Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Saint Project

Next week we celebrate All Saints Day. We are going to have a Saints & Symbols contest. We talked about how a symbol is something that makes us think of something else. In New Orleans a fleur de lis makes us think of football. A green tree with a star on top makes us think of Christmas. A wedding ring symbolizes the love between a husband and wife. Every student is asked to pick a saint (one canonized saint, not a football player). The student should write down the saint's name and a sentence or two about who the saint was and when/where she/he lived. For example, if the student picked Mary, the mother of Jesus, (and she's the one saint I told them they could not pick) she/he could simply write that Mary was the mother of Jesus and that she lived in Judea about 2000 years ago. I'm not asking for a long report--I know you have enough homework from school--I just want enough information to identify the saint. I am also asking the students to bring in a symbol of that saint. Again, if a student picked Mary she/he could bring in a baby doll to symbolize that she was the mother of Jesus. A crown would show that she is queen of heaven and earth. NO COSTUMES!!! and while if you want to bring a picture of the saint, that would be fine, a picture isn't a symbol, so bring something else too. If a saint is associated with a particular animal, you can bring in a picture of the animal. If a saint is the patron of an occupation, you can bring in a tool (or picture of one) used by that occupation, such as a shovel for a farmer, a doll for a mom, a piece of chalk for a teacher, a horse for a blacksmith, a chalice for a priest or a prayer book for a nun. You have to be able to tell me why you picked that symbol. This isn't meant to be hard, but hopefully you can be creative and learn a little about a saint.

Everyone got information on some saints in class. You can pick one of those, go to the library and get a book about saints or use the links below to find one.
A Saint a Day is written for kids. Kids & Saints has pictures or drawing of the saints, tells you about them and tell you what they are patrons of. Kids Zone has a saint for every day. As mentioned earlier, I want something other than a picture of the saint, but if these coloring sheets also tell you about the saints--and the information they have is the length I want your information to be. Do you have a saint's name, or do you wonder if there were ever any saints named ______? Catholic Online has one of the longest lists of saints I've ever seen. Happy hunting and check back next week for the photos!

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