Creative Christmastide Prayer with Children

I want to share an idea for children's prayer that I saw recently. After Christmas, we happened to pop into the Zionskirche, the church where Dietrich Bonhoeffer taught confirmation classes, while taking a walk. Near the altar, they had the following set-up for spontaneous prayer. My children were immediately drawn to it and so was another child who happened to be in the building. 

There was a nativity scene with a basket full of tea lights and a candlelighter nearby. The children were encouraged to light a candle, say a prayer, and then set the candle among the nativity landscape. This is especially meaningful if the children have spent time on passages like Isaiah 9:2 ("The people who walk in darkness have seen a great light") during Advent. 

The second part of the prayer set-up involved placing a written or drawn prayer in the holes of cinder blocks. My daughter, who can't yet write, drew a picture. 

This type of prayer is great for both younger and older children, because it allows them to express themselves verbally or non-verbally, depending on where the child is developmentally. It also particularly appeals to children who tend towards the spiritual style of symbolism.

I would definitely like to do something 

like this next year! 

Group Art Project: Life-Size Fairy Collage

My daughter's birthday is in December in the middle of Advent. Despite being so close to Christmas, she has never seen this as a disadvantage and loves that a celebration is going on the whole month. Though I try to work with the natural seasons and rhythms in almost every aspect of our lives, I make exceptions with her birthday. So if she wants a fairy-garden-themed party in the middle of December, then why not? Which was the inspiration for this group art project . . .

a life-size fairy collage!

Group or collaborative art projects are one aspect of art education that fascinates me. It is also one of the least-written about topics on the internet. (That's probably why my first post on collaborative projects is one of my most popular.) Probably because there aren't as many art teachers out there doing them. It takes time and effort to think them up and pull them off. But the pedagogical benefits for the children are more than worth it!

The original idea for this project came from a website about fairy-themed birthday parties that you can find here. I then adapted the project for our needs and art supplies that I already had on hand.

Here's what to do:

Materials:

roll of butcher paper (or some other large format art paper)

paints

paintbrushes

water dishes for rinsing

sponges for blotting brushes

jewels, feathers, buttons or other interesting objects to use for collage pieces

glue

1. Roll out the paper and trace the outline of your child's body.

2. Have the children brainstorm what they can add to the picture to transform the the outline into a fairy (i.e. wings, crown, wand, etc.), or what they could paint as a background.

3. Provide the children with paints, sponges and rinsing dishes, and ask them to paint the fairy.

4. After the paint has dried, give them the collage pieces and glue.

And now for the pedagogical benefits . . . 

Group projects like this allow children to be in situations where they must work as a team. They have to agree on ideas and delegate who will paint or glue what. They have to communicate, problem-solve, and make compromises - all skills that children must learn to make it in the real world.

Watching this process again at my daughter's party was beautiful. The birthday girl had very specific ideas of what she wanted, but had to make compromises. There was also one big "mistake" where some paint dripped where the girls had to figure out how to make it look nice again. (I'm sure you can hear me quoting Mona Brookes at this point, "There are no mistakes in art - only changes to be made.") The idea to paint a background came about spontaneously, because a couple of girls didn't have anything to do. 

If your child isn't into fairies, you could easily do the same project with another theme (knight, sports figure, profession, etc.) For a children's worship service, the kids could paint a biblical figure as well.

Do you have any experience with group art projects? If so, I'd love to hear about them!

New Year's in Berlin

New's Year's Eve in Berlin is a crazy, wonderful time. And this is why . . . 

Fireworks! 

Right after Christmas, you start hearing them go off at all hours of the day and night, and the excitement continues to build until New Year's Eve. Then, at midnight on New Year's Eve, the entire city looks like a war zone with fireworks going off literally everywhere. Normally cautious, security-conscious Germans suddenly forget where they left their heads, and you definitely want to be where you are going to spend the night by midnight when the sky is lit up for at least an hour!

Our iPhone pictures can't do the fireworks justice, but you can
see the haze from all of the smoke!

My son with a giant sparkler.

We celebrate New Year's each year with our children's godparents, who are two of our best friends, and their children. The four kids all have a blast helping to shoot off fireworks, playing and staying up late.

Food is always a special part of our celebration. Each year we have either fondue (which we ate this year!) or raclette. When we have fondue, we enjoy a 3 course meal over several hours: a cheese course, one chicken and vegetables in broth, and then a chocolate and fruit course. 

Raclette is also a Swiss tradition, similar to fondue, where meat and veggies are roasted on a tabletop grill. Both types of meals are interactive and community-building, so it makes for quite a fun evening!

