by Sheila Kearney
The learning area needs to inspire and engage your students. Here is an idea for how to decorate and arrange your learning space and prayer table during the final weeks of your program.
Your Space
Cover a section of your wall or bulletin board with bright yellow paper. Cut long strips of green construction paper to form flower stems, one for each student. Cut tulip-shaped blooms from various colors of construction paper, one for each student. Write the name of a student on a tulip bloom and tape or glue each tulip bloom to the end of a stem. On the stem, write a virtue or Christian characteristic (such as charity, patience, or forgiveness) that the child has demonstrated during the school year. Attach the tulips to the wall or bulletin board to form of a bouquet, with the bottom of the stems close together and overlapping. From tinfoil, foil wrapping paper, or brightly colored scrap-book paper, cut out the shape of a vase and affix it to the bottom of the bouquet to “cover/hold” the ends of the tulips. In the pattern of an arch above the bouquet of tulips, write the words LET YOUR FAITH CONTINUE TO BLOOM ALL SUMMER LONG.
Your Prayer Table
Cut tulip-shaped blooms from various colors of construction paper, one for each student. Write the name of a student on each tulip bloom and attach each tulip bloom to the end of a green pipe cleaner. Place all the “tulips” in a vase. If your program is nearing year’s end during the Easter Season, drape a white cloth or banner across your prayer table; if the Church is observing Ordinary Time, drape a green cloth or banner across your prayer table. Place the vase of “tulips” on the prayer table, along with a Bible, the text that your students used all year, and a battery-operated candle. For the closing prayer of your learning year, emphasize the theme of growing in faith through the summer months. Let each child take his or her tulip from the vase at the end of the prayer
Copyright 2014, Bayard, Inc. All rights reserved. This article is protected by United States copyright and other intellectual property laws and may not be reproduced, rewritten, distributed, redisseminated, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast, directly or indirectly, in any medium without the prior written permission of Bayard, Inc.
This article was written by the Catechist Staff and appeared in Catechist magazine, August 2014.
Image Credit: Forest man72/Shutter Stock 659090347
