This week’s Foto Finish is on time!!  WooHoo  So, what did you do for our theme of  ”in a tree”??

I had fun with this one.  I was going to go literal and go for a bird in the tree because I have lots of photos of that.  Instead, I had to go a little different route.  I used a photo that I took earlier this Spring of this pretty butterfly fluttering from blossom to blossom on our dogwood tree.

Here’s my Foto Finish for this week….

Thank you for joining in Foto Finish.  Please be sure to link-up below.  After you do that, I’d appreciate it if you’d visit some of the other blogs participating and be sure to leave a comment so that they know that you were there!!

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That’s it for this week and I can’t wait to see what you all have for this week’s Foto Finish of “in a tree”!!  For next week, our (optional) theme is shoes.  I can’t wait to see what you come up with this and what photo you share!!

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Two weeks in a row and at least I’m consistent with being late for Foto Finish.  I’ve decided that I’m going to have to do my post earlier in the week and schedule it for Saturday’s to post!!

This week’s optional theme is “on a shelf”.  I didn’t have anything for it, so I was running around looking for just the right shot.  I wasn’t happy with what I was taking or what was on my shelves.  I actually ended up going with a simple shot I took with my aim and shoot camera instead of my Nikon.

Here’s my Foto Finish for this week….

Thank you for joining in Foto Finish.  Please be sure to link-up below.  After you do that, I’d appreciate it if you’d visit some of the other blogs participating and be sure to leave a comment so that they know that you were there!!

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That’s it for this week and I can’t wait to see what you all have for this week’s Foto Finish of on a shelf!!  For next week, our (optional) theme is in a tree.  I can’t wait to see what you come up with this and if anyone comes up with something unique!!

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I created a couple printable to use with my class, then I made a couple extra things in hopes that others would be able to us them.  First, there’s a set of memory match cards.  The armor is matched to its virtue.  There are also two worksheets.  One of them is “Label the Armor of God” and the other is “Armor of God Cut & Paste” where the armor is cut and glued next to the virtue.

Finally, it’s the big one!!  I called it “Roll the Armor of God”, but it has so many other uses.  It can be used to roll a die and place the Armor of God on the soldier.  This can also be used for a felt story set, which is basically how I used it with my kiddos.  I read the Bible verse to them and they dressed their doll in the armor as I read the verse.  It could also be used as a simple paper craft to do with the kids.  There’s 2 versions of this all in one download!!  There is a boy and girl soldier doll, as well as a black & white version or color version.  Then for the “Roll the Armor of God”, there’s just the virtue listed or the piece of armor with the virtue to use depending on the age of your kids.

On a side note, these activities are based on the Catholic version (NAS) of the Bible.  The only part that I didn’t use was the wording for “having girded your loins in truth”.  I chose to use “belt” instead as it’s easier for my little ones to understand.  I did choose to use “shod your feet”, as they grasped that it was shoes/boots and I didn’t want to use “sandals” as many do and hubby drew me great armor boots.

Here’s a sample of some of the items for the Armor of God (click to enlarge)….

To get any or all of these Armor of God printables, just click here to…..

If you use any of my printables or just enjoy reading my blog, please leave a comment or use the “contact me” button in the right hand column.  I appreciate your feedback and continue by the input that I receive.

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I’m so frustrated, my first week of Foto Finish and I’m starting it an hour late!! I apologize and I will get the hang of this.

For my “fast or speed” photo for this week’s optional theme, I’m posting one from last week.  It was our annual trip to Texas Motor Speedway.  It was a night race, so my pictures were limited.  I think this one best captures our theme though!!

Here’s my Foto Finish….

Thank you for joining in the return of Foto Finish.  Please be sure to link-up below.  After you do that, I’d appreciate it if you’d visit some of the other blogs participating and be sure to leave a comment so that they know that you were there!!

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That’s it for this week and I can’t wait to see what you all have for this week’s Foto Finish of fast or speed!!  I guess I had better tell you next week’s option theme as well.  HAHA  Next week, our Foto Finish will be on a shelf for the optional theme. 

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Today marks my Blogoversary. I can’t believe that it’s been 5 years already. WOW!! Where did time go!?!?

As I do pretty much each year, I’m going to give you a few quick stats about Commotion.  I always find them interesting and hope that you do as well.  So here we go….

The top 10 posts/pages are….

Best ever day….

November 24, 2012 with 7,549 views

All time….

320, 403 views with 3,077 comments from 764 posts with 27 categories and 1,635 tags

There is…..

53 blog followers, 21 comment followers, 148 Twitter followers, and 41 Facebook followers

The top 10 countries that have visited (since 25 February 2012) are….

United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, India, Philippines, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, and Singapore

I have to thank each and every one of you that reads my posts whenever I get around to doing them.  I know it’s not like it used to be, but life just seems to dictate that I do other things.  I’m happy though and I can’t complain about the blog.  I get to post the things that I want and when I want.  Some of you are so very loyal and that means everything to me.  I hope that we’ll be around for another 5 years…..and many more….together!!