Source: Raclette Australia

Then, on New Year's Day, we eat brunch together and then try to pick ourselves up and go home after staying up so late. Later in the day at home, my husband, a native Texan, makes us a pot of super-spicy chili. Yum, yum!

Hope that your New Year's celebration was wonderful, and I wish you the joy and peace of Christ in 2013!

Christmas Art: Toilet Paper Roll Nativity Figures

This great idea comes from my dear friend, Asmic, who lives in Moscow. Asmic and I met around 15 years ago in Uzbekistan of all places. Sometimes when you meet someone, you just know you'll always be friends. And even though I'm terrible at keeping up long-distance relationships, our friendship has become even closer over the years. 

Asmic is a stay-at-home Mom to three children who is committed to providing her children with creative, educational play experiences. She has also begun to teach Godly Play in her homeland. She thought up this art project for a workshop on Christmas at a local school in which she shared the Godly Play Advent story.

.

Asmic and her three boys.

Here is the tutorial that she's written for us:

Materials:
Toilet paper roll
Colored/scrap booking/ wrapping paper - stripes work best
Light brown, brown paper for faces, black, white, brown, grey - for hair and beards
Silver/gold paper
Crepe paper
Twist for headwear
String for hanging the ornament
Sequins for embellishment (optional)
Stapler
Felt pen
Scissors
Glue

Step 1. Measure out the colored or wrapping paper 16 x 9.5cm.  Cut and glue to the paper roll.

Step 2. Cut out and glue a circle for the face.

Step 3. Cut out the hair or a beard using a template. Ruffle the hair a bit. Glue the hair or beard to the roll.

Step 4. Cut the "headwear" out of crepe paper. Glue the upper edge to the top of the paper roll. Stretch out the lower edge to make it fluffier. 

Step 5. Put a twist/lace around the headwear and tie on the side.

If you want to hang the figure, staple a string on each end on the sides of the roll and tie the ends BEFORE you make the headwear band.

Step 6. Draw a face for your character. Also, cut a staff out of cardboard and staple on the side of the shepherd.

The process is the same for making a Wise Man.

The kids can make crowns of their own design. At our workshop the kids even didn't need a template.

Here are the templates we used. 

Here is a template for an angel:

Asmic's son "worked" on this template before she noticed, and then her husband scanned it with their son's additions. : ) 

Here are some pictures of the children's work:

Thanks, Asmic, for sharing such inspiring work with us!!

Linked to Eco-Kids Tuesday at Like Mama-Like Daughter and Organic Aspirations

and

Exploring Christmastide!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas Day and that you are now enjoying the Christmas Season. Though the stores may tell us that it's all over and done for, now is the time to enjoy the real Gift of Christmas. (For some lovely thoughts on this subject, I highly recommend Creighton University's  Celebrating the Christmas Season.) 

Since Advent can be packed with parties and other obligations, I have started leaving some of the fun activities like baking cookies until after Christmas Day. It's much more fun when we have some free time and Mom is not stressed. : ) 

Today, my kids and I baked some delicious Pepparkakor, Swedish spice cookies, together. We always use this recipe from Anne, a Swede who blogs about food - it's amazing!

You can see one of the Wise Men here and a camel.
Our Baby Jesus cookie cutter is missing,
so the kids sculpted one using a star as the manger (in the middle).
I'm secretly glad that we couldn't find that cookie cutter!

If you are have ideas for Christmastide, please share them with us - old or new posts! I have decided to keep this link up until Ephiphany.

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Advent Club 2012 - Week 5

Und jetzt habe ich endlich geschafft über den Schluss von der AdventsAG zu schreiben! (Besser spät als nie!) In der Woche vor Weihnachten haben die Kinder ein Programm im Seniorenheim gestaltet. Bevor wir aus der Kirche losgingen, fragte ich sie, ob sie noch erinnerten, warum wir dies tun. Einer antworteten, "Wir möchten den Senioren und unserer Stadt etwas Schönes schenken," und eine andere sagte, "Wir möchten die Freude von Weihnachten weitergeben." Wie schön zu wissen, dass mitten in Adventsaufregung wussten die Kinder immer noch im Herzen den Sinn der Sache! I'm finally getting around to telling you about the grand finale of Advent Club this year. Our last week rounded up with a visit to a Senior Citizen's home near our school. (Readers might recall that we visited the same center at Easter this year.) Before we left the church, I asked the children again if they remembered why we were going and why we had put all of this work into a program for the Seniors. The kids answered things like, "We want to give the Seniors and our city a gift" and "We want to share the joy of Christmas with them".

