an addition to the library

I've never gotten around to writing about our "library" (which is a mere book basket). But this weekend it had a new acquisition... from the Free (second-hand) Books table at my residential weekend training course!

It's a small, colorful book called Share this feast: reflecting on Holy Communion. It's less than 50 pages long, and perfect for dipping into.

source

The book was published by the Methodist Church, but emphasizes the shared ground between all the Churches that celebrate Holy Communion. It's suitable for a wide age-range, and is an excellent jumping off point for anyone to meditate upon Communion (The meaning of Communion for you will build up in layers over the course of your life as a disciple, p. 3) or to encourage discussion.

The themes of the openings include "pour out your Spirit", "the sacrament of care", and "confession" as well as more obvious ones like "do this in remembrance of me" and "a foretaste of the heavenly banquet". Each theme is dealt with in a single opening. All openings include colorful art or photographs and brief captions (song lyrics, Bible verses, or prayers) as well as 2-3 paragraphs of text.

icon image source

I'll admit, the children almost never look at the books in the book basket. But each time we've have an all-age event in the classroom, there's been at least one adult who just wanted to read quietly during their Response Time. 

Do you have books in your classroom?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

album pages vs. scripts

Image
( image source ) Before signing up for this course (on the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd) I knew the name of Sofia Cavalletti , the Hebrew scholar who, upon being asked to instruct a child in the Christian faith, began by reading to him from Genesis and was delighted to find how eager and curious he was - "the beginner's mind". I hadn't understood before, though, that CGS was a team effort. The Montessori element came from Gianna Gobbi , who had trained under Maria Montessori herself. I have seen references to Montessori albums, but had never really understood what that referred to. And herein lies one important  difference between Godly Play and Catechesis of the Good Shepherd . In Godly Play we buy scripts written by Jerome W. Berryman, and we stick to them. As I've written before, we're not so slavish as to use notes - not speaking from memory is a sin even greater than deliberately changing the script - bur we are told to use the GP script and live with ...
Read more

a foray into CGS

Image
Tomorrow I'm off to the Netherlands for an intensive week of training in Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (in English). I had meant to blog about this already back when I registered, but I got stuck when I failed to figure out how to put a pdf of the course leaflet up here. (Now I've copied what the training center have done, which is to link to it from an image - see below.) Instead I'll just give you a few highlights: "The course will cover the first year program of level 1 of the method." Our trainer will be Linda Kaeil, from Portland, Oregon. She "is a long time experienced catechist and trainer of catechists in the United States, Germany, England, Poland, Australia, Canada and Africa. She trains the Missionaries of Charity (sisters of Mother Theresa) ... and teaches catechesis to children of 3 to 12 years at the Franciscan Montessori Earth School." Wow! I think of Catechesis of the Good Shepherd as the mother of Godly Play. Certainly, Jerome Be...
Read more

wondering with materials

Image
It's an exciting feature of the Faces of Easter lessons that instead of opening up a time of verbal wondering or discussion at the close of each story, the storyteller says, I wonder what there is in this room that can help us tell more of the story. Look around and see if you can bring something to show more about this part of the story. That's all. There are no more rules than that. Some in the circle may be thrown by this and have no idea how to respond. As Berryman says, that is okay. Many children learn by watching as well as by doing.   Since most of us will present portions of this lesson at least twice during Lent, participants will have another chance on another occasion... and after all, this is an opportunity but it is  never  a requirement. If you don't feel like getting something, that's okay. Just enjoy what we make together. [All the Berryman quotes in this post are from  The Complete Guide to Godly Play,  volume 4.] The first person I ever ...
Read more