Early Christian Martyrs Musical Chairs

Here is my Early Christian Martyrs Muscial Chairs. The images and stories I have made and written (anyone is welcome to click on the images to enlarge and download to use) are the crux of this game. It is set up like a normal musical chairs game EXCEPT, have a chair for each child, rather than having one short.

There should be an image attached to the back of each chair and when the music is played the children walk around, as soon as the music stops they sit on a chair. Then the adult reads aloud one the saints stories. I've written them to be short and sweet, this is important or you will loose your little audience, but they will learn even those these stories are short.

As they hear the story they need to work out whether it is connected to the symbols attached to the chair. If it is, they are out of the game! Their chair is removed, the music continues. It goes on like that until only one chair and child is left standing. If you have say 30 children, allow children to pair up for this game holding hands.

Now I know there is no real need for the children to be walking to music each time and continually be sitting on a new chair but it keeps it to the tradition of this game. It would just lessen the fun to sit on the same chair until eliminated.

Here is the story for the image above:

"St Agatha was a christian girl who caught the eye of a very evil man, when she rejected his evil advances he threw her into a house of evil hoping to break down her will. He failed. So he had her brought before the Judges for being a christian. They used pinchers and sticks to tear at her body and threw her into prison to die, but St Peter healed her. They then threw her upon a fire and she soon died. Her veil has protected the city of Catana from volcano eruptions and war. "

"There was once a young christian girl who was very pure and holy. A young pagan man wished to marry her but she refused, so he had her dragged in front of the judges for being a christian. They ordered that she be humilitated and walked through the street with no clothes, but God allowed her hair to grow and cover the whole of her body. This enraged the evil men so they had her tortured and killed with a sword. Her name is St Agnes, which means 'lamb'."

"St Barbara was a secret christian as her father hated them. One day he ordered a tower built with two windows, but St Barbara had the builders add a third window. When her father asked why, she said it was to honour the Blessed Trinity. He was so angry he dragged her to the judge to be condemned to death by beheading. Her wicked father carried out the order and was immediately struck by lightning and killed. St Barbara is often drawn holding the Eucharist."

"St Apollonia was an elderly, christian lady who was arrested during one of the Christian persecutions. When she was condemned they tortured her by pulling and knocking out all her teeth. They then lit a bonfire and asked St Apollonia to blaspheme and renounce Christ or burn to death. She refused and chose the fire, by promptly throwing herself into it. St Apollonia is the patroness of toothaches and dentists."

"St Catherine was a holy girl who studied hard. When she heard that the christians were being persecuted she went to the Emperor and publicly preached to him and his court, many were converted by her wise words but it only enraged the Emperor more. He ordered that she be put to death on a spiked wheel, but when she touched it, it fell apart. They beheaded her and the angels carried her body to Mt Sinai where a monastery was built in her honour."

"St Sebastian was a Roman soldier but when he heard about Jesus he became a christian. The Mayor of Rome heard that he was a christian and he asked about Jesus. St Sebastian spoke so beautifully, the Mayor converted. This enraged many and he was arrested and condemned to death by arrows, but he did not die. Christian ladies found him and nursed him to health. He then went straight back to the judge to tell him about Jesus but he had him clubbed to death."

" St Cecilia was a beautiful, christian girl. A young pagan man wanted to marry her but she refused, she wanted only to belong to God. This enraged the man. When he stepped forward with his brother to force her, they saw her guardian angel standing at her side. They converted immediately. All three were later arrested for being christians and martyred. St Cecilia was heard praising God by singing to Him, as she lay dying a martyr's death."

"St Dorothy was a young girl whose parents had already been martyred. Soon the soliders came for her too. It was winter when there were no fruit or flowers. As she went to her death a pagan lawyer laughed at her and asked her to send her fruit or roses from Heaven. Just before St Dorothy died a little heavenly child stood by her side with a basket of three apples and three roses, he gave them to the lawyer and he converted, he later became a martyr as well."

