An Old Sunday School Teacher's Ramblings

Somebody has an AT-TI-TUDE!

2011-06-19T12:50:00.000-07:00

I find myself not posting on this blog like I had intended....partially because I'm lazy and partially because the Bible School curriculum that I am using has a two year rotation where it repeats itself. I can't believe that I have been doing this for two years because here I am back to doing a series of lessons on Elijah!

I also find myself really challenged by this group of kiddos. Out of the potential of having 8, I usually have maybe 5 to 6....and not the same 5 to 6. If there are any teachers that face this same challenge, I'd love to hear from you. I have these grand ideas of us learning lots of things that take repeated singing or going over or even help at home. The challenge comes in having some 2 or 3 weeks in a row and then they will be absent 2 or 3 weeks and we start all over. I also have some that have social and/or learning challenges, which makes it hard on them to retain what we have done. And then I have some that come 10-15 minutes late and we have already covered some of this and it's time to move on so they miss that part. I find I can't start over 2 or 3 times in the 40 minutes I have or we never get into the actual lesson and the ones that have been there the whole time are bored with doing the same thing three times. Yeah, I pray about this...a lot!

My goals for them during the two years I have them...besides instilling the fact that God is in charge, he loves us no matter what, and we strive each day to please him; that we get rewarded for doing good and we have consequences for being bad are learning some particular basics. Those basics include: learning a prayer, knowing that Jesus is God's son, we talk to God by praying and God talks to us through the Bible, the Bible has two parts...the Old Testament and that was before Jesus was born and the New Testament that begins with Jesus' birth. There are 66 books in the Bible and what their names are, with 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. There are twelve disciples or followers of Jesus and their names...that's not too much is it? Some are doing pretty good; in fact, so good that when I pick up my Bible and say, "What is this?" I get the automatic response about it being a Bible and it is God's words. Then I get that there are two parts, Old and New...so when I think about it, I guess some of it is working.

We have done a trilogy of Elijah stories and will finish it off next week. So far we have done: Elijah is taken care of by God (the story with the ravens), Elijah helps a widow (the story of the jars that God refills with flour and oil), and this week we did the story of Elijah helps the widow's son (the young boy dies and God brings him back to life). Next week is the story of Elijah and the Prophets of Baal. Today we talked about in our lesson how God answers prayers. Sometimes God answers Yes, sometimes it is No, and sometimes he says to wait a while. Whatever his answer is, we have to believe that God knows what is best for us and accept it for what it is. I think for 4-5 year olds they picked up on that pretty good.

For a filler sometimes I use some cards I have what we call "Action and Consequences". Every time we use them, we talk about what consequences are and do we have them in OUR lives. Today, I really had to hold back the giggles. One little 4 year old visitor (who is adorable) was really into this exercise. On one side of the card is the picture of four children. One little girl is pushing down a little boy and two children see this happen. Is this nice? Is God happy when we hurt other people? What do you think happens next? What is the consequence of the little girl who pushed the little boy down? On the backside of the card is a picture of the two "lookers" consoling the little boy and giving unhappy looks to the little girl. The little "pushing" girl is sitting on a park bench by herself looking sad. Does anyone want to play with the little girl who pushed the little boy? Did she make her friends happy? In all of this line of questions and answers I get this little finger snap, head twist and a "looks like somebody has an AT-TI-TUDE!" When we talk about the consequences I hear this little voice say, "looks like somebody got an AT-TI-TUDE adjustment!" Out of the mouth of babes! Sometimes, I think we all need an AT-TI-TUDE adjustment!

Martha, Martha...

2011-02-20T12:11:00.000-08:00

Luke 10:38-42....today's lesson! This has to be one of my favorite lessons from the Bible! I can so relate to Martha. If you aren't familiar with this story, I encourage you to read the passage given from your Bible.

I found a really cute book at a dollar store that has some really good illustrations but of course, it just wasn't exactly how I wanted to present the lesson. I scanned and enlarged the pictures, erasing the words with it all fitting on one sheet of paper in the landscape position. These go in a plastic protector sleeve. I then wrote the part of the story that corresponded with the picture and questions I wanted to ask about the picture on a second sheet of paper. The whole idea is to able to hold up the picture and let the kids look at it while you are talking about it. I find that when you are reading from a book, you read the story and then hold the book up and in the mean time you've lost some of them...they are 4 and 5! After you have all your pictures and the corresponding story done, the first page is your first picture. Page two is the corresponding lesson material with picture two on it's back side. Using a cheapy three prong folder place your story in the folder backwards. Page one is the last page...when you hold up the picture, the folder is folded in half and you are reading from your corresponding material. I'll post a picture...this sounds more complicated than it is! They seemed to really stay focused on the story while I was telling it and they had a picture to look at. I have found surprising them with how I present the lesson keeps them enthused. And no matter how well I think I know a story, if I depend on my memory I usually leave out something that I wish I had presented...so I have the written script handy!!

After I used the "story book", I donned my aunt's old apron. (She would be so proud to know that her old apron was part of a Sunday School lesson!) I had baked some Parker House rolls last night, got out my wooden bowl that came from my favorite junk store, wooden spoon, and worn out kitchen towel. (I had the rolls in the bowl covered with the towel.) I told them I was going to see if they were good listeners like Mary was and I retold the story like I was Martha. Now if you read the story, you know that Martha was more concerned with matters concerning being a good hostess than listening to what Jesus had to say. Mary on the other was enthralled with Jesus' teaching and sat at his feet as the taught. Martha became annoyed with Mary, that she was not helping her prepare for their guests. She became so annoyed she went to Jesus and said, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do all the work myself? Tell her to help me!" Jesus in his loving way told Martha, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things but I am here to tell you things. I have so much to teach. Dinner can wait for everyone, it is better to learn more about God."

"Martha, Martha..." can't you just imagine Jesus shaking his head and having a little smile on his lips? I can almost hear him talking to me..."Kathy, Kathy, get your priorities in the right order!" Oh how wonderful it must have been to be Mary and sit at Jesus' feet hearing him teach! In our busy lives today we seem to forget what is really important, we forget to listen to Jesus. As I was being Martha..I finished up my tirade by taking the kitchen towel off of the rolls and saying..."I've had to fix all this bread for all of you, all by myself!" I knew they would be lost after I uncovered food so I finished up by asking, "Martha was worried about fixing food for everyone...what was Mary doing?" I told them that Mary and Martha didn't have peanut butter and jelly but I did and did they want some on their bread. Yuuuummmy! Snack in Mrs. Kathy's class!

This week practice being Mary and listen to Jesus...let's all get our priorities straight. I guess I should put my OCD on hold sometimes!

Follow, follower, following....we have it down pat!

2011-02-06T10:49:00.000-08:00

The creators of the curriculum that I'm using must have run out of ideas one week so that threw in "Two Friends Follow Jesus". Now prior to this, back when we were doing Moses...they wanted to cover the 10 plagues and the wandering with the fire and cloud in one week. ONE WEEK! Now, I get the story of Philip encouraging Nathanael to get up from under the fig tree and go meet Jesus. Granted that is a wonderful, wonderful thing that Philip did and how amazing could it have been to have met Jesus and realized that he truly is "the son of God"! (John 1:43-49)

BUT when you are teaching 4 and 5 year olds...the story of Philip and Nathanael takes all of 5 minutes so we talked about what is means to follow, to be a follower, and what following Jesus means. We started with follow...I pulled out some clay that I have and told them they had to follow me and do the same things with their clay that I did. We rolled it flat, we made a donut, we made a shepherd's crook, and we made a ball. As we made all of these things, I would ask, "Who is following what I am doing and doing the same thing?" "I AM! I AM!" Then you sneak in that Bible truth...in the Bible, Jesus went around doing good things for people and he was kind and loving towards them. If we follow Jesus do we good things for people? "YESSS" Are we kind and loving towards them? "YESS, and we don't hit people." "Well, if we do what Jesus did then we must be followers of His!" A little head scratching goes on here and then the light bulb went off..."Mrs. Kathy, we ARE followers of Jesus when we do what he did!" (She shoots, she scores!)

Then comes the big score...I had taken a plastic mayo jar with my 2 cups of milk, a package of instant vanilla pudding, cups and spoons, AND a big jar of mustard. As I pull out the "object lesson" I have their attention...they love to eat! "What's that for????" "I'm going to make us some vanilla pudding! But let's see...the box says I'm supposed to pour the pudding mix in the jar of milk and shake it up for 2 minutes." Then you pick up the jar of mustard...."but I don't think I want to use milk, I want to use mustard. I know the box says use milk, but I just don't want to!" "Mrs. Kathy, that will be disgusting!" (Kindergarten student!!) "But I want to do it my way!" "Mrs. Kathy, I really think you should do what the box says." (same kindergarten kid!) Here it comes...do you feel it coming? Mrs. Kathy-"Well, God says in Bible that we shouldn't tell lies and it says we shouldn't hit people or steal from them. God even says we shouldn't be mean and we should pray for people that don't like us. Should we do what God tells us in the Bible and follow what HE says or should we do what we want to do?" LIGHT BULB MOMENT! We should be followers and do what God says! Let's get busy shaking that jar of milk and pudding mix!!

Sing it with me.....

"I have decided to follow Jesus; I have decided to follow Jesus; I have decided to follow Jesus;No turning back, no turning back.

Though I may wonder, I still will follow;Though I may wonder, I still will follow;Though I may wonder, I still will follow; No turning back, no turning back.

The world behind me, the cross before me;The world behind me, the cross before me;The world behind me, the cross before me;No turning back, no turning back.

Though none go with me, still I will follow; Though none go with me, still I will follow; Though none go with me, still I will follow; No turning back, no turning back.

Will you decide now to follow Jesus? Will you decide now to follow Jesus?Will you decide now to follow Jesus? No turning back, no turning back."

Sermon on the Mount

2011-01-02T10:54:00.000-08:00

Today's society emphasizes doing things that please ourselves. But the Bible instructs us to change our focus. Instead of trying to please ourselves or even others, we should strive to please our creator. Scriptures say that Jesus sat on a hill side to teach. Jesus would have sat, both so that there was room for His followers to listen and because Jewish rabbis usually sat to teach. Jesus helped His followers see that true believers have a personal relationship with God and they care about helping others to know God. The Bible focus for this lesson is from Matthew 5:1, 2, 43- 44; 6:3-4, 26, 28, 33; 7:12...basically the sermon on the mount.

Okay, most four year olds have the concept that we should be doing things to please ourselves...so we took a fair amount of time discussing what "pleasing" God means and why it is important before we even started. Our lessons focused on 5 main points of Jesus' teaching and I got "creative" and made a interactive Bible application thingy. I don't know what else to call it. Sometimes these bright ideas come to me and I don't really know how to implement them until I wander around Hobby Lobby for a while getting inspiration. This time I actually took my husband and explained what I wanted to accomplish but just wasn't sure how to get there. Between the two of us wandering around for a while, he found the ideal thing for me to use! (Who knew he was creative?) A pegboard coat rack... you know the kind that is a flat board with 6 pegs in it? I found the fun foam and now we're in business. I painted the "Sermon on the Mount Interactive Pegboard" a "custard yellow" with the ends of the pegs to correspond with the color of the fun foam placard.

The first peg will be for "Jesus said...", number two is the one that represents "Love your neighbors and pray for those that don't like you" it has a heart with praying hands, three is "Help others, and don't let anybody else know what you are doing or how much you are helping"...this is represented by hands that are "helping hands", number four is "When you pray, go into your room. Be where you can talk to God by yourself." We have a little kneeling boy praying for that one. And number five is a picture of a girl some birds and flowers. This represents "God gives the birds and flowers everything they need. God cares for you too and will take care of you." Finally, the sixth peg gets a picture of a granny hugging a little girl and it goes with "Treat other people the way you want them to treat you."

This was a BIG hit. They were almost fighting over hanging the pictures on the pegs, but before they could hang the picture on the peg they had to tell me what it stood for. They did good. Before we played the "put the foam thingy on the peg board thingy" we used our trusty sand box to tell the story. Out came those bendable figures I have and the plastic Jesus. We all helped build the mountain for Jesus before we put in the people and placed Jesus on the top. Then I told them what Jesus said we must do to please God and then we used our pegboard thingy. It was a GOOD day in Whoville!

Please take this week to think about pleasing God...you've got five good choices!

December...How do you teach about Jesus?

2011-01-02T10:27:00.000-08:00

aaaahhh, December! I've purposely waited until December was over with to update this meager blog. I didn't realize it but I've been posting here for 2 years...time does fly. The curriculum that I began using rotates on a two year basis...I guess they assume your kids will promote every two years and personally, I think that's a great idea.

For years I resisted teaching the nativity in December mainly because I didn't want to be a part of that group that embraces that Jesus was born on December 25. Then I read a commentary by another teacher with my "hard headedness" and she stated something that made sense to me...why not use all of the December hype to your advantage. Children are getting bombarded by slogans like "Happy Birthday, Jesus" so why not explain to them that the scriptures do not tell us when Jesus was born and that we should love, respect, and honor Jesus EACH day like it WAS his birthday. So many times you get a month of intense "Jesus is the reason of the season" and come January...nothing. So, I have succumb to that line of thinking and I start in December and we do the lessons: An angel brings good news to Mary and Joseph, Jesus is born, Shepherds visit Jesus, and wise men bring Jesus gifts. Each week we talk about the Bible being how God talks to us and each week I tell them that the Bible doesn't tell us when Jesus' "real" birthday is but most people celebrate it in December.

Now that that rant is over...I find that the postings I did from previous years are pretty much what I did this year. I do have to change up the Bible applications because group 1 that is now group 2 has already seen them. Next year I will be able to go back and do the Bible applications that group 2 had done their first year...make sense? Whatever your style of teaching is and however you view Christmas...please remember to love, respect, and honor Jesus each day like it's His birthday!

What do you think?

2010-11-25T13:02:00.000-08:00

I've been doing some research on teaching and different teaching styles...I'm not sure why, I'm "an old dog" and you know that old saying about teaching "an old dog new tricks"! There are at least a zillion opinions on how to teach children the word of God. Now the following that you will read is strictly personal opinion...mine.

All of these different teaching styles give you good insight into the way children think and respond but the bottom line is...God charges us to "feed his sheep" (John 21:15-17), to plant the seed, to be prepared to "give an answer" (I Peter 3:15). My experience has only been with children from the second grade down to cradle roll and believe me, all these children are different. I've been blessed with being able to work with these young people for....at least 20 years and each time we have a promotion, I have to adjust my teaching style to what will work with the current children that have been placed in my care. That is a daunting thought sometimes...planting those seeds. This is definitely one of the topics that the Lord and I talk about on a regular basis...please give me the knowledge of what to teach them, please give me the skill and insight of how to reach them

I do know that my age group of kids fit into the visual, auditory, and tactile learners. Did I impress you? Sometimes, I impress me. When preparing my lessons I try to make sure they have something to look at while I'm telling the lesson. This age group can not sit and listen to you just talk without falling asleep or bouncing off the wall. I really like to ask questions as I go and adjust the pitch of my voice to match what we are talking about. We ALWAYS have some type of craft or coloring sheet or both so that they can have that hands on approach. One thing I do know...if it is fun AND informative, they will walk away with a little seed.

I come from that age group where the teacher gave you a workbook, you read the lesson, you filled in the blanks, you memorize the memory verse, and then sometimes they would "test" you. BORING! I have to say...I did NOT enjoy going to Sunday School growing up. That is one thing that gives me the most concern...I want to make learning about the Lord, learning about Jesus...learning...something they look forward to doing. I always felt like I had enough testing in public school, why did it continue at church? And then I got this thought in my head...I thought God was the one who got to grade me on what I knew or don't know...why are these people doing this?

So what do you think? How can we make learning informative and interesting? How do we plant those seeds in a way where they will take root and not fall on rocky ground? I welcome your input.

Gummi bears=children of Israel

2010-11-21T10:52:00.000-08:00

Sorry...the lazy bug bit me AGAIN and I failed to get this blog updated and I didn't tell you about the children of Israel crossing the Red Sea. Then Moses sent the spies into the land of Canaan, then Joshua leads the Israelites over the Jordan River. WHEW! Lots of important stuff in one fell swoop! This week our lesson was about Joshua and the Battle of Jericho! I had not taught this in a while and it was really fun to do. Our bible story comes from Joshua 6.

One of the points that I tried to emphasis today was how Joshua obeyed what God told him to do and how obeying God had it's reward. If we obey God...we are rewarded. We reviewed our prior lessons very briefly to set the stage for Joshua being in the land of Canaan. We talked about how the two spies that Joshua had sent into Jericho had reported about all the people and soldiers that were there. Joshua and the people could have been afraid and not done what God asked of them but they weren't, they did as God told them. When we read these stories, doesn't it hit home when we apply what God tells these people to do and what God tells us to do? Trust me...do what I say...and you will be rewarded. God told Joshua to march around the city of Jericho once a day for six consecutive days. There were armed men, then came seven priest, the ark of the covenant, and they rest of the armed men. No one talked, no one blew a horn, no one did anything but march. On the seventh day, they same procession marched around the city...only this time they marched seven times and the priests blew on the horns they had and then the people shouted and...the walls came tumbling down.

Here's the fun part for 4 and 5 year olds...you use a sugar ice cream cone...you know the kind with the pointy end? Let them bite off the point and use it as a horn. We marched around our sand table and counted seven times and then we blew on our ice cream cone horn and yelled! No, the table didn't fall but we clapped our hands like it did! Then we go back to our table and sit and they watch me as I build Jericho and retell the story and ask questions as I build. Use a plastic butter tub lid, some chocolate frosting as mortar, a big marshmallow as Jericho and little marshmallows as building blocks for the wall. You only have to "glue" Jericho to the lid and the bottom row of the bricks to the lid and then stack other marshmallows on top of the first row. Use gummi bears to march around the wall and when the horn is blown and the people shout, shake the lid and the stacked layer of marshmallow bricks will fall! Yeahhhh! After I finished, they all wanted to make one and of course, I just happen to have enough stuff that each one could build Jericho.

As I was building, I was asking about how many times did they march around the walls on the seventh day. What if they only marched 4 times and blew the horns instead of seven? "God would have been mad because they didn't obey and he wouldn't have made the bricks fall." If God tells us that we are not supposed to hurt people and we do, are we obeying God? Noooo. Is God happy with US? Noooo. Smart little kids. When your lesson is over, take the tub of your butter container and turn it upside down over the lid and push in on. Then you tell them that they have to leave it in the classroom until after "big" church and then they can come back and get it. I'm not getting blamed for chocolate mortar being smeared on church pews! I hope this week you can remember the faith the children of Israel had with such a daunting task they were given...maybe our tasks won't seem so important and we'll trust God and a great outcome, too!

Let my people GO!

2010-10-24T22:08:00.000-07:00

You have to know by that title that we finally reached the part of Moses' story that deals with the 10 plagues and Moses' plea to Pharaoh to let God's people go into the desert to worship Him. I actually did this lesson one week and reviewed the next and added the story of the pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud. Next week we will get to the crossing of the Red Sea. Check out Exodus to review all of these wonderful lessons on how God cared for His people.

I now am putting together my "Moses in a plastic bin" lesson series. All of these Moses lessons has pushed my file cabinet into overflow mode so now I have "overflowed" into a plastic bin that will go into our shop. I think my husband is starting to get worried that the Sunday School props have taken on a life of their own. I came across some old visual aids that I had with some material I had kept from who knows how many years ago. These visual aids are really good...they are the numbers that range from 1 to 10, they are about 6 inches tall and they have the plague associated with that number incorporated into the actual number. I really only had to come up with nine props, I used the number 10 that has the picture of the death of the first born on it. I wasn't really into having a little dead body/coffin for the 10th plague. With this I can just point and tell them about it. As you can see from the photo, I did get all the plagues covered. My favorite is the water into blood...plague one. Two plastic mayo jars...one has red drink mix in it, the other has room temperature water in it. You hold your hand around the bottom of the red drink mix jar as you tell about all the water in Egypt turning to blood...EVEN the water in their houses in the pictures and jars. As you tell the story, slowly pour the water in the "empty" jar. The jar starts to fill and the clear water has become blood red. Quiet the impression!! The second week that we reviewed and I did this, some of the children had not been there the previous week so they had not witnessed the water into blood. As soon as I start to fill the "empty" mayo jar with water a little girl that had been there the week before declares, "WATCH THIS, WATCH THIS!" Yes, they were all paying attention then! I used our sandbox and propted up a picture of some pymarids and had a Moses and a Pharoah attached to some craft sticks that we placed in the sand.

Moses had done as God had told him and asked Pharaoh to let the Jews (now called Israelites) leave Egypt for three days to go into the desert and offer sacrifices to God. Pharaoh refused, just as God had said he would. Now God began a series of plagues on Egypt to change Pharaoh's mind and to demonstrate God's power to the Egyptians.

The plagues were:

Water into blood. Moses told Pharaoh that since he had not listened to the Lord's request to let His people go, the water of the river would turn to blood. Moses struck the water with his staff and it turned to blood. All the fish died and the Egyptians were not able to drink the water. In fact, even the water in ponds and canals and in the people's water jars turned to blood! I used the mayo jars with the red drink mix for this plague.

Frogs. When Pharaoh still wouldn't listen to Moses' request God sent a plague of frogs on Egypt. They were everywhere-in the place, in people's ovens, covering the ground, in their beds! Dollar store plastic frogs...a BUNCH of frog's for a buck!

Gnats. God turned the dust into gnats. They covered Egypt, biting and crawling on people and animals. It was terrible, but Pharaoh would not give in! Don't you just hate those nasty little critters! What to use for gnats??? Well, I took the holes out of my hole punch reservoir and we "chunked" them at Pharaoh...gnats!

Flies. Nasty, nasty, nasty flies! Who wouldn't want to give in when these nasty things appeared...who wouldn't-Pharaoh! Again, a trip to the dollar store for a bag of assorted bugs. And in that bag...one BIG nasty looking fly AND a giant grasshopper/locust, you know I scored here, huh!

The fifth plague that God brought on the people of Egypt was probably pretty devastating. God struck the livestock with a plague and most of the Egyptians' animals died, but all the animals belonging to the Israelites were fine. Still Pharaoh refused to let the people go. Can you imagine the stink in Egypt?? Plastic animals that you let the kids lay down on their sides to pretend they are dead worked!

Boils. God told Moses and Aaron to take handfuls of soot from a furnace and toss it into the air. When they did, painful sores broke out upon the bodies of the Egyptians and the animals that were left. I had some loop of hook and loop tape left over from a project and I used a red marker to color them, they became fuzzy nasty red things that we stuck on the visual aid of Pharaoh.

Hail. Used golf ball sized sytrofoam balls that we bombarded Egypt and Pharaoh. I can't imagine living in Egypt when God turned the hail loose on them! Still Pharaoh wouldn't let the people go! I ask everyone if they had ever seen hail...nope, not anyone. I asked about snow and yes they had seen snow (we don't get that much snow!). I explained about how snow was like big pieces of ice comes down like snow only they are hard like ice and would hurt you if you were hit. Then what happens...that afternoon after church a storm comes up and we have HAIL! I'm not sure if I want to buy bug spray or not!

Locusts...or as my kids insisted on calling them BIG GRASSHOPPERS! Whatever you want to call them, they devoured every plant in the land. Even Pharaoh's officials were advising him to let the people go at this point...but he would not listen. (The plastic grasshopper from the dollar store score worked great!)

Darkness covered the land for three days. I had a good sized scrap of black fabric that we covered our sandbox...uh, all of Egypt with! Three days, count them for me!

The tenth plague was the worst. Moses warned Pharaoh that God would take the life of the oldest son in every Egyptian family. Pharaoh did not give in until his own son was one of those killed. Finally, he agreed that Moses could take his people into the desert. The Egyptian people wanted the Israelites out of their land so God would quit punishing them. They gave God's people gold and silver and clothing as parting gifts.

The entire time we are talking about all of the plagues we are also talking about how God was taking care of His people and how all these bad things did NOT happen to God's people.

