The month of October is dedicated to the rosary, and Catholic crafts are a great way to bring the faith to your children! Today, I wanted to share this interactive Rosary board, made by my friend Jessica. We love to work on crafty stuff, and you can find all of my crafty rosary resources for kids here.
Jessica was nice enough to type up a supply list and directions for us!
Catholic Craft Supplies Needed:
- 23”x 30” drawing board
- 2” wooden circle pieces (qty 6)
- 1.5” wooden circle pieces (qty 53)
- Small Rosary book
- Crucifix
- Acrylic Sealer
- Wood Glue
- Mod Podge
- Blue acrylic paint
- Paint brushes
Begin with a drawing board from Hobby Lobby. They are priced at $19.99 and are located in the
art department. Utilize a 40% off coupon to drop the price to $12. Using acrylic paint,
paint your wooden pieces on the curved side and one flat side. I used a baby blue shade
of blue. After allowing those to dry, lay out the wooden pieces in the shape you desire for
your rosary. After cutting out each mystery from the Rosary book, lay out the mysteries to
make sure it all fits. Glue the mysteries down to the board using Mod Podge. You will need
to coat the entire board with Mod Podge before you glue the wooden pieces down. Once
dry, using wood glue, attach the wooden pieces in the desired location. Attach a crucifix
and if desired, connect the wood pieces with a black sharpie by drawing a line in between
the wooden pieces.
We use a plastic statue of Mary and Joseph while saying the rosary. One of them is placed
on the picture of the decade that we are saying and the other piece is moved after each
prayer. This is a great way to engage the younger children and keep their interest!
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Thanks so much for sharing this Catholic Rosary craft, Jessica!
I haven’t made one of these yet, but this is so nice and built to last! I think you could make a simpler one out of foam board and poker chips. (You think it’s okay to use poker chips for a Rosary craft? Maybe there’s a better idea out there. Leave it in the comments. lol!)
What are you doing to celebrate the month of the Rosary? Leave a comment!
I think it’s beautiful and a great idea. You could make it interactive by using velcro on the backs of the beads instead of gluing them down. That way each child can attach a bead as it is being said, until the whole rosary is back on the wall (or board). Justa thought.
What a great idea! Or you could do it with felt and move felt pieces along. Jessica does stand up little plastic statues as she does it with Julian’s preschool class. Didn’t she do a great job?
Excellent Idea! I will save this project and your idea for the next time I teach Sunday School or when the opportunity arrives. Thanks.
Thanks for this W-O-N-D-E-R-F-U-L idea!!! I’m thinking I may raid my button box or maybe buy the precut foam pieces for the beads. I’ve been looking for a way to promote the World Rosary for the Year of Faith and think this would make for great way to do just that. Blessings!
Yay! So glad this was useful for you. Good luck! Let us know how it turns out. 🙂
Love the button idea! I have lots of buttons that my mom saved over the years–what a great way to use them.
First off, I have to say thank you for all the ministry you do! As a mother of 4 little ones, I love your ideas. I also work in the Religion Department at a Catholic elementary school, and we are constantly passing around your ideas. The projects we’ve done have always been a hit! I had a little idea to share along with your wooden rosary board. I thought it would be neat if you were able to adhere velcro pieces on the board and on the back of the “beads.” This way, it would become an interactive rosary board. I know at home, my little ones have a hard time sitting still to pray the entire rosary. This would enable them to get up and move to put a bead on the board for each prayer prayed. God bless!!
Hahaha! Just looking at the first comment posted. Great idea!! 🙂
Love this! I think making it interactive with velcro like Andrea said might really help my son to follow along. He’s 2 1/2 and loves to try to say the rosary with us but he has a hard time following along on the beads – it is cute how he sits and holds the rosary like we do – except the rosary doesn’t move along as he says the prayers! 😉 Just a proud mamma! 🙂 Thanks so much for this post! So excited to try it!
Velcro dots are a wonderful way to make this activity interactive! We did this with very young children at a Summer Marian VBS. Each child held a “bead” and attached it to the matching color on the board as we said the decade of the Rosary together. It was fantastic for shorter attention spans, and helped littles ones follow along.
Great idea! Makes me want to share what we used to do. I used colored index cards, one color for the “big beads” and a different color for the “little beads”. We’d put them in a circle on the floor and the kids would take turns saying the prayers (sometimes one would lead a whole decade, sometimes we’d do two prayers at a time) while stepping on each card. The moving around really helped the little guys stay focused!
We have also used the coloring rosary page from CatholicMom.com to keep older little ones focused.
This is a fabulous idea! For those who might not have a Hobby Lobby near by or the money to spend on materials, you could punch out 2 and 3 inch sized paper circles for the beads and glue them to a regular post board, too! Happy Year of Faith!
