by Sheila Kearney
The learning area needs to inspire and engage your students. Here is an idea for how to decorate and arrange your learning space and prayer table using a theme that reflects Jesus’ teaching about our being the light of the world.
Your Space
Jesus says “You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:13-16). Cover your bulletin board in black construction paper. From white construction paper, cut the shape of a very small candle (a square or rectangle will do; no flame, just the “unlit” candle). Position the small candle in the middle of the dark bulletin board. Cut out more small candles, one for each of your students, and place them around the edge of the bulletin board, creating a frame. From orange construction paper, cut the shape of a flame for the candle. From red construction paper, cut the shape of another flame, smaller than the orange flame. Glue the red flame in the center of the orange flame to create one flame. “Light” the candle in the middle of the bulletin board by placing the flame at the top of the candle. Make more small flames, one for each student candle. Place the flames on your prayer table.
From bright yellow (preferably neon) construction paper, cut out the letters to the words YOU ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. Arrange the words in an arch against the black background at the top of the bulletin board.
Your Prayer Table
Cover your prayer table in black. At one edge of the prayer table place an open Bible. Next to the open Bible place a battery-operated candle. Across the remaining surface of the prayer table, scatter the small flames you made. Darken the room as much as possible and have a student read Matthew 5:13-16. When the student reads “You are the light of the world,” have another student “light” the battery-operated candle. Focus your prayer on how we are the light of Christ in the world. Close your prayer by giving a flame to each student and having students process to the bulletin board to “light” the candles around the edge.
Sheila Kearney has been a religious educator for over 30 years. She currently serves as a pre-school teacher at St. Raphael Catholic School in Crystal, MN.
Copyright 2014, Bayard, Inc. All rights reserved. This article is protected by United States copyright and other intellectual property laws and may not be reproduced, rewritten, distributed, redisseminated, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast, directly or indirectly, in any medium without the prior written permission of Bayard, Inc.
This article was written by the Catechist Staff and appeared in Catechist magazine, June 2014.
Image Credit: Shutter Stock 451288924
