Preparing for first confession

My second graders recently made their first confession. I don't particularly care to call it first penance.
During their preparation we worked on learning the Act of Contrition. It has been my experience that this is a difficult prayer for kids to learn, even more difficult than the Apostle's Creed. Although when I teach any prayer I explain line by line what the prayer is saying, for some reason this one needs constant explanation. So this year I found a new way to teach it that seems to work better.

Oh my God I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell, but most of all because the offend you my God, who art all-good and worthy of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life. Amen.

This time we spent parts of several classes acting out the prayer. Someone played God, part of the room was heaven and part of the room was hell. We pretended that someone would do something wrong that would offend "God". Before class I would coach some of the offenders to be sorry for their sins and some to not be sorry for their sins. Those who were sorry "confessed" their sins, did their penance and changed their ways. This made our "God" happy. Those who were not sorry lost the chance to be in the corner of our room that was heaven and had to spend part of the class in the corner that was hell. This has been the easiest class that I have ever taught the act of contrition to.