The Creed & Notebooking

Notebooking can be a great way for CCD kids to collect a visual model of what they are learning throughout the year.  I think that the short, once a week format of most CCD programs tends to make it tough for kids to pick up where they left off. Notebooking could help.  Here are some ideas that could be used for any concept, but all of my examples are about the Creed.  I think that it would be kind of a cool way to start the CCD year, with the Creed as a base, and then move on to the curriculum.  You could then readily tie the Creed into everything that you are learning.

Click on anything black and white for a printable to get you started.

Start with a good cover.  I thought that "I Believe" is a good statement.  Then kids can look at their notebook and say that they believe everything that is contained inside.   This time, I used a Composition style notebook, but a spiral bound notebook works fine.  (I do recommend glue sticks, tape, and staples over liquid glue for obvious reasons.  A notebook that ends up only having one page because they are all glued together isn't much of a notebook.)

 

Add a copy of the Creed, with a twist.  Print a copy of this two-page, word by word Creed, have the students cut it apart, mix it up, and see if they can glue it back in order.  I don't recommend cutting each word apart unless you have very dedicated, detail oriented students and a lot of time.  Instead, cut it into strips, which is much more manageable.

 

Glue in a KWL Chart, to assess what students know before you begin (Know), as you learn (Want to Know), and as you complete your lesson (Learned).

To make the Creed a little more accessible, you can do a shrinking summary.  Hand the kids a large index card and have them write a summary of the important points of the Creed.  Then give them a smaller index card and have them par down the summary even further.  Finally, have them limit it to only a few words on a post it note or half an index card.  It can be very powerful to discover what the key words are that convey the meaning of such a large amount of text.

Try Wordle. I love Wordle.  Paste in or type a bunch of text and it randomly creates this cool word art.  Students can change the colors, fonts, layouts, etc. 

 The size of the words is proportional to the number of times the word appears in the text.  On this one, I intentionally made "The Nicene Creed" large, but the rest of the words help us to see what words are used most often.

Add some flip books or other fun things.  Directions and printable for this one abut tough words in the Creed can be found here.

Add some lift-the-flap-facts about connections between the Creed and Scripture.  There is also a blank area for writing notes.  You also could add Catechism references.

Finish up the section with a "Yes" flow chart.  Since "I Believe" is the theme, have the students add things that they can say yes, they believe.

 There are some ideas to get you started, but the possibilities are endless!