Childrens Sunday School Lesson: Using music to praise God. DIY Harp.

Praising God,
With singing and with music.

Music is such a fun concept and past time for children; and, such an important part of praising God. We all have our favorite songs, teaching children to desire the right kind of music and using it to praise and glorify God can be allot of fun.

Psalm 92:1-5 kjv

92 It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto thy name, O Most High:

² To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night,
³ Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery; upon the harp with a solemn sound.
⁴ For thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph in the works of thy hands.
⁵ O Lord, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep.

Before starting a good conversation point (as I always like to prompt conversation with the kids in the beginning of class to give them a chance to talk before being quiet and a way to find fun in what we will be learning) is their favorite songs, instruments. Now, keep in mind that they might need coaxing and try to remind them of songs common in your church that they may know/like/sing.

Points to go over with children:

1-Music is good, something to be proud of and something to be used to glorify God. 
         -Singing in church, playing an instrument are wonderful ways to praise God. He wants us to praise Him with music!
2-Singing/Playing in church does not have to be perfect.
        -Something so hard for us to teach children is to not be afraid to get up on stage and sing or play an instrument, it's hard because often we are nervous or scared to do just that. Tell the kids that, that nerves bother adults too and that nerves are okay, not something to be ashamed of. Also, make sure they know that if they get up there to sing Jesus loves me and forget half the words that the EFFORT is what is important and what God asks us for. He never asks us to be perfect, He simply asks us to SERVE with a willing heart.
3-Everyone has different talents.
         -If a child doesn't seem to have a certain talent make sure they know that is okay and not something to be ashamed of. Each person, each child has a talent that they can explore and use to praise and glorify God.

CRAFT TIME:
Lets make a harp, one of the instruments mentioned in the scripture, a fun play "pretend" to remind the children of the lesson to use music and instrument to praise and give thanks to God.
  
What you need:
Card board (cake boards sold at walmart or craft store in cake section work great)
Large rubberbands (5 per harp)
Wooden dowel cut to about 5 inches
Hot glue gun

Cut board to shape of a harp, as seen in the photos (Not the best cut of card board but it works). After cutting the hole in the center place the wooden dowel at the top with hot glue gun (this serves to balance the rubber bands).  Pull rubber bands to fit around it and spread them out evenly. Let the kids strum and play pretend music. Using a sharpie write the Scripture on it as a reminder.

 

 

Mercy & Truth Sunday School Lesson *Proverbs 3:3-4*

Having the little 4-6 year old class is such fun, such a blessing. This is the latest lesson we did, I am still a few behind on sharing but I wanted to go ahead and share this one.

PROVERBS 3:3-4

"Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart: So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man."

Mercy: compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one's power to punish or harm.

Truth: the quality or state of being true.

When I did this lesson it was fun talking to the kids about what they view as the truth and what mercy is. Above, I show you the definitions of the words that are good to talk to the kids about. With my age group I like to use stories to incorporate something to their understanding, like telling the truth for example; Ask them if they have ever lied to mommy or daddy, talk to them about maybe an instance of breaking something and then saying they didn't or so on, then explain the correlation/opposites of truth compared to lies, untruth. 

Mercy is harder to bring to their level, but is very important as it is something that we are instructed to live by, with. Talk to them about how they sometimes have to choice to get revenge or be mean to someone because they were mean to them, and how they can and should choose the opposite, kindness, forgiveness. God's mercy for us is by far unexplainable and unimagineable, it is AMAZING, for us as humans it is much harder to have such mercy. 

CRAFT TIME:

The scripture talks about mercy and truth and that you are to "...bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart..." So, I thought it would be fun to make a necklace, simple and fun! 

