Advent is an exciting time in CCD class. Students are beginning to get excited about Christmas, and as their religious education teacher, it’s your job to remind them of the true meaning of the season.
Much like Lent is about sacrifice, Advent is about good deeds. Of the three focuses of Advent – prayer, penance and good deeds – your students will find reward in doing good things for others as Christmas gets closer, and not just because Santa is watching!
Spend the weeks leading up to Christmas with some Advent classroom activities.
Jesus’ Manger
During Advent, have students write down their good deeds on yellow strips of paper. Put them in a shoebox that has been made to look like a manger (you can cover it in brown paper and draw on marks to make it look like it’s made of wood). Each week during Advent, the manger gets filled with more and more straw (yellow strips). On the last class before Christmas, put the baby Jesus (a baby doll) in the manger. Tell the students that because of their good deeds, the baby Jesus has a soft place to lie.
Prayer Chain
At the beginning of each class, have the students write a short prayer on strips of red and green paper. At your prayer table pray for them, then staple them into an Advent paper chain, adding prayer links each week. The children will enjoy watching the prayer chain grow from week to week.
Make Advent Wreaths
Make a full-sized Advent wreath for your classroom, and have students make their own Advent wreaths to take home and enjoy with their families.
What’s a Good Deed?
When talking to your students about doing good deeds during Advent, be specific. They may not realize that some good deeds don’t take any effort at all! Give them a list of suggestions and ask them to try to do as many as they can during the four weeks of Advent.
- Say “thank you to the person who fixes your lunch.
- Tell your mom what you like best about her.
- Give someone a compliment today.
- Be nice to someone who is hard to get along with.
- Stick up for someone who is being made fun of, or being criticized.
- Be patient with everyone today.
- Tell someone the story of when Jesus was born.
- Give everyone in your family a hug!
- Say a prayer for the poor, the hungry and the homeless.
- Find someone at school who is usually alone and talk with him or her.
- Keep a smile on your face for three whole minutes!
- Tell a joke to someone who seems sad.
- Pray for someone who is sick.
- Put a dollar of your own money in the poor box at church.
- Do a household chore without being asked.
Brainstorm with your class to come up with more good deeds.
Make a Jesse Tree
A Jesse Tree is an old Christian custom in which a small tree is decorated with various symbols that remind us of the purpose and promises of God, from the Creation through the birth of Jesus. It’s Jesus’ family tree, in a way, since his heritage stems back to the beginning of time.
The Jesse tree is named after the father of King David, who is seen as the first person in the genealogy of Jesus.
Catherine Fournier has posted instructions for making your own Jesse Trees on domestic-church.com.
CatholicCulture.org has ideas for 24 Jesse tree ornaments that you can add to your Jesse Tree from Dec. 1 through Christmas Eve.
