If You Cannot Find It, Make Do: 3-Part Life of Mary Sequencing Cards

Okay, I admit it!  My computer files are in the same shape as the rest of our home right now – in dire need of some purging and organization.  This point was driven home to me the other morning when I spent fruitless time searching for some Life of Mary cards I thought I had downloaded at some prior point, only to realize that not only was I confused (I had actually downloaded some wonderful 3-Part Rosary Cards from The Bookworm), but also that my documents folders are suffering in cluttered disarray.  So, I am adding their organization to my May Focus intent and moving on...

Or trying to move on...You see, I am a Mommy-Educator who gets caught up in ideas and has to bring them to fruition at times so they won't continue to edge out other thoughts (such as, “You have a few minutes, Martianne.  Get purging and organizing!)  So despite the fact that Elaine, from the Creative Kingdom yahoogroup I belong to, made some wonderful Mary Matching cards in response to my question of if anyone else knew of Life of Mary cards online, I still had it in my head that I wanted cards chronicling the events of Mary’s life. Unable find any, during snippets of time here and there this week, I made some. 

Now, I am so excited to use our newly created 3-Part Life of Mary Sequencing Cards with the kids!  And, I am equally excited to be able to share them here, as a small thanks to all the amazing, creative bloggers whose ideas the kids and I have so appreciated benefiting from.

First, the cards themselves.  You'll find images of them throughout this post.  If you click on the images, you should get full-sized ones you can print out.  If you don’t and you want copies  in JEPG or Publisher, simply leave me a request in the comments!  Also, if you find any errors, feel I have left something out or feel I have misconstrued any of Mary's life events, please leave a comment to let me know.  As I explained, I created these cards during small snippets of time - often with kids on my lap - so it is likely there may be something that your careful eyes will catch that my distracted ones did not...

Now, how to use our new cards? 

Of course, first by printing two sets, contact-paper laminating them and, then, cutting them.

Then, for some favorite activities, try out some of the many matching games my kids love:  Concentration, the Slap Game, Go Fish, Who can Find the ~?, etc.  (If you need directions for any of these, just ask!)

Or, how about Card Bingo.  Basically, each child gets a set of 9 (or 16 if they get really good at the game) cards to lay out, face-up, Bingo-grid style.  The caller describes an event or shows a copy of a card.  If the kids have the corresponding card, they turn it over.  When a child has an entire row turned over, that child has Bingo!

And, by printing out an additional copy of each page to use as control cards, you can make a matching-skills file folder game with the cards.

Plus, you can use them as is for sequencing-and-story telling activities – use the cards with clothespins and a line, magnets and the fridge or simply a big area of floor space, to put the cards in order, time-line fashion, retelling the story of Mary’s life.

And, of course, the cards can be used for visual discrimination and picture study activities, including a recent favorite: “I Spy”.  (Need further explanation for these? Just ask!)

Plus, as we hope to do, you can use the cards as inspiration to help the kids each create books of their own artwork depicting Mary’s life.

As for us here at Jammies School, even if we only get to a small portion of these activities this year, we say, "No problem!"  The beauty of the cards (and what made them worth allocating so much time to making them) is that we can use them year after year, every Month of Mary, eventually even using them in the traditional Montessori 3-part cards way once the kids are reading a bit on their own.  With that in mind, I would love to hear about how you use the cards if you print them.  Your ideas are sure to provide inspiration for years of fun and learning to come.  Thank you and enjoy a blessed Month of Mary.