" St Ignatius was an early bishop of Antioch. One day he decided to travel to Rome, along the journey he wrote six letters to Churches in the region and one to a fellow Bishop. Upon entering Rome he was arrested and then taken to the famous Colosseum to become sport for the pagan crowds. He was taken out into the arena to be eaten by the lions. His body is now buried in St Peter's basillica in Rome."

" St Jude Thaddeus was a relative and an apostle of Jesus. After the crucifixion he went to many Middle Eastern regions and later to Edessa where he was known as Thaddeus of Edessa. It is believed that he may have taken the shroud to Edessa where it was folded and framed in such a way that only the head of Jesus was visible and this is why he is drawn holding an image of Our Lord's head. He was eventually martyred with St Simon the apostle with spiked clubs and axes."

" St Lawrence was a deacon of the Church, in charge of it's treasures and the poor. The Romans arrested him in order to seize the Church's riches. St Lawrence asked for 3 days to gather it, in that time he took the riches including the cup of Christ and hid them away. He then went to the Romans and showed them the poor and sick, saying they were the real treasures of the Church. The enraged Romans wanted him to die slowly on a hot grill, St Lawrence just laughed and asked to be turned over, as he was cooked on that side. "

" St Lucy was a holy girl who wanted to give herself to God. Her mother wished her to marry until she fell ill and was miraculously cured by St Agatha. A pagan man asked to marry her. She refused. He suspected she was a christian and had her brought before the Judges. She was condemned and tortured. They tried to burn her but could not, they put out her eyes but God restored her eyes. Finally they put a sword through her heart and her soul flew to heaven. "

" St Philomena was a young, christian princess whom the Emperor Diocletian fell in love with. When she refused to marry him he had her tortured. She was whipped but angels healed her. An anchor was placed around her neck and she was thrown in the river but angels lifted her out. They tried to kill her with arrows but they turned on the bowmen instead. Finally she was beheaded. Her dried blood in a crystal urn often changes into precious stones, gold and silver."

" St Stephen was the first martyr. He spoke about Jesus and converted many in the Holy Land. The Jews were furious. They had him arrested but St Stephen talked to them about Jesus being God which angered them further. So they dragged him out of town to be stoned to death. A man named Saul held the cloaks of the killers, he would one day become St Paul. As they stoned him, St Stephen saw the heavens part and Jesus coming down to take his soul into glory. "

"St Tarsicius was a boy martyr who loved Jesus in the Holy Eucharist very much. He often carried the Eucharist for the priest in the city. One day on the Appain Way in Rome some pagan boys saw him hurrying along with something in his arms. They demanded that he show them what he was carrying but he rufused so they beat him to death. When they opened his arms the Eucharist had miraculously disappeared. He had protected Jesus and Jesus took him to heaven."

"St George was a christian roman solider. When travelling through Libya he fought and killed a dinosaur terrorizing a township. The frightened people drew straws to take a person out daily to feed to the dragon after they had run out of sheep to offer it. The day St George killed the dragon a local princess' life had been saved. Later the Emperor Diocletian ordered that all soldiers must sacrifice to their gods, St George refused and was tortured and then beheaded."

'Patron Saint Match Relay' All Saints Party Game

This next game is another of the Team Games. The purpose of the game is for each team to match up the right saint to the right patronage. I typed up 24 saints names with little images next to each name (some of the images will also help the children work out the patronage of that saint eg: a flying St Joseph of Cupertino is obviously the patron of astronauts!) ~ I made three copies, printed them up, laminated them and cut them out individually. One set for each team.

Then I printed up the matching patronages for those saints, I printed them up, laminated the sheets and stuck them to boards that I had in the house. Popped a nice little border up the top the team's colour and an image of their 'mascot'.

The idea of the game is the teams are lined up in pairs (With each pair I put a smaller child with an older child, or a child who doesn't know as much about saints with someone who does) down one end of the yard. There is a parent assigned to each team holding the saint names.

Down the other end of the yard will be a table with these three boards on them, there will be a one parent to supervise and the oldest child from each team behind the table near their team's board.

When the game starts the first pair from each team is given a saint's name and they run to the table and need to find the patronage that matches (there will be a little clear double-sided tape on each written patronage) they stick the saint tag over the patronage as you can see in the first image. If they have difficulty in finding the patronage, then the oldest child in the team standing by the board, can help them.

