Lost and Found: The Parable of the Lost Sheep

This week I had an abundance of resources to sift through to prepare for the parable. My only trouble was to find what was best.

So...I looked, and I looked, and I looked, much like the shepherd searching for his little lost sheep. I ended up stumbling upon this batch of ideas, and I am so glad I did!

Story
The method of telling a parable with simple words and objects is ingenius. Preschoolers really benefit from 3-D visuals/manipulatives. This is sort of what I did for the parable of the net and the hidden treasure, so I guess I was onto something.

I already have most of the supplies. I found some plastic sheep at a local thrift store (which was a miracle), and put everything together. The story script is one I found from a British Anglican church (though I can't get for the life of me find how I got to it now, so the link is for a copy off the resource I had saved). I love this presentation.

Script for Parable of the Lost Sheep

But I need to back up. Before I told the parable from the box, I used this preparation object lesson:

Object Lesson

• Have 99 pennies in a large jar. Ask the children to guess how many there are. Tell the children you have 100, and then let them help to count them, say that one is missing. Ask them if it really matters that one is missing when you have so many? Then ask them to find it for you.

It took a bit of prep work time to count them all out, but it worked great. Little children love looking for little things, especially coins. :)

Coloring
After the story, I used this activity sheet , and this coloring page (which was a hit). I like how the coloring page captures the other sheep left safely and the joy of the reunion.

Craft

We did a cute craft that I think the children enjoyed. They are clothespin sheep. (I found the idea here.) The body is cardboard and the legs are two wooden clothespins painted black (or not) and they are wound with yarn. This is an excellent preschool fine/gross motor skill craft, and it is so cute! 

I was happy to find a ball of curly white/gray yarn at our dollar store, so my lesson overall was very inexpensive. 

Snack

For the snack we had shepherd's staffs. I just took the end of the bread sticks and turned them over so they weren't straight. Yummy and well-received. The recipe is from here and it was super easy.

Video Extra

Then we watched this short video clip. I liked it so much, I just couldn't resist showing it. It does have a bit of peril, but of course the happy ending, and it is true to the parable without being too lengthy.

I hope you can enjoy something from this post in the plethora of "lost sheep" findings out there!

Parable of the Unforgiving Servant

This week's parable was a bit tricky for me to prepare. I didn't find a satisfactory idea for telling the story itself in a sensory, but I did try.

The first thing we did was a "sin" bean bag toss. I didn't tell the children what they were doing had a meaning at first; we just took turns tossing a bean bag at a mark, giving a certain number of attempts per child, moving farther and farther back each time. If they missed we just let them finish their tosses. At the end, I explained the connection between "missing" (the mark) and sin.

Next, I had a clear jar with a lid. I talked about our hearts and how when we do something that is unloving or wrong, how our heart changes. I got ideas from the children, and with each idea we added a dark bit of fabric to the jar. Eventually it was full. I talked about how we could get rid of the darkness and sin, and explained about God's offer of forgiveness and we exchanged a white cross for all the darkness.

Then we told the story. I used some summary pages to keep myself to the point and not get into explaining, only telling. At this point, the preparatory activities were worth it, because it made more sense to the children. We moved into craft time.

I gave them a coloring sheet (not this one, but this one is good), and then this activity page pictured just above. (Note as of 2015: I cannot find either the coloring or activity page I used in any online search. They are copyrighted to Sadlier's Coming to Faith, which is a curriculum for purchase, but you may wish to make something similar for yourself.)

There was no tie-in for snack. :(

I was truly unimpressed with what is available online for this very important parable of Jesus. I will need to research further for better resources the next time I plan to go through the parables.

Parable of the Net

Okay, this week I had a flash of inspiration. I really liked last week, and how things seemed to really click with the figures and simple retelling, so I thought I'd try to repeat the same method with this week's parable: the parable of the net (or dragnet, as it is specifically mentioned in some Bible translation/versions).

I used our same dollhouse doll man from last week. He was the central figure. Then I had some batik-style fabric in a sea green motif that I spread out for the water. I also had a tan felt strip and a packet of beads I had purchased at a discount store a while back that have fish and shells and seahorses, so I poured them over the fabric underlay. Lastly, we had a small mesh net bag that came from the dollar store which held some purchased item that the girls were using in their play kitchen as a produce bag, and I borrowed it for the net.

Now, I have to say that since this parable is super short, I just ended up repeating the parable to them slowly as I took the net and dragged it through the scene to collect as many beads as I could easily. Then set the man on the "shore" and separated out the fish-shaped pieces and tossed the rest back. I did this quite methodically, carefully noting the "good" fish and laying them in their own pile.

It went across really well, and after the lesson was over they each worked with it on their own.

Because the parable is pretty short, I had lots of coloring and a craft. We had this great coloring sheet from The ClipArt Wizard that depicted the parable with this page (below) on the back (sorry it's huge, but I can't find the original file in a search). I also printed this simple activity from the flip side of the children's bulletin that I posted in the parable of the treasure in the field here.

For our craft, I chose to do a "tissue fish" because it is simple and I had all the supplies on hand. It requires a paper for each child with a fish outline, tissue paper cut in small squares, glue and an unsharpened pencil or dowel rod or equivalent. I liked this also because it uses fine motor skills as the children fold the tissue and hold the pencil/dowel to press it onto the paper. However, I will say that in retrospect, even though it was very bright and colorful, I would do it next time with paper plates or heavier paper, since once the tissue paper is glued on the paper becomes quite heavy, so when the child takes it home it cannot be displayed.

There is another craft, a CD fish with glued on jewels, fins and  mouth ,which was also a great idea, but I would probably choose to use that with older children or if I had supplies for it.

As for a snack, I loved the idea presented by this blogger's picture of little nets with fish. They are pretzel squares with a dollop of frosting (I would use peanut butter, unless we had a nut allergy present) and a fish-shaped cracker. I'm not a purist, so technically goldfish crackers would be okay with me, but I have a child who can't eat wheat, so until I can acquire this cookbook and make my own with a flour that does not offend, I won't be able to make these for our situation, and I wouldn't use colored fish unless I colored them with non-petroleum-based food dyes, just for the record.