God seemed to be silent for hundreds of years while His people suffered as slaves in the land of Egypt. How reassuring it must have been when the Israelites finally witnessed God's deliverance and caring presence through the plagues, the cloud, and the fire. Today we have no need of a pillar of cloud or fire to guide us. Through the gift of the Holy Spirit, God is always present and guiding those who have accepted deliverance through His Son, Jesus.

"Moses! Moses! Take off your sandals!"

2010-10-16T07:54:00.000-07:00

Exodus 3 is the reference for this weeks Bible story.

I have started telling my "new" little ones about the Bible each week and I think they are starting to get the concept. The "older" ones...the ones who weren't old enough to promote are such a big help. They already know the answers and lead the little ones in a new thought process. We start off with me holding up my Bible and asking, "Who knows what this is?" THE BIBLE...yes! Then I open the Bible to a random spot and ask, "How does God talk to us?" and this answer varies..."through the Bible" "from the stories in the Bible" "by the words that are in the Bible". I take all the above answers, they are getting this set in their little minds. God talks to us through the Bible. "How do we talk to God?" BY PRAYING...they HAVE it! Then I flip to the division between the old and new testaments and ask, "How many parts are there to the Bible?" Two...the old testament and the new testament. See if you can guess which part the Bible story is coming from today...then I reveal where the Bible story comes from and we proceed with the lesson. I know, it's repetitious and seems a little silly...but it makes such a good point.

Before I go on to our lesson, let me share this little jewel with you. This week I took it a step farther with my older kids and told them about the books in the Bible. Then I told them we would start learning the song that teaches the books of the Bible, you know the one...Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, Acccctttts annnnd Romans...! I decided to teach it in pieces so we stopped after Romans. Then one of my little sweeties says, "Mrs. Kathy....do we know these guys?" "Yeah, I think we do and if we don't...we're going to get to know them!"

For some reason, I obsessed over the burning bush this past week. Must be the OCD. The visual aids that came with the teaching packet were sort of...lacking. So I scavenged my floral supplies and made a trip to Hobby Lobby and now we have a burning bush. The flower arrangement minus the flowers that I plucked off the stems and added ficus stems that Hobby Lobby had made a great bush. Now for the burning part. I wasn't real happy about what I finally had to use but...organza that is a red/gold shining stuff. Cut out a zillion leaves and hot glue them to the other leaves. Then I borrowed my little 6" fan and set it up under the bush, concealed it with some brown fabric and let it blow on the leaves to make them shimmer. Ryli said it looked sort of "burny"...so I'm happy. I don't that it would have fooled Moses.

Moses got to see first hand, up close and personal the glory of God. Moses was taking care of his father-in-law's sheep on the far side of the desert one day when he saw a strange sight. It was a bush that was on fire, but it wasn't burning up! Moses had never seen anything like it before, so he walked closer to get a better look. Suddenly, God spoke to him, "Moses! Moses!" God told him not come any closer to the bush. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground!" They immediately wanted to know what holy ground meant! Yea, they are paying attention!! So here I am standing near the Hobby Lobby burning bush in my stocking feet explaining about holy ground...I love it! God is present...God is near...God is holy. We went on with the story and I explained about God telling Moses He had seen the misery of His people in Egypt and how He wanted Moses to go to Pharaoh and tell him to let the people go. Moses was afraid, Moses came up with excuses why it shouldn't be him...don't we do the same thing Moses did? Aren't we afraid of doing the things we know God wants us to do and don't we come up with excuses why we shouldn't? But God had a plan for Moses and took away the excuses Moses had...he sent Moses' brother, Aaron with him to talk to Pharaoh.

I had taken the handle out of my broom and that was Moses' staff...I know...but it worked. Moses was still not convinced anyone would listen to him, God told Moses to throw down the staff. Moses threw it down and it turned into a SNAKE! (Make sure you jump back...they will jump, too!) God then told Moses to reach down and pick it up by the tail and immediately it turned back into a staff. The power of God! God did not tell Moses that he was strong or wise or able to do the job better than anyone. God simply said, "I will be with you." That should have been enough to encourage Moses. After all, how could he go wrong with God, Himself, was going with him to help him rescue His people? We all took turns being Moses and herding the sheep (I had taken Ewenice and Ewela from VBS to be Moses' sheep) with our broomstick staff, we took our shoes off when God told us to, and we threw down the broomstick staff to have it turn into a snake. All the while we are saying, is God going to take care of Moses? Yessss. Is God going to be with Moses? Yesss. Then we made our picture of Moses and the burning bush with the red, orange, and yellow construction paper flames only seconds before the bell rings!

God doesn't tell us that we're going to be strong or wise or able to a job better than anyone, but just like Moses...he tells us, "I'll be with you." How can we go wrong when God, Himself, is with us?

Who dat hidin' in those bushes?

2010-10-03T10:43:00.000-07:00

Everyone together now..

Verse one-"Itsy Bitsy Moses was crying in his room, Then came his mommy and sang a little tune. (chorus) Hush little baby, the Lord will be your guide, and no one will harm you when God is by your side."

Verse two-Into a tiny basket, the baby Moses went. Placed into the Nile, and to the palace sent (chorus)

Verse three-Lovely Pharaoh's daughter saw Moses in the Nile, Picked him up and loved him, raised him as her child (chorus).

Today started a series of lessons that we will do on Moses. I love the story of Moses. There was an old television series that one guy had a line he always said..."I just love it when a plan comes together." The story of Moses is full of plans. God has a plan and he has a man to carry out that plan...Moses. This week we started with the birth of Moses and how Moses was almost a victim of the ruthlessness of an Egyptian Pharaoh. It's amazing how when God is in charge, all things work out and fall in line. Pharaoh had become wary of the Israelites living in Egypt, he fears that they may become too strong and will try to overthrow his rule so he's a man with a plan. One of Pharaoh's problems is that he has no clue who he is about to challenge.This weeks lesson is from Exodus 1-2.

We talked about how a King/Pharaoh was in charge of everyone and how everyone had to obey him. Then we talked about being mean. Pharaoh was very mean to the people of Israel...are we ever mean to people? No answer. If you pull someones hair, is that being mean? YES! If you hit someone is that being mean? YES! Do you ever do that? No answer. Is God happy when we pull hair and hit? NO! Okay, they know they aren't supposed to pull hair and hit and they know that doesn't make God happy, but no one is owning up to every having done that...and I know for a fact some of them have. Hey, they're four!

Pharaoh told the nurses (they don't comprehend mid-wife) that they were to kill the baby boys that were born but these wise women believed in God and refused to kill the babies. Pharaoh made a law that all baby boys were to be thrown into the Nile River. Living in Egypt at this time was a family, the father's name was Amram and the mother Jochebed. They had two children, Miriam and Aaron. Then they had a beautiful baby boy about the same time the king made his terrible law. (Now you pull out that baby doll and start wrapping it in that piece of flannel...cuddle the baby and rock him in your arms.) Jochebed had faith in God and hid the baby for three months. What do babies like to do? Yes, they eat...and poop....four/five year olds, gotta love them! But babies cry and Jochebed was afraid someone was going to hear her baby boy crying. She was a woman with a plan. Jochabed had faith in God that he would protect her baby so she wove a basket of reeds and tarred the outside and put her baby in it. (Pull out your basket, stuff a little flannel blankie in it and put the baby doll inside.) At this point, I let each one wrap up the baby and put him in the basket. I have a table that someone told me came with a Thomas the Train set but I didn't know that because I scavenged it out of my neighbor's garbage when they chunked it out by the street when they were moving. Anyway, it was great for putting that blue Easter grass in and taping green paper grass around the outside. Pull out those big-o silk leaves and tape those to the table also. I sat a chair behind all this so Miriam could watch over him. Jochebed put the basket with the baby inside in the Nile River and had Miriam watch over him. The king's daughter came to the river to bathe. She saw this little baby and felt sorry for him. She decided to keep him for her own son. When she opened the basket and he was crying, his sister Miriam left her hiding place in the bushes and ran to the princess. Miriam is a sister with a plan! " Do you want me to get someone to take care of the baby for you?" Miriam was able to get the baby's own mother to take care of him while he was little. When he got older, she took him back to Pharaoh's daughter. Pharaoh's daughter was the one who named him Moses...."because I pulled him out of the water". We all took turns putting the baby Moses in the basket and putting him in the Nile River and pulling him out. I found these really neat little baskets that has a lid attached at a craft store that were perfect for Moses baskets. I also found some wooden figures. These are neat little boy and girl figures that are the top of a craft stick, they have no markings. I cut the craft stick part off and tada...little naked Moses. We used pencils to make facial features and colored him some clothes. I had cut some squares of microfiber to be blankets and we wrapped up baby Moses and put him in the baskets! "Can we take these home and never bring them back?" YOU BETCHA!

God took care of Moses! God has a plan for each one of us. Doesn't that make you feel awesome?! It should!

God loves the yellow M&M's just as much!

2010-09-26T12:02:00.000-07:00

Today our lesson was about the wonderful unique way that God made all of us. We are all God's children, we're all different and unique...and God loves us. We reviewed our stories about creation, we talked about how God had created Adam and Adam got to name the animals, we talked about how God gave Adam a special gift...the gift of being able to choose right from wrong. I have some wonderful little cards that came with a lesson plan, I don't even remember which one because I have used them for so many different applications. I have even laminated these little boogers so that I can keep using them. I pulled out my little "choosing" cards and showed the front side of the cards. One of the little cards has a picture of a little girl pushing a little boy down on the playground. We talked about whether or not that was a good choice or a bad choice and if it made God happy or not. Then you turn the card over and on the backside is two little kids helping the "pushed" little boy off the playground and the little girl is on a park bench by herself...looking really sad. One of the helpers is giving the little girl a real sour look. Is God happy when we push or hurt someone? NOOO Does God still love us when we do bad things? Yes, he does. He's not happy with us but He still loves us. We are all unique and different and God loves us in our unique and different ways.

I had premade a card stock "Me" paper for each child. I had photos of each one and I put their photo on the page along with the usual....my eyes are ______, my hair is _____, I weigh _____ and I am ____ tall. The eyes and hair had an empty box that they colored to correspond with their eyes and hair colors. Our growing tree on the wall was our height indicator and I took my handy dandy Weight Watcher scales so we could weigh. They got to glue on a paper cupcake in the appropriate box and then we added real candles for however old they are...4 or 5! Then we got to put our thumbprint on the box that says: "I'm thumb body special". I used the washable ink pad and used the "strawberry" hand sanitizer to remove the extra ink. Be sure you use some clear tape to tape over the thumbprint on the Me page or it will be smudged all over everyone! After we had our Me papers done, we talked about how different we all all. I pulled out a bag of M&M's that I had dumped in a ziplock bag and ask what they were. "Duhhh, Mrs. Kathy...they are M&M's!" I had put all the yellow ones in a bag and put the little bag in the big bag. I took out the yellow candies and ask if they were different from the big bag..."Yeah, Mrs. Kathy...they're all yellow!" But are they still M&M's? Yes, they are...they're different but they are still M&M's. These candies are like us...we're ALL God's children and God loves ALL of us, but we're all different. Then you dump the yellow ones in with the rest and you say..."See they're all together...they're all the same." "We're all together and God loves us ALL! Then of course you take out your snack size bags and give each one a handful!

When a five year old can tell you that God loves the yellow M&M's just as much as the others and knows what all the metaphors mean...those sugary, sweet, chocolatey candies take on a whole new meaning in their eyes. According to Psalm 139, we can praise God because He made each of us in a "wonderful way." Jesus confirmed how special each person is to God. God knows even the most intricate details of our lives (Matthew 10:30). We can trust him always...have some yellow M&M's this week!

"Oh be careful little eyes what you see..."

2010-09-23T09:39:00.000-07:00

Our senses, when working perfectly, are both amazing and wonderful. Our senses, when partially working, are still amazing and wonderful. And our precious Heavenly Father created our bodies in such amazing wonderful ways that even when some senses are not working, other senses often regroup to allow us to enjoy life in sensory ways. We can truly thank God. What a creator! God breathed life into Adam and Eve and made them living beings, created in His image. From the scriptures we know that Adam and Eve could touch, taste, feel, hear, and see. God also made Adam and Eve with the ability to think and make choices. Even King Solomon reaffirms that God made us wonderful..."Ears that hear and eyes that see—the Lord has made them both." Proverbs 20:12.

I usually do our lesson first and then we do a reinforcement application but today we did the application as we talked about our lesson. Now that we have had promotion Sunday and my "old" kids have moved up and the "little" kids are now in the big class...I've had to readjust my teaching style to accommodate. I now have some of the application already done and we just fill in the important parts. I had "Senses that God gave to me" booklets already made so that they could just insert the "good" parts. Make your little book so that the inside of your cover page is page one, that gives the opposing page the perfect place for your example! (Sometimes it takes me a while to figure out the simplest things!)

I have a big picture of the "Garden of Eden" that came with my teaching packet that I have placed on the flannel board. "God gave Adam eyes to see with"...now you point to something on the picture..."do you think Adam saw this in the garden?" "What did he use to see it with?" EYES! Yeaaahhhh! "Did God give you eyes?" "Where are they?" Yeahhh....we all know where our eyes are! You get the idea...you go through all five senses in the same manner. As we went through the senses we filled in our "Senses" book. For sight, I found the neatest little 1x1 acrylic mirrors made by Elmer's. They even had sticky backs like stickers. "Who do you see in the mirror?" "Who made the person you see in the mirror? Does God love that person you see?" Hearing was a little challenging. You ever get an idea in your head and THEN you go out and try to find something to fit that grand idea? Well, I had wanted to find those Christmas cards you find at the dollar stores that you open and they play music. I had this grand idea of cutting out the mechanism and using it so you could open up a flap and hear the sounds. Well, it is now mid September and they won't put these out until after Halloween. WHY? They have other Christmas stuff out now! Okay, next bright idea. I'm cruising the party favor isle at Wal-Mart and there they are...those little clappy hand noise maker things. You tape a length of pipe cleaner on your page in your book and let them put the clappy hand thing there. Before you do make sure you let everyone clap their own hands and ask if they heard that...then you let them play with the clappy hands. Smell...the grand idea...scented markers to write their name with...what you can use when those markers are 5 for $9 or the $1 set from the dollar store just smells like a regular marker...smelly scratch and sniff stickers!! Touch is my favorite...tape a real fluffy feather and a sea shell in your book. Things God made that you can touch! Taste was a little bit of a challenge. A stick of Extra Dessert Delights Strawberry Shortcake sugar free gum is GREAT! It smells as yummy as you would want and tastes just as good. You get two examples in this one...smell AND taste. Yes, I gave them a half a slice of gum to taste right then, right now! I had premade a note to send to mom/dad. "Your child has a lesson application project in our classroom. Please remind them to go to the room and pick it up before they leave today." I told them they had to leave the book in the classroom until after "big" church and the reason being...I don't want anyone to get into trouble during church by playing with the clappy hands or chewing the gum! That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Now is a great time to sing the song "Be Careful Little Eyes"...you know the one. Be careful little eyes what you see, be careful little eyes what you see, for the Father up above is looking down in love, oh be careful little eyes what you see! God gave us senses for many different reason, he gave us thinking and reasoning skills...this week let's use our senses to appreciate the wonderful things He has given us. Let's think about all the blessings we have...thank you God!

God made fingernails to peel stickers!

2010-09-06T09:01:00.000-07:00

Ahhh, Promotion Sunday...Labor Day weekend...only four of my "new" four year olds were there along with the "old kid" (as she called herself) who is five! It went a lot smoother than I expected...I had one lying in the floor most of the class but that's okay, he warmed up before it was over and wanted to peel his stickers as well. I'm flexible if nothing else!

Our new curriculum starts off the new quarter with the creation story. One big problem...they want you to cover the first six days of creation in one class! Geez, it even took God six days to do that part...how am I supposed to cover all that in 45 minutes? Well, we made it but not as thoroughly as I wanted to so next week we'll do a little review....and probably the next after that, too! We made a "creation folder" as we talked about the different days that God created (see picture). And if you're worried about Day 7...it's on the back of the folder resting. I wanted the folder to have lots of texture and different ways of showing what God had made on their perspective days so we had stickers, we glued on felt clouds, foam water, foam animals, we glued on silk leaves, and Easter grass. The glue sticks were an experience in themselves and peeling the stickers revealed that "God made fingernails so you could peel stickers!" Aren't we glad!! Then I pulled out the fake fruit and we named the fruit that God made on Day 3....apple, grapes, pear, orange...WHAT IS THAT YELLOW THING??? Then I hear this little voice in a stage whisper trying to project from one side of the table to the other, "Brittany, say lemon!". And before Brittany can respond I say, "Yeahhhhh, Devin got it...it's a lemon." Twins...one VERY shy and one...not. The shy one is feeding the not shy one the answer! Teamwork! We didn't really have time to snack on the real strawberries before the bell rang! Maybe another time! Next week we really get into God creating Adam and Eve and Adam naming the animals. I have got to get a new tape player...do they still make those? We are going to guess the animal that God made, that Adam named by the sound it makes!

Genesis 1:1-25. Genesis 1 begins the account of God's relationship with man. The creation story tells us what God did, how He did it, and even hints at why...check it out! Big Bang theory...pluzzzee!

Leprosy is way worse than chicken pox!

2010-08-30T15:37:00.000-07:00

2 Kings 5:1-19 is the text for the lesson we had on Promotion Sunday. Naaman, a captain in the Syrian army, had a dreaded disease called leprosy. When I explained how serious leprosy was in Bible times and all the complications that came with it, I got the statement of the day, "Mrs. Kathy, leprosy is way worse than chicken pox!" Is it ever!

During one of the wars between Israel and Syria a young girl was taken captive. The young girl loved God very much. There was a great man among the Syrians named Naaman, who was captain of the army. He was highly respected as a very courageous man in Syria. The young girl that was taken captive was given as a servant to Naaman's wife. This young girl loved her master and mistress and game them her care and attention. Naaman was stricken with leprosy and this made his wife very sad because she knew he would die from it. The young servant girl felt sorry for her master and wanted to help him. She remembered Elisha, the prophet in Israel, who had done so many miracles in the name of God. The young girl told her mistress that she wished her master could see the prophet that was in Israel, and he would cure him of his leprosy. The wife told her husband, Naaman. Naaman was excited and went to the King and ask him to help him get to Israel so he could go see Elisha, the prophet of God.

Naaman went to Israel and traveled to Elisha's house to see how he would be cured. When they reached the prophet's house, Elisha sent his servant out to say, "Go and wash in the Jordan River seven times...and you will be clean." This made Naaman very angry. He expected Elisha to rush out when he arrived, and work some miracle by waving his hand over the leprosy and then he would be cured. Naaman thought the rivers in Syria were much better than the Jordan. The Jordan was very dirty and he did not understand what good it would do to wash in a dirty river. If washing would cure him, he thought he would go wash in one of the rivers in Syria. Naaman left very angry and started on his way home. His servants were very worried and they talked Naaman into doing what Elisha had asked him to do. Naaman listened to his servants and became ashamed of himself. He and his servants went down to the Jordan River and he walked down to the water's edge. He waded out into the water so that it covered him. He dipped once, but he was not cured. He dipped twice, but the leprosy was still there. He dipped the third, the fourth, the fifth, and the sixth but he was not cured of leprosy. Naaman dipped the seventh time, just as he had been told, and when he rose from the water, the leprosy was gone. Naaman was HEALED when he obeyed God's word!!

Naaman and his servants were happy and hurried back to the house of Elisha. Naaman now realized that the God of Israel was the only true God. He thanked Elisha and wanted to give Elisha gold and silver and fine clothes but Elisha would not take the gifts. Elisha said the gift of being healed was from God...not him. Naaman told Elisha of his plans to worship God in Syria!

I have a pen that I use to mark on fabric when I am sewing. The pen is blue and when you sew on the marked line...you use a damp cloth to remove the ink. Just that easy, just that fast. I also have a toy figure that is supposed to be Goliath who is dressed in Bible time soldier garb but we named him Naaman. We used this pen to make leprosy spots on Naaman and play dipped him in the Jordan River six times. On the seventh time, I let the kids actually dip Naaman in a bowl of water. Leprosy spots GONE!! I guess you know that means each one had to do it then, so Naaman got dunked by four kids! We talked about who actually healed Naaman...was it the water? No Was it Elisha? No...it was GOD! To receive great blessings, like Naaman did, God expects us to obey His commandments. Naaman was cured when he obeyed and dipped seven times just as God's prophet, Elisha, commanded. You can't expect to receive blessings if you only dip six times...ask Naaman. We have to follow through on what God has commanded!

And they flew the nest...

2010-08-30T15:10:00.000-07:00

Milestones come and milestones go. Some are marked by the birth of children, some by other momentous occasions....some by Promotion Sunday. This past Sunday marked the date that some of my little chicks left my little nest and moved on...I feel exhilarated but somewhat sad. On the wall in my classroom is a growing tree that I put up in 2007 when I started teaching this class and first marked the height of the two little girls I had in class. They have grown about 10-12 inches in height and by leaps and bounds by their Bible knowledge. It's not hard to say that when you have little sponges in your classroom. They have enlightened, entertained, and encouraged me. The same little two girls are now in Mrs. Mallie's class and I send them off with their new pink Bibles and the knowledge that they will also enlighten, entertain, and encourage Mrs. Mallie.

Jehoshaphat isn't really fat!

2010-08-04T09:17:00.000-07:00

I guess I've heard all the Jumpin' Jehoshaphat jokes but never really knew too much about the real Jehoshaphat until we had this lesson in our Sunday School rotation. You can find his story in 2 Chronicles 17:1-6; 20:1-21, 30. After Solomon's death, his kingdom was divided into two parts: Israel and Judah. Jehoshaphat was the fourth king of Judah and ruled for 25 years. Jehoshaphat was good king who worshiped and obeyed God. When I introduced the story to my little kids, I was using the visual aid that came with my teaching material...there's not a whole lot out there for Jehoshaphat. I showed them the picture and told them the king's name. I asked, "How do you know he's a king?"..they all picked up on the crown on King Jehoshaphat's head. Then one of my little girls asked, "Why did they say he was fat...he doesn't look fat." It took me a minute...I guess to a 5 year old hearing King Jehoshaphat from a teacher who has a Texas twang...that might sound like "Jeho-who is so fat"! I had to adjust the twang and tell them his name again. "Ohhhhhh"!

The whole theme of our lesson revolves around Jehoshaphat's fear of approaching armies that were coming to do battle and take over his land. A KING who was afraid, a KING who was scared, a KING who didn't know what to do until he prayed to God. Even King's get scared and are afraid and don't always know what to do just like us. Jehoshaphat told his people not to eat while he prayed to God and all the people came and joined the king as he prayed. Jehoshaphat asked God to help his people. God sent a message to Jehoshaphat, "Don't be afraid. This is not your battle. This is God's battle. He will save you." The next morning, Jehoshaphat's army went to meet their enemies and in front of them marched some singers who sang to God. A surprising thing happened...the enemies started to fight each other instead of fighting against the army of Judah! God had answered Jehoshaphat's prayer. The people in Judah were safe again.

When telling this story we used our trusty sandbox and set up a mountain of stones for Jehoshaphat and his people (who were toothpicks) and then we set up the different armies (more toothpick people), we sang a song and watched as the armies fought each other...you have to help them by pushing them over! As we talked about our story we also talked about things that scared us or made us afraid and how when that happens we can talk to God! As one 5 year old put it so plainly, "From now on...when I'm "skeered"...I'm going to pray to God." If King's can pray to God when they are scared or afraid...we can too!

There are many verses in the Bible that remind us that God is always with us:

Deuteronomy 31:6 "Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you."
Joshua 1:3-9 "I promise you what I promised Moses: ‘Wherever you set foot, you will be on land I have given you ... No one will be able to stand against you as long as you live. For I will be with you as I was with Moses. I will not fail you or abandon you."
1 Chronicles 28:20 "David also said to Solomon his son, "Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God, is with you."
Psalm 27:1 "The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid?"
Isaiah 41:13 "For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you."
2 Timothy 1:7 "For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline."
Hebrews 13:5-6 "For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." So we may boldly say: "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?"

