Teaching Tuesdays~ The Story of Creation

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 Welcome to another week of Teaching Tuesdays. Each week, I'm going to be sharing what we are learning in Sunday school. 

Our saint this week was Saint Martha. Saint Martha was a friend of Jesus. They had a very special friendship. Jesus often visited Martha's home. After reading a short biography about Martha. The children colored a picture of her. You can find it over at Catholic Playground. 

Martha's virtue is faith. Faith is believing in God and all He has revealed. 

After our saint and virtue lesson, we moved on to our first Old Testament Lesson... The Story of Creation. I read Alice in Bibleland The Story of Creation. The children enjoyed the story, especially since I had them make the animal sounds of all the animals mentioned in the story. 

After our story, we worked on our craft for the day. It was a creation wheel. I used this one. 

Source~Crafting the Word of God

We did an easy scavenger hunt around the room. I used a game from That Resource Site (the site is no longer around), called Know and Go Who Made It? Essentially, it consists of images of various objects, including trees, flowers, fireworks, bridges, skyscrapers, and animals. I cut the images out and taped them up around the room. The children then recorded their guesses on a worksheet. G for God and M for man. 

After our Old Testament lessons, we moved on to our Catechism lesson. I showed the children a variety of Bibles, ranging from little children's Bibles all the way to my family Bible. They learned the Bible is broken up into two parts: The Old Testament(before Jesus) and the New Testament(after Jesus). 

I had the children guess how many books are in the Bible. For Catholics, we have 73 books (Old 46/New 27). Each child is given a children's Bible to take home. 

We hand out The Jesus Storybook Bible. 

We ended class by working on the Sign of the Cross. We practiced together, and then I had each child do the Sign of the Cross on their own. This is the first year that every child already knew how to do it. I send home a coloring page with the movements home with each child. You can find it here. 

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Monique

Teaching Tuesdays~ Getting to Know One Another

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Good Morning, friends! Well, our first class was a success. I have nine adorable little ones this year. There are 6 boys and 3 girls in my class this year. I like having a smaller class. I feel like I get to know them a little better when there are not so many little ones needing help. 

Our first class is always an introduction class. We door a room tour. I explain our theme, the prayer wall, our prayer table, and the good deeds jar, and we go over the expectations and rules for the year.

I shared our theme in my previous post. I did a farm theme this year.

You can check it out here. 

Our prayer wall has posters of the 5 prayers we will be learning this year: The Sign of the Cross, The Our Father, The Hail Mary, The Glory Be, and the Guardian Angel. 

Each student has a progress chart that goes along with our farm theme. 

To get to know one another, I start with simple introductions. I have everyone, including myself, share our name, our favorite color, any pets we may have, and any sports we may play. The children love learning about each other and enjoy finding out that they have similar likes and dislikes. 

After our introductions, we play a Get To Know You Bingo game. I couldn't find the link to the one I use; I've used it for years, but a simple Google search will pop up tons of choices that would work for children of various ages. 

After our game, we talked a little bit about what a saint is and what a virtue is. I showed them our posters, where we will add a new saint and virtue each week. 

We then read the introduction and Seeing the Lord from Little Acts of Grace 2. These are a great introduction to God and how He loves us and is always with us. 

After our story, it was time to line up and head home. 

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Monique

Teaching Tuesdays~ Saint Joseph

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Happy Tuesday, friends! This week, we had a fun lesson about David and Goliath. The kids always seem to enjoy this lesson. 

We started class with the Our Father and Hail Mary. We followed our prayers with our saint and virtue of the week. 

Our saint was Saint Joseph. Saint Joseph is an important saint to learn about. He is part of the Holy Family and helped raise Jesus. His feast day is March 18th. 

We read St. Joseph's Story by Geraldine Guadagno. This book is wonderful in that it teaches children to love and appreciate Saint Joseph and teaches them about his role in Jesus's life. 

