First Communion

Monstrance Craft for Catholic Kids

May 4, 2013 By Lacy

When my older class at Catholic Schoolhouse made the host and chalice craft, my younger class made these handprint Monstrance crafts. They came out so cute! This would be a great craft for First Communion.

monstrance craft for catholic kids

Supplies Needed for Monstrance Craft:

1/2 piece of poster board
pencil
yellow crayon or marker
washable yellow paint
white paper
scissors
glue stick
Jesus sticker or printed picture (small)
paper plate

Start with a half a piece of poster board, because the handprints will make this fairly large. Draw the bottom of the monstrance for younger children (older kids can do this on their own). In the simpilist form, this is a half a circle at the bottom, then a long skinny rectangle with a circle on top. Let the kids color this in with yellow markers or crayons. I was really surprised at how fast my preschoolers colored these in!

Once it’s colored, put yellow paint on a paper plate. Dip the child’s hand, and stamp handprints all the way around the Monstrance, turning the poster board as you work go around the circle. You only need to dip in the paint for every other handprint.

monstrance craft for Catholic kids

Isn’t it so nice that one of the mothers in our Catholic Schoolhouse group took pictures of me working with the kids? I rarely get pictures like these. Thanks, Kelly! Below is me with my daughter, Violet.

monstrance craft for Catholic kids

This next one is me with my beautiful niece. She and her family were staying with us for awhile, but they’ve moved out now. Such a cutie!

monstrance craft with handprints

Then we made little circle-shaped books with Jesus stickers inside, just like the ones that go with the silhouette chalice craft. This helps to show the true presence for the kids!

monstrance craft with Jesus

Attach the host in the middle with a glue stick. When we were all done, the kids got to walk down to the adoration chapel and see the real Monstrance. They loved it!

handprint monstrance craft

That’s it- hang it up in your kid’s room!

Adapting this project:

If you were brave enough to use acrylic paint rather than washable paint, you could sprinkle it with gold glitter while the paint was wet. If you’re working with older kids, they could paint the whole thing rather than using crayones. You could also decorate the Monstrance with glitter glue or stick on jewels. With older kids, you could also have them trace their hands on yellow paper and cut the handprints out, gluing them around the Monstrance.

My art class that I teach to the preschoolers is only a 30 minute class, and I have 8 of them, so this is all we had time for. It was awesome- the kids and parents both loved it.

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Filed Under: 00 All The Time, Adoration, Crafts for Kids, First Communion, Jesus, Monstrance, My Crafts 3 Comments

Host and Chalice Craft for Catholic Kids

April 28, 2013 By Lacy

I’ve been teaching art at our local Catholic Schoolhouse chapter, and while we were learning about positive and negative space, I snuck in this host and chalice craft in my older class (kindergarten and up). This would be a great craft for First Communion!

host and chalice craft for catholic kids

Did you pay attention to the negative space? The black should look like 2 faces facing each other. We traced the kid’s shadows to achieve this look, so each child’s project had their own profile making up the chalice. Tell the kids that the faces are looking in because our attention should be focused on the Eucharist during the consecration.

Supplies Needed:

1/2 piece of black poster board
1 yellow piece of paper
pencil
light
scissors
glue stick
glitter glue (could substitute markers or regular glue and glitter)
white paper
Jesus sticker or printed picture

I set up a station right in the classroom. We had a clamp on light, which worked out really well. In order to get a clear shadow, you want the child to sit close to the wall, but the shadow gets clearer as you move the light farther away. Turning off the extra lights will also help. Tape your paper to the wall, and then use the directions below to trace the shadow of the profile.

SAMSUNG

Fold the yellow paper in half long ways to trace your silhouette. Be sure that you trace the silhouette on the paper as indicated below if you want it to come out looking like a chalice.

how to trace your silhouette

SAMSUNG

Look at the picture above and note that when tracing the profile, the face needs to be pointing in towards the folded edge of the paper. You don’t want the profile like too far away from that folded edge or your chalice will end up with a really thick stand. The line for the neck will make a nice bottom to the chalice, but you don’t want a line for the shoulder, just let the neck fall off the bottom of the paper. As you trace up the face, once you get past the eye, curve the line in the opposite direction of the forehead and bring it straight up to make the top of your chalice. One the picture above, I’ve indicated where the shadow will be with a dotted line, but you won’t draw this. Just draw the chalice shape instead.

Once you have your shadow traced, let the kids cut along the line themselves.

cutting a silhouette craft

Open up the middle piece to reveal your chalice!

make chalice from silhouette

Use a glue stick to attach this to your black poster board. Now you’re ready to add your host! This part of the craft was inspired by this chalice craft on Catholic Inspired. I loved how she incorporated a folding door with a picture of Jesus behind it! Such a clever way to portray the true presence of Jesus in the Eucharist! She has a great printable version on her site that’s free, so check it out if you’re looking for something a little less complicated.

We made our host into a little “book” to put Jesus inside. To do this, fold white paper in half, and find something the right size to trace a circle with (we used a bottle of glitter). Hang the circle off the folded edge a little bit, trace around, and cut it out. This will give you a nice circle-shaped book. Put a picture of Jesus inside, and glue the back over the host. Draw a cross on the front of the host with a pencil.

