Monday, March 18, 2013

Easter Lesson Plan

I have found so many wonderful ideas and ways to teach about Easter that it 
gets hard to choose at times, what to do!  
This was my last class before Easter and I wanted to impress the importance of the Passion of Jesus and His Resurrection on my students.  
I wanted them to remember His Suffering and Death and His Glorious Resurrection this coming Holy Week.  And not focus so much on Easter eggs and the Easter Bunny. 
I think through our activities, they walked away with a basic understanding.
At least, I pray they did.
Here is our prayer table.  I kept the crown of thorns and purple cloth since we focused on Holy Week as well as Easter.  We will change our cloth when we return in a couple of weeks.


The St. Joseph trading card (which I left in a shape of a bookmark) came from That Resource Site.
I found both books at my local library, they are Legend of the Dogwood by Brenda Gough

Legend of the Dogwood

& Father and Son:  A Nativity Story
(it talks more the role St. Joseph played in raising Jesus).

Father and Son

I have an active group of first graders who enjoy games so I started them out with a 
Stations of the Cross Scavenger Hunt.
I had 14 items that represented each station partially hidden around the room and
 sent them off to find them.
Here is an example of the one I used from Holly at Three Sided Wheel blog.  I didn't have on hand
all the items she mentioned so I changed a few of them.
You should check out her blog for many great Lenten Activities!


I downloaded a picture of  Michelangelo's Pieta &


the Shroud of Turin.  
My printer was acting up and the pictures turned out discolored :(
I'll be needing a new printer, I think.


Here is a picture of all of my Scavenger Hunt Items:


Once my students found all of the items, we put them back in my green container (Holly has a much cuter labeled container!) And gathered together in a circle.

I used Jennifer from Family in Feast and Feria blog's colored Stations of the Cross printable.
She kindly offers them to her readers for free and so much more to celebrate Lent.
Go check out her blog HERE.  Thank you Jennifer!


Here's a better view.  They're really beautiful!


What we did was I announced a station and read what it was.  Then I asked one student to find the symbol in the box and try to explain it's purpose.
They each were able to look at the picture and handle the symbol.
This was a very hands on meaningful way for the children to learn the Way of the Cross.

Then just a couple of days ago, I found this super cute Resurrection craft from Jen at Enter Under My Roof blog.  I didn't have the needed felt so we created ours from cardstock.  Not quite as cute as Jen's but it did turn out nicely.  Here is my sample:
(it doesn't show clearly in the picture but I lightly shaded the tomb with a grey colored pencil.)


The tomb opens up to reveal a stained glass announcement of 
"He is Risen!"


I pre-cut many different rectangular colored shapes for my students to pick and choose from.
The idea is to make it look like stained glass.
Jen's stands out really good with the felt, but this worked cute.


 Jen has a great step by step explanation on how to make her craft out of felt.
You can see it HERE.  Thank you Jen!

I also found a really nice coloring page of St. Joseph at Sanctus Simplicitus.
Thank you CeAnne!

I sent home a bag of Easter Symbols as a small gift to my students.
But this is long enough, so I'll make that post in a day or two.

Thank you to HollyJenCeAnne and That Resource Site for sharing all of your talents and creativity with the rest of us!  I often wish that I could learn how to create my own activities and share them with others, but I don't have the skill set to do so.  And yet there are so many wonderful sharing Catholic bloggers out there that I don't have to re-invent the wheel!

I've shared this post at Jennifer's Lenten Link Up at Catholic Inspired.

Blessings,
Noreen

14 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Other bloggers are the creative force behind the resources. I certainly can not take credit in originating a single of them! But I am thrilled that I'm able to use them with my class. My students are blessed through the works of others much more talented than I!

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  2. Replies
    1. Thanks Jen! Yours done in the felt turned out more eye catching but cardstock is what I had to work with! Thank you for sharing your talents :)

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  3. WOW, love this idea!!
    Noreen.you are a winner of my giveaway:
    http://campfiresandcleats.blogspot.com/2013/03/st-josephs-day-todays-literary-picks.html

    Wanted to let you know:)
    Congrats and when you have a chance, pls email me with your address:
    mytwosons65 AT gmail.com

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Chris! I will send you an email right now!

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  4. You must be a wonderful teacher with a great lot of patience to do all that. Thank you on your pupils' behalf.

    God bless you.

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  5. Hi Noreen!! Everything looks so nice! Those kids must love having you as a teacher!!!
    I love the dogwood book and it goes right along with my dogwood craft: http://www.catholicinspired.com/2012/04/the-legend-of-dogwood-tree-crafts-and.html
    Thanks for linking-up on my blog and thanks for all you do with helping to teach the faith to the kids! God Bless!

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    Replies
    1. If I had more time, I would have loved to have my students make your craft!

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  6. Wow! That is great, I wish I could do things like that. Good work.

    I heard about your blog from Sue, she is wonderful. Thank you for sharing.

    God bless.

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    1. Hi Charlotte-Mary, if I can do it, you certainly can. There are so many wonderful resources to choose from that sometimes I have a hard time selecting one :) Thank you for visiting :)

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  7. Fabulous Easter plans, Noreen! Legend of the Dogwood is one of my favorites:) That craft is so simple and cute. I'm off to check out Jen's place. Thank you and wishing you a blessed Holy Week!

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    Replies
    1. Hi Tiffany, thank you for your kind words. If you don't know Jen, you'll be inspired by her!

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