Teaching Theophany - young children

[~Anastasia~]

Hello all.

I thought I'd throw this out to a broader group since many of us would likely have a similar focus.

I'm teaching 1st and 2nd graders in Sunday School. I want to let them get a little more hands-on in activities and I have permission (our old books are just workbooks from decades ago and don't seem to suit the way the children are used to learning in school now).

I'm looking for a Theophany craft that focuses on the Holy Trinity, since that is a very important aspect for the Orthodox. There are a lot of cute resources, but they almost all tend to focus solely on John the Baptist and Jesus, or only on the Holy Spirit. Sometimes on Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

We don't depict the Father in iconography, etc. but it would be appropriate IMO to use the words spoken, a ray of light, or both to incorporate the Father as well.

Have any of you seen resources that would let us incorporate all three? If I can't think of anything better it may end up being a sort of string-mobile that just have them all hanging on a line, but I'd wanted something more creative and maybe like clouds folding out to reveal the words and/or the dove descending.

Any ideas? Thanks!!!

 

[Iarrthoir]

You could try the Trinity icon I found on Zazzle. Other than that, I don't know. Hope this helps.

 

[~Anastasia~]

I forgot this thread.

I worked something out. It was great - I used three paper plates as backgrounds and all were three dimensional. One for the Father with rays of light and the voice of the Father, one with the Holy Spirit descending in the form of a dove, one with Jesus being baptized by John in the Jordan.

I planned to spend a couple of weeks on the lesson since the dogma of the Holy Trinity is so important in the Church.

It was a mistake. I have a large class and there's a lot of traveling that time of year. Only one child finished on time. I had to hijack a couple of other planned lessons to catch up. A few still aren't finished because I had to move on.

Lesson learned - I will never plan another complex multi-week project.