Primary School Resources for Advent

With the snow today it looks as if I'll be using my advent candles to keep warm! Myself and my sister are preparing for our Children's Liturgy of the Word on Satuday night and she found this brilliant resource on the Kandle website (the website of the Kildare and Leighlin Diocese) and I have to agree it is fantastic. Last year we made advent weath using salt dough but there are loads of good ideas here, as well as the usual colouring-in pages and puzzles. There's plenty of resources in Irish too and there's something there for all levels. I'm not sure who compiles this resource, but thanks to Maeve Mahon the DA for primary schools for putting it up.

Book Review: All Together: Creative Prayer with Children

This book review appeared in Intercom magazine (October 2009) and is reproduced here with the kind permssion of the editor.

Luke 11:1-“Lord teach us how to pray”

All Together: Creative Prayer with Children makes it clear from the outset that it is not a “last minute” resource that should be dipped into to help facilitate last minute prayer groups or assemblies, rather it seeks to nurture and deepen the prayer life of the adults involved with children and facilitating their prayer. While it is primarily aimed at those working in an educational environment, it is extremely useful for anyone involved in a parish situation and appeals to a wide variety of age groups and abilities that may participate in the increasingly popular children’s Liturgy of the Word.

If we as adults consider how we worship, it is often a linear practice-we do the same things at the same time, following instructions such as “Let us pray together” or “now we shall stand and sing”. This is the outer symbolism of how we as a community come together to worship God. Anyone who has worked with children of a primary school age knows that children seldom operate in this way. They are used to fulfilling individual tasks, often several at a time, or working in small groups. It is always recognised that children present with different abilities and levels of participation and the often packed schedule of a children’s Liturgy of the Word can often struggle to accommodate their individual needs. This book, written by experienced catechists encourages you in a friendly and supportive way to engage with the children in your group so that the prayer is their prayer and in turn, it is their hearts and mind that are raised to God. The group exercises and methods of prayer detailed under various themes lend themselves well to the interactive classroom and curriculum or to the group format most commonly adopted during a children’s Liturgy of the Word. The authors strive to highlight that “prayer can never fully be taught” (93). Those who engage with younger children need to understand that it is much more than a technique, or a time when we ask God for favours but rather a conversation we have with God, not just using words, but engaging our hearts and minds. Children embrace change and can easily bore of the same format and this book promotes the need to make prayer accessible for all children. Formats of prayer discussed include dialogue, litany and eye-witness accounts, examples of which are all provided.

The book is clearly divided into sections and it is fruitful to read them in sequence, as the initial section on the Foundations of Creative Prayer with Children underlines the basis for the entire book, including an explanation of the keeping prayer with children “real”, namely that prayer must emanate from their concerns and express these concerns so that it truly is their prayer to God. The text allows for excellent guidelines and principles for the adult to begin the positive, creative and engaging liturgy, encouraging a rooting of the prayer in scripture and to provide a respect for Tradition.

Section two contains insights, explanations and creative resources for various liturgical seasons and occasions such as Advent and Lent as well as foundations, ideas and resources for celebrating Mary and the Saints. These three chapters focus on praying together in a group situation such as class or an assembly time. The fifth and final chapter focuses on creative ideas for individual prayer and is appropriate for group and individual use. All of the exercises are adaptable to a variety of situations, as well as ages and abilities. Each exercise is clearly laid out with foundations for the prayer subject, for example the exercise on Sorrow and renewal of life (105) explains how prayer is a movement from us to God and from God to us and how this explanation can be illustrated with the image of a bridge. The children write on one half of a piece of paper how things are now and on the other half how they would wish god to make things. They can then make a simple (depending on skill levels) Lego bridge and imagine in prayer the crossing from one side to another. Due to time constraints, a children’s Liturgy of the Word cannot always be completed in the church and therefore some of the prayer activities described can be adapted for home use, possibly involving parents and other family members.

