We’re still working on our First Holy Communion preparation at home with Lydia, and we’re planning a field trip to adoration. We’ve been learning about the true presence in the Eucharist, and this craft was such a fun way to drive that point home! This is a great craft for kids preparing for First Communion. (You can find all of my resources for preparing for First Communion here.)
Now, stay with me! This is a unique craft, but I’ve made it very simple for all of you. This prints out, you color by number, and then fold it back and forth like a fan. One picture is all on one side, and one picture is all on the other side, so when you move your head side to side, you can see it morph from one picture to the next.
Here’s what it looks like when it prints:
I utilized a trick that I learned from Melissa and Doug, and I made the numbers match the actual colors that you color them. This way, the numbers disappear as you color.
Here’s my whole crew coloring in our school room!
That’s pretty much it. As you color, it looks kinda crazy.
The more you color, the more you can kinda tell what’s going on in the picture.
When your picture is all colored, you cut both pieces out along the outside rectangles. One side will have a big white rectangle remaining. Line them up and attach the 2 sides together with a glue stick. When you have one large piece that is finished being colored, you’re ready to start folding.
Turn your paper over so you’re looking at the white side, and make the first fold back. Fold exactly on the vertical line.
Turn your paper back and forth, folding like a fan on the vertical lines so it’s like an accordion.
When you have them all folded, open it up a little bit, and mount it onto paper or card stock. You can mount it with hot glue, glue dots, or even tape. We used glue dots. Just place them on the folds where the accordion pieces will actually touch the card stock underneath.
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Voila! You have your completed artwork! From straight on, it looks kinda weird- like this.
But from the right, it you see a monstrance…
And from the left, you see… “honey, turn your paper a little more to the left. Little more… little more… little mo…THERE! Perfect! Don’t move it. Smile! *click*” …. you see Jesus! 🙂
This was so fun, and the kids were literally enchanted with this craft! I guess it’s some kind of trump l’oiel, bi-picture, diy optical illusion? Whatever it is, I had trouble naming it, but I do know that it is really cool!
Lydia said “This is so cool because it’s showing how Jesus is in the Eucharist!” Lydia is so funny now, because as we work on stuff she’ll say things like “remember to tell them that it’s easier if you do it like this”, referring to all of you of course! 😉 Sometimes we hit snags, and we improvise and change what we’re doing. These are the days she tells me it would be easier if someone else were typing the directions for us. lol! She did help me out today to make sure I had number in all of the spaces (which originally I didn’t) but I think we’re good to go now.
There are a few areas that were too small for numbers, so they have dots of the color they are supposed to be colored rather than numbers. In most cases, these spaces are so small that it doesn’t really matter if they’re not really colored.
If you are crunched on time, you can leave all the blue areas white. This is the background. They are designated with the number “4”. So for instance, if I were doing this in a classroom environment, I would tell the kids they needed to color all of the other numbers, and if they had time at the end they could add the blue.
This download is now available for $2.
Feel free to print enough for your kids, and/or your personal religious education craft. Do not email the file to anyone else to print or use with their family- they need to purchase their own file. Thank you for being honest. This money helps support the costs of running this site, and creating new Catholic resources for children.
Check out all of my resources for preparing your child for First Communion here!
Awe.Some.
I am soooo excited to use this in my 3rd grade classroom! Thank you for being here for us!
Yay! Happy to be of service. 😉
Dear Lacy,
I dint got a chance to print the Jusus color by number craft. I really wanted to do for a craft. Will you be posting it again? Or how can a download one. I appreciated. Love Maria
The pictures were messed up- not sure why, but I fixed them. 🙂
You’ve got some awesome crafts on here, Lacy, but this one? This one is THE COOLEST!
Lol! Yes, I really like this one a lot. I’ve been thinking about how to do it for awhile. I’m glad to have it completed. 🙂
This is awesome. Thanks so much and I love all of your resources. God bless.
I love your crafts but this one on the True Presence in the Eucharist is too many pages to print out. I printed out 12 pages and still have not got to the color by number page. I just wish I knew what page to print out as I have used so much color ink.
Mary Lou Fuller
I’m not exactly sure what you’re trying to print. The download is only 2 pages. You can find it here: http://www.catholicicing.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/true-presence-in-the-eucharist-craft.pdf
As always, you need to actually download it before you print it to avoid weird symbols and stuff. You also need adobe reader to view it as it is in pdf format. Let me know if you still have trouble!
Love this craft! My husband and I had our 12 first graders make it in Sunday School today as part of our lesson on the Last Supper and the Eucharist. In fact, we’ve relied heavily on your ideas for weekly Sunday School prep this year, and we love them. THANK YOU!! The accordion fold proved to be a little difficult for the kids because the folds are so small, but the kids were enchanted by the craft. They kept fighting over who got to play with my pre-made sample next. Having that visual really drove home the point that Eucharist = Jesus. We also adapted your ball with paint idea to illustrate the Eucharist but used a mask that the kids put on instead (less mess! but still shows the principle that things aren’t always what they look like). It worked magnificently.