And the list goes on and on...God loves us and is always with us and we are "skeered" we just need to talk to God.

ooooohhh....the B-I-B-L-E, yes that's the book for me!

2010-07-11T11:49:00.000-07:00

King David reigned over 40 years and died at age 71. After he became king, David brought the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem to a tabernacle he pitched to honor God. He organized worship services and began planning to build a beautiful temple. David conquered God's enemies and was known as the singer of Israel (2 Samuel 23:1). Many of our psalms are David's songs. God called David a man after His own heart. We've been talking about King David for the last few weeks and today we talked about how David felt happy sometimes and sad sometimes. He sang to God when he was happy and when he was sad and we can do the same thing.

To put us in the King David mood, we made crowns and decorated them with stickers...I wish I had invented Fun Foam! When it comes to creating things to use in the classroom my philosophy is...if a needle can go through it...sew it. And believe it or not, you can sew Fun Foam! I made some little pockets from fun foam, cut out letters that spell BIBLE and glued them on the pockets. Make sure you put letters on both sides of the pockets. Then because it is King David singing day we sang the Bible song...you know the one:

The B-I-B-L-E,Yes that’s the book for me, I stand alone on the Word of God...The B-I-B-L-E. Each time you spell the word Bible the kids get to raise up the corresponding pocket! They really liked it. Of course, we had to sing it really slow the first time and then faster and faster. By the end of class...they can all spell Bible! It's wonderful to hear young children singing praises to God. They don't worry about singing off-key or if they look silly clapping their hands. Their focus is on the joy of praising God. This week...put some joy in your life and sing a little song to God!

EWE-nice and EWE-la

2010-06-23T10:32:00.000-07:00

I guess you might be wondering who Ewenice and Ewela are by now! We recently had our Super Saturday VBS and the class I helped with covered the story Jesus told about the Lost Sheep. Now you are probably saying...."aaaahhh"! Jesus' story in Luke 15:3-7 is pretty short. Sweet and to the point, but still short. So how do you fill in? You tell facts about sheep and shepherds, you act out the story from the shepherd's point of view AND from the sheep's point of view. You dress up like a shepherd and your assisant dresses up like a sheep. You'll see we saturated the kids with sheep and shepherds...no doubt what story they heard!

Interesting facts about sheep: Sheep are afraid of loud, rushing water. If a sheep were to fall in, its wool would become so heavy that it might drown. Sometimes a sheep will lie down and rollover on its back. When this happens, the sheep cannot get up. This is called a "cast" or "cast down" sheep. If a sheep does not get back up it could die. Because sheep are very meek and nonaggressive, they are easy prey for wild animals and thieves. Sheep are very helpless; they act like they can't think for themselves. If one sheep goes the wrong way, all the other sheep follow and do the same thing.

Now let's discuss shepherds: A shepherd provides food for the sheep. Shepherds find quiet, safe water for their sheep since they are afraid of the loud, rushing water. A shepherd leads the sheep on the right path. The sheep would hurt themselves if it wandered off the path into a thorn bush or a ditch. A shepherd knows which way the sheep should go, and the sheep trust him. A shepherd has to search for good pastureland. When snow comes to the high lands, a shepherd will take the sheep to the valley. He has to watch for rock slides, wild animals, and poisonous plants. The shepherd uses his rod and his staff to protect his flock and rescue sheep in trouble. The staff and rod were also common tools. A shepherd used them to walk along a trail, prod lazy sheep, and even as weapons. Sometimes a staff had a curved en, to reach out for lambs and help pull them close. While sheep graze, the shepherd pours oil on their heads to protect hem from flies or other insects that might lay eggs in their wool and to help cuts to heal. Each night when the sheep return to the fold, the shepherd counts them to make sure all are safe. A sheep doesn't have to worry; it has a shepherd.

In case you don't know the story Jesus told...there was a shepherd that tended his flock, this shepherd was very diligent, he gave all his sheep names and knew them all. He knew his sheep and his sheep knew him. The shepherd cared deeply for his sheep. One evening the shepherd was gathering all his sheep and counting them to make sure they were all there...95, 96, 97, 98, 99....but where is number 100??? NUMBER 100 is missing!!! The shepherd went out to find his lost sheep. He looked everywhere and when he found it, he is very happy and he puts it on his shoulders and goes home. He calls to his friends and neighbors and says, "Be happy with me because I have my lost sheep!" Jesus said, "In the same way, I tell you there is much joy in heaven when 1 sinner changes his heart. There is more joy for that 1 sinner than there is for 99 good people who don't need to change."

Jesus told this story because He wants us to know the He is like the shepherd in the story. Jesus loves you, Jesus loves us all. Whenever a sheep wanders away or doesn't obey, the shepherd feels very sad. That's the same way it is with us and Jesus, our Good Shepherd. The Bible calls wandering away or not obeying "sin." When you and I sin and say, "Lord, I'm sorry for my sins--please forgive; I want to follow You," Jesus the Good Shepherd is so happy! I just wanna be a sheep!

Do you know what you're reading???

2010-05-17T07:39:00.000-07:00

I'll bet you already know what this week's lesson was about! Yep, you got it...Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch! Acts 8:25-39. Now before we go any farther...no, I did NOT try to explain what a eunuch was to 4-5 year olds, so we just called him "the Ethiopian". I have never taught this lesson to this group of kids so it was really fun. I even made a cardboard/fun foam chariot and hitched up the horses that my daughter had given me some time ago. I was supposed to pass on the horses to a little child...but I never did and I'm thankful I procrastinated! We used our trusty sandbox and I put a plastic container in that we added water to for a pool of water. We started off with me telling the story and using the visuals and then each one of them got to tell the story (with prompts) and use the visuals. I only had two of the six there so it didn't take forever for everyone to get a turn. Usually if they are all there, each one gets a part of the story instead of telling it six times.

After the angel told Philip to go down to the road that lead to the dessert road we placed Philip beside the road we had lined with rocks. Then enter the chariot with the Ethiopian...I was surprised that they knew what a chariot was! Philip ran to the chariot and heard the man reading from a scroll. At this point, I pulled out my trusty scroll made of manila paper. Philip asked the man, "Do you understand what you are reading?" The man was reading part of Isaiah 53 in the Bible. He said to Philip ."Please tell me: who is this talking about?" Here is Philips' opening...he began to teach the man about Jesus. While they were traveling down the road, they came to some water. The man asked, "Look! Here is water! What is stopping me from being baptized?" Here is where they get a mini lesson on sin and baptism. Then the Ethiopian commanded the chariot to stop and both Philip and the man went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord took Philip away; the Ethiopian never saw him again and he continued on his way home, full of joy. We all took turns putting Philip in the chariot, taking him and the Ethiopian out and them going into the water. Everyone got a chance to help Philip baptize the Ethiopian. We dried them off each time with the Brawny towels so the sand wouldn't stick to them! That makes you itchy you know!

The Ethiopian trusted Jesus that day. He wanted to be baptized to show his friends that he loved Jesus and wash away his sins. Baptism is a picture of what Jesus did for us. He died (as the person goes down into the water) and He rose again (as the person comes up out of the water). While it is true that we who are members of the church of Christ believe that the Bible teaches one must be baptized to be saved (Mark 16:16), it is not true that we think we are saved by water and not by the blood of Jesus. Over and over the Bible emphasizes that we are forgiven of our sins and saved, or redeemed, by the blood of Jesus (Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14; Hebrews 9:12; 1Peter 1:19; 1John 1:7). To deny salvation by the blood of Jesus would be to deny the Bible- the very book that we profess to be the inspired Word of God (2Timothy 3:16) and that we profess to follow. Also, while it is true that we who are members of the church of Christ believe the scriptures teach that one must be baptized to be saved, we do not believe that the power that saves us is in the water. Water is not the Savior; Jesus is! However, we do believe that men must obey the commands of God to be saved (Hebrews 5:9)- even the commands to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38), According to Paul, we are baptized into Jesus' death and raised to walk in newness of life with Christ (Romans 6:3,4). It is when we obey God's commands to repent and be baptized that God by the blood of Jesus forgives us of our sins.Take this opportunity to check out those scriptures!

And the crowd goes wild.....

2010-04-10T14:05:00.000-07:00

Ho-ho-ho-hosanna, ha-ha-hallelujah, he-he-he is risen, I've got the joy of the Lord!

Have you ever sang that song? Well, start out slow and then get faster and faster each time you sing it. Before long you sound like you are full of joy. And if you are four or five years old, that in itself is funny!

Our lesson came from Matthew 21 and this lesson was about Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Bethphage was near the top of the mount, about two miles from Jerusalem. Though most kings entered a city in wheeled vehicles or on horseback, Jesus rode into the city on the colt of a lowly donkey, thus fulfilling the prophesy in Zechariah 9:9. Spreading cloaks and palm branches was something people did to honor a king. Hosanna, literally meaning "to save" or "deliver," was both a word of welcome and praise and a cry for help.

Matthew 21:1-4: "As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, "Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away." Matthew 21:6-11: The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the colt, placed their cloaks on them, and Jesus sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" "Hosanna in the highest!" When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, "Who is this?" The crowds answered, "This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee."

Please check out the photo (if I can get it to load). Do you see our trusty sandbox with Jesus in it? We built the road by lining each side with rocks and then laid down the shirts and palm leaves. Everyone got a turn at telling the story and putting Jesus on the donkey while everyone else lined the streets with coats and palm leaves. I especially like one version of the story that goes, "Now Jesus said, go get me a donkey in the town and when you untie it and somebody says, "Hey, what 'cha doing?" You say, "Jesus is going to borrow your donkey." And if he says, "Oh, yeah!" You say, "Cause he's Jesus and he says so!!" Enough said, I guess!

The people in Jerusalem praised Jesus as he entered the city...how do we praise Jesus? How about singing, praying, and by telling others how special He is! Let's all praise Jesus this week!

Blind Bartimaeus...was blind but now he sees!

2010-03-01T21:34:00.000-08:00

Blind Bartimaeus. Luke 18:45-43; Mark 10:46-52.

The lesson material I have is on a two year rotation...ideally, I get x amount of lessons and the kids get promoted and then my lessons start over. When you are in a very small congregation the age groups aren't ideal so some of these kids get part of that second year over again. And that's okay because they have some knowledge to draw from...that is if you did that outstanding job I know you did and they remember something from the story. The "rememberers" get to pass on their knowledge to "newbies". I've got two rememberers and three (sometimes four) newbies. It worked out real well. I try to do something different for the application so the rememberers are a little surprised.

We started out our lesson by discussing what it means to be blind. What do you use to see with...your eyes! What do you use to hear with...your ears! What do you use to smell with....your nose! Yes, we went through the whole gambit of the senses. Then you get make that very important "I'm the teacher, I'm in charge" subtle reinforcement..."when I ask you to listen to me what do you use?" "That's right, your ears!" "If you're using your mouth to talk are you listening?" "Nooooo!"

I have a really neat Dollar Store lift and look book about Jesus healing the blind man. We went through the book and then I get to act/tell them the story. I'm Blind Bartimaeus and I sit on the floor on our rug and I beg for money and then I start asking everyone what is happening I hear something. They all get to tell me to be quiet and then I proceed with calling out to Jesus. "Jesus! Jesus! Son of David, please help me!" One person gets to say what Jesus did, "How do you want me to help you?" "I want to see." All this time I have had my eyes closed and now I open my eyes. "I can see!" Now our Jesus voice gets to say, "Go, you believed me and now you will see." We discuss how we can't do what Jesus did but because the blind man believed in Jesus he could now see.

Now comes the application...enter the paper plates and little boxes of raisins. As I pass them out I tell them how hard it must have been for Bartimaeus, he had to rely on someone all the time to help do the simplest things. He probably wanted to see more than anything and no one could help see. Then I get the question of the month (maybe year)...."if he couldn't see, how did he go peepee?" Well, I guess someone had to tell him and help him....response: eeeeewwww! I had them close their eyes really tightly and open the box of raisins and pour them on the plate then they could eat the raisins with their eyes still closed. After they had eaten a few raisins, I let them open their eyes...they were surprised at the raisins laying on the table and on the floor! A better respect for Blind Bartimaeus!

Why do you think Jesus asked Bartimaeus how he could help him? Jesus already knew. God already knows what our needs are...that is where faith and prayer comes into play. God doesn’t need our prayers to keep him up to date on what is happening in our lives. Instead prayer is for our benefit, not God’s benefit. Prayer is to prepare our heart for what God wishes to give us. It's our way of communing with God. What we need is not always what we want but God in his provident mercy gives us what we need. Bartimaeus believed and ask and Jesus answered. God is waiting for us to ask. "The greatest tragedy of life is not unanswered prayer, but unoffered prayer." F.B. Meyer

Sometimes the plan just doesn't work...

2010-01-20T12:02:00.000-08:00

Today's lesson was all about praying. "Our hands we fold, our heads we bow, so we can talk to God just now." The Lord's prayer-Luke 11:1-4.

Children love to talk! As a teacher, sometimes it is hard to be a good listener when everyone is talking at once. Likewise, parents often find it hard to listen because it seems their children never stop talking. Thankfully, our heavenly Father never tires of listening to us. Paul exhorts us to "pray in the Spirit at all times. Pray with all kinds of prayers and ask for everything you need: (Ephesians 6: 18). This lesson was supposed to encourage the children in our class to talk to God whenever and where ever they need...He is always listening. My intentions are to teach my little kids the Lord's prayer...I'm not sure if that intention will ever see fruition! Not that they can't learn it, it just seems to bore them. I need to find a catchy tune so we can sing the song...they love singing. I made a photo album for each one with a picture that depicts each verse...it didn't help.

We talked about praying and went over a color sheet that I had. The color sheet has six pictures on it, the instructions are to color each picture where you can pray.

Can you pray at the dinner table? "Yesssss."

Can you pray at church? "Yesssss."

Can you pray at the beach? Hesitation but "Yesssss."

Can you pray on the playground? "Yesssss."

Can you pray at bedtime? "Yessss."

And the most disturbing one...Can you pray at school? "Noooo, only if you pray where no one can hear you." I was taken aback. Is this not sad or what??

I explained how the disciples wanted Jesus to teach them how to pray and what Jesus said. This is how Jesus told us we should pray:

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.Give us this day our daily bread.And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

Our Father which art in heaven means we're praying to our father who is in heaven. We start the prayer out this way so we know that we're praying to God our father and we're not alone. God likes it when we call him father and he wants us to talk to him like we talk to our own father. God is our loving father and we are his special children.

Hallowed be thy name is next and it means holy is your name. Even though God wants us to call him our father, he is still God. It's sometimes really hard to understand who God is and what he's like. How did he make us? How is he perfect and never makes mistakes? God just wants us to remember that we need to treat him super special because he is God and when we pray to him we need to be respectful.

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. If we think about where God lives, we know its pretty great. The Bible says that in heaven there will be no more crying, God will live with us, and there will be no hunger or hurt there.

This part of the prayer says let your kingdom come. Let your will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. This means we are praying that people would live in peace and love with one another the way it is in heaven. It reminds us that we should be living the way God wants us to everyday.

Give us this day our daily bread means give us today all that we need. Keep in mind that these are things that we can't live without. We don't need video games and princess dolls those are the things that we want, we need food, water and shelter. Even though we pray for things we need, that doesn't mean we'll get them. When we ask God for things that means we trust Him and we'll leave the decision to God.

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. This next part of the prayer is asking for forgiveness for our mistakes. Forgiveness means that we are sorry for something we've done and we don't want to do it anymore. But we also need to forgive people who have done wrong to us. Sometimes others hurt us very badly, so we need to ask God to help us forgive them because it's really hard or we don't want to. If we forgive others, God will forgive us.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Is it sometimes tempting to do something you're not supposed to? This part of the prayer asks God to help us to know the right thing to do. To protect us against the evil that is in the world and keep us away from it.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. For yours is the kingdom means that Heaven will last forever and will always be God's. God also has all the power and all the glory FOREVER!

Prayer is our special way of talking to God so remember to pray as many times as you can. God loves you and wants to know everything about you and how you're doing.

Don't put the gold coins in the collection plate!

2010-01-12T07:42:00.000-08:00

Jesus teaches about giving....Matthew 6:3-4; Mark 12:41-44. A few verses that say a lot!

I think a thousand years ago I bought a metal container to use with the "Widow's Mite" story and every time I use it I am thankful that God guided me to that mark down bin! I'm thinking it is some kind of fireplace accessory, but for me it makes an excellent treasury box for the temple! This "tool" incorporates quiet a few of the sensory learning processes. It's great for the visual, auditory, and kenesthetic learners. And it's just plain FUN!

Early in His ministry, Jesus taught about the importance of right attitudes in giving and commended a woman who He observed giving. Jesus was now at the temple in Jerusalem after His triumphal entry into the city. The two mites given by the widow there were the smallest bronze or copper coins made with each coin being worth about 1/8 of a cent. To start our lesson out we talked about what a widow was and why she might not have very much money. I kept calling her the "poor widow lady" and I soon picked up that the little kids were calling her the "poor wittle lady"....then we reviewed that she was a poor "widow" and not "little/wittle". ( I guess that might be the result of a southern accent!) I had two pennies that we used as the widow's coins and I had a hand full of quarters, gold dollars, and half dollars for the rich man. To be a "widow lady" you have to have a cheese cloth shawl and the rich man just stands up real tall and looks around to see who is watching what he is putting in the treasury box. We all took turns putting in the two "mites" and being the widow/wittle lady and then we took turns being the rich man and "chunking" our large heavy coins in the treasury box. I think the whole church got a little auditory sensory lesson from this.

Each time I asked, "And what did Jesus tell his disciples?" I got, "This woman gave more today than anybody, she gave all she had." They're so good! Jesus wants everyone to know it is not how much we give but WHY we give that pleases God. God is pleased when we give because we love Him. We had a reinforcement paper we did that they enjoyed doing. We had a piece of construction paper that we traced around our hand on the bottom and then we glued on "coins" that represented different parts of the story onto the fingers. Today...was a good day. After class was over, I gave them some gold foil covered chocolate coins to take home and share with others. I also gave each of them a quarter and we talked about them putting the quarter into the collection plate. Before they left, I told them, "Now don't put the gold coins in the collection plate" and I got, "Gold coins are to eat, quarters are to give to God." I hope they explain that to their parents!

God is sad when you don't talk to him!

2010-01-03T13:39:00.000-08:00

Our lesson material today focused on "Jesus teaches about pleasing God" and can be found in Matthew 5:1, 2, 43, 44; 6:3, 4, 6, 26, 28, 33; 7:12. If you look up those verses you will see that they are concentrating on the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus outlined ways we can focus ourselves on trying to please God. Scriptures say that Jesus sat on a hillside to teach. Jesus would have sat, both so that there was room for His followers to listen and because Jewish rabbis usually sat to teach. Jesus was now in His home territory of Galilee. His center of activity was in the village of Capernaum on the northwest coast of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus helped His followers see that true believers have a personal relationship with God and they care about helping others to know God.

We started off our Bible lesson by coloring some card stock people and then we moved over to the sandbox....yeeeahhhh Mrs. Kathy....we haven't done this in a long time!! The short, fat cardboard tube I have was placed in the middle of the box and we filled it with sand and rocks to make the hill for Jesus to sit on. The Jesus figure is from the "Tales of Glory" collection...dollar store special! Jesus sat on the hill as he talked to the card stock people we had poked into the sand at the bottom of the hill. We talked about what Jesus meant when he told the people that they should love their neighbors and pray for the people they don't like or who treat them badly. New concept. We talked about things that made us feel good when people do or say them and things that make us feel bad. Jesus teaches that to be like God, we have to do more than what comes naturally to us. We all love people who are nice to us. But it isn't easy to be nice to those who are mean to you. But that's what God does. He takes care of everyone, and sent His son to die for all, even though they did not all treat Him well. When Jesus says we must love our enemies. What does that mean? Does it mean we must feel affection for them or hug them? No, it means that we must treat them as well as we treat people we like. We must be kind and respectful to them. It is difficult for someone to continue being mean to you if you don't let it get you angry. It takes away their fun in it. So God's advise in not only the better way to handle the situation from His end, but from ours also.

Then comes that old golden rule thing....We should treat others as we want to be treated...do we want people to be mean to us?? NOOOOO Do we want people to take our toys?? NOOOO Do we want people to push us down?? NOOOO Then, we can't do that to other people. Is it possible to do a good thing in a bad way? Yes, it is. Sometimes people do good things just to gain popularity or to look good in front of others. Jesus said that if we do that , we will not be pleasing God. We must not be good just to show off. Jesus said that if we do good and no one knows about it, God will reward us Himself. Isn't it better to please God than to please men?? So how does one do good secretly? You can do a chore without telling anyone...that means you can roll your socks up and put them in the dirty clothes without your dad telling you to. Grownups can give money to people without telling anyone. Sometimes people will find out, and that's okay. The point is that you help people without caring whether anyone else knows you did it. God knows, and He will be pleased.

We talked about praying...we didn't get real involved in this part...remember 4-5 year olds. They know that when we pray we are talking to God and when we read the Bible, God is talking to us. Do you talk to your parents or friends each time you see them? What would they think if you didn't speak to them? Giving people the "silent treatment" usually indicates that you're upset with them-or that you don't like them. How do you think God feels when we give Him the "silent treatment"? Five year child answer that has lots of impact...."God is sad when you don't talk to him!" God wants to be involved in our life, like a friend. he wants us to include Him, to be close to us. He is always willing and ready to talk. He leaves it up us to approach Him...take some time this week to talk to God.

"God Always Keeps His Promises"

2009-12-17T08:47:00.000-08:00

Out of the mouth of babes...God always keeps His promises!

This week our lesson was focused on the birth of Jesus. We reviewed the previous lesson using our flannel graph pictures and puppets. The angel appears to Mary to tell her that she will be the mother of Jesus...God's son. He also speaks to Joseph as he sleeps telling him that God is sending his son, Jesus and the special roll that Joseph will play in Jesus' life.

This week we get to the part of the lesson that has Caesar Augustus ordering a census of the whole Roman empire. That means that Mary and Joseph must travel to Bethlehem from Nazareth to be counted. We LIKE to count in our class! We count all kinds of things. We counted each person in our room and talked about the census we were taking of our class. We put the paper Mary on the plush toy donkey and had Joseph walk along side all the way to Bethlehem. Joseph was tired.

Each child got to be an "innkeeper" and when Mary and Joseph went up to them and asked if they could stay at their inn, they got to say..."Nooo, we have NO room!" Finally Mary and Joseph are directed to a "barn" where they can spend the night and there our Lord and Savior Jesus was born. Did Mary have a nice baby bed to put baby Jesus in? Did she have lots of cute baby clothes to put baby Jesus in? Did it smell nice and sweet like a baby's room? NO, NO, and NO! By this time I had introduced a dollar store doll (kinda looks like the old Kewpie doll) and a basket with "hay". We each got a turn at wrapping the baby in a flannel scrap of cloth and laying him in the manger.

Then I thought I would say something really inspiring..."You know many years before this God had promised to send his son, Jesus, to be our saviour." And my "inspiring" words were drowned out by a small 5 years old sweet little voice, "God always keeps his promises." I have had those sweet little words echoing in my heart and head all week...I pray you will take them with you this week.

Next week we find out about the shepherds that visit Jesus!

"If you put glitter on your angel, Santa can see your tree better."

2009-12-08T06:04:00.001-08:00

I have been a lazy soul for a while...just couldn't get myself going on the blog, but my intentions are there. What do they say about good intentions??? I'm starting fresh and not trying to catch up!

The month of December brings all the buzz in our communities about "the reason for the season" so why not take advantage of so many people talking about Jesus to teach children the truth. And all of the documentaries are appearing...I saw the one the renowned astronomer did (again) that he says proves Jesus would have been born April 16, 6 b.c. My point...it doesn't matter WHEN Jesus was born, but WHY.

Since last year, we have added two little girls to our class. Sometimes that number is three AND we may be adding a little boy...I'm excited. That gives us at least five sometimes six in our class. We start off our winter series with the birth of Jesus, this week the angel Gabriel visited Mary to give her the good news! What good news you may ask...that Jesus is coming!

