Merry Christmas

During the Advent Season our church has a Penance Service for all of the students. It is really nice to see everyone together showing our need for forgiveness. I have plenty of catholic books for the students to read while they are awaiting their turn so the time goes by pretty quickly. We also pray the rosary together.

Tonight is our last class for 2010 and since it's the Christmas season I made the students an edible manger with baby Jesus in the manger. For the manger I used pretzel sticks, marshmallow cream for the glue, graham cracker squares, and shredded wheat for the straw. For baby Jesus I just lined some gum drops up onto an unrolled fruit roll-up and then folded it like a blanket.

I pray that you have a very Merry Christmas and blessed New Year.

Advent wreath and Jesse Tree Celebration

Tonight was the big night for the Jesse tree celebration, the students have practiced so hard to do a good job. Grades 1 through six make ornaments representing a bible character and as the character is read the students put their ornament on the tree. The tree will be on display in the gathering room of the church throughout Advent. The students did a fantastic job reading the bible parts. Before the celebration we read the gospel for this coming Sunday and we talked about the Advent wreath. I made each student an edible wreath. I made cut-out sugar cookies the shape of a wreath and frosted them with green icing. For the candles I colored some store bought fondant and rolled it around toothpicks. It was very time consuming but well worth the effort.

Practice for the Jesse Tree Celebration

Every year the 6th grade has a Jesse tree celebration, the Jesse tree named after King David's father, is a tree of Jesus' ancestors. Here are the ancestors we celebrate, the ornament that is made and the class that makes the ornament:

Adam and Eve: 2nd grade
Ornament-apple

Noah: 1st grade:
Ornament-rainbow

Abraham: 5th grade:
Ornament-tent

Isaac: 6th grade:
Ornament-bundle of wood

Jacob: 3rd grade:
Ornament-ladder

Joseph of the Old Testament: 3rd grade:
Ornament-coat of many colors

Moses: 4th grade:
Ornament-ten commandments

Ruth: 5th grade:
Ornament-wheat

David: 6th grade:
Ornament-star of David

John the Baptist: 4th grade:
Ornament-shell

Blessed Virgin Mary: 2nd grade:
Ornament-crown

Joseph father of Jesus: 1st grade:
Ornament-tools

The birth of Jesus: 1st grade:
Carry manger to put under tree

Since the 6th grade class celebrates Isaac and King David, for my treat tonight I again made bundles of wood tied with licorice put today I dipped the pretzel sticks in chocolate. I also made star of David sugar cookies with purple icing since purple is the color for Advent.

Men of Faith

There are so many men of faith I could spend years telling there stories, but tonight we are going to talk about the men who will be represented on the Jesse tree, in December. Here they are:

Adam-The First Man
Noah-and the Flood
Abraham-Man of Faith
Isaac-The Victim
Jacob-The Man Who Wrestled With God
Joseph-The Favorite Son
Moses-The Liberator
David-The Chosen King
Joseph-Foster Father of Jesus
John-the Baptist
Jesus-The Son of God

For my treat I tied pretzel sticks up with licorice to represent the wood that Isaac carried. Read all about these great men in your bible.

All Saints and all Souls

November is the month for remembering our loved ones who have gone into eternity and to reflect on the Saints. We talked about purgatory and why we pray for the souls in purgatory and visit the cemetery. I am calling my treat for tonight "ghost in the cemetery". I made dirt pudding, put it in a clear cup and topped it with a peep ghost, and put a paper tomb stone on the spoon. We study the Saints to give us good examples to live by so while the students were enjoying there treat I gave a description of all the Saints that are on display in or around our church. Here is a list of them:

St. Aloysius Gonzaga

St. Isidore

St. Theresa of the Child Jesus

King David

St. James the Greater

St. Rita

Blessed Kateri Tekawitha

St. Anthony of Padua

St. Anne

St. Cecilia

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

St. Francis of Assisi

St. Louis

The Holy Family

St. Mary

Blessed Mother Theresa

St. Joseph

The Sacred Heart of Jesus

Today is the Feast of St. Martin de Porres so we also talked about him. If you can, go to the cometery to visit and pray for your loved ones.

