All Saints Day Costume- St. Maria Goretti

My daughter chose to dress up as St. Maria Goretti this year for All Saints Day.

Maria Goretti died at age 12 years of age after an attempted raped that ended up in her stabbing death.  Maria's father died when she was 9 years old, and Maria spent her days helping raise her siblings and helping out on the farm in the countryside in Italy.

Maria Goretti is the patron saint of purity and crime victims.  For the costume, we purchased a peasant costume from Amazon for around $18.00.  I added a toy dagger and plastic lilies, her symbols in picture and art.

You can purchase the Girl's Peasant Dress here; a plastic lily here and plastic dagger here.  A quick and easy All Saints Day Costume.

St. Elizabeth of Hungary Costume

Last All Saints Day, our daughter chose St. Elizabeth of Hungary for her All Saints Day costume and diorama project.

We had actually picked up the "renaissance princess" costume the prior year on clearance, which helped guide our daughter to pick a royal saint.  I found some similar costumes on Amazon for around $25.00, either the Reinassance Princess (blue theme) for $19.99 or the Little Adventures Red Winter Princess dress for $29.99 could work.  These types of costumes can often be found in costume stores as well.

I made a red cape to add to the look.  I don't really sew, so I purchased a burgundy-red velvet(ish) dress from our local thrift store (it was a Christmas dress with white fur trim).  I cut off the trim, and cut it down the center.  I turned the sleeves inside out and used fabric glue to close up the armholes and put a few stiches in the top part to make it fit like a cape (but left the neckhole plenty big to fit on and off easily.  I found a red cape for $29.99 on Amazon, or a blue cape for $24.99 on Amazon that would work (my option with the modified dress cost around $4.00 in comparison, but more hunting and prep work would be required).

For her headdress, we ordered a crown from Amazon.  Here is link to the exact crown pictured, the cost is $4.00.  For the white cloth underneath it, I repurposed a veil from a prior Mary costume, but I would think any white cloth would work.  The crown held it in place nicely.

To accessorize, we purchased a small wicker basket from the thrift store, and two small baguettes from the grocery store that I hot glued into the basket.   (St. Elizabeth is often pictured with bread due to her devotion to the poor and hungry).

After Halloween Clearance Sales- Time to Stock up!

Always looking for a deal?  Consider now as the perfect time to stock up on All Saints Day costumes essentials.

Princess Dresses/Costumes:  Perfect for Royal Saints (ie St. Elizabeth of Hungary, etc).

Crushed velvet capses:  add to the the princess dress for a Royal St.

Black Demon-type costumes with black robes:  Nun costumes, some male saints wearing black robes

Short Black Capes:  St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

Adult Monk or Nun costumes:  We've used these to dress up as saints ourselves for RE class, or have taken the nun headdress to use with a generic black robe in a child size, above for nun saints.  Monk costumes-- great for monks, St. Francis, etc., can be cut down for a child (or shortened with safety pins to "let out" as they get bigger.

White robes (greek-type costumes, angel costumes, ghost costumes, etc)- these can easily be modified for Blessed Theresa of Calcutta (add blue to the borders) or Archangel saints.

Halos-- good for any saint costumes, either sold with angel costumes or as an accessory

Saint Puppets- St. Elizabeth of Hungary and St. Francis

For our last class before All Saints Day, we decided to act out a St. Francis skit with puppets, and have the class make puppets.


Using the free downloadable e-book from www.catholicicing.com we created St. Francis using the Head, Franciscan Hair, Praying Hands and Bird templates.


For St. Elizabeth of Hungary, we had to be a bit more creative.  We used the templates for the crown, veil, shoulder cape, cape, dress and hands.  To create the bread basket, we used the baby template, shrunk it down some, and freehanded the three loaves of bread for the basket.  We used the St. Elizabeth puppet for our first graders (who happen to mostly all be girls) and our St. Francis puppet for our Kindergarten and younger kids as it is easier to put together.

Our daughter also appeared in person as St. Elizabeth of Hungary, giving her oral report to prepare for her report in school the coming week.



All Saints Day- Saints Stations

For the next three weeks, our class will be working on activities related to All Saints Day.  For for our first class, we focused on learning about what a Saint is (God's friends and our friends in Heaven) and gaining familiarity with some of the saints.

After our circle time and review of our text book section on Holy People, we set up five stations in our class room.  We divided our children into five small groups of 2-3 kids, and had them rotate through the following stations to have them "live like a saint"

Station 1:  St. Francis

We placed two small plastic containers next to each other.  In one container, we placed a small amount of birdseed (about a half a cup) and had the kids use a teaspoon to move the birdseed from one container to the other to help feed the birds and care for God's creation, like St. Francis.