Once a pair has got their saints name stuck on, the next pair from that team can run up. The first team to win is the one that completes the board first!

'Saints and Symbols Relay' All Saints Party Game

For this year's All Saints Party, each child will be put into one of three teams ~ Team St Anthony ~ Team St Francis ~ Team St Joan of Arc. I'll try to make the distribution of older and younger children as fair as possible.

I've also made up tags for each child's wrist. I did this for a May Crowning about 5 years ago and it was extremely effective and the kids loved it. Why it is such a good idea, is due to the fact you are dealing with LOTS of children, all at different ages, so the younger children won't remember what team there in. The children like the idea of 'identity' and just adds to the fun and excitement of 'team games!!'

There will be a few team games and the team that wins each game will receive three points, the team that comes in second receives two points and the team that comes third, one point. The tally will be kept and there will be a team prizes for the end of the day, as well as prizes for individual winners in each game as well.

I've been thinking about creating new All Saints party team games and I've come up with a few.

The below is my first ~ Saints and Symbols Relay.

In this game each team has to collect the symbols for four saints, one at a time. There will be four symbols to each saint (I know I have some saints below with more than four, but I'll settle on the four best.)

Each team with have four of these cards, each card goes with a saint image.

Each team will be given a card and a saint's image, here is an example of the card for St Jerome:

*o0o*

St Jerome

You are collecting symbols for St Jerome.

Checkpoint Garden Bed ~ Symbol One:

When Jerome, at the end of his life, lived
in a monastery in Bethlehem, healed a wounded ........,
that had a thorn in its paw. The animal remained with him

from then on and is considered a symbol of compassion

conquering brute force.

Checkpoint Shed ~ Symbol Two:

The ............. is among the symbols of a penitent hermit.
This instrument for measuring time is a call to meditate
on the fact that life on earth, does not last forever.

Checkpoint Backyard Corner ~ Symbol Three:

The ....... is a scholar's emblem. In Jerome's case, it refers to
his many writings and how he translated the original Greek and

Aramaic language of the Bible to Latin, called the 'Latin Vulgate'.

Checkpoint Mary's Garden ~ Symbol Four:

The ...... reminded St Jerome that this life does not last forever
and that death and judgement comes to us all. "Remember

man you are dust and to dust you shall return."

*o0o*

At each checkpoint will be a box with the symbols for each of the 12 saints, the team must pick out the right one and attach it to their saint before moving onto the next checkpoint. The Mary Garden will also be the beginning point when the teams are issued their saint and the card that goes with that saint, so the teams must go around four times before the game is finished.

The first team in after four rounds is the winner! (With all saint images (four) with their right symbols attached of course!)

I've just google search all the pictures you see here, the saint is printed on white cardboard, the symbols on white paper, everything is then laminated for stability and protection.

Often I've popped an saint image into paintshop pro and taken out symbols, then printed up the saint. Then I print up the symbols on a separate page. Laminated the sheets and cut out the pictures.

ST JEROME SYMBOLS:

The book - Bible

The skull

Rocks

The Lion

The hourglass

ST BARBARA SYMBOLS:

Crown

Three window tower

Sword

Peacock Quill

Crown

Palm of Martyrdom

ST BONAVENTURE SYMBOLS:

Angelic Seraphim

Minature Church

Mitre

Cross and Monstrance

ST DOMINIC SYMBOLS:

Dog with flaming torch

Star on forehead

Lily branch

Rosary beads

ST JOHN THE BAPTIST SYMBOLS:

Scroll

Lamb of God

Cross

Head on dish

Honeycomb and locusts

ST NICHOLAS OF MYRA SYMBOLS:

Three boys in a tub

Three balls

Anchor

Boat

Book (held in arms)

Mitre

ST PETER SYMBOLS:

Rooster

Keys

Boat

Book

Mitre

Chains

ST ROSE OF LIMA SYMBOLS:

Child Jesus

Roses

Wreath of Roses

Crown of thorns

Anchor

ST URSULA SYMBOLS:

Boat
Crown
Arrows in arms
Palm of Martyrdom

I have made my saint choices and gotten most of my symbol explanations from Saints in Art by Rosa Giorgi ~ a very helpful book indeed, and a beautiful book!

