Thriving Mennonite Church

Once per year, usually around Canada’s Remembrance Day, we host a grief-oriented service in the Mennonite tradition to honour those who we have lost. This is one of the hardest weeks for me, personally. For the activity table, I try to focus on the theme of cycles of birth, life, and death, and the ways that we can honour memories.

I was recently listening to an astrology podcast about Scorpio season, and how themes of decomposition, decay, and darkness are so important to the interdependence of life on our planet. For this reason, I felt inspired to look to materials about mushrooms and fungi for this year’s Eternity Sunday table. When a friend saw me setting up this table, I said to her, “See? It’s Eternity Sunday! We’re going to focus on life cycles, and decay! … but in a wholesome way.” I really loved putting this one together.

I also wanted to make sure to do something a little more tangible and literal connected to the theme as well, so I decided to print a handful of We Are Praying For You colour-in cards from Frog and Gnome (free) on cardstock, and provide envelopes so that if folks wanted to create something to send to a loved one or a friend, they could do that.

To start with the mushroom theme, I printed some vocabulary posters to decorate around the table area that I got from TPT (free).

I also printed out some small versions of a poster about mushrooms and fungi of Ontario as a takeaway for the table (from Twinkl).

I found a page on the life cycles of mushrooms in this science pack, so I printed a few of these as takeaways as well (from TPT, free).

Slugs and Shrooms colouring page from Claire Watson (free).

Finally, I found a fantastic early learners Mushroom Science activity pack on TPT (free).

I also STILL have some life cycles packs that I made like… ages ago, from an Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies free resource. I’m just going to keep putting them out, because I think they’re great. At some point, there will be an enthusiastic group of kids who agrees with me and these will get used up!

Psst… this MIGHT be one of my favourite tables I’ve done so far!