Unit 3A: Moses and the Exodus

After Easter and an early Ascension, we went back to the Old Testament.

Date	Bible Story	Game	Craft	Bible Study
4/29/07	Birth of Moses	Pass the baby à drawing things out of water	Honey/peanut candy "Moses baskets"	Ephesians 2:10
5/6/07	God calls Moses	"excuses answered" flash card game	Burning bush pictures	Review of Moses' excuses & ours
5/13/07	First nine plagues	Paper wad war (getting locusts out of the house)	Clothespin locusts	Exodus 9: 27-30, 33-35
5/20/07	Passover	"Musical cards"—reds live.	Bubble bottle lambs	I Peter 1: 18-19
5/27/07	Crossing the Red Sea	Drowning (paper) chariots w/ squirt gun	Phylacteries	Isaiah 43: 1-2
6/3/07	God's provision, man's complaining	Gathering cotton-ball manna	Slingshots (to shoot quail)	Psalm 78: 18-22
6/10/07	Receiving the Law	Race to find ten number discs	Clay tablets	Psalm 1: 1-3

 

For our game for the birth of Moses, we passed the "baby" until the music stopped, then whoever had it got to fish a malted milk ball out of a prune juice bottleful of water—with chopsticks! One mom thought this was a great way to teach her chocolate-loving son patience and perseverance. But for the paper-wad war two weeks later, the same boy got very uncomfortable, because he felt like we were really fighting.

The Passover story went really well. For killing the Passover Lamb, I had glued cotton balls all over a water bottle & added pipe cleaner legs and a lamb face (same as we did for our craft). The lamb was "killed" by wringing its neck and letting the ketchup-blood out. We poured that into a bowl which the kids then dipped small bunches of dried flowers in to smear on the top & side posts of a door I'd drawn on a piece of brown posterboard. It was quite realistic.

I couldn't think of a good craft for the crossing of the Red Sea, so we did phylacteries because it was actually between the Passover and the Crossing that the Bible mentions for the first time (I think) having a sign on your hands and forehead (Ex. 13:9). It did seem like a bit of a stretch, so once again, I would love to hear of other ideas.

For receiving the Law at Mount Sinai, first the kids all had to wash their faces and put on my husband's neckties again. Then a couple of us held a large white sheet over the top of a tall ladder. One of the kids had to climb the ladder up under the sheet to get the tablet. It's a real plus that we're borrowing the mission dorm for our services, because there are so many great props handy!

For the clay tablets, we smeared clay over Styrofoam templates (another exercise in patience) & then just wrote in Roman numerals I-X with nails.

The moms enjoy some of these crafts at least as much as the kids!

Unit Two

Starting with Christmas, we left the OT for a while and did a series on the life of Jesus

Date	Bible story	Game	Craft	Bible study
12/24/06	Birth of Christ	Pin the baby in the manger	Christmas cards	Isaiah 9:6
12/31/06	Jesus at 12	Hide and seek	??	Prov. 2:1-5
1/7/07	(guest speaker)	??	??	??
1/14/07	Jesus' baptism	Bobbing for plums	Paper cups	John 1:29-34
1/21/07	free talk/play	--	--	--
1/28/07	Jesus' temptation	Red light, green light	Making "bread" (micro muffins	Story + Heb. 2:15
2/4/07	Jesus as teacher	Follow the leader	Teaching scrolls	Luke 15:4-7
2/11/07	Sermon on the Mount	Turning somersaults	Wrapping gifts	Matt. 7:24-27
2/18/07	(Chinese New Year fun)	--	--	--
2/25/07	Calming the storm/Jesus as miracle worker	Soaking paper boats with squirt gun	Stormy waves sponge painting (total flop)	John 9:1-7
3/4/07	Gadarene demonaic	Bowling	Origami pig faces	Rom. 8:38-39
3/11/07	Free talk/play	--	--	--
3/18/07	Cleansing the temple	"money exchange" flash cards	Braiding cords	True prayer— examples from various Psalms
3/25/07	Triumphal entry	Giant steps (winner=king)	Leaf prints on paper cups	Mark 10:42-45
4/1/07	Death of Jesus	Casting lots (for treats)	Colored rice crosses	Gospel review (5-color verses)
4/8/07	Resurrection	Egg & spoon relay	Origami butterflies	I Cor. 15: 14:19
4/15/07	Free talk/play	--	--	--
4/22/07	Ascension & promise to return	Silly wedding shower game	Ascension picture puzzles	John 14:1-3

Some notes on this unit: We had a few Sundays where only one family unit showed—we wondered if our fledgling work was going to crash. We eventually did recover, but the "free talk/play" times were on the whole not planned for!

I don't seem to have a record of what I did for a craft for Jesus at 12. Any ideas?

Bobbing for plums—they're softer than apples; easier to bite into. They also sink! But that worked out well; we just put them in enough water so that the kids would get their noses & chins a little wet, but didn't have to submerge their whole faces.

Jesus as teacher was a fun Sunday. We first talked about what kind of teacher Jesus was not—for example, His disciples didn't have to sit in rows wearing school uniforms. We lined the six kids up in rows & had them each put on a (pre-tied) necktie. It was SO cute; I should have gotten a picture. We told how he did teach, by walking along with His disciples, and camping together—at one point all the kids had to take big towels out of their "packs" and spread them on the floor and go to sleep. Another missed Kodak moment!

The sermon on the mount was an absolute riot. I will try to insert my favorite picture from that morning: acting out the principle of not looking at a woman with lust in your heart. (The paper was blank, but you couldn't prove it by Ka Hei's expression!

"God-sightings" in our little venture include amazing timing of some of the units, NOT consciously planned by me. We did gift wrapping as a craft for the sermon on the mount to highlight Jesus' exhortation to anonymous giving. It just happened to be the week before Chinese New Year, so we wrapped gifts to deliver to a daycare center for children from poor families.

We did somersaults for a game that week because Jesus' teaching turned traditional thinking upside down! J

The storm paintings might have worked, but I thought I knew how to make some washable paint & I didn't. It was washable enough, it just didn't color the paper very well! Sigh. But one of the delights of working with this Merciful Love bunch, is that bombing out on occasion is not a big deal. Everyone knows all too well what it feels like to try & try & still not see results. So we laugh and try something else next time.

Finally, the Ascension was another all-time highlight. A friend (thanks again Joy!!) helped me find a shop selling helium balloons. After a brief story time, we said, yes, it's hard to imagine, so let's go picture what it was like. We went down to the alleyway in front of our building and released a balloon & watched it go. Most of the adults, never mind the kids, had never seen this done before and all were quite fascinated. As was the workman repairing a balcony just across the alley. But the real show-stopper was yet to come. Again, with un-plannable timing, that happened to be the Sunday when we had two blond missionary friends visiting. They didn't come right down to the alley with us, but quickly changed clothes. So while we were all staring up at the shrinking balloon, suddenly two blond angels appeared in white choir robes & haloes. I think the workman almost fell off his scaffolding when one of them opened her mouth and scolded the rest of us--in fluent Cantonese--for staring up into heaven, & then shooed us back upstairs!

Now I Remember

Oh yes, now I remember what we did with II Chr. 16. We looked at how Asa, like the tower builders, blew it by trying to do things his own way instead of God's way.

