I have come to fall in love with teaching in Catholic schools. What are YOU in love with?...

"Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is, than falling in love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you will do with your evenings, how you will spend your weekends, what you read, who you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything." - Pedro Arrupe

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

The power of picture books...for kids of all ages

Leave it to a children's book to teach lessons a textbook never could...

Enter the Wemmicks - a fictitious group of wooden people who live down the hill from their maker, Eli.


Now, these Wemmicks have a few different adventures (thanks to the author, Max Lucado), but the latest one I shared with my fourth graders was one with its central message about stewardship. The Wemmicks struggle to help a family whose wagon had broken as they came into town, and they must learn that while everyone wants to help right away, they each have a special gift to serve the family in a way that is unique to themselves.

It truly is a touching story (Your Special Gift) about how we are called by our Maker to discover our special talents so that we might better serve him and our neighbors.

A ha! Finally that Bible passage about the talents started making sense to my fourth graders! (Note to self - read picture book before Bible passage next year.) Our talents are only good if we acknowledge and share them!

There is so much to be learned from picture books, especially those with messages targeted at the very core of who we are and who we are called by God to be.

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