3rd Grade Religious Ed Class 8: Burning Bush Craft Project

Class 8
Theme: God is Holy and Great
Review Gospel, prayer time (Icon - explain icons) praying for Poor Souls
Discuss second commandment, reverence for God's name, respect for things that are holy, and people who are consecrated to God.
Tell story of Moses and the Burning Bush
Burning bush craft
 This took some set up, but it went very well.

I cut out squares of clear contact paper (two per child with a few extra), strips of black paper, branches and the words "I AM." Then I tore up pieces of red, orange, and yellow tissue paper. I also had some long strips of green tissue paper for the ground.



The key here is to have everything ready to go so that it's easy for the kids to do.

They can take them home and hang them in a window!

 Then we acted out the story of Elijah and the Prophets of Baal.  If you know the story well, we stopped with the Israelites proclaiming that The Lord is God!

We didn't really do a game this time, instead we took a field trip down to the school's kitchen with all of these containers.

I explained to the kids that I was going to show them why we went to Mass.

I turned on the faucet and told the kids the water was like the love and mercy of God.  Does the tap ever run out of water?  Nope.

Then I put my little creamer in the flow.  That's like me or you going to Mass and praying.  We step into the flow and get filled up with that love and mercy, and very quickly, we get so filled up that we start pouring it out to those around us.

I filled a small cup from the overflowing creamer, than a large one, and then a large jug!  Will the creamer ever run out?  Not as long as it's in the flow, but as soon as you take it out of the flow, it empties quickly.  Put it back in and it overflows again.

Does it matter how big the creamer is? No, what matters is the flow.

Does it matter how fancy the vessel is?  I switched to an old tupperware instead.

What if it's cracked or a bit broken?

It's never about the vessel, all that matters is that it stays in the flow!

(HT: St. Catherine of Siena, she wrote about the vessel in the fountain in her Dialogues)

The kids had fun trying the water with the different vessels, and then it was time to get back for pick up.