Holy week devotional

I put this up over at my other blog, but I think it’s so cool I wanted to share it with all of ya’ll.

Holy Week Devotional for your family

So go check it out!

God loves hearts

Happy Chocolate Sale Day!

Okay, so that started yesterday, and is actually the reason for this post.  I wanted to alert you to a cool item for teaching your kids the 10 Commandments that I made.

I blogged about it at my NEW BLOG, PEG DOLL BIBLE STORIES, where I’ll primarily be putting up my posts about what we’re doing to learn about God’s Word.  But occasionally I’ll post them here too still.

 

Supplies: giant chocolate heart, foamboard or posterboard (I used the thinnest layer of foamboard, if you do that you need a thicker box, like as in one designed to hold 2 layers of candy), various red tissue paper and red or pink scrapbook paper

1.  Trace your box onto your foam board.  When you cut it out, cut just inside the lines.  Check to make sure you can easily take your heart in and out of the box, for me I needed to trim my heart a little.

 

2.  Trace the top part of your heart and divide it into two.  This will let you make the pieces for the Commandments (sorry, I have no pictures).

 

3.  Start putting your paper on using mod podge or something similar.  I figured out that tissue paper works best because it adds the least bulk.

4.  Check to see if it all fits in your box.  The second time through it did for me.

 

If you go to 10 Commandments Activity, there’s a printable for your kids to make their own version.

Christmas story bracelet

Little Wonder Days did this adorable bracelet for her kids for Christmas, and I loved the idea and knew I had to use it for my Sunday School class.  She used beads she had on hand, but since I only had various shades of red and clear beads I had to go out and buy mine, so it’s slightly different than hers.

 

 

White- for the angel who came to Zechariah and told him his wife would have a baby.

Blue- for Mary who believed what the angel told her and trusted God.

Brown- for Joseph who was going to divorce Mary, but stopped when an angel told him to trust Mary.

Grey- for the donkey Mary rode to Bethlehem because of the Roman decree.

Gold bell- for Jesus, the bell rings to remind us to tell everyone of the Good News, and it’s gold because Jesus will wear a gold crown.

Star- for the star that appeared above Jesus.

White- for the angel that appeared to the shepherds to tell them of Jesus’ birth.

Green- for the shepherds who ran to see the newborn babe.

Light purple- for the magi who traveled so far to see the baby Jesus.

Yellow, purple, and red- for the gifts the magi brought.  Gifts fit for a king.

 

Merry Christmas to all of you, I’ve no guarantee I’ll be posting again until after Christmas, I have a wonderful Merry Christmas post I’d like to write, but I don’t guarantee it.

So, just in case:

 

Merry Christmas to all!

Advent Days 7 and 8, I think

Sigh, I know where these fell, but I’m totally not remembering the exact day.

 

We talked about the story of Jacob and how he tricked his brother and had to run away.  Then we talked about Jacob having his dream with the angels coming up and down.

 

Afterwards we created our own Jacob’s ladder.  I had planned to take another stab with the bubble dying, but I was not feeling up to it, and my second plan was missing parts.  So, regular old blue paper it was……

 

Since they didn’t know about my more ambitious plans they didn’t care one bit.

 

Princess was quite proud of her creation, and so were all of the kids, but she was the only one who posed with hers.

 

 

 

I love how everyone had a different interpretation.  Superman literally built a stairs out of popsicle sticks, and Batman had huge numbers of steps.  Princess wanted her angels to be pretty.

 

Now on to the next day, acting out the story of Joseph with popsicle stick puppets, which was a huge hit.  Other than I had to sit through 3 renditions of it all, which got to be rather “creative,” yeah let’s say creative.

 

You can see a not really tutorial on how to make the puppet theater here.  You can find the printables for the Bible story and craft at part 1 of my Advent project.

 

Advent Calendar part 2

We’ve completed the first few days of our Advent project.  The kids happily search through the Christmas tree to find the day’s activity and box.  It’s a bit of a challenge because some of the numbers are on there as words, and they don’t know all of their number words yet.  So, this has been great practice.

Day 13- Solomon, God said Solomon’s wisdom would be greater than the sands on the shore.  Make “sand pudding.”  I don’t have any extras with this one because I have no movie or book in particular for it at this time.

 

Day 14- Elijah, God kept his prophet safe even when all else seemed to be against him, and Elijah was able to show others the mighty wonders of God because of this.  Same for this one, for some reason there’s not a lot of movies about Elijah, which is a shame because he has some great stories.

 

Day 15- Esther, God used Esther to keep His people safe so that His BIG Plan could go forward.  Make the princess pretty using markers and glitter and whatever else you have.  Watch the Veggietales: Duke and the Great Pie War.  If my kids had an amazing attention span and were older we could watch “One Night with the King.”  I highly recommend that movie if you have any interest in Old Testament history, or want to watch a true romantic movie.  It is wonderfully made.

