Category: Lent

Good Friday Story Crosses

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This craft is easy for all ages to join in with and, because it is very self-directed, provides a great opportunity to chat while creating!

You will need: Cross shapes cut out of used cardboard boxes (the need to be quite sturdy), wool, scissors

Cut crosses, roughly 15cm high, out of sturdy cardboard boxes. Cut lengths of wool in various colours. Wrap the wool in various combinations around the cross and use the creating time to talk about the Good Friday story of Jesus’ crucifixion. Children might want to choose colours that reflect something of the story to their mind e.g. red to represent blood, black to represent the darkness, different colours to represent different people in the story.

Chat about your responses:

  • Which is your favourite bit of the story?
  • What do you think is the most important part of the story?
  • Why do Christians think that the cross is important?
  • Where would you imagine yourself in the story?
  • What colour would you use to represent yourself?

Allow time for the children to share their creation with others if they’d like to!

Mothering Sunday Button Thank You Prayers

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Next Sunday is the day when we celebrate Mothering Sunday. It was traditionally a day in the middle of Lent when people who worked were able to have time off to visit their mothers and their ‘mother’ church, where they might have been baptised. One of the most popular readings to use on this day is John 19: 25- 27, when Jesus creates a new community of support for his grieving mother when he connects her with the disciple John, who takes her into his home as his mother. Just as John becomes a support for Mary and vice versa, in life it’s not necessarily just our mothers who give us ‘motherly’ or parental care. There are so many people, especially in church families, who form a community around us to help support us and give us strength. To help celebrate and give thanks for mothers and other caring figures in our lives, here are some prayers using an item you can easily find at home. Find a button and hold on to it when you pray.

Buttons hold things together

Who do you look to to help you when things are busy and stressful? Who can help you to figure out what to do when you are confused about how to keep going? Who helps when it feels as if your world is falling apart? Think of them and say thank you to God for them.

Buttons are strong

Think about the times when you have felt sad, upset or afraid. Who has helped you to be strong. Who is the strongest person you know? Thank God for those people.

Buttons come in different shapes and sizes

Those who care for us and keep us safe might be mothers, but they also might be other people in our lives. Try and count in your head how many different people have helped you during the past week. Thank God for each one of them.

When buttons are missing we notice and things don’t hold together as well as they did before

Some of the caring figures in our lives may have died and we miss the fact that they are no longer here. Take a moment to remember them and the love they shared with you. Thank God for them.

Palm Sunday Spinners

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 This is a great activity for Palm Sunday because somehow the hosanna appears on the palm leaf.  The children love watching the trick of the eye happen!
For a printable version click here
It’s very easy to make…

Cut out, colour and fold on the dotted line.

Sellotape a straw to the back of one half and glue the other half on top.

swizzle the straw between your hands and watch what happens!

Lent: Sandpaper Reflections

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Here’s an activity to help the children to see how Jesus is able to identify with their everyday experiences because of the human experiences He had himself.  This activity focuses on having the strength to do the right thing, even when it’s difficult, knowing that Jesus himself was tempted but stood strong.

Give the children some sandpaper, a paperclip and a copy of this verse:

Because He Himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

Hebrews 2:18

  • Feel the roughness of the sand paper and think about times when it’s hard for you to do the right thing.
  • Cut out the Bible verse  clip it onto the sand paper (glue is hard to stick to sandpaper!) and decorate the verse with colouring pens or pencils.
  • Stick it onto the wall or put it by your bed for the rest of the week and remember that Jesus is with you, knows what it is like, and will help you to be strong when you need to do the right thing

Lent: Blessings Jar

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This is an idea for the whole family to get involved in!

Take a jam or coffee jar and decorate it (I used sparkly paper because I like that type of thing!)

Cut up some bits of paper and put them by the jar with some pens or pencils.  Put the jar somewhere accessible to everybody at any time e.g kitchen table.  When something good happens or someone has been kind to you, write it on a slip of paper and put it in the jar.

Make a routine of opening the jar once a day or once a week when everyone is together, reading the slips and saying thank you to God for His blessings!  Maybe you could even glue them all into a book to look back at in the future to see how God has blessed you!