The Good Shepherd

John 10:11

Today's lesson is The Good Shepherd, but our craft will work for numerous other Bible lessons as well:

The Good Shepherd, Luke 15:307

Abraham Tested, Genesis 22

The Lord Is My Shepherd, Psalm 23

The Lamb Of God, John 1:29

And there are many others.

Materials:

1. Bathroom cups

2. Black construction paper

3. Black pipe cleaners

4. Cotton balls

5. Scissors

6. Craft glue

7. Craft sticks (i.e. popsicle sticks)

8. Pencil and pen (or sharpie)

9. Stapler (or tape, but stapler is better)

10. Googly eyes

Pre-class Instructions:

There are only a few simple things to do before class to make this craft go quickly and smoothly.

1. Cut pipe cleaners to 9 inches in length. Each sheep will require 2.

2. Draw the sheep head outlines on the black construction paper. One for each sheep.

3. I have found that it is best to go ahead and cut out the heads. Older children (3rd grade and up) are capable, certainly, of doing this themselves, but as you know, I am all about making the most of our precious class time. I knew the kids would enjoy glueing on the cotton, so having pre-cut heads allowed us all to relax and have fun with it, without me fretting over the clock. I made a variety of sizes so the kids could have a choice. I also did not try to make them perfect. Just freehand it; it'll be fine.

That's it. Let's get started!

In-class Instructions:

1. Give each child:
      - One cup
      - Two pipe cleaners
      - One craft stick
      - One sheep head
      - A mound of cotton

2. Instruct them to fold each pipe cleaner in half.

3. Next bend small feet at the ends of the pipe cleaner. Each child will do this their own way, regardless of how you show them how to make the bends. Some may choose not to have defined hooves at all. And that's just fine.

4. Staple the legs to the inside of the cup. Do not let the kids do this part. It's quick to walk around the table stapling legs while the children are folding the feet. If you have a lot of kids to get to, ask them to proceed on to step #5 until you finish with the stapling.

This is what it should look like at this point:

Note: I used tape instead of staples on the prototype, pictured above. The tape did not hold as well as the staples and it was difficult to work with in the tight space. This is when I decided staples would be better.

5. Ask the children to slightly flatten the cotton balls by pulling the cotton to loosen it. Don't overdo it. Less is more. This step is not required, but it will make the cotton balls not as heavy. It also gives them something to do for a moment while you finish with the stapling of legs.

6. Now "paint" the glue onto the cups using the craft stick as a paint brush. Start at the top and work down to the rim. The easiest (and cleanest) way to handle the glue is to walk around the table squirting glue onto each child's stick as they need it. This allows you control over the glue! :)  I like using bathroom cups because the kids can easily hold onto their project by slipping one hand up inside the cup while dealing with the glue. Very little glue ends up elsewhere this way.

Tip: Tacky Glue is thick and sticky. It works great for this project.

7. Add the cotton. Again, holding the sheep with one hand inside the cup, press the cotton all over the cup.

8. Glue eyes to the face.

9. Draw a mouth with pen or sharpie.

10. Glue the head to the body.

All done!

ONE MORE SIDE NOTE:
As long as the faces and pipe cleaners are pre-cut, and you don't have a huge class, or some other special circumstance, this craft should only take about 20 minutes. It goes much faster than it sounds here. I tend to be heavy on the instructions, because I want you to know everything I can possibly tell you, so that your experience will be a smooth one.

           

           

           

           

           





NOTE:  All images, text and printables contained herein are copyright protected. This material is for your personal use only. I encourage you to print or pin from this site whenever you would like as long as it is credited and linked back to EasyBreezySundaySchool.blogspot.com. Failure to link back and credit my site constitutes a copyright violation.  Thanks so much!

Doubting Thomas

John 20:24-31

Here's a super easy game to make! And it's even easier to play! The Doubting Thomas Game is basically as True or False game. 

How To Play:

-- Give each child an "I Doubt It" sign.

-- Read aloud one item from the list of unusual facts about the bible. Be sure to read the facts so the answers will sometimes be true, and sometimes be false.

-- Anyone who doubts the statement is true should hold up their sign showing the "I Doubt It" side toward the teacher. 

-- Anyone who believes the statement is true does nothing.

-- Give the players with the correct answers a point for each correct answer. Remember our Bingo Buttons? To make score keeping easier, I gave each player a button for each correct answer. At the end of the game, we simply counted the buttons to see who won. 

--The player with the most points (or buttons) at the end wins the game.

Materials:

This only takes a few things.

1. Front and Back pics. One set for each child/sign.

     Color download here: 
Front and Back.

     B&W download here: 
Front and Back.

2. Cardstock

3. Paint stir sticks
     (or craft sticks,
       or strips of balsa wood). One for each child.

4. Questions. More about this at #6 below.

5. A stapler.

Construction Instructions:

Realizing some may want to use this, when time allows, for a craft AND a game, and others will only have time for the game, I have included the graphic as a coloring page and as a full color image. If using it as a craft, I would suggest that you put the sign together yourself at home before class and just have the kids color it already made up.

1. Print the images onto the cardstock (one front and one back for each sign).

2. Cut out the images.

3. Staple the front and back together at the top and sides. No need to overdo it. I found one staple at the center-top, and one at the center-side of each side was sufficient. 

4. Insert the paint stick between the two pieces. Push it all the way to the top until it touches the top staple.

5. Place a staple on each side of the stick at the bottom. Do not try to staple through the stick. I considered placing a small line of glue on each side of the stick, but decided I wanted to have the option of re-using the stick for something else in the future if I wanted. I never know how many kids will be in Sunday school each week, so this prevented me from making fifteen, and then only using four, thereby waisting eleven perfectly good paint sticks. The sticks stayed in place just fine without the glue anyway.

6. Collect a list of bible facts. I found a website, JesusAlive, that gives a great list of little-known facts about the bible. Some of them are too advanced for third and fourth graders, but I found plenty for my game that was appropriate for my class. What I really appreciated was the way the author, Steve Shirley, gave the corresponding verse and a pop-up window with the quoted scripture. Seriously, it only took ten minutes to gather my list of questions. I opted not to give you my list of questions in a download. Mr. Shirley has done a great job with his list and it is well worth a visit to his site. He has obviously put a lot of work into it, and I don't want to get into any questionable infringements, so click on over to his list for help. 

Food for thought:
As I was preparing my lesson for today, I kept thinking about Jesus' response to Thomas, "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." John 20:29 NKJV

Our whole lesson today revolves around the fact that Thomas was hesitant to believe what others told him. I felt it was important to distinguish between doubting Jesus' power verses doubting what others may tell us. In dealing with children, especially in today's dangerous world, I wanted to be very careful not to give them the impression we should not doubt anything, so we spent about five minutes talking about why it is good to question things we hear that may sound suspicious, and why we should trust in God completely and never doubt His power. 


NOTE:  All images, text and printables contained herein are copyright protected. This material is for your personal use only. I encourage you to print or pin from this site whenever you would like as long as it is credited and linked back to EasyBreezySundaySchool.blogspot.com. Failure to link back and credit my site constitutes a copyright violation.  Thanks so much!