 

Day 16- Nehemiah, God used Nehemiah to bring His people back to Israel, so eventually His Promised One would be born where God promised.  Build a wall like Nehemiah did, try to keep others from knocking it down.  Again no movie, another sorely under represented figure in animation and books.

 

Day 17- Zechariah and Elizabeth- play charades.  I also loved the idea from over at Fantastic Five of making edible peanut butter and HONEY play dough (get it because John ate honey), but since I’m making this for others as well I didn’t want to include something their kid might potentially be allergic to.

 

Day 18- Mary and Joseph, got told Mary and Joseph beforehand about Jesus’ coming.  Create a song of praise like Mary did to God.  As a side note I opted to go with the traditional colors for the Nativity figures and just paint them solid.  Therefore Mary is blue for purity and mercy, Joseph is brown for humility.  Many thanks to Nicole from Tired, Need Sleep for helping me figure that out.

 

Day 19- Journey to Bethlehem– play the game.  We’ll also read “Donkey’s Dream,” a very cute story that is beautifully illustrated about the donkey carrying Mary to Bethlehem.  He dreams he is carrying many different things that are all names for Jesus or come from Catholic imagery (this is my memory from reading it last year, it’s not one I’ve read zillions of times).

Day 20-Shepherds, while reading the story eat your candy canes that look like shepherd’s crooks.  I painted the shepherd figures green for their traditional color, but couldn’t find what it is supposed to represent.  Any ideas people? Any Godly Play people know?  Maybe life or growing?  I’m planning to read Crippled Lamb, if I can find my copy.  I think it might technically be my Mom’s……..  So maybe at her house.

 

Day 21-Magi, the magi are painted yellow to represent wisdom or preciousness (maybe, anybody know for sure?).  I included popsicle sticks to make a star and decorate it to hang on the tree.  I’m thinking of teaching the boys how to make this, because I’m a glutton for punishment.

 

Day 22- Simeon and Anna, I love this part of the story and it is so rarely included when we teach it.  We tell about the shepherds and the magi, but we leave out these two simple people who waited their whole lives.  In that vein we will each have a cookie place in front of us and have to wait 5 minutes to show us how hard it is to wait like Simeon and Anna did.

 

Day 23- Flight to Egypt, Dixie cups in a Pringles can.  I’ve made my kids eat a lot of Pringles recently.  The cups are to stack to make a pyramid.  How big of a pyramid can you make?

 

Here is part 1 of the Advent project

Here are the updated Advent printables (including a master list of what to do each day).

 

I meant to get this up before December 1, but I quite literally finished all of these on December 1, and I already had posts scheduled and I haven’t had time to sit down and write until now………  All right, I’m off to start school for the day.  We’ve already gotten our Advent acitivity for today done.  I quite literally got out of bed and they pounced on me saying, “We have to find the 5!”

Bible Alive: Baby Moses

 

Earlier this year I studied Moses with my 2nd/3rd graders (there’s a ridiculously detailed post explaining the original project), and since we’ve started on our grand “Study the Bible in 2 Years” plan we’re going to be covering it again soon, so I’m trying out the lessons on my kids to start out.

Well, the other day Batman was happily running a dungeon with Jeff on a computer game, so to make Superman and Princess happier I let them make our craft.  I got out some of the wooden babies from Casey’s Wood Products and an egg carton and let them have at it decorating their craft.

 

Of course we tested if our baskets floated in water, which they did quite successfully.  This then led to the kids NEEDING to take a bath right then with their peg dolls.

 

That ended our Bible lesson until the next morning.

 

At which point we acted out the entire story using our peg dolls.  Princess quite happily shared the mommy and little girl she colored, I contributed some of the ones I colored, and Superman contributed the basket.

 

Once there was a family who had a baby boy.  It was against the law to have a baby boy, and the soldiers were going to come and kill the baby.  So his mommy and daddy hid him for 3 months.  It’s very hard to hide a baby that long because babies cry and are noisy.

 

 

Finally, they could hide the baby no longer, so they made a basket and covered it in tar (you could bring in this science experiment), and Miriam watched over him in the reeds.

 

 

 

While the basket was floating in the reeds, Pharaoh’s daughter came down and found him there.  “A baby!,” she said, “I’ll name him Moses because I drew him out of the water.”

 

 

 

Miriam came up to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Would you like me to find someone who can take care of him for you?” she asked.

“Yes,” said Pharaoh’s daughter, “and I will play her to do it.”

 

 

Miriam brought her mother and Pharaoh’s daughter said, “I will pay you to take care of him, and when he is grown bring him back to me.”

