Covenant Theology…for Kids!!!!
. I wanted to show this to the children in a tangible way. We are setting out each Covenant representation on a shelf. Each covenant representation is placed on a different shelf with the final shelf holding my favorite statue of Our Lady holding the infant Jesus joyfully above her head – the Mystery of the Incarnation made present in the fullness of time. I thought some of you might enjoy seeing our work.
I have been inspired by our work in the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, so our lessons here follow the same patterns of quiet work. We read the scripture account and then the lessons are made more real by the involvement of our clothespin action figures. 🙂 Hasbro’s got nothing on us!
The Craft:
The Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil is made out of a group of pipe cleaners bound together. We fanned the top out to be the branches and a small part of the bottom so the tree would stand up. The top of the tree is green felting wool pulled and shaped until we were happy and the tree had a natural look. This was the children’s favorite part. We used a dab of glue to afix the wool to the pipe cleaner branches. And, of course, the tree needed apples. I would have made these out of red felting wool as well, but we already had small apples in our craft bin, so we glued these to the tree and glued one in Eve’s hand.
The serpent, Satan, is just 3 pipe cleaners braided together – 2 greens and one black and wound around the tree. Adam and Eve are clothespin dolls. We freehanded some “fig leaves” out of wool felt and glued them to the clothespin figures. I had clothespin doll forms already, so we used those. The end result is pleasing and the children enjoy working with the figures. I think it would have been fun to do the days of Creation with the children, but we’re focusing on the covenants, so…
Picture Book Selection: The Genesis of It All by Luci Shaw
God’s Covenant with One Holy Family…
Picture Book Selection: Noah’s Ark
Sadly, Playmobil doesn’t have a set of Abraham and Sarah figures…so I’ll be back to clothespin dolls for that one. We’re working on Abraham, Sarah and Moses soon. I’ll post pictures when I can.
Edited to add…
The Chopins ask about the clothespin dolls. I hunted and hunted for more links for you, but I couldn’t find any. I really should have taken more pictures when we made these guys. I’ll take pictures over the next few days as we build Abraham and Sarah from the ground up.
If you have a Hobby Lobby or a Michael’s Craft store in your area, you can go to the section of the store with all of the craft woods and small wooden items for crafting. In that same section, you should find the “Forster” brand clothespin doll body – it’s really just a clothespin. Also in this section you’ll find Forster clothespin doll bases which is really just a circular piece of wood with a cutout so that your clothespin stands up nicely. Essential. Also, there is a bag of clothespin doll heads – grab one of those. I much prefer the feel of wool felt to the acrylic stuff, but you can grab felt there at the craft store as well as pipe cleaners. Lastly, a good bottle of Alene’s Tacky Glue. We built the base of the doll and glued the pieces together (clothespin, base, and head). Then we added pipecleaners for arms. After the body is complete, add the felt for clothes and felting wool for hair (yarn would do for hair, but felting wool looks so nice). Color pencils work nicely for adding a face to the figures.
I promise to take detailed pics when we build Abraham and Sarah.
Could you tell me more about your clothes pin people. We are doing Pauls journey and we have been using clay. I think the kids would have fun mixing this up a little. I could not tell what the clothes pins are standing in.
Yes! I think I’ll update the post with information because I realize now that I was vague, and these guys are so easy to make.
Excellent! I love the tree!
Oh! I am doing a covenant relationship thingy with the kids too…for my 5, 8 and 9yo and something more in-depth with my 13 and almost 15yodds…in between much nursing of course…when I get 2 hands again…I will share what we are doing and get back to the blogging thing……longing to be a bit further on- post-partum wise ;o)
MaryEllen just told me she wishes you, Jen, were in our family because “she does lots of fun stuff.” A rosary from Chicken? And that was last minute? I wish I had a fraction of your creative gifts! God bless.