Word of Life, Kindergarten Catechist, Parish Edition

THEME: The Story of God's Love 

Word of Life kindergarten introduces the students to the truth about who they were created to be.  Word of Life offers a rich kerygmatic catechesis that both evangelizes and catechizes. Using a salvation history catechetical model, the series follows God’s own pedagogy of how he revealed himself to man, created us as man and woman in his own image, and continually calls us to live in close relationship with him.

Students will begin to understand their place in the story of salvation.  Through both the narratio of salvation history and a rich systematic catechesis, students will understand why we need a Savior, how Jesus came to fulfill the promises of the Old Testament, and why Jesus gave the Church and sacraments to his people—to draw us into a loving communion with him and each other.

Students will learn the Faith through Scripture.  The Word of Life series uses Scripture throughout the lessons and actively teaches students different ways to pray with Scripture so they can come to know and love God. By introducing some basic elements of lectio divina to children, the students begin at a young age to have a personal experience of meditating and praying with Scripture.

The Word of Life series fosters ongoing conversion of the students.  The parish catechist manual is designed help catechists to effectively facilitate life application discussions and elicit a student response of faith for daily conversion.

Parish Catechist Manual Features:

• All lessons follow the Ecclesial Method.
• Lessons are formatted so that catechists with any level of experience can teach class directly from the manual using the easy to follow focus points, bulleted content, and engaging discussion questions with answers.
• Each chapter introduces students to different kinds of prayer using sacred art reflections, lectio divina for children, and basic Catholic prayers.
• Small Wonders Stories help the students to apply what they have learned to real-life situations. These lighthearted and playful stories complement the main themes and ideas of the lessons.
• Each chapter includes numerous optional activities including Prepare Our Hearts Songs, hand motion activities, picture journaling, and numerous arts and craft ideas.

SEQUENCE

Unit 1: God Loves me (Chapters 1-3)

Unit 2: God Created Us Out of Love (Chapters 4-6)

Unit 3: God Keeps His Promises (Chapters 7-12)

Unit 4: The Life of Jesus (Chapters 13-16)

Unit 5: Jesus is Our Savior (Chapters 17-19)

Unit 6: The Church Helps us to Heaven (Chapters 20-22)

Student Lesson Enhancement Videos

Each chapter includes a complimentary 2 to 4-minute video highlighting key aspects of the lesson. These videos use a variety of approaches to reach visual and auditory learners and help students more deeply engage in the content. They can be used in the classroom or you can send links to the parents to listen to them at home.