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…
Activities
St. Cecilia, Patron Saint of Music, Activities and Prayers
The feast day of St. Cecilia, patron saint of music falls perfectly right around Thanksgiving on November 22. The days around Thanksgiving can be either stressful with exams or laid back with movies and break.
How to Hold a Class Debate that Gets Kids Excited
One of the best ways to encourage critical thinking is to provide students with the opportunity to have a debate in class. Not all students necessarily know how to hold a class debate so they may need some in-class debate formats to follow along with some time to prepare for the debate. Consider using the…
Using Facebook Questions to Teach Religion
More and more teachers are integrating social media into education. I’m glad to see teachers taking small steps in this direction. One natural tool to do this is Facebook’s Questions function. First, let me admit that when I was a teacher I was very wary of Facebook. I was very afraid of my students finding…
New Resources to Teach the Changes to the Catholic Mass
I am excited to release The Religion Teacher’s New Roman Missal Student Activity Pack! If you are looking for resources to teach young people about the changes to the Catholic Mass, you will appreciate the worksheets, lesson plans, PowerPoints in The Religion Teacher’s New Roman Missal Student Activity Pack. The Religion Teacher’s New Roman Missal…
Catholic Saints Birthday Project
Have you ever wondered which saints’ feast day is on your birthday? I bet your students haven’t taken the time to do the research. Give them the opportunity to find out as a Catholic saints birthday project. This could be a fun end-of-the-year project or a great way to start off the school year. One…
Rite of Confirmation Lesson Plan
According to the National Directory for Catechesis, there are two approaches to teaching ritual: the inductive method and the deductive method (NDC, 29). I wrote about these two approaches in a general way in a recent article published in the National Catholic Educational Association’s journal, Momemtum (February/March 2011, pp. 22-23). In the lesson plan below,…
Student Prayer Partners
Looking for ways to foster meaningful prayer experiences in your religious education classes? Try assembling students as prayer partners for a quarter, semester, year, or month. The more ownership you can give students over their faith and prayer lives, the more they will learn about themselves, God, and others.
Catholic Schools Week 2011 Ideas and Activities
Here is another great collection of Catholic schools week ideas and activities by Jennifer Dees and Meghann Robinson, both employees of the Alliance for Catholic Education program at the University of Notre Dame. This year’s Catholic Schools Week theme is A+ for America and I think they have come up with a great list of…
The Human Board Game to Review for Exams
This is one of the most fun review games I have used with my students. It is a human board game, because the students become the pieces and create the game board themselves. It is a great way to get students out of their desks and moving around.
