Sister Anne's Hands and Cubism art

 We enjoyed and reading discussing together Sister Anne's Hands today.

From Amazon:"It's the early 1960s, and Anna has never seen a person with dark skin-until she meets Sister Anne. At first she is afraid of her new teacher, but she quickly discovers how wonderful Sister Anne is. Then one of Anna's classmates directs a racist remark toward Sister Anne. The teacher's wise way of turning the incident into a powerful learning experience has a profound impact on Anna. This moving, timeless tale is perfectly illustrated with luminous, glowing paintings."

 This book was brought to my attention years ago by the wonderful Catholic Mosaic: Living the Liturgical Year with Literature, written by Cay Gibson.    My copy of the this book is so worn out...I have used it for years and it is starting to lose pages through frequent use.  I am enjoying rediscovering the books and projects with my youngest learners this year. 

 For our project we made colorful hands as seen at the end of the book.

First we traced our hands on watercolor paper in black Sharpie.

 We then started coloring in our hands...carefully keeping each open area the same color.

 Mom's work in progress.

 Hard at work.

 Success for Kim and Luke.

 I love Gracie's final project.

 Our "art wall"

After we cleared away from the table...some of the grown children tried their "hand" at this artwork...and Laura even wanted her picture taken!

St, Brigid's Feast Day-Repost (boy, my babies were little)

Thanks to Cay, and her book, Catholic Mosaic, today we learned the beautiful story of St. Brigid, whose feast day we celebrate on February 1st.

Brigid's Cloak-An Ancient Irish Story "is the tale of one of Ireland's beloved saints, who receives a wondrous blue cloak as a little girl. Years later, she is still wearing the now-ragged cloak as fate and wonder lead her to a crowded inn within the town of Bethlehem, where she meets the baby Jesus Christ and his family. Deftly written by Bruce Milligan, and beautifully illustrated by Helen Cann, Brigid's Cloak is highly recommended for young readers as a compassionate and charming story with mystical color illustrations. "Midwest Book Review

After reading the story (several times) I printed a picture of St. Brigid, and using some blue fleece I found in my fabric stash, we formed the fleece around the picture to resemble a cloak. I used a glue gun to secure it together because I wanted to hang it on our "learning wall". After it was together, we used star stickers to decorate it. This was certainly Kim and Luke's favorite part.

To finish, I printed the Irish blessing, "May God keep you safe under St. Brigid's cloak" and tucked it along side the cloak. It is a now a wonderful reminder of a wonderful saint.

The Legend of Saint Christopher

It's vacation time around here, which means we have been traveling almost everyday to find some nearby fun.

Today we enjoyed a nice quiet afternoon, so I thought it would be a perfect day to learn about Saint Christopher, the patron saint of travelers.

I got out our Catholic Mosaic by Cay Gibson and the Fenestrae Fidei: A Coloring Companion for Catholic Mosaic.
I read and discussed with the kids The Legend of Saint Christopher by Margaret Hodges.

We are also loving the Loyola Treasury of Saints.

In the legend, Christopher carries the Christ child across a deep and wild river. When they get across, Jesus tells Christopher who He is. Christopher doesn't really believe Jesus, so Jesus tells him to take his staff and plant it beside his door, in the morning it would be growing, with flowers and fruit and vines.
Cay suggested as an activity to have the kids plant their own "staff" and decorate it with vines and flowers.
This was the perfect activity to a slow afternoon.

I couldn't have done it without Danny's help---I was out-numbered.

Mark wins the prize for the tallest staff!!

Our backyard now has 4 great looking Saint Christopher staffs!

I'm sure Saint Christopher is proud.

Saint Valentine by Robert Sabuda

We discovered another wonderful book through the Catholic Mosaic : Living the Liturgical Year with Literature,An illustrated book study for Catholic children by Cay Gibson.

Our book today was Saint Valentine by Robert Sabuda.

Amazon review: " It started in ancient Rome when a kind physician named Valentine took an interest in a young blind girl. With his healing skill and his deep faith he restored her sight. What we now call Valentine's Day began when he sent the little girl a secret message, which she received after the Christian martyr was executed. For this tale rich in sentiment, master illustrator Robert Sabuda has created exquisite paper mosaics to suggest early Christian art that resonates with both subtlety and power."

The artwork in this book is beautiful mosaics. We used this technique to make our own mosaic hearts. I cut a zillion little colored squares before we started this craft with our paper cutter.
We placed a picture of St. Valentine in the middle of our hearts, and then liberally applied glitter.

We really applied glitter....notice the pile.

Mark's beautiful mosaic heart.

Gracie's lovely heart.

Catholic Mosaic-The Most Beautiful Thing in the World

I was browsing through my copy of Catholic Mosaic, written by Cay, and came across the book, The Most Beautiful Thing in the World.

I have just begun teaching Grace the Act of Contrition in preparation for her First Communion next year, and this book was the perfect addition to her lessons.

The Amazon review of this book says, "The youngest angel in Heaven is sent on a quest to find the most beautiful thing on earth. A red rose? Birds and butterflies? Puppies and kittens? A beautiful baby?

No, each time the other angels send him back to earth to keep looking. Finally the angel visits the church and finds a surprising answer.

Illustrated with full-page colorful pictures, this simple story shows the importance of the true love of God. An endearing, delightful tale also suitable for small children."

This book is not just suitable for small children, it is suitable for anyone learning about sorrow for sins and the beauty God finds in this sorrow.

For a project to go along with this story, we searched, as the youngest angel in the story did, for beautiful things that God created. (If you only give your children Ranger Rick magazines to cut up, expect to only find pictures of animals on the poster.) We found many beautiful things that God made, but on a seperate paper we wrote the following.....I attached the Act of Contrition prayer, and a happy picture of Mark and Grace) to this sheet of paper. It is by our dining room table for frequent discussion and review. (We seem to learn the best in "the little house" when the walls do the teaching.)

