In 2012 Pope Benedict XVI officially joined Twitter as @pontifex in 2012. Teachers and catechists constantly ask me how to make lessons interesting to the students, well here is a great opportunity to be relevant with lesson plan on the Pope! The Pope joining Twitter is an excellent opportunity to make real world connections to…
Search Results for: Lent
Our Lady of Guadalupe Prayer Service
In many areas of the United States, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe may be one of the most important feast days in the Catholic school/parish religious education year. As the number of Hispanic Catholics rise in the United States, so does the devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe. Consider using this prayer service,…
The Advent Activity Pack from The Religion Teacher
Activities, lesson plans, worksheets, videos, prayers, and teaching ideas to help you teach children and teens about Advent. The Religion Teacher’s Advent Activity Pack provides teachers, catechists, DREs, and homeschooling parents with creative ideas to teach children about the liturgical season of Advent. Advent offers our children a great opportunity to encounter Christ as they…
“Ask Me About” Printable Handout for Parents
This is a guest post by my wife, Jennifer Dees, who currently works for the Alliance for Catholic Education. Jen taught fourth grade in Nashville for four years and since then has helped out with Catechesis of the Good Shepherd at our parish. Like every good parent, when my kids jump into the car after a…
The Chalk Talk Teaching Strategy
One of my favorite teaching strategies is chalk talk. I can’t help but think that the reason I like it so much is the fact that it gets the students thinking rather than talking out. Chalk Talk is simple. The #1 rule is no talking. Students talk with the chalk. Various students are given chalk (markers)…
This Summer at The Religion Teacher
I don’t share personal updates at The Religion Teacher very often, but there is a lot going on right now and I want to explain why you’ve seen so few new resources, activities, lesson plans, and videos. For almost a year and a half now I’ve been waking up at 5:00am to get work done….
Prayer Table Ideas for Religious Educators
Somewhere inside almost every religious education room or religion teacher’s room is a prayer table. Teachers and catechists use these prayer tables at various times and at various levels in throughout the year. Some pray with it daily; some let them collect dust in the back of the room. The following prayer table ideas are…
The 7 Gifts of the Holy Spirit Lesson Plan & Worksheet
If you sat down to think about it, you could probably come up with a long list of things that God gives us to make us better people. There are a whole host of gifts that allow us to reach our dreams and conquer our greatest challenges, but based on the Scriptures (Isaiah 11:2-3) and…
Religious Education Activities
At The Religion Teacher you can find a large collection of Catholic religious education activities for various liturgical seasons, topics, and age levels. Click on the links below to find activities for Catholic school religious education programs or parish catechesis for children and youth. The activities on these pages include crafts, worksheets, prayer ideas, and…
The KWL Chart: A Model for Student Engagement
KWL Charts are one of the most effective and simple teaching strategies that teachers can use to ignite student engagement. In many ways they offer a model or a framework for all other teaching strategies that attempt to get students interested in learning because they prepare to students by building in an element of relevancy…