4Real Forums: Activities for Lent for preschoolers?

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Topic: Activities for Lent for preschoolers?

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kristinannie
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Posted: Feb 16 2011 at 8:40am \| IP Logged

Can anyone recommend some lenten activities for preschoolers? My kids are 4 and 3. Thanks so much!

JennGM
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Posted: Feb 16 2011 at 8:50am \| IP Logged

This won't be comprehensive, but a few ideas:

We are awfully fond of the Lamb of God countdown from Karen Edmisten.

Stations of the Cross boxes

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DominaCaeli
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Posted: Feb 16 2011 at 10:40am \| IP Logged

We do the crown of thorns activity that has been mentioned lots of times on the forums. (Here's a link to a salt dough version.) Instead of having the children pull sticks throughout the day, they each do one in the evening. We have a paper chain to count down the days of Lent, and each loop has a prayer or hymn written on it that the children know. During our evening devotion time, one of the children pulls that day's loop and all of them say the prayer. That is their "good work," after which they can pull a toothpick from the crown. On Easter morning, the toothpicks are gone and I decorate it with ribbon and flowers. They love this little devotion and look forward to it every year (and that's saying a lot--my two oldest are only 4, but they have remembered doing it for the last two years.)

The Stations of the Cross box Jenn mentioned was a huge success here last year. They talked about it for months.

The children love praying the Stations the traditional way too--the bowing before each plaque and all. Last year I had them color pictures of the Stations and we posted them down the hallway to use.

Stabat Mater has been a wonderful hymn for them to learn during Lent. They sing it all year.

This year I really want to incorporate something similar to this candle idea. I love the meaning behind it and candles are always a hit with the littles!

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lovebeingamom
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Posted: Feb 16 2011 at 1:00pm \| IP Logged

JennGM wrote:

This won't be comprehensive, but a few ideas:

We are awfully fond of the Lamb of God countdown from Karen Edmisten.

Stations of the Cross boxes

I am totally excited to try these out this year with my 4 and 2 yo! Yay!!!!!

Any idea where I can download a great copy of the Stations of the Cross pictures to go along with the Stations of the Cross boxes?

JamieCarin
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Posted: Feb 16 2011 at 3:25pm \| IP Logged

Thanks for the great ideas!

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Lacy
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Posted: Feb 17 2011 at 9:06pm \| IP Logged

Here are some things I posted on my blog last year. My kids are 5, 2, and I have a baby, so they were a little younger last year.

Bury the Alleluia
Activities that span the length of Lent for kids (This year I'm going to do the one with the beans with my kids)
Putting things away for lent
Pretzels for Lent
Printable Stations of the Cross for Kids
Printable Lenten Calendar for Kids (I drew this calendar myself to look like a game board. We're going to be putting it into a lapbook this year, and I'm really excited about it!)
Stations of the Cross Box

This year I also want to do some kind of rice bowl craft with my kids to collect money during lent. They did this thing at our preschool that was really cool, and I'm hoping to post about it soon. Until then, check out these church banks we made. My daughter took hers to mass last Sunday and poured her money in when the basket came around. She was so proud and soooo adorable! Our priest loved her little crafted church, too. These were a lot of fun to make and my kids are loving them.
Last Supper Egg Carton Craft (With free printables for this

)

I do have a few more posts, but those are my favorites. You can see all the posts I have for lent here.

Hope this helps!

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CatholicMommy
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Posted: Feb 18 2011 at 10:33pm \| IP Logged

A couple of years ago (the Lent my son was 4) we did a rocks/stones thing. Look on my blog and search for "Lent" - it will come up :)

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