All Saints Party Decorations

What's a cheap but VERY effective way to decorate your home and yard for an All Saints party? Colouring in saints images!! I used this idea 4-5 years ago when we last hosted this party.

I had kept most of the images from all those years ago where the children and I had a heap of fun together colouring them all in. We had a bit of a production line at the time, I used felt pens to outline and the children then coloured them all in with pencil. But if you plan ahead, there is no reason why this cannot be a year long project, each image coloured, collected and kept.

The only thing I did differently this year was I laminated all the images so that they don't get accidently torn on the day by little fingers and I can store them, knowing they won't fade and get damaged.

I had orginally stuck these images all over the front of our home, but this time I intend to hang coloured steamers all around our front deck and patio and every few centimetres (inches) I'll staple a saint image to the streamers. Whatever is left over will be stuck to the house wall again.

If you used the two Volume Saints colouring books (Vol one and Vol two) from Regina Press, you'll have about 53 images to use!! A total cost of about $6 or so all up. Pretty good.

But I have another suggestion that is completely free ~ and that is to pop on over to Charlotte's blog, Waltzing Matilda and you'll find that she has generously given of her time and talent to share her colouring pages that amount to about 50 images or so (and that continues to build) you can do exactly the same thing with all of her creations.

I have some beautiful saint and marian large throw rugs that I'll hang up on the front of the house on the day as well, that coupled with coloured ballons, a hanging pinata waiting for the children, two saint pin up games stuck on the wall that also couple as lovely decoration.

I want the children as they come through the front gate to go, 'oooh! ahhh!' and feel like they are stepping into a 'little world of saints and colour' ~ they'll all be in dress up, so what a beautiful sight the complete picture will be!

Pin the .... Game for the All Saints Party

Continuing my All Saints Party preparations. Today I finished working on the two Pin the ..... on the ..... Games ~ this year there is one of the girls and one for the boys.

The girls is Pin the Habit on St Therese. I made this 4- 5 years ago, originally I had a complete set of the St Therese Paper Dolls and I drew one of the St Therese dolls onto the cardboard, she is dressed in her home clothes that she would have worn before entering Carmel. I had used one the original habits from that set to use as the pin-on 5 years ago.

While I kept the carboard intact, I've lost the original habit but thankfully I was directed to Gail's St Therese of Avila Paper Dolls recently that had a free set of paper doll habits, so I printed one up and laminated it. Phew, a good save!!

Here is the habit, pinned-on ~ it's going to be alot of fun for the younger aged children on the day!

So I spent most of my working time on this project making the boys game Pin the Shamrock on St Patrick, from scratch. St Patrick was a good choice because he is often depicted holding a shamrock, the symbol of the Holy Trinity. St Francis of Assisi would be another good one, as he is often holding a dove...but when you think of it, there are ENDLESS saints holding symbols, you can be as creative as there are saints!!!

I drew this St Patrick from a colouring book I have but you can do and internet search on images and use something there to inspire your drawing efforts, if you feel you are really stuck when it comes to drawing, just trace! (Which is what I did here, for the record!! Only my shamrocks are free hand, so this is completely doable.)

Another game completed for this coming November the 1st!....there's a few more games to come yet, still alot of work ahead for me.

Pinata for All Saints party..

Today I was walking through our cheap 'Dollar and Sense' shop and came across some pinatas...I had actually thought of making one a few days ago but let it go when I realised that I had no time for such a big craft project. Then I saw this dragon...and immediately I thought of St George and the dragon.

So I went internet searching for St George images and found this one, I trimmed it down and printed it up on cardboard, then I flipped it with the mirror tool in paintshop and printed it again on cardboard. I carefully cut out both images so that they could go back to back.

Then I stuck the two front legs and the head of St George's horse on either side of the dragon and stuck the halo, cape, horse's tail and back legs together....and it was done.

The children are just SO excited and cannot wait to enjoy this on All Saints day!!