Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Saintly Friends Bingo Game





Iron sharpens iron. I want my students to understand that holiness often grows exponentially among groups of friends or family members who are all choosing to pursue God and His will for their lives. So many of the Saints who have gone before us have been companions or family members of other Saints- holiness begets holiness.

So for Catholic Schools Week, we are going to play this Saintly Friends Bingo with our Buddy Classrooms (older grades with younger grades). The game features a Bingo board with 24 pairs of Saints who knew each other in real life. The "calling cards" tell a short fact about the pair of Saints before the players cover them on their Bingo cards. (With room for variations- play it like trivia, tell a story about the pair, tie breakers using facts, etc.) I think this game would also be perfect for St. Valentine's Day parties!


There are 24 different Bingo Cards- great for a classroom set. And if you want to save a little paper, you can print them two per page and make mini Bingo cards that are still perfect for play. If you are only going to play one round, kids can color each square as it is called. Or you can use any small object for Bingo markers (math manipulatives, dried beans, legos, etc.) An "O" shaped marker like cheerios or lifesavers would be super cute- like a halo for each Saint! You can also take the game a step further and have the students flip over their card and draw a picture or write a list of facts about one of the Saint pairs. Reading the card can also function as a special Saintly Friends litany. Lots of possibilities!


You can read more about Saints growing in holiness in pairs or groups in these articles herehere, and hereThis list is comprised of married couple who are canonized (or on their way!). And Kendra has my very favorite "Love Like the Saints" Valentine Cards in this post- they are so cute!

My Confirmation students complete an activity called "Saintly BFFs" where they try to connect their chosen Confirmation Saint to Saintly friend or family member- it's always awesome to see how many connections they can find! I started a doc as a resource list for me that I plan to continue to add to, but if it's helpful check out this growing list of Saintly friends and family members.


I hope you have lots of fun with this versatile Saint game!


Click here for the Saintly Friends Bingo Cards:

Click here for the Saintly Friends Clues:

If you are looking for books to go along with your Saintly Friends Bingo game, here are a few that feature some of these holy pairs. (I'm sure there are many more- this was just a stack I pulled out to use! Feel free to add your favorites in the comments.)
(Amazon Affiliate Links)
Books about Saints who were friends:

Wednesday, January 15, 2020

Saint Pennants {Perfect for Catholic Schools Week or Confirmation!}


It's almost Catholic Schools Week, and I am so excited to share this new resource with you to celebrate!

In honor of the patrons that my students chose as their Confirmation Saints, I like to hang up a display/bulletin board as we draw close to their reception of the Sacrament. Last year I made this "polaroid" display. This year I was inspired to play off their love of sports and teams to create these Saint pennants- and my students really seemed impressed (something that's often hard to do with a group of 8th graders!) I also plan on showing them one of my favorite Fr. Mike Schmitz videos, which has a great story about the Saints who help us run our race, the great cloud of witnesses that cheers us on along our journey to Heaven.


The pennants make a great inspirational Saint/Confirmation display, or will be perfect for all Saints day, or you can just pull out a few to decorate your classroom or kids' rooms with their favorite patrons. I taped ours on the wall around our classroom door, but they also look super fun hung from a string like a banner.


If you don't have access to a color printer, look into your local office stores. That's where I had mine printed, and even on cardstock, and it only cost $10!


To create a center for the display on our classroom door, and to remind the kids to be praying for receptivity to receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit, I used the "Come Holy Spirit" pennant included in the set as a template and traced it on larger paper.



I added a few extra Saints and made the color scheme a little more cohesive (the students had individually chosen their own colors for their pennants), so this printable has fifty 10" Saint pennants read for you to print and enjoy!

Click here for the printable:


A few other Catholic Schools Week ideas:
We Love Our Catholic School Display
Catholic Schools Week Bulletin Board 2016
Catholic Schools Week Bulletin Board 2015
Catholic Schools Week Bulletin Board 2014
Catholic Schools Week Thank You*

***Update!
I can't share the original file because formatting wouldn't transfer, but I just made a similar banner in Google Slides so you can add a Saint that isn't in the collection. Click on the image below and save the file to your own Google Slides. Then edit the Saint name, colors, etc.

And here is a black and white colorable set:

And one more update, here's a cute mini version to make small banners: