Feast Day of St. John Bosco
January 31st is the feast day of St. John Bosco, commonly referred to as Don Bosco. [Lyse] focused on his early life and upbringing so that the kids could better relate to him. John Bosco was born in the Kingdom of Sardinia in the year 1880. As a young boy he learned how to juggle and do acrobatics by watching touring performers. However, he was also blessed with dreams that told him to earn the friendship of others (especially the poor) through kindness, as opposed to through the asserting of dominance or through sin. As a result, though his upbringing was filled with strife and poverty, John wanted to become a priest, and in 1835 he was finally able to enter the seminary. In the meantime (and after he ordained) he looked after poor street boys, teaching them about God and taking them to Mass every Sunday. He made |
friends with them first by joining their games and showing them his circus tricks. He kept helping them for decades even though it was difficult; he didn’t have much money and people thought he was ludicrous to look after rowdy groups of boys. But he saw in his dreams that he must keep going, and not lose faith in God or his mission. John Bosco passed away in 1888 at the age of seventy-two. He was canonized in 1934.
I finished off the discussion of Don Bosco with this prayer...
I finished off the discussion of Don Bosco with this prayer...
Saint John Bosco, you reached out to children whom no one cared for.
Help us to care less about the laughter of the world and care more about the joy of the Lord.
Help us to care less about the laughter of the world and care more about the joy of the Lord.
The Activity
The craft was a toilet paper roll doll from the Catholic Icing blog: http://www.catholicicing.com/abc-saints/. To download the template(s) for the saints was $8USD, but I think the payment is worth it in the long run. In preparation for the activity I printed and cut out black and white (uncoloured) template versions of St. John Bosco. I added half a pipe-cleaner and three fuzzy pom-poms to the craft as pretend juggling balls. Start out the activity with getting the the kids to glue three pom-pom balls to a pipe cleaner segment. Something I didn't do, but would do if I did the activity again, was set up a table specifically for gluing. That way the kids can get glue all over one table, and then leave the glue to set. While the glue is drying, have the kids colour in their picture of St. John Bosco. I had already cut out the templates before-hand, so the kids didn't need to use scissors for today's activity. |
Finally the kids get to glue their picture onto a toilet paper roll, and then I helped tape the juggling apparatus onto the inside of the toilet paper roll, so that the balls looked like they were flying above Don Bosco's head. You could also try stabbing the pipe cleaner through the cardboard and then making a ball on both ends of the pipe cleaner so that it doesn't fall out, but this may end up ripping the picture and causing a bit of grief.
Supplies | Thoughts |
| Adding the juggling balls was a little bit too much for the time we had. The effect was nice but this was a challenging to make - whether it works within the time frame depends on how many kids there are and how much parental help there is. As well, as I mentioned above, it would have helped to set up different stations for gluing and colouring. As often happens, there were some tweaks that could have been made, but, all in all, the activity went well, and the kids enjoyed doing the craft. |
Here's what the final product looks like. Thanks to catholicicing for the idea and colouring template. - Lyse |