Jared Dees's Blog: The Latest from Jared Dees, page 2

Martin Luther King Jr.’s Kitchen Table Prayer: A Story for Kids

Late one evening in 1956, Martin Luther King, Jr. sat alone at his kitchen table. His wife and daughter lay asleep in the next room. King had spent the last few weeks organizing and promoting a boycott of the buses in Montgomery to make a statement for equal rights between white and black citizens.

The phone rang. It was midnight. King answered. An angry man told him to leave Montgomery before the morning or die. It was another one of the many death threats upon his life and his family th...

Mr. Beast’s Message to His Future Self: A Story for Kids

With millions of subscribers and billions of views, Mr. Beast is the most popular YouTuber on the planet. A decade ago, however, Jimmy Donaldson (Mr. Beast’s real name) was posting amateur videos of himself playing Minecraft and other video games.

You might see his success today overlook how he got started.

It took 137 videos for him to earn his first 1,000 subscribers. It took 100 more videos to get the next 1,000 subscribers. Jimmy just kept going, posting new videos despite the slo...

The Little Drummer Boy Story for Kids

The following story is based upon the popular Christmas carol, “The Little Drummer Boy” by Katherine Kennicott Davis (1941).  

Pa-rum-pum-pum-pum! I played my drum as loud as I could. I looked down at my empty hat on the ground near the road, not a single coin inside. I had never seen our little town of Bethlehem so crowded. People were coming from everywhere and not all of them were nice.

“Get off the street!” one angry outsider yelled. The sun was setting. I picked up my drum and sta...

The First Thanksgiving of Oceanus Hopkins (A Pilgrim’s Story)

This is a fictional story about members of the real-life Hopkins family who came to America among the Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower. Oceanus Hopkins was the only child to be born during the voyage. His big sister Constance was most likely a big part of the young boy’s life. Here is a short story about the day of the First Thanksgiving in 1621.

Constance ran through the woods outside of Plymouth Colony. She couldn’t find Oceanus anywhere. Her nearly one-year-old brother was an early walke...

A Local Election Guide for Kids (Worksheet)

Teachers spend a lot of time teaching about presidential and national elections, but how much do kids know about the roles of the local elected officials?

During every election season campaign signs line the streets and yards of the local community with people running for offices like county commissioner, coroner, auditor, surveyor, etc.

But do your students actually know what these people do?

Here’s a quick guide to local elected officials for kids:

A Local Election Guide fo...

The Legend of Jack O’Lantern (Stingy Jack): A Halloween Story for Kids

Jack-O-Lanterns on Halloween are inspired by the Irish legend of Stingy Jack. Jack was a drunkard who liked to play tricks on people and always cheated his way out of paying for anything.

The devil heard about Jack’s tricks and came to take the man’s soul down with him to hell. But Jack played a trick on the devil. He talked his way into having one last drink at the pub and convinced the devil to turn himself into a silver coin to pay for the drink. When the devil transformed, Jack put a ...

President Theodore Roosevelt Biography Worksheet

Theodore Roosevelt is consistently listed as one of the greatest presidents in U.S. history. Introduce your students to the life of this great man with the biography and worksheet below.

The Life of President Theodore Roosevelt Biography

“Get action! Do things . . . and be somebody.” This was one of the many phrases by which Theodore Roosevelt lived his life. He never wasted a second of his existence. He was born into a wealthy family in New York City and grew up as a sickly child. He ov...

Andrew Carnegie and the Life-changing Power of Libraries

Andrew Carnegie was the richest man in America.

He also built more libraries than anyone else in history.

The 19th century businessman funded the construction of more than public 2,500 libraries throughout the English-speaking world.

These Carnegie Libraries made up more than half of all the public libraries in the United States at the time.

Why were libraries so important to the richest man in America? 

Carnegie was born into a family of poor Scottish immigrants. His rise is ...

The Song of the Bird Story and Discussion Questions

The story comes from a collection of stories by Fr. Anthony de Mello called The Song of the Bird. The book takes its title from the story below and I invite you to read it and reflect on it with your kids. 

I included some of my own questions at the end that I think will help you guide the discussion about how and why we should try to know God. 

The Song of the Bird Story

By Fr. Anthony de Mello 

The disciples were full of questions about God.

Said the Master, “God is Unknown, the Un...

The Tortoise and the Hare Fable: Summary and Reflection Questions

The story has become so popular, in fact, that people seem to forget that this fable originated with Aesop at the beginning of the sixth century BCE. 

Read The Hare & the Tortoise Fable here.

(The original story is very short—shorter than most retellings you will find online!) 

The Tortoise and the Hare Summary

A hare (rabbit) makes fun of a tortoise (turtle) for being slow. The tortoise challenges the hare to a race. The hare was so confident that he would beat the tortoise th...