Tutorial: Pentecost Crowns

One of the perks of parenthood is taking the time to really think about spiritual things since I have the job of teaching it to my young one's.  I'm finding during this season that my thoughts are drawn to what the disciples must have felt during this rapidly changing time.  The events leading up to the death and resurrection of Jesus and then the whirlwind of days as they began to see with new eyes as Jesus made clear His plan that had been set from the foundation of the world.

As I read about the disciples waiting on the Lord in prayer, my heart is drawn to verses like:

"I wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him."

Psalm 62:5 (NLT) 

So I'm drawn to waiting, praying, seeking.  I find myself refreshed and expectant. 

There is so much depth here.  How do I explain the significance of what was happening as the disciples witnessed Jesus' ascension and waiting for the coming of the promised Holy Spirit?  Sometimes my attempts seem so feeble...

But then I remind myself that it is not my job to ensure that they are blown away by this and affected at a deep level as I am.  This is a job that only God can do.  But I can faithfully teach and share my joy, wonder and awe at these events.  I can try and find ways to make it easier for them to relate to the excitement and then pray that God would open their eyes and unlock their hearts!

And so we continue our preparations for our Pentecost party this Sunday to celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit and the birth of His church.

After reading our book on Pentecost, Xander announced that he wanted all of us to have tongues of fire for the party.

And so we commenced with making our Tongues of Fire Crowns.

First, I gathered supplies.

glue, cotton swabs, paper plates, scissors, glitter and paper.

picture of a flame: download here!

I printed flames and cut them out. 

Then I gave each child a plate with a flame.  On a separate plate I squeezed out glue and handed each child a cotton swab to spread glue.    [Gripping this little cotton swab is a great activity for developing fine motor skills and that important pincer grasp.  See, we get Bible and general preschool activities at the same time.]

Once a thin layer of glue is spread on the flame, comes the potentially messy part.  I chose to monitor this pretty close since I'm not a fan of cleaning and didn't feel like getting glitter all over my carpet...  I placed a small amount in their palm or let them carefully tap the orange glitter which had a special lid.

As we let these dry, we began the cutting phase so we would have strips to make the crowns.

I discovered that my 5.5 year old could make some quality cuts and that the 3.5 year old wasn't interested on that particular day of even trying to follow the lines...  So we just let the two younger one's cut for fun while Xander focused on getting the strips done.

Finally we glued the flame to the middle of a black strip and stapled two black strips together and then measured each head to get a proper fit before stapling it all together.

The excitement is building over here!