Totally Catholic!

I posted my book review on this new resource called Totally Catholic! A Catechism for Kids and Their Parents and Teachers over at Catholic Bloggers Network.

You can read about it HERE.

Blessings,

Noreen

Pentecost Lapbook & Activities

I found this site called Christian Preschool Printables that has a section 

on Fruit of the Spirit Games they offer for free!

I printed a couple of these pages out and used them in a circle activity.  Students took turns and selected a card and read the situation out loud such as,

"while you are in line for snack time, a student comes and cuts in front on you.

How do you show patience?"

Each scenario asks the student to practice a Fruit of the Spirit (i.e. love, gentleness, self-control).

Even though I have first graders, they were able to brainstorm and share ideas
 on how to respond as God would ask them to.

We then worked on our Pentecost Lapbook.

I found the Pentecost picture over at Agape Worldwide.

On the inside, I included a Subway art picture of the Fruits of the Spirit that I found at La Dolce Vita.  

Kacie has created a lovely assortment of them in different colors.  

She offers them for free on her blog!  Thank you Kacie!

 I also made a book of the Symbols of the Holy Spirit which I made off of my computer.  

Nothing fancy but it gets the point across. 

Here's a close up of Kacie's work.

I also made the list of the Gifts of the Spirit and wrote the name on the outside

with an explanation of the gift when you lift the flap.

Under the picture of the Holy Spirit sending his gifts to the apostles,

I included this prayer.

Here's a better view of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit.

On the back side, I used Monica's beautiful drawing of the Holy Spirit 

she offers for free at Little Jesus and Me blog.  

She is an amazingly talented artist that offers her readers 

printable coloring pages for faith formation.

Thank you Monica!

I also found this Pope Francis trading card at That Resource Site that I gave to my students.

I give it to them in a shape of a book mark and instruct them to use it as such.

My last activity to celebrate Pentecost was an interactive discussion of how the 

symbols represented a Gift of the Holy Spirit.

I found it over at Lacy's Catholic Icing blog and realized it's geared towards 

older students but I thought my first graders would understand it well enough.

Thank you Lacy for the idea and the directions!

This was my last class for the school year.

I will miss my students!!

I sent them home with their Pentecost lapbooks, symbols of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit with the instructions, and the Pentecost cupcake.

I have shared this post over at Monica's Catholic Bloggers Network.

Blessings,

Noreen

Pentecost Dessert

UPDATE:  Check out Jen's Pentecost Flaming Cupcakes at Enter Under My Roof.

Jen's are so creative, festive and fun!

I saw this amazing idea for a Pentecost cupcake over at Catholic Cuisine 

and thought I would give it a go.

I read somewhere that it was tricky trying to get the sprinkles to stick to the mini marshmallows 

so I first checked with a friend for advice.

She said to dab a bit of sugar water onto the cut sticky part of the marshmallow to help it stick.

I also pinched the end of the marshmallow to help give it the shape of a flame.

It worked out well!

I brought them to my first graders so scaled down the amount of flames.

Didn't want to send them home on a major sugar high!

I also found another way to make the flames from melted hard candy.

They recommended butterscotch and cinnamon red hots.

Since it was for my class, I opted for a less strong flavor of Life Savers.

I only used the yellow, orange and red flavors and crushed them with my rolling pin.

Had to smack it a bit as if I was using a hammer.

I sprayed a non stick spray on my tin foil first then placed the crushed candy on top.

Placed it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 5-6 minutes until it was completely melted.

It looked like this when it was done.

I broke it up into smaller pieces and placed on my cupcake like this:

I brought a mixed platter of Pentecost flame cupcakes.

Due to the fact that I used so many different flavors in the melted candy, it had a yucky after taste.

I warned my students, but they didn't mind it at all.

It was a fun treat to teach about Pentecost!

I've shared this post at Monica's Catholic Bloggers Network and Lisa's Try a New Recipe Tuesday.

Blessings,

Noreen