Easter Triduum printables: Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil activities

The Easter Triduum, including Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Vigil (or Holy Saturday) represents the most sacred days in the Catholic liturgical calendar. I was a homeschool mom in the early 1990s, before the Internet. I made all our curriculum. During Lent, we counted down to Easter with Lenten crafts, lesson plans and activities.

Pope John Paul II spoke of the family as the primary educators of children. He encouraged parents and children to set up altars in their home. Create a niche with votive candles, crucifix and holy relics. Pray with children before the altar.

Use my article to get free printable Catholic Holy Week activities. Help children explore Easter beyond bunnies and Easter eggs. Here are printable Palm Sunday crafts to make with kids. Print donkeys, a palm basket and other child-centered religious lessons.

Pray the Via Dolorosa or Way of the Cross. Use these free printable Stations of the Cross coloring pages. The Stations of the Cross is one of the most important Lenten devotions. On Good Friday, the faithful gather to follow the footsteps of Our Lord to Calvary. These free printable coloring pages form a devotional booklet that helps children understand each station of the cross. You might make your own Stations of the Cross by arranging children's pictures in the hallway (we did this). Or kids' could make outdoor dioramas and arrange in a prayer garden.

Here are more free printable Lenten lesson plans for Holy Week and the Easter Triduum. Use these activities to practice the spiritual exercises of prayer, fasting and alms-giving. You can print games, crafts, devotional exercises and lesson plans. Have children color Bible Easter images. Think coloring is too worldy an activity for the holy season of Easter? Consider this: Children learn by doing. What better way to learn about their faith and experience it more deeply than by doing activities that focus their minds and hearts on God?

Free Printable Orthodox Catholic Coloring Activities

Orthodox Christians celebrated Christmas on Jan. 8, two days after the feast of Epiphany. Copts, Eastern, Greek, Ukrainian, Russian and other orthodox Christians follow a different calendar--the older Julian one--not the western Gregorian calendar. They celebrate the same holy days, just on different dates. Here are free printable Orthodox Christian coloring pages to help children in that religion learn their faith. Use these, too, if you're of a different Christian denomination, to learn more about this ancient branch of faith. in home school, religious education,

Orthodox Education, a homeschool blog, has links for a free printable Greek Orthodox Icon coloring book. Click the link to be taken to the Scribd website with the coloring pages. You'll find beautiful old images from a Greek Bible/missal, made into coloring pages. There are Bible scenes from the Christmas Octave, the Baptism of Jesus, Epiphany (coming of the Magi, also called Three Kings Day) and more. There are images of the mysteries of the rosary: joyful, sorrowful and glorious.

Now visit this site, written in Greek, for more Orthodox Christian printouts for kids. There are Gothic and medieval pictures from stained glass windows and paintings and religious icons. There are Greek crosses, crucifixes, saints, rosary and Bible pictures. There are images of the Holy Family, the Infant Jesus, the wisemen, angels and more.

No matter what sect of Christianity you follow, if you are a Christian, you'll want to print these lovely images. Use for home school, religious education, Sunday school, parochial school or just for home use. They're perfect for feast days and holy days.

Free Printable St Nicholas Day Activities, Christmas Crafts

Dec, 6 marks the Catholic feast day of St. Nicholas, said the Manila Bulletin Dec. 5. He was a fourth century bishop and patron saint of Orthodox Christians, Russia, Holland and children around the world. Dec. 6 is Saint Nicholas Day in many countries. He is the Christmas gift-giving figure and basis for the Santa Claus legend, St.Nick's acts of charity weren't myth, however. If you want to celebrate a more Christ-centered Advent and Christmas, here are free printable St. Nicholas activities.

First-School has an adorable St. Nicholas Advent calendar to print free. There are free printable advent wreath crafts, Bible Christmas lesson plans, nativity of Jesus coloring pages and more.

