Lenten Cross Project for Kids

When I first started teaching in the wonderful Catholic School in which I teach, I had one of those awesome parents who was always there when I needed an extra hand and always had a smile on her face when she was in the classroom. During the time that she was with me, she shared this sweet Lenten cross project that I do every year. I think of her every time I get the materials out- what a sweet memory!




This project is easy and if you are looking for a striking bulletin board, this fills that need! (Click the picture above to get a Google doc of the project!)

The first thing I do is teach my students the meaning of the colors:
BLACK - We all sin.
RED - Jesus died.
WHITE - Jesus wiped our sins away.
GREEN - Jesus gives us new life.
YELLOW - We have new life in Heaven with Jesus.

To do the project,  children trace the cross onto purple construction paper and glue onto a half sheet of black construction paper. Children cut small pieces of black, red, white, green, and yellow construction paper and glue onto the cross in a mosaic pattern. Glue the words onto the other side of the black paper. Voila! An easy craft with a BIG meaning!

When my students finish their crosses, they make a fun Lenten bracelet using the Lenten colors.

 Until next time!

Blessings,

Christmas Nativity

I know, I know.... I am a little behind posting this Christmas project! But, as everyone knows, Christmas time can be really busy especially if you teach in a parochial school - whew! So, maybe you can bank this idea and do it next year! :)

We do this Christmas nativity every year. I have revised it and revised it until now it is pretty streamlined! Our school purchases paper cups for us from Hobby Lobby and Wal-mart which is wonderful. We ask each parent to provide six (3 inch) Styrofoam balls for their child. We use skin colored Tempera to paint the balls that will be the heads. When dry, we attach the heads to the cups with hot glue. The children attach the eyes with glue and the mouth is a sequin attached with a straight pin. The head pieces are felt and attached to the head with straight pins, too. A small piece of red yarn creates the mouth. School glue does not work for this project; it must be tacky glue. Gold craft stems are pushed into the back of the heads of Mary, Joseph, and the angel to create a halo. The angel's wings are heart shaped doilies and attached with tacky glue to the back of the cup. To create the stable, we use Clementine orange crates. The children cover the outside of the box with pieces of brown construction paper. The children water color a background of Jerusalem and when dry attach it with glue to the bottom of the box. The box sits on its end. A star is attached to a wooden craft stick and taped to the back of the box.

If you would like the background picture of Bethlehem, click on the picture!

Happy New Year! May God bless you with His peace!

Christmas Bulletin Board

This afternoon, our kindergarten team put up the December bulletin board in the front hallway of our school. Each month, our school focuses on a specific virtue and December's virtue is generosity. This was a super, simple bulletin board to do. We have 52 kindergarteners in our school and each one colored a star with crayons. We told them that it had to be beautiful because it was going to hang over baby Jesus! They lived up to our expectations because they turned out beautifully! We attached their pictures to the center of the stars and Voila! A beautiful and striking bulletin board!

Blessings,

Easy Advent Wreath

I thought I would share a cute and easy Advent wreath project to do with your students or children.

Materials needed:
1 white chinette paper plate for each child
Green paint
Purple, pink, and yellow construction paper
Green tissue paper
4 craft sticks for each child
Glue

Procedure:
1.  Students paint their paper plate green. Let dry. (I use Chinette brand because it is much studier than a regular paper plate.)
2.  Make 3 purple candles and 1 pink candle by rolling construction paper rectangles into tubes and securing with tape.
3.  Dip tubes into glue OR make grass cuts at the bottom of each paper tube. Bend the cuts up and dip into glue.  Arrange the candles around the outside of the plate. Let dry.
4.  Glue tissue paper balls around the edges of the plate OR I have used cut pieces of green construction paper, too!
5.  To create the flame, students draw a flame shape upon yellow construction paper and attach to the top of a craft stick. Do this for 4 flames.
6.  Add a flame for each Sunday in Advent. Store the sticks upside down in each candle until it is time to celebrate each Sunday!
7.  Have fun!

Blessings,

Angels for Little Ones

Hello!
This is Cindy (Kinderkay) from Love Those Kinders. I thought I would share another faith filled freebie!

This packet is about angels. My little ones have a  bit of trouble comprehending the different types of angels, so I thought I would write a mini unit that might make a bit of sense to them when learning about these mysterious beings. AND since I LOVE to have my kinders illustrate books about the topics in which they are learning, this resource is a book!

I chose these angels to highlight: Angels in general, the Angel Gabriel, the Angel Michael, and Guardian Angels. After discussion of each angel, my students drew a representation of each angel on the pages of the book. We also practiced the beautiful words of the the "Angel of God" prayer which I included as a page in the book.

I hope that you will find this resource valuable and that your little ones will derive some joy in learning about these spiritual beings! Click on the image to download the Google Doc.

Peace and Blessings,

Teaching Little Ones the Prayers of the Rosary

Hello to All!
I am so excited to be a part of this new collaborative blog for teachers searching for religious materials to share with their students! When Charlotte approached me about being a part of this, I did not hesitate to say "Yes!" It is so difficult to find age appropriate religious material for our littlest learners and I am so happy to share my ideas!

In the Catholic church, October is the month of the rosary. I KNOW that I am super late on sharing this rosary packet, but before I post and share any of my materials, I try it out in my classroom; working out the bugs and mistakes I USUALLY make in my original prototypes! :)

The rosary is such a MYSTERY to little ones. In our school, we pray a living rosary at the beginning of October and then are required to pray at least one decade of the rosary sometime during the month. I want my students to understand and begin to enjoy this beautiful prayer, so I have broken the prayers down into chunks and we take them one prayer at a time and discuss what each prayer means. I assigned a symbol to each prayer: A house and hands for OUR FATHER, Mary and Baby Jesus for HAIL MARY, and a dove for the GLORY BE.

I found a beautiful coloring page of the rosary on the Catholic Mom website. You can find that coloring sheet HERE. I also used Charlotte's BEAUTIFUL drawing of our Holy Mother, Mary in the packet, too!

Click on this image to download a Google doc of the packet.

Enjoy!

Peace and blessings,