This Jesus Calmed the Storm Streamer Craft will remind children that Jesus has the power to do whatever He knows is best. He is God!
This Jesus Calmed the Storm Streamer Craft will remind children that Jesus has the power to do whatever He knows is best. He is God!
Many young children deal with fear in one form or another. Common fears are separation anxiety, fear of the dark, fear of storms, and fear of visiting the doctor. In helping children overcome fear, we should acknowledge that their fears are very real to them, and then point them to Jesus. Show them that Jesus is bigger and more powerful than their fear. Assure them that Jesus will walk with them through their fear, and help them to overcome. In our lesson this week, we want to make Jesus big, powerful, and strong enough to handle any fear in the hearts and minds of our children. Bible Truth: Jesus is bigger than my fears. Bible Story: Jesus commands a storm to be still. Bible Study: Matthew 8:23-27; Mark 4:35-41; II Timothy 1:7 teach interactive read-a-loud Get the children interested and engaged in your lesson, right at the outset, by handing them each an approximately 18 inch strip of a blue streamer. Explain that their streamers are going to be the wind and the waves in today's story. Invite them to practice waving their streamers low to the ground to make waves, and waving them high above their heads to make wind. As they participate, they are both physically and mentally engaged. You are giving squirmy kids an opportunity to move in a way that supports their learning, and you are helping your little learners construct a mental picture of wind and waves, which is critical to understanding this miracle. Bring out a clear container, filled with water, to set the scene for the story. Have a hair dryer ready to go, but bring it out later in the story as an element of surprise. Dramatically read the story from either a children's Bible, or from your own Bible. If you choose to read it from your Bible substitute words such as "tempest" and "perishing" for "storm" and "dying". As you are read, invite the children to interact with the story like so: Jesus and the disciples got into a boat. Gently rock from side to side. Suddenly a windstorm arose. Wave streamers in the air. Turn on the hair dryer, and direct it towards their streamers to blow them around. The boat was covered with waves. Rock the container of water with the boat to create waves. Wave streamers low to the ground, and quickly rock from side to side. Jesus was asleep. Lay down and pretend to sleep. The disciples awoke Him. Gently tap the shoulders of the children to wake them up, and then resume the storm. Jesus rebuked the wind and waves. Raise both hands and say, "Peace! Be Still!" There was a great calm. Hold the streamers still. Gently rock from side to side. To conclude the story say: Wow! Jesus did an amazing miracle! He has all the power. He told the wind and waves to be still, and they obeyed Him. You don't need to be afraid, because Jesus is always with you to protect you, take care of you and watch over you. share and pray Ask the children what they are afraid of. I give you fair warning that this will likely turn into a quite lively discussion! In each situation, talk about how Jesus is bigger and more powerful than whatever they are afraid of. Remind them that He is powerful enough to stop wind and waves by just speaking to them! To emphasize the power Jesus has in their terms, ask them if Spiderman or Elsa (or any other character that they are enamored with) can do that. Teach them to say, "In the name of Jesus go away!" and any spirit of fear trying to overtake them must go. Teach them to ask Jesus to give them a big hug, and be with them. Pray with them, and over them, about their fears, speaking peace over them in the name of Jesus. sing The Wind and the Waves Obey Him is good for a puppet song, or to play as the children are working on the craft or color sheet. My God Is So Big is one of our favorite songs in my classroom! We add our own touch to it singing, "there's nothing my God cannot do for YOU!" As part of the motions I point and make eye contact with a different child each time we say "for YOU!". Bigger Than Big has an awesome message: God and His love are the biggest of all! play toss the boat "parachute" game Instead of a parachute (unless you have one on hand), a sheet or table cloth will work just fine! You will also need a small toy boat, or a small plastic container to use as a boat. Spread the parachute out on the floor, and invite the children to sit around it. Instruct them to not touch the parachute until you have explained the rules and you are ready to start the game. To play this game, place the boat in the center, of the parachute. Each child holds onto their section and moves the parachute up and down to create waves, while trying to keep the boat on the parachute. Walk around the circle, and tap a child on the shoulder and say, "Jesus, wake up!" The child you chose should loudly say, "Peace, be still!" Everyone obeys "Jesus" and stops moving the parachute. Continue playing the game, giving each child a turn to be "Jesus". craft coloring page Here is a nice coloring page that would be fun to paint! (At least the blue water.) sailboats Make simple sailboats for the children to reenact the story of Jesus calming the storm. For this craft you will need: this label small paper plates craft sticks construction paper glue To prepare, cut the plates in half, and cut the construction paper into triangle sails. Print and cut out the labels. In class, help the children glue together the pieces to make their own sailboat. fold-a-story For this craft you will need: this activity page (version 1) OR this activity page (version 2) blue streamers yellow smiley face, or yellow color-coding stickers cotton balls glue (use this hack for mess-free gluing) crayons To prepare, print the activity page (either version 1 or version 2) and copy the pages back to back. Cut blue streamers into squares. In class, provide glue for the children to apply the blue squares as waves, and cotton balls as clouds. Give them each a yellow smiley face sticker, or a yellow color-coding sticker to add to the sun. Provide crayons for them to color. Help them fold the down the windy clouds, and ask them to retell the story to you as they fold the picture. version 1 version 2 See this post for more ideas about teaching your child the concepts in this lesson at home this week!
