"Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and have come to worship him." Matthew 2:2
Lord Jesus, we ask that you bless our home today. We thank you for the love we have for each other and for you. With the prayers of the saints, Casper, Melchior and Balthasar, we ask that our home be a place of happiness, love, understanding, acceptance and safety for all who enter. As we write our New Year and the initials of the Three Wise Kings on our door, we pray in your name. Amen
We used chalk to write on the door frame of every door:
20+C+M+B+13
20 for the year
C for Caspar
M for Melchoir
B for Balthasar
13 for the year
I also had to teach my first graders this morning about the Epiphany. They made a crown craft and decorated their king's cake. They were sent home with chalk and an Epiphany Prayer to bless their home.
Here's the result of their hard work!
We brought the wise men to Jesus on our prayer table.
Once their crowns and king cakes were done, we placed them on our prayer table for a final prayer.
Some of the children chose to write the word Epiphany. We used watercolor paint (so it would dry fast) and them embellished with jewel stickers. The crown was pre-cut from Hobby Lobby.
This cake idea came from Tiffany at Family at the Foot of the Cross. Instead of making a large one, I made small individual ones so each child could decorate with powdered sugar, spice drops and candy rolos. Thanks Tiffany for this wonderful idea!
Instead of spice cake, I made a banana chocolate chip cake/bread which was baked in a bundt pan.
We also played a game where I hid this glittery star and the search began. The first student who found it, then could hide it and so on. I kept the game going so each child had a turn to find the star and hide it.
Daily Coloring Pages has cute Wise Men coloring pages. And they're free. I sent my class home with one.
I also had these books available for quiet reading time:
The Littlest Magi by Chris Auer
A Gift for the
Christ Child by Tina Jahnert
How
Many Miles to Bethlehem? by Kevin Crossley-Holland
It was a fun class and the children learned the true meaning of the Epiphany.
Blessings,
Noreen
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Thank you for this prayer! I had never read about marking your doorways with the Magis' initials.
ReplyDeleteGod Bless!
We used holy water as well before marking the doorways. Thanks for visiting Michael!
DeleteHappy feast of the Epiphany (late) to you, Noreen! It looks like a wonderful celebration for the kids.
ReplyDeleteIt was fun Patty. Thanks for visiting!
DeleteNoreen...these were awesome ideas!! We didn't do anything for Epiphany this year. Everyone has been sick and Amelia ended up at urgent care on Saturday afternoon. After mass, we layed low yesterday. I'm bookmarking this post and remembering it for next year!!
ReplyDeleteI hope Amelia is feeling better today?
DeleteNoreen,
ReplyDeleteI'd never heard of this Epiphany blessing with the chalk before this year. We all went to our local parish for Mass on Epiphany Sunday except for my son Callum who went to the monastery. Callum came home and told us how Father blessed the doors of the church. And now I am reading about this tradition here! I wonder how I missed it in previous years. We did have a king cake and crowns to wear while we ate a special meal. Your craft activities are very impressive. I love your photos.
God bless you!
Thank you Sue! I'm a novice at editing the photos. I've cropped them in Picasa but when I download them, they don't save the way I cropped them. It's odd. So you get to see things that were not meant to be in the picture...like my purse, books...etc. I'll figure it out some day!
DeleteLast year was the first year I learned about marking the doors myself. Our priest told us about it and had the prayers and blessed chalk for his parishioners.