Monday, August 27, 2012

The Creed & Notebooking

Notebooking can be a great way for CCD kids to collect a visual model of what they are learning throughout the year.  I think that the short, once a week format of most CCD programs tends to make it tough for kids to pick up where they left off. Notebooking could help.  Here are some ideas that could be used for any concept, but all of my examples are about the Creed.  I think that it would be kind of a cool way to start the CCD year, with the Creed as a base, and then move on to the curriculum.  You could then readily tie the Creed into everything that you are learning.

Click on anything black and white for a printable to get you started.

Start with a good cover.  I thought that "I Believe" is a good statement.  Then kids can look at their notebook and say that they believe everything that is contained inside.   This time, I used a Composition style notebook, but a spiral bound notebook works fine.  (I do recommend glue sticks, tape, and staples over liquid glue for obvious reasons.  A notebook that ends up only having one page because they are all glued together isn't much of a notebook.)

Add a copy of the Creed, with a twist.  Print a copy of this two-page, word by word Creed, have the students cut it apart, mix it up, and see if they can glue it back in order.  I don't recommend cutting each word apart unless you have very dedicated, detail oriented students and a lot of time.  Instead, cut it into strips, which is much more manageable.
Glue in a KWL Chart, to assess what students know before you begin (Know), as you learn (Want to Know), and as you complete your lesson (Learned).

To make the Creed a little more accessible, you can do a shrinking summary.  Hand the kids a large index card and have them write a summary of the important points of the Creed.  Then give them a smaller index card and have them par down the summary even further.  Finally, have them limit it to only a few words on a post it note or half an index card.  It can be very powerful to discover what the key words are that convey the meaning of such a large amount of text.

Try Wordle. I love Wordle.  Paste in or type a bunch of text and it randomly creates this cool word art.  Students can change the colors, fonts, layouts, etc. 
 The size of the words is proportional to the number of times the word appears in the text.  On this one, I intentionally made "The Nicene Creed" large, but the rest of the words help us to see what words are used most often.

Add some flip books or other fun things.  Directions and printable for this one abut tough words in the Creed can be found here.
Add some lift-the-flap-facts about connections between the Creed and Scripture.  There is also a blank area for writing notes.  You also could add Catechism references.

Finish up the section with a "Yes" flow chart.  Since "I Believe" is the theme, have the students add things that they can say yes, they believe.




 There are some ideas to get you started, but the possibilities are endless!

15 comments:

  1. Girl, you amaze me. I am constantly astonished and humbled by your creativity, ambition, and ingenuity in your classroom and in your DRE role. Someday you will be leading your own company, giving workshops on all of these fancy little paper-folding tools and other resources. I know you already sort of do that, but I think you are going somewhere big...

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  2. You are oh-so-sweet and encouraging, Betsy. It is just a little notebook :)

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  3. This looks AWESOME! Very excited to try it out. Thanks for the ideas and inspiration!

    Keep up the great work!

    In Christ,
    Greg

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    1. Thanks, Greg! Blessings on you and your students!

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  4. I'm struggling to get the docs to print-any tips?

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    1. Hi Stephanie! I am sorry that you are having trouble! I just checked all the links and they are active and shared. Can I ask what browser you are using? Are you able to view the documents at all through Google Drive? If you can view them and then are having trouble printing, I would recommend downloading them first and then printing. If you try that and still have trouble, please email me at katherine (dot) bogner (at) gmail (dot) com.

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  5. I teach 5th grade faith formation, this is my 5th year. I was so inspired by your Web site and decided to do a notebook for this year. I love the idea and I think most of my kiddos did as well.In only 75 min it was challenging because of the range of skill in following directions and getting the project done. I will do this again next year but will need to figure out how to better organize the time.Thank you so much for your generosity in sharing . May God bless you richly

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    1. That is so exciting, Cheryl! I am so glad that you found some inspiration here. And I feel your pain with the challenge of time! At least you have 75 minutes...many programs have an hour or less. I'm sure everything will be easier the next time around. Sometimes I will precut or prefold some of the items if I know it will be hard to keep up. That can save some crucial time. In my classroom, I also try to keep supply buckets for small groups handy so all of the materials are at their fingertips. :)Thank you for your comment!

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  6. Thank you so very much for posting these ideas that will do wonders in connecting my 5th graders with the Apostle's Creed. I'm so excited to share them this week!

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  7. Thanks so much! I was looking some ways to make my 8th grade students familiar with the Creed...they are preparing for confirmation this year...your ideas are very useful...God bless your ministry.

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  8. This is my first year teaching 5th graders - looking forward to trying your project with them. They are a small group but hopefully this will help keep their attention as well as learn.

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