peter | The Files of Mrs. E

Celebrating Pope Francis

So with Pope Francis’ visit, it’s been all Pope all the time over here at our house. I have been so inspired watching his visit on TV–the joy, the enthusiasm, the challenge to live the life we are called to live. And this has been a wonderful opportunity for our kiddos. This is why we homeschool–to give them an education imbibed with our religious faith.

Watching the canonization of Junipero Serra

The Pope may be leaving but you can still enjoy some Pope Francis fun.

Matthew 16:18 craft

This is the Bible verse the girls have been memorizing this past week (“You are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church”) and this is the craft we did with it. We actually first did this when Pope Benedict stepped down and Pope Francis was elected, but we used a real rock. This time I used glittery fun foam for the rock so that we could attach it to our Bible board.

You can download Peter and the church here: On this rock craft template

And here it is using a real rock…

Flat Francis

We participated in Flat Francis and have been taking him with us this past week so that he can explore a little more of the U.S. than just D.C., New York, and Philadelphia. You can get yours here: http://flatfrancis.org/

Pope Francis puppets

We were inspired by Catholic Icing’s puppet of Pope Francis. I love her saint puppet set! The girls really wanted their puppets to look like our Flat Francis and I think they were adorable.

Mitre Hats

The girls decorated these mitre hats while watching one of the services. Clearly they don’t go for the humble look. 🙂 They are super simple to make. Just cut out the mitre shape from white paper and then add a band so you can wear them.

But they loved wearing them! This is one of my favorite pictures–Mia helping make dinner while wearing her hat.

Pope Coloring Sheets

We also enjoyed pope coloring sheets from Drawn 2 Be Creative which you can find here. She has Pope Francis and the Vatican crest.

On This Rock

We did this craft when learning about St. Peter, the Bible verse Matthew 16:18, and the founding of our church.

And so I say to you, you are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.

For ours we used the smaller version of the church. After coloring and cutting them, we attached Peter and the church to the rock with a hot glue gun and then added the pipe cleaner cross to the church. To make Peter stand up, we folded his feet out a bit.

On this rock craft template

This Bible verse and craft went well with our rock unit we have been doing. We’ve also been talking about who the Pope is, especially with Benedict XVI resigning.

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