Thursday, April 25, 2019

The Seven Sacraments - and The Easter Prayer Table

 The Seven Sacraments - a Level III material (ages 9 - 12)

I had wanted to do this material for a few years now because it bothered me that the children were receiving two sacraments and had no idea that there were others.  I needed to introduce them I felt.  So as I've caught up on making all Level I and II materials, I was very interested in creating this work.  I followed the directions from a CD given to me from our former DRE who had taken Level III training.  I used foam board to make these symbol cards.  I asked my husband to make the stand for me to display them.  Then there are the puzzle pieces you see in the box.  The children need to match the symbol of the sacrament to the words and they fit perfectly in the empty squares naming the sacrament at the top.  (top left)  Notice there are little nobs at the bottom of the symbol pieces to pull them out of the empty square pieces.  Since we had a 1 hour rehearsal for First Communion today, I used the 10 minutes before we started practice in the church to introduce the new material and the last half hour of class when we returned to the atrium to show them how the material works.  The children seem anxious to do this puzzle work.  It's important they understand that in addition to their Baptism, they will be receiving two more sacraments before the end of the year.  It's important that they understand what a sacrament is and that there are seven.


The Easter Prayer Table 


This small Entrance Table, which holds the holy water font, is decorated for each season.  To the left of the Entrance Table we have paper cups that we fill with fresh water for each class as we don't have a water fountain.  The children bless themselves when entering and leaving.  We also have a pitcher and bowl for washing hands in the atrium. All the religious pictures and plaques have been given to us as gifts.