What you need:

Card stock paper in any color (we used brown) 

Hole punch

Scissors

Markers

Yarn

Cut out a heart for each necklace (write on this or have the child if they are able "Mercy and Truth" and the scripture) and cut out 2 rectangles or ovals, something to tie to either side of the heart. Punch holes in each side of heart and on each side of the heart. Cut 2 small lengths of yarn to tie between heart and rectangle on each side and then one long length of yarn to tie the length that will make the necklace. Let them color or decorate rectangles and heart if they want. DONE!

Enjoy!

 

"Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together..." Church craft and Sunday school lesson for children

Growing up I was raised in church and I am proud that my husband and I also have the priority of keeping our children in church. Going to church is not only an opportunity given to us, it is something that I believe is taught in the bible to be something that God wants of us. This is something that is about so much more tho than just going because we "should" it is about being surrounded by the people of God, about learning more from Sunday school teachers and the preacher and keeping studying and living or God at the front of our lives and not tucked away in the closet somewhere. Teaching our children this teaches them those things and also that things of God should always be first in our lives rather than the many things that can show up and take over our lives.

Hebrews 10:25

²⁵ Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

That one simple verse said it all for what we needed to talk about in class. 

Ask the kids why we come to church?

Here are some talking points, use these to encourage conversation of what each would mean in a "christian" aspect and how we should do these things.

 

-learn

-be together with other believers

-rejoice

-worship

-stay close to God

Also make sure to emphasize the  the "exhorting one another" part, exhorting has a definition of "strongly encourage or urge (someone) to do something" this is important because one major part of being a good child of God is encouraging others, making them be better in their own lives by keeping your own faith and supporting theirs. This is such a blessing which comes from being in a close-knit church family, you can count on one another for encouragement in life trials, from medical problems and death or loss all the way to something as simple as having a bad day at work. Also, we can encourage one another to witness, pray, believe, worship, learn and so on. 

Now, craft time!

This turned into one of the classes favorite crafts, it was fun and something they could continue to play with after class too! This craft does take a little more time than the others I have shared for SS Class so plan accordingly.

What you need:

-2 sheets of brown card stock paper

-small piece of tissue paper (any color)

-contact paper cut into 2 even 1.5inch approx. rectangles

-markers

-yellow construction paper

Prep:

Since this would all take a while in the class and I have younger kids I decided to prep some ahead of time.

Fold the brown paper in half width ways and cut a slit in the fold on the bottom going up approx. 1 inch folding the piece that is now freed up on the front and the one on the inside as well (this will serve as the holder for the person). Now, cut the steeple by cutting in around an inch on both sides toward the top (about 2.5 inches down) and then cut to a point at top. Next you will need to cut the doors, this is a little tricky and can be omitted but I think it is a great touch to see the "people" thru the doors. In order to do them you will need to fold in half length ways and cut 2 even slits an inch or a little more apart, then cold width ways and cut the length of the doors between the 2 slits, ta-da! They should be able to open now. Now cut 6 even rectangles out of the brown card stock paper about an inch wide (to be the pews) and cut one small rectangle and a small square (to be the pulpit). Cut the contact paper into the 2 squares and tear off a piece of tissue paper. Now cut a person out of the yellow paper. Put all small pieces into a little snack ziplock to keep it together, do this for each child you plan to have in the class (always do an extra for visitors). 

In class:

Give each child the church template and the bag of small pieces. First, do the windows, tear tiny pieces of tissue to make the "stained glass" and place in the center of the contact paper leaving a little room on edges to stick then place evenly on each side of doors. Glue on the sides only of each flap on the bottom (one on the front and one on the inside too). Write (or let them if they can) "let us go" on the front and "into the house of the Lord" on the inside! Glue the pews into place and the pulpit. Color them black or a darker brown for contrast. Outline the doors and color door knobs, draw a cross on the top of the steeple. And show them the person (to represent themselves) outside the church by placing in the fold of the flap and then inside the church in that fold, opening doors so they can see thru the doors too!