Women of Faith

We begin our class reading the gospel for the coming Sunday as our opening prayer. The gospel for this Sunday is the story of Zacchaeus, (Lk 19:1-10), in the Gospel Zacchaeus repents of his dishonesty and says he will give half of his possessions to the poor, and to all who he extorted he will repay four times over, so I gave the students 4 butterscotch disc to represent four gold coins that Zacchaeus gave as repayment.

Here are the Women of faith that we learned about:
Eve-The Mother of all the Living
Eve, our first mother brought death and division into the world through her sin.

Sarah-The Mother of Israel

Deborah-The Judge of Israel

Ruth-The Righteous Gentile

Hannah-The Mother of Samuel

Esther-The Courageous Queen
The Jewish people have a Feast of Purim to celebrate how Esther saved their lives. The feast is very elaborate with rich foods, so I made thumbprint cookies for a treat for the students.

Judith-The Heroine

Mary-The Handmaid of the Lord
The second Eve, Mary, the mother of Jesus, brought life through her obedience to the call of God.

Feast days of Mary

The Feast days of Mary is one of my students favorite classes. There are many feast's of Mary and these are the ones we are going to celebrate tonight. I have a symbol for each feast and here they are:

January 1 is The Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God. This feast is the oldest and the most important of all her feasts. Because of her motherhood to Jesus Christ, God's Son, who came to deliver us from sin, makes us children of God. When Jesus is hanging on the cross and tells his beloved disciple to behold his mother He is also giving Mary to us as our mother. My item is a noise maker since the Feast is Jan. 1 when we celebrate the new year.

February 2 is The Presentation of the Lord in the Temple. Mary and Joseph brought the infant Jesus to the Temple of Jerusalem to present him to God according to the Jewish custom. The aged Simeon and Anna are in the Temple awaiting the Messiah. Simeon foretells to Mary that her son "would be the downfall and the rise of many in Israel, a sign that will be opposed - and you yourself shall be pierced with a sword - so that the thoughts of many hearts will be laid bare." My item for the presentation is 2 chicken drumetts to represent 2 doves, because when you were poor like Joseph and Mary, you offered 2 doves instead of the 2 lambs.

The Annunciation of the Lord is March 25. On this Feast the Angel Gabriel announces to Mary God's invitation to be the Mother of Jesus. Mary's response was "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done according to your word." My symbol is a blue candy cigar announcing It's a boy!

May 31 is the Visitation. When Mary enters her cousin Elizabeth's house Elizabeth's son John the Baptist leaped for joy in her womb. Elizabeth says "Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb." So my treat for the visitation is fruit snacks.

The Assumption of Mary is August 15. This feast celebrates Mary's body and soul going into Heaven to share in the glory of her Son's Resurrection. My symbol for this feast is cotton candy symbolizing the cloud that Mary floated on as she went to Heaven.

The Coronation of Mary is August 22. We celebrate Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth. A golden crown sugar cookie is my treat for this feast day.

The Birth of Mary is Sept. 8. I made a white angel food cake, to show her purity, with blue icing, to show her royalty, to celebrate this Feastday.

September the 15 is the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. The first sorrow of Mary is Simeon's prophecy, the second is when Mary and Joseph flee with Jesus to Egypt to protect the baby Jesus from King Herod. The third sorrow is when Jesus was 12 years old he is lost in the temple for 3 days. Mary's fourth sorrow is meeting Jesus on the road to Calvary, her fifth is standing beneath the cross of her son. Her sixth sorrow is when she receives the body of Jesus after it is taken down from the cross, and her final sorrow is when she sees her Son's body placed in the tomb. My item for this feast day is a pack of tissues because when we are sad we cry and need a tissue.

Our Lady of the Rosary is October 7 and since there are 59 beads on a rosary. one for the Apostles creed/Our Father, 3 for the increase of faith, hope, and charity, 5 for the mysteries of the rosary and 50 Hail Mary's, I gave the students 59 Trix. I chose Trix cereal because it is round and has many colors and there are many different colors of rosaries.

