Armor of God Bible Class Crafts for Kids: Gospel of Peace Suncatchers

This past summer I taught ‘The Armor of God’ to a group of 8-year old girls at summer camp. Most of the crafts I developed to make for the lessons were easy no brainers. However, I had a difficult time figuring out a cute craft for the shoes of the gospel of peace that the girls would actually enjoy making. So, I broadened the interpretation of the concept, and we made very lovely Gospel of Peace Suncatchers. Now the girls can look at the sun streaming though their suncatcher and feel… peaceful. Read on to find out how easy it was to make them and check out the rest of the armor of God Bible Class crafts for kids as well!

armor of god bible class crafts for kids gospel of peace suncatchers

Armor of God Bible Class Crafts for Kids: Gospel of Peace Suncatchers

In order to teach the shoes of the gospel of peace (Ephesians 6), I opted to play a series of games. We did a relay where the kids were on two teams and had to run around a circle to catch each other. I hauled out my army gear (I served in the U.S. Army for 9 years… yeah, I don’t believe it myself sometimes either!) and we did a relay where the kids had to put on the army uniform. They loved that activity.

Our discussion centered on why the Gospel is the gospel of peace. We talked about how the gospel is the good news, how the fact that Jesus died for our sins and was raised on the third day as the way for us to be reconciled to God is not just good news, it is the best news. We talked about how that kind of good news really does bring peace. Additionally, to tie into the military theme for the week, I showed the girls my Army boots. I pointed out that they were sturdy, with thick soles. They were meant for long marches over hard terrain. We made the correlation between those shoes and the fact that our Christian faith and life is not a sprint… it is a long race. We need endurance in order to complete the race. So, we had better have great shoes.. and there is no better way to shod our ‘feet’ than with the Gospel.

Now for the craft:

What You Will Need:

  • Tissue paper (and lots of it)– I opted for pastel colors
  • Scissors
  • 2 sheets of cardstock per suncatcher– I chose mostly purple and pink for the girls
  • Contact Paper
  • Markers
  • Hole Punch
  • Yarn or string
  • Double-sided tape or tape runner

Pre-craft Preparation:

  • Cut the tissue paper into little squares. You don’t have to be exact with this because the point is to replicate a stained glass window. However, you will likely need to cut more tissue paper than you would think.
  • Fold each sheet of cardstock in half. To make the suncatcher frame, cut a rectangle out of the folded half in the same way you would cut out a heart or butterfly wings. The measurements don’t need to be exact, but don’t make the frame too thick.
  • With the leftover cardstock (the rectangle centers you cut out), cut a smaller rectangle shape out that will fit inside the suncatcher without being too large. You will only need one of these rectangles for every two sheets of cardstock.
  • Cut out 2 rectangle sheets of contact paper per suncatcher. You will want to make these a little (or a lot) larger than the rectangle frame. You will be trimming them after making the bulk of the suncatcher. However, you don’t want to make the contact paper area smaller than the frame.

armor of god bible class crafts for kids gospel of peace suncatchers

Making the Suncatchers

  • Pass out one sheet of contact paper per kid. The kids might need help peeling the contact paper.
  • Once the contact paper is peeled, set it on the table sticky side up and have the kids stick the tissue paper on it. When we did this craft, some of the girls were sparse with the contact paper and some of them piled it on. In order to get the full effect, try to have the kids cover most of the contact paper with tissue paper. It didn’t really impact the effect to have lots of paper on the contact paper though.
  • Peel the second sheet of contact paper and stick it on top of the tissue paper, making a contact paper sandwich, with the tissue paper in between.
  • Affix two of the cardstock paper frames to the contact paper/tissue paper sandwich. Use either the tape runner or double sided tape to ‘glue’ them to each side of the contact paper. Try to match the frames up so that they are aligned with each other.
  • Trim the excess contact paper that is outside the contact paper/tissue paper frame.
  • Have the kids decorate the rectangle cardstock piece with the word ‘peace’ and whatever else suits their fancy. Tape the rectangle to the center of the suncatcher.
  • Punch two holes into the top of the frame. Cut a piece of yarn long enough to feed through the two holes and hang the suncatcher up. After feeding the yard through the two holes, tie a double knot.

armor of god bible class crafts for kids gospel of peace suncatchers

There you have it! Aren’t these suncatchers super cute?!

Thanks for checking in this week and come back for the next in the Armor of God Bible Class Crafts for Kids series– Helmet of Salvation.

Have a great week!
Sara

Similar Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

One Comment