 

 

 

One of the things I noticed when I was preparing for this lesson that I had never noticed before, Miriam was sitting right there watching over Moses.  Admittedly, she was hiding, but it’s not like the scene in “Prince of Egypt” where he’s just randomly floating down the Nile river.  He was being watched.

 

Have you ever suddenly noticed something in a story you’ve read many times?

Advent Project part 1

So, I showed you my plans and pictures of bits and bobs that I had completed, but I’m going to show you step by step and pictures of what it looks like completed, because I figure there’s got to be quite a few of you who are visual learners.  Also, my plans are still revising as I go along.

Supplies needed for days 1-12: cardstock, 6×9 manila envelopes, small boxes to hold peg people, plastic animals, green felt, pipe cleaners, green fabric, popsicle sticks, blue paper, peg people (3 men, 4 women, 2 babies, 1 boy, and 1 giant [I get my peg people from Casey’s Wood Products]), acrylic paint (for peg people, could use markers)

Day 1: Creation- 2 peg dolls for Adam and Eve, and various small plastic animal toys from around the house, and a fat quarter of green fabric (could also be a sheet of felt).  Additional activities: watch What’s In the Bible DVD 1, part 1.  Potentially also play with the Creation bean bags.

Day 2- Fall of Man- felt leaves with pipe cleaners for the fig leaves, a small “fruit” made from beads and pipe cleaners, they’re going to make a snake from play dough for acting the story out.  I hot glued the beads on to make it “more” child friendly, but it’s still not the best for little guys unsupervised.  Also watch “What’s in the Bible DVD 1, part 2.”

Day3- Noah- play Memory or Go Fish with the cards found for this game (I printed two copies of the each page) and act out the story using animals from Day 1, and the 2 new peg dolls.  Watch “Veggietales: Noah’s Umbrella.”

Day 4- Abraham- Abraham’s Journey game and act out the story using the peg dolls.  Watch “Veggietales: Abe and the Amazing Promise.”

Day 5-Isaac- ram craft from Little Blots.  I currently don’t have any random extra stories or videos aside from one I wrote.

Day 6-Jacob, Jacob’s ladder craft, read the story of Jacob and Esau.

Day 7- Judah,  act out the story with popsicle sticks.  I’m planning on emphasizing Judah’s growth from planning to sell Joseph to making himself responsible for Benjamin’s safety.  Also watch “Veggietales: The Ballad of Little Joe”  or listen to the Adventures in Odyssey.

Day 8- Moses, since I want this also to be the story of God’s Redemptive history, I’m including people not specifically in Jesus’ lineage.  We’ll act out the story of God acting to save Moses as a baby.  Afterwards we’ll watch “Veggietales: Moe and the Big Exit.”  Or possibly “Prince of Egypt.”

Day 9- Rahab-make a red bookmark by braiding yarn.  Thanks to Annette for this suggestion!  We’ll watch “Veggietales: Josh and the Big Wall.”

Day 10- Ruth- We’ll build an obstacle course and go through it in pairs, like Ruth stayed with Naomi.  We’ll also watch “Veggietales: Duke and the Great Pie War.”

Day 11- David- Read the story and act it out with the peg dolls.  Then we’ll watch “Veggietales: Dave and the Giant Pickle.”

Day 12- King David- Read the story of David bringing the Ark back to Jerusalem.  Make crowns for ourselves and decorate them.
And here are the printables I’ve created so far for this project, I have a small paper for each day that goes in or on the container, the dolls for acting out Judah’s story, and the angels for Jacob’s ladder.
Advent Printable(function() { var scribd = document.createElement(“script”); scribd.type = “text/javascript”; scribd.async = true; scribd.src = “http://www.scribd.com/javascripts/embed_code/inject.js”; var s = document.getElementsByTagName(“script”)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(scribd, s); })();
And that is all I have done to show in pictures.  I’m hoping to get the rest of it all finished tonight/tomorrow to share on Saturday.  I’ve changed my original plan somewhat.  Tightened up some parts, and added in some others.

Advent season

This year I am going to try and be more focused in our plans for Christmas and the Advent season, and towards that end I have a plan.

Hopefully the plan will go well.

Day 1- God creates the world, play a Concentration game using cards from Adam Names the Animals. For other things we have done with Creation, go to: Creation book part 1(follow the link trail), Creation book 2, Creation game.  This is going in an Altoid tin, I’ve altered somewhat……  Mainly gluing scrapbook paper all over it.

Day 2- Adam and Eve peg dolls, along with a snake and a garden of Eden play mat (also known as a handkerchief colored with sharpie and food dye). The idea is from Our Country Road.
My plan is to use the play mat for the others days in general.

Day 3- Noah, I’m still debating on this one.  The kids are advocating for another play set and an ark……  You know another one.

