Bulletin Board: Easter

The Cross by Gail Weightman

http://www.att.net/p/s/community.dll?ep=87&subpageid=71168&ck=

Story: St. Patrick Video

Story: St. Patrick Audio

Franciscan radio has a short program detailing St. Patrick's life told in the first person.

http://www.franciscanradio.org/MP3Files/Segments/512/St_Patrick_0512.mp3

Craft: St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick used the shamrock to teach the doctrine of the Trinity to the Irish. This craft calls for craft foam, but could easily be done with construction paper. A March bulletin board based on the Trinity with shamrocks would be a festive way to celebrate the month.

http://www.apples4theteacher.com/holidays/st-patricks-day/kids-crafts/hanging-trinity-shamrock.html

Storytelling tips

The Assemblies of God Sunday School site (http://sundayschool.ag.org/Articles/t_qt_0309_storytelling.cfm)
has these great tips on telling a story and keeping your class engaged.

Quick Tips for Storytelling

How Do I Choose a Story?

• Choose a story that you enjoy and want to tell.

• Consider the story in relation to the group you have in mind.

• The subject and background should contain elements of familiarity.

• The main character should be relevant to your students.

• The story should contain a simple, clear plot with enough action to appeal to the imagination.

• The story should be easy to tell without too many details.

• The story should clearly, though not too obviously, make a definite moral point.

How Do I Prepare to Tell a Story?

• The most important element is to make the story your own.

• You must put the story in your own words, using your own mannerisms and your own expressions.

• You should change the story to suit your way of telling it. If it is a true story, be faithful to the facts.

• Do not memorize the story. Instead, make an effort to reproduce the events of the story as though you had actually been there.

• Do not read the story to the class. Make the effort to be convincing by the manner in which you relate it.

• Cut the story down to the bare minimum.

• Plan the opening and closing sentences exactly. Knowing exactly how you will begin and end will give you more confidence. It will also insure that you will end on the tone you intended.

• Use a variety of visual aids. You do not need to use extensive visual aids—only enough to capture a new interest every so often.

• Remember to observe the three S’s—Simplicity, Sincerity, and Spontaneity.

How Can I Enhance the Presentation of the Story?

• Use a conversational tone.

• Keep your audience in mind as you present the story.

• Rehearse the story in advance. Practice your gestures, use of visual aids, and movements. Visualize your students and their reaction as you practice.

• Vary your tone of voice according to the plot of the story. Speak faster during the more active parts, and pause a moment with a change of scene or mood.

• Keep symbolism at a bare minimum.

• Try to be interesting rather than impressive.

• Set the stage ahead of time. Write a word on the board to peak the students’ interest or place an item on a table that will connect to the story.

• Never pick a story and "tell it like it is." Tell it as if you had been there when it happened.

Rewards: Aquarium

Stickers are great rewards for students. Print-n-Play has fish stickers that can be placed inside a printable aquarium. It could be a contest for a month (or longer) to see how full each student can make their aquarium. This page from Steve McGuire has other great ideas to use including patterns for making houses, barns, and even space stations.

http://www.mcguirezone.com/goodies/toys.html

Craft: Valentine's Day

Vickie from Australia has a heart flower craft. Supplies needed are scissors and glue. It's my favorite kind of craft - quick and easy without extra adults volunteers needed to accomplish it.

http://msssbible.com/memoryverses/createyourown/cheartflower.htm

Map: Bible locations

Using Google Earth, this site allows the user to enter the book and chapter of the Bible and pinpoints the location that are referenced.

http://www.biblemap.org/

Bulletin Boards - borders

Borders with religious and holiday themes can be printed from:

http://www.printableprek.com/borders.html

Name Tags: badge generator

Need name tags for Vacation Bible School or for the classroom? This site allows lets you customize the police or fire badge of your choice and to save it as a file. Print it off on computer paper for stickers, cut it out, and you'll have quite a different look for your name tags.

Customizable badges are found at:
http://www.says-it.com/badge/

Customizable seals can be found at:
http://www.says-it.com/seal/

Bulletin Board - Easter

Alta McDaniel from Good Shepherd Baptist Church in West Virginia made this Easter Board. She has more designs available at:

http://www.boardsgalore.com/alta_mcdaniel.htm

Photos - Caricature

FunPics is a great freeware program that manipulates photos.
It allows the user to load their own pictures and to save them to their own computer.

http://www.dacamyo.net/funpics/

Bulletin Board - Respect Life

St. Boniface Church in Rincon, Georgia, has this phrase on a sign in front of the church with a big yellow smiley face. The same phrase would make a great bulletin board anytime of the year.

Craft: Potpourri Pie

Loved this idea for a craft that would make a great gift for moms over at the Kaboose website. It's rated easy on the scale of difficulty so you shouldn't need much adult help to assist with the construction.

http://crafts.kaboose.com/potpourri-pie.html

Bulletin Board - Winter

Gracing a classroom at St. Augustine school in Richmond, Michigan, is this great winter board. Thanks Janet!

Song: Ten Commandments

Here are the Ten Commandments following the Catholic tradition. They are in order except for the final two which are switched so they rhyme. One inventive 7th grade class I taught added the word "switch" to the end of the song to fix the order.

Sing to the tune of Michael, Row Your Boat Ashore.


Ten Commandments God gave us
Hallelujah
No other gods
His name is holy
Hallelujah
Keep the Sabbath
Honor parents
No murder
Adultery, stealing or lies
Coveting things or other wives

Bulletin Board: Veterans and Military

For Veteran's Day, Sandra, our church secretary, gathered pictures and brief biographies from the veterans, active duty and reserve members of the military that attended our church. I took them, scanned the photos, and used a card program to make them look like magazine covers. The posting was done on a bulletin board that was shared with other announcements. It worked well on a multi-purpose bulletin board and attracted a lot of attention.

Bulletin Board: February

I picked February when the bulletin board volunteer sheet went around the teacher's meeting. This was a class of 8th through 10th graders that I helped teach in their Confirmation year. This board was done with digital photos of the students in class and graphics with PrintMaster. Any card or print program should be able to do similar graphics.

Humor Break

Franciscans Monks dancing to the Spanish version of Achy Breaky Heart.

Lots of Songs

Seems like every song I have sung in a religious education classroom is on this site - Whew!

http://www.ebibleteacher.com/children/songs.htm

Twelve Disciples Song

An easy way to remember the names of the Disciples. The sheet music is available at

https://joyfullife.abeka.com/Primary/PDFs/Fall2/Were12DisciplesSheetMusic.pdf

The music video is by the Cedarmont Kids.

Vacation Bible School Theme: Time Tunnel

Looking for an idea for VBS this summer? Celebration Free Methodist Church in Tampa used a time tunnel to transport students back to Bible times.

Cryptogram for Snakebite

QXK OTCVI WAVON FVR RT RXTOQ

QXVQ XK RUKZQ TI XPR FVQSX

K is E

Solution:

THE ROMAN GUARD WAS SO SHORT THAT HE SLEPT ON HIS WATCH