Talking to young children about Ash Wednesday Tomorrow is Wednesday but tomorrow isn't just an ordinary Wednesday. It has a special name and is called Ash Wednesday. This day only happens once a year just like you only have your birthday once a year. We are going to get ready for this day. On this day Catholics all over the world stop to remember that this is the very first day of a season called Lent. You may have heard this word Catholic because our school is a Catholic school. That doesn't mean

that everyone at this school is a Catholic but it does mean that most of the students here are Christians and that means that they believe in and follow Jesus. You know how we have seasons like Winter and Autumn and Spring and Summer. Well there are also seasons in the Church and there are certain colours that go with these times. The colour for Lent is purple and this time goes for 40 days. There are actually more than 40 as the Sunday's are not counted in Lent. So let's write this word Lent up on our Word Wall. Let's also have a look at the word purple. On Ash Wednesday Catholics are asked to make a choice to be better followers of Jesus. A cross is traced on their forehead to remind them that they are followers of Jesus and that Jesus loves each one of us.

The cross is traced with ash. What is ash? What is left after fire? The ashes that are used on Ash Wednesday are what is left after the palms from last years Palm Sunday have been burnt. So they are not hot. What colour is ash? Let's add ash to our Word Wall. Why is the cross special for Christians? Where do we see crosses? What does it help us to remember? We make the Sign of the Cross with our hand.

Sometimes the cross is traced with a thumb. Let's have a go at this. Open your hand and trace a small cross on the palm of your hand. What part of your hand is the palm? Now let's find our foreheads and see if we can place out thumb in the middle of our foreheads. Let's trace a cross here. Tomorrow we will all wear the cross on our foreheads. It will be black and the ashes will have been blessed. That means that they are holy. Let's add cross to our Word Wall. Let's have a little practice at having the cross traced on our foreheads and listening to some very special words.

Usually the words that are spoken are Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel. Amen You would need to explain this. I used to use: N________ , will you try to be a follower of Jesus? The children would answer: Yes I will When it is our turn to receive the special ashes, we will stand tall and still and we won't touch the cross on our forehead because it is so special. We will listen to the words and we will answer?

During Lent, Christians are asked to do three things. The big grown up words for these are Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving. We are going to use 3 words to help us understand these grown up words. Prayer means to PRAY and we do that at this school Fasting means to GIVE UP and this can be that we give up a sometimes food or we give up being mean or telling lies. Almsgiving doesn't mean that we have to give our arms away. It is a very old word that means to give to others. So we will remember this with GIVE TO. PRAY GIVE UP GIVE TO We have been talking about being super heroes who can do amazing things. We can be Holy Heroes as well. The word holy is used when we are talking about God and Jesus and Mary. But there are many people and things that are holy in our world. Each of us is holy because God loves us with a love that is bigger than the ocean. That is what makes us holy. During Lent we will try hard to pray ..... To talk to God, to listen to God. We will try to give up and give to.