Showing posts with label vocations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vocations. Show all posts

Friday, November 1, 2024

November Radiant Roundup

November, the Month of the Holy Souls in Purgatory
It's the month of the Holy Souls in Purgatory, a time that the Church Militant here on earth focuses our prayers on the Church Suffering. We also strive to orient our own gazes to Heaven, knowing that this life is only temporary. The days of Hallowtide- Halloween, All Saints, and All Souls- give us a perfect opportunity to teach kids about eternity and the hope that we have in Jesus. Here some activities for Hallowtide, as well as upcoming Saints' Feast Days and looking ahead to planning for Advent!

All Saints: November 1st
12+ Ideas for Celebrating Halloween, All Saints, and All Souls Day*
Saint Scavenger Hunt*
Digital Saint Scavenger Hunt
All Saints Day Art Project
Beatitudes and Modern Saints Card Game*
All Saints Day Info Coloring Page*
Happy All Saints Day Coloring Page*
All Saints Day Litany Prayer Cards*
Saintly Friends Bingo Game (and book recs for Saint Pairs)* (all ages)
Saints Q&A Activity Book (5th-8th)*
Saint Trading Card Classroom Reward System (K-8th)
12+ Ideas for Celebrating All Saints Day* (K-8th)
Saint Pennants* (all ages)
Saint Pennants in more sizes*

Two sets of clickable Saint Jeopardy, ready to play with a group or set up for an individual to test their knowledge. You can also make a copy and edit to add in your own favorite Saints!



All Souls: November 2nd
All Saints and All Souls Day Letters*
All Souls Day Prayer Cards (Eternal Rest Prayer)*
Memento Mori Printables*
All About Relics Activity Book (5th-8th)*
12+ Ideas for Celebrating Halloween, All Saints, and All Souls Day*

Memento Mori Visio Divina & Reflections
This slide show is intended for junior high and high schoolers to start a conversation on living each day with Heaven in mind, as well as praying for the dead. It included a recommended video, a set of art to use with Visio Divina, and a collection of Saint and Scripture quotes to use for discussion or journaling.
And here's a printable guide to the steps for Visio Divina the kids can use to help with discussion or a written reflection of the included art.

Photos to print here and awesome coloring pages from artist Fabiola Garza here.
My students used all of these tools, some books, and online research to create posters about these six holy men and women.


Vocations Awareness Week- First full week in November
Praying for Vocations* Tactile Prayer Stations



St. Frances Xavier Cabrini: November 13th
St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Activity Books



Solemnity of Christ the King: November 24th
Christ the King Music Playlist on YouTube
Feast of the Miraculous Medal: November 27th
St. Catherine Laboure: November 28th
Miraculous Medal Embroidery Pattern* and links to free resources

Thanksgiving: November 28th
Psalm 9:2 Coloring Page*
Psalm 9:2-I will give thanks bulletin board*


St. Andrew: November 30th




And in case you'd like to plan ahead, here are some links to help you have a peaceful and prayerful Advent!
Advent: 1st Sunday of Advent- December 1st
What Advent Looks Like* Coloring Page
Advent, Christmas, Epiphany Ideas 2019
Advent Family Calendar (structure & activity ideas, includes an editable version)*
Weekly Advent Reflection Slides (Editable for Google Classroom)
Advent & Christmas Videos
Advent Music Playlist
Sacred Art Visio Divina for Advent (Digital Resources)
New Advent Resources
Printable Advent Wreath Candles*
Printable Advent Wreath Candles (Spanish)*
Printable Advent Wreath Candles (Dutch)*
Advent Traditions for Anyone and Everyone *
Advent Family Traditions*
Decorating for Advent
Advent Today
Favorite Advent Videos
Advent Trivia Jeopardy
Advent Prayer Ring*
Advent Prayer Cards for Each Sunday (Year C)*
Advent Weekly Reflections

New Liturgical Year Resources
The Liturgical Year Coloring Book*
Liturgical Year Calendar
Liturgical Year Printable & Colorable Calendar
Decorating for the Liturgical Year
Liturgical Year Board Game
Monthly Devotion Signs*
Ideas for Living the Liturgical Year in the Classroom*

Books for Advent



And if you haven't checked it out yet, now would be a great time to order my book All about Advent & Christmas: Sharing the Seasons of Wonder and Hope with Children so you have it in plenty of time for Advent! Shari and I also made a giant stack of activity pages that correspond directly with the book that you can get totally free!



You can find the links to the monthly Radiant Roundups here:

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Monday, October 28, 2024

Vocations Awareness Bulletin Board

Vocations Awareness Week is Nov. 3-9, 2024

This fall we were so excited as a school community to have three alumni enter into seminary and religious life! Wanting to spread the word and celebrate with our current students, I asked if we could create a display in time for Vocations Awareness Week highlighting the vocations that have grow from our school. Once we settled on the location, the project became bigger than I imagined, both literally (this bulletin board is much larger than I expected- almost 12' across!) and figuratively (because the response was so wonderful- I've run out of room to feature everything)!

