children

 

Activities for Children

 

When Christ identified his family, he included all persons as his sisters and brothers. Thus, from its beginnings the Catholic Church has promoted Christ’s teaching that we are all related as people of God, regardless of color, culture, immigration status, citizenship or ethnicity. As a way to educate children on this fact, USCCB/MRS has developed an educational guide titled “Who are My Sisters and Brothers?"
This Educational Guide is intended to help parents, educators and catechists to shape knowledge, attitudes, values and skills so that all will better understand and more warmly welcome immigrants and refugees.


It is comprised of lesson plans and resources for Grades K-12 for use by Catholic school teachers, catechists and parents and includes handouts and resources to be used by both teachers and students. Students can access these directly from the student section of the website. Teachers can link to the handouts and resources related to each lesson plan directly from the lesson plans.

To access this study guide, please visit: /mrs/sistersandbrothers/index.shtml

 

 

 

 


“For I was a stranger and you welcomed me…” (Mt. 25)

List of Resources

There are a wide range of other activities created for children that can help them to understand and appreciate the Church’s teachings on migration.  Below is a list of resources that should be helpful in this regard. 

Saints of Many Lands
Children’s Olympics
Migration Timeline
Passport to the World
My Backpack
Ideas for Youth Programs

Useful Tools

Three other useful tools that will help children come to terms with ethnic diversity and the real problems that many communities outside the United States confront can be found below:


Welcoming and Orienting Newcomer Students to U.S. Schools

This document provides a useful master list of important resources educators can use to help refugee migrant children adjust to their new educational environment in the United States.  To access this material, click here.

Appreciating America’s Heritage: Immigration Resource Guide for K-12 Educators, America Immigration Law Foundation, Washington, DC, 2009

This instructional guide for teachers provides lesson plans to introduce students, especially those who may not be exposed directly to ethnically diverse populations to the topic of immigration


The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has a wide range of free educational material for all age groups that can be used by teachers in their classrooms to educate their students on issues related to refugees and cultural differences.  They also offer lesson plans that can be used for children as young as nine years old to up to eighteen.  Topics covered include basic information on refugees to a more in-depth discussion on such issues as human rights.  To gain access to this material, please visit UN Refugees.org: