My kids have been filming videos to bring the entire Scripture to life for kids, and we are now doing a Gideon Unit Study. The videos are all uploaded into the huge Bible section of the Treasure Vault. We have been studying each of the judges of Israel, and the kids had so much fun re-enacting the story of Gideon.
First we have Gideon approached by the angel of the Lord, who tells him that he is a valiant warrior. Gideon is bewildered by this greeting, and he is told that he will deliver Israel from the Midianites. He asks, “Why me? I’m the least of my family.” But the Lord promises to be with him.
Grab some fleece (either some cotton or a pillow) and tell the Lord that you need a sign, to know if you will succeed in battle. The fleece needs to be wet at first, with the ground dry. Then you realize that this could have easily happened naturally, so you flip it around and say that if the fleece is dry and the ground is wet, that has to be God. And so it was.
Gideon was commanded to smash down the Baal and the Asherah, and the people were angry. When they got over the shock of the destroyed idols, they joined Gideon to go to battle against Midian. Tell the soldiers to go home if they are scared. Most of the soldiers are scared and go home. Then throw a blue blanket on the floor, and the soldiers need to drink the water from the blanket river. Those who lap the water after scooping it with their hands win the lottery to go to war. All the others must go home.
Now is the fun part. After Gideon sneaks into the camp to overhear the enemy having a dream of being conquered, Gideon divides the soldiers into 3 groups. Try to have pots you can smash on the floor. Otherwise pretend to smash the pots. Hold up the torches or flashlights. This is especially dramatic when you perform it in a dark room, but we filmed it in the daylight. If you want to make a craft of a torch for the Gideon story, my friend Ticia made some out of Q-tips. Then blow some trumpets, or pretend to blow trumpets and shout, “For the Lord and for Gideon!”
If you want to make this scene out of LEGOs, you can find the instructions here:
Here are some of the drawings that my children made for their Bible notebooks. The first one is a comic strip:
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If you enjoyed this Gideon Unit Study, you will love all the hands-on activities for Bible class in the Unit Study Treasure Vault!
Tags: Bible, Bible class, Gideon, Homeschooling, Judges, Sunday School, unit study
Wow, I bet your kids really retain the stories better acting them out! We read the story of Gideon recently, but we didn’t DO anything with it. Neat ideas!
Yes, the kids do retain the stories when you act them out. They will internalize the story this way. You don’t need any costumes or props either. You can just do impromptu skits based on what they remember.
I love their comic they drew. How much fun is that!
My kids draw comics all the time. My daughter loves drawing comics about cats especially.
I wish we could go to your homeschool! You look like you are having so much fun!
My boys were laughing hysterically because they were trying to blow the ornamental horns, which aren’t supposed to make any sound. They were somehow getting a sound out of them!
This is so cool!!!
Thank you. My kids had a great time and internalized the story!