Faith-Sharing Flip Chart

• Understanding the purpose of each of the seven sacraments and their interdependence on each other for a life of faith is important for children in establishing religious discipline. Kids often enjoy making crafts, and a foldable organizer will help them learn about the sacraments. Provide each child with a sheet of construction paper and help them fold it in half lengthwise. Divide the front flap into seven sections and write the name of a different sacrament in each section. Cut across each section, creating seven “doors” on the front panel. On the inside, instruct children to draw a picture related to the sacrament on the left and write a short explanation of the sacrament on the right. Allow children to decorate their chart with glitter, yarn, beads and markers. This craft also serves as a tool when kids are trying to explain the important tenets of their faith to those who are unfamiliar with Catholicism.
  
  

Miniature Confessional

• Building a miniature confessional encourages children to view sacraments as a normal part of life, just as they play with dollhouses, dolls and other toys that depict everyday things. Provide each child with craft sticks or cardboard, glue, scissors and markers or paint, depending on their ages. Display pictures of confessionals and discuss the important aspects of the structure. Encourage children to draw a plan before building the confessional. Young children can use craft sticks because they are easy to build with, but older children may enjoy the challenge of drawing on the cardboard and cutting out each section for assembly.
  
  

Memorizing Art

• Catholic children learn many recitations for church, including the Act of Contrition, which is commonly recited during confession. It is often daunting to commit so many words and verses to memory. Help them with the memory work by putting a crafty spin on flash cards. Provide markers or colored pencils and unruled index cards. Give each child a copy of the Act of Contrition text to copy on the index card. Allow them to decorate the card with their colors in addition to glitter, stickers, or pictures cut from magazines. Frame the card by gluing two craft sticks along each edge. Use colorful yarn or string to make a picture-hanging wire and glue it to the back so children can display their craft on a wall near their desk or bed. As they admire their accomplishment, they will read the recitation and begin memorizing the words with little effort.
  
  

Private Confessional

• Give children a small cardboard box, similar to the kind used for business cards or jewelry. In the bottom panel, help students cut a flap with three sides so it can swing open and shut as a door would. Insert a two-pronged brad near the flap edge, opposite the hinge, and bend the prongs to hold the flap closed. Cut several small pieces of paper and encourage children to write the sins they want to confess on the paper and put them in the box. When children next attend confession, reading through the items in the box will help remind them of what they must tell the priest. After confessing and completing penance, tell the children to hold the box over a trash can and turn the brad so the flap opens and the confessions drop out. This serves as a visual reminder to children that when sins are confessed to God, the Bible says they are forgiven and forgotten.