February 5, 2009

Last week we did our readings and on-line games. This Sunday we will do our Unit review in Blest are We. You know the drill, lots of questions on the white boards for you guys to do. We did not get a chance to spend time on the Gospels, but we will do so this week. You should get familiar with the Gospel of Mark; (last week was Matthew). We will do some comparisons of the writings in the Synoptic Gospels. I will explain more on Sunday. Here are a couple of videos that we will refer to when doing the comparisons. See you on Sunday. Tom Maher

_

_

January 25, 2009

Today we completed a short review of the Old Testament. You guys did a nice job of selecting verses to describe your part of bible. These were Creation to Abraham, Joseph to the Red Sea, Red Sea to the Jordon River, Judges Samuel and Kings, and prophets. We will return to these stories so if you missed something you will likely hear it again. We are continuing with Prophets in our Blest our We text, unit 4.

We talked about 4 things to think about when you are reading the bible. These are the literal meaning, the relationship to the entire bible, our church's interpretation, and what does it mean to me. Today we also talked about the Audience of the writer. We will discuss this further next week.

We are now moving on to the New Testament, beginning with the Gospel of Matthew. You should familiarize yourself with this Gospel for next week. A video clip from a movie related to Matthew is below. You can follow along in your bible; see the chapter and verse references on the video. Next week we are continuing with Blest are We, Chapters 13,14,15,16. See you next week.

Tom

January 16, 2009

We do not have CFF this Sunday. Next week we will do a review session on the Bible time lines and continue to read from the Prophets. I will also have some YouTube movie trailers for some of the Prophets.

See you next Sunday.

Tom

January 12, 2009

Most all returned from our holiday break. Last Sunday we finished our review in Blest are We, chapters 9,10,11,12. We will continue to read from the books of the Prophets.

.

.

.

.

.

November 19th

Get Ready! Its time for another Blest Are We unit review. Yes, we will review chapters 5,6,7,8 with board questions; you know how to fill in the blanks. This week on PBS there was a Nova show on the Bible. I have a couple of clips from the program below. I expect the series to continue "Bible's Buried Secrets" so watch if you have time. In our bible reading, we are now in Samuel. We will be talking about Samuel, King Saul, and King David. Check out the video clips below. See everyone on Sunday. (note: see if you can find in your bible, the chapter and verses where Saul and David are anointed and a David-Goliath story. We will read these verses on Sunday)

_ _ _ _ _

November 13

Maybe I should change the title of this page to "trailers and movie clips". No, its the announcements page and I am re-capping class topics, giving reminders for home reading, and linking some related videos. Last week we covered Blest Are We chapters 5&6. This week we are doing chapters 7&8, reading "hear and believe" from these chapters. This week you are reading from Judges and Ruth. Below are some video trailers to check out. I look forward to seeing everyone on Sunday.

__ _ _

November 7, 2008

Last week you created your own time lines for telling your bible story. We will do more this week as well. For our Blest Our We text, this Sunday we are reading chapter 5 and chapter 6, the Hear and Believe sections. We will also do the on-line chapter games. You are reading Joshua now in the Bible, so we will spend some time discussing the key stories of this book. What questions will we ask? Try these: Who was Joshua? The story includes James Bond type spies; why? Where was Joshua going? Name the river. What is significant about passing through the water, (again)? What was Rahab's job? Where was Moses? The Walls of .....? The number 7 appears again in the story; why? How many armed men lead the charge?

Here are a couple of sites for you to visit related to our stories:

___

October 27, 2008

I bet that most of you could hardly believe it when class was over. Whaaaat? Thats right, with all of the different things we were doing, seems like time just fly's. Everyone did a great job with the unit 1 review questions, for Blest Are We chapters 1-4. As always, if you missed something, no worries, we will continue to review as we move along.

Speaking of moving along, so you guys liked the bible power point review? Yes there will be many more power points and maybe you will create your own. We went very quickly over the key topics in Genesis and Exodus and then it was your turn to tell the stories. One group did Exodus before the Red Sea and the other group did Exodus after the Red Sea. Keep up the good work and remember to take some time at home going through the bible. Your are now reading Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Here are a few more movie trailers for referencing Exodus: (password = cff.)

.

And how about that RAFFLE? You guys seemed to enjoy the fun. Ok, for next week, we will continue with Bible Time lines and stories. As you see in these video trailers, the host tells a story and "walks the viewer" through the story. This is what we will continue to do. You will also create your own story line on the chalk boards listing milestones (chapter-verse). Have a great week. Happy Halloween. See you on Sunday. Tom Maher

October 20, 2008

Sunday was a top ten day.....everyone contributed to listing our top ten passages from Genesis and Exodus. We learned the story of Joseph. We experienced our own classroom Exodus. Ok, so I think you are getting the feel of how our class moves along. We did chapter games from Blest are We, 3 &4. We studied the maps from the Genesis and Exodus stories. And for our visiting 5th graders, yes we did the repeat of the Red Sea.

