Flower Petal Rosary

Monica from Equipping Catholic Families who is also the owner and creative force behind Arma Dei Shoppe, had asked me to review one of her Cathletics Craft Kits called Spiritual Bouquet of Prayer Petal Flowers.  This particular kit has 3 prayer crafts in 1.  You can use the provided templates to make either a Flower Petal Rosary, Rosary Garland or Divine Mercy Chaplet.  Once you purchase her kit, Monica will send you the file to download and print off of your own computer.  You can choose to print it on colored paper or white paper for coloring. I printed the templates first on white cardstock and then used them to make color copies.

I had a chance to use the Flower Petal Rosary over the weekend with my first graders.  I decided to informally test them on their prayers using this craft.  My class size is small so I had each student take 2 Hail Mary petals and sit in a circle.  I placed down the stem with the mysteries of the rosary and explained we would pray the first decade from the Joyful Mysteries.  My instructions were that as a group, we would pray the Our Father together and then each student would lead 2 Hail Mary's as we went around the circle. They could choose whether they wanted to recite it by memory or read it off of the petal.  As each student started their prayer, they placed the petal around the Our Father circle.  Then we would all say the Glory Be and Fatima Prayer together at the end.

Here are a few photos of our prayer circle:



By using this prayer craft which also felt like a game to the children, I could easily identify in a non-threatening way, if the children knew their prayers or not.  My conclusion~ we need more practice.  It's much easier to recite them in a group than to say it out loud on your own!

This kit can be used at home, school or religious education program at any time of the year.  Even though Divine Mercy Sunday is in April every year, I think I will teach the children that prayer early now that I have a fun and hands on way of doing it.  Thank you Monica for this opportunity to review your Spiritual Bouquet of Prayer Petal Flowers! 

Blessings,
Noreen