Another good book about Saint Joseph is Good Saint Joseph by Reverend Lawrence G. Lovasik

While reading the story, the children colored a picture of Saint Joseph. You can find it here. 

His virtue was obedience. Obedience is saying "yes" to the loving will of God and those he has sent to watch over us. 

We played a fun game of St. Joseph Memory Match. I found this years ago for my kids. I found it to be a great way for them to see various images of Saint Joseph. You can find it on Shower of Roses website. 

After our lesson on Saint Joseph, we added good deeds to our Good Deeds jar. We worked on our next prayer the Guardian Angel. 

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Monique

Teaching Tuesdays~ The Battle of Jericho

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Good morning and welcome back to another edition of Teaching Tuesday! We are still reading through the Old Testament stories in our children's Bible. We started class by praying the Our Father and Hail Mary. 

Our saint this week was Saint Kateri Tekakwitha the Lily of the Mohawks. Her feast day is July 14th. We read a short story about her, Kateri Tekakwitha: Model of Bravery by Barbara Yoffie. 

The kids colored a picture of her while I read the story. You can find it here. Her virtue was piety. Piety is the quality of being religious and reverent. We talked about how they can practice the virtue of piety. 

Having a respectful behavior

Showing love and care for others

Showing a genuine interest in practicing their religious teachings

Behaving in Mass

Being respectful while they pray

Learning more about their faith 

Practicing their prayers

This week, my first-grade class about the Battle of Jericho. We read the story about the Battle of Jericho. We then acted out the story. I had the children walk around the 7 times while blowing their horns. I picked up inexpensive party blowers at the store. 

We then played a fun game of Knock Down the Walls of Jericho. I took solo cups and made a pyramid with them. I then divided the kids into 2 teams. Each team took turns throwing a ball at the cups. The store with the most towers knocked down completely wins. This is a great way to get the kids active, have some fun, and learn about the Bible stories. 

If you need some more fun ideas, check out the Battle of Jericho lesson from Trueway Kids. 

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Monique

Teaching Tuesdays~ Moses and the Ten Commandments

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Good morning and Happy Tuesday! I hope y'all had a very blessed week. This week we jumped into our last week learning about Moses. We talked about Moses and the 19 Commandments.

We started class by praying the Our Father and Hail Mary.

Our saint this week was Saint Teresa of Avila. We read about Saint Teresa of Avila in the Loyola Kids Book of Saints. The children worked on a Saint Teresa of Avila coloring page while we read about her. 

Her virtue was temperance. Temperance is enjoying things in a proper, balanced way. We don't indulge, overdo, or get selfish. We added her picture and the virtue to our posters. 

After our saint and virtue lesson, we moved on to our final lesson about Moses~ Moses and the 10 Commandments. We read about Moses receiving the 10 Commandments from God in our children's Bible. 

We then went through the 10 Commandments with the help of our book, The Ten Commandments: I Obey God from Father Lovasik.

I love how this book breaks down the Ten Commandments for children. They can understand them better and it helps them prepare for the sacrament of First Reconciliation. 

The children then worked on a craft. They created a mini figure of Moses holding the Ten Commandments. You can find the craft and instructions here. 

You can print it out already colored in or you can print it out and have the kids color Moses.

The only supplies you need are empty toilet paper holders, copies of printouts, scissors, glue sticks, and crayons.

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Monique

Teaching Tuesdays~ Moses and the Red Sea

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Good morning and Happy Tuesday! We are getting close to the end of our lessons about Moses. This week we learned about Moses and the Red Sea!

We started class by praying the Our Father and Hail Mary. We then moved on to our saint and virtue of the week. This week's saint was Saint Elizabeth of Hungary. We read about Saint Elizabeth's life in A Saint a Day. The children colored a picture of Saint Elizabeth. 

Her virtue is Stewardship. Stewardship is returning to God the fruits of our time, talent, and treasure. 

