{this moment}
Papal Lap Book Unit Two: The Holy Fathers, Past and Present
As we continue The Primacy of Peter :: A Papal Unit Study and Lap Book, we moved on from our first unit about St. Peter, The First Pope last week and began our second unit based on all of the Holy Fathers, Past and Present, of the Roman Catholic Church! Beginning with Saint Peter the Apostle and first Pope, and ending with Pope Benedict XVI the 265th Pope, who is now the Pope Emeritus.
What a blessing it was to have high speed internet and watch (via EWTN online) the Holy Father, during his last hours as our Pope on February 28th, say goodbye, leave the Vatican as the bells rang during Lent, give his final blessing from the balcony at Castle Gondolfo, and then watch the doors close and the guards leave their post… I didn’t expect to cry, but I did, and Bud clapped along with all the crowds!
Read:
Family Read Aloud
- Lost in Peter’s Tomb (continued)
- The Man Who Never Died: The Life and Adventures of St. Peter the First Pope (continued)
- Break-in at the Basilica
- Read “The Bishop of Rome” (pages 112-113 My Catholic Faith)
- Joseph and Chico: The Life of Pope Benedict XVI as told by a Cat
- Max and Benedict: A Bird’s Eye View of the Pope’s Daily Life
- Lolek: The Boy Who Became John Paul II
- Be Saints: An Invitation from Pope Benedict XVI
- Friendship with Jesus: Pope Benedict XVI Talks to Children on Their First Holy Communion
- Pope John Paul II
- Picture Book of Saints
- Can You Find Saints? : Introducing Your Child to Holy Men and Women
Older Children
- Habemus Papam! Pope Benedict XVI
- Karol from Poland: The Life of John Paul II for Children
- Joseph from Germany
- St. Pius X: The Farm Boy Who Became Pope
Who is the Pope?
For this mini-book I read “The Bishop of Rome” (pages 112-113 My Catholic Faith) while the children colored and assembled their mini-books.
Some Special Popes
For this Tab Book the children studied five different popes beginning with St. Peter and ending with Pope Benedict, and looked through the complete List of Popes. We learned how St. Gregory the Great invented Gregorian Chant and called himself “Servant of the Servants of God.” We learned about St. Leo the XIII who wrote the St. Michael the Archangel Prayer. And we also learned about Pope Pius X, the Pope of the Eucharist.
In addition to the original blank book I created, I created a couple additional books for my younger children. The first has traceable text and a reduced size coloring page for them to color for each of the Popes! You can download my document here: Some Special Popes – Coloring/Quotes (Note: you will need to print the coloring pages at a reduced size to paste into the provided spaces. The coloring pages are from other websites and copyrighted.)
Here are the links to the various coloring pages we used for our mini-book:
- St. Peter and the Keys of the Kingdom
- St. Gregory the Great from Waltzing Matilda
- St. Michael the Archangel from Waltzing Matilda (prayer written by Pope Leo XIII)
- St. Pius X from Waltzing Matilda
- Pope Benedict XVI from Waltzing Matilda
We read some short stories about each of the Popes. For those who don’t have access to these saints stories at home, here are a few online sources:
- Pius X and another at Loyola Press
- Gregory the Great (Holy Spirit Interactive) and Loyola Press
- Pope Leo XIII and the Prayer to St. Michael
Amazing Pope Facts
The children also started working on their Amazing Facts mini-books. These were inspired by the short chapter in the ebook Who is the Pope? Here is also an interesting article with A Few Fun Facts about Popes in History. Some of the topics I suggested to the children included:
- Which Pope was the Pope the longest?
- Which Pope was the Pope the shortest?
- What happened in 1978? Answer: 1978: The Year of The Three Popes (I found this especially interesting since I was born in January of 1978!) 😉
- What is meant by the infallibility of the Catholic Church?
We also read the section from My Catholic Faith on Infallibility of the Church, which I think is Amazing!
Question: What is meant by the infallibility of the Catholic Church?
