St. Francis of Assisi For Kids (The Ultimate List of Feast Day Resources!)

Saint Francis of Assisi is an amazing Saint and one of the most well known! If you have 2 Catholic statues in your yard, it’s probably 1 Mary statue and one St. Francis statue. His feast day comes around every year on October 4.  You can find more fun Saints and feasts to celebrate in October here. Now let’s look at some fun ideas for celebrating St. Francis of Assisi with kids!
 

St. Francis “Cheat Sheet”

It’s always better to understand something before you try and celebrate it! Knowing some things about the Saint’s life will also help you to have ideas on how to celebrate. Let’s take a look at some of the most interesting and well known things about St. Francis.

  • Founded the Franciscans
  • Very well known and popular Saint
  • Patron Saint of animals, so he is often depicted being flocked by birds, petting a deer, or shaking hands with a wolf.
  • Sometimes on this day churches will have a “blessing of the pets”
  • Made the first nativity set
  • Known for a legend where he tames a wolf
  • Gave all his money to the poor 
  • Had the iconic “tonsure” haircut 
  • He had stigmata (the wounds of Christ on his hands, feet, and side)
  • Wrote the “Prayer Of St. Francis”, now a popular song as well

Ok, I think we are ready to look at some ways to celebrate St. Francis of Assisi with kids! 

Prayer Of St. Francis

The prayer of St. Francis is one of my absolute favorite prayers of all time! I equally love the song that goes with the prayer. 

Prayer Of St. Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, joy;
O Divine Master, grant that I may
not so much seek to be consoled as to console,
to be understood, as to understand,
to be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen.

And here is a version of the St. Francis song. Again, I love this!

 

 

St. Francis Videos For Kids

This little St. Francis video for kids from Miracula Stuidos is so adorable! I love the story and the animation on this one! Watching this video would be a great way to learn a little something about St. Francis before celebrating this feast day.

 

This is actually a whole series of videos! Here is the one about how St. Francis tamed the wolf, Gubio.

 

Here is a short and silly video about a day in the lift of St. Francis. This is cute and I love how it rhymes! This will definitely hold the attention of kids. If yours have a limited attention span, here’s your winner!

 

Because St. Francis of Assisi is so popular, there are a lot of videos available about him. Just make sure you don’t get him mixed up with St. Francis de Sales or St. Francis Xavier. Here are some more St. Francis of Assisi videos for kids. These are all animated videos.

St. Francis Picture Books For Kids

When you’re starting to teach your kids about the lives of the Saints, I suggest starting with a Saint picture book treasury that includes a lot of short stories you can read together. This will give you a good starting place and then you can add to your library of Saint books over the years. I think this Picture Book Of Saints is a good beginning Saint book for Catholic families. Saint Francis Of Assisi’s story is found on page 91.

Since St. Francis is such a well known Saint, there are several beautiful picture books about him. I do think it’s worth collecting beautiful Catholic picture books over the years, so I will share a few that I own with you. 

I always love a Tomie de Paola book! He has a picture book for St. Francis called Francis The Poor Man Of Assisi. A word of caution- this book is beautiful but it is very long and wordy. It is not something little kids will sit through, nor something you would read aloud in one sitting. Nevertheless, we sill own this book.

We also have St. Francis And The Proud Crow. Beautiful illustrations are always important to me in a children’s book, and this one does’t disappoint! This is a great length for reading to small children in your lap in one sitting.

Another great picture book that will appeal to children is Saint Francis And The Wolf. This is a very famous legend for this Saint, so it’s a great story to have! All of the illustrations in this book are contained in these colorful frames. Beautiful style!

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St. Francis Printables For Kids

This St. Francis coloring page from The Catholic Kids is free to print. Coloring pages are always such an easy way to celebrate!

Saint Francis of Assisi Coloring Page

Real Life At Home has a printable St. Francis pack for kids that looks awesome!

St. Francis of Assisi Printables and Worksheets featuring 41 pages of activities for a variety of ages and abilities

 

St. Francis Crafts And Activities For Kids

You can use the templates inside of my Saint Puppet Ebook to create any Saint you wish, St. Francis included! (just cut the pieces from the right colors of paper for her order) . 🙂 I always find that kids really love paper bag puppets and will continue playing with them long after the craft is complete. I think this is because kids always love “wearable” crafts, and you kind of wear these on your arms. Puppets also encourage kids to act out parts of the Saint’s story. This is really a great craft. 

My kids absolutely adore Saint peg dolls, and they have hands down been the most played with toy in our home among 4 children! You can make this easy printable peg doll of St. Francis where you just paint the head with my step by step directions and then you decoupage on his body, wolf already included! These really look hand painted when you’re all finished!

