Exemplar narrative 1:

St Bernadette’s, Motherwell:

Recap of previous learning:  

-          The SCES liturgical calendar featuring the Liturgical colours has been displayed on the wall since the beginning of term; we are now focussing on purple for Advent.

-          The class have been practising genuflecting in church during our visits to church, for our church tour during the ‘Church’ theme, and for the visit to Mass for All Saints’ Day.  We now see how this is connected to the actions of the Wise Men.  This will also prepare us for First Communion preparation.

Focus on Advent:

-          The children contribute to a purple display on the altar, marking the beginning of Advent.

-          The class participates in whole-school Monday morning assemblies in which candles are lit on the Advent wreath and Advent prayers/reflections read.  We also pray traditional prayers at assembly, especially the Hail Mary during Advent, and display traditional prayers in class in colourful poster format (Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be).

-          The class regularly visits the school display crib in the entrance foyer, and say prayers.

Assembly:

Each class in the school hosts an annual class assembly with the whole school and parents.  P4 pupils chose The Wise Men as the title of their assembly, and undertook the following activities:

-          listen to the story of the Wise Men from Matthew 2

-          complete a piece of writing about the gifts and their significance

-          learn songs linked to the Wise Men for the assembly

-          discuss the word ‘epiphany’ and write about its significance (including date of Epiphany, liturgical colour of vestments etc.)

Advent journey:

-          The pupils contribute to a star chart (entitled ‘We are on a journey with the Wise Men to Bethlehem’) with an Act of Kindness for every day of Advent, building up the star chart each day.

-          They bring in photos of themselves showing kindness at home to discuss and display beside star chart.

-          The pupils are able to examine their consciences at the end of the day, and reflect on how they have journeyed in kindness that day.

Wise Men song

We sang some songs during assembly, and got everyone to join in this song

 

 

 

Exemplar narrative 2:

East Kilbride working group:
 

• Change holy area in the class to purple with a focus on Our Lady.

• Make an Advent wreath for the class.

• Make a class Advent Calendar of Stars:  Each child writes an act of kindness on a star to be displayed and turned around daily on the countdown to Christmas Day.

• Class display with the Advent Calendar of stars and a path with the Wise Men journeying.  The wise men move along the path throughout the weeks of Advent. 

• Crib Activity:  Put each child’s name on a piece of paper and put into a hat.  Children take a name out of the hat.  The name pulled out of the hat is the person you are responsible for praying for or showing acts of kindness towards throughout Advent.  Each time a child prays for the person on their paper or shows an act of kindness towards them, they can add a piece of straw to the crib. 

• Laminate a picture of Our Lady:  Send home with a different child each night to be used as a focus of prayer for the family.

• Read Matthew 2: 1-12 and also use Alive O 4 Term 1 lessons 12-14 which have a focus on the Wise Men’s journey and following the star.: 

Lesson 12 – The People who walked in darknessLesson 13 – From Darkness to Light Lesson 14 – Jesus, a light for all.  

• Concentrate on Wise Men studying stars and lead children to a homework activity of looking at the stars at night.  Discuss constellations followed by an art activity.

Stars art activity:  Black paper, add pin holes to this and display against a window showing the light shining through the paper.  

• Journey Activity:  Write their own experiences of having been on a journey/travelling. Make a feelings word Wall – how did they feel on their journey. 

• Display the Wise Men on the path, travelling along and placing feeling words at different stages of their journey. 

• Practise genuflecting:  Use Alive-O 4 DVD – Visit to a Church.  Relate back to Wise Men kneeling at Jesus’ side. 

• Gifts:  Discuss the symbolism of gifts being given.  Draw 3 gifts in their jotter and label each writing the significance of them. 

• Epiphany:  Discuss and celebrate mass.