Enjoy a Float a Boat Design Challenge for St. Theodore Guerin's Feast Day {Free Printable!}

Happy Feast of the Guardian Angels! 

We seem to be enjoying a string of feast day celebrations with living room floor picnics, having celebrated:

St. Michael and the Archangels' Feast Day...

St. Jerome's Feast Day...

St. Therese's Feast Day...

and the Guardian Angels Feast Day...

Tomorrow, we'll be changing things up, though, and celebrating with a design challenge instead of a meal or snack as we learn about a new-to-my-children saint:  St. Theodore Guerin.

I am excited to teach my children about this saint and to try out a design challenge that I have created to tie into her feast day as a test for a Problem Solving with the Saints course I will be teaching at a local co-op. 

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The plan for the first lesson of the co-op follows.

Communion of Saints Chat
 
Chat about the Communion of Saints while coloring a printable from Catholic Inspired. 

Story and Scrapbook Page

I meant to order Saint Theodora and Her Promise to God, but failed to do so in time, so I will simply tell the children some basics about St. Theodore Guerin's life gleaned from Franciscan Media's Saint of the Day explanation and other internet sources.

As I tell St. Theodore Guerin's story, the children can make a scrapbook page about her, noting that:

• her Feast Day is October 3.
• she came from France and lived America.
• she is Patroness of Archdiocese of Indianapolis.

Of course, they can add other details about her, too, and include a photo which I will print out from Wikipedia.


Design Challenge

Finally, we will recall how St. Theodore Guerin was willing to take risks and get things done to follow God's will. Part of doing so required her to leave her home country to come to America by boat.  Thus, our challenge will be to build a boat that can hold six “sisters” (pennies)  for five or more seconds without leaking, sinking, or tipping over.

FREE Printable

My plan for tomorrow differs a bit from the one above that I will use at co-op, because I want the Design Challenge to do double-duty: to help my children remember St. Theodore Geurin's willingness to take risks and work hard as well as to serve as an activity for this year's Destination Imagination Club.

Because Destination Imagination is not a faith-based initiative, I have created a challenge sheet that does not contain the St. Theodore Guerin tie-in in the main printable portion, but, rather, only mentions it on the first page of the printable.  Of course, I will discuss the tie-in with my children after club.


Before club, we will (I hope!) complete all of the other portions of the plan above, thus learning about a new saint!

If you'd like to try the design challenge, too, get your FREE FLOAT YOUR BOAT INSTANT CHALLENGE PRINTABLE here!
 
I'd love to hear how it goes for you.  Please share a comment here or even show me a picture on our Facebook page. 

Looking Ahead to St. Francis's Feast Day on October 4

This week will also bring the feast day of St. Francis on the 4th.  If you'd like ideas for that, be sure to click through the following images for more ideas, including a problem solving challenge.

Sts. Theodore Guerin and St. Francis, pray for us!