I also have a post about making little yarn animals to go with your St. Francis peg doll. My kids LOVE these little guys as well!

For a simpler craft, find this St. Francis Spoon Doll on By Sun and Candlelight.
 
Why not decorate a bird house for St. Francis’ friends on his feast day? How adorable are these St. Francis bird houses? Cottage Blessings gets credit for this adorable craft!
I also have a printable St. Francis craft in my Advent Saints pack! This little guy is holding a little nativity since St. Francis is credited with arranging the first nativity. 
 
 
Likewise, you could try making these Bird Seed Cookies for St. Francis’ friends! find the directions on Let’s Explore.
 
I love this little St. Francis Craft from Sweetness and Light! Wouldn’t this make a really adorable display for the week of his feast day?
 
 
St. Francis’ feast day is also a great day to decorate your pumpkins for Halloween! I like to let my kids get a small pumpkin and use craft supplies to make any animal that they want on the pumpkin. I have a ton of ideas in this post with over 7 kinds of animals you can make your pumpkin into!
 

Fun St. Francis Food Ideas

We always love to celebrate a Saint feast day with food, and there are so many cute food ideas for the feast of St. Francis! Check it out. 

I have some printable Saint food labels that you pair with easy prepared food to make it a themed Saint treat! You can pair my tonsure treats label to either a chocolate bunt cake or chocolate doughnuts. So perfect!

You can also serve animal cookies because St. Francis is the patron Saint of animals! I have a printable food label for St. Francis’ animal friends as well!

I also have a special recipe for dunkaroo dip for your St. Francis animal crackers. This is such a fun and easy addition to this simple snack, so be sure to check out the recipe.

You can also make stigmata sandwiches, which again, I have a printable label for lol. I mean the printable label helps everyone to understand and cutifies your pictures haha. 

Also check out this Tonsure Cake!!! My tonsure treats label would also work with this! Compliments of Under Her Starry Mantle.
 
Since St. Francis is the patron Saint of animals, why not cook up a yummy treat for man’s best friend?! This is actually one of our favorite ways to celebrate this feast day, and I love how these diy puppy biscuit treats make the house smell like cinnamon! 
 
 

Famous St. Francis Quotes

St. Francis taught so many amazing things that it’s hard to contain it all in one post! I do have one St. Francis quote that I love so much I have included it in my journaling Bible. “All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.” 
 
 
Here is another of my favorite St. Francis quotes!

“Preach the Gospel at all times. Use words if necessary.” 

Feast Day Table Or Home Altar Ideas

Add any St. Francis prayer cards or statues you may have to your feast table or home altar. If you have a Franciscan cross, this is the perfect time to display that as well. I love ours, which hangs on my cross wall!
 

St. Francis Costume Ideas

Upon learning about St. Francis on his feast day, your kids may be interested in dressing up as St. Francis for All Saints’ Day! If so, be sure to check out my Saint costume ideas. St. Francis is included on the list!
 
 
If your kids want to dress up as a “furry friend” of St. Francis for All Saints’ day (aka, any animal they want lol) I have some special badges that say “St. Francis is my patron” to turn any animal costume into a Saint costume instantly! You can print yours for free here.
 
 
Be sure to check out all of my other October feast day resources as well!
 
 
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I do receive a small percentage of the sale if you order through me with no extra charge to you.

Comments

  1. welcome to our wonderland says

    great crafts we picked up our books from the library so we are ready. Our church is doing its first ever blessing of the animals and I think we are going to go to that, my girls are very excited 🙂

  2. Really neat ideas! Love the bird houses. Thanks for all you do, busy and all.

  3. Thanks for sharing my link!!

  4. Teehee…I love the cake idea! 🙂

  5. Arlene Ramos says

    Hello:

    I have written a children’s book, in which I make reference to a St. Francis of Assisi bird bath. I would like to use the above image, captioned “St. Francis Coloring Page” in the book. May I have your permission to use this image? I would be so grateful. Can you please reply to me as soon as possible at tramos7@optimum.net. Thank you so much.

    • These aren’t my images to give permission for. You’d have to contact the people who they belong to. Find the original sites in the links.

  6. I am happy that I have such a happy saint in my life.Our church is happy becouse all of our saints are protecting us and guiding us were ever we go.Dear god my life is hard can you please help and make it more easy?

    love the gentiles

  7. Teresa Richard says

    I teach Kindergarten at St. Mary school in Westfield, MA. I love your your ideas and crafts for the children. Thank you,