Advent Workshop!

Advent is my very favorite season of the church year (and not just because my favorite color is blue!). I love the hymns we sing, and the way we lift up and honor the practices of waiting and hoping. 

An Advent Workshop seemed like the perfect way to share with the participants in our Intergenerational Sunday School class ways to celebrate the season of Advent at home. Our Advent Workshop at Trinity Lutheran, Connellsville, was Sunday, December 7, and we had a great time!

Here's how we celebrated:

A Godly Play Story - I took a class about Godly Play at Virginia Theological Seminary during my last semester at Gettysburg. As a summary, Godly Play is a way of telling stories that introduces children to stories from Scripture, liturgical actions, and religious language. It is based on the Montessori method, and was developed by Jerome Berryman. 

The Advent story is in four parts, which I put together for the purposes of this workshop. While nice wooden and fabric sets can be purchased from the Godly Play website, I looked at pictures online and created my own with cardboard, craft foam, and felt. I purchased the book from Amazon.com and began learning the story by heart in October.

The set I made - underlay, cards, candles, nativity characters

Let's enjoy the light.

Advent logs and candles to take home - We used landscape timbers cut to about 11 inches, with four holes drilled in the top. Families worked together to decorate their log and place three blue candles and one pink candle in the holes (to match the candles we have on our wreath in the sanctuary). They got very creative!

Paint! Glitter! Markers!

Hard at work!

Family devotion books - A reading and short reflection for each day as families lit the appropriate number of candles. We used "Prepare Him Room" by Amy Welborn.

Nativity scene craft - One to take home, and one to include in the fruit baskets that were distributed to some of our shut-ins during Christmas caroling. Very simple - pattern found online, traced and cut from black construction paper, tissue paper pieces and clear contact paper.

Hands at work, of all shapes and sizes!

Christ is born for you!

All in all, a wonderful event! I hope to use more Godly Play stories here at Trinity - it was very well received. 

Have you participated in an Advent Workshop before? What did you do there?