Advent Practical Life

This post is way overdue! At the beginning of December, I met with Deb and Sarah to see the practical life they were putting together for Advent in the Good Shepherd Atrium. They did a great job and I took pictures to share on the blog, but in the busyness of the holidays I failed to post them. So today, as Deb and Sarah put together the practical life shelves for the very short season of Christmas, I am finally getting these pictures out to you!! 

Thank you so much Deb and Sarah for all the skill you bring and time you put into making our atria materials beautiful and meaningful!

Sorting beautiful blue beads.

Attaching clothes pins.

Using tongs.

Beginning sewing.

Grasping.

Scooping and pouring.

Buttoning and unbuttoning. We have made a set of these which includes each of the
seasonal colors and will add more when the children learn the skill of buttoning!

Nativity Nesting doll set. I wish I had a picture of them separated. The children love them! 

Here is Deb hard at work!

The left shelf.

The right shelf.

Deb has a green thumb and always has something beautiful growing in the atrium!

To learn more about why we have practical life in the atrium check out this post!

Photos from the Good Shepherd Atrium

For the last two weeks, I've had the pleasure of working in the Good Shepherd Atrium. I enjoy the children at this age so much! It was really lovely to be with them and to present some of the Lenten works. We have been focusing on the Good Shepherd, the Last Supper (called the Cenacle) and the City of Jerusalem - some of my all time favorite works! When I wasn't busy doing presentations, I couldn't resist the chance to snap a few photos of the children for you to enjoy.

Learning the procedure for gluing.

Feeling proud of the lenten prayer chain he created by himself!

Matching large and small crosses with a magnifying glass.

Arranging flowers. (Thank you parents!)

Sorting nuts.

I think he's noticing that pretty watch!

Inserting golf tees in foam.

Tracing at the light table.

Lovely concentration.

Tracing a sheep after hearing the found sheep presentation.

Practical Life in the Atrium

As we begin our year together, I like to share some information about practical life in the atrium, which is so valuable but also easily misunderstood. Take a look at this post, called Why Practical Life?  to learn a bit more about how shifting beans from one bowl to another is meaningful work, and how polishing silver can be great preparation for prayer!

Meanwhile here are some photos of the practical life works we put together for the three to six year olds in the Good Shepherd Atrium this month. We always begin the year with simple works for our three year olds, and increase the difficultly as they develop their skills. Keep an eye out for the color green which points to the liturgical season - Ordinary Time or "Growing Time." We include the color of the season in our practical life whenever we can.

Moving beans from one bowl to the other develops the pincer grip.

Water is transferred from one bowl to the other using a sponge.
We place water in the left bowl, and color it green for the season.

Spooning beans into a pitcher and pouring them back into the bowl.

Sorting fruit.

Threading a card. There is a green string in the little jar.

Clipping clothes pins around the lip of the bowl. These are
new clothes pins made of bamboo and are so nice to touch!

Pushing pipe cleaners into holes.
A second step will be to add beads to the pipe cleaners.

Grasping stones with the whole hand and
shifting them from one basket to the other.

Learning to sweep up a spill.

Behind These Doors...

We keep all of our practical life supplies in this closet in the Good Shepherd Atrium. It's incredible what a mess it can become! To be honest, I am usually the person to blame for the disaster. I always seem to be changing practical life works in a hurry!

A few weeks ago I stopped in the Good Shepherd Atrium after Church and found Lynette bringing order out of chaos! She had ALL of the materials out of the closet and rearranged everything!

Now we have materials sorted by season...

...and by type!

Trays are stacked...

...and glassware is together!

What a blessing!

Thank you Lynette for your ministry with our children 

AND

for having a label maker and being willing to use it!!!

Tour of the Atrium: The Room

My summer tour of the Good Shepherd Atrium is coming to a close! I thought today I would try to show you some pictures of the room so that you can see how all of the pieces fit together. I'm taking these pictures from my height so they can't be a real indication of how the room looks and feels to the children. But I wanted to sketch the broader layout for you. Bear with me as I try to get you oriented - I sometimes struggle with directions!

The photo above is of the room when you step in the door and look straight ahead. The walk in coat closet is on the left, several liturgical works are straight ahead against the wall, and the prayer table area is in the right corner of the picture.

Shifting your gaze to the right gives you this view. The Good Shepherd works are just in front of you, infancy narratives are in the white shelves facing you (in the middle of the room), and the parables are behind.

Shifting your eyes once more to the right gives you this view. All of the works which tell about Jesus' last days, and his resurrection are straight ahead and the water source and clean up area are in the closet on the right.

If you walk straight into the room about halfway to the back wall (alongside the liturgical works) and look to the right you see this view of the prayer table, parables, the liturgical calendar, and the art area in the back corner of the room.

Moving even further toward the back wall and looking back gives you this view of the practical life shelves in the front and the works about Jesus' death and resurrection and the clean up area in the back of the picture.

If you walk across the room and stand by the liturgical calendar you can look back and see the liturgical works along the wall (that were straight ahead when you first stepped into the room). You can also see the practical life works on the left side of the picture and the prayer table area on the right.

Moving even further towards the far wall and turning around shows you this view of the liturgical calendar, chasubles and prayer table.

I hope this makes some sense! If you have any questions or if I missed something you wanted to see on the tour please let me know.

Tour of the Atrium: Good Shepherd

Our tour of our atrium for 3-6 year olds is almost complete! But where would we be without the Good Shepherd? The Parable of the Good Shepherd has a special place in the atrium because it has such an important place in the children's hearts. Jesus is the Good Shepherd, and he knows each one of us by name. We listen for his voice and he leads and protects us with love. 

This area is dedicated to the Good Shepherd works. The table on the left is only used for working with the Good Shepherd materials and the sheepfold always sits on top of it. The drawer on the left is where the sheep and Good Shepherd pieces are stored (although we often leave them out as they are in the photo above to attract the interest of the children). The drawer on the right holds the small altar, fair linen, and other pieces that we use with a later Good Shepherd presentation.

This little bookcase on the right holds booklets for the Good Shepherd works, line drawings of the Good Shepherd and sheep for tracing, a few images of the Good Shepherd, and words to the 23rd Psalm.

The Good Shepherd materials are loved by the children (and the catechists!) and this area is one of the first that you see when you enter our atrium.