Resources to Celebrate the Month of the Holy Rosary

October is the month dedicated to the Holy Rosary.  Although many people pray the rosary throughout the year, October has a special call to explore the rosary even more than we would usually.  If you do not usually pray the rosary, then October is the time to start - even if only temporarily.  Even if only a decade is prayed daily, it is a start and the door to receive extra graces is now open. 


There are a few different aspects to consider when we think about praying the rosary and more especially when we are teaching children and those new to the faith to pray the rosary. 



What Is the Rosary? 
Need help explaining that the rosary is a meditative devotional method of prayer dedicated to exploring the life of Christ and the role the Blessed Virgin Mary had in it?  Then we have a few resources to help you explain the rosary to your kiddos.

Begin with our very popular Rosary Handout sheet that reveals how God shows His love for us when we pray the rosary.  Not only does this sheet give an overview of the mysteries with words and pictures, but it also gives a bit of history of the rosary and introduces the kiddos to St. Dominic.  This sheet is also good to use as a discussion starter.

A good thing to think about when teaching kiddos about the rosary is to explain that it is a sacramental and that it should be treated with reverence. 

A few months ago I was instructed by my pastor on what constitutes an acceptable, tangible rosary.  It must be in a proper bead form (like Our Lady revealed) with a recognizable crucifix, a proper centerpiece, and it must be treated with reverence.  He spoke to me about how we as human beings many times try to trivialize sacramentals especially in the name of making a profit.  His exact example was once seeing, in Italy, a glass ashtray for sale with the image of Pope John Paul II in the bottom of it.  I got his point right away. 

Children must be taught that the rosary is a tool to prayer, which is speaking with our Lord, and that the rosary should never be confused with toys and other trivial things.  To help explain and further explore sacramentals, you may want to complete our F3 Folder lapbook style lesson on Sacramentals



How Do We Pray the Rosary?
Learning to physically pray the rosary can be a challenge for many Catholics young or old.  Praying the rosary involves knowing the prayers to be prayed and the order in which to pray them during the meditations. 

Young children may need to review what prayer actually is and its real purpose.  To help with this you may want to try some of our Resources to Help Learners Develop a Healthy Prayer Life.  Find our F3 Prayer Activity, a mini-book activity for the Apostles' Creed prayer and a handout to introduce four types of prayer to children:  adoration, contrition, thanksgiving and supplication.

Once children have been introduced to the purpose of prayer then they should be taught the basic prayers of the faith Incorporated into the rosary:  Sign of the Cross, Apostles' Creed, Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, Fatima Prayer, Hail Holy Queen.  Praying prayers daily is a great way to teach children to commit them to memory.  Here are some of our other Resources to Help Children Catholic Learn Prayers.

Once children are comfortable with prayer you can help them learn the order of prayer in the rosary with a simple rosary worksheet that allows them to count, color and interact with the prayer inspired sheet.


What Does the Rosary Mean?
Help children explore the mysteries of the life of Christ as presented in rosary in a true joyful Montessori Spirit, if you are looking to teach about the life of our Lord through joy and play then perhaps our Games to Teach About Blessed Virgin Mary and the Rosary is just what your homeschool, classroom or CCD class is looking needing to solidify your lessons.

Another way to help children learn about the rosary is through the gentle art of coloring.  See our collection of rosary themed coloring pages or Blessed Virgin Mary coloring pages.

If you prefer to use narration or the retelling of events as a way to help focus on learning, then our notebooking sheets about the Blessed Virgin Mary or Our Lady of the Rosary might be quite useful.   If you are looking for notebooking page sets about the events of the life of Christ, then our New Testament Notebooking Sheet sets will help you meet the needs of any aged writer in your home or classroom who wants to think, write or even draw about the mysteries of the rosary.

If using or writing minibooks is what your kids enjoy, then we have you covered there as well with our simple 8 page minibooks that allow children to show what they know about the rosary.  Explore our Mini-books About the Rosary collection now.

Incorporate the Rosary into other areas of your learning including rosary themed daily assignment sheets, Ten Words About Mary and the Rosary copywork and more.  See more rosary themed printable resources now.

I hope this gives you a good starting point for teaching about the rosary in your little homeschool or classroom.

If you have resources to share or are looking for even more rosary themed goodies in Spanish, head on over to Familia Catolica's Rosary Link-up and join Xhonane and her family as they celebrate the month of the rosary.  She always has neat craft ideas too.

Blessings,
Kalei

Resources to Help Teach About the Annunciation

Fun resources help children of all ages celebrate the most beautiful event of the Annunciation.

On Friday, we will celebrate the Feast of the Annunciation.  In honour of this very special and historical event, many of us will read the Gospel, pray the Hail Mary prayer or even the rosary.  As we reflect on the Virgin's Mary answer to the call of our Lord for obedience, trust, devotion and love, let us too, be willing to say a hope filled, YES, to our call of service to God, our children, and one another.

