Angel

We have started the Christmas lessons for the last two weeks.

We started with the story of Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and told her that God has chosen her and she will be pregnant and to name this baby Jesus. Then Angel Gabriel appeared to Joseph and asked him to take Mary as wife and take care of her and to name the baby, Jesus.

The details of the Bible Story:
Matthew 1:18-25
18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about[d]: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet[e] did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,[f] because he will save his people from their sins.”
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”[g] (which means “God with us”).
24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.


Luke 2:1-7
1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while[a] Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to their own town to register.

4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

Objective:
God fulfilled His promise by sending the Messiah, the Saviour to come to this earth and to save mankind from sins.

Memory Verse:
John 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Craft:
1. Get the child to trace his/her handprint on yellow paper and footprint on a foam.
2. After cutting them out, stick the handprint at the back of the footprint (as wings).
3. Draw a face and stick eyes for the angel.
4. Put a gold belt (and deco the belt if you want to) for the angel.

a simple angle craft for toddler

Idea from DLTK

Church School Lesson: What Kind Are You?

Psalm 119:11
I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

Objective:
To teach the children that they must not only hear God's Word but also let it sink into their minds and hearts and believe it.

Lesson:
A farmer sowed seed in his field (the field were poorly prepared in those days). Seed were scattered by hand, not all seeds grow. The seed is the Word of God.
Some hearers have hard hearts - seeds fell on hard footpath
Some hearers have shallow hearts - seeds fell on thin layer of dirt over flat rock
Some hearers have crowded hearts - seeds fell among thorns
Some hearers have prepared hearts - seeds fell on good soil
Let God's Word sink into your heart.

I wanted to remind the children in order to grow, we must be in good soil. So, I use hand print to print a flower.

Craft:
1. Prepare stem and leaves, let the children colour in different green colour on the paper.
2. While waiting them to dry, paint the hand (any colour, choice of the children) and then print it on the paper then stick the stem and leaves on it.
3. Prepare a yellow circle as sun (optional), just to show the children we need sun to grow (sun = The Word of God)
4. Finally, paste a heart shape at the palm as centre of our life. This represent we have Christ in our growth.

Church School Lesson: Surprise Story

Matthew 22:39
Love your neighbour as yourself.

Objective:
To teach that God wants His children to so love people of all races that we will be ready to help them, no matter what it costs us.

Lesson:
The story of the Good Samaritan woman. The road to Jericho was steep and dangerous. A traveller was robbed and beaten. A priest came and passed by, a Levite looked and then went away. Both were religious men and Jews. A Samaritan treated the man's wounds and took him to an inn and paid money to get people to take care of him until he return. He had love in his heart. He did more than anybody would expect. He was a true neighbour. We should love and help people of all races.

Craft:
1. Draw a heart shape on a paper.
2. Get the children to roll some creep paper and stick on the heart shape. You can have your choice of colour.
3. Write down the verse on the paper and let the children to decorate the paper freely.

Church School Lesson: God First

Matthew 6:33
but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well.

Objective:
To lead our children to have the right attitude towards things, so they will love and trust God rather than money or anything else.

Lesson:
Jesus warned about being greedy. A rich farmer had good crops, he planned to keep everything for himself. He foolishly thought only of this life. Christian should not worry about food and clothes. God provides for birds and flowers. We should think of ways to please God and our treasure stored in Heaven. Those who put God first know true happiness.

Craft:
1. Get the children to trace their hand print.
2. Write down GOD FIRST in big font in the middle.
3. You can use creep paper (roll it) or any form of decorative items and stick on the word to make GOD FIRST stand out.
Suggestion: For younger toddler (e.g. 3) I suggest to use creep paper (roll it, small one) as their hand print is small, the wording cannot be too big. Not enough place.

When they complete the craft, Hi-5 with them and shout "GOD FIRST" :)

They like it! and whenever they Hi-5, they will remember "GOD FIRST"!

Church School Lesson: Good Shepherd

John 10:11
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

Objective:
To show that Jesus loves and leads and looks after His own people, like a shepherd caring for his sheep.

Lesson:
The shepherd stayed in the fields with the sheep. He risked his life to protect them from harm. He took them to shelter, as the door of the fold. Jesus will care for His sheep always. A shepherd protected his sheep because he loved them. Jesus died on the cross out of love for us. Jesus now lives to be our Good Shepherd. We should trust and follow Him.

Craft:
1. Prepare a green colour paper as a meadow/field
2. Let the children trace their hand print on another colour paper. Then cut it out.
3. Let the children stick the cotton ball on the hand print palm, then draw an eye.
That's it! It's a very simple craft for toddler.