Station 2:  St. Vincent de Paul

We brought in one of our daughter's Build a Bear animals with a dress and shoes.  The children took turns dressing the animal to "clothe the naked" like St. Vincent de Paul.

Station 3:  St. Teresa of Calcutta

We brought in a doll and a wrap bandage.  The kids took turns bandaging up the doll to take care of the sick like St. Teresa.

Station 4:  St. Nicholas

We had a child's shoe, and three coins.  The kids took turns tossing the coins into the shoe from a distance, to be like St. Nicholas dropping coins in children's shoes.

Station 5:  St. Elizabeth of Hungary

We brought in 9 small cans of tomato sauce and had the kids take turns arranging them into a stacked pyramid or tower to "feed the hungary" like St. Elizabeth.

To finish our class, we made the All Saints Day Buckets, found on the Catholic Icing website using orange buckets purchased from Michaels for $1.00 each.

We sent the kids home with a worksheet to complete with their parents to complete their "Saints Posse" or a team of saints in Heaven praying for them.  This can be found on the Loyala Press website.  We are hoping at least a few come back with it next week for discussion.

Divine Mercy Sunday

For Divine Mercy Sunday, we started the class off with having the kids color St. Faustina while all of the kids arrived.  Click here to go to a free coloring page sheet on Saint Faustina.com.

We then moved to circle time, and passed out a rosary to each child.  In the center of our circle we had a small white cloth and an easter candle to celebrate the season.

We told the kids about the ABC's of the Divine Mercy...

A:  Ask for His Mercy; B:  Be Merciful; C:  Completely Trust in Jesus.

We prayed the beginning and one decade of the Divine Mercy Chaplet.  I put together some info I found on the internet here as a Divine Mercy Chaplet take-home sheet. 

Finally, we created the craft pictured above, with toilet paper rolls and the cute print out design from Catholic Icing.  Instead of fan folding the blue and red light streams, we used my Fiskars paper crimper, which the kids loved using.

Master of Disguise--Blessed Miguel Pro Juarez, Feast Day November 23

In case you didn't have enough costume changes and dress up opportunities during Halloween and All Saints Day (we went from orange and black free dress at Catholic School, gymnastics leotard, Halloween Kit Kittridge costume on Halloween, to St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, to Brownie Girl Scout the following day...my daughter needed her own wardrobe team), November 23 is a Feast Day to one of the original Masters of Disguise, Blessed Miguel Pro Juarez.

This is a fun saint to study at home or in your religious education class.  He was born in Mexico in 1891.  He started his studies to be a priest in 1911, but by 1914, Mexico's government had become Anti-Catholic, and Juarez was forced to flee to the United States.  He eventually made it back to Mexico in 1926, but the government hadn't changed and he was forced to practice his ministry underground.  He is best known for his creative disguises, dressing up as a beggar to sneak out to baptize infants, dressing up as a police officer to minister to those in jail, and dressing up as a businessman when ministering to those in wealthy neighborhoods, to name a few of his clever disguises.

To celebrate his unique lenghts he went to in his ministry, here are two activities to try:

Dress up Relay:  Fill two paper grocery bags up with various types of dress up clothes (hats, scarves, larger dresses, coats, etc.).  Each bag should have an equal amount of items.  Divide the children up into two teams, and have them start on the side of the room opposite to the bags.  On "go" have them walk as quickly as possible, put all the clothing items in the bag on them, and then walk back to the line.  They then take off the clothes and the next person puts them on, walks down and around the bag, and takes off the clothes while the next person puts them on.  The first team to have all team members complete this task wins the game.

Secret Message Craft:  Have the children write a message, such as "Jesus Loves You" with a white crayon on write paper (or you can pre-write these out on white paper for kids not yet able to write).  The kids can then give the message to another student in the class, and then the student can paint over the entire paper with watercolor paints, and the secret message will pop out. 

Saint Costume: St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

  This year's Saint for All Saints Day was St. Elizabeth Ann Seton.  St. Elizabeth Ann Seton was the first American-born saint to be cannonized.  She started the first Catholic School in the United States, and founded the Daughters of Charity.  She grew up in the Episcopal Church, but converted to Catholocism as an adult (one of the many reasons I like her!).  One of my favorite quotes of hers is "Live simply so that others may live".  Profound even for colonial and early American times, this speaks to both environmental and social justice causes of today.

