Mysteries of the Rosary Art for Middle School

Focusing on the Mysteries of the Rosary is a fabulous way to celebrate the seasons of Lent, Holy Week and Easter. This project covers Common Core Standards for Religion for grades 5-8.

Grade Level

5th, 6th, 7th, 8th grade. This project was created by 7th grade students.

Objective for Mysteries of the Rosary Art

Middle school students will use the Mysteries of the Rosary to create mosaic style artwork.

Time

4 – 30 min lessons

Materials

Colored construction paper – Tru-Ray – P6576 Color Wheel Assortment, 9 x 12 Inches, Assorted Colors, Pack of 144
Black construction paper – SunWorks Heavyweight Construction Paper, 9 x 12 Inches, Black, 100 Sheets
Scissors
Glue sticks
Metallic Sharpies – Sharpie Metallic Permanent Markers, 3 Count

Inspiration/Artist

I made this project from this awesome site Catholic Sprouts: Do small things with love: Click Here

Instruction with Questions

First

Show these videos on the Mysteries of the Rosary through the Youtube channel Catholic Online.

The Rosary: History, Mystery, and Meaning HD

Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary HD

Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary HD

Sorrowful

Second

I found this amazing resource CatholicSprouts.com that illustrates all of the Mysteries. Here are the Joyful Mysteries.

I printed one copy of each set of mysteries. I made 5 copies of each set. In other words, there were 5 copies of the Joyful Mysteries. Then I highlight the specific mystery for each one. (see the example below)

I set out all of the mysteries on a table and pulled sticks for students to pick their mystery. This way, Kasey, in this example, will pick up her mystery and know exactly which one she is referring to. Have them write down their choice on your roster so they will not forget it the next time you see them. There are 20 Mysteries total. If you have more than 20 students, the additional students could do “cover” pages of each mystery, Joyful, Luminous, Glorious, Sorrowful. Or even a main cover page and make a large Rosary.

Third

I was very intrigued about how foreign the concept of mosaics was for middle school students. They really need some reference for how to create a collage and how to allow the space between their pieces. I tried to emphasize the importance of only using construction paper but some of them just could not help themselves. 🙂

I recommend drawing a shape on colored construction paper and then cutting out the pieces from it and gluing it onto the black construction paper. As you can see if you look closely, some of them really had a hard time not drawing on the black paper. I thought they did a fabulous job, though, pushing through this project. I found this video to be helpful in giving some background on this style of art and its place in art history.