Answer: By the infallibility of the Catholic Church is meant that the Church, by the special assistance of the Holy Ghost, cannot err when it teaches or believes a doctrine of faith and morals.
Question: Has the Church in fact proved itself infallible?
Answer: It is a historical fact that the Catholic Church, from the twentieth century back to the first, has not once ceased to teach a doctrine on faith or morals previously held, and with the same interpretation; the Church has proved itself infallible.
My Catholic Faith goes on to explain:
- It is a historical fact that not one Pope, whatever he was in his private life, has ever taught error.
- True, some high rulers of the Church have gravely sinned. Nevertheless, enemies of the Church have exaggerated even the lack of impeccability. In the long line of Popes the vast majority led virtuous lives. Many of them are honored as Saints and martyrs. The enemies of the Church can bring charges against only five or six Popes: Most of the charges are calumnies or exaggerations. But even if the charges were true, they prove nothing against infallibility. (Of the Sovereign Pontiffs that have succeeded Peter, 84 are canonized Saints, of whom 32 were martyrs. However holy the Pope, he regularly goes to confession to a priest. No Pope ever considers himself above the laws of the Church and of God.)
- The Church cannot change its teachings on faith and morals. But it may restate the doctrines more clearly and completely. Year after year the Church proclaims the same unchanging doctrines. Her doctrines need no reform, for they are of Divine origin, the work of the Incarnate God. (No Pope or general Council in almost two thousand years has annulled or revoked a single decree of faith or morals enacted by a previous Pope or Council. This is history.)
Additional Activities:
Saints Who Were Popes
Research the Pope’s Coat of Arms
Color Blessed John Paul II’s Coat of Arms
Color Pope Benedict XVI’s Coat of Arms and info
Study “What is a Coat of Arms?” and look up our own family Coat of Arms.
Add Pope Benedict to Timeline
When we were discussing Pope Benedict XVI this past week, and that he was had been Pope for 8 years, Chiquita wanted to know if he was elected Pope before or after she was born. I remember very clearly the day Pope Benedict XVI was elected, and watching the white smoke (via a webcam) coming from the Sistine Chapel, but most of the rest of that year (pre-blogging days with 4 babies age 4 and under) is a blur…
Our Lent & Easter Book Baskets
Petook by Caryll Houselander
Amon’s Adventure: A Family Story for Easter
*The Easter Cave by Carol Wedeven
*The Jesus Garden: An Easter Legend by Antoinette Bosco
*Easter in the Garden by Pamela Kennedy
A Tale for Easter by Tasha Tudor
The Birds’ Gift: A Ukranian Easter Story by Eric A. Kimmel
*The Easter Swallows by Vicki Howie
The Story of the Easter Robin by Dandi Daley Mackall
*Easter by Fiona French (Be sure to get the Ignatius Press version and not the one “with words from the King James Bible)
Simon and the Easter Miracle: A Traditional Tale for Easter by Mary Joslin
The First Easter Bunny by Frrich Lewandowski
The Parable of the Lily by Liz Curtis Higgs
Happy Easter Day! by Wendy Watson
The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes by Marjorie Flack
Easter by Miriam Nerlove
*The Egg Tree by Katherine Milhous
The Golden Egg Book by Margaret Wise Brown
Easter Bunny’s Amazing Day by Carol Benoist & Cathy Gilmore
*Easter Eggs for Anya: A Ukranian Celebration of New Life in Christ by Virginia Kroll
*Rechenka’s Eggs by Patricia Polacco
On the Church Steps…
Papal Lap Book Unit One: St. Peter, The First Pope
Thank you all so very much for your enthusiastic support for my Papal Lap Book! You all are the best, and I am so touched by all of your kind comments and generosity to my family! Since I spent so much time on the computer over the weekend I’ve had a little catching up to do around our home, in addition to trying to keep up with our school week, so I am once again extremely behind with answering emails. If you are still waiting for a response from me, do know that I usually do receive all the emails that have been sent (on occasion some disappear to my spam folder, but I am making an effort to check it frequently) and read and appreciate each and every one. However, even though I try, it is often impossible for me to respond to them all. So thank you again, and to those who have asked questions I will either email you soon, or try and make a point of trying to blog about those topics sometime in the future. 🙂
Anyways, back to the Lap Book! That brief study-guide/outline I shared in my last post (to go along with the Lap Book) was created very late Sunday night (or rather early Monday morning) and was thrown together rather quickly since I wanted to finish up the post to share with you all. I broke it into 5 “Units” (my original document read days, due to lack of sleep) based on the order in which I thought I would have my children complete the mini-books.
