Mini Prayer Table

Next Sunday I will begin teaching a Religious Education class for children who are unable to attend the regular class for some reason. At this time I have a child with Autism and a child with Down Syndrome registered. They are in 3rd and 4th grades. I am working on ways to make the class very visual. I'm not exactly clear on their learning levels or what will work best with them so I'm sure I'll be tweaking my teaching over the next few months as I figure it out. To teach the liturgical year I think it is best to incorporate it into their weekly lesson and schedule. I made each child a miniature prayer table to use each week as we say our opening prayer.
This is a photo box. I was glad to find plain boxes as I didn't want the decorations to distract from the purpose of the box. I wanted a box so that we could store all of the items for the table inside from week to week.
Inside the box for the first week are liturgical cloths. The only color I don't have is rose. Since we don't need it until December I didn't stress over it. I also included a picture of the Good Shepherd and a battery operated votive candle. Here it is all set up. The votive candle actually flickers like a flame. How cool is that? I wanted little statues of the Good Shepherd but couldn't find any that were inexpensive. This actually works well. The picture is taken from The Teacher's Helper book of clip art. I love this art so much and use it often. I may add a picture of an angel to the box as we will be learning the Angel of God prayer the first month.

To begin we will be working our way through the Old Testament stories. We will start with Creation, Sin Enters the World, Abraham, Sarah and Isaac, Jacob, Moses, etc. I will begin the Life of Jesus when it makes sense: During Advent and Christmas. I like to teach about the Church and the Sacraments by combining them with stories from the Bible. I think it makes more sense for the kiddos. I'm going to post some of my ideas here this week and some of the great sites I found to be a record of what I'm doing and also in case anyone else wants to use these ideas.