Roadmap through Lent:
A great visual for the children is an enlarged winding road using sheets of paper to create a path that winds along a table or the floor. (Some people like to use purple to teach about the significance of different colours at different times of the liturgical year.) At different sections there are road signs. These can be made using blu tac as the base, lollypop sticks as the post and a flag or arrow shaped card as the sign. Different signs can be added each week and can include landmarks such as mothering Sunday and Palm Sunday but can also include the journey of Jesus through the desert, different things that happened to him there and the subsequent days leading to the cross. The visual helps children to get a picture of the sequence of events in their minds. If you have time they can create a collaborative backdrop together and the piece can be reassembled in the church for the whole congregation to see. If you have done feet prayers, you can arrange the templates on the road.
Crafts with Seeds and Soil: Lent reminds us that we need to cut out many of the things that have made us comfortable but that make us forget our Love for God and our Love for others. It is a time to put away selfishness and greed and to focus on showing compassion. By doing this new habits are forming and we see the world with new eyes. Buried deep in the soil are seeds that with light and water (faith and right action) brings forth a plant. By decorating a flower pot – see below – the message of Jesus at Easter is doubly reinforced through the craft.
