Homeschool Activity Day: Epiphany Party!

Well, seems Epiphany has lasted three days now. Today I hosted an Epiphany party for our local Catholic hs'ers. It was great with 30 some kids, a handful of moms, and one VERY pregnant mom.

Books Used, Referenced or Read:
Hurray for Three Kings' Day -- Lori Marie Carlson -- a combination of Hispanic cultures' traditions for celebrating el Dia de Los Reyes
Three Kings Day - A Celebration at Christmastime -- Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith -- follows a NYC Puerto Rican girl and her family through their celebration of el Dia de Los Reyes
Babushka -- Charles Mikolaycak -- the story of the Russian peasant who gives up the chance to go with the Magi to see Jesus and lives forever trying to find Him (and leaving presents for children every Epiphany)
The Stone - A Persian Legend of the Magi -- Dianne Hofmeyr -- this is an amazing story (with gorgoeus illustrations by Jude Daly) about Magi's trip to see Jesus and what happened when they went back to the East. This one has a GREAT message!

And of course, Tomie DePaola pulls through with:
The Legend of Old Befana -- an Italian folktale of a peasant woman who is too busy to go with the Magi and regrets her decision; she then tries every year to find the Child Jesus, and leaves presents for children just in case he is in disguise.
The Story of the Three Wise Kings -- a wonderful retelling, with dePaola's signature illustrations, of the story of the Magi and their visit to Jesus; this is a classic (but, I think, OOP?)
And, thanks to a recommendation by JennGM, The Gifts of the Magi from the Metropolitan Museum of Art is just basically a treasure. You get a very small sample of gold, frankincense and myrrh -- but more interestingly, you learn lots of little details about the Magi, the meaning behind the gifts and other REALLY cool things. Scattered throughout the small volume (about 5" square) are reproductions of art from the MMA that represent Christmas and Epiphany. Just beautiful! Thanks Jenn!
Crafts Compiled:

1. Crowns -- using strips of yellow bulletin board border paper (which is about the weight of the cardstock and scallop edged) we cut-to-size for each child's head, the kids decorated with star foam-shapes, star stickers and coloring, and then we stapled them (making sure to staple so the two undersides were on the outside to avoid getting caught in hair or cutting skin).

2. Finger puppets -- using pictures of the three kings that I found on the internet and then made into individual "people" and printed on white cardstock, the kids colored these with colored pencils and fine-line markers and glued to wooden spoons to make little puppets.

3. Stars -- created a 5-pointed star on the computer (drawing ray lines coming out from it) and had these printed on yellow card stock; these were for the younger kids (under 5s) to decorate with star stickers. Suggested to the moms to use glitter glue (at home) to make the star sparkle!

4. Coloring pages -- printed a couple of line drawings of the Magi onto regular paper and had these available for coloring as desired.

5. Rubber stamp -- purchased two rubber stamps (one with a king kneeling with the quote, "wise men still follow him" and the other was a large star with swirls inside) and some appropriate colored inks to stamp card stock to be made into cards or framable pictures. These cards could also be embellished with gold, silver or black markers or colored with pencils.

What we ate:
One of the moms made three "King Cakes" -- one a French pastry type called "Galette des Rois", and two "American" cakes -- chocolate with chocolate frosting, spice cake with vanilla frosting. Each cake had a procelain charm inside so we crowned three of our own Magi!

A GREAT time was had by all...