New! - The Student Activity Booklet is designed to give the catechist two additional activities for each chapter of the revised handbook

New! - 14 new activities have been added to the revised Student Activity Booklet

New! - The chapters in the Activity Booklet now follow the sequence of the chapters in The Catholic Connections Handbook for Middle Schoolers, Second Edition

The Activity Booklet is designed to expand the students' learning of the chapter content and to provide students with opportunities for reflection, for critical thinking about how what they have learned applies to their own lives, and for creative ways to explore the material, each chapter is supplemented with three activity masters. In most chapters, the activity masters are intended to accompany the chapter as follows:

Activity master A: This activity is generally intended as a warm-up activity, to be completed by the students before they begin the chapter. The activity is designed to get the students to reflect on the key theme of the chapter in a "big picture" sort of way, applying its relevance to their own lives. Completing the activity will prepare the students to understand the chapter content as personal and meaningful in their own lives.

Activity master B: Frequently this activity sheet contains more than one activity, each of which is intended to be used with a specific section of the chapter. These activities are designed to help the students think analytically about the content of the section and reflect on ways they can live what they have learned.

Activity master C: The closing activity for the chapter frequently features a review of the key concepts or terms taught in the lesson, and it frequently engages the students through the use of a game, such as a word search or an acrostic, or a creative exercise, such as designing symbols, reflecting on artwork, and so forth.

Look for the activity book icon throughout the guide to help you identify ideal points in the chapter instruction for incorporating these activities