Names of God Advent Activity for Kids
November 2018 -- Last night I was up in the middle of the night with a sick child and I got to thinking about the fact that Christmas is coming up and that I would really love to do something with our kids for advent this year.
But, at the same time, this is such a crazy season of life for our family right now. The kids are young, the nights are long, the days are exhausting . . . . Do I really have the time or energy to add "one more thing" to our already over-packed lives?
Right away it became clear to me that if we are going to do anything for Advent this year it is going to have to be:
1) Very simple (our kids are really young, so plain and simple is the way to go right now).
2) Minimal Preparation (there's just no time or energy for anything complicated right now).
3) Interactive (especially for my 2-year-old, it needs to be a hands-on activity if it's going to hold his attention).
4) Free (we just don't have much of a budget to put towards buying any advent resources right now).
While brainstorming for some ideas I came across this blog post: OhAmanda Names of God Advent Countdown and right away I thought to myself, “THAT’S IT!!”
I loved the idea of just taking ONE name of God for each day of Advent and turning it into a mini lesson for the kids along with a simple, hands-on craft activity.
The only problem? There’s no way we are going to get our Christmas tree set up before Advent begins, so the idea of making the names of God into tree ornaments just isn’t going to work for us this year, BUT, that doesn’t mean we can’t do a “names of God” craft each day!
So, instead of making ornaments for a tree I think we’re just going to make random names of God crafts that we can hang around the house as part of our Christmas decorating this year.
It will probably leave our house feeling like it’s a Kindergarten class room, but that’s okay – that’s the stage we’re in right now, so why not!?!
I’m still in the “brain storming” stage, so I don’t have any of my own projects or pictures to illustrate what I’m thinking, but here are some ideas to “glean from”.
The Pocket of Preschool website has some great ideas for creative name crafts and activities – like this “dot it” name mat! We already have “Dot It” paints, so one of our names of God crafts could simply be writing out the name and “dotting” it! So easy!!
I also like this idea from the Kindergarten Chaos website of just gluing strips of paper on the lines to create the name.
My kids are really into painting eight now, so this hidden name activity from the Fantastic Fun and Learning website would be perfect!
I’m sure we’ll do some of the names that are included in the OhAmanda Names of God Advent Countdown, since the ideas are already laid out there complete with the Bible verses to look at. I especially like this “I AM” name craft for studying the name Jahovah. The craft is very simple, but it’s hands on and what preschool age kid wouldn’t enjoy a chance to paint!?!
But I don’t think we’re going to follow the OhAmanda list of names completely, because, quite frankly, there are some really great names of God that I would really like to do with my kids that aren’t included in her list. Like the name “Lamb of God” or “Light of the World” . . . . Or Emmanuel (God with us!) . . . . But that’s the real joy of this simple Advent activity: we can do whichever names of God we want! There’s not really a “lesson plan” to follow, we just pick a name, have fun turning it into a craft project, look at a couple verses from Scripture, and talk about what the name means.
I’m really liking this Lamb craft from the Crafting the Word of God website. The website even has a free template for the head and feet, so it’s pretty easy and would be perfect for talking about Jesus being the “Lamb of God”.
I’d like to look at “Creator” as a name for God, since the kids have been learning about the days of creation lately. I’m thinking of just using this printable picture (also from the Crafting the Word of God website) and just letting the kids use water paints to paint the picture.
