How to Make Candy God's Eyes

I'm sure you've all seen God's Eyes, or "Ojo de Dios", but have you ever seen an edible God's eye?

Now you have! :-) This is normally the part where I tell you how easy this project is... well, don't hold your breath. Usually after I tell you how easy it was, that's when I tell you how much fun it was, and yes, it was a lot of fun! Also, it wasn't super difficult, but it did take a little patients. If you have some patients and would like to try to make this fun religious snack, read on. (If you've never made God's Eyes before, learn how to make them out of some good 'ol fashioned yarn first, m'k?)

Start with some dowels that are super glued together, 

and a bag of Twizzlers pull and peels.

Wrap the candy around in the same way that you would yarn. When you get to the end of a string of twizzlers, pinch the candy together in the back. Just give it a good, hard pinch and the candy will stick to itself. Add the next string using the same technique. 

Here's a picture of the back of mine.

That's it. I wouldn't try to make huge ones, just little ones. Also, they don't hold up long term- after they've been together awhile the candy starts pulling apart, so go ahead and eat them when you're finished.

Enjoy making (and eating) you candy God's Eyes!

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Catholic Trinity Craft for Preschoolers

Catholic ABC's Week 3
Number of the week: 3
Theme: Trinity
Memory Verse- The Glory Be:
Glory Be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Craft: Trinity Triangle

Materials Needed for Trinity Triangle Craft:

• Popsicle Sticks (available in plain or in colors at the Dollar Tree)
• Markers
• School Glue or Glue Dots
• A piece of yarn or string

Each child starts with 3 popsicle sticks. You can either use colored popsicle sticks, or have the kids color them with markers themselves.

We used red to symbolize the Holy Spirit (a very normal color symbol for the Holy Spirit since he came with tongues of fire and all) yellow for the Son (because the sun in the sky is yellow) and blue for the Father (because I think of the father as being up in the blue sky in heaven).

Write "Father" "Son" "Holy Spirit" one on each popsicle stick with a pencil and let you preschooler trace over it with a marker. I actually let my daughter use a sharpie marker, but it was highly supervised ;-)

I highly recommend having glue dots on hand for preschoolers because they're so easy to use and you don't have to wait for them to dry- it's instant! They're a good addition to your craft cabinet. Of course, you can also let them use regular school glue (which is washable). Either way, have them glue them together one at a time into a triangle shape. My suggestion is to let them glue it together their way (meaning if one of the words is upside down - whatever!)

Tie a string around it so it can hang up. My daughter took a LOT of pride in the fact that she colored the sticks, wrote out the words, and glued it together herself. I would say this is an excellent craft for a preschool aged child.

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Nicene Creed Craft- One God

Today we start the new Catholic preschool curriculum- Catholic ABC's! Yay! For the first week, we are learning the number 1. Here's the craft we made (this craft is a good one for preschoolers with adult assistance, and a good one that elementary school aged children could do themselves).

Supplies needed:

• 2 colors of paper
• pencil
• glue stick
• a piece of yarn, string, or ribbon
• scissors
• marker
• hole punch

Only you know your child's abilities, but I would always encourage you to allow your child complete a craft as independently as possible, helping only when you're needed. The finished product doesn't have to be perfect.

1. Start by having your child trace his or her hand on the paper, and cut it out with scissors. Assist where necessary. 
2. Have your child use a glue stick to glue the thumb and middle finger together, then fold the ring finger and pinkie down so only the pointer finger is pointing up as a number "1". 
3. Cut out fingernail shapes for your child out of a seperate color of paper, and have him or her glue them onto the finger tips. You can help with the placement. Again, nothing has to be perfect.
4. Write out the beginning of the Nicene creed for your child "We believe in one God, the Father the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. Of all that is seen and unseen". I wrote ours out lightly with a pencil, and had my 4 year old trace over it with her marker.
5. Punch a hole in the bottom of the hand, and the top of the prayer. Your preschooler can lace the yarn or string through the holes, and you can tie them together.
6. Practice drawing the number 1 on the hand, and/or write out the word "One". 

The hopes of this craft is to teach your preschooler to recognize the number 1, be able to draw a number 1, and know that we believe in only one God. This seems very basic, but when I first told my 4 year old yesterday that we believe in one God, her reply was "No, Mommy. There are lots of Gods in all the churches!". Glad I decided to start with the basics...

My 4 year old really surprised me with her ability to trace such a long prayer. I haven't been giving her enough stuff to work on for sure!

If you don't want to write out the prayer, I created this image that you can print and hang from the bottom of your hand in stead. (Each week for this preschool we are also going to be working on a memory prayer or bible verse that coordinates with the theme, and for the first week this is it).

I know I promised curriculum- not just crafts, and it's coming! Over the next 2 days I'll be posting everything you need to teach the first quarter with your preschooler at home. :-) I'm very excited about this!

<a href="http://catholicicing.blogspot.com/search/label/Catholic%20ABC%27s" target="new"><img alt="Catholic ABC's" src="http://i554.photobucket.com/albums/jj427/bunnydeau/ABCs2.jpg" width="180" border="0" /></a>

If you have older children you'd like to do a "We believe in ONE God craft" with, try making some God's eyes! Hope you and your kids enjoy this craft- I know we did! Send me pictures of your kids with their completed crafts if you can :-)

Lydia with her "1 God" craft. She's so proud!

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God's Eyes or 'Ojo de Dios'

I have fond memories of crafting God's Eyes as a child. I guess some Christian crafts just don't go out of style :-) They symbolize the all seeing eye of God. This craft is great for kids of a wide age span, and the materials are easy to come by!

I was thinking that making some red white and blue God's Eyes (or Ojo de Dios) would be a fun activity for the 4th of July, followed by a prayer asking God to "watch over" our great country! Here's what you need to make them:

Materials Needed:

• Several colors of yarn
• Popsicle Sticks
• Glue (optional)
• Scissors

First, glue the sticks in the shape of a cross and allow to dry. Then, take your yarn and weave it in an "x" shape to fill in the middle of the sticks. Next begin weaving the God's eye. You do this by wrapping your yarn in a circle around one stick, turning it 90 degrees and bringing the yarn at a diagonal to the next stick. Then you wrap it around the next stick and keep repeating until you're finished!

Red, White, and Blue- what do the colors symbolize?

• Red- hardiness & valor
• White- purity & innocence
• Blue- vigilance, perseverance & justice

Click here for a great picture tutorial on making God's eyes.

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