Moneybox or Box of Kindness
These little boxes can be used to collect the money you save by not eating sweets, or you could write down any kind deeds you do on slips of paper and put them in the box. See if you can collect 40, one for each day of Lent.
You will need: thin sheets of A4 card, glue, sticky tape, felt tips for decoration. The template for the box can be found here.
Photocopy the template onto thin card, or use a template to draw around. (Photocopying works better as it is more precise.) Cut along the bold lines (don’t forget the slot) and decorate. Then fold along the dotted lines and glue together – a bit of sticky tape won’t go amiss here! We have tried to decorate ours to reflect what is being done for Lent – the sweet box is just wrapped in cellophane and secured with an elastic band at each side. The children could be encouraged to donate any money collected to charity.
Lenten Cross
You will need: two pieces of wood nailed together, squares of card, grain or seeds, purple felt, green paper, cockerels cut from the template online, feathers, a piece of purple cloth, stones, poster paint, glue, felt tips or crayons and drawing pins.
Start with a bare wooden cross in the first week of Lent, and as each week passes, add one symbol from the Easter story.
The idea is to build up the story each week. Here is a close up picture of one of the symbols we have used. This is a cockerel decorated with feathers; click here for the template.
You could choose your own symbols – you might like to make bread (grain stuck onto squares of card); wine (mini-collage of grapes made from purple felt and green pipe cleaners); palms (made from rolled up green paper taped along half its length and then cut lengthways down the other half); a piece of purple cloth and, at the foot of the cross, stones which you could paint black.
Leave the centre of the cross empty. Then on Easter Sunday you can decorate the centre with a symbol of resurrection such as a bright yellow sunburst, or flowers. If you wind chicken wire mesh around the centre it is easy to poke flower stalks in to make a colourful display.
Hot Cross Cupcakes
You will need: a batch of small cupcakes-iced, materials for decorating such as writing icing, silver balls, chocolate drops (or small sweets such as Jelly Tots for those who have given up chocolate for Lent). And you will need plenty of hand wipes!
If you are doing this activity, do be aware of allergies and food intolerances.
This is simple, but sticky! Make or buy a batch of cupcakes. Ice them. Invite the children to decorate them with cross based designs. Perhaps each child could give one to someone they want to show God’s kindness to this Easter time. If you end up eating them together, thank God for his kindness and love as you do so.
Jenny Gilbertson is a lay reader at St Paul’s Church, Chester, where she coordinates their Messy Church
- See more at: http://www.childrenswork.co.uk/main/resources/craft_ideas/lent#sthash.Krfz10Hs.dpuf
