Homegrown Catholics: History

Showing posts with label History. Show all posts

Saint Patricks Day Activities

Homegrown Catholics - St Patricks Day Activities

I am having so much fun searching for ideas for our Saint Patrick's Day Celebration in March. I'm sure many of you have already thought of the typical dress in green, eat Lucky Charms and read a book, BUT take a minute and see if any of these ideas inspire you to make it a day of faith filled learning and fun like never before!

*Hover over words to find links for most everything posted here.

*Link to my Pinterest Board: Spring and Irish Fun

GATHERING
Consider having Celtic music in the background. A specific song you might have is "Christ Before Me" by Margaret Becker.

OPENING PRAYER:

May the Strength of God guide us.

May the Power of God preserve us.

May the Wisdom of God instruct us.

May the Hand of God protect us.

May the Way of God direct us.

May the Shield of God defend us.

May the Angels of God guard us.

- Against the snares of the evil one.

May Christ be with us!

May Christ be before us!

May Christ be in us,

Christ be over all!

May Thy Grace, Lord,

Always be ours,

This day, O Lord, and forevermore. Amen.

*St. Patrick's Prayers make for great Copywork!

READING

*Choose a Book about St. Patrick and/or Irish Saints from your collection or local library.

St. Patrick's Summer: A Children's Catechism by Marigold Hunt
Patrick Patron Saint of Ireland by Tomie DePaola
The Story of St. Patrick by James A Janda
The Story of Saint Patrick's Day by Patricia A Pingry
The Life of St. Brigid, Abbess of Kildare by Jane G Meyer
Brigid's Cloak: An Ancient Irish Story by Bryce Milligan
The Secret of the Shamrock (Chime Travelers Series) by Lisa M Hendey
The Last Monks of Skellig Michael: The Fascinating Real-Life History Behind Luke Skywalker's Island by Philip Kosloski

OPTIONAL MOVIES
*Irish Catholic Movies @ Catholic Video.com
St. Patrick the Irish Legend
Patrick - Brave Shepherd of the Emerald Isle
The Secret of the Kells
Veggie Tales: Story of Saint Patrick
The History of Saint Patrick - A Short Story
The Secret of Roan Inish

CELEBRATING IRELAND

Making Lapbooks

St Patrick and Ireland Lapbooks - Homegrown Catholics

The Homeschool Post: Irish resources for lapbooks and other activities!
Teacher's Resources about Ireland

****DONT FORGET A GROUP PHOTO!****

GAMES

Cleaning Treasure Hunt @ Home: Hide gold coins amongst the messes in your home. Ask your kids to find the coins by cleaning up, and trade in their coins for a special treat! This teaches works of mercy for eternal treasures. We used plastic gold coins. Chocolate coin treat in snack suggestions would work for this!

Pin the Shamrock on St. Patrick - from Under Her Starry Mantle Blog

Setup a Rainbow area for your preschoolers.

We not only hid shamrocks around the house, but put them on our windows for people walking by to find!

If you're lucky enough to have Spring weather, you could hunt for shamrocks and clovers!

Saint Patrick's Day Scavenger Hunt - from My Very Educated Mother

March Saints and Feast Days Word Search - from CatholicPrintablesOnline.com

CRAFTS
*Link to my Pinterest Board: Spring and Irish Fun

Breastplate of St Patrick: Found at Sweet Little Ones Blog

Shamrock and Rainbow Bookmark w plastic canvas and yarn - by me!

Shamrock Magnet w plastic canvas & yarn
Shamrock Pin w plastic canvas & yarn
Irish Cross w plastic canvas & yarn
Shamrock Coaster, crocheted

Shamrock Lacing - from Catholic Icing
Felt Saint Patrick Doll - inspiration from Saintly Silver
Holy Trinity Puzzle - from Homegrown Catholics
Saint Patrick Puppet - from Catholic Icing
Color Saint Patrick - from Wee Little Miracles

Draw on paper towels with markers, and add drops of water for it to blend together!

SNACKS/MEAL
We usually eat green, rainbow and Irish things in this feast day. Green pancakes, sausage *Patties*, Basil Pesto Noodles, Irish Soda Bread, and the ideas below.

