Catholic Mass Lesson Ideas: 5 Activities
Catholic Mass Lesson Ideas: How do you teach about the Catholic Mass?
I’m going to start my year with some re-teaching about the Catholic Mass, so I collected some Catholic Mass Lesson Ideas. Click here to see more ideas about Back-To-School lessons.
My students probably haven’t attended Mass in months. Hopefully, they’ve been watching on TV or doing something to stay connected to the Mass. With school starting, it’s a chance to get those kids back to Mass…online or in-person. If you don’t already use the Catholic Kids Bulletins, check out this post for more information about that resource.
Just a Heads-Up…Teachers Pay Teachers is having their BACK TO SCHOOL sale on August 4th and 5th. This is a great time to stock up on resources for the year!
1) Help Students Find Catholic Masses
Whether you’re teaching online or in-person, you can assign the Sunday Mass as homework. Give the students links to various online Masses, including the one that is probably streamed from your church. Here’s one that I like. Students could also read through the readings and reflect on the Order of the Mass on the USCCB website.
If your parish is offering in-person Mass, review the guidelines with students so they know what to expect. It will be helpful to practice receiving Communion. Give students a chance to practice holding the Eucharist, removing the mask, receiving, re-masking…it’s a lot of new steps to remember!
You could also encourage students to watch Mass in other places and languages. This is a great opportunity for kids to see the universality of the Church. This site has the Mass in Swahili and it was fun to follow along and understand the Mass even though I couldn’t understand the words.
2) Review the Order of the Catholic Mass
Students will need a review of the Order of the Mass and the Mass responses. My Catholic Mass Sorting Cards includes cute note pages so students can brainstorm what they remember about each part of the Mass, then take more notes as you discuss each area together. You could also watch a TV Mass and take notes during the Mass so students can make the connection between the vocab and their Mass experience.
There are individual worksheets for the Introductory Rites, Liturgy of the Word, and Liturgy of the Eucharist. The students can write or draw based on their ability so it is easily differentiated. There is also an answer key included, so you can print out completed notes for students who struggle with note-taking.
3) Ideas to Sort the Order of the Mass: Playing Baby Monkey Astronaut
I love using Task Cards and Sorting Cards, so I created these when I needed more resources for Catholic Mass Lesson Ideas. For this year, I’ll have to print extra copies so students don’t have to share, but I still plan to use them. Students can learn more from manipulating information than only reading and writing.
When I use the Catholic Mass Sorting Cards, first I’ll ask students to use the checklist to put the cards in order. We’ll practice with one part of the Mass, then add to the stack as they memorize each section.
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Then, I’ll have the students play my FAVORITE sequencing game…Baby Monkey Astronaut….a ridiculous name for an awesome game. Students will use one set of cards (perhaps the Introductory Rite) and lay the cards face down. The goal is to turn over the cards in the order of the Mass. Students take turns turning over cards–if it’s the wrong order, their turn is over and the cards are flipped face down again. Each time a student turns over the correct card, s/he gets to try for the next card in order. Unless the student is miraculously lucky, another mistake will be made. Again, ALL the cards are flipped face down for the next student. As the game continues, students start to memorize the placement of each card, and eventually, one student can turn over the series in order.
As they play, students are continually saying the order of the Mass, and most students can memorize the series after a few rounds of this game. However, when my students play Baby Monkey Astronaut, I let them use the checklist so they don’t need to have the Order of the Mass memorized to play the game. The game will help them with memorization. If you don’t want students sharing cards, this game would also work if each student works independently and races with a partner to memorize the fastest.
4) Ideas Sort the Order of the Mass: Playing Spoons
You could also use the Catholic Mass Sorting Cards to play Spoons. It’s probably a card game that you’re familiar with. The normal goal is to get 4 of the same card, then everyone grabs for the spoons at the center of the table–usually involving yelling and craziness. Real instructions are here if you need them.
When we play spoons in the classroom, I ask students to find a series of cards instead of matching cards. A “set” of cards would be any 4 in a series, for example…
- Sign of the Cross
- Greeting by the Priest
- Penitential Act
- Lord Have Mercy
When a student has a set of cards, s/he will grab a spoon and the game continues as usual. This game could be adjusted for social distancing by asking students to draw one card at a time from their own deck instead of passing cards. Instead of grabbing spoons, the students could be prompted to put a hand on his/her head or some other visual clue. Once one student puts a hand on his/her head, others will be able to join in, and the last student to notice would get a letter for that round.
Again, for this activity, I allow the students to use the checklist and notes to keep track of the order of the Mass.
5) Play Bingo as a Review Lesson about the Catholic Mass
My students LOVE Bingo–and it’s an easy game for social distancing. This bingo game uses the order of the Catholic Mass Liturgy to help students learn about the parts and events in the Mass. The Liturgy follows a predictable pattern. The repetition used in games such as bingo can help reinforce vocabulary and knowledge of the liturgy.
The first 5 pages include clue cards for calling bingo. The next 30 pages are the bingo cards. Each card has “Receiving Holy Communion” as the center square. This could be included as a regular space or used as a FREE space.
