Holy Week 2017

It has been a busy few weeks. Last week, was our first week back to school after Easter vacation. The week before Easter vacation was Holy Week and we did a lot of fun activities. Here is are some of the Holy Week activities that we did.

We read the story of Palm Sunday and made this tear and glue palm leaf craft.

The kids made this book which tells what we Jesus went through in his last week of life. On each page, the kids have to cut and paste letters to spell Jesus and then they color a picture to go with the sentence that is on the page.

We talked about the Stations of the Cross and each child made one of these lift the flap Stations of the Cross to take home with them.

Each child made this Holy Week in Fingerprints activity.  It is a wonderful keepsake. I adapted it from this activity by Catholic Icing. It is more manageable for a whole class activity if you use fingerprints instead of handprints.

We read the story of the Last Supper and then we made this washing of the feet craft. To make the footprints we made our hands into a fist and then pressed the fist, pinky side down, onto a stamp pad. We made the toes with fingerprints.

We also made this stained glass looking crucifix craft. It is made with liquid starch and tissue paper pieces.

We talked about the Veil of Veronica and the kids made a drawing of what they thought Jesus' face looked like on a piece of cloth.

Throughout the week we used Resurrection Eggs to talk about Jesus' Holy Week. By the end of the week, the students we able to tell me what the symbols in each egg represented. This year I used a book called Benjamin's Box to go with the Resurrection Eggs. There are a couple differences in the eggs and the book, but we made it work. 

On Holy Thursday, our fourth and fifth grade classes act out the Last Supper. It is wonderful for the students to see a play about the Last Supper. Jesus is played by an eighth grade student.

Yesterday, we finished our learning about Easter with a cooking activity called Resurrection Rolls. First we rolled out a pillsbury crescent roll on a plate. Next, we put a marshmallow on top of the crescent roll. The crescent roll represents the tomb that Jesus was put in after he was taken off the cross and the marshmallow represents Jesus.

Then, we sprinkled a cinnamon and sugar mixture on top of the marshmallow.

We folded the dough around the marshmallow and put the bundle onto a baking sheet.

When the rolls came out of the oven the kids got to eat them. As they were eating them, they realized that the marshmallow was gone; just like on Easter morning when Jesus rose from the dead.

It was a busy few weeks and the kids learned a lot about Jesus' Holy Week and Easter.