Review: 100 Activities Based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church

This book contains over 100 self-contained activities, reproducible for the classroom, categorized as primary, intermediate and advanced levels of difficulty. The activities include fill in the blanks, letter puzzles and codes, chronological events, yes or no quizzes, true/false, word scrambles, drawing exercises, picture identification, scriptural reflection prompts, hymn and prayer composition and small research projects. The book offers excellent supplemental materials to teach Scripture, Commandments, Sacraments, the Life of Jesus, the Mass, Morality and Prayer.

The book includes plenty of directions, and sometimes even a script for the teacher, as needed. Answers are included in the back of the book for easy reference.

A few of the activities that got my attention were “the Attributes of God” as described in Scripture and how the first letter of the names of the Apostles…almost spell Baptism!

I like the suggested research projects, encouraging study and reference to Scripture, the dictionary and the Catechism. Simple answers are given in the back, while more descriptive definitions may require research to check.

I generally shy away from word searches, letter coded messages and letter puzzles, but these easier activities seem to be appropriately aimed at the younger primary kids, to help familiarize them with the proper terms.

Published prior to the new translation of the Mass, the previous Apostle’s Creed and Nicene Creed are included . I think that the activities are still valid, digging deeper into the words of each creed (many of which remain the same), while some of the activities could easily be adjusted to reflect the changes, by supplying a copy of the new text.

I like the more involved activities requiring students to identify things found in a Church, the Sacraments and my favorite pages offer various reflection and prayer exercisesincluding prayer prompts, deeper study of the Our Father and identifying various forms of prayer. I like the step by step Lectio Divina type prayer challenge (“Fifteen Minutes with God’) and I think it would be wonderful to get young people in the habit of praying in this way.

Although I have always been drawn to scissors and glue, folding and coloring paper crafts that get kids learning without necessarily realizing it, I think 100 Activities Based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church provides very easy-to-implement supplements for the classroom, packed with a good range of solid material directly from the Catechism: perfect for the Year of Faith!

I was provided with a complimentary copy of 100 Activities Based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church from Discount Catholic Products in exchange for my honest review.