Stations of the Cross

The Living Stations

One of my favorite activities of the whole kindergarten year is exploring the Stations of the Cross with my munchkins.  Some of them have prayed The Stations with their families.  Others have never experienced this beautiful meditation before.  It is such a joy and pleasure to watch as, over the season of Lent, these little ones truly begin to embrace the story of Christ's passion.

We spent about three weeks exploring The Stations.  We made visits to the church to discuss the images on the wall.  We read several versions of The Passion and talked about all that Christ went through.  We also made our own Stations of the Cross prayer book, where each child illustrated each station in his or her own way.  It was a wonderful keepsake and it helped each child internalize what is happening at each station.

As a school, it is a general practice to pray The Stations every Friday.  By the time Lent was complete, even the kindergarten munchkins participated fully in the meditation.

And then came the grand finale!

Every year, we are blessed to have our 8th grade class perform The Living Stations.  This year, as is the norm, we were given a beautiful performance!  We were all (myself included) mesmerized.  It was a beautiful way to leave school for our Easter break.



We remember.  We celebrate.

We believe!

Many Lenten Blessings!

Until next time...

Giggles,

Mrs. D.

Living Lent: Part One

The Way of the Cross

One of the most beautiful ways to prepare for Easter is to walk with Jesus on His road to Calvary.  We are blessed to be able to take time each Friday to pray the Stations of the Cross as an entire school.  But because the usual Friday evening services are so solemn, many families choose not to attend with small children, as they fear that they might be disruptive...I know I didn't go when my kids were small.  Because of this, many of the munchkins have never experienced this beautiful way to pray and it is all so new to them!

So...

We entered into Lent excited to learn all about The Stations of the Cross, and like many other things in our room, we turned it into a game.  We spent the five weeks of Lent that we had together exploring each station, one at a time, always asking and wondering:

What will happen to Jesus next?

We visited the church 3 times each week in the afternoon and meditated (in a munchkin sort of way!) on each image.  We discussed the people, their faces, their feelings and our feelings.   Of course, we NEVER peeked at the next station! 

After each church visit, we would create our own drawing of what we saw, trying to recreate the people, places and emotions.  It was wonderful how the munchkins began to develop an understanding of the story as it unfolded before them.  And when we were finished, what a beautiful booklet it made. 

The display of our completed Stations of the Cross.

Be sure to click on each one below to get a close up so you can really see the artwork and read the fantastic writing.  Keep in mind the munchkins did not copy the words.  They wrote these entirely on their own! 

Stations One and Two

Stations Three and Four

Stations Five and Six

Stations Seven and Eight

Stations Nine and Ten

Stations Eleven and Twelve

Stations Thirteen and Fourteen

Of course, we reserved the celebration of the Fifteenth Station until after break when we present our Atrium lesson of The Empty Tomb.  The munchkins were disappointed to not get to it before Easter Break, but they understood why we had to wait...

The culmination of this project was truly fantastic! 

Our 8th grade class, every year, puts on an amazing performance of the Living Stations of the Cross.  The munchkins were incredibly excited to be able to go and follow along with the performance and the 8th grade did an absolutely wonderful job (as always!).  Interestingly enough, they change things a bit and boy, did the munchkins pick up on it!  Two of the stations (10 & 11) are combined and a different one is added as number 11.  I received several questioning glances during that part of the performance and we had a very good conversation about it afterwards!  You can't get anything past a 6 year old!

  

We remember.  We celebrate. 

We believe!

Until next time...

Giggles,

Mrs. D.