3 Skills-Based Game Challenges for All Saints Day

I know All Saints Day has passed, but I wanted to honor my commitment to sharing more of the 15 challenges that I prepared for children who attended our Little Way Home Educators All Saints Day party last year.  Thus, here's another three.

(Note: Some of the links which follow are affiliate ones. As is stated in our full disclosure, if you click on one and make a purchase, we may receive compensation.) 

As regular readers know,  I created t15 game challenges to be used in conjunction with the saint images, prayers and facts found in Prayers to My Favorite Saints (St. Joseph Picture Books), a beautiful, inexpensive softcover book that typically sells for $1.50 or less.  However, each game can be used on its own, too.  ON All Saints Day, a particular saint's feast day, or, really, any day, simply print out the FREE PRINTABLE challenge sheets, gather minimal supplies, and you'll be good to go!
 

Knock Out Sin like St. Rose of Lima

Who does not like bowling?  
 
The set up for this game was easy.  I simply printed out labeled images of the seven deadly sins, taped them to pins four Silly 6 Pins game, put a ball down, and posted the challenge sheet nearby.  Then, children enjoyed taking turns knocking the sins down!

If you do not have Silly 6 Pins, any kids' bowling set, or even recycled water or soda bottles would work.

The game makes a great one for visual, auditory, vestibular and proprioceptive senses with the eye-hand coordination it takes to bowl, the sound of pins hitting the ground, and all the bending to to roll the ball and to pick up pins.

Put God in the Center of Your Heart like St. Augustine

Based on another classic game, this one challenged children to use heir eye-hand coordination.

Set up was simply a ring toss game placed on the center of a heart cut out of construction paper with a challenge sheet nearby.

Send Roses from the Heavens like St. Therese of the Child Jesus

I failed to get any pictures of this game last year, but since we repeated it this year, I have one!

Set up is a basketball net, a few fake roses and a posted challenge sheet.  Then, children toss the roses to get baskets.Or, if you do not have a net, simply use a chair to stand on, a few fake roses, and a basket (or bowl) to drop the roses into.

Either way, children enjoy getting the roses to hit their mark.

In fact, all three of these skill-based challenges were popular with our group.  I hope you enjoy them at some point, too.

More Games and Free Printable Game Challenge Sheets

I still have three more challenges to share in order to complete the full 15 game challenge set.  Those should be posted within a week.  In the meantime, in case you missed the first nine game challenge sheets and explanations, find them at:3 All Saints Day Game Challenges {with FREE PRINTABLE!

3 More All Saints Day Party ideas with FREE PRINTABLE Game Challenge Sheets.

2 All Saints Day Craft Challenges and a Physical One {with FREE PRINTABLE Challenge Sheets}

 

The final three challenges in this series should be up within a week or two, so do check back!

If you have favorite saints throughout the year you'd like game challenges or craft ideas for, just ask ,and I will see what I can come up with.

2 All Saints Day Craft Challenges and a Physical One {with FREE PRINTABLE Challenge Sheets}

Whoo hoo!  I am managing to follow up on 3 All Saints Day Game Challenges with a FREE PRINTABLE and 3 More All Saints Day Party ideas with FREE PRINTABLE Game Challenge Sheets with another  three of the 15 challenges that I prepared for children who attended our Little Way Home Educators All Saints Day party last year. 

Unfortunately, I only have one kids-in-action shots of these three activities since two of them were placed at a table quite far from where I was managing more active games.  However, few "cute kids" photos does not mean you cannot benefit from having the FREE PRINTABLE challenge sheets and hearing how the activities were set up and went, so here goes...

(Note: Among the links below provided for your convenience are affiliate ones.  As is stated in our full disclosure, if you click on one and make a purchase, we may receive compensation.) 

All fifteen challenges were made to be used in conjunction with the saint images, prayers and facts found in Prayers to My Favorite Saints (St. Joseph Picture Books), a beautiful, inexpensive softcover book that typically sells for $1.50 or less.  However, whether you have a copy of the book or not, the challenges can easily be put together using the FREE PRINTABLE challenge sheets I am sharing and minimal supplies and prep time. 
 

