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 

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 

Travel Prayer/Saint Cards

     Even though my daughter does not read she is still learning by listening and looking at words as we read. I have started working with my daughter on learning her basic prayers, such as the Our Father and Hail Mary, etc... I was thinking of printing out the prayers on a piece of paper, which I still plan on doing, but found a smaller and more portable way to do it. This DIY project made it so she can bring her prayers along in her backpack when we go to Church or just riding in the car.

     You can go to any Catholic Store or even buy online and find their shelf of prayer cards. My store charges .30 cents per paper card and .75 cents per laminated card. I decided to go with paper because I have a laminator at home. Here is a list of everything you will need for this project:

What You Need:

• Prayer Cards (Paper or laminated)
• A laminator for paper cards
• Laminating Sheets
• Book Rings
• Paper Punch
• Scissors

How To Make Your Travel Prayer Cards:

1. Choose your prayer cards you want laminated and put them into your laminating sheet.
2. Put them through the laminator.

3. You are now ready to cut out the cards.

 4. Take your hole punch and punch the corner of each card in the exact spot on each card 

   

   5. Take you Book Ring and open it putting your card onto the ring

Now your children can have their prayers with them wherever they go! 

My daughter loves these and I plan on making ones with saints also. The prayer cards can be used in so many ways and these are a great way to have your child bring God with them wherever they go. God Bless

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/12419773/?claim=fxwpzegw222">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Easy Handmade Felt Pieces

     My kids received a felt board for Christmas last year from my mother along with a wonderful felt set about the story of creation. After Christmas I decided to buy some more pieces since my children enjoyed playing with them so much. I went to the teacher store that my mother said she purchased them from and I saw some really nice sets, but the not so nice thing was the price. its was $20 to $25 for a set of felt pieces. I just couldn't spend that kind of money and was determined to find another way. 

          I checked Pinterest and Google. Found one way that you could print them off of your printer or stitch pictures on, but nothing that worked for me and was cheap. I didn't want to waste ink on my printer! I might as well just bu the expensive sets in the store. 

         I had given up and just put it in the back of my head for later. Then I was at a garage sale (I seriously need an intervention for garage sales!) of a former teacher. I was excited about all the books she was selling and other education items and was buying them up. Then I noticed she had a bag of felt pieces made out of a material I had never seen and asked her about how she did it, and was I amazed! This is how you do it! This seriously is the easiest and cheapest way for colorful felt pieces!

~ Milk Filters ~

     The main item you need is the what you will be making your felt pieces out of which is Non Gauze Milk Filters. I purchased them at a store called Farm and Fleet. A store that specializes in farm and agriculture should have them. You can also purchase them on Amazon. The store offered 2 different sizes, 6 1/2" ($4.49) and 15" ($14.49). I decided to go with the 15" filter disks. Each size come with a 100 disks so it just depends what scale you plan on making your pieces. 

---

~What You Need~

What you need to start out with:

• Milk Filters
• Black Marker or Permanent Marker - with a small tip is easier for detail work 
• Assorted Colors of Markers to fill in pieces
• Print outs or book that has images to trace (You can pick up a book similar to mine at a teacher resource store or online) I happened to get mine from a garage sale. 
• Scissors

~Tracing~

Tracing can be done by you or your child. Your children can even draw their own pictures if they want! 

1. Choose what pictures you want to trace. I decided to go with some summer pictures

2. Place the filter over the pictures. If you decided to use a book - do not worry about bleeding through.

3. Start tracing with your marker

4. Trace until your finished

~Coloring & Cutting~

Coloring and cutting can be done by you or your child! If they go out of the lines no big deal because it will get cut off. I used Crayola and off brand markers and it didn't make a difference in quality. 

1. Color all your pieces. Do be careful though because they will smudge until they are dry.

2. After you have finished coloring you can cut out all your pictures with normal scissors. Very easy to cut!

---

~ Play Time ~

Your felt pieces are ready to go! Use them on any felt board. I think these actually stick better then normal felt pieces! Your children will have a ton of fun and you can make ones for certain themes your working on that week in your home school. The possibilities are endless! Enjoy 

Make your Own Little Wooden Saint Pegs

    

 Everyone keeps asking me how I make my little saint pegs, so I thought I would share the creative process with you, so that you and your children can create these wonderful figures.

*These are recommend for ages 3 and up. At least past the stage of putting items in their mouth. These can be a choking hazard for younger children so please be aware.*

     They can be time consuming based on your perfection level. I used to make these and sell them but could not keep up with orders, family and life so I now just make them for fun.

   

     First you want to select which saint you want to paint. Lets start out with someone easy such as St. Rose. I would type in their name in Google image or use one of my kids saint books to find a picture I liked. Choose your picture.

---

     Second you want to do is find out where to buy your wood people peg from. I used Casey's Wood Products. They are based out of Maine. They have a nice selection of different sizes and shaped people pegs, depending on your product. I used the standard size people peg which is considered a "man peg" and its 2-3/8" tall x 7/8" diameter. They start at $.25 each and you get a better deal the more you buy. I recommend purchasing from them for bigger orders. For smaller orders of pegs, you can find them on Etsy and  I have also seen these for purchase at Hobby Lobby also in their wood section in a bag of 8 pegs. Base it on how many you want to paint.

---

     Next you want to get your paint and paint brushes. You will want to use acrylic paint to paint the wood ( I used Americana brand), as well as brushes that work well with acrylic paint. I recommend that you buy a few different brushes that will help with detail and coverage. Hobby Lobby and Michaels always have a 40% coupon and you can use it to buy a brush starter pack that has different size brushes in it.

     The paint comes in so many colors so make sure your write a list of the colors you will need for your saint. For St. Rose I used black, white, pink, red, brown and flesh (yes that's a color).

                                            Now you are ready to paint!

---

     You want to start with your lightest color first, and you always want to wait for each color to dry after applying. It only takes a few minutes. I always painted the heads first with the flesh color. Then I would do the white around the whole bottom of the peg and a little strip of white across the top of the head. Next you want to use the black for the veil. Make sure the black is completely dry! You don't want smudges on your white. Now you can use the flesh color to paint the little praying hands and add a little strip of black underneath.
 
   For St. Rose I like to make a crown of roses. I take the bottom of one of my smallest brushes and dip it in the red and put connecting dots all around her head to form the crown. Then you can use a lighter red or pink and paint with a detail brush the little swirls to make them look like roses. You could also add leaves if you would like.

     The last thing I do after everything is dry you want to do the eyes. I used the tip at the bottom of my brush to dab on the eyes..perfect brown circles, let dry. Then use the bottom of the brush again to make a smaller small circle inside the eye and use a small detail brush to put on your lashes. After that drys,  use the tip of your brush to dab little tiny white dots for more detail to the eyes. (refer to picture above). Last you can paint on some eye brows and a little smile!

     Now you have a little St. Rose Wooden Peg Saint! If you want you can write the name of the Saint with a fine tip permanent marker for reference. After your finished with the name I always liked to seal the wooden peg to help keep the paint from chipping and make it more durable. Now I have tried a lot of products for sealing the pegs, and the one that I used was the American DuraClear Varnish Clear and applied it with a black foam brush. Some people use modgepodge but it can cause yellowing and a sticky feel. I have also used Krylon Acrylic sprays but was tired of putting on a mask to spray them. Choose whatever you are comfortable with. Seal your little saint and you are ready to play! 

     We would use them in my daughters doll house, action figures and even board games pieces. I have had some people use them as cake toppers for birthday cakes or special holiday events. So many things you can do with them and so many ways you can add a personal touch!  Check out some of the other saints I have painted below for more inspiration!