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Children’s Art and Prayers for the World
What do you get when you combine children’s art and prayers for the world? You get not only a fun elementary art project, but also an interesting geography lesson and culture study as well.
Start with a list of all the countries of the world, and have your students commit to praying for each country over the course of the year. As they work through their list each day, they can also find the countries on their classroom map and share some interesting facts about them.
At the end of the school year, each student then makes a painting of the earth and writes their own “Prayer for the World” over it. This makes a unique bulletin board display and a precious keepsake for families to enjoy.
The examples in this post were created by 2nd graders. Special thanks to teacher Barb Mendence for sharing this wonderful project!
Materials:
- 9×12 black construction paper
- 9×12 white construction paper (heavy-weight), or watercolor paper
- White tempera paint
- Paintbrush or old toothbrush
- Watercolors and brush
- scissors
- glue stick
- Pencil and black “F” Sharpie
Directions:
1. Cover your work area with newspaper, then splatter some white tempera paint onto your black paper using either a paintbrush or an old toothbrush. Set aside to dry.
2. Trace a large circle onto your white paper (a mixing bowl works great).
3. Look at a map or globe for reference, then lightly sketch some continents inside your circle.
4. Use blues and greens to paint your circle to look like the earth from space.
5. When dry, cut out your earth and glue it onto your black paper. Lightly pencil in a few horizontal guidelines across it, if you want.
6. Write your prayer for the world on a separate paper, then copy it carefully onto your painted earth and trace your finished prayer with a black “F” Sharpie.
What a beautiful image with the prayer superimposed over the earth. I want to do this next school year with some of my students. I will file away these great examples. Thank you so much for telling about this idea.
Lovely project. Been looking for a way to add spiritual concepts to art project – this is a great idea!
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