KidSpring is the children’s ministry at NewSpring. Watch this short video to see why kids love KidSpring and how we make learning about Jesus fun!
Hello friends! The end of the school year is finally upon us! I just finished inputting my grades for the last 6 weeks! HALLELUJAH! Now I’ve just got to make it through field day, award ceremonies, and all of that fun end-of-the-year stuff. For most teachers, the end of the school year means FREEDOM! But...Read More
Pinay Homeschooler is a blog that shares homeschool and afterschool activity of kids from babies to elementary level.
A Jar Full of Feelings is a visual sensory regulation activity to help children recognize and respond appropriately to their feelings.
This post was originally posted back in 2015 on my blog and has been a popular post since that time. I worked for a decade as a family counselor and elementary school counselor before staying
This weekend I had amazing frozen Choco-Banana Skewers from M&M Meat Shops. They were so simple and tasty. This summer my mission is to find the best frozen banana recipe on the blogosphere. He…
Awesome Ideas For Classrooms, Playrooms And Reading Nooks.
Many kids become overwhelmed with emotions by seemingly minor problems. As a therapist, I work with kids on identifying and scaling emotions and problems.
Gathering Prayer: (Do this prayer repeat-after-me style) Dear Jesus, we thank you for time to feed our faith as a family, and time to learn how to pray like you. Help our time together to be holy …
Create an INdoor campout, complete with a creative campfire, reading suggestions and craft ideas. Camping theme for the classroom at RainbowsWithinReach
Hi Godly Play Teachers! Welcome to Knowing Jesus in a New Way 6: Known in Waiting, our lesson for May 20. This week we get to share with the children the story of Jesus' ascension as told in Luke 24:50-53 and chapter 1 of Acts. What a wonderful opportunity to again talk about the disciples' experience with having Jesus right beside them, and then having to learn to live with him in a completely different way. The children have not witnessed this event of course, but most know what it feels like to be left or abandoned-even temporarily-by someone they love- or to feel afraid of what that might be like. For modern Christians whom have never had the joy of having Jesus physically with us, it takes some thinking to imagine what that must have been like, and then to have it taken away. In addition to discussing the story itself, this Sunday is a good time to talk about the idea that feelings are not always the truth of what is really happening. When bad things happen we may feel abandoned by God, but that is not the truth. God never abandons. So what do we do when we have these feelings and fears? What did the disciples do? They did what Jesus told them to do.They waited and prayed and obeyed Jesus' commands until they would be with Jesus again in heaven. As in the sermon last Sunday, they did the ordinary things of living as they waited on God. They chose a replacement for Judas. They went on with life, holding onto each other and to prayer. I really hope that if you're in a room where the children have access to Godly Play materials, that after the story is shared, you'll try letting the children select something to bring to the circle that helps tell the story. Those connections can be so meaningful. Here are the wondering questions for Sunday. 1. I wonder what is your favorite part of today's story. 2. I wonder what you think it looked like when Jesus "withdrew" into a cloud and they couldn't see him anymore. 3. I wonder if you've ever been left behind. I wonder how that feels. 4. I wonder how the disciples felt when the 2 men in white appeared, asked them why they were looking into the sky and then answered that it was indeed Jesus and that he was no longer there. 5. Before Jesus disappeared he told the disciples that they would be baptized in the Holy Spirit. I wonder what they thought would happen. I wonder what they thought the Holy Spirit was. I wonder what you think the Holy Spirit is. 6. When Jesus vanished, I wonder if he was really gone. I wonder how he was still with the disciples. 7. I wonder where you are in this story. I wonder what part of this story is about you? Idea Sparkers for Our Gift to God Time 1.Today would be a great time for children to put all the Eastertide stories together in one project. They could do this as a class with a mural, with pairs of children working on a single story of this series, or they could put it together in a little booklet like the one below. For the example I made here I took 12" x18" pieces of construction paper from the paper closet, cut each of them into 3 long strips of 4"x 18" and folded each accordion-style into 6 sections. I went ahead and labeled each section with the story title: Known at the empty tomb, Known on a walk and at the inn, Known by his scars, Known at Breakfast, Known at the Great Commission, and Known on the hillside. You could also add where each scripture is found in the Bible. Then children can illustrate each block. 2. Another idea is to celebrate the ascension story on its own by making your own Ascending Jesus, as shown in this kit from Oriental Trading. You don't need a kit to make this- just a solo cup and string and paper. It would be much more meaningful for the children to make it their own way, drawing their own Jesus and constructing it as they want, like the children here have done. Other ideas? You could show the children images that artists have created showing the ascension and ask them to do their own watercolors or drawings of how they think it might have happened. It's a mystery, so it would be interesting to see how they picture it. Thank you all! Enjoy! Becky
This is a great little idea. Make a small cube out of cardboard or stiff paper. On each face write a different heading . Take turns to roll the dice and pray depending on what comes face up.