Catholic Mosaic-The Caterpillar that Came to Church

Having just celebrated Mark's First Communion, it was the perfect time to share the book The Caterpillar that Came to Church. It is one of the books featured in the Catholic Mosaic for the month of May.

This is such a special book, helping children learn about the celebration on the Eucharist. I have posted the book's description from back cover of the book.

Written in both Spanish and English, The Caterpillar That Came to Church uses a delightful, imaginative story to explain the beauty that unfolds during the celebration of the Eucharist.

Seen through the eyes of a little caterpillar named Mariana, the church adventure begins...

It was a breezy, spring day as Mariana munched on fresh tree leaves. The day seemed peaceful until this little caterpillar lost her balance, tumbled out of the tree and right into the purse of a woman passing by. Panic-stricken, Mariana squirms her way to the top of the purse, and to her amazement, finds herself in a strange new place. She had heard about this place called church, but more than anything else, she wanted to go back to her world of green grass and blue sky. As Mariana scampers to freedom, she stops and for the first time notices the altar and the priest, but most of all she notices the crucifix. With her eyes transfixed on the cross, she spies Jesus. "He is real and He is alive and He is looking at her."Little Mariana's heart fills with love as two miraculous events take place before her very eyes. At that moment, she makes it her mission to show children what Jesus did to a lowly caterpillar, so maybe they too will see Jesus in the celebration of the Mass and though the Church's life-giving sacraments.

This story is sure to change a child's life.

Following the reading of the story, we enjoyed the discussion questions that Cay provided in the Catholic Mosaic.

I then talked to the kids about what we would like to do so that we would remember all the love Jesus has for us, and how we get so much love in our own hearts when we reverently celebrate the Consecration at Mass with the angels and Jesus truly present there with us.

We decided to color butterflies and hang them by our living room crucifix, so when we see them, we will remember the great love the caterpillar had for Jesus, so much love she turned into a beautiful butterfly.

Our finished butterflies, proudly displayed in the living room.

St Benedict and St Scholastica

We have been busy learning about important Saints of the Chruch using the wonderful Catholic Mosiac book, thanks to Cay.

This week the Church celebrated the feast days of twins, Benedict and Scholastica.

We learned about these saints as we read The Holy Twins:Benedict and Scholastica. It is a wonderful book illustrated by Tomie dePaola, and the children had fun looking for all the religious imagery included within its pages.

I also took this time to talk about our Holy Father Pope Benedict. We discussed how a Pope chooses a name and we discussed the succession of Popes, beginning with Saint Peter.

We also made copies of the Cross of Benedict as found in the book, The Holy Twins. I found a template for this cross over at Gray Family Circus. Thank you Andrea!

Mark's finished product, all ready to be proudly displayed on our "learning wall."

Two Great Books

King Bidgood's in the Bathtub is a book and tape full of fun. I was able to get it from the library but it is a book that I will definitely be buying. It is about a poor page who is having an awful time getting the king out of the tub. The story is cute on its own, but the cd is full of nonsense songs that make this book hilarious. We listened to it for the first time at lunch today, and then the kids played it two more times in a row. They probably would still be listening, but we had schoolwork to finish up.

The next book we shared was a Catholic Mosaic book, The Miracle of Saint Nicholas.
This book is about a church in Russia that was forced to close its doors during the communist rise in the early 20th century. It takes a miracle, and a young boy's dream to open the doors to this church once again.

The story centers around an icon of St. Nicholas, and I was able to find this wonderful icon coloring page at the St. Nicholas Center website. It almost matches the icon in the book perfectly.

Two great books for the cold. snowy days ahead.

Saint Tekla

Thanks to Cay Gibson and her book Catholic Mosaic, we become acquainted with a new saint this week: Saint Tekla of Ethiopia. He was named a saint in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
While reading the book, A Saint and His Lion, we traveled to Africa and learned about a faraway land and about caring for people all over the world.

Inspired by the Catholic Mosaic, we thoughtfully decided on something we could do to help someone in a poverty stricken foreign land. We, through Heifer International, have donated a flock of chicks to a family in poverty. We had a wonderful time discussing what could be done with a flock of chicks, and we came up with many many ideas. We also have made a poster to remind us to pray for the family that will receive our gift.

Thank-you, Cay, for your continued inspiration.

St. Jerome and the Lion

St. Jerome's feast day is Sunday, September 30, so we decided to celebrate it today. (We have a very busy weekend scheduled.)
Using the Catholic Mosaic

we all enjoyed reading St. Jerome and the Lion. Following the read aloud, much discussion took place regarding life in a monastery and the importance of not jumping to conclusions about people and animals.

We then colored our pictures from the Catholic Mosaic companion coloring book, Fenestrae Fidei.

This lovely lion came from my favorite, very easy, craft site, DLTK's crafts.

The Feast of the Triumph of the Cross

In honor of today's Feast of the Triumph of the Cross we made a wonderful handprint cross using everyone's handprint cutouts. I need to thank Dawn for this craft.

I used colored computer paper and the cardboard from a case of diet-coke.

It came out wonderful, and when my husband saw it after work he said that we would need to keep it displayed in the living room.

We also read The Tale of the Three Trees. I have read this book to the kids in the past, but no matter how many times I have read it, I always get chills. After reading it we discussed some of the questions from the Catholic Mosaic.

This afternoon we attended mass at Holy Cross Academy.

We did not have a chance to make our cross cut-out cookies. Becky made the dough last night but I just didn't get to it. (Grace is not very happy about this.) Hopefully, tomorrow will bring with it cookie making time.