My daughter gave me some puppets from Oriental Trading last year for Christmas and they are really good. In this particular set is one for Mary, Joseph, and an angel. The angel has some wild yellow yarn hair and a halo that flops around but the sweetest expression on his face. I used my felt board and felt board figures to tell the lesson first so I knew that they were listening...then I pulled out the puppets. They thought the angel had funny hair, too. This is sorta how the story went: "One day something wonderful happened to Mary. An angel came to her and said, God has a special plan for you. You will have a baby. He will be God's Son." We had already talked about how Mary must have been startled when the angel appeared because he tells her "Do not be afraid." So when the angel comes near Mary, she jumps in surprise...so do the kids. Amazing. At first Mary was reluctant because of her 'non marital' status but after the angel explained things to her Mary believed in God's plan for her. She would gladly do all that God wanted her to do for Jesus' coming. Now, who's going to be the mother of God's son...you got it..Mary.

Now we switch to the Joseph puppet. Joseph is laying down sleeping. You see, the angel appeared to Joseph while he was asleep and gave him the good news. The angel said, "Take Mary as your wife. She will have a special baby. Name Him Jesus." The angel approaches Joseph while he sleeps..."Jooooseph, Joooooseph", the Joseph puppet lets out a snore...the girls giggle. BUT they get the point! "Joseph you will marry the woman named Mary and when the baby is born you will name him...JESUS!" Joseph believed the angel and after a little soul searching he took Mary as his wife. Joseph would name Mary's child Jesus. Now let's review...who gets some very good news? Mary. What is the good news? That's she is going to have a baby. Whose son will this be? God's. Who will help her raise this special baby? Joseph. What will be his name? Jesus. They did great!!

Our little craft project today was to make an angel to hang on their Christmas trees to remind them about God's son. Some of these children are brought to church by grandparents only, so I always encourage them to relay the story when they get home. What's that Bible verse from Isaiah 11:6 "And a little child shall lead them"?

I cut angels out of fun foam and put a cable tie hanger in them. I was brave today. We used GLITTER! I squeezed craft glue on the angel and let them spread it with a craft stick. We put the angel in a plastic shoe box and I let them "salt and pepper" the angel with the glitter. They were awesome! We talked about the angel Gabriel and that is what they wanted to name them. We left them in the classroom to dry during church services. As one little girl says, "If you put glitter on your angel, Santa can see your tree better." Maybe we need to put some glitter on us so when we do the things God wants US to do we can show the world God. I pray this week that you put some glitter on YOU so the world can see you better.

Flats are for rocky ground, heels are for dirt!

2009-10-22T08:14:00.000-07:00

Are you a little curious about the title? By now, you have probably figured out that I take the titles from something that makes an impression on me during our class period. This week we concentrated on what it means to follow God without questions and our roll model would be Abram. If you would like to follow along with the account you may do so in Genesis 12:1-9. A short passage that says a lot!

Moving from one place to another can be stressful and upsetting. God asked Abram to leave his home and travel to a far-off land. How wonderful would it be if we learned to follow God with Abram's willing heart! Beginning with Genesis 12:1, we see the development of the kingdom of God. God made a special appearance to Abram and told him to move to another part of the world. Abram was 75 years old at the time...I can't imagine. Hebrews 11:8 reminds us of the faith that Abram exhibited in his obedience to this call. The blessing offered by God is complex, but a messianic promise is included in "all the people on earth will be blessed through you" Gen. 12:3.

We talked about the difference in how Abram moved and how we would move, how long and hard it must have been for Abram and his family and friends to move using their camels and donkeys. Putting up tents, taking down tents, putting up tents, taking down tents, putting up...you get the idea. But did Abram question God? Did he complain? No, he did as God asked him. For our activity, we cut pictures from magazines and catalogues of things we would take on a trip. We made a camel from construction paper...the string tail and googlie eye were hits! It's been a while since I had to teach a four year old how to use scissors, so that was a...challenge. But I must say, it was a short lived challenge. They caught on so quickly. Pretend your scissors are the mouth of a bird and you want your bird to say..."Whack, whack, whack!" Of course, you are opening and closing the scissors as you whack, whack, whack. (My son told me that when these kids start kindergarten the teacher will know which ones are Church of Christ...they will be the one cutting with scissors going "whack, whack, whack".)

After cutting out pictures (I made sure everyone had some sort of clothing and food in their collage) and gluing them to paper, we went around the table and I ask them the purpose of the pictures. When we got to one little girl she had a picture of a woman exercising, a plate of spaghetti, a pair of heels, and a pair of flat shoes. "Tell us about your pictures." "Well, the woman will carry my bags, I'll eat the spuzgetti, when we walk on rocks I'll wear the flats and when we walk on dirt, I'll wear the heels." Makes sense to me...and she's 4!!!

Make a mental picture of this collage...her concept is amazing...God will carry our baggage, he provides for us, when the road is rocky...we have a way to make it easier and when our are paths are smooth we have God to thank. I pray this week that you have packed your heels and your flats and that you remember God is with you!

Get those children out of the muddy, muddy, children of the Lord!

2009-10-06T13:24:00.000-07:00

Another year, a different group of children and good ole Noah!!

I don't know what possessed me to "build" and ark but after about a half a bottle of aspirin, a box I got out of my husband's workshop, a shoebox, and LOTS of woodgrain contact paper....tada...ARK! I found two packages of jungle animals to go along with my farm animals and now we have all the makings of an arky, arky made out of gopher barky, barky! You know the song right? Just in case you don't here it is:

The Lord said to Noah: there's gonna be a floody, floody
The Lord said to Noah: there's gonna be a floody, floody
Get those children out of the muddy, muddy, children of the Lord

Chorus:
So, rise and shine, and give God the glory, glory
Rise and shine, and give God the glory, glory
Rise and shine, and give God the glory, glory
Children of the Lord

The Lord told Noah to build him an arky, arky
The Lord told Noah to build him an arky, arky
Build it out of gopher barky, barky, children of the Lord

Chorus

The animals, they came in, they came in by twosie, twosies
The animals, they came in, they came in by twosie, twosies
Elephants and kangaroosie, roosies, children of the Lord

Chorus

It rained and it rained for forty days and nights and daysies
It rained and it rained for forty days and nights and daysies
Almost drove those animals crazy, crazy, children of the Lord

Chorus

Then Noah he sent out, he sent out a dovey, dovey
Noah he sent out, he sent out a dovey, dovey
Dovey said "There's clear skies abovey-bovey", children of the Lord

Chorus

The sun came out and dried up the landy, landy
The sun came out and dried up the landy, landy
Everything was fine and dandy, dandy, children of the Lord

Chorus

The animals came off, came off in threesies, threesies
The animals came off in threesies, threesies
Grizzly bears and chimpanzee-sies zee-sies, children of the Lord

Chorus

Now, this is the end of, the end of my story, story
This is the end of, the end of my story, story
Everything is hunky dory, dory, children of the Lord

Chorus

For our application today, I cut out an ark from brown construction paper and made copies of some Bible people templates I had. We glued Noah, Mrs. Noah, Mr. and Mrs. Shem, Mr. and Mrs. Ham, and Mr. and Mrs. Japheth inside the ark as we counted them. In case you're not real sure who all these people are, you can read the account of Noah in Genesis 6 through 9. I'll give you a hint...the only people besides Noah that God found to be worthy of saving were his wife, their three sons and their sons' wives.

The kids thought that Ham was a funny name for a son. And no, he didn't have a son named "ham-burger". Four year olds...too funny!! This week we only got to the point in the story where Noah and his family are loading animals on the ark. Next week, they get loaded, God closes the door, the rains set in and then God makes a promise to Noah. Check back to see what the promise was!

SonRock Kid's Camp!!

2009-09-14T16:30:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, I'm pretty forgetful and didn't take my camera when we had our kid's camp! But I did take some photos of my room before I dismantled it. SonRock Kid's Camp was a big hit with our kids....we had a Super Saturday with four Bible story sessions that was incorporated in a camping theme.

We were blessed with help from a group of kids from the A&M church of Christ's Aggies for Christ. They were great, what a great inspiration to our kids. They allowed our children so see that it's not just okay, but really cool for college kids to love the Lord enough to come share their weekend with our kids. They taught the kids new songs, did skits, and participated in being "camp guides" to move the kids from one class to another.

My particular lesson was Jesus walking on the water and had the theme of Jesus being a protector.The lesson was taken from Matthew 14:22-33. We divided the kids into four groups: pre-k that included 3-4 year olds; K-2nd grade; 3rd-5th; 6th. My New Testament that is The Illustrated ICB Bible was a big hit with the two older groups. If you haven't seen The Illustrated International Children's Bible you need to check it out. It was created especially for children and is illustrated in a frame-by-frame format style. The realistic images help illustrate the actual scriptures. The pages are actual Bible verses not a story of what is going on....really neat. (That's my commerical for the day!) We read the story from the Bible and then discussed what was going on and THEN we re-created the story. I had pulled out my trusty 5 foot cardboard boat and added a sail to it. We used an oscillating fan with a spray bottle of water, a "Thunder Magic" tape, aluminium pie pan for the thunder/lightening sound, and flash lights to simulate lighting. I had a camp lantern we turned on and turned out the overhead lights. I was surprised how these kids got into acting out the story...they EVEN got into the cardboard boat! (We removed the table and chairs and sat on sleeping bags spread out on the floor.)

For the younger groups we didn't get quiet so "intense"....I was afraid of having crying little ones. We used the old faithful sandbox with the blue Easter grass for water and a cardboard boat with fiberfill in it. Disciples on a stick that could be poked into the fiberfill worked well. They enjoyed throwing the Easter grass on the boat...."they gitten' lots o wader"!! We sang a new song:

"With Jesus in my boat

I can Smile in the storm [3]

With Jesus in my boat I can

Smile in the storm when I’m sailing Home

When I’m sailing Home [2]

With Jesus in my boat I can

Smile in the storm when I’m sailing Home."

(Repeat)

The disciples had been with Jesus for quite a while. They had seen Him do amazing things. And now, Jesus was walking on the water to them! Peter had faith in Jesus' power, and so he climbed out of the boat and walked on the water with Jesus. But then Peter took his eyes off of Jesus. He looked at the big waves splashing around him. In that moment, Peter forgot that Jesus is bigger than anything--even the wind and the waves.

We many shake our heads and think Peter was foolish for sinking in the wter. But we do the same thing in our lives. We worship Jesus and try to follow Him. But then problems come--and they seem so big! We take our eyes off Jesus and the problems grow bigger and bigger. We begin to sink down into the stormy waters of our troubles.

But Peter called out to Jesus, saying, "Lord, save me!" And Jesus reached out and pulled Peter out of the raging waters. He will do the same for us. We can call out to Jesus anytime, anywhere, about anything. And He is there. He wants to be with us and help us through the storms of life.

Don't give up on me!

2009-09-11T16:09:00.000-07:00

Sorry there is such a big gap between postings. Extended vacation and a Kid's Camp has taken it's toll...but I'll be back!! We will be promoting next week so it maybe a little while longer...don't give up on me!

"It smelled like a tuna fish sandwich!"

2009-08-09T10:43:00.000-07:00

I love the story of Jonah. I can relate to Jonah. Jonah was given a task to do and for some reason thinks that he can run away from it...don't we all do that sometimes? We know what our task is, we know what God expects of us, yet we think we can run away from our responsibility. Doesn't work that way!! If you'd like to read the whole story check out the book of Jonah in the Old Testament. Unlike many other well-known Bible characters, Jonah's whole story is not told in the Bible. In the four chapters of his book, we learn only what happened to him during a very short period of his life, perhaps a matter of weeks. We know that he was a prophet of God from 800 b.c. to 750 b.c. about the time as the prophet Amos.

There is so much material available for the Jonah story that it is hard to choose what to use. But my favorite way to present this story is the element of surprise! I have a plush fish that I bought at a dollar store that actually had a mouth. I used my old trusty seam ripper and cut the seam at the back of the mouth. I'm not sure what kind of fish this is so it works really well to not promote the "whale" theory. It's blue and white and kind of a cross between a whale and a shark...maybe it's a whark. I pulled out one of those bendable people that I got from Oriental Trading in the Nativity group and taped his arms across his chest. (He wouldn't go in the whark's mouth very well with flailing arms.) The cardboard boat from another story worked for Jonah's get-away boat.

As you know, God spoke to His prophet Jonah, telling him where to go. He wanted him to go to the great city of Nineveh and preach. Maybe Jonah was afraid to go to Nineveh, the people there had a well-earned reputation for cruelty to their enemies. Maybe Jonah didn't want to go to Nineveh to preach because he didn't want to help such sinful people. Or maybe Jonah was just stubborn! Sound familiar? Can YOU relate? In our class we talked about how sometimes we know the right things that we are supposed to do but we do just the opposite...and does God see us! "Yup, he gots eyes everywhere! He sees everywhere!"

In Jonah's attempt to run from God he goes to Joppa where he got on a ship going to Tarshish, a long way from Nineveh. During the voyage, God sent a bad storm that tossed the ship around and threatened to break it to pieces. The little cardboard boat was tossing and flipping on the piece of dark blue felt that was half on the table and half on my lap. The bendable Jonah was being tossed from side to side. The ship's captain and sailors were so frightened they cried out to the gods they worshipped, but of course, that didn't help since their gods weren't the true God. As the storm grew worse, the sailors woke Jonah up who had been sleeping down below on the boat, they asked him what they could do to stop the storm. Jonah told them to throw him into the sea and it would become calm. The little bendable Jonah got thrown overboard and the ship sailed on without him. As Jonah floundered about in the sea expecting to drown, out came the whark from under the blue felt and swallowed him up!!! You can tell they weren't expecting this! Was being in a fish's stomach for three days and nights better than drowning? Of course! It wasn't a nice place to be, but it saved Jonah's life. One of the girls decided it probably smelled like a tuna fish sandwich.

Jonah realized how wrong he had been, trying to run from God. Jonah prayed and praised God for the three days and nights that he stayed in the fish's belly. While Jonah prayed and praised God for saving him he was suddenly thrown up onto dry land. This event was not lost on a 5 year-old. "You mean the fish puked him out of his belly???" Welllll, yeah. The bendable Jonah comes flying out of the whark's mouth and lands on the table without the blue felt. God spoke to Jonah again: "Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you." This time Jonah obeyed. Wouldn't YOU? He had learned his lesson. He headed for Nineveh to tell the people what God told him to say.

Maybe if we had to stay in a place that smelled like a tuna fish sandwich for three days and three nights, we might have a better attitude about doing what God wants us to do. It shouldn't take that...maybe if we remember Jonah, we can develop a better attitude. The next time you smell tuna...

Do you know what choices are?

2009-08-06T09:12:00.000-07:00

Summer vacation wreaked havoc on our attendance the last few weeks. Week before last, I was all by my lonesome so this past week I used the material that we were supposed to have done the previous week. Worked for me!

This weeks' lesson came from the book of Ruth. Ahhh, you guessed it....a lesson on making good choices. The book of Proverbs tells us "Even a child is known by his behavior. His actions show if he is innocent and good" (20:11). We, as teachers, have the opportunity to guide the children in our classes to make good choices as adults and we also get to help them act in a way that is pleasing to God now. This week we started our class talking about choices and what the consequences are for making those choices. They were really into this.

Then we moved to the sandbox with our stick figure people. When I use the sandbox, I tell the story using the visual aids and then I let them tell the story (with prompts) and use the props/visual aids. Before I ever began the story, I told them I was going to give them two choices. I usually have a problem with them wanting to play in the sand and not listen to the story. Here's your choices: 1. You can listen and watch while I tell the story and NOT play in the sand until I tell you can and for that choice you get to stay here and do the story and play in the sand. 2. You can play in the sand while I try to tell the story and for that choice you may go sit in your chair at the other table and not get to play in the sand when I am through telling the story. NUMBER 1 WINS!!! I was blessed with a friend that works harvesting crops and a few weeks ago it was time for wheat to be harvested. I asked my friend if he could save me some of the wheat so we could use it to tell the story of Ruth. I hit the jackpot! A gallon bag of wheat!

The story of Ruth takes place during the time of the judges in Israel. The primary purpose of the book of Ruth is to present the link between Judah and the Gentile world in the ancestry of Jesus Christ. Gleaning was a common practice done by poor and helpless people such as widows. According to Israelite laws, any loose stalks dropped by reapers in a harvest field were to be left for the gleaners. Ruth was not obigated to share her gleanings with Naomi, but she chose to do so as an act of love. We talked about gleaning and what that meant. I sprinked loose wheat kernals in the sandbox as I told them about gleaning and we stuck the full head of wheat in the sand. Then I gave them a ziplock baggie and told them they could glean the wheat we had dropped. The whole time they are gleaning we are talking about Ruth and Naomi, Boaz and Orpah. They were excited about their wheat kernals and wanted to know if they could take them home....sure, I only have a gallon more!! We took our wheat kernals and wheat stalks over to our other table and glued them onto a sheet of construction paper and had paper cutouts of Boaz, Ruth, Naomi, and Orpah so they can tell the story when they get home.

You have choices to make this week...will you choose Jesus to be in your life or do you face the consequences?

Gideon busted the jar!!

2009-07-24T07:33:00.000-07:00

Our Bible focus this week comes from Judges 6:34-35; 7:2-21.

This was a fun lesson to do with my little kids. The props were pretty easy to come by and I like using props when I have them more than the visual aids you get with lesson material. Our son went through a "Davy Crockett" stage when he was little and I never throw away stuff that hold good memories...so I have a trumpet made out of a cow horn that has a leather strap attached. Gideon would approve. My grandmother would be elated if she knew that her old blue crock pitcher got to be used in the Gideon story and I did use the "fire" supplied by the lesson material to attach to a paper towel roll thingy to make a torch.

Before you read your reference verses let me give you a little info that my teaching material gave me. Before the time of the kings of Israel, we find a pattern among the people: they would sin and practice idolatry as their neighbors did. God would punish them by giving them over to their enemies, and then they would cry to God and He would send a judge to lead them. Gideon was the fifth recorded judge of Israel. The horns blown by Gideon and his men were shofroth made from animal horns. The pitchers were probably made of clay.

Four and five year olds really got into this story. The people of Israel had forgotten to obey God and now they were being ruled by the people of Midian. They prayed and asked God to help them. (Sounds familiar to what we do in our lives sometimes, huh? We forget about God until we really need him and then we cry out for help.) God chose Gideon to help the people. Gideon was not a warrior or soldier but a farmer and was afraid of what was ahead of him. God sent an angel to reassure Gideon. Gideon gathered his army....32,000; in fact. God would show them that one can be frightened and scared and still choose to do the right thing....that sounds familiar, too. (So often we are scared of what doing what is right but God is there to show us we can do it with his help.)

The children were surprised that God told Gideon to send everyone that was scared home. "But, Mrs. Kathy, he won't have enough men." "Wait and see." Now Gideon has lost 22,000 of his men and leaving on 10,000 to fight the army of the Midianites. God now tells Gideon to take his men down to the river and let them drink. So Gideon lead all 10,000 men down to the water and watched them take a drink. God had told him that those who kneel down and drink straight from the water can go home but those men who cup the water in their hands and lap it with their tongues will go fight. Now Gideon only had 300 men left to face an army of at lest 135,000. Overwhelming odds??? Not with God on your side.

That night Gideon gathers up his 300 soldiers and gives each man a trumpet and an empty jar with a torch inside and divided them in three groups. He then instructed his men to follow his lead as they sneaked down to the Midianite camp in the middle of the night. They took their places in a ring around the sleeping army. When they had surrounded the camp, they blew their 300 trumpets all at once, broke the 300 jars that were in their hands and held up their bright torches and shouted loudly together, "A sword for the Lord and for Gideon." Imagine how all this must have sounded and looked to the sleepy Midianites. They jumped out of their tents and ran wildly around to grab their swords and spears, stumbling and bumping into each other. The Midianites were so terrified and confused, they started fighting and killing each other. Gideon's men didn't need swords or spears. They just held their trumpets and burning torches and watched. Finally, the Midianites ran away from their camp, crying out because they were so afraid. Gideon and his men beat the mighty Midianite army just as God said they would.

See if you can answer these questions as well as a 4 or 5 year old did.

What does "choosing to do right" mean?
Can you think of three rules for choosing to do right?
Why do you think it was hard for Gideon to choose to do what God said?
Can we be brave like Gideon?

4-5 year old answers:

You figure out what is the right thing to do, then you do it.
Do what the person in charge tells you to do, follow the rules, don't hurt "nobody"
'Cause he was afraid and didn't have a big army or swords. But he did what God said do even when he was afraid.
YES, we can do what God tells us to do even if we're 'fraid!

As adults, we need Christian brothers and sisters to hold us accountable, to ask us how we are doing spiritually, to pray for us regularly, and to lead us back to the Word when we go astray. Children need people to help them obey too. They need parents to help them learn right from wrong, teachers to show them how to treat others, and friends to be examples of godly behavior. All of us need others to help us obey God.

The Handwriting on the Wall

2009-07-14T12:31:00.000-07:00

I've been lazy, forgive me. I'm going to try to catch up today!

My daddy used to have a saying for everything...he's tough as a boot, both of her oars aren't in the water, smart as a whip...you name it, he could come up with one. He used to say, "Have you seen the handwriting on the wall yet?" and I knew what he meant but didn't know till much later in life where that actually came from, do you? I went to Wikipedia and looked this up for you: "The phrase the writing on the wall has come to signify a portent of doom—or the end of an organization or activity. To attribute to someone the ability to "read the writing on the wall" has come to signify the ability to foresee (not necessarily supernaturally) an inevitable decline and end." I know that when my daddy used that term he meant for me to understand that MY decline and end would be coming if I didn't "straighten up and fly right" (another dad saying).

According to the Bible story found in Daniel 5:1-31, the Babylonian ruler Belshazzar, during a banquet, saw the fingers of a man's hand writing the Aramaic words mene, mene, tekel, upharsin on his palace wall. None of Belshazzar's wise men could interpret the meaning of the words. Daniel, the Jewish prophet, said the words meant that God had weighed Belshazzar and his kingdom and had found them wanting, and would destroy them. Because Daniel had told the king about God and the meaning of the words, Belshazzar honored Daniel by giving him a purple robe and a golden chain to wear around his neck.

Belshazzar became king when Daniel was about 70 years old. The language used by the hand may have been Aramaic or Hebrew. The four words literally meant, "Number; number; weight; division." At this event, God was the scribe. King Belshazzar's mother knew of Daniel and his powers to interpret dreams (see Daniel 4). Daniel's divine knowledge enabled him to give the full interpretation of the message: The king had been weighed by God and found wanting. His kingdom would be divided.

I thought I would really impress the kids in my class by using an overhead projector and showing them what it might have looked like to Belshazzar to see the hand writing on the wall. It didn't. I guess if you can't read anyway...seeing some strange writing on the wall doesn't impress you. They WERE impressed when I let them write on the overhead and watch their own hands make the words. We made golden paper chains to wear around the neck...that impressed them also.

Have you ever found yourself in a perplexing situation? a difficult relationship? an unexpected change in employment? a sudden illness? All these things remind us that, like King Belshazzar, we aren't really in control of our lives. Daniel's message to the king reminds us that only God has power over everything. He makes kingdoms rise and fall, and He knows every detail of our lives. HE knows when we "should straighten up and fly right"! I pray that if you need to see "the handwriting on the wall" that you will seek out God's guidance.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego

2009-07-01T12:09:00.000-07:00

If you have never had the pleasure of hearing Willie Franklin speak...you're missing something. (http://lewisvillechurchofchrist.org/campus_singles_minister) The first time I heard of Willie Franklin was after my daughter had gone to a joint youth rally in the Houston area when she was a teenager. Mr. Franklin was one of the speakers and she was totally impressed by his message and how he presented it.

In his lesson he was pointing out the influence that we have on others and he was relaying stories about how his grandmother had told him Bible stories when he was a child. He told of hearing about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. I was fortunate enough to hear him speak myself a few years after this particular youth rally and was so glad that he retold the same story. You know how children hear different things than what are said...Willie did not hear "Abednego", Willie heard "A big Negro" and was thrilled to death that there was a story in the Bible that included someone who was African American. I can not hear this story without thinking about Willie Franklin.

