Paper Bag Sheep

We used a white lunch sack to make this cute little sheep for a lesson on David being a shepherd.  It was so easy to make and the kids LOVED them!!!!  Take a lunch sack. Stuff it with anything you have.  We used newspaper.  Fold over the ends and staple.  You may even want to tape the end to the bag.  Attach the head (We used a lamb mask pattern.) to the bag with glue or masking tape.  Cut four legs from white paper and tape to the bottom of the bag.  You can add cotton balls all over the sheep or one for the tail.  We made one for each child.  They were able to take one home at the end of the lesson.  We used them in the drama center.  The kids would collect all the sheep from all over the room and put them in the sheep corral.

You can also use these sheep for the parable of the lost sheep, as well as turning it into any animal you may need.

Clothespin Animals

This is a cute and easy way to make any animal for any lesson you have.  We found a picture of a sheep, copied it on cardstock to make it sturdy, cut it out and added clothespins for the legs.  Easy for the children to use in the classroom during a review, as a craft, or as a take home.  The possibilities are endless!

David Take Homes and Memories

For our memories for the lessons on David, we used our die cut machine to make images. You could use a die cut machine, find these items or use clip art for these memories.

Lesson One: a sheep

Lesson Two: a crown

Lesson Three: a robe or an arrow

Lesson Four: a cane (we used a "j" and turned it upside down)

We also took pictures in the role play center and created paper bag scrapbooks for each child to take home on Wednesday night. Again, we took Wednesday's picture on Tuesday to create less of a hassle on Wednesday night.

Each child was given a king's robe on Wednesday night as well. We took purple tshirts (sizes youth M for most). We cut the shirts down the middle and sewed quilt batting down the middle of both sides (see picture). We took other decorations and added them to the sleeves to make it more "kingly."

David Keeps His Promise

David Keeps His Promise

Attendance/Memory Item: cane
Bible Time:

Songs

Bible Facts

Review

David Keeps His Promise:
David is now king and remembered the promise he made to Jonathan about taking
care of his family after Jonathan died. David discovered that Jonathan had a son who was crippled named Mephibosheth. David brought Mephibosheth to the palace and gave a huge feast in honor of him. He also gave Mephibosheth the land that belonged to him.

Activities:
Snack – give a feast for the kids – cheese and crackers, grapes and apples, etc.
Role-Play – take turns being David and Mephibosheth
Craft – Decorate a cup that would have been used at the feast
Memory Verse – Have the kids say the memory verse and give them a heart ring
when they say it.
Game – Play “Place the Crown on King David” again.

Past Lessons:

Lesson One: David is a Shepherd

Lesson Two: David Chosen to be King

Lesson Three: David is a Friend

David is a Friend

David is a Friend

Attendance/Memory Item: harp
Bible Time:

Songs: Life of David song, King David

Bible Facts

Review

David is a Friend:
King Saul was very sad so David went to the palace to play for King Saul. While
he was there he met his best friend, Jonathan. Saul wanted to kill David because everyone liked David better than him. Jonathan tried to find out if Saul wanted to kill David and when he did he shot 3 arrows to tell David he had to run away. They promised to always be friends and to take care of each others’ family. Jonathan gave David gifts to show how much he loved David.

Activities:
Snack – pretzel sticks with mini marshmallows on the ends (arrows)

Role-Play – Let each take turns playing a harp like David would have
Craft – Make arrows and quivers. Cover Pringles’ cans with paper to make the
quivers. Using strips of brown paper, gray triangles and other strips of paper for the arrow feathers make arrows to place into the quivers.
Memory Verse – Make a large hopscotch grid with one or two words on each
square. Let the kids hop out the memory verse.
Game – Target Practice – Ask the kids a question and if they answer it correctly,
let them throw an “arrow” at the target.
Past Lessons:
Lesson One: David as a Shepherd
Lesson Two: David is King

David is Chosen to be King

David is Chosen to be King

Attendance/Memory Item: crown
Bible Time:

Songs: Life of David (verses 1 and 2), King David (verses 1 and 3)

Bible Facts

Review

David is Chosen to be King:
Samuel goes looking for the new king God wants to anoint. He looks at all of Jesse’s sons until he finds David – who has a good heart. David is the one God wants to become king after Saul.

