Church Activities for Children During Lent

Paper Activities

• Children can learn about Lent by completing word puzzles and word searches. Many Lent word searches and puzzles are available online to print at websites, such as Catholic Mom.com and Sunday School Kids.com. You can also make your own using words like "ashes," "pray", "Lent," "Jesus," "remember," "violet," "prepare" and "pray" to create a Lent bingo game by printing the words in the squares of a bingo card. Call out the words and the first child to get bingo and yell "Lent" wins the game. (Instead of calling out "B2," the caller says a word like "Jesus" and the players mark Jesus" on their bingo cards.)

Jelly Bean Prayer Activities

• The children can use jelly beans for Lent activities. Explain the jelly bean prayer to the children:

  Red is for the blood he gave,

  green is for the grass he made,

  yellow is for the sun so bright,

  orange is for the edge of the night,

  blue is for the sins we made,

  white is for the grace he gave,

  purple is for his hour of sorrow,

  pink is for our new tomorrow.

  Give the children a bag of jelly beans and have them hold up the corresponding color as you read the prayer. They can also glue the jelly beans to a sheet of cardstock and write each phrase next to the correct color for a take-home prayer.

Cross Activities

• Cross activities are good ways to commemorate the season of Lent because Jesus was crucified on a cross. For an easy cross activity, give the children several pieces of colored craft foam to make their own crosses. They can cut one large cross and several pieces of smaller foam to glue to the large cross to form a mosaic pattern. Tape a piece of string in a loop on the back of the cross so the children can hang them up. For another cross activity, have the children cut two crosses out of wax paper (the same size). Let the children use old crayons to shave pieces of crayon onto one of the crosses. Have an adult lay the other piece of wax paper on top and iron the pieces together. Poke a hole in the top of the cross so the children can hang the mosaic crosses in a window.

Crown of Thorn Activities

• Commemorate Jesus' suffering by allowing the children to make a crown of thorns using small pieces of wooden dowels as the thorns. Give each child a six- to seven-inch wooden ring, which is available at your local craft store. Use the smallest wood dowels available and cut them into two-inch pieces. The children will glue the dowel pieces around the wooden ring in a jagged pattern to create a crown of thorns. For an edible crown of thorns, let the children use peanut butter or frosting and pretzels sticks to create the crown (make sure no child has a peanut allergy before using peanut butter). Each child should place a dollop of peanut butter or frosting on a paper plate. Then he can poke the pretzel sticks into the peanut butter or frosting in a jagged pattern, leaving them to stick up to create a crown of thorns. (Make sure they make the circle glob in the shape of a ring with a hole in the middle.)