Moses and the Burning Bush Craft

Most weeks I try to come up with a craft for my kindergarten CCD class that either goes with the lesson for the day, the liturgical season, or one of the readings from Mass that day.  Some weeks I strike out and have to just resort to decorating a cross or decorating a foam doorknob hanger with church themed stickers.  Either way, the kids generally have a great time doing the crafts.  On the weeks where I have them do an extra coloring sheet instead of a craft I get lots of grumbling.  These kids like their crafts and they aren't willing to accept me slacking off in that department.

This week I was genuinely stumped for ideas.  I wanted to have something fun to do each week in Lent.  The first Sunday of Lent where I brought in lots of coloring sheets, the kids weren't too pleased with me.  Apparently coloring is hard work and it makes their hands tired.  So last week I decided to have them make Marian Grottos since we were covering the chapter on Mary.  They were a hit.  The kids really enjoyed making them, and I was surprised at how well they did decorating them. I did the grotto assembly and coloring of the picture (I didn't want any zombie or robot Mary grottos coming out of my class.) the night before. Not wanting to hear grumbling that the craft isn't cool enough tomorrow, I did what I could to find a relevant Lent craft.  I didn't see anything out there that I wanted for this week so I looked to the readings.  Finally I settled on the Old Testament reading.  Moses and the Burning bush.  I love the book of Exodus so having an excuse to do an Exodus craft works for me!

I did a little searching on line and found a You Tube video for making a burning bush using a paper plate, and tissue paper.  It seemed easy enough.  The kids already did a similar thing with the Advent wreaths earlier in the year, so I know they'll enjoy it.

So I don't have to go insane with painted children, I cut the plates to bush shapes and painted each plate to look like a bush.  The kids will simply have to glue the tissue squares to the plate. I imagine this will easily take the class 15 minutes to complete.  Anytime glue is involved the craft seems to take a little longer than you might expect.  It's a relatively inexpensive craft that I'm sure the kids will enjoy.