VBS Snacks - Submerged

Our week, last week, was consumed with Vacation Bible School.  Our church hosted, using LifeWay's "Submerged - Diving Deep Into the Word of God" curriculum.  And, instead of teaching this year, I decided to mix things up a little, and signed on as the snack lady, instead.

Which meant my kitchen spent the week looking like this...

...or this...

...and I spent the week dressed in a gaudy swimsuit cover up and snorkel mask (as pictured at the top of this post), with fun foam flippers on my feet (find instructions for the pattern at Dazzle Design). 

Because, it's just not VBS if someone isn't over the top.

Anyway, the triple batch of squidamon rolls (thankfully made with the use of two bread-makers) were a mid-week treat for my fellow laborers...

...while the children received a daily Bible story themed snack as follows:

Rice Krispie and Kit-Kat trees with Sour Patch Kids for the story of Zacchaeus from Luke 19 (snack idea from 52 Ways to Cook).  For a dairy and gluten free option, I used Smart Balance dairy free butter, and made a color free batch off Rice Krispie bars to cut up as "trunks" in place of the Kit-Kat bars.

Cups tied with brown yarn, and labeled with a verse of the story from John 4...

...filled part way with blue raspberry Jolly Rancher Jell-O for the story of the Woman at the Well. 

We built a "well" out of large cardboard bricks (from the nursery) on the table, and lifted our cups of "special water" out of it, to serve to the children.

For the story of Nicodemus from John 3, I went back to our old, chocolate and vanilla sugar cookie recipe (found here)...

...to make use of the Southern Baptist's ABCs of Salvation (Admit, Believe, Confess - click here for a free printable explanation, with go-along verses).

For our non-gluten and dairy free option, I made homemade gummy candies (using the recipe from Not So Idle Hands, and Jolly Rancher Jell-O in various flavors), cut into ABS with a cookie cutter, after they were set.

For the story of Jesus restoring sight to a blind man from John 9, I went very simple with "mud" pudding cups, topped with crushed chocolate sandwich cookies, and gummy worms. For a non-gluten option, I left the cookies (though you can purchase gluten free sandwich cookies) and gummy worms off.  We also made a special batch of Hershey's chocolate pudding, using chocolate almond milk, for a lactose free alternative.

With the exception of milk (chocolate, plain, and chocolate almond) served with the cookies, we served water with the snacks for most of the week, since the snacks were already sugary, and we had very hot weather.

But, to keep it fun, I made dolphin ice cubes to add to the cups (using silicone trays, found in a dollar bin at our local K-mart).  Each child got one plain dolphin ice cube, or a Kool-Aid dolphin (if they drank the water quickly, they could eat the dolphin like a little popsicle piece - or they could drink slowly and let it melt into their water as they drank it) in their cup.

On our last day, we had a short program for the parents, followed by a mini-dinner.  We made a few hundred dolphin ice cubes to go with Blue Hawaiian Punch, cut four watermelon into clam shapes (I cut two, and ask another family to cut two (ours were not as pretty as the other family's but I did come out of it with some tips, I hope to share in another post).

We made crescent roll sandwich crabs (which I totally missed taking a picture of, but you can find examples of on Pinterest, or here, in Google images) with green olive eyes on pretzel sticks.

And, a platter of hot dog wiener octopi (instructions here).

We cut bell pepper octopi to top store bought dips on vegetable trays...

...and used up left over rice Krispie treats, by cutting them into ABCs or squares decorated with blue frosting, fish crackers and sprinkles (following instructions from The First Year blog), which we placed out on a tray labeled with our Nicodemus story card, and a explanation of the ABCs of salvation)

We also filled a couple of large bowls with Cheetos (for corral), and fish crackers mixed with blue and green M&Ms, using the rest of the colors from the bag in several batches of cookies (which we labeled as "diving for pearl" cookies, to go along with a theme of one of the games the children had played during the week where they sought out colored marbles - which they called pearls).

Add to that a couple of bowls of chocolate pudding (regular and lactose free) with a separate bowl of crushed cookie topping, labeled with our Jesus and the blind man story card, and a bowl with our left over Sour Patch Kids, labeled "Wee Little Men" along with our Zacchaeus story card, and it wasn't too bad a spread.

