Background Notes for Parents/Carers

About the theme – Local Church

After Christmas children will explore the theme of Local Church, which is our story. The parish is where people gather together to celebrate and practise care and love for each other. The diocese is the community of the Christian faithful. The Local Church theme focuses on the people of God, gathered in Christ, united in the journey of faith, in care for one another, in sharing their story and in celebration.

The experience of community is an essential and enjoyable part of life for people of every age and faith. The cycle of a year and the span of a lifetime contain occasions for regular celebrations as well as unexpected surprises, when people want to celebrate with family, friends and communities.

The Church’s celebrations are also community occasions. On Sundays, the parish family gathers together. It is a time to remember how much there is to celebrate; a time to say thank you; a time to know that God’s love is offered and made visible here and now in Jesus and in people. Sacraments are more formal special moments: signs of ‘God-with-us’, who journeys with his people; signs of strength and blessing for life.

OverviewKey Vocabulary EARLY YEARS

Celebrating

LOCAL CHURCH THEME

Church

Priest

celebrate

celebrating

Parish family

family

community

celebration

party

memory

Father

altar

Temple

parish

The local church gives thanks for God’s blessings in its liturgical celebrations and in the way, it lives its parish life. Christians belong to the local church community – the parish, which celebrates in a variety of ways. They celebrate tradition and story and find their meaning in Jesus.

Children will know and understand:

• what a celebration is

• how the parish family celebrate

See Background Notes for Parents

Week 1: Discuss with your child what ‘celebrations’ they know about already. If you have any photographs of celebrations such as birthdays or parities talk about them with your child and discuss why they are special. Write down celebrations that your child’s experienced on the spider diagram.

Week 2: Talk to your child about ‘the parish family’. Talk about what they already know about celebrating in church. For example, Baptism, Christmas and weddings. Pray the Our Father together

Week 3: Read the story of ‘Mary and Joseph at the Temple in Jerusalem’ from God’s Story 1 page 28-29. Share some ideas of how you can be like Jesus, ‘the light of the world’.

Week 4: Look at the key vocabulary for this topic and use it to remember all that your child has learned about celebrating. Celebrate with a simple Act of Worship (see below).

Early Years

In EYFS children will explore what a celebration is and be able to name different family and school celebrations. They will go on to look at celebrations in the local parish church. Children will hear the story of how Mary and Joseph took baby Jesus to the Temple to present him to God and how they met Simeon and Anna there.

Week 1: Discover what a celebration is, the elements of celebration and how people celebrate

Discuss with your child what ‘celebrations’ they know about already. If you have any photographs of celebrations such as birthdays or parities talk about them and why they are special. Write down celebrations on the spider diagram provided below. Learn the celebration song together.

Week 2: What the parish family celebrates

Talk to your child about ‘the parish family’. Talk about what they already know about celebrating in church. For example, Baptism, Christmas and weddings. Talk about the parish family celebrating. Show your child the image from Church Story 1 pages 12-13 and Church story 2 pages 22-25 (below) and discuss what the pictures show about the people of the parish.

Questions to discuss:

Q. What do these pictures tell you about the people of this parish?

Q. What are they doing? `

Suggested activity 1: Draw a picture of the parish priest or deacon and add a sentence about what they do to help the parish celebrate.

Suggested activity 2: Write a ‘Thank You’ card to the parish priest or deacon for all they do to help the parish family celebrate.

Week 3: The Presentation Story

Look at the image of ‘Mary and Joseph at the Temple in Jerusalem’ from God’s Story 1 page 28-29. Share the story:

Mary and Joseph took baby Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem. They wanted to present him to God and thank God for giving them their lovely boy.

Whilst they were there they met two people, Simeon and Anna. They went to the Temple every day to pray. Simeon took Jesus in his arms and gave thanks to God. He said a prayer over Jesus and

blessed Mary and Joseph. He said Jesus was like a light to help people. Anna was delighted to see Jesus and gave thanks to God for him.

Afterwards Mary and Joseph took Jesus home to Nazareth.

Ask your child the following questions:

Q Who do you see in the picture?

Q Why did Mary and Joseph take Jesus to the Temple?

Q Who were the people that they met?

Q Why did Simeon and Anna go to the Temple?

Q What did Simeon do?

Q Why do you think Simeon and Anna were so pleased to meet Jesus?

Q What did Mary and Joseph do after they left the Temple?

Suggested Activity:

Make cardboard candles with tissue paper flames. Ask children what did Simeon say about Jesus (Jesus is the light of the world) and how can they be more like Jesus.

Week 4: Look at the key vocabulary and help your child to remember what they have learned about celebrating.

Celebrate with a simple Act of Worship (see below)

Resources

Week 1

Week 2:

Activity 1:

My Parish Priest

The priest helps the parish celebrate by ______________________________.

Week 3

Simeon said Jesus is the light of the world. How can we be like Jesus? Write some ideas in the boxes.

Week 4Act of Worship

“CELEBRATING”

EARLY YEARS

You might like to set up a Focus table with some of the following:

Brightly coloured cloth

Bible (open at Luke2:23 - 40)

Several balloons or Party poppers or streamers

Plate of small biscuits

Your child’s drawing or a picture of the “Presentation in the Temple”

Welcome to our celebration. We gather In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit Amen.

When we have special times in our lives, we often show our happiness by having a special celebration. For example we have special celebrations at Christmas and for birthdays, weddings, baptisms and anniversaries.

Often we decorate our rooms and the things around us in different ways for celebrations. We decorate our rooms using bright and shiny colours to show how happy we are and to make people feel welcome. We try to make our rooms special for special celebrations.

We also usually ask some friends to join us and have some special food to share with them.

Not so long ago we celebrated the birth of Jesus, and in our “Celebrating” topic we heard of the celebration when his family thanked God for him.

We are now going to listen to a reading from the Bible which reminds us of some other people - Simeon and Anna - who celebrated when they found that Jesus had been born.

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke

Glory to you, O Lord

Mary and Joseph took Jesus to the temple. He was their baby boy and they wanted to thank God for him. At the temple they met Simeon and Anna. They were both old and had been going to the temple to pray for many years. They were very happy to see Jesus and thanked God for him.

The Gospel of the Lord

Praise to You Lord Jesus Christ

When we celebrate some special event with our friends or family, we thank them for coming, or thank them for inviting us to join in their happy event. Now let us thank God together for the many things God has given us to celebrate.

Gathering

Together

The Word of God

Response to The Word

The response is, “We thank you, God.”

Like Simeon and Anna, who celebrated the birth of your son Jesus We thank you, God

For the celebrations and love we share with our families We thank you, God

For the happy times we share with our friends We thank you, God

For the music we enjoy and the songs we sing We thank you, God

For our parish family who celebrate together We thank you, God

Now think quietly of a celebration which you especially enjoyed. Remember the things that made you feel so happy, and in your heart thank God for that special time….

In the name of the Father and of the Son

and of the Holy Spirit Amen.

You might like to have a little celebration, sharing the biscuits

from the focal table.

Going

Forth