St. Nicholas Center is dedicated to the promulgation of the faith through devotion to St. Nicholas. Visit the activities page with free printable St. Nicholas games, crafts, lesson plans, hidden pictures, puzzles, word search and 3D cut and paste play set. You can print a free St, Nicholas coloring bookfeaturing holy cards, Byzantine icons and stained glass images of the saint. Even older children will enjoy coloring these beautiful sacred images. Use as an art lesson to explore Byzantium and the Eastern Orthodox church. Older children might color the images and write a narrative of St. Nicholas's. Then assemble into a book, laminate and read annually on the Feast of St. Nicholas.

Catholic Mom has free printable Catholic Christmas activities in the Sunday gospel section. There are free printable advent activities too. EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network) has a Catholic Kidssite with holiday and holy day lesson plans, games, crafts, recipes and activities. Check the main site for viewings of the cartoon Nicholas: the Boy Who Became Santa Claus. Youtube has a video on Nicholas, the Real Santa Claus.

Don't forget the best-loved St. Nicholas Day tradition. It comes from the Netherlands. On St. Nicholas eve, December 5, children leave their shoes out near the door. Legend says St. Nicholas, dressed in his bishop's robe and mitre, rides by on a white stallion and leaves presents in shoes. Children leave a hot drink for St. Nicholas and hay or a carrot for his noble steed.

Nicholas's feast day is Dec. 19 in the Julian Orthodox calendar.

Free Printable Bible Coloring Pages

Do you teach Sunday school, Vacation Bible School (VBS), CCD or Children's Liturgy of the Word? Perhaps you want something more than just coloring pages for your Religious Education or Christian school? Free printable Bible paper crafts can be very interactive. Children get to cut, assemble, paste, color and fold. All these VBS activities are hands-on and lots of fun. Here are free Christian printables and crafts that will suit your Bible lessons. You can find all sorts of religious Christian and Bible themes-- Old Testament, New Testament, holy days, angels, virtues, scripture verses and much more. These sites have free printable Bible games, board games, puzzles, paper dolls, puppets, finger puppets and craft activities galore!

Making Friends has free printable Bible crafts by the dozen. Some Sunday school activities are for purchase, but those highlighted in pink are 'free printables'. Those highlighted in green are 'free pattern'. Making Friends is a website bursting with fun. Free Kids Crafts is another website overflowing with free Christian printables and Bible crafts. You can Christian crafts, Jewish activities, Bible and Torah crafts, VBS activities, lessons, angel craft projects, Sunday school lessons, plus so much more. Be sure to visit the homepage to see all the wonderful things available free! Use search for specific Bible crafts and try the site map to see the index of free Christian printables.

Christian Preschool Printables should probably just be called Christian printables so that readers won't think that the free printable Bible activities are just for preschool age. You'll love the assortment of free printable Bible crafts for VBS activities, Sunday School, religious education and homeschool. You can find worksheets, calendars, lesson plans, board games, card games, file folder games, felt board activities, crafts and more. All Bible and Christian themes available. i recommend that you bookmark this site and subscribe to the email newsletter. Perhaps you may have some homemade crafts that you would like to share?

A Kid's Heart is a charming website with dozens of educational and free Christian printables. These Bible crafts are great for Sunday School and VBS activities but also for homeschooling or Christian school in general. Subjects like math and reading are covered with hands-on activities based on Bible stories and Christian principles. There are games, finger puppets, habitat dioramas, puzzles, mazes and more. Start now with these VBS activities, gearing up for summer!

