Committing Ourselves – session

January 2025

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Objective: To help students understand that as Christians, we must be committed to caring for our faith and good moral values, just as a farmer cultivates and tends his crops. The students will learn ways to do this.

Introduction

Good morning, everyone! Let’s start by making the sign of the cross, closing our eyes and thanking God in our hearts for the new year that has just begun.

Today, we’re going to learn about something very important. We will talk about how we need to care for our faith and behaviours, just like a farmer cares for his crops. This means wanting to do good things for us and others; by doing this, we are helping to create a better world.

Reflection

Let’s think about a farmer. A farmer works very hard to take care of his crops. He prepares the soil for them before he plants the seeds, waters them, and ensures they are healthy. If he doesn’t take care of them, they won’t grow. In the same way, we need to take care of our faith and how we behave with others. This means praying, being kind, and helping others. Remember, when we are kind to others, it is like being kind to God; when we are nasty to others, we are nasty to God.

Can anyone share a time when they did something good for someone else? How did it make you feel? (Allow a few students to share their experiences briefly.)

Video

Kindness Starts with You – At School

Activity – Good Deed Garden

Resources needed: templates of blank flowers, the students’ pencil colours

Instructions: Now, let’s do a fun activity! We are going to make a ‘Good Deeds Garden.’ Each of you will get a paper flower. On your flower, you need to draw a picture of something good you can do for someone else this week. It can be helping your parents, sharing with a friend, or even praying for someone. Once you’re done, we will put all the flowers on our class garden board to see how many good deeds we can do together!

Distribute paper flowers and crayons/markers. Allow students a few minutes to complete their flowers by drawing their good deed and then each student can show the flower to the class and explain which good deed he/she intends to do. Help them pin their flowers onto one of the classroom’s boards.

Prayer

Dear God, thank you for teaching us to be kind and care for our faith. Help us be like the good farmer who cares for his crops. Help us be kind to others, and love you more every day. Amen.

Presentation

Template

Objective: To help students understand that as Christians, we must be committed to caring for our faith and cultivating good moral values, as a farmer cultivates and tends his crops.

Introduction

Good morning, everyone! Happy New Year, and welcome back to school. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday break.

Reflection

This month’s theme is: ‘Sowing Hope – Committing Ourselves.’ Imagine a farmer preparing his fields. He plants seeds, waters them, removes weeds, and waits patiently for them to grow. This is much like our commitment to build a better world. We must plant the seeds of kindness, selflessness, forgiveness, and generosity, care for them, and watch them grow. Like the farmer, we need to be committed every day for these seeds to grow and bloom into a happy world.

Starting a new year is a wonderful time to make new resolutions. Just like a farmer makes plans for a good harvest, we, too, can make plans to make our lives and the world around us happier for everyone. This can include being kind to others, helping those in need, and being thankful for all we have. This plan will become successful only if we are committed to what we do. Let’s learn what commitment means through this video:

Video

Kids Moment: Commitment to God

Activity: Act of Kindness Calendar

Resources needed: blank template of a calendar month, pens, colours

Do the following activity to instil the value of commitment to positive actions and to reinforce the importance of consistent efforts in promoting kindness and goodness.

Students can create an “Act of Kindness Calendar.” Provide each student with a blank calendar template for the upcoming month. Instruct them to fill in each day with a specific act of kindness or positive action they commit to doing. This activity can be done in small groups. These actions could include helping a friend in need, saying something kind to a family member, sharing toys with a sibling, visiting an elderly family member, less time at computer games and more time helping at home, or showing gratitude. (Encourage students to be creative and thoughtful in their commitments. Throughout the month, they can check off each act of kindness as they complete it. At the end of the month, students can reflect on their experiences, discussing how their commitments to kindness made a difference in their lives and the lives of others.)

Prayer Dear God, Help us to be like farmers who with loving commitment carefully tend to their crops every day. Guide us to plant seeds of hope and kindness in our hearts so that together we can create a better world. Amen

Presentation

Template

Objective: Resolving ourselves to sustain our beliefs and keep up with our good moral decisions.

