Jesus Notebooking Pages- First Christmas, Apostles, Parables, and More!

We have been continuing on our journey of religious notebooking, and today we covered the topic of the teachings of Jesus! I have been creating these notebooking pages as a series to go along with the book Tell Me About The Catholic Faith, but you could certainly use these to teach kids about the teachings of Jesus whether or not you are reading that book. You can find the entire 130 page pack of matching notebooking pages here. 

The First Christmas

My Thoughts On Pages 42-43 TMACF:

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.

My Printables:

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.

Download The First Christmas Notebooking Page

Additional Resources:

• 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.

Jesus Calls The Apostles

My Thoughts On Pages 44-45 in TMACF:

These pages were very straight forward and well done- no complaints.

My Printables:

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.

Download Jesus Calls The Apostles Notebooking Page

Additional Resources:

• 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.

Song with the 12 Apostles

(Tune of 1 Little, 2 Little, 3 Little Indians)

1 little, 2 little, 3 apostles,

4 little, 5 little, 6 apostles,

7 little, 8 little, 9 apostles,

10, 11, 12 apostles!

First there’s Peter, John, and Andrew,

James and Simon, Phillip, Matthew,

Thomas, Thaddus, and Bartholomew,

James the Less and Judas, too!

(repeat beginning of song once more)

Things Jesus Did

My Thoughts On Pages 46-47 in TMACF:

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.

My Printables:

Again, these pages are being offered with or without sentences to trace, and with or without the “coloring page” already built in.

Download Things Jesus Did Notebooking Page

Additional Resources:

• Sing the song “Zaccheus Was A Wee Little Man” (Here’s one you can stream for free if you have Amazon Prime.)

Parables

My Thoughts On Pages 48-51 in TMACF:

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.

My Printables:

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.

Download Parables Notebooking Page

Additional Resources:

• 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.
• Sing the song “The Wise Man Built His House Upon The Rock” (Here’s a version you can stream for free if you have Amazon Prime.)
• 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!

Jesus Speaks About The Father

My Thoughts On Pages 52-53 in TMACF:

I really liked these pages! They are slammed full of golden nuggets of wisdom Jesus gave us, and are great lessons for kids.

My Printables:

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.

Download Things Jesus Said Notebooking Pages

Book Of Centuries

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.

The Pack Is Now Ready For Download!!!

Edited to say- the whole pack of these notebooking pages is now complete, and you can get your set here!

You can find all the links to this series here.