Activities:
Snacks – Crown cookies decorate with icing drops and Skittles
Role-Play I – Let them play like they are king with a crown sitting on
the throne.



Role Play II - Let them use binoculars (2 toilet paper rolls hot glued together) and look for the new king. (We took copies of 7 men with sad hearts on the back of them and one man with a happy heart on the back of him. We hid them all over the room. They would look for the men and when they found one they would check his heart to see if that was the one God wanted as the new king.)
Craft – decorate crowns
Memory Verse – act out the memory verse
Game – Place the Crown on King David – Have the kids answer questions. When they answer them correctly they can place the crown on David’s head. You can blindfold them if you want

Past Lessons:

Lesson One: David as a Shepherd

David is a Shepherd

Last week we shared 4 lessons of Nehemiah that we have used as VBS lessons as well as Bible school lessons. This week we want to share with you 4 lessons on David. Again, these were used as VBS lessons and then taken to the Bible classroom.

David is a Shepherd Boy

Attendance/Memory Item: lamb
Bible Time:

Songs (Little David Play on Your Harp, Pop! Goes the Giant, King David (verse 1))

We put the songs in a David's Song Book to use during these lessons.

Bible Facts

David is a Shepherd Boy:
Talk about what David did as a shepherd and how he trusted God to deliver him from a lion, bear and Goliath.

We created a babbling brook in the room out of plastic blue tablecloths. It was a great place to eat our snacks as well as gather all the students together to read, sing or get ready to go home.

Activities:
Snack – shepherd bag with shepherd food (goldfish, pretzels, cheerios, etc); bread and cheese

Role-play – dress as a shepherd and collect the paper bag sheep from around the room; take them back to the sheep fold.
Craft – paper plate sheep – add cotton to the paper plate
Memory Verse - 1 Samuel 16:7b; Paper doll boy with memory verse
on the front. Opened it up and placed a heart sticker inside; Went over the memory verse
Game – Answered questions and bowled Goliath down

Melody Mondays - King David

I have not put this song on here earlier because I could not remember where I found it. I want to be sure to give credit to people and places when I use their ideas. I still have not found it, but when I do, I will put the credit up here. Again, this is a song we put in our David's Song Book to use in teaching about his life. It is a rebus song. I hope you enjoy it!

King David

(Tune: Mary Had a Little Lamb)

Verse 1: When David was a little boy, little boy, little boy

When David was a little boy, he played his harp his favorite toy.

Verse 2: Little lambs were watched by him, watched by him, watched by him,

Little lambs were wathced by him, David kept them fed and trim.

Verse 3: Saul was king and loved his crown, loved his crown, loved his crown

Saul was king and loved his crown but all he ever did was frown.

Verse 4: David came to cheer the king, cheer the king, cheer the king,

David came to cheer the king, a song so lovely he did sing.

Verse 5: When David grew to be a man, to be a man, to be a man,

When David grew to be a man, he wore the crown which was God's plan.

Verse 6: David's life turned out to be, turned out to be, turned out to be,

David's life turned out to be a light to lead you and me.

Zoo Pals!!!

Zoo Pals plates, cups and bowls can be found almost in any store these days - including dollar stores. Be on the lookout, especially if you teach toddler and preschool age students. Pick up a pack or two whenever you see them and, once you get quite a few packs, the possibilities are endless!!!