Introduction (1 min)

The animator greets students and reminds them about the theme Sowing Hope and the importance to avoid distraction or laziness in acting at the right time.
The animator leads students to quiet down, starting with the sign of the cross and a simple thanksgiving prayer.

Sharing (4 mins)

The animator introduces the January theme, Sowing Hope: Committing Ourselves, and asks students how one would show commitment in the context of planting – the answer is watering!
The animator states that for many of us, it is not whether we are committed/dedicated but to what we are committed.
The animator leads students to mention some examples of commitment according to our goals, hopes, and desires. For instance, if the goal is to do well in exams, the commitment is to study.

Video (8 mins)

The animator shows the clip Fantasia – The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (Part 1) (3:59 mins) and then asks students how they think the story ends. And why?

The animator suggests that it didn’t end well (Part 2 reveals it, if there is time to see it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-W8vUXRfxU 2:26 mins) because the main character despised his commitment to go and draw the water.

Reflection (3 mins)

The animator suggests that to maintain our commitment to watering our seed of hope is, to remind ourselves often about the positive outcomes we’d like to reap by the end of this year or in our lives in general and (quote) to “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Gal 6).
The animator proposes that since it is not easy ‘not to become weary’, a sure way how to remain hydrated is to commit ourselves to daily prayer at the beginning of this new year and shows Mother Teresa’s quote, “The fruit of silence is prayer, the fruit of prayer is faith, the fruit of faith is love, the fruit of love is service, the fruit of service is peace.”

Prayer (4 mins)

The animator hands a drop of water template and says this represents our daily drop of prayer.
The animator leads students into a minute of silence to think about their struggles to keep up with the commitment and to write a prayer to God to help them on the template.
The animator prays the following or similar:

Dear God, thank you for this new year 2025. This new beginning helps us resolve ourselves to re-commit daily to believing in and keeping up with the beautiful sowing process. Encourage us as we seek your help in our daily prayers. Amen

Presentation

Template

Objective: Resolving ourselves to sustain our beliefs and keep up with our good moral decisions.

Introduction (1 min)

The animator greets students and reminds them about the theme of Sowing Hope, the importance of acting at the right time and avoiding distraction or laziness.
The animator leads students to quiet down, starting with the sign of the cross and a simple thanksgiving prayer.

Sharing (4 mins)

The animator introduces the January theme, Sowing Hope: Committing Ourselves, and asks students how one would show commitment in the context of planting – the answer is watering!
The animator states that for many of us, it is not whether we are committed/dedicated but what we are committed to.
The animator leads students to mention some examples of commitment according to our goals, hopes, and desires. For example, the goal is to do well in exams, and commitment is to study.

Video (8 mins)

The animator shows clip Fantasia – The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (Part 1) (3:59 mins) and then asks students how they think the story ends. And why?

The animator suggests that it didn’t end well (Part 2 reveals it if there is time to see it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-W8vUXRfxU 2:26 mins) because the main character despised his commitment to go and draw the water.

Reflection (3 mins)

The animator suggests that to maintain our commitment to watering our seed of hope is, to remind ourselves often about the positive outcomes we’d like to reap by the end of this year or in our lives in general and (quote) to “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Gal 6).
The animator proposes that since it is not easy ‘not to become weary’, a sure way how to remain hydrated is to commit ourselves to daily prayer at the beginning of this new year and shows Mother Teresa’s quote, “The fruit of silence is prayer, the fruit of prayer is faith, the fruit of faith is love, the fruit of love is service, the fruit of service is peace.”

Prayer (4 min)

The animator hands a drop of water template and says this represents our daily drop of prayer.
The animator leads students into a minute of silence to think about their struggles to keep up with the commitment and to write a prayer to God to help them on the template.
The animator prays the following or similar:

Dear God, thank you for this new year 2025. This new beginning helps us resolve ourselves to re-commit daily to believing in and keeping up with the beautiful sowing process. Encourage us as we seek your help in our daily prayers. Amen.

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Committing Ourselves – session

January 2025