Our lesson this week was a continuation of the series about Daniel. This week we covered the concept that Daniel's friends worshipped only God and the consequences for doing that. Shadrach, Meshack, and Abednego trusted God with their very lives. Even in the face of what must have seemed certain death, they were unwavering in their devotion to the one, true God. Children too are often unwavering in their devotion to the people who love them. In this lesson they learned that we can worship God by showing God how much we love Him.

This lesson comes from Daniel 3:1-30. King Nebuchadnezzar decided to have a big gold statue made. He ordered all the people to bow down and worship the gold statue every time they heard musical instruments being played. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did not obey the king and refused to bow down to the statue that he had made. They worshiped the one true God. The king was angry and told his soldiers to use strong ropes and tie them up. Then they were thrown into a fiery furnace. The king was very surprised. He looked into the furnace opening and saw four men, instead of three. The king shouted for them to come out of the furnace...they were not burned, not even scorched...didn't even smell of smoke! And who was the fourth man that the kind saw???? Why an angel of course. God had sent an angel to save Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

Here's our easy Bible application: use a sheet of yellow construction paper and fold up about 2 inches of the long side. Now fold it in half to make a card with a lip inside. Use red, orange and yellow to color a fire on the inside of the card. I had a color sheet that had the three friends with an angel standing behind them that I cut out to use in the card. After we colored "fire" we placed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the lip of the card. On the front of the card we drew a door...with a doorknob, by the way. By not gluing the three friends down, you may rescue them from the furnace when the king tells them to come out!

The king knew that their God was the one true God! Does it take us getting close to being scorched before WE realize who the one true God is and that he will be there to take care of us too?

I think I need the Daniel diet

2009-06-22T11:37:00.000-07:00

We are starting a series of four lesson of Daniel and his friends. This week we began with Daniel and his three buds, Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego. Daniel and the young men who were taken captive to Babylon were from some of the most important families in Judah, including the king's family. Nebuchadnezzar had the young men come to his capital, Babylon. Perhaps the names of the young men were changed as part of the endeavors made to change both their lifestyles and their allegiances. The name Daniel meant "God is my judge", Daniel's new name, Belteshazzar, meant "favored of Bel, the god of Babylon".

This story focus comes from Daniel 1:1-16, 19. This lesson only dealt with King Nebuchadnezzar's guard insisting on Daniel and his friends eating the food from the king's table. Daniel did not want to eat the king's food nor drink his wine. Daniel knew this was not the kind of food that was pleasing to God and Daniel wanted to obey God. Daniel asked if he and his three friends could be excused from eating the king's food and only eat vegetables and drink only water. (I think I need to go on the Daniel diet!). The king's guard said Daniel and his friends could do this for 10 days and at the end of the 10 days, Daniel and his three friends would be checked to see how healthy they were. Sooo, of course after the 10 days, Daniel and his three friends looked healthier than the young men who had eaten the king's food. Even King Nebuchadnezzar agreed that Daniel and his friends were the very best men in the group. They had obeyed God, and God had helped them.

You never know how much 4 and 5 year olds understand about "vegetables" as compared to other foods so I decided we'd have a "pick-out-the-vegetable" game. I used my old trusty computer, picked out some clipart veggies, fruits, water, milk, cheese, and meat and made magnets out of them. You can purchase a sheet of magnet at a hobby store and peel off the paper to reveal the sticky side. Put your pictures on the sticky side with the back of the picture on the magnetic sheet's sticky side and cut them out. Tada, instant magnets. I had a small cookie sheet that I had gotten at a dollar store that made an excellent tray to stick the magnets on. I put a line down the middle of the cookie sheet and put a happy face on one side and sad face on the other, stuck the magnets on the back of the cook sheet. I held the cookie sheet up and let them pick one of the pictures and I would ask, "Is a 'strawberry' a vegetable?" "No, it's a fruit." "Would God be happy if Daniel, Shadrack, Meshack, or Abednego ate the strawberries?" Then I turned the cookie sheet around and let them stick it on the appropriate side. I was really impressed at how well they did determining which was a food that God wanted Daniel and his friends to eat. To reinforce our lesson I took some celery, carrots, and broccoli for snack. We had bottled water and I cheated...I took ranch dressing to dip the veggies in. I made sure they knew that Daniel and his friends didn't have ranch dressing. The broccoli didn't get eaten but Daniel would have been proud at how fast the carrots and celery disappeared. As we had our snack we talked about how God took care of Daniel and his friends because they obeyed him and how it is important that WE do the things God asks us to do.

Like all of us, preschoolers often have their own ideas about what they should do or not do. Sometimes it's hard to let go of our own ideas and obey God. Obedience may require us to change our priorities, habits, or actions. But God knows what's best for us. If we do what God wants us to do, God will bless us just as he He blessed Daniel and his friends.

You can't make God!

2009-06-14T12:24:00.000-07:00

Thank you to Ms. Clydia for covering for me last week while we gone!!

We continued this week studying some events in the life of the great prophet Elijah. In the past few weeks we have seen Elijah demonstrate his great faith in God's power to provide for his safety against the ungodly King Ahab and his wicked wife Jezebel. Elijah also relied on God to provide for his physical needs during the great drought that was pronounced on the land of Israel as a result of Ahab's wickedness. In today's story we see one of the most dramatic scenes pictured in the entire Old Testament--the great confrontation between the God of heaven and the false god Baal.

I was surprised to find the story of Elijah and the Prophets of Baal in a coloring book I found at a dollar store. Of course there were only five pictures but they worked while I filled in the details. I scanned them, loaded them into my paint program, colored them and then glued them to sandpaper. (The sandpaper makes them stick to the flannel graph...sortof...you have to press them into the flannel pretty good.) In photo one (top left) we introduce the wicked King Ahab and Elijah. King Ahab worshipped the false god, Baal. When I explained to the kids that the people had MADE Baal...they were appalled! "YOU CAN'T MAKE GOD! God lives in heaven and you can't see God, but he's there!" "God makes people, people don't make God!" I thought that one was pretty good for a five year old. Back to the story...Elijah and King Ahab had what Bobby Flay would call a "throwdown". Elijah challenged King Ahab and his 450 prophets to prove whether their god Baal or the Lord was the true God.

Picture two-Ahab and his prophets built an altar as did Elijah. Elijah's altar was built out of 12 stones. They both put wood on their altars then they put the meat offering. Picture three-King Ahab and the 450 prophets prayed to their god from morning until evening that their god would send a fire to burn their meat offering...but nothing happened. Elijah sort of taunted them, "Maybe he can't hear you, maybe he's asleep, maybe you should pray louder!" So Ahab and the 450 prophets prayed even louder...still nothing. Picture four-Now it is Elijah's turn. Elijah built his altar and then called for four jugs of water to be brought to him. He dug a trench around his altar and proceeded to pour the water over his altar. "Do wet logs burn?? Nooooo. How do you put out a fire? Pour water on it!" Four jugs of water weren't enough for Elijah, he had them fill up the jugs two more times and he poured them on the altar.

Then Elijah prayed. How many prophets did Elijah have with him? None. "O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again." (I Kings 18:36-37)

Picture five-Suddenly a fire came down from Heaven. The fire burned up the meat, the sticks, the stones, and even the water in the trench! All the people bowed to the ground. God had shown His great power. The people said, "The Lord is God. The Lord is God!" All the people learned that God is powerful.

It's hard for us to imagine how this group of people could have come to question the deity of God. These were descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They had such a great heritage of faith in God that it is almost unbelievable that the could have fallen into idolatry. The New Testament contains warnings for Christians today. While most of us may not be tempted to worship idols outright, as God's people in the Old Testament did, we often find ourselves trying to divide our loyalty between Christ and the world. However, Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:24 "No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." Our loyalty to Christ must be complete. The words of Jesus in Matthew 12:30 tells us, "He that is not with me is against me." Do you have idols in you life?

Let's Talk to God!

2009-05-30T06:52:00.000-07:00

Here I am, two weeks over due! Summer has claimed another "I'm trying to do everything" casualty! I have new curriculum for the summer and it covers Elijah, Daniel, and God Helps People Do What Is Right...Gideon, Ruth, Jonah, Esther, and Nehemiah. When I was coming up with my own scope and sequence...I covered Elijah, Daniel, and Ruth BUT the little girls weren't in our class then and it will be new for them and it never hurts to review the material. I am proud of the fact that the "older" girls are remembering some of the main points of the stories and help me relay them to the little girls. You can check out the Elijah lesson on a previous post on this blog. We did basically the same thing except we had different coloring pictures and I let them tear a piece of bread off of a roll and tape it to a raven's mouth on one of the coloring pictures. Our lesson comes from 1 Kings 17:1-6.

I started a new "Q & A" session before we start our lessons. Q & A questions:

I show them a Bible and ask what it is....BIBLE...yeahhhhh! Then I ask, "How does God talk to us?"...at first there were furrowed brows but then I said, "God talks to us through the Bible. The words in this whole book are from God....(here's a plug for education) and that's another reason we need to go to school. So we can learn how to read and then read the Bible so we can know what God has to say to us."
How do WE talk to God? Some of them have this down...we pray. Yes, when we pray we are talking to God. Here's the cue to say, "Let's talk to God..." then we say a prayer thanking God for all the children that have come to learn about Him and His son, Jesus.
Now, I have introduced to them the two parts of the Bible...one part is called "The Old Testament" and the other part is "The New Testament". They are really doing good on this. Now we sing the song...The B-I-B-L-E!
These are review questions...by now we have sung our disciples song using our visual aid so I ask, "What are Jesus' friends called that follow Him and do what he wants them to do?" Some have this down already...DISCIPLES...you have to shout it if you are 4 or 5! Right. Now, how many special disciples did Jesus have when he lived in Bible times? 12 (shout that also), now who can name them? Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Thomas, Matthew, Bartholomew, James the Less, Simon, Thaddeus, and Judas. I'm thinking for four and five year olds...that's pretty good!!!
Now, can WE be disciples of Jesus? Yes! We can follow Jesus and do what he wants us to do.

Take the opportunity this week to talk to God and let God talk to you!

The Jailer Follows Jesus

2009-05-12T13:41:00.000-07:00

This was a busy, busy Sunday! We tried to fit a lesson AND a Mother's Day activity into one short time period.

Our Bible story comes from Acts 16:16-34. While staying with Lydia, Paul and Silas shared the story of Jesus with the people of Philippi. On one of their preaching trips, they were arrested. We really didn't go into the reason for their arrest with our 3-4-5 year olds. I'm not sure that I have the expertise to explain it to them. They had ordered an evil spirit out of a young girl who told fortunes, and this angered her managers. In an attempt to quiet the noisy crowd, Roman officers, who were stationed in the city, beat Paul and Silas and sent them to prison.Following their miraculous release from the stocks, Paul and Silas told the jailer of Jesus, leading him and his household to follow Jesus. Today we were learning that Paul and Silas sang even when they were in jail. We sang their favorite songs...and I now think they have a new one..."If you're happy and you know it clap your hands". And I think it's the new favorite because they get to clap, stomp, and shout AMEN! Since our church building has been renovated we now are a little more sound proof and I allow them to be a little on the noisy side. They loved it! Paul and Silas sang praise songs to God and other people listened to them singing. They were amazed that people in jail would want to sing.

I made a "jail" out of a wire basket that we turned upside down in our sand box. I had cut a door and we pulled out our bendable people. My daughter scouts out the dollar stores for "Bible Story" stuff for me and found action figures. One happened to be Goliath but he also looks like a Roman guard so he helped us throw Paul and Silas in jail. I'm afraid two of the bendable wise men from another story were bad guys and beat up on Paul and Silas. Everyone got to take turns throwing Paul and Silas in the jail and being the "earthquake" that opened the door.

After the story we hurried to make our Mother's Day card. On the front of the card there were five punched out flowers with colors that corresponded with the poem on the inside. It was a poem that was suggested by my teacher's book. We used lots and lots of glue from the glue sticks...whether we needed it or not! Here's the poem that I will share with you: "Thank You... Red is for the love you show, I love you too. I hope you know. Green is 'cause you help me grow and teach me things I need to know. Yellow means you make me glad. Blue--you help me when I'm sad. Orange reminds me of the sun and all the times when we have fun. You help me every night and day, I thank God for you when I pray."

We all have mama's...even Jesus. Mary must have been a very proud mother and loved her son very much. All mother's should teach their children about Mary's son, Jesus. Even a jailer learned about Jesus and wanted to follow Him!

Red and Blue makes Purple!

2009-05-05T08:39:00.000-07:00

I know you will want to try this out...take a little blue play dough and mix it with a little bit more red play dough...tada-PURPLE play dough. This week our class was small (in more ways than one), we had two three years old! We talked about the color purple and they loved mixing the play dough to make it purple. That led into our story about Lydia. You can read along in Acts 16:13-15.

Lydia was from the Greek city of Thyatira, a city famous for its dyeing. Lydia lived in Philippi where she was in business selling purple dyes or dyed goods. Evidently there was no synagogue in Philippi, so Lydia went to worship God at a designated place of prayer on the riverbank just outside the city. There, Lydia met Paul and his friends. Lydia and her household were Paul's first converts in Macedonia to Jesus Christ. Paul and his friends stayed at Lydia's home while continuing their ministry in Philippi.

In order to get the children to relate to Lydia, we approached the lesson from the perspective of what a good listener Lydia and her friends were. They each tried out being a good listener. I gave them certain instructions to follow and then their task was to do what they were told. "Ryli, would you go over to the picture on the wall and put your finger on the yellow fish?" "Kourtni, would you go to your attendance chart and touch the cow?" They both passed with flying colors!

We used our trusty sandbox...they love it. I had wooden figures that represented Paul, a friend, Lydia and two of her friends. I had buried a small Tupperware bowl in the sand and had water in it (this is for baptizing purposes!). Then we talked about how Paul and his friend went down to the river where Lydia and her friends were and Paul told them about Jesus. Lydia knew about God and believed in Him but she didn't know about Jesus. How did Lydia find out about Jesus? Yes, that's right she LISTENED to Paul. Do we listen to our teachers when they tell us about Jesus? Yes, of course!!

It was really good that not long ago a young man in our congregation was baptized and the little girls were there to see it. Baptism shows the world what your heart already knows, you belong to Jesus and your love for Him. It fulfills one of the requirements that God set forth for us to do to be a child of His. Acts 2:38-"Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." Mark 16:15-16- "He said to them, Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned." Acts 22:16 "And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name." I could go on and on...but you get the point.

We talked about when the young man at our church was baptized and how Lydia did the same thing. Make sure your wooden "Lydia" is waterproof and then let each one baptize her in the Pool of Tupperware. We dried Lydia off and then they wanted to baptize all the friends...and they did.

I was given a box of fabric scraps sometime back and lucky me, there was some purple fabric in the box!! I cut "robes" for Lydia out of the fabric and we put them on some wooden craft stick people and tied with a purple ribbon around the waste. We barely had time to go over our coloring paper and talk about how happy Lydia was to be a Christian and how hospitable she was to Paul and his friends.

The next time you see the color purple, maybe it will remind you to be a good listener like Lydia! Maybe you will hear the word of God and decide that you want to learn more!

Watch out for the light!

2009-04-26T14:39:00.000-07:00

This morning was wonderful! I love having a full house of my little girls. We broke our usual routine and after our prayer we sang some different songs. Our church did some renovations that closed an accordion door to a solid wall into our room and gave us a new entrance door on the other side of the room. This has been so goooood! Having the accordion door meant that we had to be careful how much noise we made for fear of disturbing another class...now, with our solid wall we can make a wonderful "joyful noise" AND we did!

Songs that deserve a closed wall: If You're Happy and You Know It!, Roll the Gospel Chariot, The Wise Man Built His House, and Oh Be Careful Little Eyes. Our new favorite song is "The Disciples Song". I made a visual aid for this song that lets the kids be interactive and they love it. After we sing the song then they get to count all the disciples...all 12 of them. Ask anyone of them how many disciples there were and they'll shout for you "12"!!!!

After singing it was time for our lesson and today we discussed "Saul Begins to Follow Jesus". Sometimes big words we use and take for granted confuse the 3-4-5 year olds, so we talked about what a Christian was...they connected the word Christ-like and Christian. I was impressed...a 3 year old got this! We also talked about what following was and how WE follow Jesus.

We used our sandbox today...they love it. At Christmas I ordered a set of Nativity bendable plastic characters from Oriental Trading that included a baby Jesus in a manager, three wise men, Joseph, and Mary. When you order this set, you get about 10 or 12 sets as a "unit". I found out that you can use permanent markers to color the clothes and hair of the Joseph character to look like different men. Tada! Now we have Saul, Ananias, Saul's two friends, and the King. (Take your big flashlight to use as the light from heaven!) My daughter buys me Bible school stuff for Christmas and in one of her fabulous boxes was a plastic Jesus character...came in handy today.

Here's how the story was told by two three year olds, a five year old, and a four year old after we had been through the story a couple of times. If they listen to me tell it twice then the third time they get to do it all by themselves. You can get a more detailed account in Acts 9:1-22.

"One day, Saul...a mean man went to the king and said, "King, can I beat up those people who follow Jesus?" and the king told them that is was okay. So Saul was known to be a bad dude. Every Christian was scared of Saul. Saul and some friends were going down the road and all of a sudden a big-O light shined on Saul. (Turn on the light and hold the Jesus character up by the light) Saul fell down and then he heard somebody say, "Get up and go to the city and I'll get somebody to tell you what to do." He said, "Who is that?" and Jesus said, "It's me, Jesus." Saul opened his eyes but he couldn't see...he was blinded. His friends had to lead him to the city where we went in a house and laid in a bed for three days. Count them: 1-2-3. Then Jesus talked to Ananis. "Get up and go to the house of Judas and ask for Saul." But Ananis was "skeered" and didn't want to 'cause he knew how bad Saul was. But Ananias listened to Jesus and went to see Saul. Ananias told Saul that Jesus had sent him to help him. Ananias touched Saul and Saul could see again. But he could only see because Jesus gave him power. Saul got better and got baptized and he didn't hurt people anymore and he told lots and lots of people about Jesus."

If you have ever asked for directions only to become even more lost, you know it isn't always easy to follow instructions. Saul certainly wasn't following God's plan when he persecuted the church. It took a bright light, a voice from Heaven, and losing his sight to show Saul the way. But once he discovered the truth, Saul spent the rest of his life following Christ. Saul is a great example of a follower of Jesus. Maybe we need a bright light sometimes to help us see.

I have decided to follow Jesus...

2009-04-25T14:49:00.000-07:00

As we start a new section of lessons we start our study of Acts. This week we were concentrating on "The Church Follows Jesus". If you want to read along please turn to Acts 2:42-47 (that sounded like a Sunday School teacher, didn't it!) "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts., praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."

Now turn to Acts 4:32-37....more teacher talk. "All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need. Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means Son of Encouragement), sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles' feet."

This lesson was a challenge for me. How do you present this concept of such generosity and giving spirits that the early Christians had for one another? We talked about what land was. You know that is a hard for 4 and 5 year olds to explain when you ask them, "Do you know what land is?" Thank goodness most them have a concept of pastures and big backyards. Here's a little hint at how to really get their attention...buy some of those foil covered chocolate coins. As I told them about how all the people who were followers of Jesus took care of each other, I told them the story about Barnabas. Barnabas sold his "land" for some money, now pull out the gold foiled covered chocolate coins and let them slide from hand to hand. After Barnabas sold his land he took the coins to the apostles and what do you think the apostles might have done with those coins? Yes, they could have bought toys but I think maybe they bought food or clothes or maybe even paid someones taxes. But the main thing is...the apostles shared with everyone. Take some of the gold coins and tell them you are going to share with them. You'll be surprised how quick they catch on that these coins are special. NOW, snack on the coins!!

As we continued to talk about sharing, I pulled out a container of beads and some cord. I started stringing some beads as they watched and I told them, "I'm making ME a bracelet." Collectively, I got three furrowed brows and pouty lips. "Oh, I forgot, I was going to share with all of you." Smiley faces!! As we strung our beads we talked about nice it is to share and how we can share all kinds of things-food, toys, clothes, markers, crayons, ice cream, and even our Bibles.

Find something that you can share with someone else...even your Bible.

"You know what Donkey in Shrek said..."

2009-04-16T14:10:00.000-07:00

Easter Sunday brings out the cuties! The frilly dresses and hats on the little girls and the boys with their spiffy new shirts (does anyone besides me ever say spiffy?).

We actually covered two stories today: "A Crowd Welcomes Jesus" (Matthew 21:1-11) and "Jesus is Alive!" (Matthew 28:1-10). Bethphage was near the top of the mount, about two miles from Jerusalem. Though most kings entered a city in wheeled vehicles or on horseback, Jesus road into the city on the colt of a lowly donkey, thus fulfilling the prophesy in Zechariah 9:9. Spreading cloaks and palm branches was something people did to honor a king. Hosanna, literally meaning "to save" or "deliver," was both a word of welcome and praise and a cry for help. We used some visual aids that had Jesus sitting on the donkey as he entered Jerusalem. I had cut some palm leaves and coats out of Astrobrite and each child got to put them up on the board where Jesus and the donkey were making their way. Then came the one statement I had not expected...."you know what Donkey in Skrek said?" And what are you supposed to answer? "No, what did Donkey say?" "I like big butts..." "WAIT, WAIT, WAIT...let me finish the story and then you can tell me." And by then, Donkey is forgotten...but it was still funny. Keeps you on your toes!

After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look a the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb. rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that the shook and became like dead men. The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples; 'He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.' Now I have told you." So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. "Greetings," he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshipped him. Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go Galilee; there they will see me." Jesus' resurrection gives us the greatest reason for celebration.

Jesus' birth brought hope through the gift of a child that was both God and man. Jesus' resurrection celebrates the culmination of that hope, resulting in eternal life for all who believe and are baptized. I pray that you realize what an exciting time this is for us...to be able to spread the word about our Saviour Jesus.

"You're 'posed to say THANK YOU!"

2009-04-05T15:14:00.000-07:00

Today our story from the Bible was about the 10 men Jesus healed of leprosy. The text is located in Luke 17:11-19. We first talked about "near" and "far"...what things in our classroom were located near or far from us. I wanted the children to get the concept of how people in the Bible who had leprosy were required to stay far away from other people. The could never have close contact with anyone else who did not have that dreadful disease. We talked about boo-boo's that never get well.

One day Jesus came to a small town. Ten men met Him there, these men had a skin sickness called leprosy. The men could not come near or touch Jesus or could not come close to other people. They were required by law to call out "unclean" to others so they would know not to come near. The 10 men had heard about the healing power of Jesus and sought him out so that he could heal them, "Jesus! Teacher! Please help us!" Jesus told the men to go and show themselves to the priests who were special workers for God. They would see if the men were well enough to go back to their homes and families. As the men were on their way to see the priest, they noticed that they were well, their skin was healthy again!

One of the men came back to Jesus. This man praised God and bowed down at Jesus' feet. The man thanked Jesus for making him well. Jesus was glad this man remembered to thank God and Jesus told him he was healed because he believed.

When children are hurting either physically or emotionally, one thing they search desperately for is someone who will reassure them that everything will be all right. Have you ever felt like life has battered and bruised you? God longs for you to search desperately for Him, so that He can reassure you that everything will be all right. Jesus has power to heal people. Let Him heal whatever wounds you have.

The pictures above are when you have leprosy and when Jesus heals you. And when Jesus heals you...."you're 'posed to say THANK YOU!"

Dirt + Spit=Miracle

2009-04-04T16:14:00.000-07:00

Ahhh, four year olds and the story of Jesus healing the man who was born blind. This group of children really enjoyed the miracle that Jesus performed when he healed the man that had been born blind by mixing the dirt of the ground with his spit to make mud. Jesus placed the mud on the man's eyes and told him to go wash in the nearby pool of water. Please read the more detailed story in John 9:1-11.

