Water Princess Giving Well Activity

Water Princess Giving Well Activity

The book, The Water Princess, tells the story of the young Georgie Badiel spending entire days walking to get water for her family in Africa. Inspired by this story, we decided to make a paper well that can be used like a Lenten paper “rice bowl” to collect money for those in need.

Simply print the free printable on cardstock and read along to learn how to create the well. The French version of the well says, “Mon Puits pour la Vie” (my well for life – “puits” rhymes with “vie”).  The English version says, “My Giving Well.”  There is also a plain version (as requested by my daughter so that she could use it with her doll house).

If you would like to read the Water Princess before you create the well, click the image for an Amazon link.

the water princess

Let’s make a well…

lent giving well

Click Here to Get your Free Printable

Print your printable on cardstock.  The printable comes in a French, English, and plain version.

the water princess

Step 1

After printing on cardstock, cut out each of the pieces of the well.

the water princess

Step 2

Tape or glue the stone well into a circle.

the water princess

Step 3

Fold tabs up around water circle.

the water princess

Step 4

Tape or glue the water circle to the inside bottom of the well.

the water princess

Step 5

Fold posts in half.

the water princess

Step 6

Fold roof in half on solid line.  Cut slits on dotted lines.

the water princess

Step 7

insert posts into slits in the roof.  Then gently bend tops of posts to secure them to the roof.

the water princess

Step 8

Tape or glue the posts to the side of the well.

the water princess

Step 9

Place coins in your well.   After saving coins, donate to people in need.

You could use your well to collect money for the Georgie Badiel Foundation listed at the end of the book: https://www.georgiebadielfoundation.org/  (Sparkles and Sprinkles is not affilliated with this foundation, but you can learn more by clicking on the link.  For French speakers, there is a neat video of a women speaking in French about the impact having a well in her community has had on her life.)

You could also use your well to collect money for other organizations that help those in need, near your home or around the world.

“…but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:14

« …l’eau que je lui donnerai deviendra en lui une source d’eau jaillissant, jusqu’à la vie éternelle. » Jean 4:14

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Other links may or may not be affiliate links.  We provide links because we have found these products or services beneficial, and we think you might too.

Stations of the Cross blocks

Stations of the Cross blocks

Stations of the Cross for Children

The pandemic has little silver linings sometimes (I hope someday someone will be reading this, and the pandemic will be a distant memory!).   As the church of some dear friends of ours is not having soup suppers this Lent, they decided to invite small groups of friends over on Fridays during Lent to share soup together and to pray the Stations of the Cross at their home.

Our friends had printed out stations of the cross coloring pages for the children to color as the adults took turns saying the prayers for the Stations of the Cross. After the prayer time, we enjoyed soup together, and then the children played while the adults had time to stay around the table and visit.

This beautiful evening made me think that perhaps it might be nice to have some Stations of the Cross that children could place around the house and play and pray with whenever they wanted to.

Stations of the Cross are, of course, not so happy for anyone to look at, and might be especially hard for children to look at.  However, a few years ago, I came across a wonderful little Stations of the Cross coloring booklet at Real Life at Home.  I love this book because the illustrations are as sweet as they can be for such a solemn subject.  We decided to use the images from these booklets for our Stations of the Cross blocks.  However, you could use any images of your choice.  You could find images online, draw your own images, or even take photos of the Stations of the Cross at your church and print them out for these blocks.
Stations of the Cross toddler blocks

Make your own Stations of the Cross for children

Please note that the coloring images we used for these blocks are not our own.  You can find them at Real Life at Home (where there is even a prayer reflection booklet to go along with them).  You could also get images from another source or draw your own, if you are feeling especially creative!

coloring stations of the cross

Step 1: Print and color your images

We used colored pencils to color our images. 

stations of the cross for kids

Step 2: Cut out your images

Stations of the Cross blocks

Step 3: Cut your blocks

We cut a long 2×4 board into 14 square blocks.  However, if you don’t have time for woodworking, there are many Etsy sellers who have blocks of various sizes that are sanded and ready to use for crafts.  If you wanted to make the blocks smaller or bigger, you could print out the page with a “custom scale,” or use different images of your choice.  The Real Life at Home mini booklet images work perfectly with our squares cut from 2x4s (the wooden squares end up being 3.5″x3.5″).

stations of the cross blocks

Step 4: Sand your blocks

We sanded the cut edges, plus sanded at an angle at the corners to make the blocks easier to handle for little hands.  Though cutting the blocks is probably a task for an adult (here at Sparkles and Sprinkles, we say, “Thank you Super-Dad!”), sanding can be a fun activity for children.

