Continuing on with our Religious notebooking project, today I'm posting some printable pages about the life of Jesus. They go with pages 42-51 in Tell Me About The Catholic Faith (TMACF), or any other Bible resource you would rather use with your kids.
These pages are a great overview of the first Christmas, and I love that it starts with the annunciation! *Warning* I don't necessarily have a problem with the way that the annunciation is worded, but it really does open it up for questions like "Well where do babies come from?" Just sayin'.
This page also includes a little blurb about Jesus growing up in Nazareth with Mary and Joseph working as a carpenter, and about Jesus getting lost in the temple. I took the opportunity to explain that this is all we know about the childhood of Jesus- there is nothing else until he is Baptized and begins his public ministry. My kids are astonished that we know so little about Jesus' early life. It's easy to see how short Jesus' public ministry truly was on our Jesus timeline page.
I made a page for the kids to write in what they took away from the story about the first Christmas. As always, I design my notebooking pages to work for all ages, so you can print them with blank lines, or you can print them with sentences for little ones to trace.
If you're interested in making a craft, this sock baby Jesus is one of my favorites. You can find all of my Christmas crafts here.
Sing "Away In A Manger" with your kids. You may as well- you know you already know the words. 😉 I really like to include songs whenever I can and the kids love it.
Read your family's favorite picture book about the First Christmas.
I recommend this Brother Francis Nativity movie, and really, all the Brother Francis movies while you're at it. We love these movies!
We re-visited the front page in our book of centuries to remember that the "AD Years" started at the birth of Jesus, and our whole calendar revolves around him.
These pages were very straight forward and well done- no complaints.
I really do love to see the sweet little pictures that my children draw of these things, but sometimes, they just get so excited to have a picture there ready to color! I am offering this page with lines, with a sentence to trace, and also without the "coloring page" at the top, just in case you'd rather they draw something themselves.
As much as I would love to have a set of Apostle peg dolls, that's not a reality here. Yet. 😉 But here's a craft from my preschool book, Catholic ABC's, where you make very simple Apostles out of popsicle sticks. I've also shared the song from Catholic ABC's below.
James the Less and Judas, too!
This page kind of does an overview giving you an impression that Jesus was traveling all over the place and doing awesome stuff wherever he was. I suppose it's kind of an overview of his public life, which I think it a great concept.
Again, these pages are being offered with or without sentences to trace, and with or without the "coloring page" already built in.
First off, this is one of the few times that I combined 2 page spreads into the same "lesson." The first page is an overview of parables, and tells 10 parables, all in an extremely brief version. The following page is a comic strip style version of the Prodigal Son.
This notebooking page is completely open-ended! The kids hear 11 parables, and then get to choose the 1 that spoke to them the most to illustrate, and write a few sentences about. There is a version with a sentence for little ones to trace. I have the names of all the parables going around the border so they can remember and choose which one they want to draw and write about.
Explain to your kids that parables aren't things that necesserally happened, they're stories that Jesus told to help us understand things. Sometimes, we don't understand right away, but when we come back to the parable again and again, eventually, our minds are opened to the meaning.
I love teaching parables in a Montessori style! I have a printable good shepherd set and script here. Also, check out this post from Living Montessori Now about teaching parables in Montessori style.
I recently learned that many Montessori Religious Ed programs use 2D figures to teach parables, reserving 3D figures only for actual Historical figures. I was intrigued by this concept.
If you have the Read Aloud Book Of Bible Stories (which I totally recommend, by the way) you can also read the Prodigal Son story from this one. I just love this version!
I also totally recommend The Parables of Jesus. All the stories are told graphic novel style, which my kids love!
I really liked these pages! They are slammed full of golden nuggets of wisdom Jesus gave us, and are great lessons for kids.
I really liked the way these pages turned out. Your kids write things that Jesus said in the talking bubbles, and there is a charming little picture in the bottom right corner of Jesus with the children. There's also a version where you can just trace some things Jesus said if you're still too small to write it in yourself.
Remember that if you're keeping a Book of Centuries, you can be writing all of these happenings in as you go! If you want to start your own Book of Centuries, I offer a printable version.
I am not Catholic but I just love your resources. They are practical and cute. I made your Easter scene printables and shared it with all my friends. Thank you so much for taking the time to post your designs.
Thank you so much for sharing your notebook. This has been a great resource to use with my daughters. We moved and haven't found the church we want to attend in our new state so this has helped me supplement while they are out of faith formation.