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For those of you that haven’t seen that button in quite some time, I’m happy to say that it will be returning in 2 weeks!!  Yes, that’s right, we’ll be holding Foto Finish weekly again.

Barbara who used to host this photo meme was no longer able to do so.  We’ve been missing Foto Finish since December and I do mean we miss it!!  I finally contacted Barbara to ask her if I could host it and she agreed.  I’m so honored because she always did such a good job with it. 

I’m keeping everything pretty much the same way that Barbara had it.  I can’t wait to do this because I know that I need to challenge myself more with my photography.  That’s really the whole purpose that I asked if I could take over hosting this great photo meme.  I can’t wait to come up with our optional themes and push myself to get out there and take some new photos.

To learn more about the return of Foto Finish, please click the button above to be taken to the Foto Finish page.  And remember, be back here on 20 April where our optional theme will be speed or fast!!

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For this lesson, I chose to make a simple coloring book.  Each page contains one of the 8 Beatitudes and an image to color.  When they’re done, they get to cut out the pages and assemble their coloring book.  My kids just love getting ahold of that stapler!!

Here’s a thumbnail view of just a couple of the pages….

All coloring book images © Super Coloring and they are used for educational purposes only without profit.  The cover coloring book image from an internet source and believed to be public domain.

If you’re interested in doing this mini coloring book with your kids or class, just click to….

As a bonus, I have a blast from the past!!  In 2008, I created a simple matching game for the Beatitudes.  The bee with the reward is matched to the hive with the blessed.  If you’re interested in this file folder game, just click HERE to download it.  I hope that you will enjoy both these activities with your kids, but I know that I will!!


If you use my free printables or just enjoy reading my blog, please click here to vote for my blog….thanks!!







All activities, games, information, etc. on this blog are provided for free. However they are ONLY to be used for classroom and personal use. They may NOT be published on any websites/blogs or other electronic media, distributed in any manner, uploaded to any file sharing service/storage, or sold for profit. If you know someone who would benefit from these materials, please refer them to this blog. Do NOT share the materials that you download with them. Copyright © 2008-Present. All rights reserved, unless otherwise noted. This means that unless it is specified otherwise, all content within this blog and downloads are the private property of Elaine and The Schoolhouse. All materials on this blog and downloads are copyright (© Elaine, © The Schoolhouse, and © Commotion) and misuse or abuse is subject to legal action.

April first already?!?! Really!?!?

I can’t believe how fast time is going.  I can’t believe that it’s already April.

This is going to be a busy month for us, but it’s all going to be good!!  I just wish that time would slow down a bit.  I miss some of the time I used to have to just kick back and enjoy.  April also means that we’re close to the end of the homeschool year.  WOW!!  The first year of high school will be down and out.  So many other things coming this month, but again, it’s all good.

To all the “fools” that take the time to read my blog and follow along, a very Happy April Fools’ Day to you and I hope that you don’t get too many pranks pulled on you!!

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Click to enlarge.

For this craft project, we colored the events of Holy Week.  Then, we cut them and the cross out.  Next they colored the paper plate with yellow, orange, and red so that it’d look like a sunset behind the cross.  (You could also use paint for the paper plate.)  I then read a story to the kids about the events of Holy Week and we placed the colored pictures on the cross in sequence order as we read about them.  Finally, we wrapped the purple ribbon around the cross and glued it to the paper plate.

Full instructions, the cross template, and coloring images for the events of Holy Week for this craft are included in the download.  The cross has to be printed on legal size paper.  If possible, I suggest using cards stock in legal size so that it’s more rigid.  I did mine on paper though and it worked just fine.  There is also a second version included that’s just printed on legal size paper, but you don’t have to mount it to the paper plate.

If you’re interested in doing this Holy Week Cross, just click to…..

I hope that you’re kids enjoy this project as much as mine did.  When we completed it, they all wanted to see what each others turned out like since they all color a little differently and I had 4 different purple ribbons.  They all ran to their parents saying “look what I made” and “see my pretty cross”.  So satisfying to see them that happy!!

Coloring images for Holy Week © MasterClips by IMSI.  Cross template, directions, and craft project © Elaine © Commotion.

If you use my free printables or just enjoy reading my blog, please click here to vote for my blog….thanks!!







All activities, games, information, etc. on this blog are provided for free. However they are ONLY to be used for classroom and personal use. They may NOT be published on any websites/blogs or other electronic media, distributed in any manner, uploaded to any file sharing service/storage, or sold for profit. If you know someone who would benefit from these materials, please refer them to this blog. Do NOT share the materials that you download with them. Copyright © 2008-Present. All rights reserved, unless otherwise noted. This means that unless it is specified otherwise, all content within this blog and downloads are the private property of Elaine and The Schoolhouse. All materials on this blog and downloads are copyright (© Elaine, © The Schoolhouse, and © Commotion) and misuse or abuse is subject to legal action.