Advent Math, Writing Project Craft

Count Down to Christmas with Lessons in Giving

So many of us have found Christmas to be far more about receiving than giving with our children. It's not that kids are so selfish, it's that marketing campaign target kids and bombard them with images of thousands of 'must-have' toys, gadgets and goodies. Who can blame kids for wanting all that cool stuff. To say, 'you're selfish' to a child is to state an obvious, but not necessarily negative fact of childhood. Telling them not to want things is pointless. But we can give them lots of positive, proactive opportunities to practice giving, sharing and caring.

The goal in Advent is to prepare our hearts for the coming of the Christ child anew. One way we practice this is with the spiritual and corporal works of mercy, especially prayer, fasting and generosity or sacrifice. Advent is a perfect chance to practice these skills. We as a society tend to be more aware of the needs of others at Christmas. Here is a Advent craft which incorporates math, writing and sacrifice. It can be extended to include some practice in cultures, social studies and geography also. This can be used in a classroom, home-school, scout troop, day care, Sunday School and within your own family.

This craft is styled after the original lift-the-flap Advent calendar.

Materials: one for each child or student

A sheet of cardboard, recycled cereal box or tag board
A 12 x 18 sheet of white paper ( or 2 81/2 x 11 sheets)
one 12 x 18 sheet of black construction paper
gel, metallic, neon or fluorescent markers, crayons or pencils
straw, hay or brown thread
gold foil star stickers
cotton balls
glue sticks
scissors, Widget or an exacto knife
map or globe
a jar for putting money into

Directions:

Draw a nativity scene on the black paper with the markers, pens, crayons or pencils ( the bright colors will show up nicely on black paper).

Around the picture, lightly draw 22 squares of 2"x 2". You can put them anywhere you like, even over objects in your picture. These will be the Advent windows

Cut around three sides of the square with one blade of your scissors or exacto knife; this will create the flaps to open the windows.

Lay the picture over the white paper; line edges up.