Since I don't sew, we purchased the costume.  My favorite piece, the black bonnet, is actually sold as an Amish style hat.  I've looked up the pieces on Amazon.com, and linked them to my store.  Here are the essential pieces to recreate the costume:  a  black bonnet , currently retailing for $7.99; a basic black robe (I would suggest cutting off the hood, as I did here), which currently retails for $8.99, and a short black cape , which currently retails for $4.99.  The total costume on Amazon.com would be around $21.00, and I'm anticipating reusing the pieces in future All Saints Day Costumes.

For accessories, the top photo shows my daughter's choices:  A chalkboard (to represent her starting a Catholic School); a rosary, as St. Elizabeth Ann Seton loved the rosary, and a Bible, as she was an avid Bible reader (likely due to her Protestant roots).

Top 5 All Saints Day Activities

This post could also be titled five projects I wish I had time to do if I homeschooled or had more time in my classroom each week.  Here are some of my favorite Saints activities that I've seen on the web:

1.  Blessed Teresa of Calcutta Craft:  "I am contractually obligated to list this craft as my favorite...." which is lawyer speak for this is my own craft so I particularly am found of it.   Have your kids make a craft out of a tp roll and duct tape to make a cute saint. If one had time, I'm sure the simple format of this little saint could be modified to make a collection of saints like some of the other ideas listed here.

2.  I love these adorable Saints Paper Dolls....and she even uploaded the patterns she used for sharing.  How cute and fun would these be to do at home or in an RE class?  Check out all of the details at Ana Braga-Henebry's Journal blog.






3.  How about a fun activity at home (using the clues on this website) or modified for the classroom or church use?  An All Saints Day Scavenger Hunt!  Kate Wicker has included instructions for this fun activity including clues to use for an around the house hunt.  You can check out her webpage here .

4.  In case paper doll saints and tp/duct tape saints aren't enough, check out the adorable Wooden Spoon Saints featured on the Cottage Blessings Blog .  I really like how these crafts lend themselves to something you can add to each year, what a great family or classroom tradition!

5.  Oh, collages...a great go to activity when you need something that doesn't involve a lot of teacher prep work.  We've actually started a box in our classroom where we keep old magazines and extra pictures of saints from projects, fliers, etc. just for this purpose.  Catholic Icing has a great cloud bubble All Saints Day project.  I haven't tried this specific one, but I'm thinking about a modification with pictures of loved ones that have passed and perhaps at the bottom, we are praying for you for an All Souls Day project?


Hope you enjoy these ideas, I know I have and that I appreciate all of those hardworking homeschooling moms and religious ed teachers that share their great ideas with the world!

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

For our second class of October, we decided to cover Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.

For our intro activity as kids arrived, I printed and used the following coloring sheet of Blessed Teresa (follow the link):

Mother Teresa Coloring Page

During circle time, we talked about Blessed Teresa, the difference between the title Saint and Blessed, and how we can be like Blessed Teresa in our everyday lives. The book we used was informational and had lots of pictures, covering her life and death:

Mother Teresa Biograph (Amazon)

Finally, we worked on a Mother Teresa craft. For each craft, you will need a toilet paper roll, one pipe cleaner, white duck tape, a wooden or peach bead, a small foam ball, peach paint, tissue paper, blue crayons or markers and glue.

We first covered the toilet paper roll entirely with white duck tape. We then painted the stryofoam balls peach with acrylic paints. We then made the hands and arms by putting a bead in the center of a pipe cleaner, and folding in the sides to the middle to make a figure 8. We then covered each side by wrapping it in white duck tape, and attached the hands to the front of the body by taping them with more duck tape in the back. We had the kids draw on faces (we had painted the balls the night before so we wouldn't have to wait for them to dry) and had them draw blue lines on the edge of a 6" by 4" piece of white tissue paper. We hot glued the heads to the top of the tp roll, and then used elmer's glue to attach the tissue paper around the ball head.

We finished the class with the activities from our Blest Our We textbook (Chapter 19) and had each child tell us how they will do something to help others to live out Blessed Teresa's example during the week.

St. Francis Feast Day

For our first class of the year, we learned about St. Francis, as his feast day was the day after class (October 4).

We had the kids color a hand-made coloring book called "St. Francis: A guardian to god's creatures" which had them color a picture of St. Francis on the cover and then think of an animal on each page that St. Francis loved. I'll try to get this scanned and up on Google docs soon.

For circle time, we gave each child a small wooden animal (.25 cents each at Michaels) and had them say a way they think St. Francis would have shown love to that animal (feeding, taking care of, giving a mud bath to pigs- we had all sorts of creative ideas.

We then read a few pages from a beautiful book on St. Francis that we found at the local bookstore. St. Francis of Assisi, A Life of Joy, by Robert Kennedy Jr.

http://www.amazon.com/Saint-Francis-Assisi-Life-Joy/dp/0786818751/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1286242768&sr=8-12