Since last Friday, the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter, we have been working on our first unit: St. Peter, The First Pope. The boys were gone most of Friday, but the girls had started working on their St. Peter’s Basilica Pop-up Books that day, and we read St. Peter’s Story. We continued this theme over the past few days.
(Remember, there is no “right” way to do this… Unit studies can be as simple or elaborate as you choose to make them, and just because something works well for my family, doesn’t mean it will for yours! Sometimes we put together a Lap Book in an afternoon, other times we spend weeks. My guess is we will spend the next two weeks completing this unit study and Lap Book, adding in additional reading, crafts and activities.)
Read:
Family Read Aloud:
Younger Children:
- St. Peter the Apostle by Father Lovasik
- St. Peter’s Story
- Peter Receives the Primacy from The New Catholic Picture Bible
Older Children:
- The First Christians: The Acts of Apostles for Children
- The Primacy of Peter from My Catholic Faith (link to online version)
- Catechism of the Catholic Church 551-553 (my document)
Other Reading:
- St. Peter page A Holy Card Prayer Book
- I think I’m going to send the little kids on a scavenger hunt to see how many of our Saint Books in which they can find Saint Peter! 😉
Explore:
- “Delivery of the Keys” Fresco by Pietro Perugino in 1482 – Sistine Chapel, Rome, Italy
- Virtual Tour of St. Peter’s Basilica (Vatican Website – Loved this!)
- St. Peter’s Basilica Interactive Website
- Of course my children had to find it on Google Earth too! 🙂
Copywork:
- Copy Matthew 16: 18-19 on to “The Primacy of Peter. (I added a traceable version for younger children, including my little ones.)
NOTE: I have created a second collection on Scribd where I will upload any additional documents I create to go along with our Papal Unit Study. I just added this traceable quote for younger children.
Begin Creating Lap Book Mini-Books:
- Write a Paragraph about St. Peter, for Some Special Popes, based on one of the reading assignments. (I’m creating a fill-in the blank for Chiquita and a reduced sized coloring picture for the two youngest. Twinkle Toes wrote a paragraph based on a picture book, Rascal used the reading selection from My Catholic Faith, and I assigned Captain three paragraphs from the CCC (You can download my document here.).
- Create St. Peter’s Basilica Pop-Up Book and add cover picture.
- Write a Paragraph about St. Peter’s Basilica.
by Chiquita
Additional Activities:
- We made St. Peter’s Keys…
- Enjoyed “The Barque of Peter” Banana Boats with a Fishers of Men Snack for lunch one afternoon…
- Played St. Peter Fishers of Men and checked to see who could still master the Key Puzzle Brain Teaser our 2012 “O Key” Antiphon gift…
- Colored St. Peter and the Keys during some of our read aloud time…
- And added St. Peter, The First Pope to the History Through the Ages Record of Time. (FYI: Yes, this is a rather expensive timeline, but it is awesome! Each of our school age children have their own treasured copy that they will continue to add to throughout their education. It will be such a fun keepsake for them. I’ve posted more about these here and here.)
