GRADE ONE - Listening to God

* Students will understand that we can listen for God talking to us.
* They will realize that God speaks to us in many ways – in prayer, in the Bible, and through
* other people who care for us.
* Students will have the opportunity through a story and a song to think about God’s
* conversation with us.
* Students will explore ways we can tell whether other people are communicating God’s words and love to us.

HOMEWORK: Parents, please read a Bible Story to your child, from a children’s Bible or a
Bible story book.

SACRAMENTAL PREPARATION - Jesus Shows Us How to Love God the Father

* Children will learn Jesus’ two Great Commandments.
* Children will explore ways to love God (based on first three commandments):
* We can pray.
* We can say God’s Name with love.
* We can celebrate the Lord’s Day – Sunday – by going to Mass.

HOMEWORK: Finish the worksheet on prayer. Practice the Our Father and the Hail Mary, if you do not know these prayers.

GRADE THREE - Abraham - Father of God’s People

* Students will learn that man had to wait many years for the coming of the Savior.
* Students will recognize Abraham as a person who had faith in God and obeyed Him.
* Students would be able to retell the story of Abraham and how he passed the test of faith.
* Students will recognize the word Sacrifice as a gift given to God out of love

HOMEWORK: Do the worksheet about Abraham with someone at home.

GRADE FOUR - Noah

* Students will understand that the Bible begins with what are called “Sin Stories” that relate how humans turned away from God.
* Students will do a picture meditation on Sin.
* Students will become familiar with the story of Noah and the Ark
* Students will be exposed to the idea that the elements of the story have a greater meaning – the water as a sign of baptism, the ark as a figure of the Church, and the one door in the Ark as representing Jesus

HOMEWORK: With a parent read about the Tower of Babel in your textbook, pages 22-23. Children should share their picture with someone at home and explain the deeper meaning of the Noah’s Ark story. Color the picture meditation.

GRADE FIVE - Baptism

* Children will understand the value of Baptism
* Children will know that people can be baptized at any age.
* Students will identify conversion as turning away from their old life and becoming Christian
* Children will be able to explain most of the chief signs in the Rite of Baptism

HOMEWORK: Students are to draw a bird’s eye view of the baptismal font where you go to Mass. After doing the drawing they are to write briefly on why the architect designed it as he or she did.

GRADE SIX - Creation - How the Story is Told

* Students will become familiar with the first story of Creation in Genesis, Chapter 1.
* Students will realize that this story is written in a repetitive, poetic style.
* Students will be able to identify the repetitive, five-step pattern the Biblical writer uses to describe each day of creation.
* Students will be able to name three reasons why this pattern was ideal for teaching people in ancient times.

HOMEWORK: See the “Homework” section of the worksheet.

GRADE SEVEN - The Fall/Free Will

* Students will review the Creation story from Genesis
* An opportunity will be provided for students to discuss God, Satan, Original Sin and Adam
* and Eve.
* Students will be presented with a simple definition of Original Sin
* Students will recognize that we can learn by listening to those who know more than we do, or we can learn the “hard way” like Adam and Eve did

HOMEWORK: Read chapters 5 and 6. Discuss the final question on the worksheet with someone at home, and write an answer of a few sentences.

GRADE EIGHT - The Church - A Community of Believers

* To present the vision of the Church as a community of believers living out the ideas and values of Jesus
* To get the students excited about participating in this preparation for Confirmation

HOMEWORK: Distribute the articles on St. Maximilian Kolbe. Even in our times there are great heroes of the Church – great Saints – who are successful in being led by the Holy Spirit. The reason the church declares them saints is not because they were perfect, but because they are worthy for the rest of us to imitate.

Students should read the article and prepare to talk for a minute summarizing why Maximilian Kolbe is worthy to be a saint.