Oriental Room Theme

I loved this room theme for this year!!!!  I thought it was very simple, but cute!  I had a great time putting it all together and had some great help (my 9 year old)!!!!!

The door to our room

Bulletin Board with our memory verse

The story corner

LB's touch - our Great Wall of Memory Work -
each tower on the Great Wall of China has books of the Bible.
As the kids learn the books of the Bible, their Asian person moves through
the wall.

The kids loved everything about the room. I am still adding onto the room and will add more as I get things done!

Days of Creation 1-3

I'm beginning with the beginning of the Bible with my 4 year old class this quarter. They've had many lessons previously about Creation, so I'm doing some simple things to help them remember these days. Today we learned about the first three days, and I made these "memories" for them to take home. For Day One, I found little flashlights in Oriental Trading; for Day Two, I cut out clouds and water shapes from construction paper; and for Day 3, I gave them some "Easter" grass and artificial flowers. We also learned the Creation Song for these days. We will continue with the Days of Creation on Wednesday night, and I've found a new song I'm going to teach the children with a new song board. I'll be posting it when I get it done. I've taught Creation many times, and I'm so glad to have found some new strategies for teaching this part of the Bible.

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."

Nehemiah Memories

For our VBS lessons on Nehemiah, we came up with a memory for each lesson to help the children remember that lesson. We used these memories also as each child's attendance chart for VBS. We had small box for each child. Each night we would talk about the item we were placing in the box and, then, allowed each child to place their item in their box. These are the items we used as memories as well as attendance:


Lesson One: a small cup (you could use a communion cup)


Lesson Two: a sad face or praying hands


Lesson Three: tool fruit snacks from Oriental Trading


Lesson Four: a small scroll (use flat ended toothpicks with paper cut to fit rolled between the toothpicks)

Saul on the Road to Damascus Memory

I got this idea from a friend of mine and thought it was just way too cute!!! We needed a memory for the lesson of Saul's Conversion on the road to Damascus and this idea was born. Each child received a pair of sunglasses that looked completely normal. However, when they pt the glasses on, they were not able to see anything out of them because . . .. we had painted the back of the glasses with black tempra paint!!! The kids thought that was so cool to be blind just like Saul was!!!

Moses Memories

Here are some ideas to use when teaching different parts of the life of Moses. These ideas are pretty simple but add so much to any lesson. You can also send these home with your students as memories (see the memory box post). The Golden Calf

Buy plastic cows (Wal-Mart 88 cent aisle or other dollar stores) and spray paint them gold.

Aaron's Rod to Snake

Find plastic snakes at any dollar store and Popsicle sticks. Have the students pretend to put their rod down and then change it out to be a snake.

Bronze Snake

Find plastic snakes at any dollar store and Popsicle sticks. You could spray paint the snakes a brass color if you wish.

Burning Bush - take off your sandals.

Make lacing sandals for your students out of foam (can be found at any craft store). Trace around a shoe for a pattern and then using a hole punch, punch holes around the sandals. Give each student 2 pieces of yarn to lace.

Pillar of cloud and fire

Using Popsicle sticks to create these pillars. Use construction paper to make the cloud and fire. You can glue cotton balls to the cloud or red glitter to the fire to add effects.

Memory Box

One of my children's teachers began a wonderful way to review each week’s lesson when they began teaching the two year old class. Seeing how the children vividly remembered the lessons and even the details of the lesson, others have begun to use this technique even up into the elementary age classes.
The teachers purchased shoe box Rubbermaid boxes and wrote each child’s name on the top of the box. Inside the box, the memories from each lesson were kept. At the end of the quarter, each child took home his or her box with the memory objects inside. When the students moved to the 3 and 4 year old class the teachers attached a list of questions to the memory so the parents know exactly what to ask in helping their child review at home.
In the lower elementary classes, we use a class box to hold our memories instead of individual ones. However, questions are sent home at the end of each class. We also tell the parents on that same sheet what the memory item was that we put into our memory box.
Whichever way you choose to operate your memory box, the rewards are the same – a classroom full of students who remember the lesson and parents who are extremely thankful for the thought that went into their child’s lesson that day. Do use your memory box at the beginning of each class to review. Even if it is only just a few lessons for which you have time. This just continues to reinforce the lessons throughout the quarter.

Creation Memories

One of my children had a teacher who sent "memories" home with each lesson. This memory was used to help remember the story and the questions that went along with that story. I plan on doing a post about memories very soon, but wanted to get these up. Each picture just shows different things you could send home to help remember what God made on each day. Day One (On the opposite side of the yellow attached to the Popsicle stick is black paper to represent the darkness.)
Day Two - Skies and Seas
Day Three - Flowers, plants and trees ( The big flower was a magnet found at a dollar store in groups. The little flowers were just cut off of an artificial flower branch.)
Day 4 - Sun, Moon and Stars (The two little stars laying down are the glow in the dark kind you can find most anywhere now. The larger star laying down is a wooden star spray painted silver.)
Day Five - Birds and Fish (The artificial bird can be found at most any craft store,)

Day Six - Animals and Man (The animals can be found in Wal-Mart's 88 cent toy aisle in big packs. The baby can be found at Wal-Mart of craft stores in the shower/party section.)