The Primacy of Peter: A Papal Unit Study & Lap Book
The Primacy of Peter: A Papal Unit Study & Lap Book
UPDATE: YOU CAN FIND 2025 EDITION HERE
Could you tell from my last post how excited I am about this Lap Book/Unit Study? As I was printing the pages for my daughters’ Lent Lap Books last week I started thinking how nice it would be to create a Papal Lap Book right now, during this special historic time in our Church. I mentioned it to my husband and quickly dismissed the idea since a quick google search didn’t reveal much in the way of Lap Book resources and it would “take way too much work.” However, it seemed that perhaps the Holy Spirit was prompting me to create this, since the very next day – the feast of the Chair of St. Peter – I had an unusual amount of “free time.” I started with the cover and then the mini-books just started falling into place. I ended up spending most of the weekend finishing my documents and compiling a sample to share with you all. I am really looking forward to completing this unit study with my children, teaching them even more about our beautiful Catholic faith, the Primacy of Peter, and the Papal office!
Lap Book Supplies
Here is a list of the supplies I used for creating our Papal Lap Book:
- Yellow File Folder – I usually purchase file folders in assorted colors by the case made by Smead or Staples so I always have them on hand. However, here is another link to a smaller pack – they are two tone, but it does include purple for your Lenten Lap Book! 😉
- White Card Stock and Paper – 4 pieces per lap book, 2 to attach to the book, 1 on which to print the flag cover, and 1 more on which to print the St. Peter’s Basilica Pop-Up.
- Scissors
- Glue Stick
- Tape
- Red Ribbon – This is used to tie shut the “Who is the Pope?” mini-book.
- Optional: Red Paper and/or Card Stock (or color of choice) – We used red paper to accent “What Happens When A Pope Dies?”, and red card stock for our “Amazing Pope Facts,” “Selceting a New Pope,” and “Some Special Popes.”
Download All Papal Lap Book Documents
(5/7/2025 – Link above should now take you to Dropbox to download the files, instead of the previous Scribd.)
UPDATE: YOU CAN FIND 2025 EDITION HERE
Donate through Paypal Here or Venmo Here
Note: Thank you to everyone who has generously offered to pay me for the use of my documents and the time spent creating this Lap Book! My husband has been encouraging me to sell the Lap Book printables, but I know that there are many other families, like our own, struggling to keep up each month… I wanted to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to use this with their families if they would like to do so. Let’s just say it is a gift of service and form of almsgiving for me this Lent, especially since we are not able to give very much financially at the moment. However, if some of you still feel inspired to perhaps “buy me a coffee” or send “some alms” our direction, to help cover blog hosting fees, I’ve included a paypal link below. I would be more than grateful and will put the funds towards filling our children’s Easter Baskets this year! And everyone else, please just offer a prayer for my family! Thank you, and may God reward you!
Here is a summary of the Documents Included with links to each individual document:
*All documents are printed on white paper, except where noted.
“Vatican City Flag Cover Page“(print on card stock) … updated link to Dropbox.
“Hierarchy of the Catholic Church“ Flap Book with Definitions … updated link to Dropbox.
“Novena for Pope Benedict XVI“ Layer Book … updated link to Dropbox.
“The Primacy of Peter” Copywork … updated link to Dropbox.
“Where does the Pope live?” Trifold Book … updated link to Dropbox.
“Who is the Pope?“ Accordion Book … updated link to Dropbox.
“What happens when a pope dies?” Simple Fold Book … updated link to Dropbox.
“Vocabulary“ Flap Book with Definitions … updated link to Dropbox.
“Amazing Pope Facts“ Four Simple Fold Books … updated link to Dropbox.
“St. Peter’s Basilica“ Pop-up Book (print on card stock) … updated link to Dropbox.
“St. Peter Pop-Up Cover Picture“ … updated link to Dropbox.
“Where Does the Conclave take Place?“ Shutterflap Book … updated link to Dropbox.
“What are the chief powers of the Pope?” Trifold Book … updated link to Dropbox.
“Prayers for our Holy Father“ Pocket … updated link to Dropbox.
“Prayers for our Holy Father“ Prayer Cards … updated link to Dropbox.
“Selecting A New Pope“ Tab Book … updated link to Dropbox.
“Some Special Popes“ Tab Book … updated link to Dropbox.
Here is also my brief study-guide/outline for completing this Unit Study & Lap Book. … updated link to Dropbox.
