Glory of Spring Sun Catcher Welcomes the New Season

Hopefully, there is some spring in the air where you live.

After all, this is a time of Lent when the joy that is the Resurrection starts to bubble up inside of us. A time when the children are anticipating all the happiness to come.

It’s time to get outside and enjoy God’s gift of newness in nature. All things green and glowing seems appropriate right now. Flowering plants, greening grass, petals, and bits of robin eggs, all signs of God’s loving care of us.

A time to send the children outside to soak up some sun or to splash in mud puddles, shake off the winter, and welcome spring into your home.

It’s a good thing to see the light at the end of the long Lenten tunnel and time to enjoy an activity that points to the newness of spring.

Toward that end, I would like to share a simple craft using these bits and pieces of nature that always seem to end up in the house somewhere.

For years I’ve had a nature table, a dedicated space that the children can use to display their finds. I keep a variety of field guides there so we can identify the different treasures, bird feathers, bits of eggshells, seashells, flowers, rocks, and tufts of fur.

This craft will make use of many of these things and get them off the table.

Materials for your Glory of Spring Sun Catcher

Mason jar rings (3-5)
Long stick or dowel rod (12-18 inches)
Twine
Scissors
Clear Contact paper
Tape (I used painters tape)
A marker
Nature bits

Directions

• Cut off a piece of contact paper and trace the mason jar ring, as many times as you have rings.
• Peel the back off the contact paper and tape it to your work surface, sticky side up.
• Have the children artfully place their little nature finds within the circles.
• Once they finish, cut another piece of contact paper to fit over the filled circle piece.
• Peel the back off and stick it to the collage piece. Press firmly all around.
• When you have a good “stick,” it’s time to cut out your circles.
• If you traced the outside of the mason jar ring, you will have to cut inside your circle so they will fit. Don’t fuss too much, it all seems to work out even if it’s not done with precision (it wasn’t here).
• Tie twine of varying lengths through the rings and then just push the circles into the rings.
• Tie the strings to your stick and find a sunny spot in which to hang your suncatcher.

Easter is coming, my friends and the joy of the Resurrection is at hand.

Let’s give thanks to God for the gift of His Son. Let’s give thanks too, for the gift of the sun, with its longer days and warmer temperatures.

Let your little ones celebrate joyfully because eternal life is theirs and the daffodils are blooming. Life is beautiful.