Last Sunday....

kids praise was NOT cancelled, and we had a blast with the few kids that showed up~! We read about the birth of Jesus and talked about the sacrifice God made turning into flesh and coming down to earth to ultimately forgive us of our sins and die on the cross. We sang songs and talked about our wonderful Christmases we had. We used black paper as our night sky and put glitter on yellow stars and drew the three wisemen on three punched out camels. All the kids got to pick out christmas pencils and straws before leaving. PLEASE REMEMBER, KIDS PRAISE IS NOT CANCELLED ON JANUARY 2ND EITHER. thanks everyone!

This Sunday....

We learned about God coming to earth in human form as baby Jesus! Last week we learned about the angel Gabriel telling Mary she would be the mother of Jesus. We read a story about the birth. We read a book and talked about how we can be like Jesus to others and show Jesus to our friends. Faith, Gracie, Cooper M, and Jake all got to retell the story using the sticky board. Then we had snacks and colored a picture of joseph, mary, and jesus, and got to take home baby jesus "haystacks" and the recipe to make more of them with our parents! (chow mein, peanut butter, chocolate, and a marshmallow).

Shadrach, Meshach,and Obednago

We got to learn about these theree brave men and how they refused to bow down to anyone but God....just like last week's story ofrefusing to bow down to Haman. The kids learned no matter how small, they can still share the word of Jesus through their words and actions (just like this months memory verse). We read the book "A Fiery Furnace" and acted out the bible story and then helped Ms. Shana by coloring the paper sacks for

This Week....

Our kiddos learned about being good leaders and leadership skills while the adults were having the deacon ordination in the auditorium. They made leader awards and drew what makes them a good leader.

This week...

We learned about Naaman! The kids were read a story about another miracle Elisha performed for the woman with oil. Then told naaman adn elishas story on the sticky board. They got to make naamans and muddy water and dip him seven times in the muddy water. They loved it! i got lots of pictures too...

This Week....

We talked about Jonah....
The kids sang J-O-N-A-H
AVa lead a prayer!
We made big blue whales and glued a Jonah and some pebbles in his belly.
The kids learned not only the story we are all used to but they also learned what happened next....once Jonah got to Ninevah. We read the story straight from Jonah1-4
Pictures in the back of the auditorium for the kids to color of Jonah and the whale and a coloring piuzle as well!

This Week....

This morning the kids learned about David and Saul.
We read a book about David and Goliath, for the history of the story, and then they learned about 1 Samuel 24 and 26. They learned of Saul's jealousy and plots against David, and how David spared his life twice. We got a second chance from God as well....thru jesus dying on the cross. We made crowns for the kinds we learned about and I got to hear lots of great stories from the kiddos about times when they were jealous. it was so cute. here are just a few pics. dean and colton lead sweet prayers.

This week...

We are learning about deborah and barak! Phil is talking about women leaders in the Bible and how God used them to end viscious cycles! On the back table in the auditorium you will find crayons and a coloring page of deborah and an activity page, especially helpful for your older kids still in worship service.

Here is the story (if you want to talk about it with your kids):
Many, many years passed. The people of Israel forgot their promises to Moses and to God. They worshiped other gods. So the Lord allowed their enemies King Jabin and his General Sisera to conquer them.

At that time the Lord had sent a woman named Deborah to be a judge over Israel. God had blessed her with wisdom. She loved the Lord God very much. She often told her people to listen to God and obey Him. But most of them just laughed at her.

As a judge, Deborah listened to all the problems of the people. When Deborah held court, she sat underneath a big palm tree. Then all the people stood in line. They waited to talk with her.

One day Deborah sent for Barak, an Israelite soldier. “Barak, you are to take ten thousand men. Lead the way to Mount Tabor. When General Sisera hears you are there, he will bring his chariots and troops. We will fight a great battle and defeat him at the river.”

“Well, all right. If you say so, Deborah. But I don’t want to fight this battle unless you’re there, too.”

Deborah smiled at him. “Is your faith in God less than your faith in me?” she asked. “All right. Because you did not trust God, though, He will give the victory to a woman instead of to you.”

When the day of the battle came, Barak led his troops. Deborah raised her hands and prayed on the mountain top. God caused many things to go wrong for Sisera’s troops. Before Barak knew it, he was chasing all of Sisera’s soldiers into the hills. The people of Israel had won!