Pictures and Updates from our Unit Study:
Papal Lap Book Unit One: St. Peter, The First Pope
Papal Lap Book Unit Two: The Holy Fathers, Past and Present
Papal Lap Book Unit Three: The Hierarchy of the Catholic Church
7 Quick Takes :: Habemus Papam!
Additional Documents to go along with our Unit Study can be found here.
(5/7/2025 – Find them all at Dropbox here.)
I will continue adding them as (and if) I create new ones:
“The Primacy of Peter” Copywork – Traceable version for younger children … updated link to Dropbox.
“Novena to the Holy Spirit for the Conclave” Layer Book … updated link to Dropbox.
“Some Special Popes“ Tab Book with room for coloring pages and traceable quotes … updated link to Dropbox.
“Some Special Popes“ Tab Book with Fill-in-the-Blanks … updated link to Dropbox.
“Adopt A Cardinal“ My younger children will be using this instead of the Novena Layer Book … updated link to Dropbox.
“What happens when a pope dies?“ Simple Fold Book with Fill-in-the-Blanks … updated link to Dropbox.
“Selecting A New Pope” Tab Book with Fill-in-the-Blanks … updated link to Dropbox.
“Symbols and Garments” Layer Book … updated link to Dropbox.
“Important Roles During the Conclave” Flap Book … updated link to Dropbox.
“Habemus Papam Franciscum” Tab Book … updated link to Dropbox.
“Who is Pope Francis?” Octagon Accordion Book … updated link to Dropbox.
Cover
For those that are new to creating Lap Books, you can watch a brief tutorial here on how to fold the file folder for a Basic Lap Book.
Since I wanted the cover of my book to look like the flag of Vatican City I then glued a piece of White Card Stock to the outside of the right yellow flap.
I then cut out the Vatican City Flag (shaped like the Country) and glued the yellow side to the left yellow flap as shown in the pictures.
Since the White Card Stock is slightly shorter in length than the file folder I then trimmed the edges, so it lined up nicely.
I also added a second piece of White Card Stock to the Center of the Lap Book to create an Extension Page. To do so tape both sides of the white card stock to the top center of the yellow file folder.
 |
| View of Inside of Folder – Completely Opened |
 |
| View of Outside of Folder – Completely Opened |
Left Flap:
- “Hierarchy of the Catholic Church” Flap Book with Definitions
Left Side of White Cover Flap:
- “Novena for Pope Benedict XVI” Layer Book (This is an optional mini book for those who are praying the novena.)
On the Left you see the Hierarchy of the Catholic Church Flap Book with Definitions taken from “My Catholic Faith.” (Online link to The Hierarchy.) You can use the definitions I have provided, pasting them in or having the child copy them, or you can have them research and write their own.
White Center Extension:
- “The Primacy of Peter” Copywork
- “Where does the Pope live?” Trifold Book *Note: I originally intended this to be on the next page/swapped with “What Are the Chief Powers of the Pope” but mixed them up when assembling. It doesn’t really matter, but I do think it goes better with the books on the other page.
- “Who is the Pope?” Accordion Book
- “What happens when a pope dies?” Simple Fold Book
Right Page/Flap:
- “Vocabulary” Flap Book with Definitions (see above picture)
- “Amazing Pope Facts” Four Simple Fold Books, attached to red card stock
To assemble this book I cut out the white basic fold mini-book and glued it to a piece of red copy paper. I then glued the cover picture (which I went back and changed from red and black to just black and white, as you can see). The children will need to research this topic and write a paragraph in their own words explaining what happens when a Pope dies. (Did you know in the past they would strike the Pope on the head with a hammer three times, to make sure he was dead?!)
Back of White Center Extension:
- “St. Peter’s Basilica” Pop-up Book (printed on cardstock) with “St. Peter Pop-Up Cover Picture”
- “Where Does the Conclave take Place?” Shutterflap Book
- “What are the chief powers of the Pope?” Trifold Book *Note: I originally intended this to be on the previous page/swapped with “Where does the Pope live” but mixed them up when assembling. It doesn’t really matter, but I do think it goes better with the books on the other page.
