Do you want to engage your students in the lives of the Catholic saints? Teach them about virtue through the example of the saints? Make learning hands on and fun? Give students a creative outlet for notetaking? I've got you covered with my newest product, The Catholic Saint Sketchbook (a Coloring Book for Big Kids.)
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I have loved and used our Catholic Saint Coloring Book so much. I've used it with my first grade religious education class and with my own girls during homeschool, for saint feast days, in our Mass bag. You name it we've used it. And I know so many other teachers who have done the same. As my kids have gotten older, it has been on my heart for awhile to make something similar for big kids.
With my Catholic Saint Coloring Book, I've loved the simplicity of it. It is a great introduction to the saints and all the information is right there for them. However, I knew that upper elementary students and even middle school students needed something more advanced. I wanted them to take their own learning and add it to a coloring page rather than me just giving them all the information to read.
Introducing, my Catholic Saint Sketchbook (the Catholic Coloring Book for Big Kids). This is designed to be a place where students can write, draw, doodle and sketch what they learn about the saints in a fun and creative way. 
Each page is dedicated to one saint and is completely unique from the other pages. I've included different boxes, circles and arrows to be used for notetaking, but also included a lot of white space that can be used too. On each page, I've included a cartoon drawing of the saint designed to be more appealing to older students than the style of saints in my other coloring book. Along with the picture and the name, I've included a few facts to get the students started such as feast day, country they are from, or the virtue they most exhibit.
How to use the Catholic Saint Sketchbook
There are many different ways to use this saint sketchbook. When I was creating it, I envisioned a teacher introducing a saint of the week or even saint of the day. They would start the students out with some basic facts (no worries, I included a cheat sheet for you in the product.) Then students could research the saint further using books, websites, videos or listening to a podcast as a class. I give some suggestions in the product of where to get started with each of those. You can also find some of my favorite saint books in my Amazon Storefront under Catholic Resources.
As students listen and learn, they add their learning to their sketchbook in a way that makes the learning come alive for them. Maybe it is drawing pictures. When my 6th grade daughter was testing this out for me, her creative brain tended to gravitate toward pictures to go with some of the words on the page. Children could also write words, draw simple sketches or just jot down basic facts.
Now, that was my vision when I created it, but obviously the possibilities are endless for other ways to use this. Here are a few other ways you could use the Catholic Saint Sketchbook.
- Instead of a saint of the day, you could use this during a saint study or for All Saints' Day
- This could be a note taking page as classmates give a speech and present about a specific saint
- You could research and take notes as a class (especially for younger elementary students that want to try this out)
- Leave this as an activity for a substitute teacher - play a video and have students take notes
- Use it after school for a Saints Club or a Virtues Club
- Have fast finishers work on it when their work is complete
- Start the morning with this - sort of like a bell ringer - where students know to come in and start researching the saints.
What is included in the Saint Sketchbook
Included in the saint sketchbook:
- Directions for use with ideas for how to use this and where to get saint info from
- Cover page
- Virtues reference page with short definitions for MANY virtues that are exhibited by the saints
- 61 saint pages for taking notes
- A separate file that includes a chart with information about each saint (aka the teacher cheat sheet but you could copy this file for your students)
- Name
- Feast Day
- Country of birth
- Virtue (so many would fit for each saint, but I've included just one per saint)
- Patronage
- Basic facts
- Quotes (only for a handful of the saints)
Now you might be wondering, what are the 61 saints that are included?? We have a good mix of popular saints and some more obscure saints.
- Agnes
- Aidan
- Aloysius Gonzaga
- Andrew the Apostle
- Anne
- Anthony of Padua
- Augustine of Canterbury
- Benedict
- Blaise
- Brigid
- Catherine of Siena
- Cecilia
- Charles Borromeo
- Clare of Assisi
- Damien of Molokai
- Dominic
- Dominic Savio
- Edward
- Elizabeth Ann Seton
- Elizabeth of Hungary
- Frances Xavier Cabrini
- Francis de Sales
- Francis of Assisi
- Francis Xavier
- Gabriel the Archangel
- Gianna Beretta Molla
- Hugh of Grenoble
- Ignatius of Loyola
- Isaac Jogues
- James the Greater
- Joan of Arc
- John Bosco
- John of God
- Josemaría Escrivá
- Joseph of Cupertino
- Joseph the Worker
- Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary
- Josephine Bakhita
- Juan Diego
- Kateri Tekakwitha
- Katharine Drexel
- Lucy
- Luke the Evangelist
- Mark the Evangelist
- Maximilian Kolbe
- Nicholas
- Oscar Romero
- Padre Pio
- Patrick
- Peter
- Quirinus of Rome
- Rose of Lima
- Scholastica
- Stephen
- Teresa of Calcutta
- Thomas Aquinas
- Ursula
- Valentine
- Vincent de Paul
- William of Vercelli
- Zélie Martin
How to Assemble the Saint Sketchbook
You have several options for how to assemble these books. I would recommend preparing them ahead of time so you don't have to keep pages and try to organize and store them.
Print the saints you want to use and then you could bind them with a comb binder or a spiral binder. This is the spiral coil binder machine I use at home to bind resources like this. I like that all the pages stay together and you can easily flip the pages.
You could also use a three hole punch and put the pages in a 3 ring binder.
If you don't want to bind until the end of the year, just hand your students individual pages, collect once they are finished and then assemble them into a book when they are all done.
Buy the Catholic Saint Sketchbook Now
Are you ready to make learning about the Catholic saints in your classroom more fun, colorful and creative? Grab the Catholic Saint Sketchbook now!
BUY THE CATHOLIC SAINT SKETCHBOOK HERE
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