All Saints Day- 2014

Last year, we had a very fun feast and you can find some of the exciting things we did in this blog post.

1. SAINT BINGO- This year we kept some of last year's ideas as well as tried out a few new ones.  Saint BINGO could be played all day around here.  The girls love the Saints, the game, and the BINGO prizes, so in addition to last year's BINGO, I thought we might try one that was a little more advanced.  I found free printables for the BINGO cards here on Pinterest.  It was definitely a bit much for the 3 year old and 2 year old who needed quite a bit of extra assistance, but it was still fun, and will be a great resource to have around for many future years too.

2. SAINT PAPER DOLL CHAIN/WREATH- I found this awesome idea that the girls really enjoyed.  I made the paper doll chains prior and for my younger two, I helped them choose saints and draw them and they colored them.  The 5 year old looked at saint books, drew her own, and colored them like a little pro.  She wants to do another one tomorrow...

3. SAINT THEMED GUESSING JARS- There are really great guessing jar ideas AND printable labels for the jars available here, but I saw it last minute so my versions are way lamer, but still a fun, easy idea to put together.  My kids are really a little young for this, but with a little help and strategy discussion from Daddy, the 5 year old was able to make some pretty decent guesses.  And we got some great counting in because I had them count for practice.  The 3 year old did some of the smaller count jars by 1's and my 5 year counted by 2's on the larger count jars.  

    

4. FAMILY LITANY OF SAINTS- This is a neat idea I found on Pinterest from Catholicicing .  I made up a simple version in Microsoft Word and my 5 year old LOVED choosing Saints for the Litany and decorating the border with symbols of each saint she chose.  She was even more thrilled to read off the litany at bedtime when we said prayers and concluded with this.  

5. SAINTS, SAINTS, WHO DO YOU SEE? - We have not done this yet, but we are going to make our own version of this at some point in November because it is SO cute and I know all three girls will LOVE it.  

picture from sarahrosessupposes@blogspot.ca

6. READ SAINT BOOKS/STORIES- We read the last several chapters in a St. Elizabeth Ann Seton book that we've been working through for the past month.  We also read a great many short saint stories from a Lives of the Saints book we have.  The girls love to look through the pictures and choose saints to read about.  Some of them we've read over and over, and every so often they choose one we've never read about together.

7. COLORING PAGES- There are so many resources for Catholic coloring pages out there if you look.  Check out my religious crafts and learning Pinterest board for just a few... or do a quick search and find your own.  My kiddos love coloring, so this is always a win.  

8. DRESSING UP AS SAINTS- This year we had a St. Lucy, St. Cecilia, and a St. Elizabeth of Hungary.  We headed to Mass in the morning and they all wanted to wear their costumes.  The costumes stayed on for a good portion of the day for the younger two, but my 5 year old kept hers on all day including our trip to the grocery store.  I love how proud and uninhibited kids are.  

St. Lucy is wearing one of her Dad's sparkling white undershirts with a red ribbon sash and a construction paper crown fashioned lovingly by her mother.  

St. Cecilia is wearing one of our princess-y, dress-up dresses with a crown made last year out of a small plastic wreath and fake flowers and greenery.  It got a bit battered over the course of a year in the dress-up box, so Mom had to spruce it up a little with some green felt and fabric glue to make it look fabulous once again.  

St. Elizabeth of Hungary is dolled up in a Sunday dress with a swiftly fashioned felt cape and paper crown decorated with stickers.  

9. LITANY OF THE SAINTS SONG- We listened to and watched this version of Matt Maher's Litany of the Saints .  The girls like singing along with the "pray for us" parts as well as listening for some of their favorite saints like St. Lucy and St. Cecilia especially.  We also sang a few other praise songs like "Here I am to Worship" and "I Have Decided to Follow Jesus".  We like music around here. 

Happy Feast of All Saints Day!

Next year, my goal is to actually plan a party and invite some friends to celebrate with us. 

M projects - Monkey and Muffin

Today we are featuring some letter M projects.  Here are a few of Elise's (2) finished products:

 

Let's start with the "M is for Monkey" project.  Here are the supplies you need (minus the monkey stuffed animal of course):

construction paper, scissors, glue

You need two colors of construction paper.  We used brown and orange.  Cut out a circle from the brown paper.  Then cut out an orange heart, one small oval (cut it in two for the ears) and a larger oval.  See the picture below.

Color eyes and a mouth on the heart and large oval piece as shown.  Younger children will need assistance.

Then simply glue the heart onto the brown circle.  Then glue the ears and oval mouth piece to make your monkey face.  Decorate the "M is for Monkey" and add it to the Alphabet book (see more about that here.)

 

Our next project was one that helps your kiddo not only make alphabet connections, but also practice their counting.  All you need is some construction paper, scissors, and glue (just like the last project)!  Draw a muffin outline on your paper.  Bigger means you can count higher.  My 2 year old practiced counting to 10 and the 4 year old did 15.  We had to keep ours small enough to fit it on our "M is for Muffin" page to go into our ABC book.

     

Elise wanted a blueberry muffin so we blue paper into tiny pieces.  Kayla chose to make a raspberry/strawberry muffin, so we used red construction paper for hers.  Elise and I worked together on the next step.  I would put a small glue dot by one of the numbers and say the number out loud.  She would get a piece of construction paper (fine motor skills!) and stick it by the number.  At the end we practiced counting to 10 together pointing at the 'blueberries' on her muffin.  Kayla was told to glue one construction paper piece under each different number 1-15 and was able to do it independently.

 And the end product is a yummy muffin that can be added to an alphabet book or displayed on the fridge!

ta-da!