Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Celebrate & Learn: Halloween, All Saints, and All Souls

Here's a repost of my top 12 activities for Halloween, All Saints Day, and All Souls Day, which are some of my favorite celebrations of the year!

1. Tying All Hallows Eve in with All Saints and All Souls Day has been a part of my curriculum for several years.  This post has a mini coloring book and many coloring pages about those topics. Click on the image to go to the post:

In that post, there is an All Saints Day page with a list of great Saints who can be intercessors in kids lives.  I love to introduce them to new Saints and give them some heavenly heroes to look up to and be inspired by. They also love using the Saints Name Generator to learn about new Saints and chose patrons.  Click on the image to go to the post:



2. Litany of the Saints and All Souls prayer cards:
My students loved these.  I took the general opening/closing for most litanies and put it on one side of the prayer cards.  On the other side they get to create their own "All Star" cast. Oh, and we'll be listening to this song as well.

We will also use these prayer cards with the Eternal Rest prayer on one side and a place to list specific people on the back.  We plan to use this prayer card for the rest of the month as November is dedicated to praying for all souls in purgatory.  It would also be a great resource any time of the year to teach about the Spiritual Works of Mercy, or for kids who are experiencing a death and working through grief.  (You may be interested in my post on Helping Kids Grieve.)



3. We love this All Saints Day art project. Click on the image to go to a post with step-by-step instructions and ideas:

4. If a whole art project won't be in the works during your celebration, I have several Saints coloring pages you can use instead. The growing list of coloring pages can be found under this tab and then under the Saints heading.


 5. You could quickly make these easy Saint shrines.  This one features St. Joseph, but you could have each student pick a different Saint and then display them all together.  Click on the image for the post with details:

 6. Practice some writing skills and intercessory prayer with these All Saints and All Souls Day Letters.  Click on either image to go to the post:

 7. You could play this Beatitude and Modern Saints game, which is modeled after the idea of Old Maid, but introduces kids to facts about eight modern Saints and the Beatitude they exemplified.  And instead of the "Old Maid" card, there is a "Bad-Attitude" card in the mix.  (Get it? Be-attitude, bad-attitude...I know, groan.)  Click on the image to go to the post:

8. Here's a whole playlist of videos on YouTube about Saints or the Canonization process.  Click on the image to go to the post:

9. Here's a Happy All Saints Day coloring page: (Click on image for the file)

10. An easy and cool art project is to make giant Saint medal using tin foil and a coloring page of a Saint (or student drawing).  I always have the kids make Miraculous Medals like this during our St. Maximilian Kolbe unit, but I had several early finishers ask if they could make a Saint medal too.  Here we have St. Max:

Sts. George, Elizabeth Ann Seton, Hubert, and Christopher:

And St. John Paul II. Click on any of those images to read about our Miraculous Medals and you can use the same technique for Saints.

11. This post gives you seven ideas for celebrating a Patron Saint Day (ours is St. Joseph) but many of the ideas would transfer to All Saints Day as well.  Click on the image to go to the post:

12.  We aren't actually doing this on All Saints Day, but my class has made it a point to celebrate the specific patron Saints of each class with them throughout the school year.  So on St. Vincent de Paul's feast day, we sent 2nd Grade a card, and on St. John Paul II's feast day we sent one to 3rd grade, etc.  You wouldn't have to wait all year though- using a list of classroom Saints, have your class send each of them a card on All Saints Day.  You could also do this for name Saints or patron Saints of your friends and family members.

So there you have it!  Tons of options, so don't let this great Solemnity pass you by! :)
How will you be celebrating All the Saints with the kids in your life?  I'd love to hear from you in the comments!

8 comments:

  1. Halloween is a really mysterious holiday or festival to me . i never actually found out the main idea, or the reason of this festival . I just you know goota go with it , although i do all the thing you are supposed to do . thanks for the info anyway .

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  2. Every October I choose a "mystery saint" for my own children. Each morning throughout the month of October, I place a clue in a basket for them to find and read. They tape it to a poster with an outline of the saint's body. By the end of the month, the poster is full of clues and on November 1st, they are officially allowed to research who their saint is based on the clues. Once they've figured it out, they use an image of their saint to draw the face and add details to the outline on the poster. My kiddos love this activity and I feel like it's a great way to tie in Halloween to what should be the excitement of All Saints' Day! Plus they learn about a new saint (or two) each time.

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    1. That is the coolest, Rachel! I might have to steal that idea for my classroom!

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    2. Oh wow, RachelR, how fun is this??? I love it!

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  3. Halloween originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. Samhain marked the end of the year on the Celtic calendar, and as a transitional time, it was believed that the boundaries between our world and the otherworld were weakened and spirits roamed the earth. Samhain was later grouped into the Christian feast days of All Saints and All Souls, so that it retained its ancient origins but took on more of a mythical tone.

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  4. Hi Katie.
    Love your work. Do you have an updated All Saints Day coloring page showing Mother Teresa as a saint?

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    1. Hi Rosalind! I'm sorry, but I don't! I updated all the individual Mother Teresa coloring pages last year when she was canonized, but forgot about this one. I'll add that to my to do list!

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