Angel Craft for Archangels or Guardian Angels

This week, I prepared a lesson on the Feast of the Archangels for my Catholic Moms Group.  We meet once a week, each taking turns on preparing an activity for our children to do.  This one turned out great, meaning that children of all ages enjoyed learning about the archangels and our guardian angels; they especially liked decorating an angel, particularly with glitter glue.

After I signed up to lead this lesson, I spent some time surfing the web looking for a craft suitable for ages 1 – 8 that we could do outside and that had more appeal than the swings or slides (we meet at a park so the kids can also get some exercise before the lesson to help them focus a little longer).  I found many wonderful projects, but eventually settled on this one by Noreen at Crafty Journal because I saw opportunities for the children to be creative, to use their hands in different ways, and to see how glitter can mimic the nature of an angel.  Also, I could do the cutting and attaching of the different parts at home rather quickly.

As usual, I made some changes.  Noreen spray painted her angel, but I choose not to spray paint so the children could color it as they wished.  I also cut the ovals for the angel faces from a manila folder to help them stand out from the white body and wings (using construction paper or colored card stock would provide a wider variety of face tones).  To add shine, we used squeezable glitter glue in neon colors, but of course regular glitter would work just as well (or even glitter crayons).

As I discussed the lesson, I showed the children a coloring page of the archangels from Coloring Saints (choose from one of their categories to find the page).  After learning about the different tasks assigned to Saints Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and the Guardian angels, we prayed the Guardian Angel prayer together and proceeded to decorate the angels.  I also explained the celestial nature of angels, which is the reason for their iridescent (glittery) appearance.  The children really applied themselves to this project, and even waited patiently for their turn with the different colors of glitter.  

I think angel crafts would be fun to do any time of year, particularly for lessons involving stories of angels visiting people, such as The Annunciation or The Nativity.  You read about the angel we crafted earlier this year at this post.  Below you will find links to more great angel activity ideas.

Noreen’s blog Crafty Journal includes several lists of angel crafts; the one we made is highlighted on the Christmas Angel Crafts page.

I found the link to Noreen at Crafolic’s September Feast Days page.  Near the bottom of the post, you will find many more angel crafts.

At Training Happy Hearts, I found links to readings for adults about the Archangels that helped me plan what to say during the lesson.  You will find them at the bottom of this Feast Day post.

Linked with Saints Cele-linky, Extraordinary Ideas for Ordinary Time, Catholic Bloggers Network, Faith Formation in Young Children, My Favorite Things, Making It Count, Tactile Tuesday, Saints and Scripture Sundays, For the Kids Friday and Weekly Kids Co-op.