October is the month of the Rosary, and here are 5 ideas to help you celebrate in your class and school community.
- Do a color and pray rosary. Our school has a “peace partner” program that pairs up older and younger students to sit together at mass and do various activities together throughout the year. For the past few years, this is an activity that I have used for a 7th and 3rd grade activity. Normally before we start we do a mini lesson on the mysteries we will be praying that day, and have the students write on the page the intentions they will offer the rosary for. If students don’t have a chance to finish, it is a great activity to take home and finish with the family, thus getting even more people to pray the rosary. The interactive portion of coloring also keeps students active and engaged. This is the version I have used with my class.
- Have a Marian procession. October 7th is the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, and you could have students do a Marian procession around the block of your school, or even through the hallways themselves. This is a beautiful tradition in many countries, but not one that we do so much in the United States. I haven’t tried this idea yet, but I really want to this year. I think it would be really cool to have students make the carrier or litter for Mary and decorate it with her titles, symbols etc.
- Have students learn the mysteries of the rosary and create their own. This is a project I have done in the context of John Paul II and the mysteries of light. Students learn about how all the mysteries of the rosary were developed, then look through the scriptures for other stories of Jesus and Mary that they would like included in the rosary. They then write a mini meditation for each of the mysteries they have created.
- Pray a rosary for life. October is also respect life month, so praying the rosary for life is a total win-win. The USCCB website has a lot of great resources for this that you can access here. You could use this as a closing or opening activity for class discussions about life issues such as abortion, the death penalty, euthanasia etc. It could really set the tone for respectful and prayerful discussion.
- Create a paper chain rosary. Cut strips of paper to represent the beads (and spacers) of a rosary, and each day write intentions on the slips of paper for one decade. If you say one decade each week, stapling the chain as you go, by the end of the week you will have a complete rosary to display in your classroom as a reminder to your students, both of the month and also of your class intentions. This would easily adapt to a school wide rosary- give each class some of the papers and number them for easy assembly. Class representatives could bring up the slips as the school prays the rosary and the class leading could staple the rosary together.
Stay tuned throughout the month for more rosary ideas- including scripts for school rosaries and a guest blogger!
