Celebrating St. John Paul II Outdoors

What happens when Sunday, sunshine, and Saint. John Paul II's  Optional Memorial day coincide? 

If you're my me - and you've been promising one of your children a final romp at the beach before the weather cools too much - you make lunch after Mass, have everyone change into swimwear, pack up a few items, and head to the beach, praying a family Rosary along the way!

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Then, on the beach, some of your children play in the "lazy river"...

...while another just lazes around on a towel...

....listening to you read parts of For the Children: Life Lessons From Pope John Paul II aloud.

Later, you call all your children over to where you've made a casual beachside saint day vignette using you copy of  For the Children: Life Lessons From Pope John Paul II*, the Encyclopedia of Peg Saints, a St. John Paul II peg doll, a tape measure, and a bag of Dandies all-matural mini marshmallows.  

You ask your children what they can recall about St. John Paul II, add some further details, read the page in the Encyclopedia of Peg Saints about him...

...and ask who'd like to try a little challenge related to St. John Paul II before sharing in sweetness, symbolic of God's love.

Enticed by the symbolic sweetness, of course, all your children want to try the challenge.  So, borrowing from a prior St. John Paul II-related design challenge,  you explain:

St. John Paul II loved being outdoors and especially loved the mountains, which he said were "a special place to meet God".   He also said, "We can pray perfectly when we are out in the mountains or on a lake and we feel at one with nature. Nature speaks for us or rather speaks to us. We pray perfectly."  You challenge is to use natural materials you find around you to build a "mountain" that is almost 27 inches high - one inch for every year St. John Paul II was pope.  The mountain has to be able to hold our St. John Paul II peg doll on it for at least 84 seconds - one for very year St. John Paul II lived.

Then, everyone sets to work.

Some build with just rock.

Others add plant material.

Measurements are taken.

Different designs are tried.

Someone thinks he's done.

 

Official measurements are taken.

Redesigns are considered.

Teamwork unfolds.

New progress is measured.

Varied ideas are tested.
 

A simple design meets the height specification.

And, St. John Paul II (in peg doll form) meets God on the "mountain".

A team of three finishes another "mountain".

Everyone - solo and in teams  - meet success.

Then, the sweet mini marshmallows are distributed, reminding us of God's pure love shared with others.

Hoots of joy are called out.  You continue to enjoy the great outdoors with gratitude, just as. St. John Paul II often did.

Later, you all join in prayer, thanking God for the day and asking for St. John Paul II to intercede for your family and for others.

An October beach day in celebration of St. John Paul II has been a blessing!

*Note: When I was putting this post together, I noticed that there are copies of  For the Children: Life Lessons From Pope John Paul II selling for just a penny right now.  So, if you've been thinking about getting a copy, now's the time!

St. John Paul II, pray for us.

Get Your FREE PRINTABLE St. John Paul II Notebooking Page and Try an Instant Design Challenge

This week at our homeschool co-op my Problem Solving with the Saints class will be focusing on St. John Paul II.

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Chat, Storytime, and Scrapbooking Page

We'll open our class by reading about St. John Paul II, hopefully with The Story of Saint John Paul II: A Boy who Became Pope, if I can find where I laid my copy of it.

While I read, the children will take notes or draw pictures on a simple Saint John Paul II scrapbooking/notebooking page that I made and am sharing freely with you today.  We'll also pause to chat about St. John Paul II and, perhaps, to take a movement break related to what we read.

As pictured above, notebooking page we will use has a photo of Saint John Paul II and lists his feast day and patronage.  It also has a map where students can color in Poland (and Rome).  I made this saint-specific page, because the more general notebooking pages that I had used in our first Problem Solving with the Saints class (which focused on St. Theodore Guerin) was well-received, but a bit challenging for the children in my class. 

Because my students are young, they found writing out details such as the saint's feast day and patronages difficult, and, truly, just seemed to want to decorate and draw on their scrapbooking pages.  Noting this, I decided to try a saint-specific page for  our St. Kenneth class with pre-printed details.  That went over well, so, now, each week, I am making new saint-specific pages.  Should you want the general page, though, please feel free to click through the image below to find a link to it.

The Challenge

Back to the Saint John Paul II class plan now...

After we read, chat, and notebook about St. John Paul II, I will lay out the following supplies per team:

• three sheets of newspaper
• one roll of masking tape or clear tape
• a measuring tape

I will explain that the number of newspaper sheets is symbolic and ask if the students can guess why the number three might be significant.  (The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit within the Holy Trinity.)

I will then suggest that the tape, too, is symbolic - if we stick to and honor the tenets of our faith, as St. John Paul II did, we can join Jesus in Heaven one day, too.

Finally, I will offer our challenge specifications:

St. John Paul II loved God and nature and felt that mountains were a special place to meet God.  Build a “mountain”(paper tower) using only three sheets of newspaper (to remind us of God – the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost -, who St. John Paul II loved so much). Your mountain must be self-standing and at least 27 inches high (one inch for each year Saint John Paul II was pope).

For further challenge, make your mountain even higher and see if it can stand without falling over for 84 seconds (one second for every year of St. John Paul II's life.)

The measuring tape can only be used to measure; it cannot be included as a part of the mountain.

I cannot wait to see what the children come up with.  I imagine their mountains will be much like the Towers to Point to Heaven that children made in a prior Read Aloud to Real Challenges Co-op Class that I taught, one of which is pictured above.

Want to Try Other Problem Solving with the Saints Challenges?
 
Click through the mages below to see two more of our co-op plans and to access free printable challenge sheets.

I will (hopefully!) be sharing the challenge we did for St. Edward here soon, too.

How about Some All Saints Day Party Challenges, Too?

You may also appreciate some of the All Saints Day Party challenges we have enjoyed over the pas few years.  Simply click through the post titles or images to find details and free printable challenge sheets.

The Final 3 All Saints Day Game Challenges

3 All Saints Day Game Challenges

3 More All Saints Day Party Ideas

2 All Saints Day Craft Challenges and a Physical One

3 Skills-Based Game Challenges for All Saints Day

If you try any of these challenges, I would love to hear how they go or to see photo.  You can post photos at our Facebook page.

St. John Paul II and all the saints, pray for us.