Pascual and the Kitchen Angels Craft

This week we are working on the letter A and I really love doing activities and crafts about Angels. Today we read a book by the amazing author Tomie dePaola. The book is called Pascual and the Kitchen Angels. This book is great for children around 4 years old. 

It tells the story of baby born called Pascual and how he is blessed and watched over by angels as he grows. When Pascual becomes a young man he wants to go help feed the hungry and decides to become a Franciscan. When he arrives he is asked to cook, but he does not know how and begins to pray. The Angels help Pascual and cook the meal for him. The Friars were so happy they asked him to continue cooking for them, so the Angels did each time because Pascual continued to pray. One day the Friars peeked in on Pascual and saw the Angels cooking for him and realized how blessed Pascual was!

This story is a great to learn about San Pascual for he is known as the patron saint of the kitchen and cooks!

After reading the story we decided to do a fun and easy craft to focus on the Angels in the book. Materials you will need are :

- foam/paper Angels cut outs

- markers, crayons and/or colored pencils

- hole punch

- ribbon or string 

- scissors 

You can really use any materials to decorate your Angels. 

I found clearance foam Angels from Michaels after Christmas and got the pack for about $.30 ( I always pick up that stuff for such a deal! You never know!) 

The pack had white and blue , my daughter decided to use the white Angels.

You can cut the Angels out also on cards torn or even paper plates also. Here is a link to one

http://rasberrycollections.typepad.com/rasberry/2008/12/rasberry-angel-shape-template.html

Decorate and color the Angels as your child chooses. We decided to use marker on the foam. My daughter decorated 2 and I helped with 2.

After we were finished decorating my daughter practiced writing the letter A on the back of the angel(for older kids they can write the word or even decorate that side ). Use the hole punch to put a a hole in each Angels head area. You also want to take only 1 angel and also punch a hole in each wing and one on the bottom.

Use your ribbon to connect the Angels together like a mobile in a way. After all the Angels were attached we found a space in our kitchen to hang them. 

Now we have some Angels in our kitchen to help us cook! 

God Bless

Jennifer 

Fire Station Field Trip

One of our home school members husbands works at a fire department and set up a great field trip to the Fire Station for us this week! Look around and see your community for all the potential it has for learning experiences it has to offer. 

All the kids had a great hand's on experience. The firefighter were wonderful and showed the children the different trucks and what they are used for. They were also able to see and ambulance and see how a firefighter gets dressed and the tools they use.

I think the best part was when they were able to sit in the fire truck! 

The fire department gave them fire hats and a great bag or goodies about fire safety. The kids had a blast! 

Organize your own field trip by calling a local fire station and see what they have to offer. 

All Souls Day - Remembering Our Passed Loved Ones

All Souls days is usually forgotten by many due to being right after Halloween, on November 2nd. All Souls Day is a feast commemorating all of those who have died and now are in Purgatory, being cleansed of their venial sins and the temporal punishments for the mortal sins that they had confessed and atoning before entering fully into Heaven.

So how do we teach this feast to our children? Death is not something a lot of people like to talk about, and some children just are not ready to understand the concept of death.

I decided to use the words "love" and "remember" a lot that day. We started our celebration the day before visiting a local museum that was hosting a Day of the Dead exhibit. It was a great way for the kids to learn more about their own culture as well. We belong to the museum so it was free to see.

The night before we made heart cookies for our loved ones. I got pre-made rolled dough on clearance from Walmart from the Halloween section of cookies for only $1. Each pack came with 2 sheets of rolled dough so it was simple and almost mess free! All we needed was a cookie cutter. The kids had a lot of fun making them. You can use candy to decorate and even use edible markers to write names if you would like for older children.

The morning of All Souls Day we set up a display on our home altar with pictures of our passed loved ones an dsaid a few prayers including the Prayer of St. Gertrude 

Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the masses said throughout the world today, for all the holy souls in purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen.

We left that morning and picked up some flowers and visited our local passed loved ones. The kids enjoyed putting flowers on their statues. 

Take this day just to celebrate your memories with your passed loved ones and tell stories to your children about them. It is a great day of celebration and praying to help them make their way to the Lord. 

Apples, Apples everywhere!

We recently joined a homeschooling group that started up recently in our area. We stay connected through Facebook and are able to set up field trips based on everyone ideas and resources. Our first big field trip happened this week and it was at a small local apple orchard in town. It was finally great to meet all the other home school families.

They taught all about different squash and pumpkins! 

We learned about honey , apples and apple cider. We even got to taste some!

The kids loved being able to ride on a wagon around the orchard. They were able to see the trees, the berry bushes, and pumpkin patch!

They had a great play area the kids can run around in. They also had a great little shop with Cider Donuts! Yum!

It was a wonderful trip and was so glad that the kids were able to make so many new friends, and I was able to meet a lot of other mothers who home school! 

If you want to plan a trip to a local orchard, Call ahead and see if there is a group that will be going around you can join in on. Some orchards will even do  a private tour. Get a group of kids who you also know home school and make a trip of it! 

