But before I get to the craft - or the tea for that matter - I must show you a few pictures from our "recess" today. It wasn't very warm out, but we're just so in the spring mood these days, we couldn't help ourselves. Admittedly, there was not a lot of spring to be found, but we did spy, of all things, a spider (alive!):
The boys inisisted I show you the spider, even though I felt it didn't really go with the whole tea-drinking, craft-making theme of my post. But I suppose this is a household of boys after all ... :)
Earlybird and Crackerjack were mighty glad to get back in the saddle!
While I headed in to make lunch, the boys filled a bowl with all kinds of treasures for the nature shelf ~ spruce cones and needles, bark, acorns and maple tree buds. They also found evidence of a skunk visit, and several small but deep burrows which must belong to either a mole or a chipmunk. (Or maybe something else? Any ideas?)
After lunch, it was time for our tea-and-a-craft; our focus this week, Palm Sunday.
I saw a neat project in The Big Book of Catholic Customs and Traditions for Children's Faith Formation ~ a Palm Sunday banner made of green paper hand (or palm) prints. I thought this would make a nice decoration for the learning room this week.
Now, one of my fellas was a bit too squirmy to have his hand traced (I'm not naming names!) but he did acquiesce to having his palms photocopied, lol!
After cutting out all the hands (a tricky task which fell upon me) we lined them up along a long length of green paper, a "spine" for our palm frond and taped them all down. Bookworm made a Hosanna sign, and then we hung up our "palm of palms" in the windows (top photo).
And for tea? Irish decaf with plenty of sugar and milk and a batch of freshly baked oatmeal date cookies. As in palm dates, of course. ;)
As we munched, we looked over this week's Magnifikid and talked about the word Hosanna. I asked the boys if they recognized it (they did) and asked if they could name at which point it is said (or sung) during Mass (they could).
Our final plan for the afternoon was to run through their roles for the Passion Play this weekend, but a friend of Crackerjack's showed up on the doorstep so we put that off for a while. We still have a few things to tweak on their costumes, but I think they have their parts down pretty well. :)
Well, I'm going to wrap things up here now, as it's just T-20 minutes to Lost! (Is it true this is the last episode for awhile? That went fast.) Have a good night, everyone ~ I'll see you all sometime tomorrow.
