Acacia in the Desert

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

• Bible Story Time: David and Goliath, by Sophie Piper
• Psalm 23, by Barry Moser
• David the Fugitive: True Friendship, by Carine MacKenzie

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.

Target Age
Kindergarten, but would probably work with preschoolers

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

• Bible Story Time: Jonah and the Whale, by Sophie Piper.
• The Book of Jonah, retold and illustrated by Peter Spier
• Jonah and the Whale (and the Worm), by Jean Marzollo.
• The Story about Ping, by Marjorie Flack and Kurt Wiese.
• The Runaway Bunny, by Margaret Wise Brown.
• Craft – paste the whale, city of Nineveh, and vine that shaded Jonah on the paper and draw a scene around them.

Explanation
The Peter Spier book was in my initial collection, and the rest of the Jonah books were bought specifically for this bag.  Sophie Piper’s book is the simplest retelling, as well as being the cutest.  (Sailors “play the choosing game” to discover who caused the storm.)  Marzollo provides good discussion starters for parents in the form of curious octopuses at the bottom of each page.  (Can God still hear Jonah when he’s under water?)

The other two books go along thematically.  Both Ping and Jonah tried to hide, and both ended up no better off.  Jonah still had to go to Tarshish, and Ping was still the last duck on the boat.  The Runway Bunny focuses on the mother’s love for her little bunny.  The bunny was unsuccessful when running away from its mother, and Jonah was unsuccessful when running away from God.  When Jonah ran away, God still loved him.

As for the craft…have I mentioned how much I love our library’s die cut machine?  I saw the whale shape one day, and thought “There’s got to be a way to use this.”