Today, we read about Moses and how he helped the Isralites flee Egypt. I was going to read the story to the children, but many of them already knew the story. So instead, I had them help tell the story. I filled in the details as needed. but overall they knew this famous Bible story. I was pleased with how well they did. 

After the story, the students worked on a Moses parting the Red Sea craft. I found the idea years ago and honestly don't remember exactly where I found it. 

One students craft

Supplies Needed

Construction paper (red and blue)

Picture of Moses 

Glue Sticks

Crayons

Fish Stickers

Ocean Life Stickers

I use red construction paper as the base to remind the children of The Red Sea and blue paper for the water. We cut the blue construction paper in half and then cut strips almost to the edge but not completely. We then curl the blue strips back to show the water parting. I use a 5 x 7 size colringpage of Moses. We color Moses, cut him out, and then glue him in the middle. If I can find them, I have fish and sea life stickers so the kids can add them to picture. They always love stickers!

After our craft, we headed to the foam mats for snack and story time. This week, we read the book, Little Nellie of Holy God. After reading the book, we talked about Little Nellie and her love for God. 

We then added gems to our Children of God crowns. The children love this! We added good deeds to our jar and practiced our prayers. 

We ended class by praying the Glory Be and Guardian Angel prayers. 

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Monique

Teaching Tuesday~ Teaching About the Ephinay

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Good Morning, friends! It's been a while since I've shared one of my Sunday school lessons. I think things are finally settling down around here. 

Yesterday was the Ephinay. The day the three Wisemen visited baby Jesus. I always teach the little ones about the Ephinay the first class we have back after Christmas. 

Before the kids arrived, I had the three Wisemen and their camel in the classroom. They belong to my kid's old Fisher Price Nativity set. As they find them, the kids add them to the Nativity I have set up in the classroom. This is a fun activity that makes the kids excited every year. 

We read the story of the Nativity. I either use the kid's Bible or I read a storybook about the Nativity. One of my favorite books is The Little Golden Book The Christmas Story. 

After our story, we talked about the three Wismen and the gifts that they bring. I have pictures of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to share with the children. 

We followed our lesson with a fun Nativity craft. I bought mine at Hobby Lobby, but here is a similar craft I saw online. They had fun recreating the scene. it's simple, easy, and can be done in a short period of time. 

After our craft, we had story and snack time. While I read, The Last Straw, the kids snacked on popcorn and juice boxes. The Last Straw by Frederick Thury. The story is about an old camel who is backed to carry gifts for the newborn king. He's not happy about it, but as he walks the journey he starts to see a few amazing things. 

We finished up class by working on our prayers. We are currently working on the Our Father. 

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Monique

Teaching Tuesdays~ The Lord is Our Shephard

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Good Morning and Happy Tuesday! It's hard to believe that summer is almost over. Schools are back in session and Sunday school starts on September 8th. Summer sure did go by quickly. 

I spent a few days last week cleaning and organizing my room. Yesterday with the help of Therese, I worked on getting all my displays and decorations up. I can officially say that my room is done!

After teaching for 15 years, I have decided to recycle my very first theme, The Lord is My Shephard. My little ones will be greeted by a door filled with cute little sheep with their names. They can look over the door and search for their name. 

Every year, they are so excited to find their names. The older students that I have taught tend to stop by to see what this year's theme is. It's become a tradition in our hall. 

I continued the theme on our classroom bulletin board. 

I went really simple this year and purchased a pre-made bulletin board set. It came with Jesus, all the lambs, the fence, and bible verse posters. It was easy to put up and I can save it for another year!

For our prayer wall, I went with frogs. I actually found the package of frogs and logs at my local thrift store for $1.00. I couldn't find them online, but here is a similar set. 

I made the lily pads out of construction paper. Each lily pad has the prayers were are learning this year: Sign of the Cross, Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, and the Guardian Angel. As the students learn them, I place a sticker by the prayer to mark it off. At the end of the year, the students get a special goodie bag for all their hard work.

I added a new bulletin board to my wall this year... When Should I Pray?