We started out class with a snack bag of reduced-sugar Fruit-Loops (see, I'm getting better). We identified the different colors of the Fruit Loops and then I had them close their eyes and tell me what colors their Fruit-Loops were. "But Mrs. Kathy, we can't see the Fruit-Loops!" The man who went to Jesus couldn't see either, he was blind. "He couldn't see his Fruit-Loops, either?" After we established the blind man didn't have reduced-sugar cereal, we talked about how hard it would be for him to do anything for himself. Then they ate the cereal while I read the story from a book that had really neat pictures. When we got to the part where Jesus "spat" on the ground, I made sure they knew that THEY couldn't do what Jesus did. We talked about what we would have IF we spat on the ground...we'd just have spit and dirt...Jesus had made a miracle.

The people who saw the man who had been blind could hardly believe that it was the same man. They asked him what had happened. The man who had been blind told them exactly what Jesus had done and said. The man who had been blind said, "I did what Jesus told me to do, and now I can see." This man knew Jesus has the power to help people, he trusted Jesus.

Remember...spit + dirt for us=mud...for Jesus-spit + dirt=a healing miracle! Trust in Jesus!

You know you're from Texas if...

2009-03-22T10:45:00.000-07:00

Our story today...John 6:1-14.

"Jesus crossed to the far shore on the Sea of Galilee (that is the Sea of Tiberias), and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the miraculous signs he had performed on the sick. The Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. The Jewish Passover Feast was near. When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him he said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?" He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.

Philip answered him, "Eight months,' wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!" Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up, "Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?"

Jesus said, "Have the people sit down." There was plenty of grass in that place, and the men sat down, about five thousand of them. Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.

When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted." So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten."

Now when a 4 year old from Texas hears this story and all Jesus feeds the people are bread and fish, I guess in their minds it is only logical to want to know, "How come he didn't make them no chili?" My first reaction was to laugh and then after I composed myself I asked, "Well, do you think chili would have tasted good with bread and fish?" And the answer....."Naaah, but chili feeds a whole lot of people...maybe next time Jesus will give them chili." At this point, just change the subject.

A smile, a kind word, a few moments spent listening, a prayer, a hug--all these are small gifts God can use in a mighty way. Today we talked about the miracle Jesus did and the role the child played in helping Jesus work this miracle. Children played an important role to Jesus and in pointing this out to them they can become to realize they can trust Him. Maybe we should take a lesson from children and realize that WE too can trust Jesus....even if we don't have any chili.

Jesus Calms the Storm

2009-03-10T17:37:00.000-07:00

Our Bible lesson this week came from Mark 4:35-41....one of my favorites!

Between the time change and colds/flu stuff we were down to one little 8 year old but she and I had some really good one on one time. She got to lead the singing and sing the songs SHE wanted to sing AND got to use all the visual aids by herself! We pulled out the sandbox and put the blue Easter grass in it (that would be the water), got the little cardboard boat that has the stryofoam in it and the figures that are glued to the popsicle sticks. As we put the boat in the water I read the story from the Bible...you can do that with an 8 year old, 3 year olds don't seem to appreciate it as much.

That day when evening came, he (Jesus) said to his disciples, "Let us go over to the other side." Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. (This is where you stop and explain squall and what 'waves breaking over the boat' means. We rocked the boat with the stryofoam in it and pitched the blue Easter grass up over it.)

Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?" He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Peace, Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. (If you pucker up like you are going to whistle and blow air out it will sound like the wind during a storm...or at least that's what we thought.)

He said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?"

They were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!"

This is the part of the lesson that always seems to make their eyes widen...when they realize that if Jesus has the power over the wind and the sea, doesn't He have the power to help us through our everyday "storms"?

How reassuring for US to know that during the storms of our lives, we only need to have faith in Jesus.

What if they gave him mud?

2009-03-01T11:25:00.000-08:00

Bible Focus: Luke 18:35-43; Mark 10:46-52

I thought I was going to have a hard time explaining being blind to my little kids but they really surprised me with their grasp on blindness. Even the three year old knew if you were blind you couldn't see. Amazing. Today's lesson was about Blind Bartimaeus. Since I thought we would spend more time on understanding blindness I was prepared to have an activity that they would understand. You'll be happy to know that they still sell those cheesey "Pin the Tail on the Donkey" games at almost any dollar store. I made everyone a mask out of...what else?...fun foam by using the little cardboard mask that comes with the game as a pattern. We played the game with the mask on and with the mask off...which way is better? "Well, Mrs. Kathy, WITHOUT the mask 'acourse! You can't see when you're eyes are covered."

Here's our story:

Many people were following Jesus. They were a noisey crowd. Maybe Jesus was teaching them as they walked along. (We pulled out the handy dandy sand box, figures-on-a-stick, and I made a Bartimaeus that was sitting on his road side rug.) As I told the story they got to put the figures in the sandbox.

A man named Bartimaeus, who was blind, was sitting by the road. Because Bartimaeus was blind, he could not work, so he asked people for money and food. "Did he eat what people gave him?" "I guess he probably did because he couldn't see how to get his own food. He was probably happy that people were kind to him and helped him by giving him food." Then THE question..."What if they gave him mud to eat? Would he eat it?" Stop and think...don't laugh..."No, I don't think he would eat it. He could probably feel the mud in his hand or even smell it before he put it in his mouth. Besides, you don't think people would be that mean and give him mud to eat do you?" Then THE answer..."My brothers would."

As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard the crowd going by, he asked what was happening. They told him "Jesus of Nazareth is passing by." He called out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" Those who lead the way rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!"

Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him. When he came near, Jesus asked him "What do you want me to do for you?" "Lord I want to see," he replied. Jesus said to him "Receive your sight; your faith has healed you." Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus, praising God. When all the people saw it, they also praised God."

What do you think was the first thing Bartimeaus saw when he got his sight back? Sunshine! Jesus! A tree! A ladybug! When I asked if they thought Bartimeaus was happy to be able to see, they all agreed that Jesus did something wonderful for the man. And it was wonderful the man followed Jesus and praised Him.

So many times in our lives when we think that we don't know which way to turn or our lives are full of darkness...how wonderful it might be for us to remember that with our faith all we need to do is call out to Jesus, "Lord I want to see!"

Are we going to use REAL food?

2009-02-22T11:09:00.000-08:00

Today's Bible story is from Luke 10:38-42 and is the story of the sisters Martha and Mary. Martha lived with her sister Mary and brother Lazarus in the village of Bethany just outside of Jerusalem; the three were beloved friends of Jesus. It was Martha, evidently the older of the two sisters and the head of the household, who "received him (Jesus) into her house" (Luke 10:38). But while Mary sat listening to Jesus' teaching, Martha was preoccupied with the duties of a hostess. Her complaint that her sister was not helping elicited a mild rebuke from Jesus: "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; one thing is needful. "Mary", he observed, had "chosen the good portion".

I have found that this is a wonderful message to teach to little kids but also one of the shortest that you can teach. And when you are trying to fill 45 minutes, you can only repeat the story so many times in so many different ways. We have our "regular" songs that they like to sing at the beginning of class and we are starting to add new ones. Last week we introduced the "Out on the deep blue sea" song and the "Disciples' Song" so we went over those again this week. I made a visual aid/hands-on for the disciples' song, so we are really making progress of counting the disciples and then singing the song. I am really amazed at the progress they are making with learning a prayer and learning the words and actions to the songs. My friend, Leland, who was the preacher at our previous congregation would be proud of me...my little kids know exactly what to do when I say, "Let's talk to God". I don't know if it is a teaching tool of his or not but it sure has made an impression on this group of little kids. They KNOW that to talk to God means that you pray.

We started the story off by talking about siblings. I knew neither one of them had a sister but I asked anyway and was really shocked when one four year old told me that she did have a sister. Then she proceeded to tell me her sisters' name...of which, I could never remember in a million years AND that she was little and pink. And I mean little, like in she measures about two inches with her little fingers to show me how tiny.

We discussed how we sometimes help each other with the chores at our house. I had made each girl an apron to wear and told them they were going to be Martha's and I was going to be Mary. I pulled out the bag of fruit and cheese I had partially prepared and got the biggest smiles ever and a "ARE WE GOING TO USE REAL FOOD?" question/exclamation. "We sure are!" We washed our hands with the strawberry hand sanitizer and passed out paper plates. One was in charge of cutting up the cheese with a butter knife, the other peeled the banana and cut it up, I sat and watched until it was time for me to cut the apple. Since that required a sharp knife, I got to do that chore. As we were preparing our snack we talked about Martha and Mary and the role they both had in the story. Martha was a busy bee, cooking and cleaning but not hearing the message that Jesus had. Mary on the other hand, showed a priority of putting time with God first.

As we ate our snack, we talked about things we do instead of listening to God's word. When are you like Mary? When are you like Martha? If Jesus came to your house, which would you be? What can we do to make time--alone, and as a family to listen to God? This week make a point of being a Mary!

Out on the deep blue sea...

2009-02-15T13:00:00.000-08:00

Okay, you can't make a boat and have so much fun and not do it again! Plus, one of my kiddos missed it!! Yeah, I couldn't just let the boat sail off into the mezzanine of the shop without letting it sail ONE more time.

This week we added the song:

Peter, James and John in a sailboat,
Peter, James and John in a sailboat,
Peter, James and John in a sailboat,
Out on the deep blue sea.

Fished all night but caught no fishes,
Fished all night but caught no fishes,
Fished all night but caught no fishes,
Out on the deep blue sea.

Cast their nets on the other side,
Cast their nets on the other side,
Cast their nets on the other side,
Out on the deep blue sea.

Then their nets were full of fishes,
Then their nets were full of fishes,
Then their nets were full of fishes,
Out on the deep blue sea.

Our craft for today was to make a boat out of a paper plate. Are there a zillion uses for paper plates or what?? I love them almost as much as fun foam. After we had thrown out our net a least a dozen times and hauled in our catch and talked about how you use nets to catch fish but use the Bible to "catch" men, we were ready for crayon time. We folded a paper plate in half and stapled the edges together. Did you know that this makes the paper plate look like a taco? BUT, if you fold in thirds it becomes a burrito. Do we know where mom and dad like to eat now or what?

Okay, we have the paper plate boat folded and stapled and now we are coloring around the edges with blue crayon. Next you draw in your boat just above the blue water and use your scissors to cut the folded edge of the paper plate. Now you have a pocket to put that individually packaged Goldfish snack! Oh, by the way...this is "sweeeeet" according to a 4 year old.

If you want to brush up on the story check out the Gospel of Luke. It provides the most dramatic account of Peter's call to be a disciple. Peter was an unlikely candidate to lead a religious revolution, but at the moment Jesus called him as a disciple, the life of Peter the fisherman changed dramatically and irrevocably. After their fishing by Jesus' instructions yielded such a bountiful catch, Peter instantly perceived that he was not simply having good fortune in fishing; rather, he was in the presence of a power he could not understand in the person Jesus.

Peter's immediate response was one of unworthiness and fear: "He fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, 'Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord' " (Luke 5:8). But Jesus would not depart. It was precisely such a person, a man who knew his own weakness and sinfulness but could recognize and acknowledge the presence of God's power, that Jesus wanted. "Do not be afraid," Jesus said tenderly to the fisherman, "henceforth you will be catching men" (Luke 5:10). Peter then left everything to follow Jesus.

We know that we are weak and sinful...yet Jesus will not depart from us either and Jesus calls US to be "fisher's of men", too. Let's get our nets ready for this week and work for Jesus.

Jesus called them one by one...

2009-02-08T11:20:00.000-08:00

If you ever attended Sunday School you probably know the song about the disciples that Jesus called to follow Him. Just in case you don't...

Jesus called them one by one,

Peter, Andrew, James, and John,

Next, came Phillip, Thomas too,

Matthew and Bartholomew.

Yes, Jesus called them,

He called them one by one.

James the one they called the Less,

Simon also Thaddeus,

Twelfth apostle Judas made,

Jesus was by him betrayed.

Chorus

Matthais then took Judas' place

To preach to men of every race,

Paul three preaching trips did make,

And went to Rome for Jesus' sake.

By now you should be getting the hint that our lesson is from Luke 5:1-11. Any fisherman will tell you that fishing takes a lot of patience. Parents will tell you that teaching children to obey takes an even greater amount of patience! Thankfully, Jesus shows all of us more patience than we deserve as He teaches us how to obey Him.

Old Sunday School teachers never throw anything away! Yeah, that box that the treadmill came in at Christmas is now a boat ready for hauling in those fish. It was great to see their faces when they walked into the classroom and the cardboard boat with the fishing net was waiting. "Can we get in it?" "Will you get in with us?" This is where you get in the cardboard boat and start telling the lesson.

A crowd of people came to hear Jesus. Jesus had been teaching the people but they began to crowd in and Jesus knew more could hear if he could distance himself from the crowd. Jesus stepped into a boat and asked a man named Peter to push the boat in the water. There, He taught the people about God and His love for them. When He had finished talking, He asked Peter to row the boat into deep water and throw out their nets to catch fish. Peter answered that they had already fished all night and had not caught one fish. (Now you get to sing the song about "Fished all night but caught no fishes, fished all night but caught no fishes, fished all night but caught no fishes, out on the deep blue sea!") Then Peter obeyed Jesus and put the nets in the water. Suddenly, they caught lots of fish! In fact, it was so many that Peter had to call two of his friends to come help so that the nets would not break. When Peter saw what happened, he fell at Jesus’ feet. He knew that Jesus was someone special from God. Jesus simply said, “Don’t be afraid; come, follow me, and I will help you fish for men.” They pulled their boats up to shore and followed Jesus.

When Jesus used the phrase “fish for men,” He was trying to explain that He would show them how to help others learn and know about him. When a person tries to catch a fish, he would put out a big net and wait for the fish to swim into the net. Then, he would draw up the net with the fish. In the same way, Jesus. would show His new friends how to help people listen and be interested in learning about God, then follow Him with all their heart.

I decided at the last minute that we needed an activity page to do just in case we tired of throwing out the empty net and filling it with fish. So, I had a color page of a boat with a net on the side and of all things...Nemo stickers. Yeah, we used Nemo to help Jesus make a point. I don't think Nemo or Jesus would mind...do you? I almost forgot to take a photo of us in the boat with our net and fish, but I pulled one child back so you see what fun we had!

God loves us and He wants us to be His friend and follow Him. That means that we will love Him and help others know and love Him too. This week let’s pray and thank God for being our friend!

Jesus Teaches About Sharing

2009-02-01T11:09:00.000-08:00

Luke 12:13, 16-21

A man wanted Jesus to intervene in a family quarrel over earthly possessions. Jesus used the opportunity to present a warning about covetousness. He told a parable of a rich man who needed to learn the true measurement of a man's life. We should notice that Jesus did not condemn the man for his wealth from a prosperous year. Rather, Jesus told His listeners to be on guard lest they would hoard their wealth. The barns referred to may have been more like our modern-day silos or storage bins.

I have taught this lesson many times and have never really gotten the response that I was looking for from my kiddos....until TODAY! We made pipe cleaner "poor" men that the rich man could have shared his grain. Then I gave them a pie pan and a little Dixie cup. The Dixie cup was our barn and I poured beans in their pie pans after they had sat the cup in the middle. As I told them the story about how the rich man had had a bumper crop one year and how his barns wouldn't hold all that he had the kids filled their cups with beans. When the cup got full, I gave them a second cup and we talked about how when you have a lot of stuff, you should share it with people who don't have so much. If you give your little cousin some clothes that you can't wear anymore and she gets red kool-aid on it...it's okay...it's not yours anymore anyway. (Wisdom of a 4 year old!)

After the second cup was full, I told them about the rich man building even bigger barns because his barns were full. Pull out that Styrofoam coffee cup and poor your beans from your Dixie cup barns in it. But still the rich man didn't share with the poor pipe cleaner man. God knew the man was selfish. God told the man he would die that night. Then there would be no one to use all the things the man had saved for himself. When Jesus finished His story, He told the people they should be rich toward God. What a lesson Jesus gives us about sharing what we have with others.

We don't always have a snack in our class but today we did. Pop tarts! I know, I know...nutritional value of 0! BUT, they come packaged two in a little bag!! (Are you getting where I'm going?) I gave a bag to every other child and watched what would happen. After a few furrowed brows and pokey lips, the children with a package of Pop tarts immediately offered to share! IT WAS GREAT! Then as if God had planned it...I ran out of paper towel placemats so I pulled out my scissors and cut them in half so they could SHARE!

I'm not sure if the lesson really got through that well or if the last part about the rich man dieing because he wanted to keep everything for himself put the fear in them...whatever it was, it worked!

I'm little OCD when it comes to organizing (my friends are laughing at the "little") so one of my favorite shows on HGTV is the one where the "professional" organizer comes in and helps people get all their stuff organized. The pro always has a pile for "donate" or "give-away" and I always think how neat it is when the people look at all they have and make that decision to share with someone else. Maybe if the rich man had listened to the pro (i.e. GOD) and had shared his stuff....he would been richer in a lot of different ways! We can do that, too!

If somebody bleeds, you should help them!

2009-01-25T11:36:00.000-08:00

Jesus Teaches About Helping...Matthew 7:12; Luke 10:25-37.Today our 3-5-8 year old girls covered one of my favorite lessons to teach. The Good Samaritan.

The road from Jerusalem to Jericho was 18 miles long, and in traveling it, one descended 3,500 feet. After leaving Jerusalem, one passed through Bethany, about two miles from the city, and then there were no settlements along the way. It was a rocky, rough area with many caves and drop-offs. All through history it’s been a road where bandits hid.

I have a set of transparencies that I made several years ago that go along with this lesson and I love to use the overhead projector. The girls love to take turns putting the sheet on the overhead and the first time we go through the lesson they just put it on and I tell them what is happening and point to things. They like to see your (and their) finger shadows on the wall. The second time we go through the lesson, they get to put on the transparency and tell what happens on the sheet as they point it out.

According to the law, God’s people were supposed to help others who needed help, even if they were enemies. The priests and the Levites knew the law. They may have excused themselves from helping, in the context of Jesus’ story, by saying it was too dangerous, or they were in a hurry, or they didn’t want to be defiled. When we get to the part where the priest and Levite passes the poor ole beat up man, the girls are appalled! "If somebody bleeds, you should help them! If you don't they might get an 'impection'!" (And NOBODY wants an impection!) Our application today was a color page that we also put band-aids on the man's boo boo's! They also left with several band-aids on imaginary boo boo's.

The Samaritan in Jesus’ story used the ordinary remedies of his day on the man’s wounds. I guess it is too early in time for him to have had some "bi-odics" that would have kept him from getting an "impection". After he took the man to the inn, he cared for him, then left two day’s wages to pay for further care. The innkeeper would not have provided food, so the Samaritan was paying him to feed the man out of his own provisions. Because of this age groups’ literal understanding of what they are told, we did talk about how we can help people but how we should do that if they are strangers. We talked about how we can follow Jesus and help others and not risk their safety. "Go tell a grownup, don't touch his bleed."

Most young children love to help others. As they grow older their desire to help seems to fade. If we praised their efforts more, would they grow more helpful? If we allowed them to help, knowing it might create more work for us, would they develop a lifelong love of helping? If we consistently emphasize helping, perhaps our little helpers will grow up to become the biggest helpers of all!

Do you know how we talk to God?

2009-01-18T11:01:00.000-08:00

"Our hands we fold, our heads we bow, so we can talk to God just now."

I was surprised that my little kids didn't realize they were talking to God when they prayed. We always start class off with a prayer and they always fold their little hands and bow their heads but when I asked the question today, "Do you know how we talk to God?" they all had a lost look on their faces. When I told them that when we pray we are actually talking to God they were really surprised. I once attended a church where the preacher would often say, "Let's talk to God" before he would say a prayer and I guess I just got used to hearing that.

Our lesson today came from Matthew 6:6; Luke 11:1-4....Jesus teaches about praying. One day, Jesus was teaching some people about praying to God. Jesus knew some people only liked to pray when they thought other people were watching them. Jesus said, "When you pray, go into your room and be alone. Talk to God by yourself." We can always tell God what we are thinking. God hears us, and He is pleased when we pray to Him.

On another day Jesus had just finished His own time of prayer. Jesus' followers came to Him and said, "Jesus, please teach us how to pray too." So Jesus did. Jesus prayed, and He wanted His followers to know how to pray and what to pray. So He gave them a model prayer. It is sometimes called “The Lord’s Prayer” because Jesus, our Lord, gave it to us. This prayer gives us different things to pray about. It helps us know how to pray.

Let's look at the different parts of this prayer: “Our Father in Heaven, may your name be honored.” A great way to begin our prayers is to praise God for who He is. He is a loving Father who cares about us. We can thank Him for all the good things He does for us.

“May your kingdom come soon. May your will be done here on earth, just as it is in heaven.” It is good to pray for God’s will to be done. This means that WE want what GOD wants! This should always be our prayer.

“Give us our food for today.” God is the one who gives us everything we have! We can ask Him for what we need and thank Him when He provides for us.

“Forgive us our sins, just as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us.” It is important to admit to God that we have sinned and ask Him to forgive us. This is called confession. And Jesus reminds us that we must forgive other people, too.

“Don’t let us yield to temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” We can ask God to protect us from temptation and to help us not sin when we are tempted. He knows how tricky Satan is. We really do need God’s help to fight Satan!

Now that we have looked at Jesus’ model prayer, let’s go over the different parts of the prayer.
1. Praise—Lifting up God’s name and worshipping Him for who He is
2. Praying for God’s will to be done—Tell God we want things His way
3. Asking for our needs—Let God know what we need
4. Confession—asking for forgiveness of our sins
5. Asking for help with temptation—Admit to God that we need help not to sin

We talked about these different parts of prayer and how we can talk to God about anything. And by the way...when you are confessing your sins, go ahead and tell God that your brothers pick on you and you forgive them but you may have to hit them back so could God go ahead and forgive you for hitting your brothers?

We went around the table and found out something that they would like for us to pray for and said a prayer. I was touched. We prayed for mommies to feel better, friends to not cry, and for a daddy in Iraq. For our "application" today I had planned on telling them about my friend's son who has been seriously injured in Iraq and we were going to pray for Brad and make him "feel better soon posters". (Check out his page at http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/soldierbradthomas ) I had a picture of Brad and everything...but when I asked them if they had ever heard of Iraq and one little boy told me his daddy was there...I just told them that Brad was hurt and didn't feel well. So we prayed for Brad AND Logan's daddy. They traced around their hands and wrote their names on the pages. We made two sets, one for Brad and one for Logan's daddy. Logan's mommy is going to send his to him.

Jesus knew there would be times when we would need help. So Jesus asked God to help us. We can pray just like Jesus did and ask God to help others. We can ask God to help our families and friends. We can pray for our teachers and the people who lead our nation. We can pray for people who are sick. We can ask God to help us and others too. Jesus taught us to ask God for help.

This week...talk to God!

Jesus Teaches About Giving

2009-01-13T14:08:00.000-08:00

Our Bible focus for this lesson comes from Matthew 6:3,4; Mark 12:41-44.

Early in His ministry, Jesus taught about the importance of right attitudes in giving. Later, Jesus commended a woman who He observed giving. Jesus was now at the temple in Jerusalem on the Tuesday after His triumphal entry into the city. The two mites given by the widow there were the smallest bronze or copper coins made. Each coin was worth about 1/8 of a cent. The treasury box looked somewhat like an inverted trumpet making it hard for thieves to steal from the temple treasury.

I know you've probably experienced what every parent has with their own children....you know, when you give them money to put in the collection plate and after they have placed their coins in they decide they want them back? Or have you been through the wrestling match where you have to pry the coins out of your kids hand to put them in the collection plate? IF you haven't experienced these events...you're gonna miss out on a good lesson AND you have avoided a little parenting embarrassment!

For our lesson today, I told them about how one day Jesus sat near a money box at the temple. He watched as people came and dropped in their money gifts for God. We talked about how we have a collection plate at our church and how we get to put money in it. Who is THAT money for??? "Why, Ms. Kathy...God, of course!" Are we happy we get to give money to God?? "Why, Ms. Kathy...of course!" (You'd think Ms. Kathy needs to take that "Are you smarter than a 3 year old test?")

