Enjoy Saint Andrew S.K.I.L.L. T.I.M.E. + (including a FREE St. Andrew Christmas Novena Printable)

Tomorrow is St. Andrew's feast day, so in the morning, I will be giving my children the choice of making new beaded rebus bookmarks using our own FREE printable (since we've misplaced our old ones)or using the cute, little printable shared freely over at Life, Love & Sacred Art. 

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We'll also be reading the St. Andrew portion of one or more of the following books (many of which are currently available for a penny used on Amazon).

The Twelve Apostles

 

 Lives and Legends of the Saints

 The Picture Book of Saints

The Story Library of the Saints

Jesus Loved Them

Then, we'll see what unfolds as we learn and play during the S.K.I.L.L. T.I.M.E. + portion of our day and beyond.

As inspiration for the day, I have been revisiting what we did last year and thought you might be inspired by it, too.  

Among our regular life and learning activities, we included these St. Andrew-inspired ones:
 
S - Spell and Write Words

Even though my children are all at different levels with their spelling, they enjoy doing spelling challenges together, so one of the activities we did was to "write" "Saint Andrew" with our printed alphabet letters on the floor and, then, to see how many words we could each create by rearranging the letters.  Within 12 minutes (for the twelve apostles), we each recorded as many words as we could and, then, compared them.

K - Keep Reading to Yourself

My oldest, an independent reader, read some of the books listed above to himself.  My younger children read some simple Bible story books and fish-themed books with help.

I - Illustrate and Write

I gave the children the choice of creating their own Learn to Draw Saints Saint Andrew or coloring free printables offered at Catholic Playground.  Then, they glued images onto cardstock as the beginning of St. Andrew scrapbook pages that they fleshed out with brief narrations and whatever decoration they wanted to add.

L - Listen to Reading

We read from the books listed at the top of this post.

L -Learn and Play with One Another Using Language Arts

 

We passed around a figurine representing St. Andrew from our Galilee Boat Playset and shared facts we knew about him.  Then, we passed the figurine around again and shared how we, too, might be "fishers of men".

T - Think, Read and Write About Math

The children created story problems related to St. Andrew and challenged each other with them.

I - Investigate and Problem Solve with Math

Since St. Andrew was a fisherman, we used tangram pieces from our Tangram Race Game to make various fish shapes.

I  also had the children take all the fish and sea life puzzle pieces we have from old wooden puzzles and work together to find different ways to sort and classify them.

M - Master Math Skills Together

We then each took 12 puzzle pieces (to represent the 12 apostles) and, together, created an addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division problem a quickly as we could.


We also played Go Fish.

E - Exercise Math Skills on My Own

The children spent 12 minutes individually creating as any equations as they could that equaled 12 using our puzzle pieces as manipulatives.

+ Extra Learning and Exploration
 

• P.E.:  We went to a local pool and brought bathtub fish to help us practice our swimming while being "fishermen" like St. Andrew.

• Mercy and Virtue:  After finding our Works of Mercy Wise men, my children decided to add extra bread and fish to our grocery list so they could donate it to our local pantry.

• Geography:  We located the area St. Andrew was from on a map.

• Sensory:  We borrowed an idea from The Fantastic Five so the children could become "fishers of men".

• Art:  We did a picture study using images from The Twelve Apostles and Lives and Legends of Saints. 

• Montessori-Inspired:  We did not revisit our Montessori-inspired mini-fish unit of old last year, but those with littles might want to check it out for themed ideas that could tie into this day for the fisherman become fisher of men.

 As always, I pray that the sharing I offer here blesses your family's life and learning.  

I'd also love to hear about your favorite Saint Andrew resources, prayers, and ideas. Links to descriptions of your devotions, studies and celebrations are most welcome.

 
  Saint Andrew, pray for us!