Preview: Help your students pray and connect home and school with Prayer Buddies. The free printables give kids ideas for how to pray to God while Prayer Buddy is visiting them at home. #catholic #prayer #catholickids
Awhile back a follower reached out to me and asked if I could adjust my popular Prayer Bear resources to match the lamb prayer buddy that she wanted to use with her class. It was so crazy that she asked, because over the past few years since we started using Prayer Bear, I considered doing this very thing.
One of my daughters was given this lamb for a present when she was younger and I often thought that it would be the perfect stuffed animal to send home with my first graders who are still learning to memorize prayers like Hail Mary, Our Father and Glory Be. In creating this for her, I fell down a rabbit hole on the Wee Believers website when I realized how many different Prayer Buddies they had that recited a variety of prayers and songs - both Catholic and Christian.
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What is a Prayer Buddy?
If you aren't familiar with Prayer Bear, let me give you a little rundown of what it is and how I use it. Basically Prayer Bear (and now Prayer Buddy) is a way for students to practice praying at home. He travels in a backpack to each student's home, hopefully serving as a visual reminder to students and families to pray.Along with the stuffed animal, I also include a binder with printables for the students to fill out all about their time spent with Prayer Bear and what prayers they worked on. I also include some prayer resources and tools for them.
Since I teach in the after school program at my Catholic church, I see my students less than a classroom teacher would, so each student gets one or two turns (depending on how many students are in our class that year.)
My hope is that using Prayer Bear and now Prayer Buddies will make a home/school connection and also help strengthen the prayer lives for students and their families.
What Prayer Buddies can you use?
Really you can use any stuffed animal as a Prayer Buddy. Something that your students can practice praying with when there isn't an adult or family member around to help them is all you need. I like the Prayer Buddies from Wee Believers because not only are they cute, but they also recite some of the prayers we expect our students to memorize so it is a more helpful tool than just a stuffed animal.For the full collection, check out Wee Believers site under the Lil' Prayer Buddies section. You can also find some of them on Amazon. Some of the Lil' Buddies say specifically Catholic prayers such as the Lamb who says Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be.
Setting Up Prayer Buddy
No matter what Prayer Buddy you pick for your class, I've designed a cover with The Adventures of Prayer Buddy on it. Just print out the cover that works for you and slide that into a 1" binder. This year we ran into a problem where because our program is now monthly, we had more students than weeks that we met. In this case (and depending on your budget), you can use multiple Prayer Buddies.
So what else do you put in the Prayer Buddy binder? I like to include the "Ideas for Praying with Prayer Buddy" sheet to show them different ways to pray. This list is specifically Catholic and includes items such as pray the Rosary or read about a saint. I usually include this and any other prayer resources that I find useful in the front pocket of the binder.
I also use dividers and make a section for each student (just change out the labels each year and reuse the dividers.) Behind each tab I include the pages pictured above - My Week with Prayer Buddy, Our Prayers for the Week and My Prayers for the Week. This gives them some guidance and accountability for their prayers.
When the Prayer Buddy is returned, I have the child who hosted Prayer Buddy share these sheets and what kind of praying they did. I try to point out when students tried something new or different so other students see a variety of ways to pray.
Last year, I decided to add a little more to our Prayer Bear bag. My hope was that it would give students more tools and a variety of ways to pray and learn their memorized prayers. You could add these ideas to your Prayer Buddy bags as well.
I included:
- The binder (download your free printables below)
- Prayer Puzzles
- Catholic Prayer Books:
- Pope Francis Family Devotional
- Give Me Grace
- The Catholic Children's Prayer Book
- Our Father
- Hail Mary
- The Berenstain Bears Say Their Prayers
- A checklist to help them remember to put everything back in the bag
Hopefully adding Prayer Buddy to your classroom will create enthusiasm and excitement as students anticipate their turn to take Prayer Buddy home and pray as a family.
Download Your Free Prayer Buddy Printables
Are you ready to start using Prayer Buddies in your classroom? Grab my free covers, recording sheets and prayer ideas. Simply enter your name and email address in the form below. The printables will be emailed directly to you. Trouble with your freebie? Check out our FAQs here.