Ingredients for Teaching Faith-fuel-ly

Many of you are familiar with Christina from Sugar and Spice. She is the hostess of the ever popular Wordless Wednesday weekly linky that so many of you, including me, enjoy so much. Christina recently wrote about how she chose the name for her blog by thinking about the most important thing (quality) that a teacher needs to possess. She couldn't choose just one, after all a teacher needs lots of things mixed together, like all the ingredients that go into a cake... sugar and spice and everything nice!

Christina is inviting all teacher bloggers to share our own teaching ingredients via a special linky party.

Most of the ingredients in my teaching are fairly self-explanatory. However, I do want to point out the cross in the center. The cross is a symbol representing The Lord. The Lord is at the center of all that do, but especially at the center of my teaching. I am blessed to teach in a Catholic school where I can freely let my faith shine, and I can incorporate my beliefs in all my lessons.

Because my faith is an important part of my teaching ingredients, I am also joining my sweet, bloggy friend Jessica from Joy in the Journey for her special weekly linky.

Some of the ways that I am able to incorporate my faith within my teaching are by creating worksheets, activities, and teaching aids that contain faith-filled elements. How many of you use grouping cards when you ask your students to work in cooperative groups? The grouping cards that I will be using this coming year all contain pictures of Biblical characters (the clip art characters are designed by Edu-clips). If you are interested in learning more about these cute cards and how to use them, please click HERE.

I also will be doing a CURRENTLY activity with my students each month that includes elements of our faith. Currently is a favorite weekly/monthly activity for many bloggers, both teaching and non-teaching. It is a great activity for students to generate ideas, practice introspection, and broaden their thinking capabilities. Here is the first CURRENTLY that I will be using with my students when we return to school in mid-August.

You'll notice that one of the elements to which I'm asking students respond is PRAYING. Prayer is an extremely important part of my students' day. You'll also notice that the image (designed by Charlotte's Clips) is that of Jesus. What better way to start back to school? If you'd like a copy of this particular CURRENTLY, simply click HERE. This Back to School page is a FREEBIE, but if you'd like to learn more about the rest of the months, please click HERE.

I hope that you will stop by Sugar and Spice and Joy in the Journey to read more about what ingredients it takes to teach and about how our faith impacts our daily lives. If you are interested in other faith-filled teaching items, please visit my TpT store where you will find additional items, including more freebies. And if you are in search of even more freebies, be sure to check out Freebie Friday. You won't be sorry that you did!

This Is the Day to Fuel Your Faith

This week has just been wonderful... beautifully warm weather, birds chriping, gentle sprinkles, and the beginning of Easter. It's the perfect time to celebrate God's gift of new life. THIS IS THE DAY to Fuel Our Faith.

The Catholic Church celebrates the season of Easter for 50 days. One Sunday is not enough to thank, praise, and bless the Lord for all he has done for us in dying and rising to save us! Each of the Church's seasons is marked by particular songs and psalms. Easter's psalm is Psalm 118.

I've been humming and singing all of the different versions of this psalm that I know all week. One that I teach my students is a happy, bouncy tune to which they play the bells while I play the guitar. We'll incorporate this in all of our prayer services and liturgies throughout the season.

This is the day! Rejoice!

Fuel Your Faith Friday: Titus 2.7

I'm joining Jessica from Joy in the Journey once again for her weekly linky Fuel Your Faith Friday. This week I'm sharing a Scripture verse that appeared out of nowhere two separate times this week. It's a verse that I had never really noticed before, but one that is definitely a message for me, and for all teachers.

Triple Linky Friday

What a great week this was! I'm linking up with Doodlebugs for her Five for Friday linky to showcase what's been happening at The Teacher's Desk 6.

It was testing week... WE ARE DONE!!!!

Spring has sprung! I am delighted!

I've been thinking about the beauty of creation all around me.

Spring's beauty helps to Fuel My Faith so I am linking up with Jessica from Joy in the Journey for her weekly linky.

Spring plus the beauty of creation reminds me that Earth Day is around the corner. In between testing we've begun a few fun Earth Day activities, among them this ZAP! game that helped my students practice identifying parts of speech using Earth Day related vocabulary. Since it's Freebie Friday, I'm linking up with Teaching Blog Addict and offering this freebie for you. If you'd like a copy to use in your classroom you can download it HERE or by clicking on the first pic of the product.

Finally, I received my teaching contract for the next school year. It's signed and sealed already and will be delivered on Monday morning... year 34, here I come!

Fuel Your Faith: A Walk with the Lord

I teach in a Catholic school; however, this year my class has only eight Catholic students in a total of 22 students. As a result some of the customs and prayers that we do are unfamiliar to most of my students and their families. I've enjoyed teaching about our traditions and finding new activities to help my students understand our customs and feel a part of our worship.

During Lent we have been learning about the Stations of the Cross, a set of fourteen events that recall the final hours of Our Lord's life. I've even created a few classroom games to accompany our lessons. Most Catholic Churches have images of these 14 events displayed around the worship space. Here is a photo of Station 12 (Jesus dies on the cross) being blessed during a prayer service at my parish. The images had recently been removed to be refitted with new crosses and had just been returned to use.

My students colored a set of the stations while they learned about each of the events:

1. Jesus is arrested and condemned to death.
2. Jesus is given his cross.
3. Jesus falls the first time.
4. Jesus meets his mother.
5. Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry his cross.
6. Veronica wipes the face of Jesus.
7. Jesus falls a second time.
8. Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem.
9. Jesus falls a third time.
10. Jesus' clothes are taken away.
11. Jesus is nailed to the cross.
12. Jesus dies on the cross.
13. Jesus is taken down from the cross.
14. Jesus is laid in the tomb.

