Parable of the Persistent Widow

This week had even fewer selections than last week for my class, but I am very happy with how it's going nonetheless.

The parable of the persistent widow, from Luke 18, is something that may seem to exceed a young child's capacity to understand, but Jesus taught in parables and never disallowed children to be in His presence, so even though they may not grasp it, I think it's important to introduce it, and I think I will revisit the parables curriculum I'm developing now when the children I am teaching are several years older. The key to learning is repetition, and I don't believe these presentations get "old" for children any more than they do for us. Jesus told timeless stories, and they really are the best (which is understandable, since He is communication itself, as the Word of God).

That being said, here's what I've got for this week:

We will be having a simple presentation on a gray felt underlay with two figures.

I didn't find any good coloring sheets. One showed up on a search that is the same style as some others I have, but to me it didn't depict the parable or its message. However, there were several other sketches that were in the image search and I ended up combining them into this coloring page (see below). I don't know who the artist is, but I like the work (if anyone knows, I will happily give credit where it is due).

For a snack, I saw only one idea, but I really like it. It is a "gavel" snack made from a pretzel stick inserted into the side of a small rectangular candy bar, but I will use a lower sugar, more natural food bar of some kind. It doesn't fit the message of the parable, but it is staying within the theme, and a gavel can serve as a reminder that judgment was given (and request granted) in the end.

Crafts on the theme of prayer are obviously in order. Use what you like. I'm just scrapbooking my ideas here. I liked the prayer pail best. It is something to "do", i.e. pray - which is the point of the lesson - so I think it will be motivational for the children to use after they create, much like the Compassion Rolls from a previous parable. It is a simple craft, and I have all the supplies, so that is also a plus. I will use small metal pails from the dollar store (they were with the wedding favors) and small craft sticks. The children will tell me names or needs and I will send a few blank ones for their parents to add to (or correct my misspellings of names) at home. Then I'll let them decorate the pails with ribbons and stickers, most likely.

This picture is what inspired me (I later found it posted here), but there are many queries for it search engines. A prayer pail like the one here could also be used in the classroom on a regular basis.

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 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.

Parable of the Great Pearl

I really liked using the Godly Play style of presenting the lesson to the two preschoolers I currently have for the parable of the hidden treasure, so I was glad to have a lesson to copy for this week instead of inventing my own. I basically followed the parable as the video which is posted at Living Montessori NOW that I ran into a few weeks back.

The official/original presentation of the parable uses a white circle (like a great pearl itself, shown here), but I used the same background of green felt as my previous lesson. And I used my own 3-D wooden figures instead of the flat pieces sold by Godly Play. I don't think it really matters. Even simple drawn figures or printouts of similar pieces would work. The pearl was one of my own earrings. Again, as in our parable of the hidden treasure, all that the merchant possessed was represented by our dollhouse furniture and merchant was the doll.

After our lesson presentation, I read the account from The Beginner's Bible as well, to give another mode of reinforcement. I allow the children to have access to the materials used for the lesson so they can retell it themselves and further internalize the parable.

We also had a simple snack of round rice crackers, since the shape reminded us of the great pearl. Really, it was the only snack I had on hand, but it fit nicely with the theme of the lesson.

I am noticing that colouring pages are much more scarce and of lesser quality with some of the less "famous" parables, so we didn't really have anything to color this week. For older children, there are some nice activity pages in this booklet from calvarycurriculum.com . But as we don't have an official class outline and they were ready for a snack, things went okay without a colouring page, and they just played until service was done.

Tiny Influentials

This week I teamed up two parables that only cover a couple of verses but which are part of the same thought: the parable of the mustard seed and the parable of the leaven or yeast.

There is much speculation as to the exact meaning Jesus intended with these parables, so I am thankful that with the children all I had to focus on were the concerte facts, since no interpretation from Jesus is given in Scripture. We went with the principle of mustard seeds and yeast, both being tiny but causing a significant change or influence.

How we covered the lesson was with objects. I brought in my container of mustard seeds from my spice rack, and the packet of opened bread machine yeast from my refrigerator, and we looked at each in turn.

First I gave them each a mustard seed and told them that God's kingdom is "like this". So I drew them in with the objects and then I read the verses to them from the Bible.  The girls were huddled around and quite interested, as we speculated about the meaning. I also showed them a photo of a middle eastern mustard "tree" (it's really a huge shrub) and explained it in terms of the room we were in to give perspective. We dwelt a while on the miracle of such a huge plant within such a small seed.

For the companion parable, I opened up the yeast packet and let them have a look inside. We talked briefly about how just a small amount placed in 3 cups of flour plus a bread machine makes tasty bread. And then we ate fresh yeast bread, which was quite a hit, and showed me I should be thinking a bit more about snacks in general, but also about relevant snacks. What was a bit of an intimidating subject went over well.

For craft--which is, as of this week, a new feature of our time together--we made seed mosaics or seed pictures using Aleene's tacky craft glue (way stronger than school glue, which wouldn't hold heavy seeds well and takes too long to dry, besides being messy) and mixed soup beans from the bulk section of the grocery store. I bought about two cups to get a good variety and number of the different types, which included some that were a nice mustard yellow.  I gave each child a piece of cereal-box-weight cardboard and let them create, although next time, I will pre-cut at least simple shapes such as circles and triangles to keep things contained. Only the oldest got the concept of the mosaic. The others did enjoy choosing beans and gluing them carefully, though.

Color pages were scarce. None of them really moved me, but I did find an activity page (below). I re-created the color-by-number myself, since it was originally in Spanish. Microsoft Paint was a very helpful program for that little job. I also included a sequencing page for the younger ones on bread baking. One just coloured it thoroughly while the other willingly received input from the next oldest child on the order and enjoyed cutting them apart to do so.