- “Prayers for our Holy Father” Pocket
- “Prayers for our Holy Father” Prayer Cards
Center of File Folder, behind white extension flap:
- “Selecting A New Pope” Tab Book
- “Some Special Popes” Tab Book
I chose some (of many!) special popes for my children to research and write about for their Lap Books. They will each be asked to write a paragraph about St. Peter the First Pope, a paragraph about Pope Gregory the Great and the invention of Gregorian Chant, a paragraph about Pope Leo the XIII and how he wrote the prayer to St. Michael the Archangel (or they can copy the St. Michael prayer in Latin since they are working on memorizing it this year), a paragraph about Pope Pius X and how he lowered the age for children to receive their First Holy Communion, and either a summary about one of our many books about Pope Benedict (or a favorite quote or memory).
Back Cover
I’m still trying to decide what we will attach to the back cover. At this point I am leaning towards a coloring picture or an illustration, though it might be a perfect spot to put something about our new Papa once he is announced!
In the meantime here are a couple coloring page options and I will continue adding more as I find them:
- Jesus gives Peter the Keys
- Coloring page of Pope Benedict XVI
- Pope Benedict XVI Coloring Page from Waltzing Matilda
- Vatican City Flag Coloring Page
- Vatican Flag Coloring Page
Full View of Opened Lap Book
This is just one example of how this Lap Book could be assembled. You can attach more Extensions, or create a Double Lap Book if you need more space, or for younger children you might just create the Basic Lap Book and include some of your favorite mini books. It’s up to you!
Our Books and Other Resources
St. Peter, The First Pope
- The Man Who Never Died: The Life and Adventures of St. Peter the First Pope
- The First Christians: The Acts of Apostles for Children
- St. Peter the Apostle
- St. Peter’s Story
Holy Fathers: Past and Present
- Joseph from Germany
- Joseph and Chico: The Life of Pope Benedict XVI as told by a Cat
- Max and Benedict: A Bird’s Eye View of the Pope’s Daily Life
- Be Saints: An Invitation from Pope Benedict XVI
- Friendship with Jesus: Pope Benedict XVI Talks to Children on Their First Holy Communion
- Habemus Papam! Pope Benedict XVI
- Lolek: The Boy Who Became John Paul II
- Karol from Poland: The Life of John Paul II for Children
- Pope John Paul II
- St. Pius X: The Farm Boy Who Became Pope
- Picture Book of Saints
- Can You Find Saints? : Introducing Your Child to Holy Men and Women
On the Papacy
- Who is the Pope? A Very Short Book for Children (e-book)
- We Have a Pope!
- Chapter on Apostolic Authority: Peter and the Papacy from Beginning Apologetics
- Various chapters from My Catholic Faith and The Catechism of the Catholic Church
Note: My husband grew up reading My Catholic Faith and introduced me to this book. I love it! If you don’t already have it order a copy! You can find My Catholic Faith Online here! We will be reading the chapters on The Primacy of Peter, The Bishop of Rome, The Hierarchy, Powers of the Pope, and The Papal Elections (scroll to bottom of page).
Updated to add: Our Holy Father the Pope: The Papacy from St. Peter to the Present
Fun Fiction Chapter Books
Websites and Other Links
- The Vatican Website
- Vatican Insider Interactive
- Vatican City State
- Saint Peter’s Basilica
- Smoke Signals (Rite, Ritual, and Tradition)
- Pflaum Publishing (Pope Visit)
- Pflaum Publishing (Electing a Pope)
- How A New Pope is Chosen (USCCB pdf)
- How the Church Chooses a Pope (You Tube)
- How Do They Choose the Pope (You Tube – Fun for the little ones!)
