Target Age
Preschool, Kindergarten, and 1st
Contents
Several bags blue glass gems from Michaels. They are very satisfying to run one’s fingers through.
Pyramid is the top block from Haba Pyramid
I’d like for the Hebrews to be the same style as Moses or the Egyptians, but right now they are Hygloss Decorative Wooden People
Pharaoh is the Playmobil Pharaoh
Moses from Worship Woodworks
For Passover, there is red cloth from Joann fabric. Cloth from the same swath of fabric is used for the crucifixion story.
Egyptian soldiers also from Playmobil
Plastic box from storage section of Walmart. It had sticky velcro placed on its bottom, and brown felt placed on top of it. So far there haven’t been any problems with kids removing the gems from the box.
Explanation
This was inspired by the Young Children and Worship story, with modifications made after looking back at the Biblical text. It sits on the Old Testament shelf in our Sunday School classroom.
Script for the Exodus from Egypt
Pause, place your hands in your lap, and sit back a moment. Once the children were very hungry.
Place some figures of children lying down in the sand in the left-hand corner of the box nearest you. They cried in the night, even when they were asleep. Their parents heard them…
Place the parents around them. …but there was no food. So the Israelites crossed the desert to the land of Egypt, where there was food. Move the people across the desert to Egypt (the far right-hand corner).
They stayed. But then a new king, called a pharaoh, wanted the Israelites for slaves. Cup both hands over the people as though you were trapping them.
The Israelites had to work when Pharaoh said to work. They had to live where Pharaoh said to live. They had to go to bed when Pharaoh said to go to bed. They were slaves.
Present Pharaoh.
Then the people of God cried to God for help, and God remembered his promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God spoke to Moses through a burning bush and told him what to say. [Ex 2:24]
Present Moses and place him at a distance. Then move him towards Pharaoh.
Place hands around mouth. Thus says the Lord, “Let My People Go!”
Place arms in X shape then move them out sharply. “No!”
God sent ten plagues on the land of Egypt. During the last plague, the firstborn son of all the Egyptian families and animals died. But not the people of God. The Israelites killed a lamb and placed its blood on their doorposts…
Place red cloth over the people of God. …so that the angel of death passed over them. Pass hand over people of God.
Move Moses back to Pharaoh. Touch Pharaoh. Pause. Point finger. “Go.”
Move Moses back and speed up your voice by running together the following sentences:
The people of God were ready. They had to hurry! So they packed unleavened bread, because there wasn’t time for it to rise.
God led the people around by the way of the wilderness to the Red Sea. Move the blue stones to the middle of the box.
Then the Lord God warned Moses, “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart. He will chase after you. Then the Egyptians will know that I Am the I Am.”
Line up the Egyptians. The people of God heard the war chariots! They were trapped between the sea and the army!
Then God showed Moses the way… Part the waters. …and brought them through the sea to freedom. Move each Israelite through. When the Egyptians tried to pursue… Move the soldiers through. …the waters returned to their place.
Then the people danced and sang: Move people in a dancing motion
I will sing unto the Lord for he has triumphed gloriously; The horse and rider fell into the sea.
This was the tale of the Exodus from Egypt.
Apparently, kindergarteners are not too old for sensory tubs. They spent 30 minutes clustered around this tub coming up with new ways to play. All I had to do was sit back and watch, and remind them that items stay in the Sea of Galilee.