Saint Patrick's Gold Coins - from Catholic Cuisine

Irish Kisses (also a matching activity - from Studio DIY)

Gummy Snakes (or Edible Mud w gummy worms)

Rainbow Gelatin - from The Michalek Kitchen

Shamrock Cucumber Sandwiches - from Will Cook for Smiles

Cucumber Slices -Shamrock Platter with dip - from Brit+Co

ALSO CONSIDER: Irish Soda Bread, Corned Beef & Cabbage (on Rye), Irish (Lamb) Stew, Bangers and Mash, Shepherds Pie, Frozen Green Grapes, Avocado or Pistachio Pudding, Spinach & Artichoke Dip w chips veggies or bread, or a Green Smoothie!

MORE

The Feast of St. Brigid is Feb 1st, but she is the Patroness of Ireland, my Confirmation saint and our homeschool saint, so I encourage you to learn more about her as well! [St. Brigid's Academy Blog = now Homegrown Catholics]

OLD POST: 2013 St. Patrick and the Holy Trinity
OLD POST: 2011 Happy St. Patrick's Day @ Homegrown Catholics

Festival of Nations: Brazil

Our local homeschool group had their first Festival of Nations. It was a hit with my kids and 15-20 other families. I highly recommend it for other groups, or families who like the idea of focusing on one area and really diving deep into the culture, geography and history. Our family traveled to Brazil in South America via books, videos and music. Here is just some of our favorite resources to get you started on your journey!

The Display Board

The board covered almost everything we learned about. We featured Country Facts, Geography, Resources, Sightseeing, Rainforest and Natives. Dozens of fun facts are all over the board. I think we learned the most while making the board, as the kids had to re-research the tidbits of information to add. But how did we piece it together?

I started by looking up images online of rainforest animals, Yanomami natives, Brazil maps and flag, Rio De Janeiro, Carnival, Amazon River, Amazon Proper, Amazon Rainforest, The Pantanal, Iguacu Falls, etc. Saving the images, I resized them onto MS Publisher pages and printed them out for the kids to color. I labeled the sections of the board, added basic line drawings of trees, a river, falls, parade float, etc and they filled in the rest. The Natives section is wood craft sticks and raffia. Most of it is colored pencil or marker.

Did you know that most of our oceans fresh water comes from the Amazon River?

Did you know that most of our fresh air comes from rainforests, such as the one in Brazil?

Did you know that mahogany and teak wood is taken from rainforests in Brazil [deforestation], endangering the hundreds of species of animals and insects that live there, as well as our air?

Did you know that the city Curitiba was built to be a global model for future cities? The most "livable" city.

Top Destinations

Rio de Janeiro

Rio hosts popular beaches, such as Ipanema and Copacabana, as sung by Frank Sinatra and Barry Manilow. Just about anywhere you'll bump into people dancing the Samba or Capoiera (Judo/Dance Fighting), especially at Carnival the week before Lent. Visit one of the seven wonders of the world when you see the Christ the Redeemer statue. It is also becoming popular to walk the streets of the hillside favelas which are homes to the lower class citizens.

The long panorama is a line drawing from IllustratedMaps.info of Rio de Janeiro that I stretched to a few pages. Each child plus myself colored one section.

[Photo credit to Mystery Wallpaper]

[Photo Credit RioDeJaneiro4u.com]

The Amazon Proper

Where the Negro River and Amazon River meet, the two do not mix waters for 4 miles!

Iguacu Falls

Miles of waterfalls can be found in southern Brazil.

A Taste of Brazil

We sampled a trail mix of cashews, chocolate and coconut. We also featured "guess that food" jars with fabric lids, inside was coconut, cashews, coffee and cocoa powder. Brazil is a natural resource for many fruits, nuts and beans (cacao and coffee).

Traditions

The people of Brazil cherish their time spent sunning, dancing, playing music, playing futebol (soccer), visiting wildlife, and hosting thousands of guests from all over the world. Tourism and Exports of food/wood/latex/coffee are their main sources of economy, (aside from illegal drug smuggling.) Their main religion is Catholicism, seconded by African spirituality. The natives are the most unique, left almost untouched by modern society, people of our time.

After reading 123 Suddenly in Brazil: The Ribbons of Bonfim, we did some research about the ribbons. It began as a Catholic tradition of honoring saints and Jesus by wearing these ribbons as a witness to prayers answered. Recently they've become more of a lucky charm or wish ribbon. But we had fun sharing this history and opportunity with those who stopped by! I did not order the ribbons from Brazil because I thought it up too late. So I made ours from satin ribbons from the craft store and added the words in permanent marker. Everyone got a ribbon tied on with the history and explanation on a flyer (in the resources & ideas section below entitled "Wishes for You").