- Resources on the Papacy (excellent lesson plans for K-12)
- Papal Conclave Lesson Plans at The Religion Teacher
- Matthew 16 and the papal conclave for kids
Additional Craft and Game Ideas
- Conclave Smoke Craft
- Black and White Smoke Science Experiment
- Pope Activities for Catholic Kids
- Electing a Pope File Folder Game
Coloring Pages
- Jesus gives Peter the Keys
- Coloring page of Pope Benedict XVI
- Pope Benedict XVI Coloring Page from Waltzing Matilda
- Pope Benedict XVI Coloring Page from Happy Saints
- Vatican City Flag Coloring Page
- Vatican Flag Coloring Page
- Pope Francis Coloring Page from Paper Dali
- Pope Francis (image) from Happy Saints
- Pope Francis from Cool Catholic Coloring Pages
Recipes
- Papal Flag Idea for the Kids (Pretzel Keys)
- Holy Father and Pope Benedict, John Paul II, Gregory the Great and more recipes over at Catholic Cuisine! I wonder what sort of recipes we will be adding for our next Pope! 🙂
And don’t forget to Adopt a Cardinal!
All of my children asked to choose their own. We printed out pictures of each of their adopted cardinals and they plan to pray for them each day, that the Holy Spirit will guide them during the Conclave, and then add them to their Lap Books following the election!
If you have any questions feel free to ask them in the comment box and I will do my best to answer them as I have the time. If any of you do end up using the Lap Book with your children and post pictures, I’d love to see them!
We most humbly entreat Thee, O Lord, that Thy boundless goodness may grant as bishop to the most holy Roman Church one who shall ever be both pleasing to Thee, by his loving zeal in our regard, and, by his beneficent rule, deeply revered by Thy people to the glory of Thy name.
7 Quick Takes on the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter
It’s a Friday during Lent and we gave up sweets, which means we didn’t make any special treats for today’s Feast of the Chair of St. Peter. However, that doesn’t mean we haven’t done anything special for this feast day, during this very significant time for our Holy Mother Church as we wonder who will be sitting in the “Chair of St. Peter” soon. So, I thought today would be the perfect day to begin our Papal Unit Study!
I’m so excited with how it’s turning out! Isn’t the cover perfect? I made a sample for the kids, and will let them each create their own. I used a yellow file folder and a piece of white card stock to create the base, and then attached the Vatican flag in the shape of the country! (Did you know that Vatican City is really a country?) I glued just the yellow of the flag to the yellow file folder, overlapping the rest onto the white. I haven’t figured out how many additional flaps it will need, since I am still creating the mini-books, so I’ll just add those later.
I’m even more excited about the St. Peter’s Basilica Pop-up Book! (It was inspired by the Erie Canal Mini-Book from the boys Early 19th Century Lap Book, and I was so thrilled to figure out how to make it work for St. Peter’s!) You can see my rough draft in the picture above along with the final printed version. The kids will be able to color the basilica and the background (the sky) before assembling it and adding their description.
I’ve displayed some of our “Pope” themed picture books which we will be reading over the next few weeks beginning with St. Peter’s Story and Saint Peter the Apostle today. I’ll be sure to include a list of all our books when I post the Lap Book (if anyone is interested in using it too?) but in the meantime I have them listed in the sidebar. In addition to reading lots of great books, I’m drawing from My Catholic Faith and some online websites (like this one – thanks, Charlotte, for the link!)
We broke out these fun books too! My boys loved reading them and I thought they (or at least the first one) might make a fun read aloud over the next couple weeks. You can find them here: Lost in Peter’s Tomb, Break-In at the Basilica, Curse of the Coins, and Secrets of Siena. My boys originally received these in their Easter baskets, if I remember correctly…
— 7 —
{pretty, happy, funny, real} :: Lenten Days
The Early 19th Century Unit Study and Lap Book
The next topic in our series of six Unit Studies for American History (plus the Presidential Election Unit Study and we also plan to end with an additional unit on World War II) is based on The Early 19th Century. I seem to be on a roll this week blogging about some of our (somewhat) recent history and geography studies, so I thought now would be as good a time as any to add this post too! 🙂 The boys started this Unit last spring and finished it up in the Fall (while working on their Election Study linked above) before moving on to The Civil War which they are currently completing.
Here is the link to the CD that contains all the printable mini-books that we used for our Lap Book!
