Paid on the Cross Lent and Easter Craft

Here is a Lent Craft to do with the kids. Since we use money to pay for things, the coins glued onto the cross remind us that God loves us so much that He paid for all of the bad things we do (our sins) on the cross. This also makes the perfect lesson and Easter Craft to do at home or Sunday school.

Paid on the Cross Lent and Easter Craft

Craft Supplies:

Small wooden or paper mache cross*
Pennies (clean & dry)**
Tacky glue

*We found fun and inexpensive paper mache boxes at a local craft store. Kids love “treasure boxes”!
**You can use lots of pennies or only a few like we did; a mixture of coin denominations would also be pretty!

Instructions:

• Attach coins to the cross with tacky glue. Allow glue to dry.
• As we started putting dots of glue on their crosses, I reminded my boys that Easter was coming up and asked them if they remembered what Easter is about. My 5-year-old said, “Yeah, that's when God dies.” We then had a short conversation to refresh their memories on Easter, Jesus' death on the cross, and Him coming back to life. Since we use money to pay for things, the coins glued onto the cross remind us that God loves us so much that He paid for all of the bad things we do (our sins) on the cross.
• Inspired by Mom On Time Out. 

Science Experiment #1 Shiny Pennies
We wanted shiny pennies for our craft, so we started with science experiments to see if we could make our dull pennies prettier!

Supplies:

Dirty pennies
¼ cup vinegar
3 tsp salt
Small glass/plastic cup or bowl
Small stick or spoon for stirring

Instructions:

• With your child's help, measure vinegar and pour into the container. How does it smell?
• Place the pennies in the cup. Can your child describe how they look?
• Count the teaspoons of salt with your child as you add it to the bowl. Stir. Leave the pennies in the cup for 10-15 minutes.
• Pour out the vinegar. Rinse and dry off the pennies. 

Results: How do they look now? We were happy to see that our experiment made our pennies less dull, but we wanted to try another method to see if we could get them really sparkling.

Science Experiment #2 Shiny Pennies 

Supplies:

¼ cup citrus juice (lemon juice is best but lime or grapefruit will work)

Instructions:

• Soak pennies in juice for 10 minutes. Rinse and dry.
• For older children who want to know the “why” behind these experiments, check out http://www.exploratorium.edu/science_explorer/copper_caper.html and http://cleaning.lovetoknow.com/Lemon_Juice_Pennies_Cleaning

Results:

Our pennies were pretty sparkly after our second experiment, so we were ready for craft time!

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