Jesus in the eucharist craft for catholic kids

Once you have the chalice and host glued down, you can add jewels to the chalice with glitter glue. We also used glitter glue to make lines coming out all around the host.

decorating chalice craft

Here are some of the completed projects from my class. (These were all done by children ages 5-8)

chalice craft for catholic kids

first communion craft for catholic kids

*Note* I designed this project to fit with the Catholic Schoolhouse curriculum, this is not one of the projects from the book.

teaching catholic art to kids

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Filed Under: 00 All The Time, First Communion, Jesus, Most Precious Blood 5 Comments

Pray for First Communicants {and a First Communion Link Up!}

April 15, 2013 By Lacy

Today, we’re hosting a First Communion link up, where you get to share your First Communion posts! It’s going to be open through the entire Easter season, so share your posts as you write them. This is the finale of the First Communion Promenade series, and you can read the other posts in the series here:

First Communion Promenade Rundown:

April 8- Catholic Icing with First Communion Traditions

April 9- Catholic Mom with First Communion Memories

April 10- Catholic Deals with First Communion Gift Guide

April 11- Many Little Blessings with First Communion Cake Ideas

April 12- Snoring Scholar with Celebrating Without Stress

April 15- First Communion Link Up, and you’re all invited!

Lydia (my oldest) will be making her First Holy Communion next year, so this year we’re just taking it all in. My church has a board where they post a little card for each First Communicant, and you can “adopt” one to pray for until their big day.

adopt a first communicant

Each card has a picture of the child, and a few things about them: The date of their First Communion, their age, a drawing of their family, their favorite color, dessert, hobby, school subject, what’s most important to them, and why they love Jesus. There is also a system where you can drop off a gift for your child by sticking their name on it and leaving it in the church office.

The First Communicant our family “adopted” to pray for said the thing she likes most is drawing. I wanted to get her something, and we decided on Catholic How-to Draw. This book looks adorable- something I definitely want for my own children! Unfortunately, it’s only available in ebook format right now. So I’m hoping to print it, and have it spiral bound at a local office store for her. I’ll probably also include a set of colored pencils, and I’m kind of a Prismacolor colored pencil freak myself (cause once you use Prismacolor, Crayola is never gunna feel the same!) lol.

Some ways you can incorporate praying for a First Communicant into family prayer:

Say a prayer for them each night at bedtime
Add a prayer for them right after your dinner prayer
Say a rosary for them
If you pick up a card from your church, place it on your family altar

Be sure you’re following my First Communion pinboard if you’re on Pinterest!

Ok, now it’s your turn! First, be sure to enter the giveaway! I’m giving away 5 copies of A Picture Book of the Mass (5 different winners), which is a great Mass missal for children of all ages. Enter below (you do not have to put in a url to enter).

Also, be sure to link up your First Communion posts! Feel free to link to First Communion posts from your archives, and if you write more this year come back and add the links. This link up will be open through the entire Easter season! At the end of the link-up, we will also be drawing a winner for a First Communion giveaway from the links that have been entered, so more links equals more chances to win! Be sure to read the posts others link up as well, and leave them come comment love. Be sure to link back to this link up in the posts you add so others know where to join in on the fun!

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Filed Under: First Communion 13 Comments

First Communion Banner Ideas

April 10, 2013 By Lacy

Directly inspired by Angie’s post of More than 40 First Communion Banner Examples, I took pictures of the First Communion Banners at our church last year.

I’ll start with a list of ideas to put on First Communion banners, then move onto the pictures.

Your Name
The Date of your First Holy Communion
Other phrases (see examples below)
Grapes, wheat, chalice
Crosses
Lamb
Church
Stained glass window
Hearts
Hosts
Dove
Monstrance
Rosary

When you’re ready to make your First Communion banner, be sure to check out my directions on How to make a First Communion Banner

Ok, that’s enough brainstorming. Let’s see what this class turned up with. Here are the close ups. (You can click the pictures to make them bigger.)

(above) Love the dove with the hand print! Lots of churches and crosses, and a monstrance. Chalices and grapes- classic.

(above) In the top right corner, I like that one with the pieces of felt like stained glass.

(above) I really like the blue one with all the crosses, and I also LOVE the one all the way to the left. It’s purple and says “Laura”. So cute, simple, and I love the sparkly felt.

(above) the one that says “Joshua” is a great example of actually purchasing felt letters that are already cut out. Gives it a very professional look, if that’s what you’re going for.

(above) Love the one that says “This is my Body”. There’s another one that says “Thank you Jesus” which I think is really sweet. I also like the green one (right bottom corner) with the bread, chalice, grapes, and cross.

The most important thing to remember is that this is your child’s project, not your own. Let him/her design and make the banner how they want. I know you could do a better job than them, but that’s not really the point.

For more First Communion Banner ideas, check out Angie’s pictures of more than 40 samples. She also has a First Communion ebook that’s fabulous, and comes with tons of gorgeous templates for making your own banner.

Also, the First Communion Promenade is still going on today! Liz has posted a First Communion Gift Guide for you all on Catholic Deals today- a post you won’t want to miss! If you missed Lisa’s post yesterday about remembering the sweetness of First Communion, be sure to check that out.

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