Crafts Here are a few craft we used when teaching a lesson on "Jesus Calms the Storm" during VBS. These could be used with several other lessons like Noah, Jesus walks on Water, Paul's Shipwreck, etc! Ocean Bags Snack size ziplocks work great for this craft. Place a small amount of blue toothpaste in the bag, seal it, and let the child spread the toothpaste out by rubbing over the bag. You can use stickers to stick on the outside or even place something small on the inside. Wave Streamers Use blue and white or dark blue and light blue streamers to make this craft. Cut pieces of streamers and either tape or glue them to the end of a jumbo popsicle stick. The kids like to help make a storm by waving the streamers (waves) in the air and then stopping when you get to the part of the lesson where Jesus calms the storm. Ocean in a Bottle This is a fun take home idea. I made a big one with a large bottle to use during my lesson with the 2 year olds. I found small water bottles for the kids to have. For older kids you might could let them help make the oceans but for our younger kids we made them ahead of time and sent them home after the lesson so they could have their own ocean at home to review the lesson with. They are a lot of fun. It is important to make sure you glue the lid on so it WON'T come off. I used hot glue on mine. When rocked (not shaken) from side to side it makes neat waves! This "ocean in a bottle" craft was made using the following recipe...very simple! This recipe works very well!! Fill bottle about 1/2 full of water, add blue (just a few drops) of food coloring, shake to turn water blue, fill the rest of the way with cooking oil. Seal and glue lid! You may also want to add shells, fish, glitter, etc before sealing! For a different ocean in a bottle recipe click here
We're really enjoying finding more creative ways of telling stories with our 3-5s. Here's what we did this week when we looked at the story of Jesus calming the storm... Reversible story stones. Stormy on one side... ...and on the other side, Jesus makes it calm and sunny! Making boats from bottle tops, blu tack, cocktail sticks and paper Foil pie cases work well too! Shakers to make the storm noises Streamers to make the waves (tissue paper, lolly sticks and elastic bands!) Water play with things that float- Jesus won't let us sink!
Last month, we tried to float sponges on our Sea of Galilee in basin before our lesson in the two year old room. The sponges didn't float, and neither did the children, but both were equally wet. Here's the part of the lesson that did work like it was supposed to. We were learning about how Jesus calmed the storm. During the lesson we made lots of noise for the rain and the thunder and the waves. After the lesson we colored the clouds and make our own rain-makers using: • plastic containers from the dollar store • coloring picture of clouds. Here's mine. • beads and tin foil bits to sound like rain... other things would probably work fine too. I didn't want them to try to eat beans, I had the beads on hand and they look kinda cool. • packaging tape to make sure that the lids stayed on even if someone got curious about the beads
Crafts Here are a few craft we used when teaching a lesson on "Jesus Calms the Storm" during VBS. These could be used with several other lessons like Noah, Jesus walks on Water, Paul's Shipwreck, etc! Ocean Bags Snack size ziplocks work great for this craft. Place a small amount of blue toothpaste in the bag, seal it, and let the child spread the toothpaste out by rubbing over the bag. You can use stickers to stick on the outside or even place something small on the inside. Wave Streamers Use blue and white or dark blue and light blue streamers to make this craft. Cut pieces of streamers and either tape or glue them to the end of a jumbo popsicle stick. The kids like to help make a storm by waving the streamers (waves) in the air and then stopping when you get to the part of the lesson where Jesus calms the storm. Ocean in a Bottle This is a fun take home idea. I made a big one with a large bottle to use during my lesson with the 2 year olds. I found small water bottles for the kids to have. For older kids you might could let them help make the oceans but for our younger kids we made them ahead of time and sent them home after the lesson so they could have their own ocean at home to review the lesson with. They are a lot of fun. It is important to make sure you glue the lid on so it WON'T come off. I used hot glue on mine. When rocked (not shaken) from side to side it makes neat waves! This "ocean in a bottle" craft was made using the following recipe...very simple! This recipe works very well!! Fill bottle about 1/2 full of water, add blue (just a few drops) of food coloring, shake to turn water blue, fill the rest of the way with cooking oil. Seal and glue lid! You may also want to add shells, fish, glitter, etc before sealing! For a different ocean in a bottle recipe click here
Joshua undoubtedly learned much about God and leadership as he watched Moses and observed how God used him. We shouldn't be surprised that Joshua replaced Moses eventually.
As ministry leaders in the church, we have to find and carve out ways for our leaders to connect with us and one another.
