Religion Resources

"Seek God in all things, and we shall find God close by our side."

St. Peter Claver, SJ

Religion consists of Religious Education (Kindergarten through Grade 8) and Family Life Education (Grades 1 to 8).

In Grades 1 to 8, Religion should be allotted 30 minutes per day on your timetables. 4 days per week for Religious Education and 1 day per week for Family Life Education.

Curriculum Documents

Grs 1 - 8

Grs 1 - 8

**NEW**

2025-2026 School Year Theme

School Year Theme Page on Employee Connect.

Virtual Chapel

https://sites.google.com/smcdsb.on.ca/chapel/home

Digital Citizenship

and the OCSGEs

Institute for Catholic Education (ICE):

Digital Citizenship

ICE has created a Digital Citizenship web page. It includes:

Poster aligning digital citizenship with the Ontario Catholic Graduate Expectations (perhaps these prompts could be used for student self-reflection)
A monograph: Our Online Witness (to help us understand Christus Vivit and think about the importance of digital culture in the lives of the young, and our call to accompany them in their faith journey)
1 minute videos focussed on each Catholic Graduate Expectation

Religious Education

Growing in Faith, Growing in Christ

Growing in Faith, Growing in Christ is the Religious Education Program mandated in Catholic schools by the Ontario Bishops. Visit the new Growing in Faith, Growing in Christ resource page for access details and recordings of the recent walkthroughs. Grade 8 navigational resources are linked there as well.

GIFGIC is now available for all Grades inclusive of Kindergarten and Grades 1 to 8.

Kindergarten

Kindergarten Supplementary Resource - Sowing Seeds: Inquiry, Faith and Early Learners
Kindergarten alignment to Grade 1 GIFGIC

Teaching in a Confirmation Year

Resources to support the preparation for the Sacrament of Confirmation (Grade 7 or 8 as appropriate)

Family Life Education

B&B_ProgramFeatures_Flyer.pdf

Family Life Education - Blessed & Beloved & Fully Alive

Fully Alive

The Bishops of Ontario have indicated that the Fully Alive resource will continue to be the only Family Life Education resource used in Grades 3-8 with the support of concordance charts and lessons These new resources will support the revised curriculum implementation.

Teachers need to use the online PDF version of the Fully Alive student text and teacher guide is available in this Google Folder. You can also find the resources on Brightspace.

Go to: Brightspace > Religion button (top right hand side of navigation bar) Please do not move files from the folder. If you wish to "save" a copy we suggest creating a shortcut. Please note we are using the online PDF teacher guide, printed copies in schools may not have the updated content. Here's a link directly into the Brightspace "course" page to allow you to access the Fully Alive resources online.

The Family Life Education curriculum has been updated as of September 2024 to incorporate the use of the Blessed & Beloved programme for use in Grades 1 and 2 classrooms only. Blessed & Beloved resources for Grades 3-8 will be rolled out each year over the next several years. Grades 1 and 2 educators must transition over to Blessed & Beloved, however, Grades 3-8 must continue to use Fully Alive until their resources become available.

Blessed & Beloved

Grades 1 and 2 classroom educators must access the electronic Blessed & Beloved resources via your Brightspace account here (Grade 2 teachers, or new Grade 1 teachers may find a delay in their access, as this onboarding is underway now... ).

For the time being, if you don't have your login credentials already, you will need to reach out to our Religious Education & Chaplaincy Services Coordinator, Edward Ross, to get them.

Check back periodically for updates on credentials!

Elementary Teaching Resources

Resources related to the Fully Alive Program can be found here. The resources include parent letters and updated supplementary materials to support the HPE 2019 curriculum updates.

Please note that the family letter should be sent home for each theme, and especially for Theme 3: Created Sexual Male and Female as this provides families with the exemption if they wish. See this memo (Feb 2020) for more details. Theme 3 letters for each grade are found here on the Institute for Catholic Education elementary Fully Alive site. Go to your grade's drop down.

Fully Alive combined grade (Combined grades from Gr 2-8) planning templates can be found here (with thanks to the Toronto Catholic DSB).
Fully Alive is the programme used to deliver Family Life Education. It is sponsored by the Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Ontario.