, the runner has to go to “Confession” and wait. The first round, almost all will end up in Confession. After you give the shield of Faith (I’ve used shield of Grace, too), almost all will make it to “Heaven.”

This week, we talked about the attributes of God. I lined them up with a ball and a waste basket. The first kid in line had to throw the ball into the waste basket, but only if I called out an attribute of God. Then I placed them in two teams. We read out definitions of attributes of God. The attribute cards were lined up on the chalkboard. The first one with his hand up was allowed to try to find the right definition.

Stuff like that. The big problem I had this week is that the kids wanted to play the dodge ball game. I had several requests for it. It was a little hard to keep them on topic.

 

[YinYangMom]

Stuff like that. The big problem I had this week is that the kids wanted to play the dodge ball game. I had several requests for it. It was a little hard to keep them on topic.

Thank you for sharing your suggestions. I do believe the shield/dodge ball game will come in handy around Lent as we focus more on repentance and conversion of heart. We don’t have access to the gym regularly, but I can schedule for it.

My concern would be that one only needs a few rounds to drive the point across, but knowing kids, they’ll just want to keep playing dodge ball for the fun of it, not concerned about the lesson to be learned from it.

Then, how does one beat that great game? After that well taught lesson, my kids will expect every lesson/game to be as good as or better than that!

If I can come up with about three other physical activity games along the lines you’ve pointed out to me I think it could be a fun year! The other sessions can use the board games and such, that way they learn quickly that the physical activities are ‘special’.

Thanks again.

 

[puzzleannie]

had to teach 6th grade in an emergency Tuesday. They read the Gen 1 account of creation in verse/response style from their textbook, and we talked about the order of creation and why it is important (I had just read this in something by Scott Hahn so it was in my mind). They also talked about the History channel program on the big bang theiry, which they are watching at school in their science class, and we then read the account from the actual bible, and discussed how the poetic language of the scripture and the scientific language both tell about the same events but in different ways.

Then they were each given pieces of a poster on creation I had used with the first graders and told to stand in line, in order of the story, with their picture. This meant that they had to re-read the passage several times to get the order right.

We then put these on a bulletin board in order, and in groups they made pictures on butcher paper for each “day” and completed the bulletin board. We will use this for the 1st graders on Saturday who are studying the same story.

We got into a lot of discussion about why are there several races and languages if we all came from one set of parents, DNA, dinosaurs, the purpose of bugs in the divine plan etc.

 

[kage_ar]

" Then I placed them in two teams. We read out definitions of attributes of God. The attribute cards were lined up on the chalkboard. The first one with his hand up was allowed to try to find the right definition. "

---

Going to borrow this idea

 

[leonie]

had to teach 6th grade in an emergency Tuesday. They read the Gen 1 account of creation in verse/response style from their textbook, and we talked about the **order of creation and why it is important **(I had just read this in something by Scott Hahn so it was in my mind). .

.

Annie, could you give me some info on why the order of creation is important.

I’m covering creation on Sunday.

 

[AMDG3141]

I know I pulled an immense wealth of useful information from watching Father John Corapi’s series “The Teaching of Jesus Christ”. It helped me prepare myself to be a better teacher of the Faith to the others. The series is long, but Fr. Corapi is very easy to listen to. I watched with my catechism book and high-lighter in hand. I would recommend this to anyone serious about teaching the Catechism of the Catholic Faith.

 

[kage_ar]

I know I pulled an immense wealth of useful information from watching Father John Corapi’s series “The Teaching of Jesus Christ”. It helped me prepare myself to be a better teacher of the Faith to the others. The series is long, but Fr. Corapi is very easy to listen to. I watched with my catechism book and high-lighter in hand. I would recommend this to anyone serious about teaching the Catechism of the Catholic Faith.

Very much agree. We teach “Faith and Life” from Ignatius, very CCC based teaching. The kids look up scripture and CCC references, they need to become familiar with using and reading both

 

[YinYangMom]

Update on games for 8th grade RE class…

Bought this ‘googly ball’ from Walgreens to use for a basket game. The ball was a big hit with the kids. It’s tickly and squishy, light and doesn’t bounce around much. I didn’t bring that out until after our lesson though.

Because I have kids from four different schools, with one ‘clique’ of about 4-5 kids coming from one school I wanted some sort of team building game so I found one on the web which worked really well. It was a ‘guess who’ type game where each student wrote three things about themselves they figured no one else would know down on a 3x5 card. I put the kids into 3 teams and collected all the cards. I read one clue from team 1 and teams 2 and 3 had one of those small dry erase boards to write their guess down (they love those things!) as to whom the clue belonged. If team 2 and/or 3 got it right they got a point, if not, team 1 got the point. I offered to stop 3 times, thinking they weren’t liking it, but they insisted on continuing. At the end I read each card’s 3 clues and let everyone guess/remember to whom it applied. That warm up helped them play the ball game later.

The ball game was the standard: answer a question right and get a chance to shoot for a point. I’m using it to drill them on commandments, sacraments and beatitudes. We’ll add other vocabulary words later.

After that game was done they asked to play Silent Ball where they stand in a large circle and toss the ball to each other in silence. If you miss the ball or talk, you sit. It helped pass the last 5 minutes of the class.

I’m still working on developing that dodge ball/shield lesson for lent…so much potential in that concept. Thanks again for the suggestion.

 

[marymoy]

Update on games for 8th grade RE class…

Bought this ‘googly ball’ from Walgreens to use for a basket game. The ball was a big hit with the kids. It’s tickly and squishy, light and doesn’t bounce around much. I didn’t bring that out until after our lesson though.

Because I have kids from four different schools, with one ‘clique’ of about 4-5 kids coming from one school I wanted some sort of team building game so I found one on the web which worked really well. It was a ‘guess who’ type game where each student wrote three things about themselves they figured no one else would know down on a 3x5 card. I put the kids into 3 teams and collected all the cards. I read one clue from team 1 and teams 2 and 3 had one of those small dry erase boards to write their guess down (they love those things!) as to whom the clue belonged. If team 2 and/or 3 got it right they got a point, if not, team 1 got the point. I offered to stop 3 times, thinking they weren’t liking it, but they insisted on continuing. At the end I read each card’s 3 clues and let everyone guess/remember to whom it applied. That warm up helped them play the ball game later.

The ball game was the standard: answer a question right and get a chance to shoot for a point. I’m using it to drill them on commandments, sacraments and beatitudes. We’ll add other vocabulary words later.

After that game was done they asked to play Silent Ball where they stand in a large circle and toss the ball to each other in silence. If you miss the ball or talk, you sit. It helped pass the last 5 minutes of the class.

I love the idea of using the ball as an icebreaker to get the kids to think of themselves as a “team” or “group.” I sub a lot in local schools, and I’ve seen teachers use a ball many times to bring the group into the task-at-hand: Learning sacraments, commandments, beatitudes, etc. It makes it exciting and fun to learn - thanks so much for your insite and the info. you provided on where to get the googly ball. I didn’t think about it until you mentioned about it NOT bouncing too much - I like that idea! Thanks again!

“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.” Colossians 3:15,16 NIV