Priest Paper Doll

Every first Friday of the month, one class goes to chapel Mass and the other classes go to Family Activities. Family Activities are when two students from each grade level meet in one classroom to do an activity together. Last week we made priest paper dolls to teach the students about the vestments that a priest wears (alb, cincture, stole, chasuble, and surplice). The picture below shows how to layer the vestments onto the paper doll.

Here is the finished paper doll.

The students had a hard time cutting around the tabs, but they were all able to complete the project. If you would like the pattern, please leave a comment and I will email it to you.

Holy Week

Last week was Holy Week. I did a lot of activities with my students to help them learn about Holy Week. They did a writing activity, but I forgot to take a picture of it. The students had to draw a picture of one thing that happened to Jesus right before his crucifixion. Then, they had to write about what they drew. 

After we learned about Palm Sunday, the students made this tear-and-glue palm leaf.

We also learned about the Veil of Veronica. The students made their own veils by drawing Jesus' head with the crown of thorns on  a piece of muslin cloth. Some of the students added blood too.

On Wednesday afternoon, we had an Easter egg hunt. I filled about 240 eggs with toys that were donated by my students' families and then I scattered hid the eggs on our grass field. The students had a great time looking for eggs.

On Holy Thursday, the fourth and fifth graders reenacted the Washing of the Feet and the Last Supper for the whole school. My students were silent the whole time; they said it was just like what happened in the Bible. 

I hope you had a faith filled Holy Week and a Happy Easter!

Centers

I love centers! My students go to two centers each day. I use this time to work with a small group of students on language arts and math. I work with six kids, nine to twelve kids work at centers and the other half of the class is in our second classroom (which we call K2) with my aide. Yes, I have a full day aide! When the kids are in K2 they choose an interest center to work in. We have a block center, dramatic play center, manipulative center, library center, and art center. I will take some pictures K2 and post them later this week. Here are some pictures of the centers I have up this week in the main classroom.

This is the flannel board in the library center. Right now there are cut outs of chocolate kisses with numbers on them so the students can practice adding and subtracting. The blank kisses at the bottom can be used as manipulatives to help the students complete each math problem.

 I love books. This is the library center.

This is the other side of the flannel board. The students practice writing their sight words for the week on this white board.

I teach at a Catholic school so this is our religion center. I change the table cloth to match the liturgical season. It is Lent so our table cloth is purple.

This is the writing center. The students have paper to practice writing anything that they want. There is also a nursery rhyme flannel board and flashcards to make three letter words.

This is the math center. The students can choose an activity to do. Right now their choices are nonstandard measurement (they use dental floss to measure items), adding up coins on teeth cutouts and matching the amount to the correct envelope, and time flashcards.

This is the art center. This week the students are using water colors to paint whimsical scenes.

This is the computer center. One of our computers is broken so we only have one right now. The students play Reading Eggs, Starfall, and use the paint function.

This is the chart I use to manage center time. The colors are the reading groups and the pictures on the left are the centers they go to. When there is no center picture next to their picture, they come to me for small group work. I just rotate the center pictures when it is time to change centers. It took the students awhile to get the hang of it, but now that are pros at finding their center.