The story of St. Patrick is one of my favorite stories. I love how he used shamrocks to teach others about the Holy Trinity. It is such a beautiful example because he used something that everyone had seen and experienced. This is exactly the way I like to teach – taking things from a child’s environment and making them into Orthodox lessons! In honor of the Holy Trinity, I have three activities that you can use at home or in the classroom!
At our church we always have a Holy Friday retreat for the kids. We have activities planned to help them learn more about the important events of the day and of Christ’s Resurrection. A couple of years ago I had to teach the kids the hymn, Christ is Risen. Since my group was preschool through 6th grade, a lot of the kids may not be reading or not reading well enough to read the bigger words. My teacher brain was thinking of ideas to help the non-readers be able to sing along. I’m sure many of you have seen early reader books where they have the text and a small picture that shows the word. I love how icons tell stories and especially love it when a hymn describes exactly what is happening in the image, so I decided to make a visual version of the hymn for my students. (more…)
Do you ever feel like it’s difficult to find active games for Sunday School? Kids need to move around and I’m always scouring the web to find things that get the kids up and out of their seats! Well, I have a very fun game with an Orthodox twist to it. It’s perfect to do with your kids or in the church school classroom!
Hello! I hope you enjoyed reading my post about the life of St. Basil and the book, “The Lucky Cake.” Today, I’m going to share with you a fun activity I did with my kids. We made our own Vasilopita out of paper plates! They loved this game and want to play it over and over.
The new year will be here before you know it! I wanted to let you know about an awesome book to help your little ones learn about the tradition of the Vasilopita (vah-see-LOW-pita) and St. Basil. First, let’s talk about this neat tradition. (more…)
“Children are great imitators, so give them something GREAT to imitate!” -Anonymous
Every day I have every intention of praying all day. I go to bed with such a positive attitude that tomorrow will be the day that I will pray unceasingly. “I won’t forget to pray,” I tell myself. I will be closer to God. I will be filled with the Holy Spirit. I drift off to sleep…
My alarm goes off and then the reality hits. My mind starts racing about all the tasks I need to do to get the kids on the bus in time. All the things I cannot forget. While I’m doing one thing, my kids interrupt me with things that they need. After I’ve had a few digressions from my original task, I’m faced with the burning question, “Now, wait a minute……what was I doing 10 minutes ago??” Then the cycle starts over again. Ahhh! With all of these things going on in my head, I had to figure out a way to REMEMBER to pray. (more…)
Today it was snowy and cold outside. No one wanted to go out and play, but the kids needed some exercise. So we had our own walk-a-thon!! (more…)
Today I am going to share a couple of crafts that you can do with your students or your children at home that will help them recognize the blessings in their lives! (more…)
Are you curious to find out what’s in our Secret Something Bag?! In just a moment its contents will be revealed and it will give us some ideas on what we should thank God for.