Core Text
- From Sea to Shining Sea (Chapters 10-15)
- From Sea to Shining Sea Worksheets
- American Slave, American Hero: York of the Lewis And Clark Expedition
- American Tall Tales
– Jim Weiss Audio
- Bound for Oregon
- Brave Buffalo Fighter
- By the Great Horn Spoon!
- Daniel Boone: Young Hunter and Tracker (Childhood of Famous Americans)
- Davy Crockett: Young Rifleman (Childhood of Famous Americans Series)
- How We Crossed The West: The Adventures Of Lewis And Clark
- If You Lived With The Sioux Indians
- If You Traveled West In A Covered Wagon
- Lewis and Clark: Explorers of the American West
- On to Oregon!
(or watch Seven Alone
)
- Riding the Pony Express
- Sacagawea: American Pathfinder (Childhood Of Famous Americans)
Dover Coloring books:
- Daniel Boone Coloring Book (Dover Coloring Books)
- The Lewis and Clark Expedition Coloring Book
- The Story of the Alamo (Dover Pictorial Archives)
- The Story of the California Gold Rush Coloring Book
Timeline Entries:
- 1734-1820 Daniel Boone
- 1774-1821 St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
- c. 1787-1812 Sacagawea
- 1786-1836 Davy Crockett
- 1788 Second Constitutional Convention
- 1791 Bill of Rights
- 1792-1799 The White House (Lap Book)
- 1804-1806 Lewis and Clark Expedition
- 1812 War of 1812 – at War with Britain (Lap Book)
- 1817-1825 Erie Canal (Lap Book)
- 1832-1888 Louisa May Alcott
- 1840s Oregon Trail (Field Trip)
- Feb 23-Mar 6, 1836 The Alamo
- 1848-1849 The Gold Rush
- 1846-1917 Buffalo Bill
- 1847-1931 Thomas Edison (Lap Book)
- 1847-1922 Alexander Graham Bell (Lap Book)
- 1860-1861 The Pony Express
I asked the boys to choose a few of the events from the list above to add to their History Through the Ages Record of Time timeline book during this unit. The listings in bold are the ones that they choose to include this year. Here are a few pictures:
- Morse Code Machine and Alphabet Printable
- Build a Fort out of Lincoln Logs
- Build the White House: LEGO Architecture White House (21006)
(along with Election Study)
It looks like the boys are still in the process of creating their overlays, using transparency paper, showing “the Growth of the Nation.” I think I need to add this project to one of their upcoming weekly checklists to finish up!
I’m hoping that they can finally finish up their Civil War study by the end of this month, and then move on to the Industrial Revolution through the Great Depression while we are still working on the 3rd Quarter of our school year which will end in April. At least we aren’t too far off track in our History Studies, despite how difficult it can be to squeeze in these “extra” projects!
State-by-State Baking :: Illinois Deep-Dish Pizza
it’s called the windy city,
and also for the cardinal
singing clear and pretty.”
Yesterday afternoon the girls finished up their study of Illinois, the 21st state, by making Deep-Dish Pizza! Before choosing a recipe to bake, from their copy of The United States Cookbook, the girls read L is for Lincoln: An Illinois Alphabet and then completed their Notebook Pages:
- 2 teaspoons butter or shortening
- 1 package active dry yeast
- 1 cup lukewarm water
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 1/2 cups all-pourpose flour (we used “better for bread flour”)
- 1 15 1/2-ounce jar pizza sauce
- 6 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese
- 4 ounces sliced pepperoni
Spread the pizza sauce on the dough, sprinkle with shredded mozzarella cheese, and then top with pepperoni slices.
One pizza wasn’t nearly enough for our family, so I helped the girls make two more! Yummm!!
And, yes, I did eat some of this delicious homemade pizza… In fact, I didn’t regret it for a second, at least not until I stepped on the scale this morning. :/ Still, this recipe is a keeper! I think I am going to have the girls make it again, next time without the pepperoni and topped with lots of veggies instead for one of our upcoming meatless Lenten meals!
0 Comments