We have just uploaded a new page to the main resource site that celebrates the Mystery of the Annunciation with lots of resources that you may find helpful to use this week or any week in your little homeschool, Bible study or CCD class. 

Our resource list includes mini-books, notebooking sheets, games, puzzles, learning cards, trading cards and more.  Here are just a few samples. 

We hope you find something useful and enjoyable to help bring understanding of the Annunciation to the hearts and minds of your little learners.

Click HERE to visit our new page - Free Resources to Help Children Learn About the Annunciation.

If you can think of someone else who might be able to benefit from our FREE resources - a fellow homeschooler, a catechist from your parish, or even a friend who is just beginning to ponder homeschooling their children - why not send them on over to see how easy it is to let God permeate our teaching and lessons. :)

Blessings,

Kalei - That Resource Team

Keeping Your Learning Goals on Track With Goal Oriented Teaching

Help Organize Your CCD or Homeschool Year with Goal Oriented Teaching

As we begin a new CCD year or home learning year, there is so much to think about.  Resources, supplies, schedules, meetings - there are so many details.  But, one of the most important things to keep in mind is what you want your learners to actually know by the end of the year.  Goal oriented teaching can work for many different teachers (and learners).  Goal oriented learning takes the pressure off the textbooks and curriculum and puts the joy back in learning.  As goals are met using various selected resources, progress is made and learning is enjoyed.

Each year as I prepare for my CCD class I print out a few key organizing sheets.  I use a yearly calendar in portrait form to put in my three ringed binder.  I like to use our Angel set personally.  You can find all of our printable calendar sets here.  Opposite to my calendar, I always put a Goal Oriented Monthly planning sheet for one singular subject; in this case, it is my CCD Religious Education class.  It lets me see my plans for the week and month including a space for a weekly focus, date, hands-on learning opportunity, and reading or assignment box.  This is simple but very effective especially if you are the kind of teacher that likes to or is willing to explore rabbit trails - little tangents - in your learning.  Find this resource here.

I use this layout to keep things organized but also to help keep things flexible as well.  Sometimes the learning pace needs to be adjusted to meet the needs of students, weather (we get snow days here :), or the liturgical calendar.  I would hate to miss a teachable moment because I was locked into a rigorous schedule.  You may forget a feast day or the Parish Mission or Penitential service may need to be added into the schedule, etc. Being flexible and goal oriented can not only keep you on track, but keep you feeling positive as well. 

If you like a block style calendar with goals then this layout may work a bit better for you.  This is not subject oriented.  You fill in the days and then assign your goals on the right by week.  This is great for scheduling in special church functions, guest speakers, saint feast days, class experiments, youth meetings or anything else that you may need to remember at a glance.  Find this resource here.

If you are looking to help your learners stay on track with assignments and tasks, then these check-off style sheets can help keep them working toward a goal in a manageable way.  These could be used for each class meeting or perhaps for the month, or even for the year.  I once used this sheet to track the entire year's reading goals.  I suppose it is like a homework sheet but when you call it a "goal" it seems more purposeful to learners. We have a nice selection of religious sheets as well as other themes.  And yes, we will be adding more themes throughout the year and trying to finish off the Rosary Collection.  Find these resources and other themes here.

I hope that these sheets help you prepare for your learning year in your living room or CCD Classroom!! :)


Blessings,


Kalei - That Resource Team

June 4 - Learning Cards for Dedication of the Months and the Mysteries of the Rosary

Use Our Learning Cards to organize your year as well as pray the rosary.

These cards are always a hit in our homeschool as well as for CCD use.  They are small enough for big hands while big enough for little hands.  Today's set has one card that is a reference for the Dedication of the Months and the other card provides a reference for the Mysteries of the Holy Rosary.

Simply download, print, cut apart on the lines, fold and glue.  We laminate all of our Learning Flashcards so that they can be used over and over on an ongoing basis.  They have been taken outside, taken on trips, and used on sickdays. 

*We will be offering many more sets in various subject areas throughout this month and in the coming months so be sure to bookmark our site or better yet, subscribe to our blog to keep up to date.  If you are a Classical style learner or know others who could benefit from these resources, please consider sharing our site with them.  Feel free to grab a button to put on your blog - we offer them in a few different styles. 

Click Here to download this set of Learning Cards.

Blessings,


That Resource Team

May 17 - 10 Words about Mary and the Rosary Copywork

What words can you think of to describe the Mother Mary or the Holy Rosary?

