Make a Stained Glass Craft for Lent

by Megan Bacchus · March 8, 2023

Remember the days when your teacher would turn on the overhead projector and spend 5 minutes trying to get the transparency in the right direction? Maybe your school still has one or two machines hidden in a storage room. We love using them in Kindergarten for making shadow puppets, blowing up images to trace on big pieces of paper, using them like light tables – and making a Lent craft, of course.

Unfortunately, they’re hard to find these days. The transparency sheets, though, are still on our tender order forms from Staples and they are fairly cheap to buy a pack of 100. There’s also probably a teacher in your school who still has a package they might trade for a really great craft idea for Lent. 😉

Here’s an option from amazon.ca (affiliate link):

20 sheets

100 sheets

We use them to print activities for our light table and students love tracing on top of them.

Last week, we made one of my favourite Lent crafts using transparency sheets – stained glass art. I do a variation of this craft every year because it’s simple, cheap, and students love it! They look beautiful hanging in our classroom window and I hope they get hung up in a sunny window once we send them home as well.

How to Make A Stained Glass Cross

You will need:

tissue paper
transparencies
glue (white glue or glue sticks both work, I prefer glue sticks)
permanent black marker
cardboard
scissors

Create a tracer out of cardboard by drawing the shape of a cross and cutting it out.
Cut transparencies in half. They are usually 8.5×11″ but covering half of a sheet is just the right level of challenge for my Kindergarteners.
Use a permanent marker to trace a cross onto each transparency sheet.
Cut tissue paper into sheets approximately the size of the transparency. This does not have to be accurate.
Have students choose one colour of tissue paper and write their name in permanent marker on the front of the transparency.
Have students cut tissue paper into strips. I demonstrate by measuring with my finger and then cutting straight strips that are about the width of my finger. It’s okay if students have really wide strips or really narrow ones. Learning to cut a straight line is the goal here.
Next, have students take one strip of tissue paper and cut it into squares. Again, demonstrate what squares look like, as opposed to rectangles, but whatever happens, it will be okay!
Have students flip over their transparencies. I walk around and hand out glue as I see they’re on the right side. Have them put glue on the entirety of the inside of the cross and then cover all of the glue with the tissue paper squares they have cut. Encourage them to stick them on flat, not crumpled.
When students have finished the inside of the cross, have them trade their leftover tissue paper squares with a partner who has a different colour.
Have students glue the outside of the cross and cover the glue with tissue paper. I ask students to hold up their work to the light to check for any gaps. When they’re finished, flip them over to the front again and hang them in a window.