All Saints Day Art Project

Happy almost All Saints Day! In honor of this awesome Solemnity, my students made a neat art project that turned out better than I even expected.  Inspired by this piece of art that was floating around Pinterest, I wanted to reinforce to the concept that all the Saints that are named and unnamed are gathered around the throne of God.  I also wanted to remind them that we are all called to be saints.  We created a 3x3 panel of Saints, eight of which were favorites of the kids and one in the center that represented the artist.  Here are the steps that we followed:

1. Cut 4"x4" squares- one for each artist.

2. Draw the basic shape of a saint.  I only allowed the kids to draw a head, halo, and shoulders.  I wanted the simplicity of the shape to remind the kids of the universal call to holiness.  We didn't draw features for this same reason.  It lent to the anonymity and the idea that we all can be saints.

3. Turn the square over and use the side of the pencil to scribble over where the lines are on the other side.  This will allow the artist to create copies of the same saint over and over, similar to using carbon paper.

 4. Using a 12"x12" sheet of white paper, the kids split the paper into nine 4"x4" sections.

 5. They then traced the saint in each of the boxes.

***Update- want to skip that part? Here's a simplified version with four Saint outlines!

6.  Next, the kids had to decide on the eight Saints that they wanted to feature.  Many were able to come up with a list rather quickly, but for those that had trouble, I pulled out all of our Saint books.  This was also helpful for the next step, which was to choose one symbol to represent the Saint.

 Here is my list- it was a challenge to only choose eight and then to only choose one thing to represent them. 

7.  Then, using that list, the kids had to draw a single symbol and try and convey the identity of the saint through that.  In the middle square, they were to represent himself/herself with a symbol of something that they would like to be remembered for or something they would like to be the patron saint of.  We outlined this drawing with skinny black markers.

8.  And then we added color.  The kids were able to use color to continue the use of symbolism- blue for Mary, white for JPII, etc.

 Here are a few other examples:

I then hung them all together in the hallway, creating a gathering of saints, just like the myriads gathered around Christ's throne.

I added this title:
With all the Saints, we cry out...
Holy, Holy, Holy

Along with this Bible verse:
"And day and night they do not cease to say, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and is and is to come.'" ~Revelation 4:8

The kids were very creative, and it was fun to see them be able to pick out other Saints with so little information to go on. For example:

St. Juan Diego and his tilma with the image of Mary:

 St. Joan of Arc with her sword:

St. Joseph, with a house because he is the patron Saint of families and the Universal Church

St. Maximilian Kolbe's prison uniform and habit:

St. Patrick with his three-leaf clover:

Venerable Fulton Sheen, inside a TV :)

It was also interesting to see what the kids chose to represent themselves.  We had everything ranging from wanting to be remembered for generosity to being the patron saint of redheads.  It was a great activity all around, and a good way to learn, be creative, and celebrate All Saints Day.

Here are some more All Saints Day Activities you might like:

All Saints and All Souls Day Letters
Beatitudes and Modern Saints Card Game
All Saints Day Info Coloring Page