X for St. Francis Xavier

Moving on (slowly as usual) with our Alphabet of Saints....

A few fun facts about

St. Francis Xavier:

* He studied in Paris (le sigh!) and was one of 7 to help found The Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) in 1534. 

* His feast day is December 3

* He traveled to the far east as one of the first Jesuit Missionaries, so it makes sense that he became...

*the Patron Saint of foreign missions. 

* He is said to have preached, introduced and/or restored Christianity to parts of the Phillipines, Japan, and India. 

* In India, we would walk through the streets ringing a little bell to invite the children to hear the Word of God.

   

St. Francis Xavier, 

pray for us!

Letter V crafts

We took a break from our alphabet book crafts over Thanksgiving and Christmas, and it's taken awhile to get back, but here are the pages we just added for Letter V to our alphabet book.  

These are my almost-4-year-old's pictures

1. Vegetables - Just cut out construction paper veggies and let the kiddos glue them on.  

"Look, Mom! It's Larry the Cucumber and Bob the Tomato!"

This is why the picture could not be completed without all the vegetables having faces...

 

Merida apparently wanted to watch us work on Letter V projects.  And really, it's quite fitting, since she's a Viking and all...

2. Volcano- I saw this project on Pinterest--too cute!  Make a big red V, glue it to a piece of paper, color in brown to make it into a mountain, and make some lava spewing out!

These are the 2 year old's pictures (her big sis added the faces for her)

3. Violets and Vase- Draw a vase.  Let the kiddos paint stems green and then stamp violets (we used both Q-tips and those round paintbrushes) in purple.  Add some yellow dots in the center of each violet and paint some blue water in the vase as well. 

These are my Kindergartener's projects

And we accidently timed our Letter V study around St. Valentine's Day, so we made a bunch of homemade valentines today and filled them with sweet messages and Bible verses to send to friends and family.  

Letter U crafts

We finished up some letter U projects to add to our alphabet books.  Considering how slowly we have moved through the last few letters, this letter seemed like we zoomed right though it!  I got inspiration mostly straight from Pinterest for all these projects.

1. Umbrella

That is her fake smile for a camera face.

 Yep, it's as easy as it looks.  You could use different shapes on the umbrella to work on shapes, or you use one or two shapes and work on simple patterns.  Make them varied colors AND shapes, and you can work on both .  We just made it simple and I let them pick out colors and shapes they liked and do whatever they wanted.  :)

2. UP

(the craft is inspired by the UP movie with the balloons taking the house up and onward to Paradise Falls)

Fun for counting and colors.  

We just drew a house and then cut out different colored circles from construction paper and glued them on for the balloons.  They loved this one.  Probably because we dressed up with an UP theme as a family for Halloween this year.  

3. Underground

Easy, peasy.  It's just some construction paper for dirt and add stickers!

We just learned about trees and roots, so I was happy to see that my 5 year old was listening and put the tree roots purposely under the ground a bit.  My 3 year old just loved putting the bugs and seeds in the "dirt" and the butterflies in the sky on hers.  Fun, fun, fun! 

 I saw a cute underwater picture that was similar except it's water obviously and you put fish stickers.  

U have a happy day crafting now!  ;)

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. 

Letter "T" projects

Just a few projects for letter "T" to add to our ABC book....

1.  Trees

Easy peasy: all you need is a penciled basic outline of a tree, paint, and Q-tips and you can make a sweet tree for letter T!  My 5 year old made a plum tree, while the 3 year old and 2 year old made apple trees. 

2. Turtle

Example 1: 

This was done by my 3 year old.  We focused on naming colors and shapes while she glued them on in any manner she chose.  Great for fine motor skills (gluing on the little pieces) and practicing colors and shapes. 

Example 2:

 This is my 5 year old's. We are homeschooling her for Kindergarten and are currently working on patterns.  Each row she made up a new pattern to practice and she cut out the turtle body and head to practice scissor skills.  She knows her colors and shapes, but of course, you can always review those too, because why not?

3. Tulips

Cover a piece of paper in paint of all colors (be sure there is a good amount of green for stems!) Once the paint is dry, you can cut the green section into long, skinny rectangles for tulip stems and the other colors into tulips.  I cut out the basic tulips and my 5 year old cut the tops zig zag to practice her scissor skills.  The 2 year old merely painted, the 3 year old painted and glued on the tulips and stems (hers is the picture at the top) and my 5 year old painted, cut some parts, and glues hers and the 2 year olds.  Fun project, pretty result.  We made some of the tulips into little cards to send to people since we had extra tulips.  :)

4. Trains

 

You need 3 rectangles (1 big, 1 medium, 1 smaller), 2 small triangles, a sqaure, and 4 circles. 

5 year old: I drew outlines of the shapes, and she did the cutting herself and glued the train on and drew all the train tracks (on both pictures actually because she got so excited)

3 year old: I cut out the shapes, and we worked on shape recognition and following directions as I verbally directed her to glue to the pieces on the paper.  I did need to show her a few times what I meant, but we worked using phrases like "place the circle next to the other circle" or "place the little rectangle on top of the medium rectangle".  

Lots of fun with letter T!

Letter "S" projects

We have been busy bees this summer doing all sorts of things-but it has slowed our progress on our alphabet book.  We started letter S with Saint Sebastian sometime in June I believe, and we've only just finished the last of our "S" projects to finish this letter off and make way for letter "T".

1. Sun and Stars in the Sky

The girls had lots of fun with this one.  First step was working on coloring skills.  They grabbed all sorts of blue hued crayons to cover the page in blue sky. We added a little purple to the side that will be "nighttime".  For the older kiddo, you can have them cut out the rectangles for the sun and stars and the circle for the sun.  Then they go to town gluing their sun and stars on the page. 

2. A Snowman in Summer!

 

Cut out some shapes, draw an outline of a sandy beach area and some water and sky.  Like the last project, there is lots of coloring to start and then glue on the different shapes and pieces.  The girls drew crayon sunshines in case you weren't sure it was, in fact, SUMMER!  :)  This project was (or course) a hit because it has Olaf.  Who doesn't love Olaf?  Now, do YOU want to build a snowman?

3. Tissue Paper Snake

Draw the outline on the paper, let them tear up tissue paper and glue.  Easy and cute.  My 3 year old sort-of covered the snake's eyes, but it gives it the appearance of being even more sneaky don't you think?

4. Saxophone

 

I cut out the s-shaped saxophones and the girls glued them on the paper.  Next we read a library book about music and musicians and we paid special attention to the page with the saxophone player.  The 3 year old isn't really drawing people yet, so my 5 year old totally did that part for her.  But drawing people is a great skill for the kids to practice as they grow and develop.  It's rather neat to see all the details she puts in.

5. Toilet paper roll Sunflowers

 

Use toilet paper rolls (squeeze the edges to make the petal shape instead of a circle) to stamp yellow "petals" around a painted black circle.  Use a paintbrush to fill in the petals with color and also to add a stem and some leaves.  

5 year old

She needed no assistance other than verbal direction

3 year old

She needed assistance with each step and had a hard time stamping the petals in a circle around the black circle she painted.  I helped with that step and then directed her to paint yellow inside the petals and add a stem, which she did on her own for a neat 3 year old finished product.  

1 year old

I started out a black circle for her and she took the brush and added flare.  I had to do the actual stamping of the petals for the flower, though she did enjoy stamping all around the page on her own.  I tried having her paint in the petals, but she mostly just added more yellow to the page in various places and when I gave her the green, she did the same.  Very abstract, but still quite cool, I thought, and she got to have fun with paint.