We love Science Activities over at PFM central! It’s a great way to have fun whilst learning all the way! You can check out some …
These friendship activities for elementary students are a fun way to build a happy, caring classroom climate & teach social skills that will last all year.
Copyright © Nick Caro - 2011 - www.nickcarophotography.co.uk
If you are looking for an active, kinaesthetic, way of praying in a small group or even with the whole congregation, then this might ...
A great science introduction that introduces your students to science and its processes and helps you gain important insight into your students.
Help your kids focus on serving others with these Summer Serving Badges. Use the tasks given or write your own with the blank badges included in download.
Zacchaeus is a real-life example of the power that Jesus has to change our hearts. The goal in this lesson is for the children to feel the darkness and ugliness of sin, and then experience the joy and miracle of forgiveness when Zacchaeus meets Jesus! Bible Truth: Jesus has the power to forgives my sin. Bible Story: Jesus changes Zacchaeus' heart. Bible Study: Luke 19:1-10; I Corinthians 5:7 teach cha-ching! To tell the story of Zacchaeus "hands-on" style gather up these items: children's picture Bible, or flannel graph scenery and characters a small bag or coin pouch loose change a cut-out of a black heart and a white heart Peak your class's interest in your lesson by shaking the bag, and letting them guess what is inside. They will probably easily guess that you have money in your bag! Pass out a coin for each child to hold throughout the lesson. (Remind them that they should never put coins in their mouths!) Read the story of Zacchaeus from a children's picture Bible, or tell it in your own words with visuals, such as flannel graph. Introduce Zacchaeus as a short man, who was a tax collector. His job was to collect money that people had to pay to the king. But Zacchaeus took more money from people than he was supposed to. If someone was supposed to pay one coin to the king, Zaccahaeus made them pay two coins, and he would keep one of the coins for himself. That is called stealing. Zacchaeus was rich and had lots of money, but nobody wanted to be his friend because he stole money from them. He had a dark sinful heart. Hold up the dark heart as you describe Zacchaeus' dark and sinful heart. Go on to tell the rest of the story of Zacchaeus meeting Jesus, as you show pictures from the children's Bible or manipulate flannel graph characters. At the conclusion of the story, talk about how amazing it is that Jesus changed Zacchaeus' heart! He used to be a man that stole people's money, but now he gives his money away to people! Jesus did a miracle! Only Jesus has the power to take a dirty, sinful heart and give us a new clean heart! Zacchaeus repented, he turned away from his sin, and followed Jesus! Hold up the white heart as you describe how Jesus changed Zacchaeus' heart. Lead the class in a prayer, asking Jesus to forgive their sin, and change their hearts so they can follow Jesus like Zacchaeus. After you pray, collect the coins from the children. Tell them that they are giving the money back just like Zacchaeus did after he repented. sing Zacchaeus (was a wee little man) is a Sunday School classic, and the perfect song to reinforce the story they just heard. Be sure to do some actions with the song! The Repent Song is the same song we learned along with the story of John the Baptist, so it's great review and repetition. Follow the link for the lyrics and actions. The Bath Song is a great song about how Jesus washes away our sin with "super soap." The "call back" format makes it really easy to sing along! craft color & paste Here is a coloring sheet from Sermons 4 Kids of Jesus talking to Zacchaeus in the tree. Cut pieces of green paper, or green tissue paper into leaves for the children to glue onto the tree. zacchaeus meets Jesus A good craft is one that helps children retell the story that they learned. This craft does exactly that! You will need: this print out in (black & white) or (color) card stock scissors hole punch yarn green tissue paper glue clear tape crayons (optional) To prepare, print the print out page onto card stock. Cut on the dotted line, and cut out Zacchaeus. Punch a hole at the top and bottom of the tree. Cut out approximately 1" x 1" squares of green tissue paper. Cut yarn into 16" lengths. In class, provide glue for the children to attach the squares of tissue paper to the tree as leaves. Lace the yarn throught the holes and tie it behind the tree. If using the black and white version, provide crayons for the children to color Jesus and Zacchaeus. Tip: Tie the yarn near the top of the page, and attach Zacchaeus to the bottom of the page. It is easier for the kids, if you let them glue on the leaves before you add the yarn. Use clear tape to attach Zacchaeus to the yarn. Tip: Set the clear tape under the yarn, sticky side up, and then press Zacchaeus onto the tape. Move Zacchaeus up and down the tree to retell the story! up and down the tree For this craft you will need: this tree pattern this Zacchaeus pattern green construction paper jumbo craft sticks yarn scissors hole punch crayons glue tape To prepare, cut out the top, leaf portion of the tree pattern, and use it to trace onto green construction paper. Cut out tree and Zacchaeus figures. Punch a hole near the top of the trees. Cut yarn into approximately 7" lengths. In class, provide crayons for the children to color Zacchaeus, and the jumbo craft stick. Help them attach the tree to the craft stick with glue. Tape Zacchaeus to the yarn, thread the yarn through the hole in the tree, and tie the yarn off in the back to move Zacchaeus up and down the tree. Find more ideas and for teaching your child at home about Zacchaeus and his encounter with Jesus, here!