Great idea! Yes, the folding can be a pain for smaller ones, but so worth it. 🙂
Hi Lacy,
My daughter is doing this now – it’s wonderful! The only thing we weren’t sure about at first was the color 6 but figured out it is brown. Is it my computer (or me, most likely) again or does the download leave off the code for 6? Thanks, again, for these faith-teaching and faith-enriching crafts.
You’re right! I had shortened the text box and the 6 got cut off of the key. Thanks for letting me know! Fixing it right now. Glad it still worked out for you. 🙂
Thank you for a great Eucharist project. My First Communion class made it today. It was fun and I think really helps visualize transubstantiation for this age.
Thank you for sharing your talent and ideas!
I love hearing that people are actually doing the crafts (rather than just pinning them!) lol! 🙂
How do I get this? I teach 2nd grade at a Catholic school and there are several things I have seen on this website that I would love to use, but I can’t figure out how to get any of it. I have subscribed and get email updates but that doesn’t seem to help. Any suggestions? Thanks!
If you read the post, you’ll see there’s usually a place near the bottom that says something along the lines of “download by clicking here”. 🙂
I clicked on the “download here” link, but it said “forbidden” Do I have to do something else to purchase?
This is awesome… Thanks for sharing this,, God bless _/\_
Thank you for this. I printed this out when you first offered it, to see if it would be useful for our 1st grade class. Our school year was over by then, but when I took the finished craft in to pin on our class board, several people saw it and wanted one for their own First Communicants. I printed out a few more and wrote some instructions (starting with “Lacy at ‘Catholic Icing’ (www.cath…)), including a link to the post so they could see the original (and shameless promotion. I just happened to mention that you had other great ideas for First Communion crafts and parties.)
Funny thing. The children had no problem coloring the right areas. Adults seemed to over-think things. Still, everyone says it is a great craft for teaching the True Presence in the Eucharist. (And I’ve seen more than one person stand at one side of our cork-board, then walk to the other side to view it, then back again.)
Lacy, this is truly amazing! I would like to do this craft for our VBS, but there’s a small problem. We only have 20 minutes to complete it, and we have rising kindergarteners and 1st graders who I don’t think would be able to complete it in time. I’ve tried all day to work with your pattern to make the strips wider, thinking it would cut down on the number of sections to color, therefore reducing the time. I even tried finding my own images to duplicate this idea. But there is no use! Your pictures are just too perfect for this craft! Is there any way you could provide me with the images prior to the pattern/strips? I’d like to widen the strips to make it a less tedious project for our little ones. Thank you for your time and response. -Lindsay
LIndsay,
You might try coloring one of the images yourself first (Jesus, perhaps, and leave the Monstrance for the students), then running off the required number of sheets on a color copier. This would cut down coloring time, and also give the students some guidance on where to color. I’ve also found it helpful to have some unfolded examples on the tables for them to refer to. Use a timer if you have to – ten minutes allowed for coloring, the remaining ten for cut, paste and fold (unless you want to do the last part yourself).
I just purchased the True Presence. Printable directions to go with the craft would be helpful.
Is that available?
Print out on regular paper, or cardstock?
I would say that you could do either, but you will probably get better folds with regular paper. – Angie, Catholic Icing Project Manager
Once i paid how
Do I get the print out?
You should receive an email with your download link. If you don’t see it, make sure to check your spam or junk folder. If you still can’t find it, then contact us directly to help you get that: http://www.catholicicing.com/contact-me/
Purchased! Thank you! Using this for our homeschool first communion preparation!
A few girls in my 2nd grade faith formation like this a lot. It was too tedious for the boys.
This is perfect! I just received notice thar the 2nd Grade RE teacher won’t be able to teach this Sunday and I have been asked to cover my 8th grade confirmation class and the 2nd graders. I had no idea what lesson plan I was going to do for the combined class. Gave up to the Lord and I found this project. This is the perfect project for both sacramental classes and will provide a nice opportunity for the older students to help the younger kids and to share their faith. Thank you!,
So happy to hear it! God bless!
Hi Lacy – Absolutely love this coloring sheet!
Just not sure if this is just my download version, but the numbers on the second page seem to have shifted and so they are in the wrong spot. It only appears to be an issue with the 2nd page.
Cindy
We just finished this craft in preparation for first Holy Communion, and it was amazing!!! I love the thought that went into this one, and it’s a great reminder of the True Presence of the Eucharist. Thank you for helping us spread our faith to our children.