Are you looking for ways to make your catechism class more fun and engaging through interactive play? Incorporating the senses and your students’ love of games is a guaranteed way to plan a lesson that they will learn from and remember.
Check out the list below for some interactive play ideas for the Catholic classroom to include in your plans!
Act it Out
Pretend play and role-playing are always favorite, especially with younger students. You don’t need a formal script or fancy costumes. It can be as easy as assigning students to pretend to be different people from a Bible story you’ve read together in class and letting them ad lib. You could also set up a simple center with idea cards and supplies such as props, puppets, etc.
Whole-Class Games
Students LOVE playing bingo as a class. Another fun group game is I have/Who has? cards. These simple games can be used to teach or review a variety of content in religion class, such as vocabulary used in the Holy Mass (as seen in the picture below).
Make a Model
Encourage students to model different concepts from your studies. Consider creating a religion center where students can take turns using manipulatives such as playdough, blocks, or small toys to represent ideas. **Tip: Put index cards with different ideas (like Bible stories, sacraments, things they see in Mass, Saints you have studied) that students can pick from to represent.
Here is a pop-up set for the Mass that is available for purchase, but you could also have kids make their own!
A great project or homework idea could be to have students make a shadow boxes of various parts of the Mass and then have them share with the class. This is also a fun idea for a homework project. Depending on your unit of study, assign students to make a shadow box at home to present to the class, representing a Bible story, part of the Mass, a sacrament, etc.
Small Group Games
Memory or matching games can be used to review a variety of content and are fun for students to play in partners or small groups, or even take home to play with their families. Check out the following links for matching games for Mass vocabulary, the Seven Sacraments, and the Mysteries of the Holy Rosary.
This printable board game helps children review the Gospel stories and is also fun to play in partners or small groups:
Trivia Baseball
You may have played Spelling Baseball to review your weekly words with your class. The same game can be played to review any content by making it a trivia game!
Simply divide the class into two teams. Designate your bases within the classroom and remind your students that this is a walking game to avoid injuries. Each batter answers a question to earn a base hit. If the team answers three questions incorrectly, it becomes the other team’s turn. 3 strikes you’re out! **Tip: I usually set a run limit, for example, if a team scores 5 runs before they get 3 strikes, it’s the next team’s turn.
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