Celebrate St. Martin de Porres' Feast Day with an Easy Sensory-Smart Obstacle Course

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November 3 is St. Martin de Porres' Feast Day.  If you have never learned about this child-friendly saint, I encourage you to do so and to share his story with the children in your life.  

Over the years, my children and I have enjoyed listening to and reading these stories about St. Martin de Porres, such as:

 

 Glory Stories CD Vol 7: Saint Martin de Porres & Saint Clare

 

Saints and Friendly Beasts: Saint Martin de Porres and the Mice 

  Martin de Porres: The Rose in the Desert

 

The Pied Piper of Peru 

 

Saint Martin de Porres  

  MARTIN'S MICE - A Legend about St. Martin De Porres (which is so worth finding if you can!)

Some of the facts and legends we learned about in these stories inspired us to pick St. Martin de Porres as the focus for a Sensing the Saints class we coordinated and led last spring.


Sensory-Smart Fun!

At our kick off meeting, a favorite activity ended up being a sensory-smart obstacle course during which the children...

worked practical life skills by sweeping cotton...

got proprioceptive (tactile and olfactory!) input by rolling a lemon across the floor without using their hands or feet...

challenged their vestibular sense as they bent, stood and walked, carrying stuffed animals to "eat" around a steel bowl...

exercised further practical life skills, while working their proprioceptive sense, by carrying a laundry basket full of clothing and, then, received tactile input by wrapping a body part in a bandage...

and, finally, enjoyed some practical life fun by styling the hair of a doll before bringing a basket of food to feed the poor (dollies).

Please enjoy modeling your own children's obstacle course after the one we so enjoyed by using the free printable St. Martin de Porres ObstacleCourse Station Cards I am sharing today.  

Using them is easy, just choose which stations you want to do, set the materials up and lead children in fun!

What are some of your favorite ways to learn about and celebrate St. Martin de Porres?

 

If you leave a link to a faith formation idea or a reflection relevant to raising young children in the faith in a comment here or on our Training Happy Hearts Facebook page, I will pin it on the Training Happy Hearts: A Call to Faith Formation in Young Children Pinterest board.