Easter Greetings for Good Housekeepers from Mission Fathers

      St. Diego, the founder of the first California mission in the South, should be the patron saint of all good housekeepers. The tale runs that he did so spiritualize the menial routine tasks of the Franciscan kitchen where he served that the angels came and took over his work.

      Murillo's painting, sometimes known as "La Cuisine des Anges," is the most inspiring mural decoration for the kitchen that we know of. Noble angels with meekly folded wings do draw and carry water and prepare the meat. Demure sweet girl angels gaily use mortar and pestle for the grinding of the food. And tiny cherubs, sitting on the floor, as they should pick over vegetables and fruit with joyfulness. and the mighty ones, the directors and father superiors, they witness with uplifted hands and abashed hearts, "The Miracle of St. Diego."

      This picture hangs in the Cloister Walk of the Glenwood Mission Inn, at Riverside, California, and there is besides a picture of the saint giving bread to the Indians, and a statue of him with "a spoon in hand" --the symbol of his office.

      A bread giver, one who goes with "a spoon in the hand," and love and humility in the heart--surely in these days when the world is so hungry in body, mind and spirit, the good St. Diego and his miracle has a revivifying Easter message for all of us, and especially for those whose privilege it is to nourish others, whether it be by providing daily bread for one's own family or for those across the world; or by feeding another's mind with a new thought about world old problems; or raising high the torch of one's own family or for those across the world; or by feeding another's mind with a new thought about world old problems; or raising high the torch of one's spirit to light another's path. 

      We commend to you this St. Diego, the patron of the Institute from now on! Only those can hope to have angels in their kitchens who have a true ideal of service in their own hearts! by Anne L. Pierce

Hang the butterflies and bees

At one time I had entire sets of these sweet little glass bees and butterflies. Now there are only two remaining. I purchased them originally from a garden nursery and then wired them for my Easter trees.

Craft an Egg Carton Cross

Above is a unique 3-D, memorial, cross craft for Sunday School students, grades 3, 4, and 5.

      I glued the egg carton parts to a sturdy piece of cardboard and left my construction to dry overnight. Then, I used a toothpick to gently poke many holes into the mache carton cups so that I would be able to insert the silk flowers later. Give students a wide variety of discarded old magazines and recycled paper to tear into small pieces. Glue these randomly to the background of the cross picture to assimilate foliage. Then, dismantle a spray or two of silk flowers and poke these buds into the holes on the cross. All the while adding a generous application of tacky white glue to the ends of each flower before pushing it into each hole. Leave this project to dry over night. In the end, each student will have a unique, three dimensional cross to decorate their home with for Easter Sunday. 

• "Raise Up The Cross!" coloring page
• Color Easter Lilies for Lent

About Egg Cartons

      An egg carton or egg box (the British English term) is a carton designed for carrying and transporting whole eggs.

A filled egg carton.

      These cartons have a dimpled form in which each dimple accommodates an individual egg and isolates that egg from eggs in adjacent dimples. This structure helps protect eggs against stresses exerted during transportation and storage by absorbing a lot of shock and limiting the incidents of fracture to the fragile egg shells. An egg carton can be made of various materials, including foamed plastics such as Styrofoam, clear plastic or may be manufactured from recycled paper and molded pulp by means of a mechanized papier-mâché process.

      Before its invention, eggs were carried in egg baskets. The egg carton was invented in 1911 by newspaper editor Joseph Coyle of Smithers, British Columbia, to solve a dispute between a local farmer and hotel owner in Aldermere, near present day Telkwa, in British Columbia, over the farmer's eggs often being delivered broken.

      The egg carton "box" was further developed by H.G.Bennett (Riseley UK) during the 1950s and became the norm for egg transportation during this period.

      Unlike many products, trademarks and advertisements for egg brands are usually printed on the food container itself rather than on a separate container (as with breakfast cereals). This single-layer, distinctive packaging distinguishes egg cartons from different producers or quality on the retail shelf.

Easter Bunny & Egg Hunts at Church:

 Right way to do it?