This week we began to pray the stations using a set of candle stations that I created from an idea that I found on a blog. We broke them into two sets for our first time doing 1-7 on Wednesday morning and 8-14 on Friday morning. I forgot to take pictures during the simple service; I was so moved and involved in the prayer.

All my students were rapt, too! You could've heard a pin drop in the room. This is a miracle; my kiddos are NEVER quiet for more than a moment. I was pleasantly surprised by their reactions. Although these events had occurred nearly two thousand years ago, they felt like they were walking with Our Lord on his way to Calvary. Students who were new to this Lenten devotional said they liked this the BEST of everything we had done in religion class all year... they felt so close to Jesus.

We are on our Spring break next week, but when we return the following week we will pray all 14 Stations during Monday morning prayer. I'll add a little music to this experience, a song that I learned when I was a child, a song that we sang during the Stations of the Cross... a song about walking with the Lord, carrying our own cross, finding our freedom! I love this music clip. The singers are not professional, there are no fancy video effects, just the voices of school children singing earnestly during Mass about their walk with Lord.



Lenten practices like Stations of the Cross and songs like "Lord, Let me Walk" really Fuel my Faith so I'm joining my friend Jessica's weekly linky party.

Be sure to visit Jessica's blog, Joy in the Journey, to read more Fuel Your Faith posts.

Five for Friday and Fuel Your Faith

Well, it's Saturday again and I'm just getting around to joining two special weekly linkies! While the full moon this past week seemed to play havoc with three students' behavior, it shined pleasantly on mine!  I had a busy, productive week and didn't even check into the bloggy world on Friday. From St. Patrick's fun on Monday to a pleasant dinner party with favorite friends on Friday, I couldn't have asked for a better time!

FIRST... St. Patrick's Day found my students dressed in green, a festive change from their usual uniforms. Don't you just love the leprechaun hat? You see my sixers partcipating in a Scatter activity with parts of speech task cards created by Rosa Mauer. Those mischievous leprechauns miniaturized then scattered the task cards everywhere around our room! My kiddos love this type of activity as it gets them up and moving around the room.

SECOND... We worked really hard on our Dale Chihuly inspired art project, hanging sculptures created from colored water bottles. We are in week six of the project and finally nearing completion. I think by next week you'll be able to see the completed works of art hanging in their glory in the hallway. I hope you'll notice the first pic in this section. Do you see how this young lady has colored her bottle with three colors? Can you guess what the colors represent? I thought this was just AWESOME!!! The green is the earth, the blue is the sky, and the yellow is the sun! I can NOT wait to see her completed project!!!!!

THIRD... My fivers continued working in their Literature Circles this week. They are becoming more confident and independent with the process. There are still one or two students who come unprepared or forget their supplies. Goodness! Their circle mates have been applying positive peer pressure to encourage them to comply and step-up! Just lovin' this aspect of the activity!

FOURTH... We had a visit from the Diocesan Director of Vocations. The kids loved him! He celebrated a beautiful Mass with us. My fifth grade Language Arts students were selected to be lectors at the Mass while my sixers and I lead the music. Because this liturgy centered on vocations, one of the songs that we selected to sing dealt with being called to serve. It's a particular favorite of mine that I've used during worship for nearly thirty years. The song was inspired by a verse in the book of the Prophet Micah...




... which brings me to a special linky hosted by my bloggy friend Jessica of Joy in the Journey.

FIFTH.... Just love my fur babies! Well, most of the time! Little Lulie has discovered how to get ON TOP of the furniture, and she is determined to make the top of the dining room table her special place. Not to be out done her big sissy Daisy Mae is now also getting on top of things, something she has never done. When I am on Spring Break the following week, the two girls and I are going to come to an understanding... no table tops! I'm afraid that I will understand that they will have their way. LOL!

Fuel Your Faith

My sweet bloggy friend Jessica of Joy in the Journey hosts a wonderful linky each week. I've been absent from it the past two weeks so I wanted to be sure to join her this week.

This past week I have had a Bible verse floating through my mind constantly. It's been a bit of  a mantra for me, a reminder of my Lenten personal project.

Please join Jessica and me this week and share what Fuels Your Faith!

Five for Friday and Fuel Your Faith

It's Friday, so you know what that means...

First... My blog got a new design.
Second... We had our annual Science Fair... lots of work... lots of learning... lots of fun!!!
Third...Our student teacher, Ms. Murphy, presented her SPECIAL lesson... special as in HAD TO DO HUGE PROJECT IN ORDER TO BECOME A TEACHER project. I spent the week videotaping and snapping pics.
Fourth... FREEBIES...I've three foldable freebies for you.

St. Patrick's Day Comma Rules foldables
St. Patrick's Day Parts of Speech foldable
Adverb foldables

Fifth... My fur babies are finally getting along... 10 weeks, many gray hairs, and a hoarse voice from yelling, later... they are getting along... PHEW!

What a great week this was! Sure hope yours was wonderful, too! Don't forget to link up your Five for Friday with Doodle Bugs Teaching.

And because I had such a GREAT week, I am linking up with my dear bloggy friend Jessica of Joy in the Journey for her new weekly linky called Fuel Your Faith, a perfect way to help me remember where my gratitude needs to be centered.