- Fun Foam
- Exacto Blade
- Poster Board (or Foam Board)
- Hot Glue
- Glitter Glue or Marker
- 40 Pennies
How to Use Your New Almsgiving Activity for Kids
For each day of lent, have your say a prayer and remove one penny from the cross and put it in their offering box. (I posted about how to make and offering box with your child here).
Do not remove any pennies on Sundays- they don't "count" in the 40 days of lent! My preschool co-op did this craft last year and theirs came with stickers. Every Sunday during lent, they put a sticker on the mound of dirt at the bottom of the cross. Again, I don't want to do that because I plan on pulling these out and reusing them every lent.
By Easter Sunday, your pennies should all be in your offering box, so your cross will be empty. My plan is to fill all the slots with dimes on Easter Sunday! This money can then also go into the offering box and be taken for the collection that morning. :-)
(once they've already been filled with coins, the foam
stretches and makes replacing the coins very easy!)
I love how bright and shiny the dimes are in comparison to the pennies, and I think this will be a great surprise for my kids on Easter morning! This was surprisingly easier to make than I originally thought it would be. Wish I could take credit for this idea, but it was thought up by my friend, Denise, who used to teach my preschool class before me. She is awesome! Here's a picture of one she made. They had a chart at the bottom (also with 40 squares) and every day they got a sticker for saying a prayer, and then put a penny in their offering box. I love how the one below has a string at the top for a door knob.
I
would have done this to ours, but I have alternate plans for displaying
them- hopefully I'll be posting pictures of our Lenten display soon! :-)
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This is great! Did you just use a 8.5 x 11" fun foam sheet?
ReplyDeleteI think mine was a little bigger than 8 1/2x 11. It seemed to be a pretty standard size of foam at the craft store. Hope this helps! :-)
ReplyDeleteThis is great, thank you! I plan on using this idea for my homeschool. I like the dimes, as well. I'll use the stickers to include my toddler. Great idea :)
ReplyDeleteThis is a really great idea for incorporating the idea of giving to the poor during Lent! Thanks, Lacy!
ReplyDeleteWe did this for our kids and so far, we're really enjoying it. It is a great hands on way to show kids how to give. Thanks for all the great ideas.
ReplyDelete