Children can practice handwriting and copywork while they learn or recall details that describe the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Holy Rosary.  Each set includes trace copywork sheets in print as well as cursive styles, as well as a writing, non-trace version.  You can use completed sheets as discussion starters and have children try to think of other words that can describe Mother Mary and the Holy Rosary.  You may also want to use this resource to begin a discussion about adjectives - words that describe a noun.

Click Here to download 10 words about Mother Mary copywork set.

Click Here to download 10 words about the Rosary copywork set.

Tracing copywork sample in print and cursive

Blessings,

That Resource Team

May 13 - My Book Mini-books the Mysteries of the Holy Rosary

Explore the Mysteries of the Rosary with our My Book-mini books.

Today's resource highlights on of our more popular features - My book Mini-books.  These little eight page mini-books are perfect for just about any type of learning activity including:

• Straight, unlined hand-writing practice
• Narrations (retelling of information) with words, pictures or both
• Comprehension activities - writing to a predetermined prompt
• Lapbook mini-book learning piece
• Story books with words and illustrations 

To use these resources, simply print out, cut apart, order the pages, staple on the lines and then fill in.  We suggest stapling before writing as sometimes children go to the left edge too much and the stapled spine can cover their writing.

These books are perfect for lapbooks or choose to use one of our My Book Mini-book Keepsake pages instead.  We have one with the Rosary theme.  Simply print out the Keepsake pages, affix the books and fill in the date.  Children can create a cover or use one of ours.  We store our My Book collections on keepsake pages in a three-ring binder.

We should also say that these books are perfect for CCD class use as well.  We look forward to adding more and more books to help teach the faith to the littlest souls.

Click Here to download My Book about the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary
Click Here to download My Book about the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary
Click Here to download My Book about the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary
Click Here to download My Book about the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary

Click Here to download our Rosary Themed Keepsake Pages


That Resource Team

May 11 - Our Learning Flashcards featuring the Hail Mary and Hail Holy Queen Prayers

Flashcards have been around for awhile but they have generally been used to help children learn math facts, alphabet names, or phonics sounds.  We decided to do something a little different to meet the needs of our trivia loving children.  We made Our Learning Cards bigger, brighter, and filled with unique info that makes the cards suitable for fact recall as well as for reference use.  We've tried to include many different learning areas, including our Catholic faith. 

Find our easy to make flashcards to help children learn and say some of the basic prayers of our faith including the Hail Mary, Hail Holy Queen, and Fatima Prayer.  Simply print out the .PDF file, cut out the pieces on the lines, fold in half, and glue.  Laminate for durability and stability, as pictured above.

Click Here to download the Hail Mary/Our Father Our Learning Cards set

Click Here to download the Fatima Prayer/Hail Holy Queen Our Learning Cards set

These cards are perfect to help children learn to say the Rosary - which is why we initially created it.  They are simple enough to create for CCD class use as well.

That Resource Team

May 10 - The Rosary Worksheet

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Children can often have a hard time remembering how to say the rosary or what order the prayers are to be said.  Originally created as part of our CCD class retreat, this worksheet on the rosary helps children learn and become more comfortable with the pattern of prayer used with the rosary.

Simply print out the worksheet and the reference sheet.  Coloured crayons, markers, or pens are needed to complete this worksheet.  Go through the Rosary reference sheet and how to say the Rosary.  Then go through the worksheet colouring the appropriate parts.  The total amount of the each prayer needed is provided for you.  A good way to use this worksheet is to go over the reference sheet first, complete the worksheet, and then pray the rosary together having the children follow along using the sheet moving their finger from bead to bead, decade to decade.

Although some parents or teachers sometimes prefer to leave out the Fatima Prayer for very young children, we have included it because we like it, it's short enough for children to memorize easily, and it reinforces the reality of hell in a day and age that tries to minimize it or pretend that it doesn't exist.  Hell is a reality and even very young children can be taught that Jesus suffered and died for us to save us from going to it.

Click Here to download the Rosary Worksheet
Click Here to download the Rosary Handout Reference Sheet

We hope you find these resources useful and helpful. 

That Resource Team

May 5 - The Mysteries of the Rosary for Little Hearts and Hands

We've created a brand new game to help little hearts and hands learn about the individual mysteries and decades of the holy rosary.  This game is simple enough for first graders to use and a great review for older learners and those new to the Catholic faith.

Simply print out the files and cut apart the pieces on the lines.  Separate out the main titles of the Mysteries.  Mix up remaining pieces and have players match them up to the appropriate Mystery in the proper order.  We have used this game successfully in our CCD classroom.

 

 

Use our handy Rosary handout as a reference sheet for those who may need a bit of assistance.  This sheet is also good to use as a discussion starter or to help explain the richness of the rosary.

 

Download the Rosary Match-up Game Here

Download the Rosary Handout Reference Sheet Here

 

That Resource Team