Seeking Our Savior

*** Update: Click here to get the printable in Spanish!

Yesterday, I posted the activities we had at our 2011 Family Advent Night.  Our 2012 Advent Night is coming up next Friday, so I am putting the final touches on the plan.  We will start the night with a Children's Mass for the Vigil of the Immaculate Conception (our parish feast day), and then all of the kids and their parents come over to our parish hall for activities, snacks, and fellowship.

We are talking about 45ish kids ranging in age from preschool to 8th grade, so it is always interesting  to plan something that hits them all.  I am a big fan of multi-age activities, though, because there is such a great opportunity for the bigs to teach the littles and the little to learn from the bigs, even without them knowing it is happening.

The theme for this evening is "Seeking Our Savior."  If you read earlier, the CCD theme this year is "My Soul Magnifies the Lord," so I am playing off of the magnifying glass idea.  The concept is that the kids are looking for clues during Advent, leading them up to the real meaning of the season, which is to prepare our hearts for Jesus, not to celebrate Christmas starting the day after Thanksgiving.  We are doing the whole night complete with lots of little hands-on activities, but this could also be adapted to be a take home activity by just using the coloring book, or to a more classroom-friendly activity by using the coloring book as a group and looking up all of the scripture references. 

All of the paper items are free printables- you just have to click on each document to go to the link.
All of the crafts are intentionally simple and mostly very inexpensive.  I have included basic directions for each station.

Here is the mini coloring book with each of the "clues" leading up to the reason for Advent.  It includes at least one Scripture reference for each clue, a question to think about, some Old Testament Prophecy connections, and a place to record their "detective" work.

 Click here for the link to the coloring book:

Our kids are going to do an activity for each clue, so they will actually get the coloring book at the end.  Here is the bag that they will get at the beginning of the night to collect their evidence.  (And to ensure that I won't be picking up unlabeled crafts from all over the room when the evening is over.)

Here is a link to the printable Clue Collection bag label:

For each of the activities, the table will be labeled with a large sign identifying the "clue."  When the kids need to find where to go, this will be their guide.

Here are the printable signs for all ten clues, meant to be printed on cardstock and used like table tents:

Depending on the age of the kids and your plan for the flow of the event, you can use these clue cards to get the kids hunting.  There are two cards for each clue, one with a question, and one with a verse, both that match the coloring book.  You could use just the questions or just the verse or all of them.  You could have a set for each kid that they collect one by one as they move from station to station, or you could have one that the leader reads to them when they finish one station to tell them where to go for the next...there are lots of possibilities.

I plan to have the cards at the right stations with Bibles open to the right verses so that the kids get some context on their clue quest.  This would also be a way to adapt it for a larger classroom independent station activity.

Here are the printable clue cards:

Onto the activities.  None of them are super awesomely exciting, but I needed quick cheap things that gave the kids just a bit of hands-on-ness to drive home the clue before they moved on.  There will be a Catechist at each table explaining and doing a bit of teaching-whatever works for the audience.  For most of our kids, they will spend less than 5 minutes at a station.  Obviously our 4-6 year olds will need a little more help, which is the beauty of inviting the parents.  They tend to go around with the little ones and help where needed.  The parents of kids who are too cool to hang with mom and dad help by serving refreshments or spending some time in fellowship.  It works well.

A Family Tree: Isaiah 11:1 & Matthew 1:1-16
Have the kids trace their hand and arm on brown construction paper.  Write their family name on the trunk and family members on the branches/fingers.  Connect to Jesus' family tree and that the prophets told us what family the Messiah would come from.

A Crown for the King of Heaven and Earth: Luke 19:38 & Isaiah 9:6-7
***(Keep in mind that not all of these activities are safe for all kids.  I am using several choking hazards, but our preschoolers are at least 4, and we have lots of adult supervision.  Keep that in mind if you adapt this to use with your group.)
Because of our format, I went easy on this one.  Pre-cut out crowns, markers to decorate, and sticky jewels -which will be strictly rationed by the adult manning the table :).  If you have more time, go for glitter or gluing on jewels because it is a lot cheaper.  Our format doesn't really allow for wet glue, so we are going with the stick-on ones.

The Work of St. Joseph: Matthew 1:19
Cue the cool thing for this station-
We had cross sections of wood cut like this:

And the kids wrote "St. Joseph, pray for us" on them.


The Love of the Blessed Virgin Mary: Luke 2:19 & Isaiah 7:13-14
Mary pondered all things in her heart- so we are going to make a heart to remember her and her love.
The kids will cut out a heart of fun foam,

 And punch two holes in it,

And tie a blue cord through it- the little ones might need explanation of the symbol of tying a cord around your finger to remember something- the cord represents that Mary remembered everything that Jesus taught and showed her through His life.

A Little Town Called Bethlehem:  John 7:42 & Luke 2:1-7 & Micah 5:2-5
Printable of a big B with Bethlehem landscape inside.  All the kids can use a coloring break at this point.

 Here is the Bethlehem printable:

A Humble Manger: Luke 2:6-7 & John 6
I am making these simple mangers ahead of time because it involves hot glue.  These are mini popsicle sticks, but you could do the same thing with big ones.

Glue together two slightly squished x's.

 Then glue three or four horizontal pieces for the sides.  viola.

 That night the kids will add a heart stamp or sticker or marker drawn heart of some kind- I haven't decided yet.  The heart shows that Love became incarnate and rested in a manger, a feeding place, which is a great connection to the Eucharist.

A Bright New Star: Matthew 1:1-2

Thank you, last year's mega after Christmas sales.  The bright new star is just an ornament.

 You could also get some glitter involved if you are brave...

The Sound of Angel Wings: Luke:2:13-14 
The kids will collect a feather and a bell at this station, representing that angels are swift messengers from heaven (feather) and that they sang in the skies over Bethlehem (bell). 

The Visit of the Shepherds: Luke 2:!5
Brown and white pipe cleaners twisted together.  Pretty simple.

The Gift of the Wise Men: Matthew 2:10-11 & Psalm 72:10-11
On-sale small boxes, decorated with markers and stickers and tied up with a bow.  (I am sure the kids will be much more creative than me.)  Inside the box, the kids will write on small slips of paper the gift that they want to give Jesus.  This is a great time to remind them that Jesus really wants our whole hearts, not gold, frankincense and myrrh.

And we wrap up with a bag stuffed with clues and a coloring book to bring it all together.  The last page of the coloring book has some thinking questions for the kids about what they can learn about our Savior from the clues they have collected, as well as what Advent really means.

 I think that our kids are in for a fun evening! I will post after the event with some pictures and an update of how it all goes :)

***After a couple of requests, and while getting ready to run this with ten or so volunteers, I made a Discussion Guide with directions/questions/answers/etc.  Click here for a copy.