Pray, Fast, Give Collaborative Bulletin Board

Rounding up ideas for Lent that needed updated on the blog, so I wanted to share this bulletin board from my school last year. We wanted to create something that the whole school could participate in together, something interactive, and something visual that kept us accountable to our goal of entering into the Season of Lent with prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

So on this giant bulletin board (almost 12 feet across) we created a set of "jars" that students and teachers could drop slips of paper in with their Lenten sacrifices. I'm sure you've seen some version of this with an actual jar on a table, so we were just trying to make something that the students of our school could all visualize and join in with. This bulletin board is in a common hallway that all students walk past so it was really special to watch the jars fill up a little more each week of Lent.

I made the jars with clear lamination- I asked the teacher in charge of the laminator to just run through about three yards of lamination without any paper or anything. It worked perfectly- it was nice and clear and also fairly sturdy. I curved the top and rounded the bottom corners to give it more of a jar shape. To attach it to the bulletin board, I stapled (LOTS of staples all the way around the sides and bottom, leaving the top open. This allowed students to slide in slips of paper but they couldn't fall out. To make a table/shelf for each jar I used a roll of wide burlap ribbon and added some fake palm branches. Around the top of each jar, I added some twine with a tag including a Saint quote about that Lenten discipline to remind us of our purpose.

You could totally recreate this concept on a much smaller scale on a bulletin board or even on your family fridge/calendar area/etc. Lots of ways to be creative about sharing the importance of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving this Lent!

Click here for the "Pray Fast Give" title in this bold font. Each letter prints on per page, so this makes for a pretty big title. If you have a smaller bulletin board, set your print settings to print 2 or 4 per page.

I used these three Saint quotes to make "tags" for the jars. One quote for prayer, one for fasting, one for giving:

We swapped out the Lent bulletin board for this one celebrating Easter! No easy tips for this one- it was made with bulletin board paper, plastic table cloths, streamers, and dollar store fake flowers.

But I can offer you this printable heading in a matching font if you'd like!

(Lots of repeat letters in "He is Risen" so just print those pages twice!)