A Chart of Unit One

Date	Story	Game	Craft	Bible Study
8/13/06	Creation-1st 4 days	--	Tissue flowers	I Chr. 16:23-27
8/20/06	Creation-days 5&6	Animal farm	Orange faces	Ps. 139:13-18
8/27/06	(no service)
9/3/06	Fall of Man	"Path of Sin"	Fig leaf bikinis	Rom. 1:18-32
9/10/06	Cain & Abel	stealing hearts	Cotton-ball sheep	I Jn. 4:19-21
9/17/06	Noah's Ark	--	Juice-box boats	Mt. 7:24-27
9/24/06	Tower of Babel	charades	Circle rainbows	II Chr. 16??
10/1/06	Abraham's call	Journey up steps	Covered wagons	Ps. 103:8-18
10/8/06	Lesson Review (welcome for Melissa)	Learning names	Wordless books	Gospel explanation
10/15/06	Ishmael & Isaac	Simon Says	"God is Faithful" Wall hangings	Rom. 4:1-5
10/22/06	(GC church picnic)
10/29/06	Sacrifice of Isaac	--	Silhouettes	Mic. 6:6-8
11/5/06	Isaac gets a wife	Bubble prayers	Gold bracelets	Lk. 11:9-13
11/12/06	Jacob vs. Esau	Feeling objects	Mess of pottage	Prov. 3:5-8
11/19/06	Jacob in Aram	Balloon juggling	Yarn babies	Gal. 6:7-9
12/3/06	Joseph & his brothers	Boasting	T-Shirts of many colors	Mt. 5:21-24
12/10/06	Joseph in Egypt	"turncoats"	Skinny stickers cover fat	Jas. 1:2-8
12/17/06	Brothers to Egypt	Musical chairs	Decorating for Christmas	I Jn. 4:7-10

Okay, this chart probably isn't self explanatory to anyone but me—all the memories are still vivid!

Just a few notes: My favorite craft was the one for Adam and Eve

The game for Cain & Abel involved "killing" partners by grabbing a piece of heart-shaped candy taped to their backs. None of the kids got the idea. Total flop. Any other good ideas for a Cain & Abel game?

I can't remember what we studied for the Tower of Babel or why I would have chosen II Chr. 16. Ideas, anyone? I cheated on a craft that day, too. I found these great rainbow crafts online after we'd already done our little arkettes, so it was sort of a review craft. But everyone really liked it. (Sorry, no picture handy)

After this survey of Genesis, it was Christmas, so we started with that and our next unit was on the life of Christ. Next post!

And speaking of beginnings…

We had five "family units" that first morning besides ourselves. All with autistic boys from ages 9-22, except for the normal 7-year-old girl. One Christian family, one Catholic family, the rest from a traditional Chinese religious background. So we began at the beginning; Genesis 1. We only did the first four days of creation for our first session. We start with singing—that first Sunday we only taught what is still our theme song, "Thy Lovingkindness is Better than Life;" or, as it translates into Chinese, "Thy Merciful Love, compared to life, is better." Have to get that grammar right or our actions don't make sense. J Then, we started our story. On the first day, God created the heavens and the earth—and the earth was without form, and void. We gathered everyone close together on stools and covered the whole bunch with a big sheet. Let there be light—we turned on the overhead lights. When the waters above were separated from the waters beneath, we lifted off the sheet. Then everyone spread out as the water and the land were separated. Then we gave various kids flowers, and had some adults standing up as trees—one with a banana, one with a bunch of grapes, to be fruit trees (yeah, I know grapes don't grow on trees, but they're great for snacks & mixing in grape vines was just too complicated…). Finally, we had a big yellow balloon for the sun and a smaller one for the moon. For a craft, we made simple paper flowers, with the parents helping the kids. Finally, our brief Bible study with just the adults, while the kids were having free/supervised play time, was from I Chronicles 16:23-37

The next week, we finished up with creation. We used a flannelgraph story for these, having the kids repeat the names of each bird/fish/animal and stick them in the proper places on the background. Then we played the game of "Animal Farm" which was utterly hilarious. We enjoyed seeing how well most of the kids did at imitating the different animals they were assigned to. For a craft, we stuck facial features cut from magazines onto oranges (that was hard—our glue sticks weren't quite sticky enough, or the oranges were too waxy, or something), & talked a little about how all the oranges looked the same at first, but then they all became special to each of us when we "created" them after our own ideas. Adult Bible study was in Psalm 139:13-18

The following week, ALL of our families were off at a Special Olympics event, so no one showed up except Bruce and myself! But we knew it was going to happen—we showed up just in case someone else who had received a brochure came for the first time, but no one did.

This is getting awfully wordy. I think I just need to make a chart, but sometimes elaborate if anything was especially fun or needs more explanation. It's all been fun!! So we'll see if I can be more concise in the future. It's a problem—I start talking about MLFF and I can't shut up! J