Acacia in the Desert

January 25, 2012

Story Tray: Abraham and Promise of Descendants

Filed under: Abraham — Tags: , , , , , , , , , — Acacia @ 8:29 am

Target Age
Preschool, Kindergarten, and 1st

Contents
3 plastic boxes with filled with sand, blue and silver glitter (stars) and wooden Messiah figure, all from Michaels craft store

Trunk for oak tree of Mamre from Haba Middle Eastern blocks, and top of tree from Constructive Playthings Wood Block Nativity Set

Abram and Sarai figures from Worship Woodworks set 609

Angel figure is sadly not the same size as Abram and Sarai — it’s a good half inch thicker.  I wish I had known beforehand that the sets were not interchangeable.  But the angel is from Worship Woodworks set 637.

Tent is a square building block with a piece of scrap leather (available from craft stores) draped over it

Explanation
This was inspired by the Godly Play: Great Family story.  It sits on the Old Testament shelf in our Sunday School classroom.

January 18, 2012

Creation Book Bag

Filed under: Creation, Storytelling and Books — Tags: , , , , — Acacia @ 8:21 am

Target Age
Kindergarten

Contents
All items placed in a 12 x 12 inch tote

Could Also Add

Explanation
The books in this take-home bag run the gamut from a board book (Shiny Touchy) to a philosophical book about evolution (Yellow and Pink).  The book of poetry illustrated by Eric Carle celebrates the majesty of God’s creation.  The Norman Messenger book provides the backbone for this story bag, as it takes its text directly from the New Living Bible translation, with no additions.

One of my favorite bags, because the books complement each other perfectly by being so different stylistically.

January 11, 2012

Noah Book Bag

Filed under: Storytelling and Books, Flood — Tags: , , , , — Acacia @ 8:15 am

Target Age
Kindergarten

Contents
All items placed in a 12 x 12 inch tote

Explanation
I got the idea for a Bible book bag from the literacy bags that are sometimes used as homework by schools.  When selecting the books in this bag, a main concern was that illustrations of the ark were realistically proportional to the animals.  I didn’t want a cartoonish ark to give the idea that this was a fictitious story.

January 4, 2012

Abraham Book Bag

Filed under: Storytelling and Books, Abraham — Tags: , , , , — Acacia @ 8:08 am

Target Age
Kindergarten-1st

Contents
All items placed in a 12″ x 12″ tote. I used a luggage tag saying “Abraham” on the handle. 

Explanation
These bags were designed to enhance the home church connection.  As I put together each story bag, my goal was to have them substantively different.  It would be easy, for example, to have an Arch book in each bag, felt pieces to act out the story, and a foam craft.  So I went further afield when looking for books.  If one of the books in the bag rhymes (Big Test), then the next one needs to be a point-of-view interpretation (Sarah Laughs), and so on and so forth.

This bag could be improved upon by adding a book specifically about Abram and Lot.

December 5, 2011

Isn’t That Bible Story Too Complex for Little Kids?

Filed under: Christian Education Philosophy — Tags: , — Acacia @ 8:01 am

God made children with their concrete way of thinking in the early years.  A child who knows of God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit in these early years can grow into a mature understanding in later years, and that early concrete thinking puts down deep roots that die hard.  We should worry less about whether the children might misunderstand because they are young, and worry more about whether they will disbelieve later because they did not learn while they were young.  ~ Beechick, Teaching Kindergarteners, 29, emphasis mine

November 28, 2011

How to Teach Theology to Kindergarteners

Filed under: Christian Education Philosophy — Tags: , — Acacia @ 7:55 am

These children do not yet think of God in terms of attributes like loving, holy, just, eternal, and so forth.  They think of Him in terms of what He does.  In the Bible stories He sends the people manna, or He tells them not to worship idols.  He talks to Moses or He makes the whole world.  All the things that God does and says build up bit by bit in the child’s mind his concept of God. ~ Beechick, Teaching Kindergartners, 28, emphasis mine

November 21, 2011

3 Books for Psalm 23 Take-Home Bag

Filed under: Psalm 23 and Good Shepherd, Storytelling and Books — Tags: , , , , , — Acacia @ 8:28 am

Target Age
Kindergarten, but would probably work with early elementary ages

Contents
A bunch of Christian books for children placed in a 12 x 12 inch tote

Details
This is an easy bag.  It’s designed to be done all in one go on a Sunday afternoon, with zero crafts.

Originally I planned to have one bag that was completely David books, and another bag that was completely Psalm 23 books.  That plan has changed, for several reasons.

  1. The parents can read all the books aloud in one go, because the books aren’t too similar.
  2. The child checks out the David bag this week, the Psalm 23 bag next week, and the Good Shepherd bag the following week.  He hears the same text over an extended period of time, and without consciously realizing it, begins to memorize a psalm.  This wouldn’t happen if all the Psalm 23 books were consolidated into one bag.

The Little Golden book was moved to this bag instead of the Good Shepherd bag because I decided the illustrations were specific to David.  None of my other Psalm 23 books have the shepherd playing a harp, but this one does.

