Children of Joy!
A humorous, engaging story, words-only and full musical settings of the songs, and a CD with a full vocal and an instrumental recording of each song. Vivian E. WilliamsOur Advent-Christmas season gives us six weeks of joy this year. The joy bubbles up from the toes through Advent and crescendos at the solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord, again at Epiphany, and again at Baptism of the Lord. First, check your religion book’s appendix material for these important seasons and solemnities and be sure to use it. Then help the children celebrate them well by connecting them in your classroom environment and in your daily prayer. Classroom Environment and Prayers for Advent In Advent the color purple or dark blue with stars is an appropriate background for bulletin boards. Create the background and attach a real branch to the board or place a branch in a pot of gravel or sand and stand it in front of the board. Make Jesse Tree ornaments for the tree during the last part of November. You’ll find many ideas for this activity on the Internet, e.g., http://www.crivoice.org/jesse.html. Be sure to talk about the fact that our ancestors had to wait for Jesus, the Savior to come, but we know that Jesus has come and is with us right now. What we do in Advent is prepare to celebrate the amazing event of the Incarnation, i.e., God coming to us as a human being to tell us how much we are loved. To get ready we try to be a little more generous and patient, we try to pray a little more, we try to “clean the corners of our hearts” to make a fitting place for Jesus. At morning prayer in December, after lighting the appropriate number of Advent wreath candles, place one or more Jesse ornaments on the branch with a prayer, e.g., Let us all say, “Come, O come, Jesus. Come quickly!” (All repeat.) Classroom Environment and Prayers for Christmas through Epiphany Before winter vacation, share with the children the good news that one day is not long enough for our celebration of Christmas. The Church will be celebrating for twenty-one days so we will still be in Christmas after vacation! You might want to buy up some of the “sale” Christmas candy to share with the children after vacation. For Christmas, change the bulletin board’s background to a light color (perhaps sky blue or white) and fill it with a huge, yellow sun with rays shooting out in all directions, even past the border of the board. Add some large, exaggerated waves of dark blue water at the bottom of the board. On the first day back in school, or after January 6, include an Epiphany blessing of the space in the morning prayer with the traditional 20 C+ M + B 08 written in chalk on the door lintel and a blessing of the space with holy water. A blessing ritual for the chalking of the door can be found in the TLC article, The Twelve Days of Christmas. On that day and each morning until the week of the Baptism of the Lord (January 13, 2008), add some small ornaments, like icicles or birds, to the branch with a prayer, e.g., Let us all say: “We praise you and bless you, O God, for the gift of Jesus.” (All repeat.) The week of the of the Baptism of the Lord include a large bowl of water in the morning prayer and, at the beginning of it, invite the children to come and bless themselves with a prayer, e.g., Vivian E. Williams is a workshop facilitator and speaker for the Archdiocese of Chicago and nationally. She also has experience as a Catholic schoolteacher, catechist and parish cantor. She is the author of Classroom Prayer Basics (OCP 6102) published by OCP. |
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