Pet Blessing on the Feast of St. Francis Assissi

What better way to celebrate St. Francis then to take our furry and some non furry animal babies to our parish and have them blessed! The cold weather and rain did not stop my daughter and I to take our furry baby to get his blessing!

Here is a wonderful coloring page for the kids to color and a prayer you can say of your pets.

                         (right click on image - click save image as - save, open and print)

DIY Gel Tracing Bag

My daughter is learning how to write her letter and numbers right now. I was looking for a mess free way for her to practice that was also fun. First you will need these materials:

All items can be bought at a Dollar Store or you might even have on hand! 

~ Styling Gel

~ Food coloring of choice

~ Glitter(optional)

~ The slider Ziploc bags ( I used the large freezer bags)

~ Qtips

Open the Ziploc bag and squirt in the styling gel I used about half for one bag but I was using larger bags. I then had my children pick out what color they wanted and they put in drops of food coloring in each bag. We also added glitter in our bags to make them sparkle. Zip your bag up and your ready to go! Use a q-tip to help write, now you have a reusable writing pack. My 2 year old just liked to swirl his around but my daughter started working on her letter right away! All they need to do is wipe with hand to erase and ready to start again. Just put the bag away to use later. 

Have Fun and God Bless!

Feast Day of St. Maria Goretti Activities

St. Maria Goretti

Feastday: July 6

Patron of youth, young women, purity, and victims of rape

Birth: 1890

Death: 1902

The life of St. Maria Goretti is an inspiration in the trust she had in God and the forgiveness she had shown to her attacker. This is a great lesson to teach to our children. Heer are a few quick fun activities you can do with your children on today's Feast Day of St. Maria Goretti.

Coloring Pages

This is a great book that is sold on amazon that you can purchase for future use here 

Here are a few pictures that you can print online at home

they came from this site here  if you have problem printing form my page 

St. Maria Goretti is sometimes pictured holding white lillies. The story behind this is from a dream that her attacker Alessandro had while he was in prison. The dream was so vivid he could not distinguish it from reality. The prison bars and walls fell away and his cell was a sunlit garden blooming with flowers. Towards him came a beautiful girl dressed in pure white. He said to himself: 'How is this? Peasant girls wear darkish clothes.' But he saw it was Marietta. She was walking among flowers, smiling, and without the least fear. He wanted to flee from her but could not. Marietta picked white lilies and handed them to him saying, 'Alessandro, take them!' He accepted the lilies, one by one, fourteen of them. But a strange thing took place. As he received them from her fingers, the lilies did not remain lilies but changed into so many flaming lights. There was a lily turned to purifying flame for every one of the 14 mortal blows he struck her on the fatal day in Ferriere. Marietta said smilingly, 'Alessandro, as I have promised, your soul shall someday reach me in heaven. 

Ultimate forgiveness and he was converted!

Handprint Lily Craft

   

What you'll need for this craft: 

Pencil

White card stock

Scissors

Green card stock

Hole punch

Green plastic straw

Tape

Yellow pipe cleaner

How to make it

Have your child trace his hand onto a piece of white card stock (regular paper works too but isn't as durable) and cut out the shape. Cut two double leaves from green card stock and punch holes in the centers where the leaves meet, as shown.

Curl the paper fingers and leaves by wrapping them around a pencil.

Wrap the hand around the top of a green plastic straw and secure it with tape. Slide the leaves onto the straw and tape them in place. For the flower's stamen, fold half of a yellow pipe cleaner in half and curl down the ends. Insert the folded end in the straw.

You can see this craft from Spoonful

St Maria Goretti Movie

There is also a movie that was done about her and you can purchase it on Amazon here 

Prayers for St. Maria Goretti

Traditional Prayer to St. Maria Goretti 1
Heroic and angelic Saint Maria Goretti, we knee before thee to honor thy persevering fortitude and to beg thy gracious aid.

Teach us a deep love for the precepts of our holy Church; help us to see in them the very voice of our Father in Heaven. May we persevere without stain our white baptismal robe of innocence.

May we who have lost this innocence, kneel humbly in Holy Penance; and with the absolution of the priest may the torrent of Christ's Precious Blood flow into our souls and give us new courage to carry the burning light of God's love through the dangerous highways of this life until Christ our King shall call us to the courts of Heaven.

Traditional Prayer to St. Maria Goretti 2
Oh Saint Maria Goretti who, strengthened by God's grace, did not hesitate even at the age of twelve to shed thy blood and sacrifice life itself to defend thy virginal purity, look graciously on the unhappy human race which has strayed far from the path of eternal salvation. Teach us all, and especially youth, with what courage and promptitude we should flee for the love of Jesus anything that could offend Him or stain our souls with sin. Obtain for us from our Lord victory in temptation, comfort in the sorrows of life, and the grace which we earnestly beg of thee (here insert intention), and may we one day enjoy with thee the imperishable glory of Heaven. Amen.

God Bless! 

Jennifer