Our Prayers for Our Common Home

Nursery wrote prayers together after learning about Laudato Si. 

Heavenly Father,

Help us to look after the world.

We promise to tidy up litter.

We will help the world if it is sick.

Help us clean up the water.

We will help the plants to grow.

We will share.

Thank you, God for making the world so we can live.

Amen

Father in Heaven,

Help us to save the animals.

Help us to share with people.

Thank you for the world and all of the animals and us.

We promise to help clean up the earth.

Amen

Hello God,

Help us to share with other people.

We promise to put our rubbish in the bin.

Help us to clean the rivers.

We promise to look after the sea so the animals can be healthy.

We love your beautiful world.

Amen

We are learning how to care for Our Common Home. We will learn how to protect and pray for the world. Pope Francis wrote a letter to everyone in the world asking us all to care for the planet and each other. What can you do to help? 

What is the Holy Spirit like? We made red wavy bracelets to explore how the wind moves thing even though we can’t see it. We can blow on our hands and feel our breath but our breath is invisible. We wondered how Mary felt when the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost. Was it warm? Did she feel love? 

Nursery joined the school for an assembly about Mary. We learned that she has lots of names - Queen of Heaven, Our Lady of Lourdes and so many more.

We followed Y5 in a procession to bring flowers to the statue of Mary. We listened carefully to the words as the whole school said a decade of the rosary. 

We went to our first school Mass. Year 2 lead the Mass. We listened, prayed and sang. We will gather with the whole school for masses for the rest of the year. We noticed that Father Sean wore red today. 

We went to church to look at the Stations of the Cross. We talked about the images and what was happening. We thought about how Jesus, Mary and the disciples might have felt. We had a lot of questions too. 

Why did Jesus die? Why did Jesus give His friends bread? 

Why did the soldiers take Jesus? Did He do something bad?

Was the cross heavy? Why did Jesus carry it? 

We are doing so well at keeping our Lenten Promises. Every time we keep a promise we put a lolly stick in the jar. We have noticed how our promises are making our YN team stronger and happier. Our prayers are bringing us closer to God and each other. 

We are learning new hymns to sing in Lent. Maybe you can sing them at home and listen out for them in Mass. 

God of Mercy

God of mercy, you are with us
Fill our hearts with kindness.

God of patience, strong and gentle
Fill our hearts with your kindness.

Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy upon us.

Christ have mercy, Christ have mercy, Christ have mercy upon us.

Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy upon us.

Open Our Eyes to see

Open our eyes to see,

Open our ears to hear,

Open our lives to live your calling

Open us Lord to love.

During Lent we change our prayer cloth from green to purple. During Lent we will pray more and try our best to do good things for others. Our Lenten calendar will help us.

We listened to the parable of the 10 coins. A woman had 10 coins. She lost one, searched for it and rejoiced when she found it again. This parable reminds us that God loves and wants us all.

We celebrated our feast day together. We enjoyed a french treat - a croissant. We heard the story of St Bernadette. We drew pictures of Mary with her blue sash, rosary and flowers at her feet. We wondered about how Bernadette felt when no-one believed her. We ended our day with a prayer service gathered around our pictures and a statue of Mary.

We are learning the Hail Mary prayer next. Can you say this prayer? We ask Mary to pray with us when we say it. 

Hail Mary full of Grace, the Lord is with thee.
Blessed are thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus.
Holy Mary Mother of God,
pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death
Amen.

We have started having dinner at school. Before we eat we say this prayer: 

Bless us O Lord

As we sit together

Bless the food we eat today

Bless the hands that made our food

Bless us O Lord

Amen

Can you remember the prayer too?

We visited the crib in church. We talked about who was there when Jesus was born. We retold this very special story. Can you retell the story of the Nativity? 

Nursery class have looked at Advent wreathes around our school and church. They have a circle of evergreen leaves, three purple candles, one pink candle and one white candle. Another one is lit every Sunday in Advent until the final one is lit at Christmas.

We are making a wreath using an old green jumper. It was cut into strips. We tied the drips to a wire circle. Next we need to make the candles. 

The Nursery Prayer Bag will be sent home to share every week. The photograph shows some of the things in the bag. We would like every child to have a turn exploring the items and creating their own prayer service. 

We are learning the hymn ‘He invites us to His Banqueting Table’. We have lots of actions to help us remember the words. Can you sing this hymn? 

We went to visit the church. We talked about what happens in church. Some children knew that we listen to Father Sean. Others said we need to be quiet and pray. We talked about coming to church with our families who care for us. We thanked God for caring for us too. We even found Father Sean's chair. 

There was lots to look at in church. We noticed images of Jesus and Mary in lots of places. We especially liked the knight in his armour in the stained glass window. 

We gathered together to hear the story of Creation. We said thank you for all that we have and all that we can do. We sang ‘Who made the Twinkling Stars’. How will you give thanks for our amazing world? 

M and G are the Liturgy Leads for Nursery class. They are helping us to learn how to make the Sign of the Cross. We practise our school prayers with them too. 

We talked about all the things we love to do. We said thank you to God. We are glad we can enjoy so many things. What are you grateful for? 

We have started school!

Welcome to Nursery Class. This is our morning prayer. We say it to ask God to be with us through our day of learning and play. You can practise it at home too.

Father in heaven, you love me,

you are with me night and day.

I want to love you always

in all I do and say.

I’ll try to please you, Father,

bless me through the day.

Amen.