Okay, so I am not going to lie, this week's liturgy activity took a couple hours of preparation. Unfortunately, due to never having done it before, the final result was not at all how I, Gillian, wanted it to look. However, that's what the learning process is for.
The kids were especially energetic as they came into liturgy today. Most of them knew that it was the first Sunday of Lent, and all of them wanted to talk about what . Once they were all settled in, I asked them what they though the word "Lent" means. The kids immediately started talking at once, telling me what they (and their parents) were giving up. Though I had been asking what the direct translation of the word was, I didn't so much mind their answers, I was just excited that they were so engaged.
I told the kids that they would have to hold off on talking more about what they had given up. We would get to that part of the activity later. I then told them the word Lent, which comes from the Old English lencten, means springtime.
"What does springtime make you think of", I asked.
"Flowers!"
"Sunshine."
"Rain!"
"Summer!"
Okay, so the last child to answer may have been getting slightly ahead of himself, but I thought the enthusiasm was wonderful, and the answers were spot on.
"Lent", I told them, "is a time of growth and new life. It is a time to say 'yes' to God and 'no' to the things that are tempting to us. It's a time where we should try extra hard to be good."
I told the kids that they would have to hold off on talking more about what they had given up. We would get to that part of the activity later. I then told them the word Lent, which comes from the Old English lencten, means springtime.
"What does springtime make you think of", I asked.
"Flowers!"
"Sunshine."
"Rain!"
"Summer!"
Okay, so the last child to answer may have been getting slightly ahead of himself, but I thought the enthusiasm was wonderful, and the answers were spot on.
"Lent", I told them, "is a time of growth and new life. It is a time to say 'yes' to God and 'no' to the things that are tempting to us. It's a time where we should try extra hard to be good."
I then read the Gospel story of Jesus being tempted by the devil in the desert, using the printed pictures from the distantshores website to accompany the story.
Finally we got to the part of the liturgy concerning the craft. I asked the kids what they were tempted by, and what they had given up for Lent. Each child would be given leaf cut-outs and was asked to draw or write what they were giving up for Lent on the leaves. Since we had talked about how Lent means springtime, the kids then got to paste the leaves onto paper branches, and finally onto a backgroud.
Preparation
I started by finding some leaf templates in Google image searches, printing them, and cutting them out. I then traced the leaves onto green poster board, and roughly cut those out, too. I thought that the kids could cut out the leaves themselves, but realized during the activity that the oak and maple leaf were much too finnicky and time consuming for 4-6 year olds. All in all, this took a couple of hours, but the poster board I bought at the dollar store, so that only cost me $1.70. I do not mind that the preparation took so long, but found that I was a bit disappointed with the results. | I also bought white poster board, and cut each one into 8-10 pieces; these were used as the backgrounds for each branch. I also drew branches onto some sections of the white poster board and cut those out. |
Supplies
- scissors
- white, green, and blue poster board (x2 for the white) or, alternatively, contruction paper
- leaf templates
- markers, crayons, etc.
- glue sticks
Results and Final Thoughts
I had initially wanted each child to take six leaves, and draw/write something that they would give up for each week, but most kids had only given up one or two things, and so didn't have much to draw. As well, a leaf that took me one minute to cut out took some kids over five minutes to cut out! When children's liturgy is only about thirty minutes to begin with, each minute is precious time. The activity was too time consuming, and lots of kids either lost interest in it (due to the many steps required), or gave up cutting out the leaves, and ended up pasting the crude cutouts onto their backgrounds.
I had given each child a section of the white poster board that they could colour in as the background to their branch, but only during the activity did I realize that that was much to time consuming. If I did this activity again I would hand out blue construction paper as the background.
This is what the final product ended up looking like...
I had given each child a section of the white poster board that they could colour in as the background to their branch, but only during the activity did I realize that that was much to time consuming. If I did this activity again I would hand out blue construction paper as the background.
This is what the final product ended up looking like...
and this is more how I had hoped it would turn out...
Phew! I know that was a very long-winded report, but there was so much that I wanted to do and change that I had to mention it all. Thanks to all of the parents that helped out, I certainly could not have run the liturgy alone!
Till next week,
Gillian
Till next week,
Gillian