Making Bricks . . .

My mom was teaching the second grade class on Wednesday nights in the summer and they were studying the life of Moses and the children of Israel in Egypt.   She decided to make bricks for the kids to eat the night they were talking about what kind of work the Israelites did when they were slaves.  She melted chocolate almond bark in a pot and added chow mien noodles to the chocolate.  After stirring very well, she poured them into ice trays, and put them in the refrigerator to harden.  

Right before class, she took them out and VIOLA! edible bricks! The kids loved them!

Golden Calf Centers

Some of my favorite class activities came from this lesson.  We first talked about how Moses came down from the mountain and was so mad when he saw that the Israelites had made a golden calf.  He was so mad that he threw the 10 commandments down and smashed them everywhere.  So, I let the boys throw down graham crackers (relating to the snack the night before) on some paper.  At first, they were a little hesitant, but then got right into it.  They did a great job pretending to be mad throwing their graham crackers down.

Then, we talked about how Moses melted the golden calf down and made it into powder.  I had a golden calf (see picture at the bottom of this post) and put it over the campfire you see in this picture.  I switched the golden calf (that I had put in the pot that you also see in the picture below) and showed them how the fire made it into powder.  I had put UNsweetened lemonade powder in the pot before class began.  I showed them how Moses took the powder and poured it into their drinking water for the children of Israel to drink.  I had a pitcher of water and poured our powder into the water, mixing it up.  Then, I gave each child a cup with some of the water in it.  We had talked about how the water was very bitter for them to drink, and this showed them how bitter it was.

Their faces were so funny drinking the bitter water!!! One child actually liked it!! Go figure!

Then, we made golden calves.  I used the die cut machine again to make 3D golden calves for them to take home.

Of course, we had to have a picture of them with the golden calf - which I actually took on Tuesday night because I had to get their paper bag scrapbooks ready to give them this night.  Diane had found a blow up calf and spray painted it gold. They loved it!

We had a great time learning about Moses this year at VBS!

Golden Calf Snack

For the snack when we taught the golden calf, we gave each child a sugar cookie with a sad face.  This was to represent how sad Moses was when we saw what the children of Israel had done.  We also gave each of them an extra cookie!!!

10 Commandments Activities

I don't know where all my 10 Commandment center pictures are.  I guess that is what I get for FINALLY putting them up in December when it happened in June!!! Oh well!!!  We did have some great centers!  The first being our drama center.  I loved how each night the mountain stayed the same - yet changed!!!  For the mountain of the Lord, we added clouds and lighting bolts to the top and let the kids climb up the mountain to receive the 10 commandments.  I love how the 10 commandments are about as big as the kids!!! Ha Ha! They did NOT care!

We also played "Find God's 10 laws" over and over and over again.  Our church as a tablet die cut so I made 10 of them to hide all over the room.  We would count them as we found them and would remind ourselves that God gave the Israelites 10 laws.  This, of course, was a huge hit!

10 Commandments Snack

For our lesson on the 10 Commandments, we served 10 Commandments for snack.  Simple enough - we took graham crackers, "cut" the top to make them look like tablets, spread a little frosting on them and sprinkled more graham crackers on top.  The kids LOVED them!!!

Crossing the Red Sea Centers

To help us review the Red Sea lesson, we did the following centers.  The kids really enjoyed these activities.

The first thing we did was allowed them to make their own pillar of cloud and fire to take home.  This especially was great after the big hit it was during class.

Then, we gave each a child a SNACK size Zip-loc bag.  We put a little bit of toothpaste (usually a line of toothpaste squeezed at the very bottom of the bag) at the bottom of the bag and sealed it up.  Then we let them spread the toothpaste all over the bag.  Then we talked about how the Israelites crossed on fry land.  The children took their fingers and separated the toothpaste at one point on the bag to separate the toothpaste.  Then, we found footprint stickers for them to place on the dry land.

Their favorite center was the drama center where we let each child be Moses and separate the Red Sea.  Our Burning Bush mountain, turned into the mountain where Moses stood to cross the Red Sea.  Each child got to stand up on the mountain with a staff.  My helpers were on the floor by plastic blue tablecloths and when "Moses" raised his rod, the helpers raised the "waters."  The children who were not Moses were able to cross on dry land and they LOVED it!!!!!

They wanted to do this the next night as well!!

Going Through the Red Sea

We have a small walkway that leads from our classroom to the other rooms we used during VBS.  Kim turned it into the Red Sea.  I am sad that I don't have too many pictures from this because the kids loved it.  She hung blue paper on each side of the walkway and put fish all over it.  At the every beginning (you can see it on the side), she put brown paper on the side (and over a chair) so the kids could stand and part the sea before they walked through it.

It was a wonderful addition to our activities that night.

Pillar of Cloud/Fire

The night we learned about the children of Israel crossing the Red Sea, we briefly talked about how they followed God to where they were suppose to go.  We talked about how God led them by a pillar of cloud during the day and a pillar of fire at night.  I made (very quickly) a pillar of cloud by gluing cotton balls to a white sheet of paper and I glued it to a Popsicle stick.  I made a pillar of fire by gluing red and yellow flames to a Popsicle stick.  

Here we are talking about what each meant and what the Israelites would do when they saw the pillars.

Then, I let them take turns being the leader (holding the pillar) and the rest of the class would follow behind the pillar.

Then we would sleep and another pillar would appear and we would follow it.

This wound up being an AMAZING tool for the rest of the week.  We would use it to line up to go to the other rooms we used and we used it to play "follow the leader" to review the lessons.

