To prepare for their Confirmation, young people are required to pick a saint’s name similar to the name they were given at Baptism. Often parishes require the Confirmandi to do some research on their saints ahead of time so that they can pick a saint name that is meaningful to them.
The problem is a lot of the students cram in that Confirmation saint research project at the very last minute. What if we had the students prepare for Confirmation by doing this saint research project ahead of time?
That’s what Lisa Stobb from Dallas, Texas decided to do. She assigned a “Summertime Saint Survey” for the students to work on during the summer.
Here’s Lisa:
Every year my 8th graders need to choose their Confirmation saint and so at the beginning of the year we spend about two weeks researching saints. Most of the time, students have only a little bit of an idea of who they want to choose and they still need to know more. So I have them fill in a Saints Survey to push them to research more about their saints.
Well, this year I think I got a little wise! I will have my incoming 6th, 7th and 8th graders do this over the summertime. I will save the surveys year to year so that when they are in 8th grade, they will have about 30 saints to choose from already!
I loved this idea when Lisa told me about it. She was gracious enough to share the graphic organizer she gives to the students to complete their Summertime Saint Surveys.
You can download it here:
Download the Summertime Saint Survey (PDF)
Download the Summertime Saint Survey (Word Document)
You can find more resources for Confirmation here:
Catholic Confirmation Activities that Excite and Engage
Rite of Confirmation Lesson Plan
