Summer Ruche

Monday, December 17, 2012

Parable of the Hidden Treasure


This week I had just two children, both under 5. I found the greatest inspiration for my lesson this week from the well-known and loved Beginner's Bible we picked up used for a few dollars at a local thrift, and a post from Living Montessori NOW that had a video of a simple presentation of the parable of the great pearl. Since reading aloud to them from the story Bible seems to be not enough material to communicate this parable, and since I don't own and can't afford--or store--the Bible in Felt, I liked this approach with figurines.

The video shows the parable from a curriculum called Godly Play. This is actually the first time I have ever heard of Godly Play, which is an  approach to religious instruction for preschoolers with roots in the Montessori method. It seems very good. I can't get the books through the library and I'm not sure if I would want to own them without previewing them, but it seemed to be an easy enough thing to prepare, so I thought I would tell this parable in this way, using what I have. (I don't think it's essential to have the specific materials that are sold for this.)

I had some green felt left over from another project that was the background, our "field" for the hidden treasure. The treasure was one of my rings in a ring box hidden under the felt, a true treasure. I told the parable using our doll house and the two doll figures. We set all the dollhouse furniture in front of the house to show that the man was selling all he had and then he got the field and the treasure in it. It went over very well. The yard sale concept is one they could relate to.

We coloured this activity page from childrensbulletins.com (below). I'm not subscribed, but this came from their sample for 3-6 year-olds. I plan to use other pages in subsequent lessons, since they're about the kingdom parables.

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