Holy Week Palm Sunday Centerpiece Craft

I love Palm Sunday!  It begins the holiest week of the year, and starts with us celebrating Jesus' welcome into Jerusalem, where the people cheered, waved palms, and laid their coats at Jesus' feet.   I'm always left thinking how the people in that crowd couldn't have known how difficult and sad the days ahead would be, or that the real rejoicing and celebrating was a week later, when Jesus gave us new life on that first Easter.

Here is an easy way for your kids to make a palm branch centerpiece for Palm Sunday.  Thank you so much to our Religious Ed. Coordinator, Janet, who suggested this! We made this after our family Mass this past weekend, and it appealed to a wide variety of ages, as well as being simple enough for the very little ones.  I just eyeballed the sizes of tissue paper, it does not need to be exact.  This is what you'll need:

• Paper towel tube, cut in half (not pictured)
• Green tissue paper, cut into 12 3X3" squares
• Green tissue paper, cut into 1 6X6" squares
• Glue stick or craft glue

 Run a line of glue or liberally apply the glue stick in a line halfway down the length of the tube.

Scrunch up a 3X3" piece of tissue paper, and stick it to the side of the tube, close to the top.  Repeat this, going halfway down the tube.  You should have room for 3 rows.  Make another column, right next to the already completed one.  This will add some fullness to your branch.

Leave a space (it will be the stem part of the branch) and then add 2 more columns, right next to each other.

To finish the centerpiece, put some glue around the top inside of the tube.  Take the 6X6" piece of tissue paper and stuff it into the tube.  Push it gently against the sides so that it sticks to the glue.  You can always use another piece if you'd like it to be fuller.

Display the centerpiece on your table for Palm Sunday!  (This is the demo I made.)

Happy Palm Sunday!
Carolyn

A Holy Week Easter Egg Hunt!

Most egg hunts happen now before Easter, as opposed to during the Easter season.  I suspect that this is because most kids are back in school the day after Easter Sunday now, so usually the hunts are the day before Easter or the day before Palm Sunday.  We had never really had a problem with this, our church's hunt (the Saturday before Palm Sunday) was just simply a lead up to Holy Week for us.  It is a wonderful community event at our parish, and I want my children to experience that community.  I would always let the kids choose a piece of candy to enjoy, and then they would put it all away, to be brought out and enjoyed on Easter. 

This was all well and good until last year, when I started hearing, "It's Easter!  We're hunting for eggs and on vacation!"  Well, the 'on vacation' part I couldn't do much about, but I certainly could fix the egg hunt issue!  This is a take on other egg ideas all over the internet.  Type 'Resurrection Eggs' or 'Stations of the Cross Eggs' into a search engine, and you'll get some ideas.  The basic premise is to take symbols from the events of Holy Week, put the symbols into plastic eggs, hide them around your house, hunt for them, and as you open them, read the Holy Week stories from the Bible.  Here's how we did it last year, step by step.

Above are the symbols I used.  Here is the list, top to bottom, starting with the column on the left.

1. The rolled up pipe cleaner is soft, like the fur of the donkey Jesus rode into Jerusalem.
2. A palm branch for the branches that were waved.
3. A dove and cotton ball (lamb's fur)  for the money lenders and trade going on at the temple.
4. Three dimes for the thirty pieces of silver, the amount of money for which Judas betrayed Jesus.
5. Soap and a Towel for Jesus washing the apostles' feet.
6. A Cracker and (top 2nd column) Chalice toy representing the institution of the Eucharist.
7. A picture of a flower representing the garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus prayed.
8. The letter 'Z' representing the sleeping apostles.
9. A chocolate kiss for Judas betraying Jesus with a kiss.
10. A toy sword for Peter cutting off the servant's ear.
11. Lanyard or rope for Jesus being bound.
12. The number three (top 3rd column) for the number of times Peter denied Jesus.
13. A red feather for the crowing of the rooster.
14. Yarn tied to look like a whip for the scourging.
15. Gravel representing Jesus carrying His cross on the road.
16. A toy soldier
17. Purple cloth (top 4th column) for Jesus being stripped of His garments.
18. Nails for Jesus nailed to the cross.
19. Sign saying 'INRI' for the sign above Jesus' head.
20. Dice for the soldiers gambling for Jesus' garment. 
21. Blue cloth for Jesus speaking to His mother.
22. A black oval representing the eclipse of the sun.
23. A ripped cloth (top 5th column) representing the torn curtain of the temple.
24. A rock for the rock placed in front of the tomb.
25. An empty egg representing the resurrection.
26. Sand representing the three times Jesus fell.

I placed all these items in eggs and hid them around the house.  I made sure I had 30 items, since I have 3 kids and that way they could each find 10 eggs, but you could do fewer than I did.  We hunted for the eggs, found them, opened them, and talked about what they could mean.  Then I read the Holy Week events to them, and as we read, the children would pick up the items as we read about them.  I ended with the resurrection, as I think it's better for little ones to know that the story doesn't end with Good Friday.

    

We had so much fun doing this, and it really drove home the point that this week is about Christ, not the candy.

A blessed Holy Week!
Carolyn