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Shepherd lesson

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Psalm 23

This has always been one of my favorite chapters in the bible so this was fun to do with my little class. Along with this lesson we did a little craft because with little ones that helps so much with driving in the lesson and point, it is fun and it is important too!

Psalm 23

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

² He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
³ He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
⁴ Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
⁵ Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
⁶ Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

 We started by talking about a shepherd and what a shepherd did, what a flock was and the relation of these two things to Christ (the shepherd) and the church (the flock). 
       -After talking and letting them participate to understand what you are trying to understand talk to the kids about how God can lead us. Prayer, bible study, going to church, giving us peace, blessings. 
       -"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:" Talk to them about how God, and goodness (blessings) will be with us always!

A short sentiment to talk to the children about listening to God in their own lives and learning to pray for his will and guidance in their trials and good times. 

Now for the craft, all you need is:
1 piece brown card stock (can use regular construction paper if needed)
1 piece green construction paper
1 piece blue construction paper
2 other colors construction paper
Markers


Cut out the staff, and little rectangles for each little part of the verse (we did not put the entire scripture on for the sake of saving space but we wanted to get the highlights) The green paper cut the top to look like grass and the blue cut to look like waves and make sure those get the corresponding parts of the scripture. 

Write the portions on the papers or let the children if they are able and let them glue the pieces together.

Dry erase re-usable tracing number book. Quiet toddler toy.

Teaching toddlers to write can (and is) tricky. Especially when you want to teach them specifics and they just want to draw. If your child is anything like mine, tracing is a great, FUN way to work with them but this also makes you go thru lots of paper so I made something so we could avoid that. 

So simple and yet it becomes a teaching tool and hours of fun for your child. All you need is card stock paper, contact paper, markers, hole punch, scissors and either pipe cleaners or the key rings you pull apart.

For the paper, either cut into 4's (half and then half again) or you can fold and then tear them (which is what I did because it is easier for me to get it straight). Write with the markers a title page (you can see mine below), and write the numbers, one per page, with lines for tracing. After all numbers are written down cut a large piece of contact paper and another the same size. Laying all of the papers down on sticky side and then covering with the other sheet of contact paper. Press down well to get out all air bubbles and then using the scissors cut around the edge of each card and hole punch two holes in center of top or one in top left corner and put ring or pipe cleaners thru. Add a dry erase marker and voila! The kid love it. We keep it in our daughters church bag and she gets so excited when she sees it, and at 2.5 she is doing great learning to trace her numbers. We also have an ABC one I am working on and will share with you soon.

Note: they do make washable dry erase markers, I highly suggest these for the younger toddlers because even when they are good at writing on paper they forget and that way you can make clean up easier.

Learning & Teaching Colors. Toddler style!

Hi everyone, it's that time with my little girl. Time to introduce the actual learning stage, you know the lets sit and have "school time" stage. Toddlers have short attention spans, so, this list is a great hands-on list of activities to introduce colors. For the first 2 years you can show and explain and teach allot of things to toddlers, and even some "school time" type of activities but once they get a little older you can drive it in a little more. You can actually get them to keep attention on something for an amount of time, you can bring out the real fun! Learning colors is something easily made fun, and over the last couple weeks we have been doing allot of activities to show our little Annabelle colors and what an exciting couple weeks it has been! Remember to keep inserting the color names and explaining things to them. These are fun activities for parent and child, you can have fun watching them learn, and it's fine if the match up wrong colors every now and then too, you just work with them and show them differences and so on. Here is a list of some things that we used, keeping in mind that all activities listed require supervision, yes some less than others but these are meant to be things you do with them anyhow!

C-O-L-O-R-S!

12 GREAT Color learning/teaching activities for toddler: To teach and to simply introduce the colors to the little ones!

1: Baking, baking is ALWAYS a hit with toddlers. 

------Bake some simple sugar cookies from a mix or from a recipe and using some sprinkles (I used wilton crystal sprinkles). Do different color sprinkles on different cookies and talk about and introduce which colors are which. Also, when eating, they can pick out and tell you which color cookie they want to eat. 

