Collect Christmas cards for activities during December. Notes can be sent to parents or adult Sunday School classes asking for cards. Sort the cards to choose appropriate ones, avoiding secular pictures such as Santa, elves, and animals wearing clothes.
Note: Check a dollar store for inexpensive Christmas cards for classroom activities. Remember that it is often difficult to find cards with appropriate pictures.
Supplies for Lacing Cards:
- Christmas cards, scissors, hole punch
- yarn, curly ribbon,masking tape, if needed for ends of yarn, ribbon
Supplies for Christmas Card Puzzles:
- Christmas cards, scissors
- magnetic tape, metal tray such as a cookie sheet
(See illustration for lacing cards and Christmas card puzzles.)
Lacing Cards:
- Cut apart the fronts of several Christmas cards and trim the edges as needed.
- Punch holes around the edges of the cards to make lacing cards.
- Cut pieces of yarn or ribbon to use for lacing strings.
- Stack the lacing cards and lacing strings on the table.
Teaching Tips:
- Guide a child to weave the lacing string in the holes around the card edges.
- Comment about the picture on the card and make a connection to the story of Jesus’ birth or mention things to see at Christmastime.
Christmas Card Puzzles:
- Cut each card into two pieces. (It is better to make two-part puzzles with the Christmas cards than to have multiple pieces.)
- Cut strips of magnetic tape to stick on the back of each puzzle piece.
- Mix the puzzle pieces; stack pieces near a metal tray.
Teaching Tips:
Involve a child in separating the puzzle pieces to find two matching pieces for each puzzle. talk about Christmastime and the ways boys and girls learn about the birth of Jesus. Open the Bible to read Good news! Jesus was born (Luke 2:7).
