Advent Mystery Box Family Activity

I debuted this idea at GIFT in 2008, and each year I get a few parents requesting a copy.  So I have updated it to cover the 27 days of Advent 2010.  Enjoy...

Parents: Here is a fun way to keep Christ in the hearts and minds of your children throughout Advent.  If you have a “Countdown to Christmas” type box at home, you can use that, but you will need to add 3 extra days (they usually have 24 compartments, and Advent is 27 days long this year).  Otherwise, simply purchase or make a small decorative gift box.  Click here to download daily verses to include in your Advent Box.  Cut out the verses for each day, and purchase the items from the list below (you can make small changes to the items, as long as they make sense with that day's verse).  

Note: you will need to get a miniature nativity set with at least 9 figurines.  If your figurines are slightly different than what we have listed here, substitute or combine them as needed.  Then, each night before you go to bed, place the next day’s verse and gift in the box for your child to open in the morning. 

Daily Gifts for Advent Mystery Box

1.    (Sunday, November 28 – Advent Begins) Chocolate heart or heart-shaped gift

2.     Bouncy ball

3.     Fruit snacks

4.     Quarter or dollar

5.     Dove candy

6.     Joseph figurine

7.     Candy

8.    Small light-up toy

9.     (December 6 – Saint Nicholas Day) Chocolate Santa

10. Eraser

11. (December 8 – Immaculate Conception) Mary figurine

12. Shepherd figurine

13. Angel figurine

14. Jingle bell – tied with ribbon to hang on tree

15. Sheep or shepherd figurine

16.  Candy

17.  Fish-shaped crackers or small toy, key chain, etc…

18.  Manger animal figurines

19.  King #1 figurine

20.  Star ornament for your tree

21.  King # 2 figurine

22.  Candy OR coupons for favorite restaurant to go out as a family

23.  King #3 figurine

24.  Pretzels

25. Peace sign key chain, jewelry, sticker, or ornament

26.  Lapel pin or other piece of jewelry to wear to Christmas Mass

27.  (Christmas Eve) Baby Jesus figurine

November GIFT: Written in Stone

This month we learned about Moses and the 10 Commandments.  First, kids picked up a "Moses Story Board" to learn more about Moses and draw illustrations from his (abbreviated) life story. Click here to download the Moses Storyboard

Next, we imagined that we would all have to live in the church basement where we were having our class for one year (we were thankful we'd have the bathrooms!).  We asked each table to come up with ideas about how we could avoid conflicts and how we could deal with conflicts when they did happen.  The kids had some great ideas, like making a chore chart, dividing the room into "territories" for each family to have their own space, creating a "work it out" table with an unbiased mediator for conflicts, and following the Golden Rule.  We talked about the Israelites spending 40 years in the desert, and how God gave them all sorts of rules, or laws, to help them avoid and deal with conflict.  The first laws God gave to Moses were the 10 Commandments.

After reviewing the Commandments (found in Exodus chapter 20), we talked about how there were some problems we might have that the Commandments didn't necessarily help us answer, like what to do if someone is being bullied at school, or if one friend tells us we can't be friends with someone else.  To answer these questions, we looked at what Jesus said about the commandments: the most important is to love God, and the second most important thing to do is to love others as yourself.  Jesus spoke not just to the "letter of the law," but to the spirit of the law, which is love.

Lastly, we took a look in our symbol book.  Inside was a carving stone with the Hebrew word "shema" inscribed in it.  This word means to hear or to listen, and it is part of a traditional Jewish prayer about the commandments.  Jesus may very well have grown up reciting this prayer daily!  We talked about how we need to hear God and God's commandments with our hearts, not just with our ears, and live the law of love that Jesus gave us.

Projects:
We added page 2 to our booklets - a page about the 10 Commandments
Each child made their own "shema" stone - email Dez at desire.sobiech@risensavior.org if you are a GIFT parent and would like to pick up materials to do this project at home.  If you are an educator and might like to order the kits, see http://www.guildcraftinc.com/.
Lastly, in honor of our fathers & mothers, and with Thanksgiving coming, we made cards thanking our parents for all they do for us.

Prayer:
For prayer, some 4th grade volunteers read from the Bible for us:
Deuteronomy 6: 4-9 and Matthew 22: 35-40