Main points for the religious educator to communicate with the children are clearly laid out at the beginning of each prayer theme. It is imperative that the educator fully comprehend the liturgical basis for the activities also allowing for their prayer. Children can adopt what they have heard in the children’s Liturgy and apply it to their own life, facilitating Christian practice into their everyday being. Activities such as Sin Bin and Sorry beads are eminently suitable for this purpose.

Book Review-The Liturgy of the Word with Children

After a few months of searching I’ve finally come across a decent book for use in our Children’s Liturgy of the Word. Our group were looking for something accessible for all aspects of the format our meetings take and it was proving hard to locate a text that would be helpful but not cost the earth. This morning, the excellent (and cheap!) Book Depository delivered The Liturgy of the Word with Children by Katie Thompson and from a sneaky look, I love it.

The tag line of the book is “A Complete Three Year Program Following the Lectionary” which finally means we won’t have to chop and change for each year and now have lots of resources literally at our fingertips and won’t have to spend half our time trying to find out what the readings are for a particular Sunday. Each Sunday is given a detailed breakdown to include a focal point for the group, an introduction written in child-friendly language-It is geared to ages 5-8) several of these resources presume a rather biblically literate child. Not very helpful if you have a bunch of four year old!). There’s also a Gospel acclamation, a child friendly Gospel reading, Reflections (with questions and reflection points for all involved), and activity and intercessions. On the opposite page there’s lots of cute (I know, not a very biblically academic word) activities that you can photocopy. For example last week’s activity (where the Gospel was based on the wedding at Cana) was simple pottery jars that we could cut out lots of, get the children to colour in and then write on the back what they were thankful for. We could assemble them in a jug for bringing to the altar at the presentation of the gifts. The book take account of the fact that not all groups have oodles of time (listen to the next homily you have at Mass and try fitting all the above into it).

The book also comes with a music CD and offers informative background notes and directions for liturgy leaders, parents, catechists, and all who work with parish children

We’ll keep you posted on how we get on!

Childrens' Liturgy of the Word

Myself and my sister Aine (sorry sis they won't let me do the fada!) help facilitate the Children's Liturgy of the Word in our home parish, Lordship and Ballymascanlon with our cousin Clodagh. Aine is a primary school teacher and Clodagh has three lovely kids so I tend to leave the crowd control to the experts and engage in my role as "theological advisor" and storyteller (I have bequeathed my large stack of Bible stories for children to Aine, we're just waiting for the Religion Inspector to comment how well stocked her library is!)

Some of the websites we use for resources such as pictures and colouring in pages (you can't go wrong with a colouring in page!):

The cypberfaith website is an excellent general resource for those who work with children. It graphically and in simple terms explains topics such as the liturgical year and gives a link to activities for each Sunday and major feast days. The resources are mainly an exploration of the topic in questions with reflections and discussions for both the adult and child. As this in an American website, the activities are categorised according to the American grade-school system in terms of age and ability, but nonetheless the site is very easy to navigate with colourful pictures and diagrams.

The subsection of the ever reliable Catholic Ireland website has a well-developed interactive prayer “corner” especially for children. The presentation is based on the gospel reading of the day, and encourages children to participate in prayer through bright and colourful cartoons that the child can personalise with their own name and the names of those they wish to pray for. While the application will not suit group work, it is relatively easy for children to use with supervision from their parents on their home computers.

Don't let the moniker put you off Sermonz4kidz is an essential resource for anyone working with children, whether in the classroom, home or parish. The site is very user friendly and has a good search engine. Each Sunday gospel reading is accompanied by a story that expresses the main themes of the gospel at a level that is adaptable to most levels, especially with the primary school child. In addition, there are pictures to colour in, word searches, and puzzles, all of which are easily downloadable (both in word and pdf format) and provide a helpful medium for children to engage with the Gospel. The page of links is also very useful as is the artwork by Henry Martin, which makes a pleasant alternative to clipart.

A subsection of the popular BBC website that provides an admirable resource for dealing with queries from children about Christianity and world religions that may confound the best of us. Every major world religion is referenced here, and the main feast days of each are simply but thoroughly explained with links to useful websites and classroom activities.

I've also started to get "fancy" with my blog thanks to my fool's guide that I've found.