Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Quick Question: How Do You Teach the Beatitudes to 4th-Graders?

I need your help. Tomorrow afternoon at 3:30 pm, I begin teaching the Beatitudes to fifteen ten-year-olds, beginning with arguably the toughest one of all: "Blessed (or Happy) are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." How do you teach that to a fourth-grader? What does poor in spirit mean to you, and what can it possibly mean to a child? Our textbook is all about teaching the children that we should not be attached to material possessions, what we wear, the toys we have. But is that all there is to it? Anyone have any good ideas? I'm scratching my head here.