Sunday, August 5, 2012

We are the Church Craft

Continuing my series on crafts related to the Creed...
(for the rest, check out the "I Believe" activities under the Sharing the Faith tab above)

Highlighting the Four Marks of the Church found at the end of the Nicene Creed, I made this craft as a vehicle for dicussing how the Church is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.

Here are some topics I would teach as I made this with kids:
-One= Christ founded one Church.  It was never his plan for us to break into smaller groups with differing beliefs.  When He comes again, we will all be united as one.
-Holy= The Church is the spotless Bride of Christ, good and holy, even though it is made up of broken and fallen people. When He comes again, the Church will enter Heaven as His Holy Bride.
-Catholic= The Church is universal.  Our faith is for all people of all cultures of all times.  When He comes again, we will see how all encompassing the Church really is.
-Apostolic= The Church is founded on the teachings of the Apostles, and continues to follow their authority today through their successors the Bishops.  We are blessed to have leadership in our time by those given authority from Christ.
-The Church is not a building, but is the people.  We are the Church, and we make up the Body of Christ.
-We believe all of these things as we say the Nicene Creed- "I believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church."

So, for the craft, you will need a copy of the printable (link at the bottom of the post) and one piece of black construction paper for each kid, as well as various colored scraps of paper, glue, scissors, and a circle punch if you have one.

First mission: color the pieces on the printable.  I chose to leave the church and "Our Church Is..." white to represent it being the spotless Bride of Christ.  Then cut them out.
Second mission: cut open the doors on the solid lines and fold on the dotted lines.  A little trick for kids having trouble-fold the church in half length ways and clip on the line.  Then open it back up and cut the rest. 
 Here is what it looks like after that step-

Third mission: lay the church in the center of the black paper and trace the opening with a white crayon.  (I love finding a purpose for the neglected white crayon in my Crayola box :) )

Fourth mission: Cut or punch out circle of various colors.  This is step you could do ahead of time to speed things up if you are crafting with a large group.  Glue the circles inside the white rectangle.

Glue the church on over the circles without gluing down the doors.  Then glue on the rest of the words like this:
Fifth mission: glue the "We are the Church!" and the Ephesians verse on the inside of the doors.  This is to remind the kids that we, all of the people of God, are the Church, and we are one body.
 Sixth mission: Go share it with somebody!
 Here is the link to the printable:


26 comments:

  1. Great craft! I do a version of this with our preschool of religion kids at my parish. I call it "I go to Church" and we put the child's photo in the flap.

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  2. Katie,

    This fits perfectly with our memory work for Classically Catholic Memory this week! Thank you so much for sharing!!

    Laura

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  3. Hi Katie,
    this is a wonderful craft that I plan to use for my Sunday school group this morning! Thank you for sharing it :)
    - Reanna

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    1. I'm so glad, Reanna! Thanks for sharing it with the kiddos!

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  4. You're the best! It's dedication Sunday at our church tomorrow and I only just remembered! Hooray for last-minute crafts! So simple and I don't need any special craft supplies! I've got a jumbo hole punch which the kids will love using to make their circles! Thank you!

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  5. Thank you for the download!! :) We are using it for Classically Catholic Memory Week 2 Gamma Year!
    Perfect!

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  6. Katie - I would love to use this in my discussion next week of St. Peter. However, I can't seem to get the download to work. Can you help me?

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    1. I'm sorry that you are having trouble! What happens when you click on the last image in the post? It should open up to a shared google doc, and when I check the link it is active. You might want to try a different browser. If that doesn't work, send me an email at katherine (dot) bogner (at) gmail (dot) com and I will email you a pdf. Thanks!

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  7. Great craft for the church! I'm going to use a collage of the congregation to paste inside the door. LOVE IT! Thank you for sharing!

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  8. This will be perfect for our program. Thank you so much for sharing!

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  9. Thank you for this activity. I am looking forward to using it to help my students remember the marks of the church.

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    1. I'm so glad, Mrs. Fast! Thanks for stopping by!

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  10. I'll use this Sunday, but I'm taking the Catholic out. I'm Apostolic. We believe in one God and his name is Jesus and he lives in us. Just like the scripture on here says.

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  11. Catholic as a proper noun is different from catholic with a small c. The word "catholic" as used in the creed means "universal." Protestant brothers and sisters in Christ, feel free to use the word catholic in this context.

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  12. This is a great activity! Thank you so much for all the great resources you make available for free - you have resources for many things that I just can't find anywhere else!
    I was just wondering about the significance of the circles, though. Are the different colors supposed to signify all of us? Or is it just meant to look like a stained glass window?

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    1. Oh, yes, that wasn't very specific! When I did the activity with the kids, we said the circles represented the diversity of all the people of the Church! You could also have them draw a picture or print out an image of a group of Saints if you think that would be helpful for them to understand.

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  13. This is great. What ages do you think this is appropriate for? I'm teaching 8th graders & am wondering if anyone has done this project for that age group?

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    1. I'm a big fan of stretching activities across ages, so I think it is all about the conversations that you have with them. The Four Marks of the Church are an important topic! I've only done this activity with K-2nd graders, but I bet you could adapt it!

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  14. I can’t get my 4th graders to remember the four marks of the church so going to use this craft to try and implant it.

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