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

& Father and Son:  A Nativity Story

(it talks more the role St. Joseph played in raising Jesus).

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 Holly, Jen, CeAnne 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

Novena to St. Joseph Starts Today

EWTN

Saint Joseph, I, your unworthy child, greet you. You are the faithful protector and intercessor of all who love and venerate you. You know that I have special confidence in you and that, after Jesus and Mary, I place all my hope of salvation in you, for you are especially powerful with God and will never abandon your faithful servants. Therefore I humbly invoke you and commend myself, with all who are dear to me and all that belong to me, to your intercession. I beg of you, by your love for Jesus and Mary, not to abandon me during life and to assist me at the hour of my death.

Glorious Saint Joseph, spouse of the Immaculate Virgin, obtain for me a pure, humble, charitable mind, and perfect resignation to the divine Will. Be my guide, my father, and my model through life that I may merit to die as you did in the arms of Jesus and Mary.

Loving Saint Joseph, faithful follower of Jesus Christ, I raise my heart to you to implore your powerful intercession in obtaining from the Divine Heart of Jesus all the graces necessary for my spiritual and temporal welfare, particularly the grace of a happy death, and the special grace I now implore:

(Mention your request).

Guardian of the Word Incarnate, I feel confident that your prayers in my behalf will be graciously heard before the throne of God.

Amen.

Go to EWTN for each day's devotion.  It starts today and ends on his feast day, March 19th.

St. Joseph, foster father of Jesus, pray for us!

Blessings,

Noreen