Term 3 Week 5 – The Miracle of the loaves and the fish

The religion lesson we chose for this week goes hand in hand with the community feeling we are transmitting to the children.

The story is Jesus and the miracle of the loaves and the fish.  The boy who had the 5 loaves and the 2 fish was kind enough to give them to Jesus believing that Jesus could do something with them.

Not only did the boy have faith in Jesus but he was ready to share with all the community the little he had.

Just like the boy in the story we can also help and share with our friends and family in our little ways.  We all came up with different ideas of how we can do this.  Here is the outcome:

• Sharing a toy in class with our friend.
• Smiling and hugging our mummy if she is sad.
• Carrying one of the bags when we are at a grocery store.
• Helping daddy to wash the car.
• Cleaning our room.
• Removing our little plate from the kitchen table.
• Help wipe the dishes.
• Help hang the laundry.

The moral behind this story is that when we are kind and share, God makes these small efforts big, just like when Jesus changed the small amount of food the boy had, to a meal for the entire crowd present.

When we give, it is like magic we get something back in return without even knowing it.  Sharing and being kind makes the other person happy, but even we feel happy inside.

Miracles-5-loaves-&-2-fishes

The lesson came to an end with the children colouring in the loaves and the fish which were then assembled together and put into a basket.

They are all hanging on one of our bulletin boards opposite the class with our motto written on each one – sharing is caring.

Term 3 Week 2 – The Parable of the Lost Sheep

Our religion lesson this week was based on the parable of the lost sheep.

The children watched an online version of this story after which we had a discussion.  This was the outcome:

• The shepherd cared for each and every sheep just like Jesus cares for us. Even our parents and guardians care for us in the same way.  They all protect us and help us in different life situations.  They will do their best for us.
• The sheep did not do a good thing by wondering off from the herd. Even we at times do things which are not quite right like not listening to our parents and teachers.  The children came up with their own list of things that they should do better at times.   However those who care for us always forgive us and show us the right thing to do.  Even Jesus does the same.

The children then created their own sheep to help the shepherd in the parable.  They pretended to help the shepherd just like Jesus and the ones who love us help us.

The craft was created from a cut out of the black sheep and the children stuck balls of cotton wool on top.  Here is what their craft looked like   🙂

Term 2 Week 12 – The Easter Story

We could not finish the term without taking a close look at the Easter Story.

In Pre-junior we take great care how to explain Easter to the children.  At first I asked the children what they thought Easter was all about.  The replies were varied.  Some mentioned that Easter was all about Jesus and how much He loves us.

Others said that it was about spring and Easter bunnies and lovely colours.   A few said it was about Easter eggs, chocolates and presents.  After this they watched a video clip of what other children like them, think Easter is all about.

Story – A very special Easter

I then went through the true meaning of Easter.  All the sacrifices we have been doing during the 40 days before Easter that is Lent, were mentioned.

In our case I also spoke about the good deed hearts the children have been bringing in.  The children were reminded that the following week they were going to present them to Our Lady of Sorrows.

Even Jesus made a very big sacrifice for us by dying on the cross BUT 3 days later He rose again and went up to Heaven.  They watched a child friendly encounter of what happened at the time of Jesus in the following clip.

The Beginner’s Bible Resurrection Story

We ended the lesson by starting a candle craft. The children got to know that a candle means hope because by dying for us Jesus gave us hope for a better life.

Lent – Good Deeds

On Monday during circle time session I will be speaking to the children about how nice it is to do good deeds to the people around us all year round but most especially even more now that we are during lent.

We will see how this is a time to show our parents, sisters, brothers, grandparents, teachers and friends that we love them and that they mean a lot to us.

We can show them that we care by doing a good deed for them like setting the table, help them cook, clear our toys after we are done playing, helping grandma or granddad by opening the door for them etc.

So from now on till the end of term all the children will have little helping hands so if they ask you if they can help you, you can understand why    🙂

In fact even in class whenever one of the children did a good deed we made them aware of this and praised them.  But now we are going to emphasize it more.

• As from tomorrow the children will come home with a small heart in their folder and if they do a small good deed please write it down on the heart, stick it onto a piece of cardboard and we will hang it onto our Good Deed Easter Tree. This heart will be replaced when sent to school with the good deed written on it.  We will be reading them during circle time.
• Till here all the children catholic or not will be taking part. However at the end of term during the Lady of Sorrows these hearts will be presented to Our Lady as a gift where we will be singing hymns appropriate for the day.  All those children who are not catholic will not be taking part in this event due to religious reasons.  They will be doing another separate activity in class.

Please do encourage them to do good deeds both at home and at school.

Thanks   🙂

Term 2 Week 7 – Jesus Love Little Children

The religion lesson of this week focused on Jesus and how much He loved children.

