The Lion's Den

I borrowed this craft from here so thank you very much Artesanato Criativo!

 

Craft Supply List

 Clothes pegs (2 for each child)

Googly eyes (2 for each child)

Yellow and Orange Card

Short strips of yellow, orange and red wool

Glue sticks

Put it all together and you get this lovely Lion who stands on his own and can also be a little note holder!

The Battle at Jericho

This week we continued using the awesome Jesus story book Bible which I cannot recommend enough for use at home or in Kid's Church. You can buy it here. 
I was teaching this lesson to the 4-8 year old age group with the under 3's joining in as much as they wanted and were able to.

When the kids arrive there are lots of different blocks laid out for them to build with, lego for the older ones, Duplo, wooden blocks and also some random cardboard boxes to make bigger structures (which are more fun for knocking down!). This is an introduction to the story, when I told the story I reminded the children about the big towers and walls they made, just like the big high walls of Jericho!

After a little time playing with these we are going to make our first craft which will also serve as a prop / something to keep their hands busy during the story.



 The kids each decorated a sheet of orange card however they liked using crayons and stickers and then we helped them roll them up and tape them into the shape of a horn like this!
Very simple but they make an effective sound when you blow into them! During the story I got the children to play their horns each time the people of Israel marched around the walls of Jericho.

After the story we moved back to the art table and I gave each child a template like this which I made in about 2 seconds with a ruler and sharpie and photocopied.

I laid out lots of colourful pre-cut shapes which I salvaged from scraps from previous art projects (never throw anything away if you can help it!).

Then the children "built" the walls of Jericho by sticking on the shapes with a glue stick.
As well as reminding the children about the story by talking about it as they got creative, this was also a good time to talk about shapes and colours.








I used a similar craft idea about 6 months ago when we learned about the Tower of Babel.

Some of the children's finished masterpieces!

Complete with cotton wool clouds :)

 

...and I will make you fishers of men

Well if there is one thing children like it's a story rich in imagry and thank goodness that is what Jesus does best. How good is our God that he breaks things down into managable chunks for our understanding? So that we can come with our child like minds and learn great truths and then teach them to the children in our care without having to "dumb it down".

For this lesson we just read the story straight from the bible - it is suitable for all ages as the language is so simple.

 

Some things we pulled out of this story and chatted about:

When Jesus called his first disciples he didn't choose the most learned men, the men with the greatest careers, men who had made a name for themselves but he chose simple fishermen. What a great lesson to tell children - Jesus wants you to follow him just as you are. In a world where it's all about being the best, we can teach children that according to Jesus you do not have to become amazing in your own strength - come as you are.

Jesus used language that these fisher men would understand. "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men" Matthew 4:19. Jesus wants to talk to us and hear from us and we don't have to use fancy "grown-up" language! Just tell Him what you feel.

We reminded the children that Jesus wants us all to tell others about him and like fishermen get big loads of fish Jesus wants loads of people to come to know him.

Jesus asked the men to "Follow me..." what does it mean to follow Jesus? Interesting to hear the different children's responses

 For a craft:

Using paper plates (my favourite craft material-cheap and you can make anything! 50 plates for 2euro in the Euro Store) each child made a fish. Simply cut a triangle out of one side.

Glue/staple/tape it to the other side. Stick on a googley eye and decorate with crayons/markers/stickers or even paint.

The kids had a blast making these. Pretty great results eh?

For an attention grabber:

I made a magnet fishing game by simply cutting out fish shapes from different coloured card and putting a metal paper clip on each one. I scattered them on a big blue rug and had the children fish for them. For the rods we just used sticks and string with a magnet tied on the end (I borrowed the magnet from the kid's Geo-Mags!). The children took turns "fishing" and raced eachother to see who could get the most. You could also get the chidren to each go for a different colour fish to make it harder for older ones.