Last March Rascal made a 3-D Cut & Color St. Joseph Altar and started making a Lap Book in honor of St. Joseph.
That same week my Grandfather passed away and we ended up spending March 19th, the feast of St. Joseph, in the car traveling out of state to attend his funeral. Needless to say, Rascal’s Lap Book never was completed. A year later (I can’t believe it has been a year!) I finally pulled it back off the shelf so he could finish it up in time for this year’s feast!
I’ve included links (and uploaded any of our own documents) in case anyone would like to use them as well.
Books Read
Other Resources:
- From An Angel in a Dream: The Story of St. Joseph
- Favorite Prayers to St. Joseph
- The Virtual St. Joseph Altar
- SQPN
Cover
For the cover Rascal colored this picture of St. Joseph. (Charlotte also has a lovely coloring page and you can find even more options here.)
Inside First Folder
For the left flap of the first folder we pasted the Litany of St. Joseph. (Here is my document to download.)
In the middle, a the top, we included a 2 Flap Flap Book for the two “Feasts of St. Joseph.” (You can download my file here – the font is different since it was originally made on my other computer. Rascal completed this part of the lapbook last year, otherwise I probably would have had him write it in himself.)
- On the outside of the first flap we pasted placed a picture of St. Joseph holding the baby Jesus and on the inside it says “March 19th ~ St. Joseph, Spouse of the Virgin Mary”.
- On the outside of the second flap we pasted a picture of St. Joseph working, and on the inside it says “May 1st ~ St. Joseph the Worker”.
Next we printed out a “Petal Pentagon” and wrote five things that St. Joseph is the patron of on the five different “petals,” and “St. Joseph, Patron of…” in the center. Although St. Joseph is patron of many things, we choose the ones he is most known for: 1) Universal Church; 2) Workers; 3) Families; 4) Fathers; and 5) the Dying / Holy Death. Rascal added illustrations as well.
We then added a 2 Flap Book to list the two main symbols used by The Church for St. Joseph. On the outside we wrote “Symbols of St. Joseph.” On the inside flaps we wrote “The Lily” on one, and “Carpenter’s Square” on the other. In the very middle we have an image of St. Joseph holding both. (Here is my document to download.)
At the bottom of the page Rascal wanted to write his Blue Knights prayer to St. Joseph:
“Dear St. Joseph, who took such good care of the baby Jesus and His Holy Mother Mary be our protector too. Guide us on a path that is safe and sure and be with us all the way to heaven. Amen.”
For the right side flap of the first folder, we made a Nine Layer, Layered Book for the Nine Day Novena to St. Joseph. We pasted this image on the cover and titled it “Nine Day Novena”. We then placed the nine days of prayers, in order, on each of the nine layers and added “Day One, Day Two, etc…” on the bottom of each layer. (And here is this document. You’ll need to make the Layer Book yourself, though you can use the 7-Layer Book at this link to get you started.)
Inside Second Folder
On the left flap we included the Blessing of the St. Joseph Altar.
In the center we included a picture of our mini St. Joseph Altar, which Rascal made using this pdf. I printed out this image (at 150%) to frame our picture.
Beneath our picture of our homemade St. Joesph Altar, we printed out and added the history of the Saint Joseph Altar from Viva San Giuseppe by St. Joseph Guild.
On the right flap we placed a couple pockets for our St. Joseph Memory Match Playing Cards.
Back Cover
Rascal colored a beautiful stained glass coloring page (pdf here) and glued it to a piece of cardstock. We glued the side and bottom edges of the cardstock and attached it to the back cover creating a pocket.
We used the pocket to store the St. Joseph Paper Doll we downloaded, colored, and cut out, from Paper Dali.
Additional Activities
Since Rascal still has a little room on the outside of the two end flaps, we are planning on using a few of the ideas from Domestic-Church’s Exploring Saint Joseph. Our favorites were:
- Interview your Dad about his childhood (Prepare a list of questions in advance and use a cassette tape recorder to record the interview. This could be a real treasure in the coming years. — They provide a list of suggestions.)
- Complete the Sentence (Have the children complete that following sentence in as many ways as they can. Saint Joseph…. Some suggestions: was a hard worker, was a virtuous man, taught Jesus, was a loving father.)
- Saint Joseph and Dad(Discuss with your siblings how Saint Joseph and Dad are alike. How are they not alike? Is Dad getting more and more like Saint Joseph?)
Participate in the 1st Annual St. Joseph Altar Blog Fest. You can find all the information here.
Bake! Lots of recipes for the feast of St. Joseph can be found at Catholic Cuisine.
Oh, St. Joseph, whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt before the throne of God. I place in you all my interests and desires. Oh, St. Joseph, do assist me by your powerful intercession, and obtain for me from your devine Son all spiritual blessings, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So that, having engaged here below your heavenly power, I may offer my thanksgiving and homage to the most loving of Fathers.
Oh, St. Joseph, I never weary of contemplating you, and Jesus asleep in your arms; I dare not approach while He reposes near your heart. Press Him in my name and kiss His fine head for me and ask him to return the Kiss when I draw my dying breath.
St. Joseph, Patron of departing souls – Pray for me.
I just wanted to thank you for all the wonderful and inspiring ideas you provide. You are such a generous person to share so many resources with us all. You are enriching the lives of many Catholic families! God Bless you, and all your efforts!
If it weren't for all your recent wonderful creations, I wouldn't have anything to post on the St. Joseph Altar blog!!! These lapbooks are wonderful. We just did our very first lapbooks for Lent. I just might have to make these too. Thanks for sharing!
This lapbook is simply WONDERFUL!!! 🙂
Wonderful resources, Jessica, as always!
Dear Jessica,
Great idea as usual.
Hopefully we will get to do it this year.
Thanks for sharing this. I appreciate the time it takes to put it together and then share it. I love your generosity.
God Bless
As always, thank you for your generous, sharing spirit! It is such a blessing to visit your blog!!!
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I look forward to making this with my kids. You are such an inspiration.
Hi Jessica! Beautiful, as ever… I have an embarrassingly basic question: How do you "bind" your two-folder lap-book? Are the closed folders simply loose on top of one another and tucked in a regular folder? Thanks!
Thank you everyone!
J.C. ~ To make a double-width folder you first make two single folders, then glue the outside of the right flap of the first folder to the outside of the left flap of the second folder. Does that make sense?
You can actually click back to this post and watch a video tutorial, in case you need to see things like I do! 🙂
Thanks, Jessica! I got it now!
Thank you. :O}