Parable of the Lost Coin

Yikes, falling behind again! On Sunday November 27^th, we did the parable of the Lost Coin. Of course in the text it is very brief, so we had to go some to make our morning skit out of it:

So there was this woman who was saving up silver coins for some unknown reason (probably it was her dowry, but, ssh, don’t tell!). She had to do all sorts of different things to earn the money, such as walking a neighbor’s dog (Lai Wun didn’t want to keep the mask on her face, but hey, around the neck worked), or delivering newspapers (passing one out to everyone in the room), or watering flowers for another neighbor (I liked this one best—the “volunteers” squatted holding their flowers, then when the “woman” held her watering can over them, they stood up/grew). Finally, on her birthday, an elderly relative (my gray-haired husband) gave her the last coin she needed.

As she earned different amounts of coins for these different jobs, they were crossed off on a picture of 10 coins put up on the board. This was so we could keep the treasure box with only eight coins in it, untouched in its niche until we needed it. She goes to put in the last coin and then counts the total—what? Only nine coins? What happened to the 10^th? So she gets the broom and starts sweeping under furniture to see where it might have fallen. I had thrown a couple pieces of candy under one sofa, so she did find some “treasure” but not her coin. So she has to ask some of her friends to help her move the sofa and look behind it. While they are doing this, I make a little “adjustment” and then sat in the recliner & put my feet up—and waited for someone to notice that the “lost coin” was stuck to the bottom of my shoe! (I can’t remember which website I found that fun idea on. I really should give more credit to different sites. Okay, starting as soon as I remember.)

Finding lost coins was the obvious game theme. The kids were taken out of the room one at a time; while they were out a chocolate coin was hidden in not-too-hard-to-find places. When the kids came back in, the rest of the group had to give them verbal instructions like, behind you, to the right, look higher, etc. They all followed the directions very well. After all, there was chocolate at stake!

For craft we made these little “brooms” out of pencils and bristles cut from a small whisk broom. One of the few crafts the kids have ever taken home, I was very pleased with the reception it got!