Set atop blue plastic table cloths on a couple of long tables, it looked in keeping with the Submerged theme, and provided enough memory prompts to encourage children to share stories of the week with their parents - which I was very happy to over-hear a number of children doing enthusiastically.

John the Baptist - Preschool Sunday School

As our lesson today was on John the Baptist, we started out with a quick, clothespin  grasshopper/locust craft, during the busy-time, as the children arrived.  There are several different versions of this craft in Google images alone.  In fact, Ticia over at Adventures in Mommydom made one using a plastic spoon, instead of a clothespin, for her own lesson on John the Baptist.

I thought I'd share our method, since it worked nicely with the 4-5 yr old crowd.  I gave the children clothespins (which they colored green with markers, on top of paper towels), pre-cut pipe cleaners for legs and antennae, and let them choose from a selection of different sized googly eyes.

After they had finished coloring their clothespins, I placed a piece of clear tape, sticky side up on the table, and helped them press the leg sticks across the tape...

...and then the clothespin on top of that.  I snipped and folded the tape around onto the sides of the clothespins, and showed the children how they could gently bend the legs to make feet, so the bugs would stand.

Then, they slipped the shorter antennae pieces through the hole in their clothespins...

...and I twisted the ends together around the top for them, and added dots of glue for the eyes.

I reminded the children about the story of Mary going to see Elizabeth, that we had studied during the Christmas season, and asked them if they remembered the name of Elizabeth's baby (which happily, they did).

We watched a quick clip about John the Baptist from What's in the Bible volume 10.



And then, I gave the children coloring sheets printed from the What's in the Bible website, for them to glue camel's hair (brown yarn) to his outfit (an idea from Dannielle's Place)

I found an idea from the Watermark Church website for making paper chains with the children, by asking them who had told them about Jesus, and then adding a strip for each person that had either told them about Jesus, or who they could tell about Jesus.

I used this idea to go along with our verse snippet - "John told others about Jesus. Luke 3:18" by writing the words onto strips ahead of time, then as we made our chains, we were reminded that John told others about Jesus, and so can we we.

Finally, we ended our lesson by talking about John baptizing people, after they turned away from their sins - preparing them to meet Jesus, and how he ultimately baptized Jesus too, initiating the active portion of His ministry, illustrated by a blue frosted graham cracker and teddy graham snack, which they loved putting together (though now I can't find where that one came from).

A word of caution to the wise:  when giving children, dressed in church clothes, blue frosting to slathering onto graham crackers, painting smocks might not be a bad idea.

Matthew 2 - Preschool Sunday School

Our Sunday school lesson today was from Matthew 2 - the wise men visiting Jesus.  So, after we talked about all the gifts the children had gotten and given for Christmas, we turned back to the wise men, and talked about why we give gifts. 

While we were talking, we were building a house from wooden blocks, so when we talked about the wise men, I pointed out that when the wise men arrived in Bethlehem, Jesus was referred to as a child instead of a baby, and the wise men found him in a house rather than the stable.  Then, we moved the little people from the Nativity stable to our newly built block house, ready for the wise men's visit.

Of course, you can't talk about wise men without talking about the star they followed.  To introduce that, we played a game of find the stars.  I had "hidden" (or placed) plastic, glow in the dark, stars around the room.  When we were ready to play, I turned off the lights, and let the children look for the glowing stars.  Our room, with a window in the door, was just dim enough for the stars to glow, but not so dark as to make the searching risky.

Once all the stars were found, we made our own stars from craft sticks and glitter glue... 

...and while those dried, I paraphrased the story from Matthew 2, while the children had a snack of pretzel stick stars (made of pretzel sticks held together with melted peanut butter chips, following the directions I had used with my own children a few years back).

Finally, we worked on learning our verse - a paraphrased and shortened version of Matthew 2:11, by following the outline of a masking tape star on the floor, singing a part of our verse (to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" - causing some words to be stretched out to fit the tune) for each of the five lines of the star (sort of like what's pictured below).

By the time the children had each walked the star, with the rest of us singing along to help, the children all had the verse - including the reference - down, pretty well, and parents were arriving at the door, marking the end of our Sunday school hour for another week.

Scripture Typer - A Free Memory Verse App

When T(age 18) was little, he was very good at memorizing and reciting verses.  That's him below, repeating part of John 14.

