Celebrating Ascension Thursday

We have been loving following the 50 Days of Easter by continuing to celebrate Easter and learning lots of new things.  Our kids have been so excited for Ascension Thursday and we have a few fun activities planned for today to help celebrate.  Ascension Thursday is the day that we celebrate Jesus rising to Heaven 40 days after Easter. 

First, we went to mass since it is a Holy Day of Obligation!  Next, we came home to complete this adorable Ascension Craft from Pulchra Doctrina.  What I love most about this craft is that Jesus can actually move and "ascend" into Heaven!  This really helps our little ones understand the concept of what happened.

We also always love all of Lacy from Catholic Icing's ideas for fun Catholic crafts and games and she does not fall short with ideas for celebrating the Ascension!  You can find all of her ideas HERE!  If you are looking for more ideas beyond these, the Catholic Toolbox also has a great resource list of Ascension Activities!

We also played the "Ascension Building" Game which is explained by the following:

"To both show the definition of ascension, rising up, as well as reiterate the fact that it took 40 days, challenge the children to build an ascending tower. Give each player 40 sugar cubes. Instruct them to build a tower out of all of the 40 cubes. The tallest tower that stands upright for at least 40 seconds wins the game. Set a time limit on the building process, such as 30 minutes."

We changed it up a bit to use building blocks since our little ones would probably have a hard time with sugar cubes, but either way it helps to teach the lesson!  It was also good to have them work on counting out 40 blocks!

The Ascension of Jesus serves as a kind of prelude to Pentecost (which is the 50th Day of Easter), when the power of the risen Christ came upon all believers through the Holy Spirit.  We celebrate Pentecost as the birth of the Church and it is truly a day to celebrate.  To get some great and fun ideas of how to celebrate Pentecost check out Catholic All Year.  Also, don't forget that you still have time to do some fun activities from the 50 Ways to Celebrate the 50 Days of Easter!