After creating a rough outline of my lessons for the year, I was able to start planning how I wanted to set up my classroom.
The classrooms at our parish were recently re-painted. The teachers were asked to only hang visuals on the bulletin board and not to use any adhesive, of any kind, on our walls. Half of the bulletin board is for Sunday School and the other half is available for Greek School. Thus, my teacher side kicked in as I assessed what I needed and what I had available to me. As always, we deal with life as it is handed to us. So, what can I do to make this happen to reach the goals I set for my children? That’s when ideas start brewing…and I ask my husband if he will help me.
On my half of the bulletin board, I’m using it for our year-long study of our class’ patron saints.
I asked each student to write down the name of their saint, along with their nameday, and bring both to class on the first day of Sunday School. Even though I had a list of all of my students’ names, not everyone always has a patron saint that correlates with their own name. Additionally, when a child’s name is John, which Saint John is their patron saint?
My husband made me this movable wall, of sorts, where I can hang visuals that go along with our study of the major feast days, our introduction to the Bible (1st semester), and our introduction to the Divine Liturgy (2nd semester). I can slide this “wall” back over after class to cover up my side of the bulletin board. My husband made it out of pvc pipe, which he cut to size, then we spray painted it, and the next day he attached this wire hanging system.
I will provide additional details about all of these projects in the upcoming posts for this series.
Our parish priest asked the Sunday School teachers to mail a welcome letter to each of our students.
You can click on the images to the right to see the letter and sticker insert we mailed to our students.
On the two cork board wall strips in the hallway, just outside of my classroom, I felt it was important to engage my parents as much as possible.
On one side of the hallway, I am displaying my lesson plan outline for each week along with handouts.
On the opposite side of the hallway, I am providing extra copies of the worksheet for an at home project about each child’s patron saint, as well as an example and instructions to parents, along with their children’s completed work for this activity.
I got the hanging pocket folders from my local teacher store.
We had a brief first day of Sunday School. It was enough time to introduce ourselves to our students, collect their stickers which provided their patron saints and namedays, and quickly go over our plans for the year. Then we all lined up with the rest of the students in our Sunday School for a procession in the church and then a group photo outside.
