Passport Studies- Interactive Experience about the Life of Jesus

I'm super excited to share this new collection of activities with you even though I know that it will probably only apply to a certain niche group of my audience. It has become one of my favorite units to teach and my students have given great feedback- so it's a win-win!

The origin of these studies is a unit where my 6th graders study the question "Who is Jesus?" primarily reflecting on the Incarnation- the who, what, when, where of Jesus' life. (Then in 7th and 8th grade we unpack what He taught and how He came to save us.) A couple of years ago, I pivoted all of the presentation of the content to these Passport Studies. Each day we travel to a new significant location in the life of Jesus, seeking both to understand what Scripture tells us happened there in the past, as well as visit on pilgrimage today to see the beautiful churches and holy sites. 

It has been a huge hit! On the first day, I really make a big show of putting on my backpack and sunglasses, asking if they packed good walking shoes, tell them that we are going to be late to the airport, etc. They are still playing along, which is so sweet. I also really like that this is primarily a work-at-your-own-pace task, so it allows them to work independently and hopefully explore more deeply an area of interest.

Each Passport Study has these elements:

• Passport cover- just the first slide, no student work.
• A map of the region in the First Century- student pins the location
• A two part Bible study of significant events that happened in this location. Questions are more fact based. Includes sacred art to illustrate the stories.
• A virtual pilgrimage using a video, typically of a tour of the holy site today. (My students can't access YouTube videos, so we set a timer and "meet up" to go on a "group tour" and watch the video together in class.
• A self-guided, 360 tour of the holy site using this free website.
• A spot to add photo memories. Students either take screenshots of tours, use Google image search, or add their own sacred art to the photo page.
• One more Bible Study passage connected to the location. This one is more prayerful and reflective.
• A postcard home- this is the part that I tell them I pay the most attention to. They can be silly and creative, but have to write about both what happened in Jesus' life then and what the site is like today.
• Also included is a slide with image sources, mostly because I am sharing the slides here with you. You can choose to leave those as a model for students, but make sure they understand they don't have a task to do on that slide.

Here are the locations and major stories highlighted I've included. It was so hard to whittle them down from all the possibilities in the Gospels. If you have a location you'd like to see included, you could always make a copy of one of the Passports and then add your own elements. I also adjust the number of these that we complete slightly. There are always schedule changes and more days with one class over the other, so sometimes I offer an "excursion day" where they get to pick between two locations to travel to in order to keep us on track.

• Nazareth- The Annunciation, Holy Family at home after Flight to Egypt
• Bethlehem- The Nativity, Visit of Shepherds, Visit of Wisemen
• Jerusalem Part 1- The Finding in the Temple, return to Nazareth
• Sea of Galilee- Call of First Disciples, Calming of the Storm, Feeding of the 5000
• Cana- First miracle at Wedding of Cana, connection to Last Supper
• Tiberius- Sermon on the Mount & The Beatitudes
• Mt. Tabor- The Transfiguration, connection to the Ascension
• Bethany- Mary & Martha, Raising of Lazarus
• Jerusalem Part 2- Last Supper, Crucifixion, Resurrection
• Emmaus- Road to Emmaus
  

Ideas for how to use these:

• Once you make a copy, you are free to edit these to better fit the needs of your students/child.
• Classroom teachers who use Google Classroom- Make a copy of my file, add to your own Google Drive, assign in Google Classroom, use "make copy for each student" feature. 
• ***REMINDER- If you are using Google Classroom, 99% of the time, you CANNOT assign students my original file. It is almost always blocked by school filters. Please make sure you make a copy of the file first, and then assign it. Otherwise I receive dozens of share requests that I can't solve! :)
• Classroom teachers who use other classroom interfaces- Download a copy of the file as a PowerPoint, upload and assign in your classroom interface. (Formatting may be off- check for readability, etc.)
• Classroom teachers whose students are too young or don't use Google Classroom, etc. Make a copy of my file, add to your own Google Drive, display on your smartboard or projector, and complete the study together as a class.
• Parents, catechists, homeschoolers- Make a copy of my file and add to your own Google Drive or download as a PowerPoint. Have individual child work through the study.
• Printing- This wasn't really intended as a print friendly project, but if you were doing it for a single child or small group, it could work! You would need to either skip or watch together the virtual pilgrimage and 360 tour.

You can click here to access all ten Passport Studies:

Or click on any of the images below for that particular Passport Study:

Happy traveling!

You may also like these posts:

Content to learn about what a pilgrimage is, including a slideshow, notes, & a postcard to help students learn the basics about pilgrimages and then plan one of their own.

This post has a ton of tools specifically geared towards Eucharistic processions and pilgrimages. It has a passport, printable stamps, a postcard, a bucket list, as well as matching resources in Spanish.