Page 5 - Lessons and Activities on What Makes Us Catholic

Rather than using a word game that only uses memory, create a newspaper about a Scripture event or a billboard that advertises God’s love; this approach calls upon individual creativity and imagination and deepens learning and appreciation.
5 Activities take various expressions. Activities are much more than crossword puzzles, drawing pictures, etc. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if each new session invited the learners to respond through a new type of media, di erent materials, participative experiences, employing the various creative expressions of our heritage, of who we are as humans?
6 Everyone doesn’t need to do the same thing. Children/youth will have di erent abilities and interests. Whenever possible, suggest options for any given session. Within a lesson on prayer, for example, give four options from which they can choose: using paint, show what you feel when praying alone or with others; rewrite the Magni cat in your own words; design gestures to accompany your favorite psalm; select a popular song that can be used as prayer accompanied by PowerPoint.
7 Activities aren’t llers. In lesson planning, catechists don’t dream things up just to keep the learners busy. Activities/projects ow from the theme and reinforce the core teaching.
Neither do activities have to always take place at the end of the session, during the last ten minutes. At the very beginning, invite the learners to mold a sculpture from clay that expresses their idea of God’s forgiveness. ese
sculptures can then be referred to throughout the session and might be a focal point for a closing prayer service.
8 Activities relate to life outside the group session. Faith formation sessions, of course, are never an end in themselves. ey send children/youth forth to a life of discipleship, a life of prayer and witness, a life of serving in their everyday lives. All learning answers the “so what?” question. What does this truth, doctrine, belief, or practice of our heritage have to do with my everyday life?
Invite the learners to interview someone, such as the owner of a store or the principal
of a school, about respect for property and possessions. How do these real-life encounters deepen the discussion and learning that happened during the session?
9 Utilize the full potential of each activity. Even though the process (what happens within) is more important than the nished product, learners quickly gure out what is/what isn’t busy work by the way catechists care for and take an interest in their work.
e more useful the better: with pictures of children living the Beatitudes, don’t just post them. Compare, discuss, make an album, show and explain to another class; display in the church gathering space; publish.
e more prayerful the better: write a prayer to accompany a drawing or activity; bring written/ drawn activities in procession to the prayer corner to use/to o er during prayer.
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