I would definitely do this again!!! I love it when those last minute ideas become wonderful ones you want to use again and again!

Crossing the Red Sea Snack

This night of VBS had a great snack!! Kim adapted this idea to fit our little dears.  We used Cool Whip and turned it blue with food coloring.  On a paper plate, we placed a graham cracker down to represent the dry land and put the blue food coloring down on each side to represent the water.  On the graham cracker we spread a little bit of icing so our teddy grahams aka the children of Israel could cross on dry land.

The kids LOVED it!!!!!

Simple Burning Bush Crafts

We had centers each night where the children would go and do something related to that night's lesson.  I wanted to keep everything very simple and decided on these two crafts for the burning bush night.

I got brown construction paper for the mountain and cut random bushes out of green construction paper. Then I (actually my son did this part) tore up red, yellow and orange pieces of construction paper placing each color in a different cup.  When the kids came to this center, their helper glued their bush where they wanted it and then placed lots of random glue dots all over the bush.  The child could then put the pieces of fire all over the bush to represent the bush burning!!

The next craft we found from Oriental Trading.  The kids were able to decorate a flip flop frame to help them remember that God told Moses to take his sandals off - which was one of their favorite parts of the story!!!  We added a picture of each sweet child in the sandal later on in the week and sent it home the last night of VBS.

Finding Moses' Sheep

This activity could be used for many lessons that deal with sheep.  My kids LOVED this activity and wanted to do it every night!  I made different colored sheep from our die cut in the workroom and hid them ALL over the room.  After we talked about how Moses was a shepherd and how he looked out for the sheep, they were able to go all over the room and collect the sheep.  They would bring them back to me when they found them.  

Look, Mrs. Becky, at all the sheep I found!

My friend, Kim, taught the 3 year olds and she had the kids find the sheep as well. She took it up a notch and had a "pen" (strawberry basket) for each color sheep.  In each "pen" was a sheep the color that was suppose to be in that pen.  As the children collected the sheep, they had to put the sheep into the correct color pen.  Again - a HUGE hit!

Our Own Burning Bush

Each night at VBS I had a drama center for my two year olds - a chance for them to act out the story.  I made the mountain out of a table and lots of different size chairs.  Then I covered them with brown bulletin board paper.  At the top, I had our bush.  I could not find the red lights I had set aside so I used red bulletin board paper and yellow/orange paper streamers to make it look like it was burning.  The kids actually got to take their shoes off and "climb" up the mountain.  They loved it!

As you can see some of the shepherds (like Moses) were a bit fearful but overall it was 

a success!!!

Burning Bush Snacks

We just finished our VBS this year where the preschool class focused on Moses.  Our first lesson was centered around the burning bush.  For our snacks that night, we served the kids this . . .

We made sausage ball snacks and pretzel rods to represent Moses' rod turning into a snake.

We also had broccoli (which we called the bush) and they were able to make it burn by dipping it in ranch dip that we made red with red food coloring!!!

The kids LOVED it!!

It was a hit!

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!

The Burning Bush

When we were studying the life of Moses, I took a bush from the living room and put a string of red Christmas lights I got last year after Christmas for 50 cents. It really glowed when we turned the lights out. The kids loved have a "real" burning bush in our classroom. Anna and Jon Michael are posing with our burning bush.

Quail....What is Quail?

The children enjoyed gathering manna so much, I decided to spend a little more time with the quail that God provided for the Israelites. I used balloons to make 15 "quail". We used them for the children to "catch;" we tried to keep the quail in the air; and we divided into teams and used "quail holders" to put our quail into their houses. I also made a very simple quail pattern and helped the children make a quail as their take-home.

I also used the "Bingo" song for the quail and made letter cards for QUAIL as well. The children took turns pointing to these letters as we sang:

There was a food that God did give

And quail was its name o

Q-U-A-I-L, Q-U-A-I-L, Q-U-A-I-L,

And quail was its name o.

Gathering Manna

We are studying Exodus in my 4-year-old class. When we learned about how God provided the Israelites with manna, I had the children "gather" Frosted Flakes "manna" in little baskets I made with the diecut machine. I put the "manna" on pieces of green construction paper for each one to have his own area to gather from.

We also learned this song to help us remember: (Tune Bingo)

There was a food that God did give

And manna was its name o

M-A-N-N-A, M-A-N-N-A, M-A-N-N-A,

And manna was its name o.

The kids had trouble remembering the letters, and the kindergarten teacher in me saw an opportunity to let them practice letter recognition, so I made letter cards for each letter and one of the kids gets to point to the letters as we sing the song. They love it!!!

Trash-Filled Thursdays - Old Neckties

There are a few Bible stories that require a snake of some sorts in it. This is a very easy and cool way to make the snake part of your story come alive for your students. You will need the following:

an old neck tie

google eyes

red material for a tongue

hot glue gun or tacky glue

optional materials: quilt batting or polyfil

thread

film canister with rice or dried beans in it.

Instructions: Glue the eyes and tongue at the end of the tie (as seen in the picture)

This can be the end to your snake (esp. if you are letting the children make their own snakes). However, you can add a different dimension to your snake by stuffing it with the polyfil or quilt batting. If you want to create a rattlesnake, you can add a film canister with rice or dried beans to the very end of the tie. Sew the back of the tie up so the stuffing does not fall out.

What the snake looks like if not stuffed.

This is great for so many lessons involving a snake. You can have the students act different parts of the story using this prop. What a great new dimension to classic stories!