Para la versión en español, haga clic aquí.
We have come to the final Sunday of Unit 1 of the Gospel Weeklies. We hope that the adage “Time flies when you’re having fun” is true for you as well as the children in your care. Children learn best when they are engaged, and the Gospel Weeklies offer stories and activities that are designed to engage both the minds and hearts of young people.
Every week in the GROW newsletter, you will find a helpful tip for teaching your Gospel Weeklies lesson, a reflection on the Sunday Gospel, and information about our online resources and seasonal activities. Here are tips for teaching the Gospel Weeklies lessons this week:
Seeds
Lesson Theme: We want to be ready for God all the time.
This week’s lesson helps the children reflect on how sometimes they miss out on the fun and life around them. Seeds interprets Sunday’s parable as a call to the children to enjoy the life around them. We encourage families to take a walk outside with their child or to plan a fun activity together.
Promise
Lesson Theme: God helps us make loving choices.
For this lesson, you will be telling the story of The Little Red Hen. We suggest that you borrow a copy from a library or find one on YouTube to share with your class. You may need to adjust the story characters to match those shone on pages 3–4 of the Promise lesson (farmer, goat, cat). A different approach is to give the children a chance to be creative as they share the story using their puppets. If no farmer was in the story you shared, the children may add their own words and actions for the farmer. The same would apply to other characters.
Good News
Lesson Theme: God helps us make wise choices.
This Good News lesson will support your parish’s preparation of children to celebrate the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation—whether they will soon celebrate it for the first time or did so last year. This lesson also includes a suggestion for children to use three fingers to help them remember some important groups of threes—conditions for sin, what relationships sin hurts, and who the Great Commandment tells us to love.
Find the Good News end-of-unit assessment for Unit 1 here.
Venture
Lesson Theme: We await Jesus’ coming in glory.
Make sure you have game pieces and dice for playing the Wise and Foolish Choices Game (pages 6–7). Every young person will need a game marker, and every group of four will need a die. You will also need a Bible for each child.
Find the Venture end-of-unit assessment for Unit 1 here.
Visions
Lesson Theme: What’s wise? What’s foolish?
For this Visions lesson, we suggest that you prepare in advance a set of wisdom cards so you can demonstrate “The Wisdom Game” on pages 7–8. On page 6, there is a puzzle activity that you could use as a unit review. You may use it as a pacing activity or assign as homework.
Find the Visions end-of-unit assessment for Unit 1 here.
DON’T FORGET to check out our Unit 1 Overview Webinars. You can find them in English and in Spanish here. Unit 2 Overview Webinars will be added soon.
Image credit: JR-50/Shutterstock.com
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