1. Adam and creation - Let the children pretend to be Adam and name the animals they see.
2. Noah's Ark - Place a set (2) of animals all around the room and have the students gather the animals 2 by 2 into the ark.
3. Saul becomes king - In some of the packs you can find donkey plates and things. Get all the donkeys you can find and hide them all over the room. Have your students look for the donkeys with Saul.
4. Balaam's donkey - Give some students donkey plates to be the donkey and say what the donkey told Balaam.
5. Lost Sheep - Hide one sheep item in the room. Talk about the other sheep that are in the fold, but we have lost one!! Have the students help you find the lost sheep.
6. David as a Shepherd - Collect sheep, a bear and a lion. Have some students be sheep, one student a lion, one student a bear and one student David. Have them act out David protecting his sheep from the bear and lion.
7. Plagues - Frogs - Collect many frog items and place them EVERYWHERE in the classroom.
8. Lost Son - Collect pigs and have the students feed the pigs like the lost son did.

The possibilities are really endless with what you can do with these animals and the students love interacting with them. What else can you think of?

Trash-Filled Thursdays - Pringles Cans

When my class was studying the life of David, I needed a game to review all the characters we had been introduced to, as well as to review the story of Jonathan helping David escape from his father, Saul (1 Samuel 20). I saw a craft idea where the class made arrows and quivers and completely redid it to make this game. What you will need;

5 empty Pringles cans

brown paper

gray paper

different colors of paper

I laminated the paper before I covered the Pringles cans. Once the paper was laminated, I taped the paper to the cans and then labeled (or you can do this before you laminate the paper) the cans: David, Samuel, King Saul and Jonathan. The 5th can I kept empty for all the arrows to be kept in before they play the game.

I made the arrows by cutting brown paper 2 inches by 11-12 inches (depending on the size of the paper). With the colored paper, I made feathers to go on the ends of the arrows. When they were made, I used tape to attach them to the ends of the arrows. With gray paper, I made the arrow heads and taped them to the top of the arrow. (see picture below) I made about 20 or so arrows. When they were all made, I labeled each arrow with a description of each character. These descriptions came from what we had learned in the different lessons. Then, I laminated the arrows.
To play the game, all of the arrows, were placed in the unlabeled Pringles can. The students would pull an arrow out of the quiver, read the description, and then place it in the quiver of the person it described.
The kids enjoyed playing this game and it was a great way to review many lessons at once!

A Place to Keep Your Songs

When teaching about David during a VBS, I came up with this idea of keeping all of the David songs we sang in this big harp book. I found the harp pattern and enlarged it to fit this poster board. All of the songs we sang about David were put into this book for two reasons:

1. To help the children remember David played the harp.
2. To keep all the songs about David together for future use.

My friend, Kim, used her book like this after VBS when she taught her 4 year olds about the life of David.

On the last night of VBS, we made each child their own personal "David's Song Book" to take home. This helps the parents know what songs their children come home singing as well as to encourage review at home. Instead of putting the pictures into the song book, we just included the lyrics and tunes to the songs.

Melody Mondays - Life of David

The Life of David

(Tune: BINGO)

David was a shephed boy who killed a bear and lion.

D-A-V-I-D, D-A-V-I-D, D-A-V-I-D

His story's in the Bible.

Saul looked for the king in Jesse's sons.

It turned out to be the youngest one.

D-A-V-I-D (repeat 2 times)

His story's in the Bible.

David loved his friend a ton.

The son of Saul named Jonathan.

D-A-V-I-D (repeat 2 times)

His story's in the Bible.

The first verse was taken from the Ideashop magazine and then I made up the other 2 verses.

We used this song during our VBS that centered around David. My friend, Kim, then used the songs in her 4 year old class when they studied the different parts of David's life.

Rebus songs are great to use with preschool and early elementary ages to help them feel like they are "reading" the song.

With this song, we also made for each child their own D-A-V-I-D letters. We die cutted each letter (one for each child) and glued them on popsiscle sticks. The younger children (4-5 year olds) would lay them on the floor in front of them and point to the letters as they sang that part of the song. Older children (1-2 graderes) could do the same or try to hold them up as you sang the song.

You could also choose 5 helpers (one to hold each letter) to stand in front of the class. When you said their letter they could hold it up for the class to see. Taking this idea one step further would be to give each child a different picture from the song to hold up during the song.