Each week, one of our classes goes to our local parish to experience Mass. This is very important to us because most of our students (even though we are a Catholic school) don't go to Church. Some have never been, and I always figure they can have a positive introduction or a negative one... and I hope to make it a bit more positive. I personally was not a fan of the Catholic church as a child... heck, I even left the Church for years! One of my major complaints was that I had no idea what the homilies were about. That was my first step with my kiddos. Our reading was Luke 13:18-21... the Parable of the Mustard Seed. In class we are studying Baptism and how it brings us into the Church family. Here is the basic lesson set-up I used!
Read the Biblical Text
Together we read the passage Luke 13:18-21.
Watch the "Modernized" Version
Watch an Explanation
Compare to Baptism
Since we were discussing Baptism in Religion class, I decided to connect the parable to the sacrament. We discussed how Baptizing a baby is like planting the tiny mustard seed. The baby will go through many challenges as it grows up, but hopefully his or her faith will grow and he or she will pass on the love of Christ. This is just like how the mustard seed will grow into a tree, and help our the birds of the air. We all can start in small ways and spread the love of Jesus.
Celebrate with Song
We learned the song "Faith as Small as a Mustard Seed" and sang it together as a class.
Comic Reflection
At the end of the lessons, students had a short time to draw a quick comic to reflect on what we learned. I find that drawing comics in Religion really helps them retain the lesson. We don't spend a lot of time on aesthetics, just quick stick figures to get the message across!
P.S. For the Children Who Haven't Seen a Baptism
Most of my students haven't seen a Baptism, so we watched this fantastic video from Catholic Icing. They loved it! It was fantastic for talking about the symbols in the Sacrament.