 
I hope you enjoy today's set of games:  Make St. John the Baptist's Sheep, Make St. Maria Goretti's Lilies, and Cross a River like St. Christopher.


Make St. John the Baptist's Sheep

I knew we had some tactile, craft-lovers coming to our party, so this activity was more of a sensory-art project for them than an actual game.  Basically, children had to use their fine motor skills and imaginations to create sheep, since St. John the Baptist, who is a patron saint to sheep, baptized many, including "the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world".


Set up consisted of putting out the challenge sheet, some black paper, scissors, cotton balls, light colored crayons, glue in small cups, and a few pre-cut black hand shapes.  The idea was for young children to trace their hands on the black paper and, then, glue cotton balls to it, so their thumb shape would become a sheep's head and their finger shapes a sheep's legs.  Meanwhile, older children could take the challenge anywhere they wished to, creating 2-d or 3-d sheep designs of their choice.I purposely made the challenge sheet general, not stating the actual materials, so that in future years I could rotate all manner of supplies through a station like this: clothes pins, cotton, and markers or paper plates, black paper, and recycled packing peanuts... You come up with the supplies and the children come up with ideas for using it!

Having sensory-based craft challenges like this proved a draw for a good number of the children at our party!

Make St. Maria Goretti's Lilies

In honor of the young martyr who lived a life of purity and kindness, and is said to have appeared to a man in his dream to give him white lilies, thereby acting as a catalyst for the man's conversion, this challenge was another craft challenge station at which children made paper lilies.

Set up was simple: challenge sheet, white paper, scissors, green chenille stems, and color sticks.

Again, I did not state on the challenge sheet exactly what the lilies were to be made with so that in future years we could rotate through different supplies: paper plates, paper, and pencils, or glue and felt, or playdough and wire stems, or... Time and imagination will tell.

The lilies the kids made were like the handprint ones described in our How Can Picture Books + Crafts Inspire Kindess and Service? post.

With paper plates and some other basic supplies, they could have made one like those described in our A Simple Seasonal Craft: A Paper Plate Lily Pencil Toppers How-To post.

Cross a River like St. Christopher

I managed to get ONE picture of this game once the "river" had receded a bit.  (Next time I might weight it or tape it down.)

Set up was simple: a baskets with two babydolls in it, a blue sheet to represent the ocean, and the challenge sheet. 

The challenge equally simple - balance the babydoll on a shoulder while while walking across the river and back.  This ease of play was purposeful.  I wanted even our youngest children to feel successful at a challenge that required full-body movement.  Older children could make the challenge a bit more interesting by racing without slipping on the "river" or dropping the baby!

As with the other games in this set, I left flexibility on the game challenge sheet description, so I can adapt the challenge to be more difficult or sensory-based if I wish to in the future.  How?  By changing out the "river".  Think blue balls in a ball pit, blue streamers hanging down for a deep river, etc.  Always, imagination and flexibility based upon the ages, skills, and sensory needs of participants that may be coming is key to planning!


So, there you have it.  Three more challenges for your next All Saints Day party!  Alongside more traditional game challenges, skill-based challenges and open-ended building challenges, the three shared here  made for an ideal mix of activities for the children at our party last year.  I hope one, or all of them, may suit the children you may celebrate All Saints Day with this year!


More Games and Free Printable Game Challenge Sheets

If you missed the first three game challenge sheets and explanations, find them at 3 All Saints Day Game Challenges {with FREE PRINTABLE!

If you missed the next three, check out 3 More All Saints Day Party ideas with FREE PRINTABLE Game Challenge Sheets.

As far as the final six challenges in this series go, I cannot promise I will have them posted before All Saints Day this year, since my children's activities schedule is quite busy over the next two days.  However, I will share them eventually.  I promise!  So, do check back to find some more skills-based and movement-based challenges yet to come!

Which saints would you like to see game challenges for?  I have six more coming here and am happy to create more by request!