Theme: Nativity Fast

• Overview
• Preparing for Christ
• Christmas Pudding
• Christmas Cards
• The Little Theotokos
• The Theotokos' Life in the Temple
• The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
• The Burning Bush
• Moses' Staff
• Christmas Tree

Overview

For the bookshelf

For the toy shelves

Outings

See also

Start of the Nativity Fast and Day After Entrance of the Theotokos

Preparing for Christ

Introduction

Watch Rocko's "Christmas Special" (it's actually quite long).

Activity 1

St. John Chrysostom said:
"Let the hands fast by being free of avarice.
Let the feet fast by ceasing to run after sin.
Let the eyes fast by disciplining them not to glare at that which is sinful.
Let the ear fast by not listening to evil talk and gossip.
Let the mouth fast from foul words and unjust criticism."

Get up and shake out your bodies after that long Rocko movie episode. Stretch and shake each body part John Chrysostom just mentioned.

Activity 2

Write down forty kind things you can do, such as:
- donate a Christmas present to a charity
- donate books to charity
- donate clothes you don't use any more to someone who needs them
- feed wild animals, such as birds or deer
- give someone a compliment
- give someone a hug
- let someone in front of you in a queue
- make someone smile, such as by telling a joke
- offer to help someone
- smile and thank someone who serves you
- spend 10 minutes giving someone your full attention
- tell someone you love them
- write a happy note and hide it for someone to find
- write a thank-you note to someone

Lunch Snack

Review which foods are fasting foods and which are non-fasting foods, and choose fasting foods for your meal.

Activity 3

Use forty paper plates to make a Christmas tree on the wall. Stick-tape a paper with an act of kindness to each one, ready to pull off an act on over the coming forty days.

Christmas Pudding

See also "Start of the Nativity Fast".

Introduction

Watch a three-minute video, "Stir-Up Sunday: Stir and Pray", or learn the "Christmas Pudding Song". 

Activity 1

Find all the ingredients for the Christmas pudding, measuring and chopping as needed.

Activity 2

Make the Christmas pudding, making sure to say the "Stir Up" prayer.

Stir up, O Lord, the wills of Your faithful people that they may plenteously bring forth the fruit of good works, as they await the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ to restore all things to their original perfection; who with You and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.

Lunch Snack

Make Christmas pudding cracker snacks with round crackers, cream cheese or another light-coloured spread, tomato and cucumber.

Activity 3

Make a felt pudding ornament, or make a paper plate Christmas pudding.

Activity 4

Make a Christmas pudding out of scented playdough.

 

Christmas Cards

Activity 1

Walk to the post box to check the mail.

Activity 2

Cut out images from Christmas junk mail.

Lunch Snack

None specific.

Activity 3

Make Christmas cards to send using cut-out images from Christmas junk mail.

The Little Theotokos

Introduction

Watch a 5-minute video from Be the Bee: "God's Mother, Our Mother". 

Activity 1

Play some of the interactive online games for Entrance of the Theotokos.

Activity 2

Make polysporia (bean salad) and give thanks to God for the things He has given us, like all the food harvested in the last few months. There are polysporia recipes here and here.

Lunch Snack

Eat some of the polysporia.

Activity 3

Use a matchbox painted gold (or use yellow construction paper to make a similar size box), and tape toothpicks or popsticks to the sides and yellow feathers to the top to make a little Ark of the Covenant. Print out and cut the attached printables, discussing how the Theotokos has become the new Ark and how the things in the Ark are types of Christ: the manna and the Bread of Life; the tablets and the fulfillment of the Law; the budding staff and the virgin birth.

Activity 4 

Wear white to church for the Entrance of the Theotokos.

The Theotokos' Life in the Temple

Introduction

Watch a 7-minute video, "The Life of the Theotokos".

Activity 1

Stretch purple yarn or ribbon across the floor. Practice jumping over it, one side to another. Walk along it like a balance beam. For an older child, place two pieces parallel and use it to practice jumping using an elastics rhyme.

Activity 2

Use pieces of purple yarn to make letter shapes on a tabletop workspace.

Lunch Snack

Eat purple foods: grapes, beetroot, eggplant, et cetera.

Activity 3

Weave something purple, such as strips of purple paper, or basic tablet weaving with wool, or make a purple woven Swedish star ornament.

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

Introductory

Read about the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in a children's Bible.

Activity 1

Put a basket on the ground and practice throwing the non-breakable Christmas baubles into it.

Activity 2

Use red and green pom-poms to spell out letters.

Lunch Snack

Eat apple slices dipped in hummus.

Activity 3

Make a bauble by filling an empty clear bauble with pom-poms, sequins, and other objects.

The Burning Bush

Introduction

Read "Moses and the Burning Bush".

Activity 1

Moses took his shoes off because he was on holy ground. Put all your shoes in one big pile at one side of the room, and have the child run to grab one shoe at a time and match them in pairs at the other side of the room. For more than one child, make it a relay.

Activity 2

God said, "I am who I am". Use small birthday tapers to write out "I AM". Then use one of them (or a green crayon) to draw a burning bush (or something else) on a piece of paper. Use a sponge to lightly brush watered-down red or orange paint on it and see how the drawing (the bush) resists the red paint (the flames).

Lunch Snack

Make a tree-shaped fruit salad: kiwi fruit and green grapes for the tree, and strawberries and raspberries for the flames.

Activity 3

Make a Christmas lights suncatcher using clear contact paper and ripped bits of tissue paper. Use a sharpie to draw the bulb shape on the contact paper and have the child rip and stick the tissue paper. Cover with a second piece of contact paper and cut around the shape. Use a hole punch in the top and thread a string through to create a garland.

Activity 4 

Download the Moses and the Burning Bush worksheets from Holy Assumption Monastery. (They are free, but you will need to create an account).

Moses' Staff

Introduction

Watch a 5-minute video: "The Bronze Serpent".

Activity 1

Practice moving in the different ways that snakes move.

Activity 2

Tie ribbons around a stick to make a Christmas tree ornament. Think of something you are grateful for for each ribbon.

Lunch Snack

Eat spaghetti or another snake-shaped food.

Activity 3

Make a paper chain garland.

Christmas Tree

Introduction

Watch a one-minute video: "Còig Criomagan Craobh na Nollaige".

Activity 1

Set up the Christmas tree.

Activity 2

Prepare rounds of felt with a slit in them and have the child stack them on a pop stick. For a smaller child, just use a tower stacker toy.

Lunch Snack

Make a Christmas tree out of sugar snap peas, pretzels, and a slice of apple.

Activity 3

Make toilet paper roll Christmas trees.