April PreK – 1

Week 1: Celebrate Easter!

Parents

  • Parents – read this article on how to help your children understand Easter and its relevance to the Catholic faith throughout the year and to our own lives.  

Watch

  • Watch this video of the Resurrection of Jesus. (This video is for younger children. For children 2nd grade and higher, please see link for that grade level.)
  • Watch this video of The Seed Who Was Afraid to Be Planted.  This is a great children’s book, that walks with a small seed through his journey of being taken from his comfortable spot in a drawer, to being planted in the ground. The poor little seed is frightened because he doesn’t know what is going on, but then strange things begin to happen to him. In the end, the seed grows into a large tree, and is much more magnificent than he could ever imagine being! 
  • Watch this video song “Gethsemane” by Claire Ryann Crosby at age 3.  It is backed by video of Christ’s passion and ends with resurrection. She sings about Jesus’ love for her (and us!) 

Main Ideas

  • Children will be sad to hear that Jesus died. Be sure to tell them that Jesus rose again, and is alive even today! Jesus will never die again, and he gives us the chance to live forever with him, too.
  • People of the Resurrection – meet witnesses who saw Jesus after he was raised from the dead
  • Return CRS Rice Bowl donations to the parish office by April 11th
  • Search for signs of new life in creation as a family
  • As always, choose the activities that work best for your family. You do not have to do all of them!

Crafts

  • Create a set of Resurrection Story Eggs to help your child re-tell the story of Jesus’ resurrection. Here is a handy guide, but feel free to adapt as needed.
  • Tie-dyed Resurrection cross craft.
  • Have fun using M&Ms to talk about our faith. Here is a guide to help you!

Week 2: God is Stronger Than Anything!

Main Ideas

  • Jesus is stronger than sickness or death.
  • Jesus makes everything good again. 

Watch and Sing

Prayer

  • As a family, create a prayer telling of God’s strength and power. Here is a link to some help for you, if you need it. After creating this prayer, pray it together as a family!

Week 3: Meet Some American Saints
& Grow Your Missionary Spirit

Main Ideas

  • St. Kateri Tekakwitha
  • St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
  • St. Katharine Drexel
  • Choose 2 of these Saints to get to know better. (You can do more if you want to!
  • Raising children with a missionary heart. Next year, we plan to do a lot more with our children in developing missionary hearts!  This year, we have begun by introducing children to saints in many countries.  These saints helped to teach others about God’s love. We are not asking anyone for money this year, but we do encourage you to begin the practice of praying the Rosary every day!

St. Kateri Tekakwitha

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

St. Katherine Drexel

Week 4: Sharing Stories of the Bible
& Special Time with Jesus

Main Ideas

  • Parents – tell your child your favorite Bible story. Share it in a special way that you are comfortable with. 
  • Invite Jesus to your house!

Invite Jesus to Your House!

  • Explain to your children that you are going to make your house a special place for Jesus to be. Plan a special dinner (let the children help!) and invite Jesus to join your family for dinner. Explain to your child that Jesus will really be with you, but that we won’t be able to see him.  You can use a statue or picture of Jesus to put at his place at the table. What preparations will need to be made?  How will everyone help?  Who would say the pray before the meal?  Let the child help plan to make this dinner time special! You might choose a scripture passage to share at dinner, reflecting the words of Jesus.

Bible Retell

  • After parents share a Bible story with the children, have them tell it back to you!  They can make a drawing to help them remember.  Don’t have them just say it back to you right away – give them time to be creative, and help them out. They can pretend to be a famous person on a stage telling the story to hundreds of people.  They can tell the story in a made-up song, or draw pictures to help tell the story. Parents might even decide to make a private recording of your child dramatizing the story in a costume, and share with grandparents or other loved ones.