It is my pleasure to welcome Mary-Kate Warner as a guest at The Religion Teacher today. She writes for a website that shares Sunday School lessons, activities, and games mostly for Protestant churches. Although I think we should also focus on Saint Valentine on Valentines Day, I love the way Mary-Kate creatively and boldly shows [...]
One of the most popular activities in religious education classrooms during the season of Advent is updating and using Advent calendars to prepare for Christmas. Advent calendars come in many different variations. Like the Jesse Tree, Advent calendars can become daily opportunities to focus each day on the preparation for Advent. The Advent calendars are [...]
Now Available: The Religion Teacher’s Advent Activity Pack and Jesse Tree Kit. The Internet is loaded with advent activities of all sorts and kids. Check out the following links to help guide your way. Here are some general advent activity hubs on the web. These pages have other great resources to check out: USCCB Advent [...]
Background to the Feast of the Epiphany The Epiphany is a celebration of the ‘revelation’ of God in human flesh. Today the Epiphany is celebrated on the Sunday between January 2nd and 8th while the actual feast day occurs on January 6th. In many European countries it is the Epiphany, rather than Christmas (Feast [...]
Christmas break is a great time to step back away from teaching and enjoy your time off. You may be looking for some good books to read or maybe you are looking to use some gift certificates from your students before you lose them. The following books rocked my socks off in 2009 and if [...]
I inevitably got this question from my students during the 3rd week of Advent. So what is the best way to answer it? You could Google it and find a number of reasons: Purple is a penitential color of fasting while pink (rose) is the color of joy. The 3rd Sunday in Advent is Gaudete [...]
Come Quickly Lord Jesus, The Whole World is Waiting for Love!This is a guest post from my wife, Jennifer Dees. She is the Assistant Director of the Notre Dame Magnifiat Schools and a master teacher. I love being Catholic for many reasons but one of the things I love the most is the way that [...]
When you pray, how do you imagine God? Do you visualize someone or something? Do you use images to help you pray? Too often we tend to focus on what we are praying for rather than the God to whom we pray. If you ask your students what they imagine when they pray, you may [...]
Eucharist means first of all “thanksgiving” (CCC, 1360). I can think of no better lesson to teach to our students this Thanksgiving week than this. There are many images that express the intense mystery that is the Eucharist, but the Eucharist as thanksgiving is the most appropriate for November. A simple connection that you can [...]
Patron Saint of Catechists: Saint Charles Borromeo (1538-1584) Feast Day: November 4 Patron Saint of Catechists: St. Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621) Feast Day: September 17 St. Charles Borromeo and St. Robert Bellarmine are the patron saints of catechists. These two men were instrumental in the many reforms of the Catholic Church during the 16th century Reformation. [...]
Get a free copy of The Religion Teacher's Guide to Lesson Planning and become one of over 6,000 subscribers to The Religion Teacher mailing list.
Connect with The Religion Teacher