ABOVE COMMENT: *poster board*
This is a great idea! Not sure I can get it ready for next Wednesday when all grades say the Rosary together but we’ll have to put it together at some point. The little ones have such a hard time staying focused. Thanks for your ideas.
Such a great idea!! Since we recycle at our school and always have extra caps floating around, this would be a great way to use some of our plastic caps! Thanks so much for sharing!!
I thought about milk caps, but you would need so many!
I really like the Velcro idea. I would also suggest that each decade could be a different color as in a rosary that prays for the missions around the world. If using Velcro, one could even have two sets of beads, multicolored for the world missions rosary and a single color for a “regular” rosary. Our parish is organizing a small committee to come up with some ideas for families to help them grow in their faith during this Year of Faith. I know I will be checking Catholic Icing on a regular basis to help with ideas to help our families grow in their faith. Our Archdiocesan Faith Initiative is: Faith: Love It, Learn It, Live It. We are getting very excited for the possibilities.
I’m thinking of a cheaper, easier version (though not as long lasting) Poster board: 99 cents at the dollar store, and markers to color a rosary. Maybe even write numbers on the beads to help keep track. Use a little Mary statue to move along the rosary like a game board. Cheap enough, each little kid could have their own.
Thanks for the idea!
Like the idea of numbers!!! 🙂
I think I would also add the days each group of mysteries are prayed and cross under the crucifix figure of Jesus but great idea and great idea for the velcro.
Thanks for the idea! I’m teaching the Rosary to my fifth and sixth graders and it gave me a great idea for making a Rosary board game. I’m so excited to try it out!! Your website has inspired me in so many different ways. Thanks for all you do!
I think it would also be great to use poster board and paper circles then laminate the whole thing. You could then use the plastic statues as suggested in the directions. This would be a less expensive option and would still last a while. I think there is something great about the 3D aspect of the wooden one, though. If I do the posterboard one, I will let you know 😉
*clap clap clap* nicely done!!! Yes, that’s probably the easiest and cheapest way to do this. And even though it’s cool to be 3 d, it wouldn’t have to be. The real trick is finding cheap plastic statues. Why is it so hard to track those down? lol!
The rosary stickers from the Dollar Tree would work for the smaller version. This could be made from a file folder. Then laminated or covered with clear contact paper. A little pocket or baggie could be attached to hold the small statue. Our local Catholic store always has small statues and with Christmas coming, they’ll have a small Holy Family pack of 3 individual pieces. Mary, kneeling is about an 1″ tall, Joseph is standing and about 1 3/4″. Baby Jesus is in the manger. The pack sells for maybe $1. Usually found in the “novelty” section.
Got to try this with my RE class of 5th graders. Thx!
I love this idea. I think I will use big rhinestones in the colors for the Year of Faith. My daughters love rhinestones. Yes, the $ store stickers are a great idea, too. If it’s hard for the Mary statue to balance on the rhinestone, maybe just using a smaller rhinstone as a marker and set it on top. You could even use rhinstones to make the crusifix, or just cut out a photo or picture of one from a rosary instruction book.
I did this with poster board that I laminated with clear shelf liner from the dollar store. I used foam circles with double sided tape. I teach kindergarten RE and use this to teach children how to pray the rosary. I have a different child come up for each bead and place it on the diagram of the rosary and they lead us in that prayer. My very first year 2 students new all the rosary prayer, The Apostles creed, Sign of the cross, Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, prayer of Fatima, Hail Holy Queen.
You could also use. Magnetic board and round magnets for the rosary beads. You could even magnetize the mysteries & let them be applied one at a time.
You can buy the oil drip pans (at Walmart or another store with an automotive section), just make sure it’s a magnetic metal for about $10 (I think). You can also paint it with chalkboard paint so the kids can use it for other tasks or you can draw the Rosary on it. You can buy different sizes & colors of magnets as you see fit.
Great idea! LOVE it!
I just stumbled onto this site yesterday at my Church on line. I am the CCD Coordinator for our DRE. I am always looking for sites that can help our Teachers and the students. This is the most wonderful and beautiful site I have come across in the 20 plus years of teaching religious classes. I came home and got on the internet as soon as possible (which was next morning) and kept going. The more I look on this site the more EXCITED I become. I cannot wait to show the site to the DRE today when I go in. We are having a Teachers Meeting on Thursday evening and can’t wait to share the site with them. Not only can I share with them my daughter is also a Teacher and has been for over 7 years since her Confirmation. I thank you so very much for creating this site.
Would you have any ideas for middle school and high school students? Nowadays, children are learning their faith at home. We as teachers are expected to teach them. If I could get info and ideas with the older students, it would be so very awesome…..
Again THANK YOU for this GREAT site.
Hope to chat back soon.
Karen
Gracias por tanto material ,DIOS los bendiga
We are doing this with our 2nd graders but attaching the circles with Velcro to make it more interactive. Thanks for sharing this!!