I love the way the Jean Marzollo book interweaves Psalm 23 with the story of David and Goliath.  As David goes down by the stream bed to fill his pouch with stones in preparation for fighting Goliath, he sings to himself about the valley of the shadow of death.  Quite fitting!

Helen Caswell’s drawings evoke a sense of peace and contentment.  In terms of sheer beauty, this books pictures are the best.

November 14, 2011

3 Books for David and Goliath Take-Home Bag

Filed under: Storytelling and Books — Tags: , , , , , — Acacia @ 8:10 am

Target Age
Kindergarten, but would probably work with early elementary ages

Contents
A bunch of Christian books for children placed in a 12 x 12 inch tote

Details
This is a simple no-frills bag, with zero crafts.  It’s designed for the busy parent without much time (practically everybody!).  The Carine MacKenzie book is at a higher reading level, and contains some stories that aren’t usually covered, like David hiding in the same cave Saul was in, or David sneaking out a window to escape from Saul, and leaving a statue in his bed.  Little boys love those adventure stories.

The Sophie Piper book could also work for preschoolers, since it is a simplified retelling.  The last page contains a rewritten Psalm 23 in a rhyming form.

Originally I planned to have one bag that was completely David books, and another bag that was completely Psalm 23 books.  That plan has changed, for several reasons.

  1. The parents can read all the books aloud in one go, because the books aren’t too similar.
  2. The child checks out the David bag this week, the Psalm 23 bag next week, and the Good Shepherd bag the following week.  He hears the same text over an extended period of time, and without consciously realizing it, begins to memorize a psalm.  This wouldn’t happen if all the Psalm 23 books were consolidated into one bag.

 

November 7, 2011

Choosing Awesome Picture Books, Part III: Other Considerations

Filed under: Storytelling and Books — Tags: , , , , , , , — Acacia @ 8:07 am

Hello, my name is Acacia and I am a book addict.  I aim to have at least three picture book versions of every Bible story in my personal library, although five would be better.  When I buy different versions of a story, I consider the text of the book, the illustrations of the book, and some nebulous other considerations I can’t fit into a category.

See Part I: Text and Part II: Illustrations for the earlier posts in this series.

Story in Pictures

Without the pictures, this book would be nothing.  Either there are many small pictures illustrating a common theme (Love Is…), or the pictures form a clear narrative (Tim Ladwig’s The Lord’s Prayer), or both (Noah’s Ark by Peter Speir).  These books are often wordless, or contain only a couple of words per page.

Made You Think

Here, the illustrations are unusual, and break out of the mold for this story.

The Nativity, by Julie Vivas.  The juxtaposition of angels in combat boots and the verbatim KJV text is both startling and refreshing.

Psalm 23, by Tim Ladwig.  Instead of literal sheep, the illustrations are of children.  Instead of a wooden rod and staff, the artist drew a school crossing guard with a stop sign.

Interactive Book

Does the book have a flap to lift?  A mouse to find hiding on each page?  Can you sniff and smell?  Does a cartoon character in the corner make wry commentary?

Shiny Touchy Smelly: Creation Story, by Joanna Bicknell.  A board book, but four and five year olds still like it.

Noah’s Ark Pop Up, by Tim Dowley.  A pretty impressive pop-up, with flaps to open, boats to move back and forth, and yes, things that pop-up.

Best of All Worlds

This is often what I settle for when I can’t find anything awesome.  It tends to be a paraphrase that sticks reasonably close to Bible, with illustrations that are decent.

The Creation Story, illus. Norman Messenger.  This combines realistic drawings with word-of-God text.  Cool beans!  I’m not just settling for this, I love it!

The Christmas Story, by Jane Werner.  A Little Golden Book that sticks close to Bible.  I’m not a fan of the lady angels in pretty dresses, since all the angels in the Bible are unisex or male, but the text is all right.

October 31, 2011

8 Mini-Books for Ancestors of Jesus Lapbook

Filed under: Sunday School Activities — Tags: , , , , , — Acacia @ 8:58 am

This is a list of all the posts I have made on the Ancestors of Jesus lapbooks.  Why make a lapbook?  I realized kids weren’t retaining knowledge from one Sunday to the next.  I also wanted to increase the home-church connection, and give the parents something that could talk about with their child.  This particular lapbook was made over two months.  During that time, Lifeway covered Abraham, Ruth, David, Noah, and Creation (Adam and Eve).

9 Items for Lapbooking – the shopping trip I made before starting

Petal Outline – the outline of Genesis

Abraham map – a map showing the journeys of Abram

Abraham trifold – highlighting the three promises God made

David circle – highlighting the varied roles of the shepherd king

David pop-up – providing a succinct biography

Creation circles – what God made on each of the six days

Noah accordion – a child draws the most important part of the story to him

Jesus squash book – how each of these people fit into Jesus’ family tree

For more information on making lapbooks, check out

Minibook Gallery – step by step photo illustrations of small books that fit in a manila file folder

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