4 Hands-On Activities for All Saints’ Day

The Solemnity of All Saints is November 1. The canonized saints create a diverse family portrait that includes men, women, and children from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. On the feast of All Saints, we also celebrate the many unknown saints who have not been canonized. These classroom activities can help bring to life this feast—and the Communion of Saints—for your students.

For your children and students, All Saints’ Day marks an ideal opportunity to dive deep into our own universal call to be saints. As Pope Francis said during the Angelus on the Solemnity of All Saints in 2013, “The saints remind us that the goal of our existence is not death, it is Paradise!” These activities for All Saints’ Day will remind all your students of their call to sanctity.

Saintly Pumpkins

The eve of All Saints’ Day is Halloween—“All Hallows Eve.” This is one of those activities for All Saint’ Day that brings together all the seasons. Use the pumpkin-decorating season to connect the holiday and the holy in your students’ imaginations.

The day before your pumpkin decorating: Assign each student a saint or ask each student to choose a saint from the list below. Instruct students to do basic research on their saints.

The day of the pumpkin decorating: Provide the pumpkins and various craft supplies, stickers, glue, paint, and brushes so students can decorate their pumpkins to resemble or symbolize their saints. Helpful supplies may include printed images for students to cut out, googly eyes, pipe cleaners, and yarn, as well as construction paper and fabric scraps. Invite students to decorate their pumpkins creatively to represent their saints. Display the finished pumpkins for the rest of the school.

A Saint’s Playlist

Continuing our activities for All Saints’ Day, this one encourages students to consider the details of a saint’s life.

The day of the activity: Assign a saint to each student or ask each student to choose a saint from the list. Instruct students to do basic research on their saints and then create a playlist of at least five songs that capture something special about their saint’s life. Have them consider the themes of their saint’s life, significant events, and quotes from their saints.

Alternative: Create your own playlist of songs that relate to several particular saints. Place students in small groups. Ask them to listen to the songs and then write down which saint they think corresponds to each song and why.

Saint Show-and-Tell

The day before your show-and-tell: Assign a saint to each student, or have each student choose a saint from the list. Instruct students to do basic research on their saints, and then bring a physical show-and-tell item that symbolizes their saint. For example, maybe it’s a flower for Thérèse of Lisieux or a soccer ball for Carlo Acutis. Remind them not to bring anything valuable.

The day of the show and tell: Sit the group in a circle and have students take turns explaining why they chose their show-and-tell objects and how these objects connect to their saints.

Communion of Saints “Tapestry”

Wrapping up our activities for All Saints’ Day, this one encourages students to reflect on the way God made them unique. The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles houses a beautiful collection of tapestries entitled Communion of Saints. The twenty-five tapestries depict 135 saints and blesseds of all ages, races, vocations, and occupations from the early Church to now. With them are twelve anonymous figures, including children, who represent the unknown saints in heaven. You can see images of the tapestries here.

Have your class create its own “tapestry,” using each student as a model for a different saint. Lay down a long piece of banner paper or butcher paper on the floor. (The length will depend on how many students you have.) Invite each student to draw himself or herself on the banner so that the entire class is depicted together. Instruct students to draw themselves as saints; for example, they can draw halos, prayer hands, or other symbols that indicate holiness. Be sure to emphasize that students should draw themselves as themselves; the universal call to holiness means we are called to be saints in our own unique, unrepeatable ways.

Saints for Students