Sunday, January 27, 2019 5th Grade 3 rd Sunday in Ordinary Time Gospel Reading: Luke 1:1-4; 4:14-21 Provided for you (see below) Class Folder Pink Emergency Folder Pflaum Pamphlet for Jan. 27, Feb. 3 LITURGICAL YEAR / FEAST DAYS CATHOLIC TRADITION Weekly readings and discussion: http://www.loyolapress.com/sundayconnection.htm FEAST DAYS & CELEBRATIONS January 28 St. Thomas Aquinas January 31 St. John Bosco February 2 Presentation of the Lord February 5 St. Agatha Learn more about the Saints: http://www.americancatholic.org/features/saints/b yname.asp Session Notes: Below are the session plans for today. A printed version will be provided for you in your catechist mailbox.
Session Plan and Suggested Timeline for January 27, 2019 9:00am to 9:10am 10:45am 10:55am Welcome & Gathering Activity Welcome your students when they arrive and take attendance. Distribute the worksheet titled, Living the Works of Mercy, for the children to work on for the first 10 minutes. Distribute the What the Church Believes and Teaches handbooks so that they may use page 50 as a guide. 9:10am - 9:25am 10:55am 11:10am Opening Activity Collect the handbooks, then gather and set up your prayer table. o Pray the Sign of the Cross and this prayer: Come, Holy Spirit. Fill our hearts and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and we shall be created. You will renew the face of the earth. God, help us to remain open to the Holy Spirit, inviting both wisdom and comfort into our hearts. Amen. Distribute the Pflaums as the children take their seats and have them open to pages 2-3. Read the heading The Good News According to Luke. Have the children examine the picture. Explain that the ox is used by Luke to symbolize Jesus sacrifice because the ox was an animal that would be offered as a sacrifice. The two men in the letter U are the prodigal son and his father being reconciled. On the right is the Good Samaritan helping a wounded traveler, and at the top right are the two men who did not stop to help. Divide the class into three groups. Each group will read the Q&A about Luke s Gospel and answer the first three Think questions. After about 7-8 minutes, have the groups share their answers, starting with a different group for each question. o You may discuss the fourth Think question together if time permits. 9:25-9:40 Gym 11:10-11:25 Take the children to the gym for a game. The children will play knee tag. The game will have a few different rounds, each with slightly different rules. o Round 1: Everyone finds a partner. A teacher or teen may have to step in for everyone to have a partner. Each person will stand in place covering their knees with their hands. When the game starts, each person will be trying to tag their partner s knee(s) while standing in place. When the knees are covered by one s hands, the knees are protected, but once the hands are taken off (i.e. in order to make a tag), they are unprotected.
After about 30 seconds, the children will find new partners and play again. This may happen a few times. o Round 2: The children find new partners again. This time they are allowed to move in order to avoid getting their knee tagged or in order to get into better position to tag their partner s knee. They may play a few 30-second rounds like this with different partners. The boundaries will be one half of the basketball court. o Round 3: Now that they can move around, there are no partners. Anyone s knee can be tagged by anyone! o Round 4: A facilitator will yell, Hands up! or Hands down! When Hands up is called, nobody is allowed to cover their knees. When Hands down is called, players may resume guarding their knees, but may still try to tag others knees as in round 3. For the final couple of minutes, the facilitator will give the following lesson: o Ask: Was there any real winner or loser to this game? (No) o Say: Every time you went to tag someone else, it left you vulnerable didn t it? You all tagged other people, but you all got tagged as well. This is exactly how it is when we are mean to or judge other people. The knees in this game represent our weaknesses and failures. We cover them up like Adam and Eve covered their selves when they realized they were naked. But when we go to belittle or judge someone else because of their weaknesses, we open ourselves up to be judged as well, and we never really win. Matthew 7 asks us how we can point out the speck in our brother s eye when there is a log in our own eye. Some of you tried taking our hands off your knees in order to bait your opponent. The devil tries to bait you into belittling and judging others as well! However, in your classes you re learning about being good news to the vulnerable. As long as you are good news, that is how you will be judged, and Jesus will be very pleased with you! 9:40-9:50 Discover Gospel and Doctrine 11:25-11:35 Have the children open to page 4 of the Pflaum. Assign four readers to read the parts of Luke, Jesus, Narrator 1, and Narrator 2, and have them read the Sunday Gospel. Discuss the Think questions. Answers are on page TG3-10 of the teaching guide in the green column. Invite a volunteer to read the section titled, We Are All God s Favorites. Discuss the Think questions. o For number 1, instead of having the children make a list, simply have them share how God shows them favor. 9:50-10:10am 11:35-11:55am Live the Gospel Ask: How is what transpires in today s Gospel similar to what happens in the Mass? (Jesus went to the synagogue on the Sabbath like we go to the church on Sunday. Jesus stood up to
read the Scriptures. After reading the Scriptures he explained them, just as a priest or deacon gives a homily.) Open up the What the Church Believes and Teaches handbook to page 47. (The handbook is only for you to use this time, not the children.) Have the children stand and pretend that Mass is starting with the priest walking down the center aisle. What should they be doing at this time? (Singing an entrance song). o Challenge the children to tell what comes next throughout the introductory rites while you use the handbook as a guide. You may even pretend to do what the priest does as you go along. Once you get to the collect (a.k.a. opening prayer) and they say that the Liturgy of the Word comes next, ask them whether they remain standing, and then have them be seated. o Continue to challenge them to say what comes next throughout the Liturgy of the Word, having them stand for the Gospel acclamation, sit for the homily, and stand for the Profession of Faith. o Note that the Gospel acclamation will have to be replaced during lent, so that instead of Alleluia, we say Praise and honor to you, Lord Jesus Christ. (Lent is the only time of year when the word Alleluia is never said during any liturgy.) Set the handbook aside and have the children turn to page 5 in their Pflaums. Have volunteers take turns reading the white section under We Gather and Hear Stories as the Jews in Exile Did. o Discuss why remembering stories of the past was so important to Israel s future. Have volunteers take turns reading Sunday s first reading in the yellow box. Have the children complete the activity in the blue box at the bottom of the page. At this point you may distribute the handbooks so that they may use page 47 as a guide. 10:10-10:15am 11:55-12:00pm Closing prayer Gather everyone around the prayer table and pray the Sign of the Cross, Our Father, and Glory Be.