He was our oldest, so naturally we pushed him to succeed.  And, because he was oldest, sometimes we pushed too hard (a rookie parenting error).

When he started AWANA (a Wednesday night verse learning program for children) as a preschooler, we not only ordered the regular club book (with it's tiny little half verses) for him, but also the extra extended book, full of longer, more complicated passages.

As he grew a little older, we continued "encouraging" him to learn the passages, and earn every patch and trophy he could along the way.

I had always been good at memorizing, myself, and I have to admit my competitive, type-A personality might have kicked into overdrive, just a bit.

T, however, does not have a type-A personality, and by about the 5th grade he'd had enough pushing.  He dug in his heals, and refused to learn another verse.

Needless to say we learned our lesson, and backed off a good deal with the younger children - letting them set a slower pace if they liked, and ultimately switching over to a Wednesday program that combined more teaching and game time in with a single verse per week, learned by the whole group together.

Unfortunately, by the time we had learned our lesson, it was nearly too late for T (poor first child).  His determination to stop memorizing, gradually morphed into a belief that he couldn't memorize. A belief that is about to be tested, as he's enrolled in a Bible college class that requires the memorization of several passages - word for word, with proper punctuation.

Happily, he found Scripture Typer, a free Kindle app that makes memorization a snap, by walking you into it step by step.

1. Download a verse, or verses off the internet, from your favorite Bible translation.
2. Type the first letter of each word, as you read through, and familiarize yourself with the passage.
3. Memorize the passage by typing in the first letter of each word, filling in the blanks of words that have been dropped away (different words drop away each time through)
4. Master the passage by typing the first letter of each word onto a completely blank page, filling the words in as you go.  If you type the wrong letter, the word will be filled in for you in red, and your score will be marked down.
5. Repeat the Memorizing and Mastering steps over the course of several days, until you have the passage down pat.

Even T is willing to give it a try.

The Playdough Lady and the Wordless Book - Sharing the Gospel with Preschoolers.

When my oldest children were preschoolers, we attended a largish church in Oregon.  They remember that church fondly, and some of their favorite memories revolve around the "Playdough Lady" - their name for their preschool Sunday school teacher, who set her classroom up with play dough for the early arrivals to play with, until it was time for Sunday school to start.

She would allow the children to free play, and always had a number of interesting cookie cutters or accessories.  As the children played, she listened, and sometimes talked, and generally got to know each of the little ones in her class, in a very special way.  They loved it.

It dawned on me the other day, as I was putting together the lesson for the week, that I could be our church's "Playdough Lady". Happily, the classroom I have, has been set up with play dough in mind, and has linoleum, instead of carpet, under the table.  The last church we were in was completely carpeted, and the janitor had posted "No PlayDoh" signs in every classroom.

Now, with freedom to play, I packed up several cans of dough as well as a few cookie cutters (from what I'm sure you know is a good sized collection) to take to class.  I tried to pick cutters that could lead us into review of the last few lessons - sheep for David, a small and large gingerbread man for David and Goliath, the bear that David had to protect the sheep from, and a few hearts as a lead in to our week's verse - God will always love me Psalm 107:1.

I had a hard time at first deciding on color choices, but I've worked it out now, and the colors I've chosen are not by accident, but rather follow the colors of the Wordless Book - a simple Gospel presentation for children...

...because as I've been thinking about teaching the preschool Sunday school class, I was reminded that it was a preschool Sunday school teacher who first told me I was headed to hell! 

Looking back I'm not sure if she was trying to share the good news of the Gospel with me, or just put the fear of God into me, so I'd sit still.  Either way, I headed straight home that day, very upset, to tell my mother what the teacher had said.  Mom explained, that it was true, not just for me, but for everyone.  We were all going to hell unless we asked Jesus to forgive us for our sins.

We used to talk more about hell, fire, and brimstone in church, than we do now, so it wasn't so much shocking, as it was enlightening.  Up to that point, all I'd heard about God in my three years of church going, was that He loved me - I had no idea I might not be acceptable as I was.  It was a relief to hear that no one could be good enough for God, and to find out that Jesus had already paid for my sins and all I had to do was admit I was a sinner - that I had done things I knew were wrong, and be forgiven. At least, that's how I understood it then.