The final feast that we celebrate is The Immaculate Conception of Mary which is celebrated on Dec. 8. To fulfill her unique role in the mission of Jesus, Mary was conceived free from original sin through the foreseen merits of her Son. My treat for this feast is a white chocolate baby with marshmallow filling to show that Mary was pure throughout her whole body.

The Rosary and review

October is the month of the Rosary so we reviewed how to pray the rosary and spent alot of time talking about the mysteries and how meditating on the mysteries it should draw us closer to Jesus and His mother. After studying the rosary we reviewed everything we have studied this year. I like to ask review questions in a form of game to make it more interesting and since it is baseball play-offs we played baseball. I ask a question and if they answer the question correctly they get to go on base. If you answer the question incorrectly you get a strike. Three strikes and your out. We had two teams the boy's were the Cincinnati Reds and the girls were the Washington Nationals. For my snack the song take me out to the ballgame kept coming to mind and in the song it says "buy me some peanuts and crackerjacks" so I made caramel corn for the crackerjacks and since crackerjacks has a prize, the prize was a rosary ring. I have a student who is allergic to peanuts so we had circus peanuts instead of fresh ones. The Cincinnati Reds won 6-1, too bad the pro team could not play that well!

Adam & Eve

Tonight we learned how sin entered the world through Adam and Eve's disobedience. Since most people associate the apple as the forbid fruit my treat was an apple along with gummy worms to represent the serpent. I also told the stories of Cain and Abel, The flood and The tower of Babel.

September 29

I had a difficult decision to make for class tonight, what food item to bring. Today is the Feast of the Archangels, Michael, Gabriel and Raphael so I could have made an angel food cake for that celebration. But I decided on bringing food for our lesson which was the creation story. For day 2 of creation when God separated the waters above and below the dome I gave the students a bottle of water. I don't know why but kids love to get their own bottle. On day 3 when God created the trees and all that grow on them I gave the students fruit snacks. Sweedish fish were the snack for day 5 when the swimming creatures were created. And finally on day 6 when the animals were created we had animal crackers. Michael made a Murial on the bulletin board to show God's creations. As God rested on the seventh day I am now going to rest.

September 22

Tonight we talked about books in the bible and what their abreviations are. So my treat tonight was sugar cookies with the abreviation of a book in the Old Testament. After the student found the correct book they could eat the cookie.

September 15

The focus of our classes in the 6th grade is the Old Testament, so to refresh the students on looking up Scriptute we made Scripture Cookies. Here is the recipe:

Scripture Cookies

1/2 c. ________Psalm 55:21 (after churning)

1/2 c. _______1Samuel 14:25

1 _______Job 39:14

1/2 c._____ Ezekiel 25:4

1 ¼ c. _______ Leviticus 2:1

½t. _____________ Leviticus 2:13

1/2 t. ______ Exodus 12:15 (use modern cookie form)

1/2 t. each __________ 2 Chronicles 9:9 (several kinds)

1/2 c. __________ 1 Samuel 30:12 (optional)

For the fruit I used ripe banana's. I did not use the last optional ingredient. The students enjoyed the cookies.

September 8

So today is the first day of religion and I have 15 terrific students. Father visited us in class tonight as we celebrated the nativity of Mary. My treat for class was a white cupcake (to show Mary's purity), with blue icing (to show her royalty as Queen of Heaven and Earth). Everyone enjoyed them!

I am beginning my 12th year teaching CCD at St. Louis Church. I taught 4th grade for 2 years and 6th grade for 9 years. I really enjoy the students but I was getting bored with the material and needed to make it more interesting, for my students and myself. I thought about what Jesus did when He taught people and I thought, he fed them. Jesus also feeds us with His body every time we gather for Mass. I love to cook so I thought I would serve my students a snack every week that relates to the liturgical season or the lesson for that evening. So now I have a challenge to prepare a treat for each class. I hope you enjoy reading about it.