A compilation of the best ideas I've seen for an awesome detective classroom theme.
Vamos te mostrar várias atividades educativas com reciclagem para Dia das Crianças! São dicas e tutoriais que vão te ajudar nas brincadeiras educativas.
A few days ago, I posted about a large cache of new, free art supplies that recently came our way. In my enthusiasm and gratitude for all that liquid watercolor and all those wooden boats, I don't think I mentioned that the haul also included several gallons of tempera paint, the lifeblood of any preschool, two of which were blue. Blue has been an issue for Woodland Park this year. For whatever reason, both of the blue gallons that came with my large online order from the beginning of the year were defective. And by that I mean, the paint was way too thick, clumpy, almost like cottage cheese. I tried diluting it with water, and that thinned it some, but there were still globs and chunks in the final product no matter how much we shook and stirred. I know I should have sent them back, our supplier is good about those kinds of things, but in the rush and crush of making a school year happen, it never rose to the top of my to do list, which is a long way of explaining why acquiring 2 gallons of blue via the "bag lady" black market was such a boon. And it left us with a gallon and half of the chunky variety to use up. We started by flipping the art table, lining it with paper, then laying a balance beam across it. We then squeezed and shook as much of the blue paint into our "river" as we could coax from the jugs. The idea was to then remove our shoes . . . . . . and see if we could balance across the water without falling in. We've only done this once before in my tenure at Woodland Park, several years ago when our supplier accidentally included an extra jug of red in our order, telling us we should just keep it when I called to inquire about returning it. (Mom raised me right.) In that case we played the game of balancing across hot lava and, like then, there weren't many takers to start. Preschoolers aren't always the caution-to-the-wind demographic they're portrayed to be. Most of them tend to hang back, having the wisdom to check things out before diving in. A little distrust is a good thing, especially when it involves crossing a river on a 2X4. Only two brave souls made the attempt right off, but sadly their efforts didn't convince the crowd, so it was up to me to demonstrate. On my first attempt, I "successfully" balanced across, but the next time I "fell in!" Yikes! (Thanks to Calder's mom Brooke for the photos.) I narrated my sensory adventure for the children, using descriptive words like "cold," "gooey," and "slippery," trying to convey a sense of what they might expect if they tried it too. And I know what some of them were thinking, "Too messy!" so I also demonstrated how we could wash off our feet in the tub of water set there explicitly for that purpose. That cracked the door open a bit, and while only about a quarter of the kids gave it a try, and only 3 or 4 of them really loved the project, I'd still call it a good use of defective paint. It was a slippery, slide-y, gooey mess of a project, with the balance beam, as it had with the hot lava game, becoming incidental to the play. It took 3 parent-teachers to manage the project when it was at its peak of popularity, one to help with shoes, one to hold hands (because it was slippery, indeed), and a third to help with foot washing. When Luca's mom Megan first arrived in class and tried to make sense of what was in store for her as the day's art parent, she asked, "This isn't fly swatter painting, is it?" "No," I answered, "but it will be just as messy." There was a clean-up project at the end, one for which I hope to some day be forgiven. And as I've written before, if there's one thing I know about projects in the Pre-3 class that involve tempera, even chunky tempera, it's that they always wind up as finger painting. After all of that, however, we were still really only able to get about half of the paint out of the jugs so we took them outside and made a real river.
Lenten prayer chain to help kids countdown the days of lent but also build their prayer life
Here are some of the best edible science experiments for kids, AWESOME tasty science you can eat and that the kids will LOVE to try!
