Saturday, January 25, 2014

The Moral Virtues

Virtue: A Habit to do the good, give the best of yourself, and be more like God in what you say and do.
To tie in with our study of sainthood and the universal call to holiness, I decided to do a little more intentional instruction about the virtues.  Visit here for the original graphic organizer we added to our notebooks to start things off.
http://looktohimandberadiant.blogspot.com/2014/01/growing-in-virtue_15.html

Next up: The Moral Virtues.

I have been introducing the kids to each of the moral virtues: prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance.  We have been focusing on one virtue each week.  I made a printable for them to add to their Sheen notebooks, which I printed half sized to better fit on a notebook page.  Both full size and 2-per-page options to print can be found below.

 We talked about the virtue and then recorded some practical examples in the section that says "prudence in action."  Mindful that growing in holiness, which we are all called to, means growing in virtue, each kid then made a goal related to that virtue to work on for the week.  They wrote their goals on post-it notes and then stuck them on this poster on the door.  I love this poster- It has gotten a lot of mileage.  Simply a piece of posterboard divided into squares that are about 4x4" and marked with the numbers 1-30, it allows the kids to stick a 3x3" post-it note recording their thoughts or questions on a particular topic quickly.  I added a page protector at the top so I could easily create a title or question for the top of the poster.  This is just is latest use.

We also created a class goal for the virtue, decided on by the kids, and we worked on it all week (and it continues to come up in the weeks following).  For example, prudence's goal was to choose to be positive when it would be easier to be negative.  Justice's goal was to include everyone in conversations and games.They are doing a great job finding the practical in something that can seem very theoretical.
Later, I will post the Theological Virtue note pages, as well as classroom encouragement system that we are using to link our study of virtue with our study of the life of Fulton Sheen.

Click on the pictures below for the full page printables:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5ETRkL51fhMV2FQdTJ4T3hsTTA/edit?usp=sharing
 Click here for the half page fortitude printable.


https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5ETRkL51fhMQXlNUHB5TUtfNnM/edit?usp=sharing
 Click here for the half page justice printable.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5ETRkL51fhMOW5uWldTeXB0VVE/edit?usp=sharing
 Click here for the half page prudence printable.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5ETRkL51fhMVThQSkQ1WHF1Z1E/edit?usp=sharing
 Click here for the half page temperance printable.

12 comments:

  1. Katie Anne,

    I LOVE your blog and use your projects in my own 5th grade religion class. In addition to your posts here, do you use a religion text, and if so, what is it? My school uses the Christ Our Life Series for 5th grade. It's okay, but a bit dry for 5th graders (which is why adding your projects is so nice).

    Also, do you have any recommendations for other good sites for 5th grade religion?

    Thanks,
    Tina

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    Replies
    1. Tina, so glad that you are finding useful info and projects! We use Sadlier's We Believe, and while it is a good series, I don't think we can teach everything about our faith from a textbook, hence some of the projects that I have posted here. Some other sites I find helpful are:

      Sadlier's 5th Grade Activities: http://www.sadlierreligion.com/webelieve/main.cfm?sp=teacher&section=activity&grade=5

      http://catholicicing.com/

      http://www.catechist.com/

      http://catholicmom.com/

      And pinterest is always a good source of inspiration!

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  2. I also use "thatresourcesite.com" in addition to the ones you have mentioned! It is a membership site, but very much worth the money in my opinion. also sermans4kids.com (which is free)
    K

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  3. Hi. Is there any chance you could email me the prayer book in a different format, so I can translate it into Spanish and I would be happy to send you a copy of the translated work. I love the art, so I just want to translate the content. I run the RE program at our parish but we have quite a few children who are learning their prayers in both languages.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Claudia! What a wonderful idea! I would be so happy to be able to help students in Hispanic communities. Can you send me an email at looktohimandberadiant (at) blogspot.com so we can talk more about it?

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  4. Awesome!! You are such a valuable resource! The Holy Spirit is definitely working through you!!

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  5. Do you have blank copies of the full page moral virtues? I would love to use them as a teaching tool for my students.

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    1. Hi Christie! You are super welcome to use them with your students. I don't have anything that is more blank than what you see above. With my students, we highlight certain things, color in the name of the virtue, and then write a list on the bottom of ways to live it out. We also sometimes use the back for additional space. If I'm misunderstanding your request, feel free to clarify!

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  6. These are fantastic. I plan on using them in my middle school math class. Is there a sheet for faith, hope, and charity? I think my students are really going to like this.

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  7. God bless you for organizing this content and sharing it freely! May the Lord bless and keep you!

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  8. Simply put, I love your artwork. I am thankful that you share it with us. God bless you!

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