Teaching preschoolers about lent should include large colorful representations of ideas in the order of lent practices. Construct a long road to represent the path to Easter on a lengthy piece of blank white paper. Place eight points along the road starting with Ash Wednesday and denoting each Sunday until Easter Sunday. Create six road signs that say "Stop Give Thanks" on a stop sign, "Forgive" on a u-turn sign, "Abstain" on a traffic signal, "Charity" on a street name sign, "Pray" on an intersection ahead sign and "Faith" on an unside-down yield sign for each of the Sundays before Easter in the order they are listed. Add colorful elements such as trees, grass and flowers around the road and signs. Cut out and color a paper car to move along each marker. Tape the car at each marker and discuss that part of lent with the preschoolers.
The purpose of a Lenten cross is to help preschoolers understand why Lent is important and the type of everyday things they should be thankful for during the holiday. Give each preschooler a large cardboard cross and some old magazines. Allow the students to cut or tear images from the magazines and glue them to their cross until the cross is full. Discuss some of the images on each student's cross in front of the class and explain why they should be thankful for these items.
Making Easter story cookies with a preschool class helps the students learn elements of Lent one ingredient at a time. Preheat an oven to 300 degrees, place pecans in a sealed bag and ask students to use a wooden spoon to crush the nuts while you share the story of Jesus being harmed by Roman soldiers. Have the students smell vinegar and taste salt before adding it to batter so they understand the feeling Jesus had while being forced to drink vinegar and the tears produced by His followers. Add the eggs and sugar, which represent new life and the good of Jesus' love for his followers. Beat the ingredients on high speed with a mixer until stiff peaks appear and fold in the crush nuts while discussing how the white batter stands for God's ability to purify people of thier sins and the nut-filled batter dollops on the cookie sheet symbolize Jesus's final resting place. Turn off the oven after adding the cookies, seal the oven door with tape and explain to the preschoolers that Jesus's followers were without hope when Jesus's tomb was sealed. Distribute the cookies the following day and relate the cookie's hollow center to Jesus's empty tomb on Easter morning showing His followers that He had risen.
Palm Sunday, which is celebrated in churches by distributing palm leaves, is symbolic of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem. Allow preschoolers to create their own palms from paper by drawing half a palm on one side of a piece of paper and making a large rectangle on the palm's other side. Ask students to color the palm portion green and leave the square part, which is the stem. Cutout each image and roll the square part tightly with a pencil until it reaches the leaf edges. Glue the roll in place and discuss the symbolic representation of palms while you complete each preschooler's image.