I know, you're thinking "Advent activities?? We haven't even done All Saints Day or Halloween!! But a wise friend once advised us Catholic mums to start thinking Advent at All Saints. And as a teacher- homeschooling parent, I learned to plan lessons well in advance. Here's an advent craft you should make ahead to ready yourself for the season.
Advent is the four week period before Christmas is often marked with Advent calendars. These are a great way to count down the days until Christmas and also a good calendar lesson for young children. You can make your own using this easy Advent calendar pattern.
Advent is a movable feast (or festival season), starting on the fourth Sunday before Christmas whenever that may fall. The length of time it lasts changes each year. To make your Advent calendar reusable from year to year, simply number windows from 1-42. That will ensure that you have enough for each day before Christmas and up to Epiphany. On shorter season years, end earlier.
You will need:
Four sheets of tagboard, construction paper or card stock. You can use 8 1/2 x 11, but you will need to be able to write very small. I recommend using 11X 17 construction paper. Make an 11 x 17 poster size pages by taping two 8.5 x 11 pages together.
Christmas images, illustrated Christmas wrapping paper or free printable Christmas coloring pages. Check out this blog for printables or Catholic Activities, my general Catholic educator/homeschooling website. If you are using coloring pages, you'll need to print two images or set your printer properties to enlarge the photo to 11 x 17. Your image will print in two pages.
Sharp scissors, X-acto Knife, Widget or scoring tool
Invisible or double sided tape, glue, Elmer's Spray Adhesive, glue dots or Rubber Cement (Glue dots are expensive but kid-friendly and much less messy. Rubber Cement works well also because you can easily peel off any spills.
Tracing paper or plain copy paper
Fine point black pen
Markers or crayons
To make:
Have kids color Christmas pictures if you have chosen that option.
Tape Christmas images to form one 11 x 17 poster.
Attach 11 x 17 image to one piece of tagboard. Or cover one piece of tagboard with wrapping paper.
With fine point pen, draw 40 1.5" x 1" rectangles on one plain piece of tagboard. Write one Christmasrelated Bible verse or Advent countdown activity inside each rectangle.
Lay tracing paper over rectangles and trace outlines.
Place decorated tagboard over traced rectangles sheet. Turn over so that tracing paper is on top. Using scoring tool or X-Acto knife, cut three edges of rectangle through tagboard. Label front of decorated tagboard with number 1-42. Tape two pieces of cardboard together along the edges. To open windows of Advent calendar, press to release and pull open. Bible verses and activities will show through window.
