2016 Activities part 1

I did not do a great job keeping track of each week's lesson in an orderly fashion this year, so I'm going to post the things throughout the year I did remember to get pictures of in no particular order.

We wrote our verse in white crayon and then water-colored over it. 

For St. Patrick's Day we traced hearts to make shamrocks and learned about the Trinity.

Between spring and summer we had an 8-week lesson on magic versus miracles. I'm hoping to do a write-up about it soon- it was awesome!

For Father's Day we learned how to draw dads.

Over the summer, we held our own Olympics and each kiddo made an award to give to someone else.

We finger-painted Jesus.

We worked together to write the Beatitudes.

Week 24: June 15

Our theme for June is "Jesus Heals"

Week 24- Jesus Heals a Crippled Hand (Luke 6:6-11)

Since this was also Father's Day, I wanted to find an activity that both taught the lesson and became a gift for dad. The story was pretty simple. I didn't divulge the "healing on Sabbath" moral, but simply that Jesus heals.

I started by giving each child a piece of scrap paper to crumple into a ball and hold in their dominate hand. We talked about how not everyone is able to use both hands due to various disabilities. We discussed how these people can do many things, but it's often more difficult than people who can use both of their hands. Each student had to hold the construction paper in his/her hand while drawing and coloring a picture of their dad. The drawings were hilarious! Most kids used their other hand, but some tried to hold the crayons in the hand while simultaneously holding a (somewhat large) piece of crumpled paper. 

I told the kids there was a man in Jesus' time who had a disability in his hand. He couldn't do many of the things others were able to do, and it often took him longer to do small tasks. We talked about what a picture of his dad might've looked like. 

One day Jesus was teaching in the synagogue when this man came in whose hand was shriveled. Everyone was curious to see what Jesus would do. Would Jesus heal the man? 

Jesus told the man to stretch out his hand. (I then had the kids stretch out their hand holding the paper.) As the man obeyed Jesus' instruction, his hand was restored. What does it mean if something is "restored?" Yes, it's made to look like it should have. Did Jesus heal the man's hand? Go ahead and drop your paper. Move your fingers around. It sure feels good to be able to use your hand, doesn't it!? Jesus healed the man's hand and Jesus can heal us, too. 

To go along with Father's Day, I found these hand-shaped sticky boards from Oriental Trading. We talked about how Jesus healed the man's hand, and how He, in fact, "hand"les a lot of problems so we don't have to worry! We talked about how blessed we are that He made Dads that "give us a hand" with things, as well. I had a first-grader who couldn't stop laughing after all of the hand-puns. It was hilarious! (And he looked quite "hand"some while doing it!) lol But anyway, we wrote a nice note to our dads on the backside "Thanks for giving me a helping hand. Happy Father's Day" and the kids were able to decorate the front with tissue paper squares. Some of the kids used their dad's favorite colors, others use different colors and shapes to represent dad's favorite things ("A" for Auburn, a cross in the middle "cause my dad loves Jesus," etc.)