Day 4- Abraham, Sarah, and baby Isaac, story of Isaac as the promised child.

Day 5- sheep- tell the story of Abraham offering Isaac as a sacrifice.

Day 6- Jacob’s ladder.  I probably will put the supplies in to do this craft.  Now to figure out how to do that……..

Day 7- Joseph and Judah, since Judah is the one who is in Jesus’ line, I’ll probably emphasize how Judah offered to be responsible for Benjamin.

Day 8-Moses in a basket- to show how God is keeping Israel safe even in the worst times.

Day 9- Rahab and the spies (one of 4 women mentioned in Jesus’ line, including Mary).  I’m still debating on what I’m going to do here.  I don’t want to do an endless line of peg dolls, but at the same time the kids love them.

Day 10- Ruth Boaz and probably Naomi- another of the women in Jesus’ line, I find it interesting that most of the women mentioned are not actually Hebrew.

Day 11- David and Goliath- more peg dolls

Day 12- David as king, probably the story of David and the ark of the covenant- make crowns

Day 13- King Solomon- King Solomon and how he asked for wisdom

Day 14- Zechariah and Elizabeth (Luke 1:5-25)

Day 15- Mary (Luke 1:26-44), Mary nativity doll

Day 16- John born (Luke 1:57-80)

Day 17- Joseph (Matthew 1:18-25), Joseph nativity doll

Day 18- Journey to Bethlehem (Luke 2:1-7), board game from Living Waters (printable)

Day 19- shepherds (Luke 2:18-20), shepherd nativity figures, possibly drummer boy

Day 20- magi (Matthew 2:1-12), magi nativity figures, maybe frankincense and myrrh

Day 21- Simeon (Luke 2:25-35)

Day 22- Anna (Luke 2:36-43)

Day 23- escape to Egypt (Matthew 2:13-18) pyramid puzzle or stacking cups

Bolded items I’m still debating on what will go in those particular boxes.  My plan is to wrap them in individual boxes and hide them all over the house with numbers on them.  I deliberately ended it on the 23rd because I’ve found for us that Christmas Eve and Christmas tend to be fairly busy so I don’t want to try and plan a special event that we won’t be able to do.  I’d rather finish it up early and just read stories on the last two days.

Over at Tired, Need Sleep she also has a great Advent calendar which I’m going to print out for my Sunday School class.  I also have a ton of ideas over on my Christmas board and my Advent board.

Linking over to: Ten O’Clock Nativity Post

Bible Alive: Abraham part 1

This past week with the kids (I did this a few weeks ago in Sunday School) we talked about Abraham and how God promised him his descendants would be as numberless as the stars.
Then they got to color their picture with crayons and make glitter glue stars.  When it was all dried I painted over it with watercolor paint to make it look like night.

I thought I had gotten this idea from a post over at Our Country Road but can’t find it or anywhere else I might have gotten it.  My Genesis Pinterest board failed me……..  Oh well.  So, if you’ve seen a similar craft to this can you put the link in the comments?

I particularly like the individuality in each one.  Superman added an owl up in the tree.  Princess and Batman added Jesus.  But Batman was more interested in getting the the next thing so his Jesus is just an outline, and Princess drew in this big vague shape with lots and lots of color, mainly pink……..

If you’d like the picture they used to color, here’s my Abraham counting the stars coloring page.

And for those who are wondering, I need to resubmit my stories to the place I submitted it.  The first go round she said there’s interest but it needs polishing, particularly in the scanning of it.  I just need to sit down and resend it again.

Noah’s ark or maybe just a fun boat to play in

So, because I’m a crazy over-achiever or maybe a perfectionist or something I’ve decided to completely write and design my own Bible study curriculum that goes through the whole thing in 2 years.  More or less.

I mean we’re not hitting everything, but it gets most of the major stories and themes.

Well, this past week in our Sunday school class was Noah, so of course we had to make arks.

SUPPLIES:  individual milk cartons (or in our case orange juice), floral foam (can be found at the dollar store or Michael’s), brown acrylic paint, Noah’s ark printout, sharp knife

1.   Force your kids to drink 14 cartons of orange juice in 2 days, then cut out one side of your ark, so it looks like a boat.

2.  Paint your ark.  I know, normally I’d show me painting, but I didn’t think to take pictures until afterwards.

3.  Cut your floral foam to fit inside your carton.  This is a very exact science which will require shaving off bits and pieces and then shoving it into your ark.

And, it is very messy.

4.  Color the printout and cut out each of the figures.  Then tape them to the ark.

Now set your ark adrift on the ocean.  And look forward to the squeals of delight from your kids.  Yes, that is a mandatory step.
So, I made 24 of these for my class including the sample (I pre-painted them, they colored the pictures).  We used every single one of them.  No joke.
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