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~ 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 Tuesdays~ Moses and the 10 Plagues

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Good morning and Happy Tuesday! It's another addition of Teaching Tuesday. 

Our Saint this week was Saint Therese of Lisieux. Her virtue is reverence. Reverence is showing your deepest respect for things of God. We read The Little Flower. The children colored a picture of Saint Therese. 

We are still learning about Moses. We are about halfway through our lessons about Moses. This week we learned about Moses and the 10 plagues.

We read the story about Moses and the 10 plagues from our children's Bible. In class, we use the Jesus Storybook Bible.

I found a wonderful resource online that does an entire lesson for this lesson. It has coloring pages, activity worksheets, crafts, and games. You can find it here. I print out a few of the worksheets for the kids to work on. 

We then made a frog craft which the children loved.

We used the template included in the lesson and then used the following supplies.

Copies of the template on plain copy paper

Crayons

Scissors

Glue

Yarn 

Tape

Toilet Paper roll cut down to size

The kids then had fun trying to get the fly into the opening of the toilet paper roll. 

Once the children were done with their craft, we worked on our prayers and added more good deeds to our good deeds jar. 

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Monique

Teaching Tuesdays~ Moses and the Burning Bush

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This past Sunday, we continued our journey with Moses. We picked up with Moses when he was a young man. He sees his people suffering, He sees an Egyptian kill a Hebrew man and Moses does the unthinkable. He gets so angry, he beats the Egyptian to death and buries him in the sand. Moses flees in fear and settles in Midian. Years passed and Moses rebuilt his life until one day God speaks to Him. God decides to speak to Moses through the burning bush. He asks Moses to free his people. He asks Moses to return to Egypt. 

This story always shocks the kids. They can't believe that Moses killed someone. They also know that Moses would be afraid to head back to Egypt. 

I give each child a coloring page to color while I read the Bible story to them. 

After we finished the story, the kids worked on their burning bush craft.

Supplies Needed~

Blue construction paper

Red/Orange/Yellow tissue paper 

Markers

Crayons

Moses coloring page

Each child colored Moses and then cut him out. They traced one hand onto the blue construction paper to be the burning bush. We used brown markers for this task. They glued Moses next to the bush. To make the bush look like it was burning, the kids glued pieces of red, orange, and yellow tissue paper to the bush. This is the fun part.

Next week we'll learn about Moses and the 10 plagues!

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Monique

Teaching Tuesdays~ Baby Moses

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Good Morning, friends! It's been a few weeks since I shared one of my Sunday school lessons. We did miss class one Sunday because of snow. 

We are currently learning about Moses. I break up the stories about Moses over a few weeks. He was so important and did so many things that it's hard to cram all of his life into one lesson, so I spread it out.

Week 1~ Baby Moses

Week 2~ Moses flees and the Burning Bush

Week 3~ The 10 Plagues

Week 4~ The Red Sea

Week 5~ Moses and the Ten Commandments 

Before the kids arrived for class, I hid a small baby in the classroom. I use a Barbie Baby from a set Therese got as a child. I need to find a small basket to place the baby in. After we read the story of Baby Moses, I have them search for Baby Moses in the classroom. 

The story I read was The Story of Baby Moses from the Alice in Bibleland series. I love all the stories in this collection and the kids always enjoy the stories too. 

After Baby Moses was found, we worked on a craft. I found this cute Baby Moses Handprint craft online. 

Source~ NonToyGifts

The kids had a blast painting, tracing their hands, and putting the pieces together. This year's class loves crafts and playing Bingo. 

Once the craft was done, we worked on our prayers, added a few good deeds to our good deeds jar, and had a snack.

We finished up class by saying the Glory Be and Guardian Angel prayers. Since this past Sunday was the last Sunday of the month, the kids got to choose a prize from the Prize box.  

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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~ 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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 God Bless and Till Next Time, 

Monique