Jesus Appears to Desciples While Fishing

John 21:1-14

Today's lesson tells the story of the disciples fishing all night to no avail. The next morning, Jesus calls to them from the shore with instructions to cast their nets. Upon doing so, their nets overflow with fish. 

This craft will go well with any of the many bible lessons containing fish.

Materials:

Color Foam Sheets (or colored paper)

Card board or any stiff board

Scissors

Pen

Glue

Fish drawing (get my template here)

Googly eyes (not pictured)

Before Class Prep:

I used foam sheets for this craft because I wanted a rigid, durable fish. This craft could just as easily be made with colored paper. Using foam sheets will require the fish to be individually traced by hand, whereas using regular paper allows the fish template to be run through a copier.

1. Print the fish template above, if you don't have a fish outline you'd like to use.   

2. Trace the fish parts onto the foam sheets and cut out. 

3. Cut the fish body piece into multiple strips cutting from top to bottom. I cut my in wavy strips, but straight or slightly concave works well also. 

4. Draw the mouth onto the head pieces, tail marks on the tails, and fin marks on the fins.

5. Cut the cardboard into strips seven or eight inches long.

Class Construction:

1. Let the children pick one fish head, tail, fin and googly eye(s). 

2. Give them one strip of cardboard.

3. Ask them to first glue the head onto one end of the cardboard strip.

4. Next they are to pick body strips of different colors and glue them to the cardboard arranging them from small to large to small again down the strip. 

5. Finish it off with a tail, fin, and googly eye(s).

Fishers of Men

(Mark 1:14-22)

At first glance, today's scripture appeared very simple... too simple for a game. There are a plethora of fish crafts but, we haven't played a game in a while, and I had my heart set on having an active activity this week. I read the scripture over and over trying to pick out enough details to support a game. As the week waned, I tried to talk myself into a craft anyway. But I couldn't do it. Thankfully, I awoke Saturday morning with this game idea:

Supplies:

Colored cardstock

Scissors

Sharpie

Any fish drawing

Bean bags (hacky sacks would work well, too)

Questions (click to download)

Optional: Blue plastic disposable table cloth

If you do not want to draw your own fish, or have a picture you can use, you are welcome to download mine here. (Of course, this is for your private use only, and you may not sell the image or anything made from it.)

Pre-class Instructions:

1. Using a copy machine or printer, copy the fish image onto 18 pieces of colored cardstock.

2. Cut out the fish.

3. Write one question on the back of each fish. Notice there are only 9 questions, but I have instructed you to cut out 18 fish. Each question will appear on two fish. This allows the game to be played in teams (each team getting their own set of questions/fish, or when there are only a few kids playing, the repetition will help them learn the correct answers.)

4. Print out the question & answer sheet in case it is needed during game play.

How to play:

1. If using a blue tablecloth to mimic water, spread it on floor.

2. Spread the fish, face up, on top of the water. If not using the tablecloth, just spread the fish in a smallish area on the floor.

3. Pick a spot on the floor where the kids will stand when it is their turn. I used a rug we have in our room. I simply told them they could not step off the rug during their throw.

4. Each child gets one throw at a time. They are to toss the bean bag in an attempt to land on a fish. 

5. When they land on a fish, they get to turn it over and read the question aloud. If they get the answer right, they get to keep the fish. If they do not know the answer, the fish must be returned to the sea, face up. Be sure to tell everyone the correct answer so the next time someone lands on that fish, they will know the answer.

6. The team or child with the most fish at the end of the game wins. 

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!