Cathletics: Day 5

The verdict is in; there's a lot to like about the Cathletics VBS program from Cat Chat.  Each day, the kids learned about a different virtue, verse, and saint.  This program is faithful to Church teaching.  Today at the Closing Ceremony, the children watched a brief overview of the week's program and sang their favorite songs.  At the Closing, the children entered waving banners they had made in Crafts, much like the athletes at the Olympics, which happen to begin tonight!  I do like the t-shirts; it makes VBS feel more like a camp experience, despite the cost.  So, go ahead and take a look at Cathletics.  After all, now is the time to plan for next year!

Cathletics Day 4

Today's VBS program was nearly perfect.  My favorite was the scratch and sniff paint in Crafts.  Genius!  One prop we used was a basket of fake fruit labeled with the fruits of the Holy Spirit.  My group of 24 rising first and second graders puts the Faith lesson to the test every day.  The children took turns reading the day of the fruit of the Holy Spirit from the labels.  The Good Samaritan story had simple props and a simple play.  We repeated the play three times; the children would have repeated the play another time or two had there been more time.  The boys all wanted to be robbers.  During Games, we divided our group in two: boys and girls.  I liked the fact the Games' leaders used the Fruits of the Spirit song during the musical game and passed out Fruits of the Spirit stickers  In Snack, the kids could play a minute using straws to move marshmallows.  Isn't that fun?.  This program does an outstanding job threading the theme through every aspect of the program.  We ate still struggling with the songs.  Otherwise, what a terrific VBS program.  Here are a few pictures.

Cathletics: Day 3

Day 3 of Cathletics is over.  Whew!  Chat Cat does a great job integrating the theme throughout the program.  It's completely true to the Catholic Church's teaching.  I think cheers are missing; so, I added cheers I've used from previous years along with a variety of "We Will Rock You" cheers.  One of the children's favorites in simple: Moses, Moses, he's our man, if he can't do it, Noah, can, or JP can, or Pier Giorgio can, or Jesus can."  The faith lesson is especially solid with enough elements to cover in 20-25 minutes.  Today's virtue was 'fortitude'; at snack the children made a dumb-bell to symbolize strength.  I like it!  The children used watercolors to paint a banner of the beatitudes.  The program offers a choice of crafts.  I think it would be better to offer an extra craft each day and to try to reduce the number of paper crafts.  Chat Cat suggests frisbees as a craft, which would have been a good choice if St. Will's had the budget.  Today, the main game was an obstacle course.  The games have been good: daily training, Follow the Leader, relay races, and now an obstacle course.  Our team, Team Soccer, has 24 very active six and seven year olds.  It would be good to have an extra, active game option each day.  There are optional games in the program; however, most are quiet games.  Trust me, keeping their attention for instruction during the Faith lesson or to learn songs is sufficient.  Team Soccer needs to be active during Games. Here are a few photos.