Stations of the Cross for kids

Step 5: Use Mod Podge to attach and coat images

Use a foam brush to spread a layer of Mod Podge on one face of the block, then lay the image on this face.  Brush Mod Podge over the image to seal the image, so that the blocks and images will hold up to children handling them.  Be sure to follow the package instructions for drying times.  You may want to use 2 coats.

Stations of the Cross toddler blocks

Ready to Play and Pray

We hope you and your little ones enjoy making and playing and praying with Stations of the Cross blocks too!

Are you looking for a soup recipe for your next soup supper, whether at home or at church?  You might enjoy trying our recipe for French Vegetable Soup.  

Note:  Some links on this page are Amazon Affiliate links.  Sparkles and Sprinkles is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Other links may or may not be affiliate links.  We provide links because we have found these products or services beneficial, and we think you might too.

French Vegetable Soup

French Vegetable Soup

Years ago I had the blessing of being an au pair in Paris for a family who welcomed me into their family as if I were one of their children too.  One of the many beautiful memories I have with my French family is a visit to a farm near the family’s country home to buy some vegetables.  I remember how the mom of the family did not simply quickly pick out the vegetables, but instead she took the time to hold them up and admire their beauty.  When we brought the vegetables home, she made a delicious soup.  As she made the soup, she smiled joyfully.  She seemed to make the soup effortlessly, without even needing a recipe.

french tomato market
I wish I could make a delicious soup without a recipe, but I tend to need to some guidance.  My go to book for delicious French recipes is The Best Ever French Cooking Course.  This cookbook is definitely worthy of its title!  However, the recipes in this book have many details.  I used to love to spend time following detailed recipes with many steps, but there are many more important things to do these days!  Perhaps your days are busy too?

We decided to take the recipe for Soupe Provençal from The Best Ever French Cooking Course and simplify it.  We left out a few ingredients and chose pre-washed or canned ingredients when possible.  We hope this will make it possible for older children to make it independently and younger children to make it alongside a parent (or even just save you time if you are making it by yourself!).  

In addition to simplifying the recipe, we did a little research on the best knife for children to use to cut vegetables.  From our research, we decided to pick the Victorinox Swiss Classic.  We like that it is sharp (so it does not take a lot of strength to make the cuts) and that it has serrated edges, so that it is less likely to slip.  It also has a nicely rounded tip.  Our 7-year-old was very happy with it.  She used it to cut carrots, celery, and green beans.  Even our 3-year-old used it to cut zucchini (with Mommy’s hands helping to make sure our little one’s hands did not get too close to the blade).

victorinox knife carrot cut

We decided to make a printable for this recipe, rather than list the steps online. Please let us know in the comments below what you think of this format. Is a printable recipe helpful? Do you prefer the online version? Would you like to have both versions?  Also, be sure to scroll down to get our super fun Alphabet Soup spelling activity!

Let’s Make Soup!

vegetable soup

Gather your ingredients

  • 2 stalks celery
  • 2 zucchinis (summer squash)
  • 1 onion
  • 2 handfuls green beans
  • 2 handfuls spinach
  • 2 cups baby carrots
  • 1 small bowl frozen peas
  • 1 can white beans
  • 1 can diced tomato
  • 4 cups water (or a package of vegetable or bone broth)
  • 1 spoonful olive oil
  • 1 spoonful of diced garlic (or 2 garlic cloves, crushed or diced)
  • Salt to taste

Optional:

  • A pinch of Herbes de Provence
  • Pesto (for topping)
  • Shredded parmesan (for topping)
  • Fresh basil leaves (to garnish)
soup supplies

Gather your kitchen supplies

• Cutting board
Vegetable knife
• Soup pot and cover
• Liquid measuring cup
• Large spoon
• Can opener
• Strainer (optional if you want to strain your beans)

soup recipe

Click here to download the recipe

Have fun making this French Vegetable Soup! Keep in mind that you don’t have to worry about exact quantities of ingredients. You can leave out some ingredients, or substitute other vegetables of your choosing, and it will still be a delicious soup!

 Bon Appétit!

french vegetable soup bowl
Let’s play an Alphabet Soup game!

Looking for something to do while the soup simmers?  Try our Alphabet Soup spelling game. 

