Joshua Saves The World (Part 2)

Have you been anxiously waiting part 2? Well, is sure seemed that the kiddos were! Here we go!

Opening song: Same as last week - "This is Why I Worship You". See last posting for link and reasons!

Lesson:
I started by asking the children if anyone could summarize last week's story for me. I reminded them that a summary is just a short re-telling of the main events of the story without a lot of the little details. I targeted a fifth grader to do this, and he did a great job, hitting on the basics. I then told the children that I would now, as promised, reveal the 'secret code message' in the story.

To do this, I used a power point that I created. https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AcXPFwPkrCrJZHN3MjkzOF8xMDdjOTVzcGZx That link should allow you to see the power point. Basically, I simply used the power point to make all of the connections for the children between the 'pretend' story of last week and the real story.

When the lightbulb went off, it was GREAT! The kids couldn't wait to try and guess the next correlation. After the very last slide, I had each teacher had the children a special invitation - a party invitation - that I had prepared in advance. The invitation included the following:

It's a CELEBRATION! You're Invited!
When: This Sunday! (And every Sunday)
Where: St. Oliver's (Or any Catholic Church)
Why: To celebrate the sacrifice made by Jesus, who gave his own life so that YOU could have eternal life!

Please Come! Please Come! Please Come!

I had the kids read the invitation aloud with me, and we chanted the last three phrases really, really loudly - like a pep rally. I then asked for a show of hands of who in the room had a drivers' license. Obviously, there were a lot of giggles. I reminded them that they don't drive, so to please share the invitation with the driver in the family, and that I would see them at church this weekend!

It was a fun way to wrap up the lesson with a pretty serious message: Go To Mass!

We ended with a totally urelated Minute to Win It game that was a hoot: Chocolate Unicorn! You can find it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQrsJv3mLOQ

As always, I welcome your comments or questions!
Peace!