Das schönste in der Vorbereitung dafür war, dass fast all die Ideen und Aufregungen von den Kindern selbst kamen. Wir haben nur ein paar Vorschläge gegeben, meistens darüber wie sie die Weihnachtserzählung strukturienen konnten.  
The most wonderful thing about this process for me was that almost all of the ideas for the program came from the children themselves. I only gave a couple of suggestions here and there, mainly about how to structure the telling of the Christmas story. 

Zuerst spielte eine 5.Klässlerin "Leise rieselt der Schnee" mit der Geige und wurde von dem Gemeinde-Kantor mit dem Akkordeon begleitet. Here a fifth grader plays "Leise rieselt der Schnee" ("Gently falls the Snow"), a German Christmas carol, on the violin and is accompanied by the church's cantor on the accordion. 

Fünf von den Kindern trugen eine Gedicht, "Zum 4.Advent", vor. 

Two second graders, a third grader and two fourth graders 

recited a lovely poem entitled "Zum 4.Advent" ("Fourth Advent").

Wir dürften noch die Gedicht, "Die Zwei Wurzeln" von Christian Morgenstern, geniessen, die von einer 4.Klässler vorgetragen wurde. Here another fourth grader recites "Die Zwei Wurzeln" ("The Two Roots"), a winter poem by the beloved German poet, Christian Morgenstern.

Danach spielten zwei Jungs "Jingle Bells" auf der Ukelele und dem Trommel.

We were also treated to "Jingle Bells" on the drum and ukelele by these two boys. 

Einige von den älteren Kindern erzählten die Weihnachtsgeschichte mit den Salzteig-Krippe, die wir zusammen gebastelt haben. Then, several children told the Christmas story with the help of the salt dough figures that we made and the boards from the Godly Play Advent story.

Die Figuren aus Salzteig sind total süß, oder? Die Krippe wird beim Seniorenheim bis Dreikönigstag aufgestellt. Aren't the salt dough nativity figures lovely? They will be on display at the Senior Center through Christmas. 

Zum Schluss sangen wir "In der Weihnachtsbäckerei", "Ihr Kinderlein kommet" und "Macht Hoch die Tür" gemeinsam mit den Senioren. We also sang several well-known carols together with the Seniors: "In der Weihnachtsbäckerei", "Ihr Kinderlein kommet" and "Macht Hoch die Tür".

Ich war megastolz auf die Kinder, weil sie sich so bemüht haben das Programm vorzubereiten. Das war eine große Leistung für Grundschulkinder, die vor den Feiertagen meistens schon total durch sind! I was very proud of the children, because they worked so hard to put this program together and did it with so much joy. No small feat for elementary school children in the last week of school before the holidays who are tired and worn out!

Ich glaube, die Senioren haben's auch genossen. Einige kannten wir schon von der OsterAG und sie strahlten als wir sie begrüßten. Der einzige Nachteil war, dass es dismal nicht so persönlich war als zu Ostern. Wir waren Teil eines größeren Programms und der nächste Sänger war gleich nach uns auf der Bühne. Leider konnten wir nur ein paar Senioren die Hände geben und dann müssten wir gehen. Im Nachhinein bin ich der Meinung, so ein Projekt passt besser zu einer anderen Jahreszeit, wann es weenier Druck auf den Seniorenheim gibt große Unterhaltung zu besorgen. The seniors also seemed to enjoy our time together and beamed with delight at seeing the children. We saw several of the same ladies and gentlemen who were with us at Easter. The only thing I would have wished to be different was that we did not have as much personal time with the Seniors on this visit. We were a part of a bigger program and right after us another singer was already performing on the stage. We only had time to shake hands with a few people. If I had it to do over again, I would not probably not try to visit at Christmas, but do it at another time of year when there is less pressure on the Senior Centers to provide entertainment. 

Melinda und ich bedanken uns bei den Eltern, die uns mit ihren Kindern vertraut haben, und bei den Kollegen in der Kirche, die uns und den Kindern unterstützt haben. Es war eine wunderschöne Erfahrung!  Many thanks to the parents who allowed Melinda, my co-teacher, and I to invest in their children and to the colleagues at the local church who graciously worked alongside us!

For more Advent Club fun see:

Week 1

Week 2

Weeks 3 + 4

Merry Christmas!

"I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all year."

 - Charles Dickens (via Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol)

Have a very Merry Christmas and may you keep the light of Christ with 
you wherever you go the whole year round!