This is a guest post by my wife, Jennifer Dees, who currently works for the Alliance for Catholic Education. Jen taught fourth grade in Nashville for four years and since then has helped out with Catechesis of the Good Shepherd at our parish. Like every good parent, when my kids jump into the car after a…
The Religion Teacher Blog
The Five Finger Prayer Method for Kids
As religious educators we are always looking for prayer ideas and activities that involve movement and hand motions for our children to participate more fully in their faith. As Christians we are programmed to pray with our hands usually held together tightly. The five finger prayer method is a great way for children to literally…
Year of Faith Activities and Ideas for Religious Educators
On October 11, 2012 the Catholic Church will begin a celebration of the “Year of Faith” to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Second Vatican Council and the twentieth anniversary of the publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The year will be quite busy, beginning with a Synod on “The New Evangelization for…
Lesson Plan: Jesus as a Boy in the Temple
Very little is known about Jesus’ life when he was a boy. We have only one story about Jesus between his birth and life as an adult. In the Gospel of Luke, the boy Jesus is accidentally left in Jerusalem by his parents. They later find him listening and teaching in the temple as if…
4 Ways to Help Students Learn the Books of the Bible
Every year that I teach young people, I’m amazed by how little they know about the Bible. I’ll say, “turn to Luke, chapter fifteen” and wait for four or five minutes for students to find the right page. It doesn’t matter what age group it is. High school juniors seem to take just as long…
The Chalk Talk Teaching Strategy
One of my favorite teaching strategies is chalk talk. I can’t help but think that the reason I like it so much is the fact that it gets the students thinking rather than talking out. Chalk Talk is simple. The #1 rule is no talking. Students talk with the chalk. Various students are given chalk (markers)…
This Summer at The Religion Teacher
I don’t share personal updates at The Religion Teacher very often, but there is a lot going on right now and I want to explain why you’ve seen so few new resources, activities, lesson plans, and videos. For almost a year and a half now I’ve been waking up at 5:00am to get work done….
Feast of the Ascension Activities
Forty days after Easter Sunday we celebrate the Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus’s ascension into heaven is recounted in Mark 16:19-20, Luke 24:50-53, and Acts 1:6-12. There are a number of Ascension activities that you can do in your classrooms or at home with your children from various websites below….
Prayer Table Ideas for Religious Educators
Somewhere inside almost every religious education room or religion teacher’s room is a prayer table. Teachers and catechists use these prayer tables at various times and at various levels in throughout the year. Some pray with it daily; some let them collect dust in the back of the room. The following prayer table ideas are…
The 7 Gifts of the Holy Spirit Lesson Plan & Worksheet
If you sat down to think about it, you could probably come up with a long list of things that God gives us to make us better people. There are a whole host of gifts that allow us to reach our dreams and conquer our greatest challenges, but based on the Scriptures (Isaiah 11:2-3) and…