No matter of which race, skin/hair/eye colour.  We compared Jesus to the mother bird in the nest we spoke about during the last few days, where they both take care of children.

We watched this video clip called Let the Children Come.

We spoke about how Jesus can take care of us.  He has sent many people who love us such as our parents, grandparents, teachers to guide us and help us.

They take care of us by preparing food for us, taking us to school, taking us to the park, giving us a hug when we are sad, help us when we are hurt, provide the appropriate tools for us to learn amongst other things.

We also sang to some songs :

Jesus Loves the Little Children

Jesus Loves Me –

St. Paul’s Shipwreck

This week during our religion lesson we spoke about a very important figure for our religion – St. Paul.

The children learnt that we have a feast associated with this Saint and that is why we do not have school on Friday 10 February.

The children got to know that a long long time ago this man ended up on our Maltese shore because of a storm and very rough seas.  His boat got smashed against the rocks and so the people living here at the time helped him and gave him shelter.

St. Paul told them great stories about Jesus and all the good things He did.  Slowly slowly the people started believing in Jesus.  That is how we became Christians.

Story of St. Paul’s Shipwreck.

The children made a boat representing the shipwreck by painting 2 halves of a paper plate and also half a toilet roll for a sail.  This is a similar version of how the craft will look like when assembled.

The Nativity Story – Part 2

During our 12^th week of term 1 we continued the story of The Birth Of Jesus Christ and the true meaning of Christmas.

The first part of the lesson was dedicated to a short summary of why and how Mary and Joseph had to go to Bethlehem.

We then proceeded to Jesus being born, the three kings and other shepherds following the Northern star until they arrived to the stables.  We saw that the Kings believed Jesus to be a king who would rule their country and that is why they brought Him expensive presents.

However we saw that Jesus was a special king with important values.  We spoke about what Jesus really wants us to do as human beings.  We compared the gifts the three kings got to the values Jesus want us to use in our everyday life.  Such values are love, sharing, helping, understanding others etc.

The main part of the lesson was dedicated to the acting out of the Nativity Story.  All those who usually take the religion lesson participated.  We had Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, the Inn keeper, the people, the animals, the three kings etc.

Each part was interlaced with some Christmas Carols.

• Little Donkey –

• Away in a manger –

• We Three Kings –

• Joy to The World –

The Nativity Story online –

We linked the religion story to the star shape and its properties during the numeracy activities.

 

The Nativity Part 1

This week’s religion lesson focused on the true meaning of Christmas – The Birth of Jesus Christ.  This week we started looking at the nativity story.  We will be dividing the story into two parts.

The first part is the journey of Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem which we tackled this week.  The second part, the birth of Jesus will take place later on in the coming weeks.

I read the first part of the story from The Christmas Story Book and at the same time took out our class crib showing the characters to the children.  Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus who was still to be born, the animals and so on.

We also took a closer look at the words used in the book.  We created a parallel between what existed in those days and today.  For instance the inn was the equivalent to today’s modern hotel.  The inn keeper was the man who runs the hotel.

In Jesus’ time they had animals which they kept in a place called the stable.  The manger used to put Jesus in was truly the place where the animals ate their food from.

We saw why Mary and Joseph had to travel on the donkey to go to Bethlehem.  Why they had to travel using a donkey and not a car like we have today.  We finished the lesson by listening to some Christmas Carols.

The Nativity Story online –

Little Donkey –

 

The Mustard Seed

One of the stories which we read in class was that of the Mustard Seed, one of the many parables Jesus created.

We explained the story in a child friendly way saying that we are people and every day we learn new things.  This helps us grow not in size but in the number of things we know called knowledge.

God helps us learn by showing us the good things we have to do such as being kind to others, sharing, loving our family etc.  We have to believe (have faith) in God that He can help us, just like we believe that from a tiny mustard seed we can grow a tree if we take care of it well.

The Mustard Seed Story –

This is an example of how people can help each other.  Even we as young people can help by cleaning up our toys, books, help lay the table for dinner.

Pay it Forward –

The children created their own mustard tree which you will eventually see in their letter scrapbook 3 letter g – grow.  They actually used mustard seeds too.    🙂

 

 

Term 1 Week 7 – St. Martin

Our religion lesson for this week was also related to our topic work.  We emphasized the importance of showing our love to our family.  The children watched the story:

Guess how much I love You by Sam McBratney.

We discussed that there are people who although don’t form part of our family still have a very big heart and are ready to help other people in need.  A classic example is St. Mother Theresa and St. Martin.

Two boys acted out the story of when St. Martin saved a poor man from dying by tearing his cloak in half to protect him from the cold weather.

We ended the lesson by creating a craft of St. Martin with a two coloured cloak representing the splitting of the cloak in half to save the poor man’s life.