St. Maximilian Kolbe and I are good friends. He is the patron Saint of my classroom, and I spend quite a bit of time teaching about his life at the beginning of the year. You can read my original post, along with all of the links to my St. Max resources, here. Something cool that the CCD program at our parish is doing this year is trying to encourage more collaboration between the school classrooms and the CCD classrooms. I am certainly a fan of this effort, and was excited when I heard that one thing we were going to do would be to have the same patron Saints for grade levels. The 5th grade catechist is a lovely young lady, and she and I met for the first time over the summer. We quickly started sharing some ideas, and we have talked a few times about the happenings in our classrooms. She used some of my resources to teach her kids about St. Max, but has also come up with a few of her own that she has given me permission to share on my blog (thanks Anna!). So, one morning this week, after an evening CCD session, my kids found these awesome keychains on their desks. To someone who doesn't know St. Max, these might not make much sense. However, my kids immediately recognized a white crown and a red crown, both offered to St. Maximilian by Our Blessed Mother, representing his opportunity to either be pure of heart or a martyr. He chose both. Anna came up with this idea herself, and her students made these reminders of St. Max's life for us. My students were very excited about this gift. Then, the students noticed that we had a new member of the class... in the form of a life sized St. Maximilian Kolbe! Anna painted his face, which is an incredible likeness: He is dressed and accessorized just like his icon, complete with a Franciscan robe, striped prisoner uniform from his time in Auschwitz, a rosary, an Immacualta magazine, and even his prisoner number 16670. They also made a neat sign to go along with the life sized Saint: I took all of the students' pictures with St. Max, which they loved. They then had a brilliant idea: "Miss Bogner, take a selfie with St. Max!" Here is the result: Me and Max. And then he and I took a normal picture: St. Max will be living in our room for most of the year, just another reminder to the kids about the Communion of Saints that we are all a part of, which includes everyone one in our parish (both school and CCD kids) and awesome Saints in heaven like St. Max. I am so glad that St. Max is "in the house" of our Heavenly Father as well as in our room to serve a connection. This makes him seem more real to the kids, and shows them that they all can strive for sainthood, also. (I, however, need to get used to having a life sized cardboard cutout in my classroom. At least 15 times in two days I glanced up and totally freaked out, thinking that there was someone in my "empty" room. I also very nearly scolded him twice to "get in his seat" during the school day when I caught him out of the corner of my eye at times that the students were supposed to be working. Several teachers have walked in and jumped before realizing it was him standing in the corner. I imagine we will get used to him...eventually!)