It's the Feast of the Guardian Angels today! I've been looking forward to this day because I found an angel craft activity that's perfect for my plans this Christmas. I got the idea of making angels using paper plates from this site.
The boys wanted to read books as soon as they woke up so I read to them the creation story and Noah's ark board books that we have. These books were still aligned with our letter for the week -- the letter A. I introduced Adam to them. We also reviewed the story of Noah and the ark that he built. I used the story of creation's ending where there was an angel sent to guard the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden as jumping point to the feast that we are celebrating today.
The boys and I had breakfast first. Then, they said their morning prayers and the prayer to their guardian angels. It's one of the prayers that they have memorized at an early age.
They had some free/pretend play for around an hour. After that, I explained to them the craft activity that we will do.
It was a good thing that we still had left over paper plates from last year's birthday parties. I was also delighted to discover that we had silver-colored paper plates. They're perfect for the theme and color I have in mind for our Christmas decors this year!
Let me share how we made our angels step by step.
1. We folded our paper plates into half and cut them.
2. We formed half of the plate into cones. We stapled it first near the helm. Then, reinforced towards the upper portion of the cone with a scotch tape.
3. We traced patterns on the other half of the plate. The second half of the plate was used for the wings, head and sleeves of the angel.
4. We cut the patterns. I helped my eldest finish cutting all the pieces. We wanted to make 20 angels because we will hang them in our Christmas tree eventually.
5. After cutting the patterns, it time to assemble them. I first formed the wings and positioned the sleeves. Then, I asked my eldest son to help me staple them. We then used a tape to stick them to the cone or body of the angel.
6. Once the wings and sleeves were in place, we taped the head on top of the cone.
7. Then, we cut a piece of aluminum foil and rolled it thinly to form the halo. We used a tape to stick it to the back of the head of the angel.
I plan to add cut outs of hands and musical instruments eventually to these angels since we know that angels sing and worship God in heaven and because our family loves music. I plan to use gold-colored paper for the musical instruments.
I love this craft because it gave my sons an opportunity to practice a number of skills. There was folding, tracing, cutting, sticking, sorting and counting. It also taught them to be patient because there were a number of steps to be done before we can finish an angel.
On top of that, I got to teach through this craft to recycle and reuse old materials at home and turn them into something useful and beautiful. Instead of buying expensive angel decors, we can now decorate our Christmas tree with our very own work.
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| Our choir of angels. |
Aside from making this angel craft, we also read the book Amelia's angel again. We used one of the angels that we made to tell the story.
Then, we went to Mass in the evening. My 5-year-old son sang in the choir. There were no other choir servants so he sang solo.
After the Mass, my boys' pretend play was still the Mass. My eldest son was alternating from being the priest and pianist while my younger son and our helper were the choir.
After the Mass, my boys' pretend play was still the Mass. My eldest son was alternating from being the priest and pianist while my younger son and our helper were the choir.
How did you celebrate the Feast of the Guardian Angels today? Feel free to share them in the comments.
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