Another great idea would be using a little food coloring to mix into the cookie dough to make colored cookie would be fun!

  

  

2: Colors by fruit

-----Using either colored cups or what I did is used colored tape on clear plastic cups seperate the fruit into matching cups. Just cut up the fruit and leave them with it! Helping them sort and get it right! Ideas...Grapes, Blueberries, Strawberries, oranges, banana, lime, lemon, clementine. Annabelle LOVES fruit so this is an awesome thing for her, and when it's done it makes an awesome and healthy snack time!

3: Colored rice
-----Color rice using a little vinegar and food coloring. About 1tbsp vinegar to each cup of rice. Mix the vinegar and food coloring keeping in mind that it will be a lighter than what the liquid is in the bowl or bag you mix it in. Once you mix the color and vinegar and then add in rice and coat well, lay out on foil lined baking sheet and let air dry. Time to dry varies by how wet it was and how thin you spread it on the sheet.  The rice can be used for pouring, playing in or making like a sand art project in bottles. This is a great addition to any hands on activity your little toddler likes to learn from.

 

4: Crayola color bath tablets!

 

 5: Sorting Blocks/balls
-----The kiddos love to play outside so we used chalk to draw big circles in different colors and brought out the baskets of the blocks and balls and let her go at it. Of course there is coaching going on but this is something you can let them do and they can learn from trial and error and you work with them. She had a blast with this and brother thought he was helping too.
 

 

6: Basic Crayons

-----Crayons are fun, the kids feel in control, creative and proud to create their own artwork. You can also use this to help with shapes, draw some shapes and color an edge on it and let them match the color crayons with the color and fill it in. 

 

7: Markers

 

 8: Felt color matching
-----At walmart or any craft store you can buy a little jewelry findings storage box that you can use, and it also serves as a storage container for the felt pieces when you are thru. Alright this is simple, you need some felt in different colors, scissors, the box, glue gun! Cut a small piece of felt for the bottom of each little square and glue to the bottom. Using the rest of the felt cut out small shapes, triangle, square, rectangle etc. Lay out all shapes and let them match the colored shapes to each square. Also, I threw some little colored pompoms in the mix too. Another favorite for my Annabelle.



9: Fruit Loops and baking cups for sorting! AND of course, snacking!

 10: Color wheel and clothes pins matching game
-----What you need: Craft paint (8-9 colors), clothes pins (3 for each of the colors), large cardboard circle cut out (I just used an old diaper box we had I think). Using a marker or something to keep straight lines create the sections for each color and then paint each section with different color. Paint 3 clothes pins to each color. This is a great matching game, you can add in rewards or what we did, just did it for fun, getting it right and the excitement was reward enough for her. This is her absolute favorite color game and it doesn't take up too much space to store or take somewhere with you, would be fun for a car ride too!
 

11: Colored water

-----Kids love to shake, play in and do whatever with water most times. All you need is a bottle of water, we used mini ones and either food coloring or paint (I'd suggest keeping the bottle closed and for shaking activity only if you use paint). And I realize now I didn't get a picture of these finished when we did this so sorry but you can picture, it's fun for them to see the water change when the shake the bottle.

12: Colored tape

-----Like I used in a previous activity you can use it to distinguish the clear cups to each color or you could use in place of chalk in a sorting activity like in #5. This is a universal tool to play and craft with. Also, cream masking tape is great for a substitute to what colored tape you cannot find in store, just color with a marker.

  

Hands on learning is one of the best things for kids in my opinion, it makes it fun, exciting and interesting! This was such a fun blog to write, and to look back on this fun we have been having and continue to have. Truly, I believe that colors are one of the funnest activities to do with kids. This list is my compilation of activities, there are so many fun things to do but I hope this blog brings some fun, hands on learning for your kids! ENJOY!