Next week we will do our Unit Review from Blest are We. When you come in to the class, I will have most of the questions posted on the boards, and just as before, you can team up and grab the chalk. When done, we will also do some review of Exodus, and get into Leviticus and Numbers. It may seem that we are moving quickly. You are correct. don't worry if you think you are behind. It will start to come together soon and you will be telling your own "walmart story".

If you have time, you should watch a few movie trailers, such as The Ten Commandments, and Joseph King of Dreams.

Ten Commandments Movie 2007 Trailer - Watch more amazing videos here

Moses and the Red Sea - The most amazing home videos are here

Joseph - King of Dreams (1 of 7) Www.saintbirgitta.com - For more amazing video clips, click here

Joseph - King of Dreams (4 of 7) Www.saintbirgitta.com - Funny home videos are a click away

October 5, 2008

Hello All!

Wow, we were very busy today. What a great class. What a great family BBQ.

So for a quick re-cap, we broke up into groups and worked on finding stories in Genesis. A few of the guys were focused just on chapter one, finding sea monsters, trees, animals and humans. On the other board it was Noah, Joseph, and others.

You guys worked very well together. We will have lots of board work this year, doing time lines, unit reviews, etc.

After our board work, we read from Blest Are We chapters 1 & 2 and then from A Childs Bible. I am very pleased that so many of you volunteered to read in class. This is a good opportunity to practice your reading in a group. Later on in the year, you will be doing oral presentations of your work. I expect everyone will be ready and will do fine.

Today we talked about the number 40, as it relates to the Bible. As you are reading over your Bible chapters, when you see numbers like 40, 7, 3 and others, keep in mind these are significant events and the number references should help you remember key events. We will cover these more. As I said today, we are not doing memorization, you are learning how to build your knowledge base and train your brain to link and remember. The numbers should help you remember. On our board work today many of you used things to link Bible stories, such as Noah's Bagels, Petronas Tower, Joe's. Put a picture in your mind of something familiar and it may help with building your Bible Memory.

We have a day off next Sunday. Some of you asked if this counts against your maximum of three days absence for the year. No, dont worry. But please keep in mind that you should attend Every scheduled class. In the Bible, the number 7 is sometimes refered to as representing "perfect", so your attendace should be a "7". We cover a lot of material each Sunday and I dont want you to get behind. Coming every Sunday is best, but you should not miss more than 3.

Keep up your reading at home. This week you are still reading Genesis. If you finish, its ok to go on to Exodus. If you want a break from the reading and would like to listen, you can try some on line sites that have audio ready to go. The versions are different from our class Bible, but similar enough so you wont get lost. You can listen and follow along in your class Bible if you want. Here are a couple links for you

.

This one also links to audio, but first you click on the Google Earth link. Then, zoom into the middle east and click on one of the green spots. A list of Bible links will show up. Click again and the Bible reference will appear. You can type in your own book, like Genesis 37, and click Listen.

Have a great week.

Tom

note: use your "back" button or click on a header item, when navigating from page to page on this web site.

________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________

Welcome to 6th grade CFF at Saint Ignatius Parish. I enjoyed meeting everyone and our first day went great.

We spent a little time going over our class web site, viewing the class schedule, movie links, links to games on Blest Are We, and much more. Our web page that says 2008 Class Outline gives you a good idea of what we do in class and what you are reading at home. Please remember, you can always check to see next weeks readings, so if you want to review at home in advance you can do so. We will practice reading out loud every Sunday, mostly from Blest Are We, Hear and Believe pages.

The class outline shows the Home Reading. This week you are reading Genesis in your Bible. We are not reading every verse, but you should read a little at the beginning and the end of each chapter. The titles and paragraph headings are good to find familiar stories. If you find something you like, go ahead and spend some time reading. If not, then just move on. Keep in mind, that you are getting familiar with "whats inside Genesis ". We will do much more practice reading from the Bible so everyone gets familiar with finding their way. If you prefer to see the Bible on the Web, click here: Bible on Web.

Everyone received a Bible and a Blest Are We textbook. Please bring these to class each week. We read from the Hear and Believe pages in Blest Are We and did an on-line chapter quiz. We also read briefly from another book, titled, "A Child's Bible" by Anne Edwards. We have copies that we will share in class, but if you prefer to have your own, you can purchase one on line. There are many copies available new and used at Amazon and many other sellers. Just Google the title and author.

I look forward to seeing everyone again next Sunday.

PS, Don't forget about our CFF BBQ. (we may need some extra hands from our 6th graders for various duties.)

Sincerely,

Tom

note: use your "back" button or click on a header item, when navigating from page to page on this web site.