Lent-Jelly Bean Prayer
For Lent this year I decided to teach my kindergarten-1st graders how to apply the Jelly Bean Prayer to their little lives. I believe that teaching children what the Bible says is important, but to show them how to use what they learn in their everyday life is priceless. I purchased a copy of this book ant Family Christian Store. I'm not sure if they still carry it but here is a link to it at Amazon . If it doesn't work please let me know so I can find a new link. It's a super cute book and the kids love it! I spread this lesson out for 6 weeks:
Week One: Speckled Jellybean
This week we learned about Sin. It was a short class, and I was able to do this on Ash Wednesday. I made a basket so every week we could put our "jellybeans" in it. I cut out brown construction paper, and I had the kids glue beans to the outside. The beans were the speckles, and they represented the "dirt" (sin). I know it's not a perfect jellybean shape, but the kids didn't seem to mind :)
On the inside I wrote "Dear Jesus, I am sorry for..." .The kids wrote down something that they did that did not please God. ( The week before we learned about Jesus' baptism, and how God was pleased with his son. This was the beginning of our theme about pleasing God.).
I found a great Lent calendar at Catholic Icing . This site is awesome!! She has tons of craft ideas for every holiday. I am not Roman Catholic but I do find so much stuff I can use in my class. Please check out this site. I promise it's a great site and very much "Pin" worthy :)
Week Two: Red Jellybean
This week we learned about Love. This was a great class because there is so much you can do to teach kids about love. First we made our red jellybean.
Week Three: Blue Jellybean
This week we learned about Faith and Trust. I loved this lesson. I really wanted the kids to understand that their family and friends should have faith in them and they should also be trustworthy.
We did an awesome little experiment to go with this. I got this idea from Children's Ministry and it's called Lies in God's Eyes. I took a gallon Ziploc bag and poured two cups of water in it. I added two or three drops of blue food coloring. You don't want it too dark and if it's too light then it won't work. On a white sheet of paper I wrote with an orange crayon: Lies, Gossip, Secrets. I had the kids take a green crayon ( I know that the instructions said a blue crayon on the website, but I found it totally worked better with the green crayon) and scribble all over the paper to cover up these sins. I explained that they wouldn't like it if someone told secrets about them or told stories or lies about them. Then I went on to explain that no matter how much you try to cover up these sins God can always see through them. Lay the sealed Ziploc bag over the white sheet of paper and you can see the words as clear as day!! Now I will admit that the little kids were amazed at the blue water and wanted to know if they could drink it or open the bag. Once you can lure their minds to the fact that God wants you to please him with honesty and by being a good son, daughter, sibling, and friend then this is well worth trying to get them to not pop the bag :)
Week Four: White Jellybean
This week we learned how God forgives us and washes away our sins!
We did another awesome little experiment with this lesson. I took some white house paint and put it in a plastic Ziploc container (not a bag, but a storage container for food). I had a little bottle of Deco Art craft paint in a dark plumb color. As we talked about what we would do in situations when someone asked us to forgive them I had each of the kids squirt a few drops of the dark paint into the white paint. I explained that these were our sins and we are asking God to forgive us. I stirred the paint and it turned white!! The kids (and my co-teacher) were amazed. The kids all did it again and I stirred, and the paint stayed white. God washed our sins away and made us brighter than snow!! I will say that after the third time when they squirted almost a whole bottle of paint into the white paint there was a purplish hue, but it still was pretty darn white.
Week 5: Yellow Jellybean
Ok so this was suppose to be the last lesson, but I have something planned for the green jellybean so it has to wait until the last week. Our lesson is being Thankful that we will share in the kingdom of Heaven one day.
The craft I decided to do with this lesson is actually very cute. We did an Ascension craft:
You will need:
- Plastic Cups (blue, cloudy or clear)
- string
- cutouts of clouds and stars or cotton balls
- a double-sided picture of Jesus
I made a hole at the top of the cup and pulled our string through it.
Glue Jesus to the bottom of the string and any bead or decoration to the top of the string.
Happy Crafting!
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