I love it when all the children are so absorbed working with the materials in the atrium.
This is a very popular work called the Preparation of the Chalice. They do the gestures of the Priest and have to read his words as they do the work. They also like doing the Preparation of the Cruets, Washing of the Hands, the Doxology and the Epiclesis pictured on the bookcase above.
Here two children are working on the Pin Maps. There are four control maps: one for cities, one for mountains, one for bodies of water and one for land regions and mountain ranges. They become familiar with all the cities and places that Jesus visited in the Bible by finding each one on the mute map (without the answers placing the flags).
Sometimes the children prefer working alone and so another child may just watch but not touch or ask to join. I tell the child working that if they want a person to join them, they can invite that person.
I prefer if they work together as then they discuss their choice and name the city they are looking for to help in the search. This takes a half-hour or more to accomplish if they do all land forms. So if they begin this work late, I usually suggest they just do the mountain ranges and then the following week, they can work on the cities.
This girl is doing Bible Research. She seems to be looking up a maxim in the Bible. There is a small cabinet in the atrium which has small booklets and each has five questions. On the back of each question is the Bible Citation where the answer can be found. If they find an answer, they let me know and I give them a ticket. I call it "a trip through the Bible." When they answer all five questions showing me where they found the answer, they get a prize. It's usually a medal or a rosary, two holy cards, or something of religious value.
I love how they meticulously place the Chasubles on the stands (above) and fold them to put them away in the color coded white plastic drawers.
The two girls to the right are still working on the chasubles. It looks like they might have already folded them and now are putting them away. One girl is pictured with a white folded chasuble.
The two boys on the left have been setting up the materials for the small altar work. They always like to unlock the tabernacle when they are finished and look inside at the Tabernacle and the tiny hosts within the ciborium.
This boy is working on the tracing packet for the chasubles. There are many tracing packets in the atrium for the mass materials as well as every Bible Story in the Atrium.
This girl is working on The Lost Coin.
She is arranging the materials as they are supposed to be from the Scripture and presentation as shown. Then she will read the Scripture from the blue booklet. Finally, she will move the figures and meditate on this Bible reading for a while.
