Flower Petal Rosary Review

Monica from Arma Dei Shoppe and Equipping Catholic Families had asked me to review one of her Cathletics Kits called Spiritual Bouquet of Prayer Petal Flowers.  I blogged about it over at Community of Catholic Bloggers today but I think the word needs to get out... so I'm blogging about it here too.  

Monica is famous for creating engaging and hands-on activities for children to learn about their Catholic Faith.  This particular prayer craft has 3 prayers/activities in it.  You can use it to teach the rosary, make a rosary garland or use the Divine Mercy Chaplet.  When you purchase the kit, Monica will send it to you by mail or as a PDF printable version.  I received it as a PDF file and printed the templates out on white cardstock and then made color copies of the Flower Petal Rosary.  I cut out all of the pieces to make our flower and then brought it to use with my first graders in religious education.

I opted to use it as a game format to informally test my students on their prayers.  I'm well aware that it's easy to recite prayers in a group but a different matter when saying it aloud on your own.  I thought this was the perfect way to do this in a non-threatening way.  Turns out, it worked beautifully for my assessment.  Here is how I used it:

• Informed students that we were going to pray one decade of the rosary together yet each student would have an opportunity to lead 2 Hail Mary's.  (My class size is very small!)
• Instructed students that they could either recite the prayer by memory or use the petal as prompting.  Each petal has the Hail Mary printed on it.
• Students sat in a circle and I placed the stem with the mysteries down in the center, explaining the first decade of the Joyful Mysteries~ The Annunciation.
• I then placed the circle with the Our Father on it and we recited it together.
• Then one by one, each student placed their petal around the circle and led a Hail Mary Prayer.
• As a group, we prayed the Glory Be and Fatima Prayer together.

Here are a few photos of our prayer circle:

This Cathletics kit is a fun method to teach children the basic prayers in our Catholic Faith.  It can be used again and again or it can be made into a wall display for a perpetual reminder.  Perfect for at home use or in the classroom.  Anyone who wants to teach a child how to pray the rosary would love this!  Check out Monica's blog HERE or her shoppe HERE.

Blessings,

Noreen