Most catechists experience the crunch of time when teaching, knowing that they have a great deal of content to convey to their participants in a very short time. Sometimes, the notion of incorporating an arts and crafts project in a lesson just seems impossible given the time constraints! Thankfully, over the years, I’ve heard of a number of suggestions from catechists about how to accomplish this. Here are a few of their ideas:
- Provide children with wooden crosses from the hobby and crafts store. On label sheets, print out the Act of Contrition so that it will fit on the crosses.
- Make Holy Spirit doves out of paper plates.
- Have children create prayer sticks.
- Create lapbooks.
- Get little canvases from the dollar store, and have children use crayons to color a picture. Give them options of First Holy Communion-related pictures, like cross, chalice, or dove. The crayons make it mess-free and easy, and then they have cute pieces of art to take home.
- For First Reconciliation, create “Jesus Heals” Hearts. Get foam hearts at the dollar or craft store. Add a cross of bandages, a pipe-cleaner holder, and a few Christian foam stickers.
- Have children make cards thanking their parents for bringing them to church and sharing with them their faith so they can receive the Eucharist.
- Create prayer cubes.
- Have children make a folding craft-stick canvas.
- Make one-decade rosaries with pipe cleaner and beads.
I have written before about the role of arts and crafts in faith formation and even did a Pop-Up Catechesis video on the topic of crafting faith. What are some ideas you have for craft projects that can be completed in short class times?
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