Posts Tagged ‘Bible class’

A Time for Everything

Friday, August 22nd, 2014

time-for-everything“There is a time for everything under the sun,” says King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived. Late in his life he wrote the book of Ecclesiastes, which describes how meaningless life is without God.

Solomon looked at the cycles of nature, including the seasons and the water cycle, and he says that there is nothing new under the sun. Every event has its place: there is a time to be born and a time to die. There is an appropriate time for every activity under the sun.

My children chose a verse from chapter 3 and illustrated it. First we divided the paper into four parts. The first two opposites went in the top boxes, and the second two opposites went in the bottom boxes. In the illustration at the top of this page, my son showed that there was a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance. When someone passes away, it is appropriate to grieve. And yet if your business is finally blessed by God and prospers, it’s time to rejoice and praise the Lord. Dancing around or laughing is appropriate when God blesses us.

ecclesiastes-drawingAnother one of my sons drew pictures to represent a time to throw stones and a time to gather stones. Maybe you are skipping stones on a lake, or gathering stones to build a well.

There is also a time to be silent and a time to speak. Many of us need to keep in mind that sometimes it is best to remain quiet rather than always voice our opinion.

ecclesiastes-drawing-2My daughter illustrated a time to give birth and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to uproot what was planted. Sometimes a plant will take over the whole yard, and it needs to be uprooted to contain it. You can see the effort the man is exerting in the picture.

A Time for Everything

All these drawings remind me of the song “Turn, Turn, Turn” by the Byrds, which is a perfect conclusion for this topic:

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Solomon Unit Study

Friday, August 15th, 2014

solomon-unit-study

This fun Solomon Unit Study includes dramatizations, drawings, and hands-on ideas for learning about the wisest man who ever lived.

We filmed our dramatizations for our Solomon Unit Study inside our ever-growing Bible section of the Unit Study Treasure Vault. These pictures were taken years ago when we first dramatized the life of Solomon. We crowned one of my sons King of Israel and grabbed a kingly costume that I had bought at a yard sale. We placed him up on a coffee table, with two stone lions beside him. Since we didn’t have lions, we used a bear toy and a dragon puppet. A servant fanned him off continuously, and he ruled with great power and wisdom.

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In fact, Solomon is known for his great wisdom. God appeared to Solomon in a vision and said He would grant him any request. So Solomon asked for wisdom. This was such a great answer that God decided to give him riches and honor as well.

If you want to study the wisdom of Solomon, you can start with the story of two women. One baby was dead and the other was alive, and each woman claimed the living baby was hers. “Chop the baby in half and give each woman half the baby!” stated Solomon, and the rightful mother screamed to stop and give the living baby to the other woman, but to please let the baby live. The other woman said to kill the baby; if she couldn’t have the baby, neither should the other woman. Obviously Solomon knew who the right mother was!

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You can draw a picture of this story, illustrating the two women, the baby, the servant, and King Solomon on his throne.

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You can study the wisdom literature that Solomon wrote, especially the book of Proverbs. Here are two hands-on learning activities for studying the book of Proverbs:

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The Queen of Sheba visited King Solomon and brought him spices. We put some spice bottles on a tray and handed them to the king. But a lot more treasure was given Solomon besides the spices. You can illustrate how rich Solomon was by drawing a pile of riches on top of King Solomon.

solomon-drawing

Solomon built the Temple for the Lord and dedicated the Temple with a beautiful prayer. His father David had made preparations for the Temple before his death. You could make a model of the Temple with Legos or with a shoe box similar to how we made the Tabernacle Model. You would need to add rooms on the sides and paint everything gold, but the set-up of the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies is the same.

Sadly, at the end of Solomon’s life, he turned away from God to idols because of his many wives. And thus ends the life of King Solomon.

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To study the Word of God deeply with your kids, grab Using Simple Costumes and Props to Teach the Bible. You get this workshop free when you join the Unit Study Treasure Vault.

David and Goliath Unit Study

Friday, August 8th, 2014

david-and-goliath-unit-study

We did a fun David and Goliath Unit Study for our Bible class. It included a retelling of the story by candlelight, a dramatization, and fun crafts and hands-on projects to bring to life this famous Bible story.