This year I want to really encourage the children to pray more and rely on God for help. I think if we learn more about prayer this will help.

So far I have 11 students, I usually pick up at least 2 before the start of class, so it should be a good size this year, Last year, I had 6 students. This was difficult on days when half the class was sick. I'm excited to meet my new little sheep and help lead them to Jesus!

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Monique

Teaching Tuesdays~ August 6, 2024

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Good morning or afternoon depending on when you're reading this post. I'm typing it up after my morning chiropractor appointment and a few errands I ran this morning. Schools have yet to officially start here, but the counties will begin heading back next week. It seems crazy that summer is basically gone for the kids. Our county has 2 more weeks of summer break left. They don't go back until after the county fair. Small, rural county loves their fair.  Thankfully, we don't head back so early for Sunday school. CCD, or Sunday School, starts for us on September 8th. 

This will be my 15th year teaching 1st grade Sunday school. It doesn't;t seem like I've been doing it that long, but I guess I have. I started when Therese was in 1st grade. Boy has time flown by. 

I'm currently working on my lesson plans for next year. I've had to change a few things around. We got a new director of religious education a few years ago, and he's been slowly trying to get things set up in a different direction. He's been extremely flexible with all of us old teachers. I love the direction he's taking us in and honestly, I see why. The kids have changed quite a bit over the years. Sadly, I see fewer small children who know anything about their faith when they come to class. Many of them don't even know the basic Bible stories. Our new direction is changing that. The kids seem younger to me. Their attention span is less and their comprehension skills are not as strong as children in previous years. I have had to adapt and change how I approach the class. So some things have changed, but I definitely kept things that worked. 

This year, I'm breaking class up into segments of 10-15 minutes. Keeping them engaged and active will help them learn. I've switched out a few of my longer books to shorter ones to keep their attention. I've added a craft and a game to each lesson. Getting them up and moving helps eliminate those wiggles from boredom. I want class to be fun but I also want them to learn more about their faith and God.

So What am I Teaching?

Prayers~

We will work on the Sign of the Cross, Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, and the Guardian Angel Prayer

Saint~

We will learn about a new Catholic saint each week. We will read a brief summary about their lives and the children will each get a coloring page of the saint to color and take home. 

Virtue~

We will learn a new virtue each week that goes along with our saint of the week. We will talk about how to practice that virtue in our everyday lives. Years ago, I found an online virtue program for my kids. I have kept it and now use it with my class. It is called Virtues in Practice from the Dominican Sisters of Saint Cecelia in Nashville. 

Old Testament Lesson~

We will start at the beginning and work our way through most of the main Bible stories. I tried to focus on the ones that are fun for kids to hear and learn about.  We will be using The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name. Each student will be given their own children's Bible to take home and read.

Catechism Lesson~

We will learn about the basic beliefs of our Catholic faith. I'll use the Saint Joseph Baltimore Catechism. I used it with my kids and it was perfect for little ones. 

Each week, we will do a craft, play a game, and have a snack that goes along with one part of our lesson. Next Week, I'll share about my classroom layout and what my theme this year is going to be!

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Monique

Teaching Tuesdays~ Palm Sunday and Holy Week

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Our Saint~ Saint Kateri Tekewitha 

Saint Kateri was our saint this week. Her feast day is July 14th. She is one of the few American-born saints. She was the daughter of a Mohawk warrior. The kids were excited when they heard she had been born in what is now New York.  The girls thought she was a very beautiful saint. 

Our Virtue~ Piety

Piety is the quality of being religious and reverent. This led to a discussion on how we behave when we enter the church and how we behave during Mass. We bless ourselves when we enter the sanctuary and pay attention to the Mass. We don't talk, yell, or run around. 

The students colored in a coloring page of Saint Kateri of Tekawitha. You can find here it here. 

Here is another option and you can find a lesson on how to draw Saint Kateri at Catholicicing.com.

Our Lesson~ Palm Sunday and Holy Week~

We had a busy week this week. We learned about Palm Sunday and made our own palms to take home.