A hatching chick picture

      Students will need crayons or magic markers to color their eggs and chick for this picture project. They will also need scissors, white school glue, a print of the Easter chick template below and one sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 inch construction paper for their background.

This project also calls for the use of brass, paper fasteners.

      Some students may insist upon the construction paper being green or light blue because their thinking in art is more concrete or literal than their peers. Or, it may be that all of your students will choose these two colors depending upon their perspective. Do not insist, however, that students use green for grass or blue for the sky, if they choose not to. Children differ greatly when it comes to the interpretation of "how" art should look. Some students are more abstract in their thinking than others and there is certainly nothing wrong with this.

      The idea of  "Easter grass" is also loosely interpreted by manufacturers of the product. All types of Easter grass, be it plastic or shredded paper, is sold in the market place, in every color imaginable and you may wish to supply this for added dimension in your picture; in the pictured example, mine  is drawn.

      Eggs are also painted with an endless variety of colors, designs, and pictures. Some of your public school children may even include religious imagery on their eggs.

      Do not dictate or prescribe their choices. Remember that freedom of speech is only limited for teachers in public schools because they are paid by so many people, from all walks of life, who have many different beliefs. These limitations attributed to teachers are not the same, however, for the children that they teach. Therefore, it is neurotic to overreact to a student's choices concerning how they desire to represent the Easter holidays. If some of your school children include religious imagery for this project, you needn't make such a fuss. They have a right to their cultural ethnicity, opinions and creative endeavors. If you expect differences, then you will not need to overreact to unusual choices. I have left the eggs blank so that the children constructing and coloring the project may choose to decorate their own eggs as they wish.
      The black dot on the template is where you will need to poke a hole and insert a brass, paper fastener. Make sure that, when your students are ready to paste their eggs to the background sheet of paper, they do not paste above the small black line noted on the template. The upper part of the egg needs to be left unpasted in order to accommodate for the spinning chick!

       Students will need to print the above template out, cut and transfer the design onto heavy cardboard. By these means, students will learn about the making of templates and how basic patterns are designed. Teachers may choose to group students at tables so that one set of templates may be made and shared between three or four students. I never hesitate to add this step into an art project because students learn so much information about "how" to process through the designing of things. However, I would eliminate the step altogether under some conditions.  

Easter hatching chic template.

Teacher's sample of the hatching chic Easter egg craft.

       In this teacher's sample I should note that the egg design on the right is original to it's former publication. Easter egg crafts from 100 years ago are far more elaborate graphically speaking than they appear today. This is the result, I believe, of artists immediate association/familiarity with Ukrainian immigrants at that time. Today, most folks immigrating from that area of the world to the United States are Muslim. Wouldn't it be interesting to do research on graphic history with your kids? Perhaps that should be my next big art history lesson?

"Handy" Little Butterflies

       These little butterflies made with magic markers and construction paper sure come in handy when you need a quick way to decorate your classroom for spring! Little ones can also learn the parts of a butterfly while crafting their butterflies.

Students can learn about patterns and colors with this assignment. First they will need to fold a
white sheet of paper in half twice and fill in each of the four spaces with patterns of shapes and
colors of particular selection. After they have completed this step, students will then need to
trace around their hands four times within each square of their designed paper. Cut these hands
out to form the wings of your butterflies. I stapled their wings to some simple shapes of a
butterfly's thorax cut from black construction paper. You can also add a few
chenille stems for antennae.

This little kindergartener is so proud of her creation. What seems to be old-fashioned to us is
 always entertaining to a five year old. It is one of the many blessings of being new to the world.
Every little innocent thing holds some fascination for the very young.

Many of these butterflies did not make it to the bulletin board. My kindergarteners loved this
butterfly craft so much, they tried to sneak their paper butterflies home! I saw them, however,
stuffing their new friends into their backpacks before I could collect all of my bulletin board trim!

I stapled the butterflies all over my display areas after students finished this art project. What an
easy fun way to decorate bulletin boards!