Simply pour letter tiles (from Scrabble or Bananagrams) into a bowl.  Use a spoon to scoop out a few letters.  Place them on the matching letter spaces to spell the vegetable names.  (Note:  Depending on the quantity of letter tiles you have, you may not be able to cover all of the words at the same time.) 

This spelling game comes in French and English.  There is also a lowercase version in English if your child is working on upper and lowercase matching.

Get the free printables here:

Uppercase English

Lowercase English

Uppercase French 

P.S.  This game is not recommended for toddlers and babies who might be inclined to put the letter tiles in their mouth.  

letter tile alphabet soup activity
french spelling game
Note: Some links on this page are Amazon Affiliate links. Sparkles and Sprinkles is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Other links may or may not be affiliate links. We provide links because we have found these products or services beneficial, and we think you might too.

Growing in Lent

Growing in Lent

We are starting a new Lenten tradition this year… growing our own Easter grass! 

“Behold, I make all things new.”

I had the chance to talk with some dear friends the other day about Lenten traditions.  I shared that one of our favorite things to do is the Lenten Path from Catholic Icing.  It is a beautiful way to visualize the days of Lent and also to think of special sacrifices and prayers for each day.

We are planning to do the Lenten Path this year again, but we are also excited to add a new tradition… growing our own Easter grass in an Easter basket.  My friend who shared this fun idea said that she and her family plant the seeds on Ash Wednesday, and by Easter time the grass should be nicely growing.  I’m not a very prompt person, so luckily, from what I have read, even if you start the seeds at least a couple weeks before Easter, you should still have some beautiful Easter grass by Easter.

Easter grass

Not only is planting grass seeds in an Easter basket a super fun activity, it can also be a beautiful symbol of how the purpose of Lent is really to help us to grow in God’s love.  

I make all things new
Easter basket scripture tag
faith the size of a mustard seed quote

We created this free printable for you with tags you can attatch to your grass growing baskets.  Each tag has a beautiful scripture passage about growing and seeds.  There is also a blank tag if you want to add your own phrase (like “Grow in God’s love!”) or perhaps the name of your child.

scripture basket tags

We took advantage of some unseasonably warm weather over the weekend and planted our seeds in Easter baskets outside.

We lined our baskets with waxed paper* (as suggested on a blog we read, but you can also use a plant saucer that fits your basket).  Then we filled the baskets with about an inch of soil, sprinkled the seeds, covered the seeds with a bit more soil, and watered the seeds.

*Update:  We wondered if waxed paper would really hold up.  For us, it held up for about 2 weeks, then it started to leak when we watered the grass.  We would not recommend using waxed paper, unless you are going to have the grass in the basket for fewer than 2 weeks.  When we noticed the leaking, we ended up transferring the grass and soil to plastic take-out containers that happened to fit nicely into our baskets (we painted the containers with acrylic paint, so they would match the baskets).

easter basket grass
grass seeds in basket
easter basket grass
seeds covered with soil
watering seeds

Watering the seeds can be a great opportunity to talk about how God showers us with His graces to help us to grow in His love.

Growing Easter grass in a basket

After only a week of growing the grass inside a sunny room in our home, our grass is about 5 inches high. (It can be trimmed if it gets too long before Easter.)

easter basket with natural grass

Update: The waxed paper liner only held up for about 2 weeks. We transferred our grass and soil to a plastic take-out container (painted with acrylic paint to match) to avoid leaking.

We are not experts on the details of how to plant and care for this Easter grass, so we followed the suggestions from these two blogs:

Do you want to explore more about seeds and growing?  We’ve enjoyed these two books…

We are currently studying the early AD times, and enjoying this book:  Who is Jesus?  His Life, His Land, His Time.  We recently read a passage about the mustard seed… and that the mustard plant can grow to about 10 feet tall!  We are thinking we might plant a mustard seed this summer… what a great way to bring Scripture to life!

If you are looking for a simple book about seeds, we love this beautifully illustrated book about seeds:  Plant Secrets by Emily Goodman.

Have you grown Easter grass before?  Or are you going to give it try this year?  We would love it if you want to share your ideas!  Please submit a comment in the form below.

May God bless you and your family on your Lenten journey!

Note:  Some links on this page are Amazon Affiliate links.  Sparkles and Sprinkles is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Other links may or may not be affiliate links.  We provide links because we have found these products or services beneficial, and we think you might too.