Preparing the Gifts: Fabric Learning Set

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This set is available as a retail item at the following online stores:

If you are interested in bulk orders for a church group, a Sunday School, a homeschooling co-op or a bookstore, kindly CONTACT US. Thank you!

ALREADY OWN THE SET?

PLEASE CLICK HERE
for the BONUS printable activities

Board game – Play dough mat – Word puzzle – Jigsaw puzzle

This item was originally created in collaboration with St. Tabitha’s Workshop, an Orthodox-focused online fabric shop.

What do you mean by “DIY”?

The set comes as one 18′′ x 29′′ piece of soft fleece fabric. The finished set can be made very easily by cutting out the pieces. An optional storage pocket is included, which can be sewn or glued. We are offering detailed tutorials for making each finished set as well as exclusive printable activities for a rich religious education experience.

The Holy Eucharist is the central event and highest form of Orthodox worship and the culmination of the service of the Divine Liturgy. Our learning set teaches this fundamental Orthodox concept in a hands-on way, helping the children better understand and actively participate in the service.

This product is an act-out educational resource made out of soft fleece. It has been designed to cover the religious education needs of different ages and levels, so it can be used by younger and older children alike.

It consists of:
– Twenty-four learning pieces.
– A background mat, which can also be used to store the pieces.

Free Lesson Plan

We have created a free lesson plan containing material that you can use together with the fabric set to do a full lesson. Please visit our web page Preparing the Gifts.

Using this educational resource, both young and older children will be exposed to the following Orthodox concepts, practices, and vocabulary:

CONCEPTS and PRACTICES

Τhe faithful offer the wine and a special kind of bread – the prosphoron – for Holy Communion.
The priest prepares the offerings in a special way, before the Divine Liturgy begins.
These offerings will become the Body and Blood of Christ during the Divine Liturgy, with the intervention of the Holy Spirit.
The prosphoron is stamped with a seal which has a special meaning.
Only the central part of the prosphoron, the Lamb (Amnos or Host), will become the Body of Christ. The letters on it, ICXC NIKA or IΣΧΣ NIKA (Ιησούς Χριστός Νικά), mean “Jesus Christ Conquers”.
The priest uses special objects to prepare our offered gifts, such as the Paten, the Chalice and the Asterisc, and the preparation service is called the Proskomide.

VOCABULARY

Our set can additionally be used by older children to help learn important words related to the preparation of the Holy Gifts, such as Prosphoron, Chalice, Paten, Asterisc, Incense, and more.

Please note:

This is an educational resource to help teach Orthodox Christian children about the preparation of the Holy Gifts. Please be mindful when using, washing or storing it, since it depicts holy objects, which in real life are treated with reverence. Not suitable for children under three years old.

MAKE-YOUR-OWN LEARNING SET

Making your own learning set is a very easy DIY project. The preparation mostly involves cutting the pieces, all the instructions are printed on the fabric, and, depending on your preference, there is very little or no sewing required.