Lessons on the Saints
Teaching Children About the Lives of Our Catholic Role Models
Games and activities to teach CCD students about the saints.
Saint Clotilde is the patron saint of adopted children. Saint Genesius looks out for clowns. Saint Sebastian offers protection to athletes. Saint Roch is the patron saint of dogs.
Some are surprising, a few strike us as funny, and many are inspiring. The lives of the saints and the roles they play are rich with lessons on life.
An extensive list of saints of the Catholic Church is all you need to keep young people interested, fascinated and learning.
The church’s saints are a personal side to our faith. We teach children to look to the lives of the saints to be our role models. How can we be more like Jesus? By being more like the saints. After all, they have been in human situations, some of them much like we live in today. They were once ordinary people who did extraordinary things, proving that we, too, can do great things for God.
Use the saints throughout the year in your CCD lessons. All Saints Day and All Souls Day are particularly good times to focus on the saints.
Saint Games
Lots of religious education games can be adapted for a saints theme. Games like What Saint Am I? are fun for all ages and can be put together quickly and easily for a classroom time filler.
Play a Saint Concentration Game with your class. Gather up as many saint cards as you can – two of each kind. On the back of each card (not the side with the saint’s picture) glue a paper backing that is the same for each card (much like a deck of playing cards has a common backing). Cover both sides with clear contact paper and trim with scissors. Mix up the paired cards and lay them out on a table in rows and columns. Play a game of concentration, in which students take turns turning over two cards to try to find a match. If they find matching cards, they remove them from the table. If they don’t find a match, the cards get turned back over and players try to remember what cards were where.
Play a Saint Matching Game by listing saint names in the left column and some things the saints were known for in a column on the right. Have students draw lines matching the saint with the fact.
Saint trivia games can be played several different ways. One that is a great team game for older children is How Much Can You Remember? Print out two pages of saint trivia and give the sheets to each student. Tell them they have 60 seconds to read the two pages and try to remember as much as they can. At the end of the 60 seconds, collect all the sheets and divide the class into two teams. Ask questions about the trivia sheets and see which team can remember the most saintly trivia.
Saint Role Playing
Give your students a week to choose a saint, learn something about him or her, and play the role of that saint for a presentation to the class. Tell the students when they’re researching their saint to look for symbols or clothing that they can use in their portrayal. Some saints are often shown holding something that they’re associated with. When they take on the role of their saint, they can dress in the period or hold a symbol.
Saints in Your School
Lead a class discussion about what makes a living saint? Ask your students who in their school does things that make them a saint-in-the-making? What kind of behaviors can we do today that mimic the saints of old?
Coloring sheets for many different saints can be found on the Coloring Saints Web page.
