Colleen Schulze shared this incredible Lenten activity idea with me and The Religion Teacher Newsletter list. She agreed to allow me to publish it here for others to use with their students during the Lenten season leading up to Easter. Here is Colleen:
My students and I make “sin smoothies” during Lent.
First, we talk about the ways we can follow Jesus during Lent. We discuss the ways in which we have wandered and sinned. We do an examination of conscience.
The students have a 5×7 piece of purple paper on their desk and at my prompting I tell them to write down all of their sins—all of them! Write down all the sins that they can think of.
I repeat several times not to put their name on their paper. This naturally keeps them from holding back.
I have guided music playing in the background. Suddenly, the music changes dramatically and I ask them to now rip their purple papers to shreds. Tear it up!
The amount of aggression I see as they are ripping them up is telling and almost therapeutic. Next they are asked to bring them forward to a big wooden bowl.
I then invite a student to pour water into the bowl.
From behind the door I roll out a blender. I invite another student to pour the contents of the bowl into the blender.
The next part (as the blender makes it’s horrific noise at full speed) has the entire classroom screaming with delight, laughter, and the kind of cheering that would accompany a hockey game! 🙂
Once I blend all the papers, I invite another couple of students to come up and add in wild flower seeds. I tell them now I will take these home, pray and ask God to help me. I tell them to anticipate a little magic and lots of love.
At home I use a heart cookie cutter and individually form the purple pulp from the blender into hearts.
The hearts dry on an old window screen. They become thick paper seed hearts.
The children and the parents are enchanted when I present them. I give them back to them attached to a little pot of dirt and instructions for planting.
By Easter their sins have resurrected into wild flowers.
Look what happens when we hand our sins over to Jesus!
I could go on for days with the symbolism and analogies that I am afforded and use to carry this out. We get miles of messages from this one activity and they get a little pot of wildflowers for their garden this Easter.
Our sins handed over to Him have been turned into a thing of beauty.
Resurrection! New life!
Amen!
Colleen Schulze is a teacher St. Mary Magdalen in Camarillo, California (follow on Instagram).
I am curious what song selection you choose to play? This seems like a wonderful, memorable way to teach what good comes from “giving it to God.”