Jesus saw some people with lots of money. They put many coins in the box. Then Jesus saw a poor woman come to the box. This woman's husband had died. She didn't have very much money so the woman dropped the only two small coins she had in the money box. We had a coffee can and some fake coins that we took turns counting out two coins and putting in the can. When you are the poor widow woman, you drop your two coins in with a smile and you humbly bow your head and say a silent thank you to God for all he has done for you. IF you are rich man and you want everyone to see how much you give, you take you fist full of fake coins and chunk them in the can! At least that is how three year old children think it should be done! They got the point of the story.

Jesus said to His followers after he had been observing the woman, "This woman gave more today than anybody. She gave all she had." Jesus wants everyone to know it's not how much we give but why we give that pleases God. God is pleased when we give because we love Him.

Jesus said one more thing about giving. He said, "When you give, don't let anybody else know." People might not see what you give, but God will see--and that is what's important!

We made our own "money cans" so that during the week we can save money for God and bring it back next week. Ms. Kathy gave each child two quarters...two coins...to put in the collection plate during church. They all said they were going to smile when they gave them to God! I pray you remember to smile, also!

2009 Resolving to do better!

2009-01-13T14:05:00.000-08:00

Okay, December was a bad month. I had good intentions but just didn't get to the blogging task. But 2009 will be better! I have to admit it hasn't started out real well, that flu/sinus infection/hacking coughing thing has had me in tow for about two weeks so I am behind already!

It WILL get better!

An angel named....Hondo!

2008-12-08T16:37:00.000-08:00

There are differences in opinions within churches about the desirability of studying about Jesus' birth during the month of December. Many feel that it is an ideal time to seize on a ready-and-waiting opportunity to teach the Scriptural facts about the birth of Jesus to an already interested group of people and thereby lead them to a greater understanding of God's love. Others feel that this may inadvertently reinforce an erroneous belief that Jesus was born on December 25th or that God has asked us to celebrate Jesus' birthday. Whatever you believe, the arrival of a baby is a happy time. Friends and relatives all share in the joy of the new parents. A new life is a gift from God, and we can all rejoice in the gift that he gave us in Jesus. Not only can we celebrate the new life of a baby but also the promise of a new life for us all. Celebrate not only His birth, but His life, death, and resurrection. I'm one of those that really doesn't like to teach "the Nativity" during December...but I'm just too lazy to do my own lesson plans from scratch, so I plan on making sure that the kids know that we don't really know when Jesus was born because the Bible doesn't tell us. I've seen History Channel and Discovery Channel shows that do all the scientific stuff to try and determine the time of year of Jesus' actual birth. I really don't remember how they did it...had something to do with astronomy and the star that the Magi followed, the fact that the shepherd's were out in the fields, and other things...but they came up with a date in May. Who knows? Wouldn't it be wonderful if we all got excited about Jesus in the other 11 months like we do in December?

My new curriculum for the winter quarter starts off with "Jesus was a special baby" for the month of December. For this first week we only talked about an angel bringing special news to Mary and Joseph. This week was a big week for our class...we had five children! With two visitors! One of the visitors was a 10 year old boy who could have cared less that he was the only boy in the room. He was really a champ! I explained to him that since we didn't have a lot of children in the church that we grouped alot of age groups together and in our class we had anywhere from 3 year olds to him...a 10 year old. I explained that since we did have little kids some of the songs that we sang were on their level. Again...he could have cared less.

They were excited about the flannel graph figures of Mary, Joseph, and the angel Gabriel. We discussed Gabriel at length. What angels are, where they live, what being a messenger means. I was really excited about having kids that could read! I had made copies of an info sheet that had cartoon like pictures about our lesson. Three of the children could read the captions and they really got into that. Then my four year old wanted to read one...okay, this will be interesting. So I read a few words and she repeated them, then I would read a few more and she would repeat that. We did that until she had "read" her caption. She was happy as a lark!

We made some very simple angels that they could hang on their Christmas trees. As we made the angels we talked about Gabriel and the role he played in bringing the good news to Mary and Joseph. These angels were a fun-foam (love that stuff) triangle and circle. Body and head. We glued on a halo that I had made out of a sparkly pipe cleaner, folded a gold lace paper thing in half and glued them on as wings. I let them use a marker to put eyes, nose, and mouth on the angel. I tied a metallic string around its neck for a hanger. Some wanted to write their names on the angel...and why not??? I asked my four year old what her angel's name was, expecting to hear Gabriel....and what to my wondering ears did I hear..."my angel's name is Hondo." I found out later that her dog happens to have the same name. Aren't kids wonderful!!!!

He didn't get mad???

2008-11-30T12:27:00.000-08:00

I'm back in Thanksgiving/deer hunting season/widow mode. Only one little young'un today but we had fun! I think she enjoyed it to, she got to pick out all the songs she wanted to sing and didn't have to share the sandbox with anyone.

Today, we revisited Joseph. Last week (if you want to scroll down and check that out...be my guest) we had our Bible story about Joseph as a young boy. Well, Joseph was actually 17 years old at the time but that's still very young to be sold into slavery and taken off to a foreign country. Pretty scary I would imagine. But then you have to remember, Joseph had the knowledge and belief that God was with him. It is always comforting when we are feeling lost and alone that God is with us and we are NOT by ourselves...ever. "I will be with you always, even unto the end of the world." Matthew 28:20. Back to Joseph...he arrived in Egypt at the age 17. Thirteen years later, he was put in charge of the harvests by Pharaoh himself. Famines were rare in Egypt because of the Nile. Joseph was at least 37 years old when the famine started. He died in Egypt at the age of 110. Though one could question this sojourn, Joseph did not. He simply said, "God sent me here...to save people's lives" Genesis 45:5.

Since it was only the two of us today, we pulled out the sandbox and went over the lesson we did last week. (You can scroll down again...I'll wait.) I was just thrilled! I didn't have to hardly do any prompting to the story as the 5 year old was telling it. WOW! And that was after a whole week had gone by. Today we continued on with the story. Joseph goes to Egypt, becomes a friend to Pharaoh...that's like a king, and gets put in charge of keeping the grain. You see, Joseph knew that there were going to be 7 years of famine after there had been 7 years of plenty because of a dream that Pharaoh had. God took care of Joseph and Joseph was able to help many, many people. When Joseph's brothers got very hungry, they went to Egypt to buy grain...and who do you think they had to deal with??? JOSEPH! "Miss, Kathy...did Joseph get real mad at his brothers because they had stuck him in the pit and then sold him?" "No, he was happy to see his brothers and he told them to go get his father and other brother and come live close by where he could take care of them." "HE DIDN'T GET MAD?? God must really be proud of him!"

I think God is proud of us all...maybe not all the time...but most of the time and he loves us and takes care of us just like he took care of Joseph.

Where do you get jealousy?

2008-11-25T19:19:00.000-08:00

I hit the kid jackpot this week during deer season!! Four kids! Two-three year olds, one-five year old, and one-eight year old! With that age range you get a variety of questions.

This week our lesson was from Genesis 37:1-28; 39:1,2. We are going to be covering Joseph in a two week session, so this week we had "Joseph as a Boy". I was truly amazed how much the little ones were grasping and retaining. I like to use the-tell the story, ask questions as you go, then repeat the story and have them finish your sentence- type teaching style. I pulled out that trusty sand box, the stuffed sheep from Oriental Trading, the 12 disciples stick puppets that are now Jacob's 12 sons, and some of the camels that came with the sheep. They don't care that the names of the 12 disciples are written underneath each one, most can't read and the 8 year old likes to be "assistant teacher". We just had new tile floor put in a hallway and had some left over very strong paper rolls that the baseboard stuff came on. It's about 4" tall and super duper strong. It snuggled down in the sand and made a wonder pit!

Jacob was a father of 12 boys. (Count them as you let them stick the disciple/Jacob's sons stick puppets in the sand.) One of those 12 sons was named Joseph. (Put Joseph off to one side.) Joseph was one of the youngest and Jacob's favorite son. Jacob gave Joseph a special, beautiful coat. (There is a book entitled "Joseph and a Dream Come True" that has really nice pictures. Show them the picture of Joseph and the colorful coat...be sure you point out the unhappy faces the brothers have.) Joseph's brothers were jealous.

Now comes the hard part....explain jealousy to three year olds. If Ms. Kathy gave a snack to Mariah every week and didn't give any to Kimberly or Riley, how would they feel. Or if Ms. Kathy ALWAYS told Riley she looked pretty and didn't tell anyone else, how would everyone else begin to feel? Their little lights came on...they got it!!!! Now comes that question you were NOT expecting..."Ms. Kathy...where do you get jealousy?" Think quick, think quick, think quick, help me Father to know how to answer this one...well, it comes from inside your heart where you keep your love and happy feelings. Sometimes you have feelings that aren't so good and jealousy is one of them. When we feel those feelings that aren't so good that's when we need to pray and ask God to help us not feel that way. WHEW! Did it work??? Did it make sense?

We added the sheep to the sandbox and talked about the brothers being shepherds and what shepherds do to take care of sheep. Did you know we are God's sheep and he takes care of us? I like being a "sheeps", too!

Look out here comes Joseph and he has on that beautiful coat. The brothers are so jealous they want to kill poor Joseph but instead they take off his coat and throw him in a pit. (That would be the cardboard core thing mashed into the sand.) But God is taking care of him and no matter where Joseph goes, God will be with him. Alright, now we get more use out of that plush camel that came with the Oriental Trading sheep. Instead of killing Joseph, one of the brothers suggests they sell him to men on the camels and they take him away. There goes Joseph...off to Egypt.

"What's they gonna tell hims daddy?" That was insightful for a three year old. They were truly appalled that the brothers tore the beautiful coat and put sheep blood on it. Poor Joseph's daddy cried and cried when he saw the coat. He thought Joseph was dead. Poor daddy. But Joseph is off for a more important role in Egypt...all the time God is with him.

We had a tag board Joseph that had a plain tunic on one side and a Joseph with a coat on the other. We colored the coat all different colors, put a craft stick on the bottom, and poked the craft stick through a hole in the bottom of a clear plastic cup that Ms. Kathy fixed before class. There was Joseph...in and out of the pit. I feel that way myself some days...like I've been thrown in a pit and then jerked out, thrown down-jerked out. But just like Joseph...God is always with me!!

Almost 3 weeks of labor!

2008-11-16T11:23:00.000-08:00

I've been a "deer hunting season Sunday School teacher widow". Poor Sarah has been in labor now for almost three weeks. I was afraid she was going to have to be in labor another week with baby Isaac but luckily I had one student!!! Yeeeeahhh! Sarah can cancel the epidural. When deer season hits a small congregation, the attendance is real unpredictable!

Read Genesis 18:1-16; 21:1-6 to get the background on Abraham and Sarah having the promised son. I have some old material that wasn't part of the new stuff I'm using but it's really pretty neat. It tells the story of an impossible promise come true through the thoughts of Sarah as she writes in her diary. Sarah states that she was busy in the family tent. Abraham, her husband, saw three strangers coming, he ran to them and asked them to stay for a while. They prepared a meal and washed their feet as was their custom.

Sarah was listening from the tent as the men talked. One of the visitors told Abraham, "I will come back next year. When I come back, your wife will have a son." Sarah was surprised! "I can't have a baby--I am ninety years old!" But Abraham and Sarah had always wanted a child and many years ago God had promised them one. He said a great nation would come through their children. But now she thought she was too old to have children. Abraham was very old, too.

Sarah was so surprised that she laughed. ( I can relate to Sarah, when I was told I couldn't have any more children and 8 years later I became pregnant....well, I didn't exactly laugh! And I wasn't quiet 90 but I sure felt like it.)

The visitor said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh? Is anything too hard for the Lord?" Sure enough the next year, Sarah gave birth to their son, Isaac. Isaac's name even means "he laughs". God kept His impossible promise!

I'm been holding on to doing this lesson and not going forward because....I got real industrious and made some rag doll baby Isaac's! There's no way that baby Isaac wasn't going to live in someones house besides mine! Baby Isaac isn't really cold, the reason he's blue is because I had an abundance of denim scraps. We had a shawl for Sarah and played like we were hiding in the tent listening...then we laughed when we heard that Sarah would have a baby. Then we cuddled baby Isaac and talked about what his name means and how God had kept his promise.

"You must choose wisely...."

2008-10-27T16:58:00.000-07:00

Today's lesson was about making wise choices. Isn't that a key principle of life? When we make wise choices in our careers or our families, we are blessed. When we make unwise choices, there are consequences--sometimes ones we don't like! God wants us to make good choices. Do you know why? He loves us and wants what's best for us. What an important life principle for us to emphasize with our kids today!

Today, Abram and Lot were the topic of discussion. Our numbers were few this morning so we had some really good one on one time. I am so happy with the progress of the singing. We really let our "light's shine" this morning and I bet if you had listened closely...even you could have heard us singing "Be Careful Little Eyes" from wherever you were! God loves a joyful noise!

If you aren't familiar with the Abram and Lot story, turn to Genesis 13 in your Bible. Abram and Lot had become rich in cattle, silver, and gold. In fact, they had so many animals that the land could not support both of them. Abram's men and Lot's men were at the fighting stage. Which wasn't nice...you should never fight with your uncle or aunt or cousin or your cousin's friend. At least that's the general consensus and I believe it myself! Never the less, since everyone was having a hard time getting along, Abram suggested that the solution to the problem would be for them to separate from each other. Abram was even generous enough to let Lot choose first where he would like to go live. This is where we got to make choices...if you were playing with a toy and your friend wanted it what would you do? That's right!! You would share. If your brother was watching a television program and you didn't want to watch it, what would you do? You are soooo nice! Yes! You would watch it with him. And you gave your friend the biggest half of the sandwich! Dude you're awesome!

Abram sure didn't want the workers to argue. And he didn't want to argue with Lot. Abram said, "If you go to the left, I'll go to the right. If you go to the right, I'll go to the left." Abram let Lot decide and they separated. God was pleased with Abram for making a good choice. God made another promise to Abram. God said, "I will give you all the land that you see." God wants us to make good choices, too!

I did the accordion paper folding thing before class and then cut out a sheep/paper doll thing for the kids as they watched (it's amazing what impresses 4 year old kids!). We drew on eyes and mouths and glued on cotton balls on our sheep. Now we have sheep for Abram and Lot's men to herd. And Lot's men and Abram's men both said, "Bye, yall we're goin' over here for our sheeps to eat!" See, good choices!

Are we there yet???

2008-10-19T12:30:00.000-07:00

How do you think you would react if you had to pack up everything you had and move...you don't know where just yet, just move? Life is full of decisions. One after another, they appear in our daily lives, demanding answers. While some have little impact on our future, others greatly affect our direction.

Abraham is an example of someone faced with life-changing decisions. Would he leave a prosperous home to travel to an unknown land? Would he leave the security of family to settle in hostile territory? As he faced each decision, Abraham modeled a powerful example. Abraham actively looked to God to guide his path in life. Shouldn't we?

At the beginning of Genesis 12, Abram had been living with his family in the thriving commercial area of Ur. Yet when God called him, Abram was willing to travel to an unknown place. This morning we discussed the promise God made to Abram. God said, "I will bless you." God meant that He was going to care for Abram. Abram would be very important and many people would be helped because of Abram and his family.

Abram loved God, so Abram obeyed. Do you know who went with Abram? Abram's wife Sarai and his nephew Lot took all of their belongings and started traveling to this new country with Abram. It was a very long journey. They had to stop and eat along the way and they had to pack and unpack every day. We talked about going on trips this morning and what it takes to go on a trip. Since we had 3 years old (okay, I don't know how to correctly say that so bear with me...they are 3) through an eight year old...we started from scratch...mommy usually packs! We talked about what they would pack if they had to move to a new place.

I took some school pencil boxes, poked holes in the top and put some binding through the holes to make a handle. Ah ha...instant suitcase. We had an array of pictures to choose from if WE were moving to a new place. Out of all of the pictures to choose from...the most popular were a television, bicycle, shoes, and the bag of trail mix. Now can you tell by looking at the photo that the shoes would NOT fit a three year old? This is one analytical mind that is developing. One of the three year old children told me that those couldn't be her shoes because they were too big. After I came out of the shocked stupor, I asked, "How can you tell they are too big?" Then I got the most "you've got to be kidding me" look I've ever seen and the three year old answered...are you ready for this....."well, just look at them, you can see they would be too big!" Someone call NASA or some think tank. Surely, this kid is destined for something big!

After we packed our suitcases, I pulled out those trusty Oriental Trading nativity scene stuffed animals and we had to herd them along with all of the people that were with Abram. We had a couple of sheep and a camel that sure wanted to get into those pencil box suitcases but I managed to rescue them! In our story we talked about how one night God spoke to Abram and made another promise. God said, "I will give this land to your family." Abram, Sarai, and Lot knew that they were obeying God. They knew God would take care of them. He promised he would.

Today marked a major milestone for one of my four years old. She doesn't even know it. She went from being the shy kid who would barely sing to the teacher's helper who wanted to show the three years old how to do the hand movements to some of the songs we sing. I was wanting to grab her and give her a squeeze but yet I didn't want to embarrass her. God is so good!

Noah...part deux

2008-10-12T14:09:00.000-07:00

I don't think I've ever had so much fun with the Noah lesson as with four year olds! Maybe it's just this group...but this day was wonderful! Get your Bible and refresh your memory in Genesis 7:11-8:22: 9:8-17. If you'll remember, we left poor Noah loading up all the animals, gathering food, and putting up with critics last week. The kids decided that we had to repeat the Noah song and they were really getting into it. Okay, sing along for a minute..."Good ole Noah but an ark, like God told him to. And on this ark he put some donkeys, like God told him to! With a heehaw here and a heehaw there, here-a hee, there-a haw...God ole know built an ark like God told him to!" We were SO into this that the donkey threw one of the girls off her chair and we had to stop and have first-aid! No kidding. After a hug, a kiss on the knee, and a prayer...all was better.

According to a certain four year old, when God closed the door to the ark...the "jaws of life" probably couldn't open it. WHERE DO THEY GET THIS??? I agree. We talked about how many days it rained...do you remember...yep, that's right 40 big ones! We even counted to 40. Well, WE counted to 10 and then I counted the rest of the way to 40. "That's a whole bunch of days." And the water got higher, and higher, and even higher than the whole building we were in. (After that much water, it's lost on a four year old.) Here's another question that four year olds shouldn't be thinking of: "If Noah shovels all that poop out into the water...is it polluted?" Apparently, all those eco-friendly commercials, lessons, and educational shows is paying off. No green house effect for these kids!

We got Noah through the long, long, long time he was on the ark. He was on there longer than it takes for you to have your birthday again NEXT year! It rained, thundered, lightening crashed but finally it quit. Noah sent out a raven to check things out. The bird flew and flew...no luck. All he came back with was tired wings. Then the dove went out...you know those are pretty white birds...not the kind daddy goes hunting for with his gun. (I'm glad they didn't have dove season back then!) The dove came back empty-beaked. Then the dove goes out again and ta-da...olive branch in its beak. Noah now knows that things are looking brighter. By the way, did you know that this is where the peace symbol using an olive branch comes from...for real! The dove with an olive branch stands as a symbol for peace and the origin of that symbol traces back to this account of restored peace between God and His creation. The olive leaf carried by the dove told Noah that lower elevations were above water and had sprouted new life.

Noah gets to leave the big boat! God made a promise to Noah. God said He would never again destroy the whole world with a flood. "I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life." Gen. 9:13-15

I like rainbows, too. Now when we see a rainbow what do we know? God loves us and cares for us and keeps his promises!

Good ole Noah built an ark, like God told him to...

2008-10-05T13:00:00.000-07:00

Noah in two parts. Our lesson this week was the first part of the Noah story found in Genesis 6 through Genesis 7:9. My lesson material splits this up and I'm glad, it gives me more time to get several key points across. The Bible tells us that God made the world and put people on the earth. After a time, many of the people were sinful and God was angry. But one man, Noah, did what was right.

God told Noah that He was going to destroy the earth and the people. He gave Noah directions for building an ark and how many animals to put on the ark. We took our story through Noah loading the animals and getting enough food to feed them all and next week we will have God close the door to the ark and we'll get that thunder rolling.

We had in our teacher workroom three posters that fit together that are an ark scene that I laminated and there were 15 or 20 "two by two" sets of animals that got laminated also. These posters are really meant to be a bulletin board display but they worked great for our class. After they had identified Noah and his wife on the poster, each one got to come up and point out Noah's three sons and their wives...counting each one as you go. Then we put all the animals in a basket and they got to draw out an animal. We had already used the trusty CD player with the animal sounds so that we could identify some animal sounds. As they drew out the animals we sang, "Good ole Noah built an ark, like God told him to, and on that ark he put some _____" (whatever animals they had drawn). Then they told me what sound the animals made and we taped them to the laminated poster. Did you know that opossum's make a squealing sound? I am assured by the four year old opossum expert that that is true. When the coyotes were drawn they were identified as wolves...coyotes/wolves...not a big deal. But let me make it perfectly clear that a certain four year old can make a sound that any Northwood's timber wolf would be proud to claim. I was afraid people in other classes were going to start checking to make sure we didn't have a full moon or something. She was great!

They were really interested in why the people didn't believe Noah about the upcoming flood and why, just why would you laugh at Noah? Beats me. And how come the lions didn't try to eat the zebras? Did all the other animals not want to sleep close to the skunks? What did Noah do with all the poop? (That's from a child who lives on a ranch and I imagine has to help muck out the barn.) Some of those questions took some quick thinking and then just answer some truthfully....I'm not real sure.

Next week...stayed tuned for part deux of Noah and the big rain!

What happened to time management?

2008-09-28T09:58:00.000-07:00

It seems that after teaching for many years, I would have had a better handle on time management this morning than what I did. I guess I wanted to pack too many things in a short period of time. Today we continued our study of creation from Genesis 1, with God creating people. We all were in agreement that Adam and Eve were good names and that it "sure was nice of God" to let Adam name all of the animals. Do YOU know where Adam came up with some of the names he used??? Me, either.

Looking at my list of "things to cover" maybe I was being a little ambitious AND this morning I had an extra three year old. I don't think she had had a lot of Sunday School experience but she followed along really well and tried to do everything! Yeaaaah! You get a sticker for being so good!

We reviewed Day 1 through Day 6A...that means last week we only talked about God creating the animals and this week we added Day 6B...God creates man. We talked about how special each one of us are and how God made everything about us, too. We discussed outside parts and what they are used for...like noses to smell flowers and Mommy's new perfume (that she shared). Feet to run, arms to give hugs, and eyes to see many things. You get the idea. Then we talked about inside parts, like your heart that God gave you to help keep you alive. Thank goodness we have a nurse in the congregation and she was willing to loan me a stethoscope. We each got to listen to our hearts and for some reason, they all wanted to hear mine. I guess grownup hearts beat louder? Or were they checking to see if the old lady was really alive?

Now to fill in our "God Made Me Special" booklets. We measured our height on the paper tree in our room, pulled out those Weight Watcher scales...I was afraid it wouldn't registered some of these feather weights. Our group went from 37 pounds to 74! Then we drew around the hand that God gave us and around the foot that God gave us. We only got to play the "Mrs. Kathy says" game once and didn't get to the "I spy" game OR coloring pictures at all! Time management...gone! In case you haven't played the "Mrs. Kathy says" game, give it a try: Mrs. Kathy says wiggle the fingers that God gave you. Now substitute the following for the words that are in bold: touch/toes, nod/head, blink/eyes, march/feet, wrinkle/nose, smack/lips (that one went over big!).

Next week we start a whole new unit with Noah and Abraham. Do I hear storm clouds rumbling???

Did God mean to make skunks, too?

2008-09-21T18:28:00.000-07:00

Our study of creation is now up to day 6! We're splitting day 6 into two parts...this week God made the animals and next week we'll talk about God making people. Check out Genesis 1:24-25. What incredible variety God created when He made animals! And yes, God intended to make skunks, too. I, myself, have scratched my head when I try to figure out the purpose of geckos...but surely God has a plan!