Church School Lesson: Creation

God, the Creator, knows everything and can do anything. He is powerful enough to create all things. No one is wiser or more powerful than God. The Bible tells us how God created the world. In Genesis 1:1 says, In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.

God created the world in six days. The Bible tells what God created on each day. When God first created the earth, it was dark and not in any shape. The Bible also says the earth was wet. I then ask the children to close their eyes... what do you sees? They answered me "NOTHING". Yes! Darkness is when you cannot see anything. Just like at night when there is no light! Then God says, "Let there be light and there was light." (Genesis 1:3) God just say and things will happened. Isn't God is so powerful? The light God called it day and darkness called it night. This was first day.

And God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water." So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. God called the expanse "sky." This was second day.

And God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was so. God called the dry ground "land," and the gathered waters he called "seas." And God saw that it was good. Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. This was third day.

And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth." And it was so. God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. This was fourth day.

And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky." So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth." This was fifth day.

And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind." And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground. This was sixth day.

By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

Summary:
Day 1 - Light
Day 2 - Sky
Day 3 - Land, Seas & Plants
Day 4 - Sun, Moon, Stars
Day 5 - Sea Animals & Birds
Day 6 - Land Animals & Human beings

The lesson takes about 15mins. After the lesson, I thought them a simple verse from the Bible.
Hebrews 11:3 - the worlds were framed by the word of God (KJV)

I conclude the lesson with a simple craft and again, the idea I got it from my all time favourite site - Merryn's blog. I modified the craft to suit my children... very simple and the toddler enjoy doing it.

Get the children trace their hand print on a yellow colour paper, then cut it out (some with teacher's help). Then paste the hand print at the paper plate. It looks like a sun.

the Preschool Class with their craft,

the verse was written on top of the paper plate.

Father's Day Craft

I use Exodus 20:12 for the children memory verses "Honour your father and your mother". I help the toddler to understand what it means to honour our parents. Honour means respect and obey, it's an action, we need to listen to our parents to what they say. No one is always right, everyone make mistake along the way, but no matter what, we still need to respect our parents by listen to them.

In conjunction with Father's Day, I get them to think what can they do for their fathers. Some said make a card, some said give him a kiss, etc. I then challenge them to make the whole next week a special week for their father by giving them a book of coupon with a special treat written in it. E.g. This coupon entitle daddy to enjoy a bible story, big hug, big kiss, massage, etc. On top of that, they need obey their parents.

I end the lesson by getting them to make a card for their father. I get the idea from Merryn's blog.

Children doing their craft work

More practice

After completing the glass painting, Abigail keep asking for more art and craft so I let her do it on the paper. I guided her with four flowers and let her do what she likes on the paper. I can see she's trying to print a flower shape but I guess she did not know how to make the flower shape yet. She ended up keep printing the dot next to each other.

Instead of doing a flower shape, she did a line of dots...

the final product - the nice flowers are with guidance, those dot dot without shapes were Abigail's creativity :P I then hold her finger to draw stems and leaves...

Glass Painting for Toddler

I was thinking what to do for my mom as Mother's Day gift for this year. She's a very practical lady and do not like her children to waste money buying gift that she might not need... so, doing craft is a way to express ourselves.

I thought of having Abigail to do it with me. On one hand, I can get her involve and on the other hand, I also want her to pick up the value of doing something using our hand for another person to show our love.

When I told her we're going to do craft, she will shout out with joy. She just love doing art and craft. :) I get ready all the material on the table and she's jumping on the floor showing her excitement.

Then I get her seated on my lap and brief her what we were going to do. I hold her finger, dip into the colour and then print it on the glass to make a shape of a flower. These steps repeated until there are many flowers on the glass. Abigail enjoyed doing it. She wanted to do it on her own but she did not know how to make it a flower shape yet. She can just dip her finger into the colour and print it on the glass, then she need guidance to print a flower shape on the glass.

Abigail First Craft ~ Hand Print Crab

Sunday, 18 October, 2009
Sunny

This is the first craft that Abigail using her hands to print a crab. My initial idea was to have 3 different colour of crab in this art paper however, Abigail was afraid of this crab, so... just one crab on it.

This is a very simple craft to start with toddler.

How to do:

First, colour the palm then follow by the fingers. (you can have different colour on the palm and fingers... your choice)

Then stamp it onto a white paper. Repeat with the other hand.

Finally using your finger, put two black fingerprint as the eyes on the 'thumb'.

Here comes the crab!!