David and Goliath Unit Study

1. Read or re-tell the story of David and Goliath.

First you will want to read or retell the story from I Samuel 17:31-58. It’s easiest just to read it, but one year I lit a candle and told the story to a group of boys in Cub Scouts. I talked in a hushed voice as I described the fear the Israelite army had when they looked at Goliath. I described how large he was, and that he looked impossible to beat. As a complete opposite character, David was young, inexperienced, and without armor. Who would win the battle? The boys held their breath in anticipation, even though they knew the story, because the firelight was flickering off the walls, and they were scared.

To refresh your memory, you can watch this 4-minute video:

2. Dramatize the story.

Even if you have no costumes or props, you can have your kids re-enact the story of David and Goliath. Have one tall kid stand on a chair. If you have some plastic armor, you can put that on him. Then have David wear a simple tunic, with 5 smooth stones in his pouch. The sling can be a thick strip of soft leather.

3. Make a slingshot.

If you want to make a modern-day slingshot, just find some forked sticks outside and use rubber bands to fling marshmallows across the room. But the slingshot back in Bible times looked more like a strip of leather tied together in a loop, and you would put the rock (or marshmallow) into the strap and sling it around. You can find a tutorial on how to make a cool slingshot here.

david-and-goliath

4. Measure out how tall Goliath was.

Measure out 9 feet on your wall, and make a large butcher-paper giant. Then have your kids stand beside it to see how large this man really was. You can simplify by stapling colored paper to the wall without drawing a giant in armor.

5. Listen to the song “Only a Boy Named David.”

6. Draw pictures to illustrate the story.

The kids can draw a picture of either before the giant fell, during his fall, or after he was down. They could even make a cartoon strip of each stage. My kids once made a flip book with the story of David and Goliath, where the stone came little by little out of the slingshot and toward Goliath’s head until he fell. There were about 12 pencil sketches stapled together, and you flipped the pages to see the action.

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7. Talk about how you can overcome any obstacle if you have faith in the Lord.

God is greater than our enemies, and He controls all the atoms in the universe. When we trust in the Lord, He does mighty things in our lives.

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If you enjoyed this David and Goliath Unit Study, you will love all the other Bible unit studies inside the Unit Study Treasure Vault. Bring Scripture to life for your kids with every book of the Bible!

Kings of Israel Unit Study

Wednesday, June 11th, 2014

kings-of-Israel-unit-study

In our Kings of Israel Unit Study, we filmed every single king of Israel and Judah, describing their lives, and whether each was good or bad. We had paper plates left over from our Moon Unit Study, and we added black construction paper eyes and mouth to four of the plates.

  1. Half white plate / half black plate: The first part of this king’s life was good, the second part bad. These were great kings most of their lives, but either arrogance or foreign wives caused their hearts to turn away from Him.
  2. Half black plate / half white plate: The first part was bad, the second part good. These kings were usually horrible, and then something bad happened to them and they repented and turned back to God.
  3. Black plate: These kings were bad all the way through. All 20 of the kings of the ten Northern tribes of Israel were bad. Jeroboam (the first king of the Northern kingdoms) built golden calves at two high places to prevent the Israelites from going to Jerusalem. Yes, the tribes of the North thought the Lord Almighty was a cow. This wasn’t the first time. Remember the golden calf at the bottom of Mount Sinai?
  4. White plate: These kings were good all the way through their reigns. When they sinned, they repented, and they never turned away from following the Lord. My three favorite good kings were David, Hezekiah, and Josiah.

We filmed this thorough analysis of the kings of Israel and Judah, with my kids dressing up as each king. Athaliah was a wicked queen from the South, and Jezebel was a wicked queen from the North. So my daughter got to play those two parts. This half-hour video is a whirlwind tour of the kings of Israel and Judah, and you will understand Scripture in a fresh way. To watch the Kings of Israel Unit Study, join the Unit Study Treasure Vault. 100% of the profit goes to feeding my children, pictured above, as well as paying bills.