Introducing the Rosary

  1. Have a rosary for each child. If you don’t have a class set, please ask Beth and she will help you get the number you need. I like to use the rosary that has a color bead for the Our Father. It helps the children make that transition. In my classroom, the set of rosaries I have are different color beads and I let the children chose the rosary they want to use.

I go over some rules with the children. The main rule is that the rosary is blessed and we do not play with it by twirling it around or wearing it as a necklace or bracelet. We hold it in our hand.

  1. In our classroom, we pray the rosary at 6:45. It is a good time for us to finish our lesson, pray the rosary and then start our activity at 7:00. You will need to find your transition time that works for you. I have prayed the rosary the last 15 minutes of class but this doesn’t allow for us to go to chapel. (More about this later)
  1. We learn how to pray the rosary on the first night of RE class. The students will make a rosary using an outline on paper and using pompoms. Then the 2nd. Week, I have handouts that have the prayers for the rosary and one for the mysteries. I place all of these in a plastic bag so that their rosary, and prayers are in one spot. I write their names on the plastic baggie. This way when it is time to say the rosary the children get their baggie.
  1. When we first start praying the rosary, as a class we pray the prayers in their entirety and as the year goes on we then have different children leading the prayer and we respond.

Timeline for the Rosary

September 3 – The first night of RE, teach the basics of the rosary as described above using the outline of the rosary and students glue pompoms.

September 10 – Students will receive their rosaries that they will use for the year as well as prayers for the rosary. We will lay the rosary on the table and go over the prayers. Rosaries will be placed in baggies along with the mystery paper and a copy of prayers.

September 17- Begin the rosary, saying the 1st. chaplet. We will go out to the rosary garden and have students stand on the plates. Each student takes a turn saying the prayer. Depending on the number of students you have, make sure everyone has a part in a prayer or stating the mystery.

September 24 – 2nd. chaplet at the rosary garden

October 1 – 3rd. chaplet at the rosary garden

October 8 – 4th chaplet, at the rosary garden

October 15 – Mass only. No rosary chaplet.

October 22 - 5th. Mystery, at the rosary garden.

October 29 – Beginning of a new mystery. When we start the next mystery, we go to chapel to say our chaplets. I start about 10 minutes before we walk to the chapel. You will have to look at your lesson and make adjustments because the first time you go it will take longer than 15 minutes. You will need to teach your children how to enter the chapel. Do not assume they know how. Please look to see if the Blessed Sacrament is exposed because the children will need to learn to kneel on both knees before entering the pews. When you get back to the classroom you can explain in more detail about the Blessed Sacrament. You can also take time the next week when you go to explain the Blessed Sacrament there at chapel. There are usually people there at chapel and if you ask if they mind if you explain to the children they won’t mind. I then take 2 children at a time up to see the Blessed Sacrament up close. Again allow for time if you do this.

When you start going to chapel, please remember to be reverent and teach the children to be reverent by example. Also remember that when you walk into Chapel, look to see if the Blessed Sacrament is exposed.

You continue to go to chapel for the rosary. If you finish you chaplet early allow the children to do some adoration. Sometimes we have about 2-4 minutes. We end our visit to the chapel if we do adoration with 3 Hail Mary’s. At this time, we go down the line and each person says the first part of the prayer and we respond.

When we return from the Christmas Break in January. About 10 minutes before we go to Chapel, pick a leader to lead the prayers. I usually divide this by picking a person to lead the Glory Be, The Mystery, and the Our Father. We then go down the line and each person will lead the first part of the prayer and we respond.

As we get closer to the end of RE, when there are about 3 weeks of RE, I ask the class each of those weeks to decide among themselves who will lead the rosary and by this I mean who will say the Glory Be, The mystery and the Our Father. The class becomes responsible of walking into the chapel and beginning the chaplet on their own with very little direction from me. I look at time and see if we have time for adoration.

In the Classroom

I have a spot in my classroom where I put the mystery we are saying for the week. This year I will have the prayers posted in my classroom.

I have games which involve matching the mysteries and a Rosary game. Sometimes we get this out toward the end of class or if we are doing an activity and I have some children who finish quickly.

I also have handouts for each of the mysteries and the children color and read the mysteries. They are separated into the joyful, luminous, sorrowful and glorious mysteries. I pass these handouts accordingly to which mystery we are saying.