As much as I'd like the children in my class to remember a teacher who listened, and talked to them, and had play dough to play with, what I really want them to remember is the truth of I Timothy 2: 3-6,

This is good and pleases God our Savior, for he longs for all to be saved and to understand this truth: That God is on one side and all the people on the other side, and Christ Jesus, himself man, is between them to bring them together,  by giving his life for all mankind.
This is the message that at the proper time God gave to the world. (TLB)

David And Goliath - 5 Smooth Stones Snack Idea

This week in my preschool Sunday school class, we studied the story of David and Goliath.

Our story started with David helping his family by delivering bread and cheese to his brothers on the battlefield.  I had a few small loaves of bread and some spreadable cheese (out of the fridge) as a visual aid for the children.

This was not our snack, because as I suspected, the 3s and 4s thought the bread smelled funny, and the cheese looked icky.

So after we read the story, and played a game where we stacked up nine blocks (for Goliath's 9 feet), and then threw a smaller block at them, to knock them down (because it seemed like a natural thing to do), and then measured ourselves next to a nine foot measuring tape, and made craft stick puppets of our families (to compare with David and his brothers) as directed by the Lifeway Sunday school lesson...

...the children counted out a snack of five smooth grapes, and five wrinkly raisins each (with extras on hand for the hungry children), and we talked about the difference between smooth and wrinkly - and why David would have chosen five smooth stones instead of rough ones for his sling shot.

Then to finish off the lesson, we listened again to "Little David Play on Your Harp", while I traced silhouettes of the children out on a roll of paper, to cut and put up on the wall next to a 9 foot cut-out Goliath (which I hope to have hanging for review, next week).

Psalm 23 - Preschool Sunday School

Our lesson in Sunday school, this week, was on David playing the harp for Saul, but really more about his time as a shepherd, playing the harp, writing songs/psalms, and focusing in specifically on Psalm 23.

We started out making craft stick and rubber-band harps (an idea from Toddler Sunday School Crafts) to play while we sang our Sunday school songs. 

I pre-glued the craft sticks, so the children just had to add rubber-bands, and decorate the sides with markers.  They don't make much noise, but they are fun to hold up next to your ear, and pluck away at while you sing "Little David Play on Your Harp".



As we talked about what a shepherd is and what he does, we played a game of "protect the sheep".  The children blew through straws to knock lions, wolves, and bears (gray, tan, and brown pom-poms) away from the sheep (white pom-poms), while trying to keep all the sheep together on the table.

Then we used some of the white pom-poms and bendy straws to decorate pictures the children drew of a shepherd.  I quickly wrote the beginning of Psalm 23 at the top of each page, and then we set them aside to dry...

...while we moved on to a snacktivity to help us better understand the Psalm.  First, each child made a sheep of their own (slightly modified from those at WHOSTHEFARRIS) using a jumbo marshmallow, a mini marshmallow, two pretzel sticks, and one mini pretzel.

We broke the pretzels in half (it's a good idea to have extra pretzel sticks on hand)...

...to make 4 short legs to stick into the bottom of the marshmallow.  I let the children push the pretzels into the marshmallows on their own - and they really did a good job.

Then, we stood the sheep up, and pinched the fronts, to make a sticky part (having wet wipes ready, is a must)...

...that we kind of pushed the mini pretzels into, so they would hang down, like heads.

Then we tore the mini marshmallow in half, and used half to stick to the backside of the sheep for a tail...

...and the other half, torn in half again, for ears.

We placed our sheep on plates next to green pastures (green frosted graham crackers), and still waters - cups of water, that first we jiggled around to make waves, and then we held them steady, to still the water.  Of course, I poured too much water into one cup, so we could talk about cups "flowing over" - with more water than we need.

As we ate our high sugar snack (I would have loved to have come up with something healthier -these are other people's children, after all - but I was at a loss) we talked about how sheep like to eat green grass, and drink fresh water almost as much as we like frosting and marshmallows.  The Shepherd (Jesus) leads his sheep (us) to all the good things they (we) need. 

And when things do get frightening (like when the sheep were surrounded by lions, and bears, and wolves) the sheep know the Shepherd has his staff (like we had our straws) to keep the sheep (us) safe, and where they (we) belong.