Mini Smash Prayer Journals

Back in this post, I shared about the super fun Smash Prayer Journals that I created with my Youth Group girls.  I think that these are a great project, but they are time consuming, and need to be made by someone with a longer attention span than your typical grade schooler.

Here is an adapted form of the project more suitable for a 2nd-6th grader.

Start with a smaller notebook- less pages, less space to fill.  I picked up one of the small (4"x6") memo books that are super cheap this time of year.

 Decorate the cover...

 Make a title page...

 ...and just like in the original post, smash in prayer cards, notes, photos, etc.

I created some journaling topics for Smash Journals- you can get the printable here.  To make the topics fit better in the mini journal, I printed the sheets at half scale- you can do that in the print menu in Adobe.  Under the Page Handling section, select Page Scaling-Multiple pages per sheet, and then change the pages per sheet to 2.  Now both pages will print on the same sheet of paper at half the size.

I also wanted to use this book as a place to record the prayers that my students need to memorize.  The Catholic Diocese of Peoria has a great set of curriculum guidelines which help teachers and catechist know the most important aspects of the faith that need to be covered at each grade level.  They also include vocabulary and prayers.  You can find the short curriculum guidelines by grade level here or the full set including the appendix of prayers and vocab here.

I printed out the appendix of prayers and cut out the ones that my 5th graders should already know and the ones that we will be learning this year...plus a couple others for good measure.  I stuck those in the front of the Smash Journal...

...and added a little decoration.  Now the text of those prayers will be handy.

While making this prayer journal wasn't quite as much fun as the first one, it still turned out well, and I think that my students this fall will love them!