When General Sisera saw he had lost the battle, he ran away. He searched for a place to hide. He spotted the home of one of King Jabin’s friends. “Ah,” he thought, “these people will hide me.”

A woman came out to meet him. Her name was Jael. “Come right in, “she said. Sisera did not know it, but secretly, Jael hated Sisera and his army. Jael gave him some milk, then she covered him with a blanket.

General Sisera fell sound asleep. jael had tricked him!

Meanwhile, Barak was looking for Sisera. As he came to Jael’s tent, Jael went out to meet him. She told him what she had done.

Barak brought Jael back to Deborah and to the army. All the people of Israel cheered wildly. He held Jael’s hand up high so the crowd could see her. “This woman! Jael saved israel!”

All the people of Israel cheered Jael. Deborah and Barak told them, though, it was the Lord God who had won the war for them. They even sang a song about God’s victory.

***We are making an art project about judges 4 and 5. The kids will make palm trees and put judge Deborah underneath.
***We will sing songs of armies and women!
***The kids will hear the story from power point...some pictures shown...

This week...

We talked about Samuel this morning. We read The Giving Tree and talked about how we all have a purposed, no matter how big or how small! We sang two new Samuel songs and learned the story of Samuel on the sticky board. We learned that God had a plan for Samuel even as small as he was, he was grooming him to be a great leader and that we have great leaders in our church right now as well. We acted it out using, eli, samuel, and God. We played "simon says" to practice our listening skills and make sure that we were good listeners like Samuel and could hear God's plan for us in our lives too. We also talked about the light on the darkside of the mountain and how Hannahs trouble was not being able to have a baby and that she prayed to God to help her and he was her light. We colored a picture of Samuel in bed, hearing God's call and glued blankets on him. Had a great Sunday! Thanks to all my helpers! (not as many pictures as usual...forgot my good camera :)

This Week...

We will be talking about Rahab on Sunday. Be on the lookout for rahab coloring pages and wordsearches on the front tables for worship service for the big kids. This should tie in nicely with Phil's lesson and help them stay focused! Shana is supposed to be putting crayons out for the kids to do my sheets. We will tell the story of Rahab using the sticky board..and then act it out with our "house, window, and stone wall, made out of a cardtable cottage and a block wall." We will do a craft where the kids will glue stone onto rahabs house and then have a scarlet rope that allows the spies to come down the stone wall, and sing the songs: R-a-h-a-b, and The Lords Army. Please encourage your kids to sing loud and praise God. We are focusing on that these next few weeks and will have a Praise God board where we can add stickers for our wonderful singing....(we have some sleepyheads who like to sing adn plug their ears while we sing, making others self-conscious!) Will show pictures of our lesson on here Sunday so check back to see your kiddos learning and praising God!

Homemade Playdough Recipe

A few people asked me for the recipe to the dough we used this morning....
this is super cheap, takes two seconds,and you can make it whatever color you want by adding food coloring. If you store it in the fridge it will last months and months!

1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1 cup water
1 T oil
3 T cream of tartar

mix in a pot and heat on medium, stirring constantly until it turns into a big blob. It might look lumpy but once its done and you mush it itll be smooth and perfect! Takes about 5 minutes on medium heat. But I quadrupled for class and took longer.

SPECIAL THANKS TO THE PERKINS AND PATTESONS FOR HELPING!!! You were a huge help!

This Week...

Phil is talking about deacons/leaders but also about the widow of zarephath in 1 kings 17 and how God cared for her and elijah in the dark times. This goes right along with "light on the dark side of the mountain" that your kids have been learning about. We are teaching them that no matter what hard times or troubles we have in life, God will take care of us and we have to trust him.
**We are also doing handouts for church kids that are too big for kids praise that directly correlate to phils lesson! This week i am having cassie printout an Elijah crossword puzzle and wordsearch for the big kids to do during phils lesson! Be on the lookout for them on the tables on sunday!

We will be acting out the story of elijah and the widow with our sticky board and the pictures shown. We will talk about how elijah trusted God to take care of him and he had a never ending supply of FLOUR and OIL.

We will read Charlie and Lola I can do it all by myself....and talk about how in the end she realized she couldnt do it all by herself. We cant do it all alone either...we need Gods help to find the light on the darkside of the mountain and to help us with our troubles. (How we use Gods help becomes our God story!)

We will use FLOUR and OIL to make playdough and try to make jars for carrying water, etc, out of them. The kids will get to bring home their playdough.