With the extra space, I decided to create three sections:

  1. One part highlighting specific vocations from our parish and school
  2. One section honoring our pope, bishop, pastor, and parochial vicar, as well as seminarians from our diocese
  3. And one part for "future" vocations- offering prayer cards, novenas, etc. for all students as well as highlighting different religious communities 

In addition to creating my own info to hang on the board, I also reached out to some religious orders to see if they could send us any brochures or prayer cards- and boy, they came through! We received some awesome vocation swag to share with students! We also receive a poster and prayer cards from our Diocesan Office of Vocations, so this was a perfect central location to include everything. I wanted the board to be something interactive that encouraged the students to walk by and take something home with them.


And after creating this bulletin board, I've already had requests to share info about how I made it. I've created a sharable version of everything that I can, but this is definitely a bulletin board that will need to be customized to your school or parish. I've tried to make a few tools to help you get started and hopefully can aid with inspiration! Also, don't be intimidated by this giant board- remember it was bigger than I was planning and I had to fill the space! You could make a board honoring and supporting vocations that is any size- the most important part is to encourage your students to be praying for those in discernment, praying for those living our their vocation, and praying for their own future vocation. 

P.S.- Just a note- we are already talking about making something to specifically honor and uphold marriage later this school year. The intention of this bulletin board was to highlight Vocations Awareness Week, which primarily focuses on the priesthood and religious life. So still more to come, not forgetting about the very important vocation of matrimony!

Here's all the details!

Items to add to the bulletin board

  • Contact your diocesan vocations office (posters, prayer cards, etc.)
  • Contact local religious orders (brochures, prayer cards, resources)
  • Contact religious orders that have sisters/brothers serving in your diocese
  • Reach out to other religious orders that you respect
  • I would also recommend looking at the affordable resources available at Vianney Vocations. They have tons of brochures, booklets, and prayer cards that would be great for a vocation board (in addition to curriculum and books)
  • Add coloring pages, printable prayer cards, brochures, etc. highlighting vocations, prayers for vocations, patrons of vocations, etc.
  • Books to borrow about vocations

I added these awesome "Prayer for Priests" letter and St. John Vianney coloring page, both available from the talented Shari of Catholic Paper Goods as an easy activity kids could take with them. (Just a note, if you are planning on making copies of these for a whole school/parish, please make sure that you are reading her terms and using her license for bulk copies. Thanks for honoring the work of Catholic artists and creators!)



Title
I printed this out on brown kraft paper cardstock and cut it by hand, but you could do something similar with die cut letters or a cricut!
Click here for the "Here I am Lord" title with one letter per page (letters approx. 8.5" tall):

Click here for the "Here I am Lord" title with two letters per page (letters approx. 5.5" tall):


Template for highlighting individual vocations:
Click here for an editable template to display the pope, bishop, pastor, seminarians, etc. When you open this file, it will automatically make a copy so you can add your own information and photos. It also includes some saint quotes and headings that are also editable.



Tools for the bulletin board
Here are items that I ordered from Amazon to complete the bulletin board:
(Contain affiliate links)
  • Clear brochure holders, 12 pieces in 2 different sizes (these have been perfect! My only issue is that I quickly ran out of space!)
  • Clear flat tacks (I used these to attach the brochure holders to the bulletin board- and they have held quite well. They are a little longer than regular thumb tacks and the flat head is necessary so the items don't get stuck as they are pulled out, which would knock the whole thing down.)
  • Clear shelves (these are excellent in theory, but have not worked as well using thumb tacks- a couple have fallen down a few times. I think they would be excellent if you were actually able to screw them in to the wall!)
  • Bulletin board border- just in case someone wants it! I wanted something neutral and not to flashy, with a nod to our school colors (maroon and gold) so this was a great fit

Book List
And click here for a post with a list of great books about Vocations:

St. Therese of Lisieux, pray for us!
St. John Vianney, pray for us!
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Books about Vocations for Catholic Kids


Here are some great children's books about Vocations! Of course, it is also super helpful to read the biographies of Saints who followed God's plan for their lives through a particular Vocation, but these books are more generally about the characteristics and callings of Holy Orders, Religious Life, and Matrimony. If you have any other book suggestions for these categories, feel free to share them in the comments!

This post contains Amazon Affiliate links. That means that if you click through and purchase something, I will receive a small commission at no cost to you. I'd also love to encourage you to shop directly with the publisher or with your local bookshop!


Books about Holy Orders
Books about Religious Life
Books about Matrimony
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