We used green construction paper and pipe cleaners. We then wrote the word, HOSANNA on the front of the palm. 

While learning about Holy Week, they colored in a picture of Jesus entering Jerusalem. 

I thought I had found it on the Saint Annes Helper website, but I don't see it anymore. They have quite a few others available. I may print out a different one for next year. You can check it out here. 

We learned about Holy Week. We talked about each day and the events that occurred leading up to the crucifixion of Our Lord. 

Palm Sunday, Holy Monday, Holy Tuesday, Holy Wednesday(Spy Wednesday), Holy Thursday(The Last Supper), Good Friday, and Holy Saturday.

The kids worked on a worksheet that helped them put the Holy Week timeline in order. 

We also had a picture of the Last Supper for them to take home. 

I used The Way of the Cross by Charles Singer to help the students learn the Stations of the Cross. 

I don't think it's available anymore, but here are two similar books that would be great to use with younger students. 

The Way of the Cross for Children

OSV Kids Stations of the Cross

Way of the Cross for Children

I had a parent donate an Easter egg wreath craft. Here is a similar wreath about Holy Week.  The students worked on that while I read the story, A Tale of Three Trees: A Traditional Tale by Angela Elwell Hunt. 

I have a lesson plan I use to go along with the book. I've had for it years. I went searching for it but can no longer find it. 

And with that, it was time to go! We actually ran out of time, but as the students reminded me we are also 5 minutes late. They are not wrong though, we always are. At least they have fun while learning!

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Monique

Teaching Tuesdays~ John the Baptist Baptizes Jesus

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Hello again! It's been a few weeks since I have posted about our Sunday school lessons. Things have been a little crazy around here. We've had a few different illnesses come through our house and it seems like things are finally settling down just in time for Advent and Christmas. 

Our Saint~ Saint Jacinta, Saint Francisco, and Saint John the Baptist

We had three saints this week. 

Our first two saints were a brother and sister who were visited by the Blessed Virgin Mary when they were just 7 and 9. Saint Jacinta and Saint Francesco are wonderful saints to introduce children to because they were children themselves!

I read a brief summary of their lives. I found most of my information online. You can read about this brother and sister here.

The children were given a coloring page to work on why we learned about these young saints. 

Our other saint this week is an important one. It was Saint John the Baptist, the cousin of Jesus! We talked about he was Jesus's cousin and why he was an important prophet. The children were given a coloring page of him to take home. 

Our Virtue~ Honesty & Zeal

We had two virtues this week to go along with our saints.

Honesty~ For Saint Jacinta and Francisco, the virtue was honesty. Honesty is being trustworthy and true. Even when they were doubted, they believed in themselves and told the truth. They didn't allow others to persuade them.

Zeal~ Saint John the Baptist is a fantastic example of zeal. Zeal is being driven by an intense love for God. Saint John the Baptist was an important prophet preparing the way for Jesus!

Old Testament Lesson~ Abram and Lot, Abraham and Sarah

We read about Abram and Lot in our children's Bible. We learned about how God chose Abraham. We learned about God's promise to Abraham and Sarah. You can find simple children's versions on the DLTK'S Sites for Kids.

After reading the Bible stories, the kids had some fun working on a few worksheets. 

Abram and Lot Maze

Abraham and Sarah Maze

Abraham and Sarah Word Search

New Testament Lesson~ John Baptizes Jesus

For our New Testament lesson, we learned about how John the Patist baptized his cousin, Jesus. We read the story of how Jesus asked John to baptize him. We talked about original sin, baptism, and the Holy Spirit. The children then worked on a cute shell craft about the Baptism of Our Lord. You can find the craft and the free printables at Catholic Inspired. 

Additional Lesson~ Honesty and the Spider Craft

When we learn about the virtue of honesty, I always include this cute spider story and craft. The kids love it every year. 

You can read more about this lesson here.

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                                                 Monique