Ready-To-Go Game Shows (St. Mary's Press)

Summer is coming to an end again, and that means that Catholic Religious Education is about to start again...in less than a week in fact. I've been a catechist for five years, and I have taught from 3rd Grade to 7th Grade. Each of them have their challenges, but they also have their rewards as well. Even teaching the same grade in consecutive years, I've learned that no two classes are alike. For that reason, I am always trying to find ways to improve my lessons. I am not that creative, but my wonderful co-teacher (my lovely wife), has enough creativity for three people. I, instead, turn to books for ideas. Today, I would like to introduce you to a series of books called Ready-To-Go Game Shows.

There are three volumes in the Ready-To-Go Game Show series - Essential Catholic Beliefs, Bible, and Catholic Teachings and Practices. Each volumes is spiral-bound and is 125 to 200+ pages long. The games are geared toward the teen crowd, but they provide enough games and material that you can play them with children a little younger, like 8 to 9 years old. Each book is divided into the specific game show with multiple options for each one. Some examples of the game shows are as follows:

1. Who Wants to be a Catholic Millionaire
2. Faithful Feud (Family Feud)
3. Catholic Jeopardy
4. Holy, Holy, Holy Squares (Hollywood Squares)
5. The Church is Right (The Price is Right)
6. The Real Fortune (Wheel of Fortune)
7. Catholic Pictionary
8. 10,000 Shekel Pyramid ($10,000 Pyramid)
9. Holy Pursuit (Trivial Pursuit)

I was intrigued with how you could play The Price is Right with the Catholic Church, so I immediately went to this section. Apparently, you ask the children number related questions, like "How many books are in the Bible?" or "What year did Christianity become a universal religion?" I'm sure you can also think of some others on your own. The child who gets closest to the answer then moves on to the next round where they are given 60 seconds to put the parts of the Mass in order or Feast Days and Holy Days of Obligation in order. There is no final round, but there are enough questions in the first two rounds that it should give every child a chance to participate, even if you have to have students team up.

The books are a little pricey at about $22 each, but when you think about the amount of games in each book and the permissions granted to reproduce the pages in these books, they easily pay for themselves after one year's use...if not sooner. It does take a bit of effort to prepare to play each of these games, but the amount of money required to play these games is zero to very minimal depending on how nicely you want the games to look. I highly recommend these books and think that they should be in every religious education program. Be sure to check out other titles from the Ready-To-Go series that include skits, because not every kid is going to love game shows.

These books were provided to me for free by St. Mary's Press in exchange for honest reviews.