Free Printable Catholic Saints Paper Dolls and Lesson Plans

 Use these free printable Catholic saints coloring pages, crafts and lesson plans to learn more about All Saint's Day and Halloween.
* Catholic Mom's All Saint's Day activities page has printable crafts and coloring pages specific to that holy day, plus tips for celebrating a Christian Halloween. Visit the Catholic Kids home page for free printable liturgical lesson plans for CCD and religious education lesson plan. Each week's gospel is discussed and age-appropriate activities linked: free printable puzzles, word searches, study sheets, crafts, Bible verses, games and activities. 
* ABCatholic has a free printable Catholic alphabet coloring book with images of saints, Bible stories and sacraments.  
* Waltzing Matilda features handmade free printable Catholic saints coloring pages. The blog moderator has drawn images for sacraments and liturgical use also. 
* Paper Dali is another mom blog with homemade free printable saints coloring pages. Some are free and some must be purchased.free her Etsy shop. Scroll around for the freebies. All are very attractive and well worth the nominal fee. 
* Catholic Icing offers handmade All Saints' Day printables and crafts. Read through the blog posts and sidebar menu for crafts, games and printables. 

* JClub has free printable Bible and Catholic saints coloring pages. 

* EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network) Kids offers free mass readings, prayer activities, crafts and coloring pages for children. Users must create a free account with user name and password. 

Free Printable Lent Lesson Plans, Activities

Here are free printable Holy Week activities and Catholic Easter printables. Free printables includes coloring pages, word searches, crossword puzzles, cryptograms, games, crafts, cut and paste activities and much more. There are liturgical resources: prayers, Bible mass readings, reflections, devotions, Lenten lessons on sacrifice, almsgiving, fasting, corporal and spiritual works mercy. There are so many activities in this resource guide, that you will probably not be able to finish these Holy Week activities during Lent or even Eastertide.
Catholic Mom has a free printable Lenten lessons and Holy Week activities in a resource guide. Bookmark Catholic Mom for loads of Catholic printables. Here's a free printable Journey to Pascha workbooks for kids covering the Passion, death, resurrection of Jesus at Easter. Childrens Ministry has free Holy Week activities, craft projects, games, Lenten lessons, family activities and Bible devotions. This link has nearly 100 free printable Bible word searches from Catholic mass reading in the lectionary. These word searches are challenging, interactive and fun! These free printables would make excellent follow up to the mass readings. Here is a very complicated and challenging printable Catholic Easter crossword puzzle. This link has free printable Catholic Easter games and puzzles.

Apples 4 the Teacher has three pages of free printable Catholic Easter coloring pages. Each link has ten free printables for a total of thirty Easter and Holy Week activities. Use these coloring pages for Lenten lessons. Color Jesus, the cross, the tomb, the Eucharist, palms, Bible story pictures and more. DL-TK has free printable Catholic Easter games, Lenten lessons, memory cards, craft projects, coloring pages and word games for Holy Week activities. And for the best online resource in free printable Catholic coloring pages, visit St. John the Baptist Religious Ed. You can print Catholic Easter coloring pages of Stations of the Cross (way of sorrows), Joyful, Sorrowful, Glorious and Sorrowful mysteries of the rosary, Bible stories of Easter, Catholic saints and loads more printables. 

Free Printable Advent Crafts, Christmas Activities

Are you looking for religious Bible Christmas crafts for children to make during Advent? You'll want these free printable nativity scenes. Children can color Bible characters and assemble an Advent manger scene. Here's a free printable Bible Christmas manger scene with cut and paste coloring pages to put on paper towel tubes. Catholic Icing has eight coloring pages that you can click and print directly from her blog. Each page features Mary and Joseph, donkey, angel, wisemen, shepherds, Baby Jesus, camels. Download the set from the website.

Hart of the Mountain has free printable nativity scenes with Bible character finger puppets. Activity Village offers free printable Bible Christmas nativity scenes that kids can color, cut out and assemble. Make a shoebox diorama stable. Scroll down for more manger scene crafts including a nativity mobile. words cards, and games.

Prudent Baby is a blog with a complete set of free Advent manger scene printables. Cute Bible characters people these nativity scenes. Love to Know has free printouts of Bible Christmas nativity scenes to color, cut and paste and assemble. Scrapbook Scrapbook has a darling free printable Advent manger scene with Mary, Joseph, Jesus, angels, animals, wisemen and shepherds. There's even a printable stable and manger.