My teacher workbook is much more eloquent than I could ever be so I'll give you a synopsis of what it says. On Day 6, God's orderly plan for His creation continued. God called forth and created land animals . These animals are described in three groups: domestic animals or livestock, short-legged or crawling creatures, and wild animals. The animals God made serve important purposes: to provide food or clothing for people, to help humans with physical labor, to provide transportation, and to be companions. Three years old don't care much about order...they just like to play with the plastic animals.

Since we had promotion day and we now have three year old twins (of which I am having a time telling apart...but they let me very quickly if I use the wrong name) we haven't used the old trusty sand box. We made trees out of construction paper, had our construction paper river, and added these to the sheet moss and rocks already in the box. I shopped at Wal-Mart and every store that has Dollar in the name and could NOT find little hard plastic farm animals. They had gobs of monsters, reptiles, dinosaurs, and other odd looking creatures but NO farm animals. I had just about given up when I had to run to the grocery store to get those good ole animal cookies to use for a snack, when low and behold...there hanging on a rack in the little podunk grocery store were hard plastic Old MacDonald's farm animals!!! Saved the day! Before they could add a farm animal to the sand box they had to tell me what it was, who made it, and what sound it makes, and on what day God created them. I have to say that's asking a lot but they came through with flying colors.

To finish our day, we are starting to learn our memory verse in sign language. They did very good for the first time...give it a try:

In the beginning (Hold up one finger)

God created (Point upward with the index finger of your right hand; then bring the hand down and open the palm.)

the heaven (Hold hands up toward sky and wave them back and forth.)

and the earth. (Lock fingers together in front of you and hold arms out from you and form a big circle. Move arms back and forth.)

...and behold, it was very good. (Show thumbs-up on both hands!)

Day Five, Day Five, God made birds and fish alive...

2008-09-14T18:02:00.000-07:00

The Bible tells us that God made the world. On Days 1-4, God made day and night, the sky, the seas, and dry land. We covered that much last week. Follow along in Genesis 1:20-23 as this week we talk about Day Five....now sing the song:

Day One, Day One, God made light when there was none,

Day Two, Day Two, God made clouds and skies of blue.

Day Three, Day Three, God made grass, and flowers, and trees,

Day Four, Day Four, Sun and Moon, and stars galore!

On Day Five, God made fish and birds. God made all kinds of fish, even those disgusting ugly jelly fish that live at the beach. He made fish special so that they can breathe in water. We can't breathe in water 'cause we don't have gilly things! Ask any four year old, they will tell you. Dolphins are fish. Okay, we didn't get into the mammals aspect of dolphins, for now...dolphins are fish!

God filled the sky with all kinds of birds. God made birds with feathers and with lots of colors. And one child has really, really, REALLLY seen a bird that was green! We used our spy glass to locate the birds and sea creatures on a wall mural that we are recycling. I'm not sure where this mural came from but I appreciate whomever ordered it and laminated it. It's actually four posters that you fit together consecutively. Really cool!

We colored a bird and a fish and taped a craft stick to the back of each. We taped a feather to the birds, looked at sea shells and everyone picked one out they could take home. Time to break out the Pepperidge Farm Goldfish because everyone has been so good! And these are ones that have colors! After you munch on a few goldfish get your bird and fish props ready and answer the questions by holding up the appropriate bird or fish prop: I make a nest. I breathe in the water. I scratch in the dirt for worms. I live in trees. I have fins. I have wings. God made me. (Did you hold up both??)

Now add a new verse to your song: Day Five, Day Five, God made birds and fish alive!

Thank you God for making everything just right!

And God saw that it was good...

2008-09-07T09:45:00.000-07:00

Ahhh, curriculum! I have decided that I'm going to use the Heartshaper series from 21st Century Christian for the autumn quarter. Of course, being the "old Sunday School" teacher I have to add my own little tweaks. But it is good to have something formatted so that I don't have to start from scratch each week. AND...I'm recycling, so this is actually Autumn 2007 material....the kids don't care, they haven't had it before. (Especially with Mrs. Kathy's tweaks!) We will be going through three different units: God Made the World, Noah and Abraham, and Joseph and Samuel.

This week started us off with the first four days of creation, Genesis 1:1-19. The Bible tells us what it was like before anything was on the earth and then through the glory and power of God with just a spoken word, we have the first day. And on the first day God made light. Everyone got to stand in a chair (with Mrs. Kathy hanging on to them and the chair) and tell everyone how dark it was in the world and then God said, "Let there be light". At this point you get to turn the light switch off and on and when the light comes on..."God saw that it was good!" And yes, we did this four times this morning. I hope no one passing by thought we were having an electrical blowout.

On the second day, God made the sky and the air we breathe. So right now take a deep breath and let it out. Be sure you don't keep doing this or you might get a little light headed...even if God did create a "bunch of air" for you to breathe.

Day Three: God made dry ground and the land to have plants. We touched pictures of plants and the ground on a really neat poster that came with the teaching material. I still don't have an answer why God would make broccoli and tomatoes if most people don't like them. But he did, so there must be a good reason. Oh yes, he made them because "grandmothers like that kind of stuff." Grandpa's don't but grandma's do. We cut up an orange and looked at the seeds and then munched on the orange. Not everyone wanted to taste the orange.

Then on the fourth day, God made the sun, moon and stars. The big bright thing that will give you a burn if you have on your swimsuit in the summer is the sun. You're "posed" to wear sunblock but if you don't you get "sunburned". The light at night is the moon and stars. Here's the part they liked best...see the above photo. We cut moons out of bread (use one of those little Tupperware containers) and the sun and a star out of cheese. Be sure you wash the hands first, lay out freezer paper, and say a prayer. Assembly is easy...put a sun on a moon and cover the sun with another moon OR put a star on a moon and cover the star with a moon. Either way, yum and yum and the class said, "this is good!"

Daniel, Daniel, Daniel, Daniel...

2008-08-31T11:14:00.000-07:00

When an angel shuts a lion's mouth...he can't munch on ANYTHING! He can't even lick or slobber....at least that's the wisdom of 3 and 4 years old kids.

Today our story came from the book of Daniel, chapter 6. You guessed it...Daniel in the den of lions! King Darius really liked and trusted Daniel, so much so that he appointed him as his most trusted governor and placed him over the other governors. And yes, jealousy and envy reared its ugly head. The other governors tried every way they could to find fault with Daniel but couldn't so they used King Darius to set a trap. Daniel was faithful to God and prayed only to Him. The other governors convinced Darius to write into law a decree that would allow the people to only pray or worship Darius for 30 days, knowing that Daniel would remain faithful to God. Even a four year old questioned that...didn't they know that that would make God unhappy??? And you DON'T want God unhappy with you.

When Daniel was caught praying to God, Darius was beside himself. He tried to find a way to not have to put Daniel in the lion's den but he couldn't...so he had Daniel put in the with the lions. He went back to his "pa-lalace" and tried to go sleep but he couldn't. And I don't know if he had a "blankie" or not but I don't think it would have even helped.

They all seemed to be very interested in the angel that came to shut the mouth of the lions during the night. "Did he have big wings?" "What was his name?" "Did he have tape that he put around the lions mouth?" "Did he have a sword?" ANYWAY...the angel closed the mouth of the lions and the next morning Daniel was able to answer King Darius when he ran to find out about Daniel. What happened to the guys that tricked Darius...kibbles and bits...or as one put it, "the lion ates his bones!"

We made the lion masks and acted out the story. My favorite part...what does a lion look like when an angel closes his mouth?? Silent little tight lipped children hiding behind lion masks.

"Daniel, Daniel, Daniel, Daniel,

Daniel in the li-li-li-li,

Daniel, Daniel, Daniel, Daniel,

Daniel in the li-li-li-li,

Daniel in the lions, Daniel in the lions, Daniel in the lions den!"

The Orginial Misson Possible...or Impossible??

2008-08-24T11:10:00.000-07:00

Thank you to Miss Clydia for taking my class last week while I was gone on vacation!!

This week's lesson comes from Numbers 13-14. If you can't tell by the photos...we were on a spying mission. We may not have been scoping out the land of milk and honey but I guarantee we found the "squlls" in the tree and the birds on the limb. And did you know that you can use your

"bi-nokcolors" to spy on your brothers if you want to?

Moses chose twelve men to go into the land of Canaan and spy on the people there. These men were to see how good the land was and to see how powerful the people were. After forty days, the twelve men reported to Moses and the Israelites what they had seen. Ten of the men were afraid of what they had seen. And no, I don't think Joshua and Caleb called them "scaredy cats" but they were afraid of the people who lived in the land of Canaan. They said they felt like grasshoppers in a land full of giants. And yeah, maybe they did feel like crickets, too. (We have cricket season here...it's almost like another Biblical story that takes place in Egypt!)

You should have seen the grapes they brought back to Moses! The grapes were so big and heavy that they had to be carried between two men, who carried a piece of the branch that grapes were growing on between their shoulders on a stick. This is a great time to break out that bunch of seedless big purple grapes! "Were the grapes that the spies had bigger than these??" Oooh yeah! So while the Sunday School spies munch on grapes....you finish the story.

Joshua and Caleb, like Moses believed in God. They had faith that God would help them do anything they needed to do, as long as they were truly following Him.

We're learning about "true and false"....so this was the time we did our "true and false" statements. Go ahead and shake your head with the appropriate gesture for the following questions....are you as smart as 3 and 4 years old???

1. God told Moses to choose one man from each tribe to go spy out the land of Canaan.

2. Moses chose seven men to go into Canaan to spy.

3. The spies were gone from the Israelite camp for 40 days.

4. All the spies were afraid to go into the land of Canaan.

5. All of the fruit was too heavy to bring back to show the Israelites.

6. The two spies who believed that the Israelites could take over the land of Canaan were Jack and Carson.

7. The ten spies said they felt like spiders in a land full of giants.

8. The Israelites became so angry at Joshua and Caleb that they wanted to throw rocks at them to kill them.

9. When God's glory appeared, it stopped the Israelites from throwing rocks at Joshua and Caleb.

10. God was angry with the Israelites and punished them by making them wander in the desert for 40 years.

The Talking Donkey

2008-08-10T11:07:00.000-07:00

I am just elated that the story of Balaam and the talking donkey was such a hit!

We had visitors today and "extras" from another class, so we had a packed house for our usually small class. The three-year-olds could have cared less when I explained about our story coming from the Old Testament and it was in the book called Numbers. (Numbers 22 if you want to follow along.) And the older kids were very nice about indulging me and answering the questions about the Old Testament and the New Testament. (Right now we are just focusing on the Old Testament being in the front part of the Bible and the New Testament in the back and that Jesus was born during the time of the New Testament.)

I have gotten SO much use out of some stuffed animals that I ordered from Oriental Trading. This package consisted of animals that were supposed to be part of a Naivety scene. I got three each of camels, sheep, donkeys, and cows. You can't go wrong with those animals and Bible stories. I have to say, I haven't used the cows that much but I sure have gotten a lot of mileage out of the sheep, camels, and donkeys.

Bless their little hearts...they were ALL so attentive when I was telling the story with my paper cut out of Balaam and the stuffed donkey. They also were appalled that Balaam would beat the donkey. If looks on their faces could be interpreted, I would say that if we had been living in Bible times this morning, the very first SPCA would have been formed! I was sort of taken back that THEY weren't the least surprised when after the third beating the donkey talked to Balaam. I guess with all of the cartoons and animated shows in their generation it wasn't something new for them. After I realized they weren't picking up on this miraculous thing...I asked them if they had ever seen a donkey talk. "Well, of course...Shrek's friend Donkey talks!" Okay, new tactic. "Have you ever seen a REAL donkey talk...one that is out in a pasture?" "oooohhhh!" (Now we're getting through.)

And I'm not sure why but most of them wanted the angel to give Balaam at least one good whack with the sword. "Couldn't he hit him just one time?" Don't mess with the donkey...we'll have angels with swords giving out punishment.

We colored a donkey, added his legs with brads, glued on his ears and google eyes, and made a tail out of yarn that we taped on. Tada! Walkin' talkin' donkey!

And why did God send the angel with the sword? "Cause he knew what was really in Balaam's heart and he knew Balaam wanted the money and jewels and he would curse the people!"

The award for statement of the day...."I know what I would have said if I had been that donkey and he hit me three times....I know you didn't just do that again!." (And be sure you snap your fingers and give a little sassy twist of the head!)

Elijah...the sequel

2008-08-03T14:08:00.000-07:00

I wasn't planning on doing lessons that continued from one week to the next...but we couldn't just leave Elijah out by the Brook Cherith being fed by the ravens so we followed up with Elijah going to Zarephath. You can read this part of the story in I Kings 17:8-16.

We revisited the sandbox and retold last weeks story to those that weren't there. I was really impressed at how well the four year had retained the info...even remembering that it was ravens that brought Elijah the bread and meat. It wasn't just the big black birds!

The seven-year-olds seemed really concerned that Elijah would ask the widow to make him some bread even when he knew that she had no more for herself and her son. They were really relieved when they realized that if she DID make the bread for Elijah then she would be taken care of by God until He made it rain again. Okay, Elijah you're forgiven!

One of our activity pages was in the shape of a jar. On the inside it had pictures of the widow and her son baking the bread and Elijah receiving it. I decided we needed to make play dough loaves of bread. This "craft" project was a great hit. If you've never made editable play dough...try it out! The kids loved it. Mix 1 cup smooth peanut butter, 1 cup instant non-fat dry milk, and 1/3 cup honey. The easiest, non-messy way to do this is dump it all in a ziplock bag and let all the kids take turns kneading it. I know...about now you are squinting your eyes and imagining what a royal mess this will be. But aha! NOT so! I'm not sure what the the magic of this concoction is but it's not gooey or sticky. After it is kneaded together real well, you can roll it up in a ball and tear off hunks. It is a little peanut butter greasy but it smells really good! Have little ziplock bags with the ingredients written on the side so moms won't have a heart attack when their kid shows up and tell them they have brown play dough they can eat!

By the way...we made sure our hands were washed before we started this. Each child got a hunk and got to roll it out and flatten to make little tortilla looking pieces of bread. It's brown from the peanut butter so it looks like bread. We each ate a "bread" and got a ziplock bag with some of it in it to take home. It was such a big hit, one child asked for extra because he had not had breakfast and "you know peanut butter is nutritious"!

The only way I would let them take it home is if they agreed they would not open the bag in church but would wait until they got home. I told them if they opened the bag and everyone smelled the peanut butter, we would make everyone hungry and we'd probably get in trouble. We washed our hands again to get the peanut butter smell off before leaving class. Thank goodness for strawberry scented kids hand sanitizing gel. Elimates peanut butter smell!

By the way...the widow made a pretty good deal according to one child. Make Elijah some bread and God takes care of you for a while and you don't have to go to the grocery store. Your jars just stay filled up with flour and oil. And we bet she was kinda sad when it finally rained and she had to go shopping again.

Elijah and the big black birds!

2008-07-27T14:08:00.000-07:00

I am always impressed at the enthusiasm of a four year old. A ziplock bag of beef jerky...the organic kind...and some salad croutons...the good greasy preseasoned kind, make Elijah's stay by the brook while hiding from King Ahab bearable. Read 1 Kings 17 to get the whole story but I'll give you a four year olds version just in case you need some clarifying.

"There was a mean old bad King named Ahab...he was probably mean cause he didn't have any bird friends. He didn't like it when Elijah came to his big house that he called a pa-lalace. Elijah told him that he was a bad, bad man and God was really not happy with how he had been acting. Because you are so bad, it won't rain for three years. Count them...(be sure you hold up your fingers as you count), one, two, three. Yes, I said three years. No rain...nothin'! Then King Ahab got really mad and God told Elijah, "GET OUT OF THERE!" God told Elijah to go down to the water and stay and it's okay if you drink the water, it won't make you sick. So he went and hid behind the rocks. And when it was morning, Elijah was hungry and he looked up and some big ole black birds called ravens brought him some meat and bread. It was okay if he ate it, the birds mouths' were clean. So at night time when he was hungry, here would come those birds again...more bread and more meat. God took care of Elijah."

And that's their story and they're sticking to it!

You will notice that during the story telling we did have to clarify some things. Like....drinking water out of a brook-safe or not safe? The birds mouths were clean because God sent them to take the meat and bread to Elijah. We never could remember the name for the big black birds so instead of ravens, most of the time they were just "big black birds".

We dug a trench in the sand in the sandbox and tore a piece of blue construction paper and put in the trench...water for the brook. We made one big pile of rocks and one little pile for Elijah to hide behind. I'm not sure why there HAD to be a big pile AND a little pile...but Elijah was safe. Elijah was made from the trusty scan, paint program, cardstock, print it out illustration. The ravens were the same only we attached them to the end of a chenille stem so they could fly in and give Elijah the bread and meat. Poor Elijah did get dive bombed a few times.

Fun foam should get some kind of national award. Love the stuff. I had premade the raven's body with attached feet and head. Gave it a pouch by attaching a half circle. I've been sewing since I was about 12...a lonnng time....and my philosophy is that if a needle will go through something...you can sew it! I sewed the head to the body, put the half circle in place, inserted the feet between the half circle and the body and sewed around the edges.

We drew around a hand, cut out two and attached them to the body for wings. We used glue but you had better reinforce with staples. Glued on a beak, added some googlie eyes, a chenille stem for carrying/hanging, and put the bag of beef jerky and croutons in the pouch.

And just before we walked out after class..."God sure did take care of Elijah" "Yeah, he takes care of us, too!"

A few of our favorite songs

2008-07-22T21:22:00.000-07:00

We do love to sing! We are great at making a joyful noise!

My God is so Big!

My God is so Big (throw your arms out straight and parallel with the floor)

So strong (curl up one are like you are showing a muscle)

And so mighty (curl the other arm up)

There's nothing my God can not do! (shaking finger from side to side)

(Clap hands twice)

The mountains are His (hands up making an upside down V)

The Valleys are His (hands down making a V)

The trees are His handiwork too (sway arms back and forth above head)

Repeat first verse.

Sunshine Mountain

Climb, climb, up sunshine mountain (use that climbing motion)

Heavenly breezes blow, (let arms sway back and forth)

Climb, climb, up sunshine mountain (keep climbing)

Faces all aglow! (Place hands on either sides of face, framing face, pulsing fingers)

Turn, turn your back on evil, (turn from right to left and back)

Look up to the sky, (place one hand over eyes as you look up)

Climb, climb, up sunshine mountain (start climbing again)

YOU and I! (point to each other)

Happy All the Time

I'm inright, outright, upright, downright (Using first fingers on both hands, point to appropriate directions)

Happy all the time! (Clap on each word)

(Repeat)

Since Jesus Christ came in,

And took away my sin,

(Repeat first verse)

Sing over again, only this time get faster, and then faster still!

(I take turns standing behind the little kids and holding their hands to do the motions.)

Let's Go to Church

(Tune: London Bridge)

If I were a _______, I'd ______ to church,

_____ to church, ______ to church!

If I were a _______, I'd ______ to church,

Every Sunday morning!

Fill in the blanks with Bird/fly (use flapping motion for wings)

Fish/swim (put hands together and make swimming motion)

Bunny/hop (put fists together at chest level and hop)

But I am a child, and I ______ to church,

_______ to church, _______ to church,

I am a child and I ________ to church,

Every Sunday morning.

(Let children choose walk, drive...make appropriate motions.)

Froggie Went to Church

(This is an original song I made up to go with some frog hand puppets I purchased. Well, actually they're bath mitts...but too cute!)

(Tune: Mary Had a Little Lamb)

Froggie hopped to church one day, church one day, church one day,

Froggie hopped to church one day, to sing unto the Lord!

Brr-ummp dear Lord, Brr-ummp dear Lord!

Froggie hopped to church one day to sing unto the Lord!

Froggie hopped to church one day, church one day, church one day,

Froggie hopped to church one day, to pray unto the Lord!

Thank you Lord, O thank you Lord, thank you Lord, thank you Lord,

Froggie hopped to church one day, to pray unto the Lord!

And of course we have to sing: The B-I-B-L-E, This Little Light of Mine (I use the little battery powered tea lights on this one), I Will Make You Fishers of Men, and Love Is Something if You Give It Away!

David and Go-liebyth

2008-07-22T09:17:00.000-07:00

At four years old David and Goliath, quickly becomes David and "Go-liebyth". Instead of having a theme for Bible lessons for the summer I have decided to do Old Testament Bible characters and this lesson, in case you aren't familiar, comes from 1 Samuel 17.

I have brought out of retirement (along with me) the old trusty sandbox. It has been upgraded to a plastic storage box...one that has a LID!! It's half full of sand, has some florist sheet moss, and small river rocks. It can be used for almost any story and the kids love it. They always want to know..."do we get to do that thing?" I try to use it as often as I can!

The Beginners' Bible Paint & Markers Book of David and the Giant makes an excellent flip chart. Scan the pages into your computer, use your Paint program to color them, print them out on cardstock....tada! I love technology. Beats sitting and coloring pages for hours!

After we used our flip chart and discussed it thoroughly we moved to the sandbox. In digging the valley between King Saul's army and the Philistines we had to be clear about the following questions they asked: "where's the river?" "did they have four-wheelers?" and "did they have any antibacterial wet-wipes?"

We had already established that David was a "sheeperd" boy...you know, they're the boys who take care of "sheeps". At this time I gave them their "sheeperd's bag" so they could pick up five of the smooth river rocks. Now the shepherd's bags were a little non-scriptural...I made them from this blue fake leather stuff I found at a resale shop. I made sure I keep calling them shepherd's bags so that when the little boys got home and dad wanted to know why they had a blue purse...they could tell them about shepherd's bags. It worked! Reports say that every time some calls their little blue bags something besides shepherd's bags...they get corrected! Positive re-enforcement! They wanted to know if they got to keep their shepherd's bag with the 5 stones, but before I told them they could we had a discussion about NOT throwing the rocks at ANYONE! "Can we throw the rocks at a giant?" Now, let me think real quick....you're four and doesn't everyone kinda look like a giant? "No, you can't even throw rocks at giants."

We dug the valley in the sand and used toothpicks for King Saul's army and the Philistines...there were LOTS of army guys and bad guys. I made cardstock David and Goliath with their sizes being sort of to scale. "Ha! Ha! Now who's laughing"...in case you didn't know that might have been what David said after he knocked Goliath down according to four-year-old wisdom.

And I agreed with the statement that was made..."that'll teach people to laugh at God and his people!"

Starting over at my age??

2008-07-21T15:59:00.000-07:00

Retiring and starting over in a whole new environment is an adventure that we thought would never get here. We counted off years, then months, and finally days. Now we're coming up on two years since the official retiment date and it's been a fabulous adventure.

Since we have moved and started over in new town and settled into our new church family, I decided that I needed to teach a Sunday School class. It had been about 6 or 7 years since I had taught and I was a little intimidated at starting over. I felt there was a need for this old Sunday School teacher...and I'll only go as far as to say 50+. I'm loving my class and the little kids are just what I needed. They keep me on my toes and they make me laugh! I volunteered, yes...you read that right, I volunteered to teach the 3-4-5 year olds. But being from a very small congregation I have 3 thu about 7 year olds. It does present a challenge sometimes, trying not to go over the 4 year old's head and not talking down to the 7 year old...but we do it and we have a lot of fun.

I'm hoping to keep a blog of Sunday School lessons and what the children teach me! I've gotten a late start on this blog since in September it will be a year since I started but maybe I can remember some of the things we've done as I go along. But for now I'm just going to start where we are. We covered New Testament lessons from last September until the end of May and for the summer we are doing Old Testament.

Since this is a small congregation and it's summer, some Sundays I don't have any kids in my class, so the lesson carries over to the next week. I guess I ought to say that I do most of my own curriculum. I say "I do" it but it comes from years of saving things....old Sunday School teachers NEVER throw good stuff away! Thank goodness! For the summer, I decided not to have a general theme that would carry over from one week to next since. I never know how many lessons might be missed in between lessons. So, for the summer we are studying Old Testament Bible characters. I'll try to give a lesson overview and what we did. Notice...I said, "Try."