The Bright Sparks are currently working their way through the story of Moses, and we've had a few very exciting weeks
First, we learned how fire usually burns things up, but God's special fire was present in the burning bush when God spoke to Moses, and that bush didn't burn up! The kids were excited to watch leaves catch fire and burn up in the playground.
First, we learned how fire usually burns things up, but God's special fire was present in the burning bush when God spoke to Moses, and that bush didn't burn up! The kids were excited to watch leaves catch fire and burn up in the playground.
Next we learned how God punished Pharaoh for his disobedience and cruelty through 10 plagues:
The water turned to blood! - we mixed red raspberry flavouring into our water for morning tea
Frogs were everywhere! - using frog masks and puppets we hopped around the room. Then when God agreed to take them away we ate gummy frogs to show them disappearing!
Along came bugs! - We did the bug plagues together - shaking noisemakers to show how noisy it would be with all those flies, and pretending to be itchy and sore from the biting gnats. The snack for this plague was raisins - that look a lot like dead flies!
Then the animals got sick and the Egyptians got sore! - We put band-aids on dolls and toy animals (over red marks drawn in whiteboard marker). Then we ate iced animal biscuits
Next came hail! - This was our favourite part - we screwed up white paper and threw it onto the parachute. Then we held onto the sides and tossed the paper in the air. Next the kids went underneath and experienced the hail coming down on the chute above them. White marshmallows reminded us of the hailstones at snacktime.
Then came the locusts! - We made grasshopper headbands and hopped around the room.
When God made the sky dark we crawled into a blanket cave and ate black jelly beans.
Finally we read about how God had made the firstborn boys die, just like how Pharaoh had killed the babies at the beginning of Moses's story.
At playtime the kids could hide in the cave and look at the bible story books, or play with the doll hospital. We also set up a sensory bin filled with rice bubbles (as the crunchy bugs), plastic frogs, and polystyrene hail.
The water turned to blood! - we mixed red raspberry flavouring into our water for morning tea
Frogs were everywhere! - using frog masks and puppets we hopped around the room. Then when God agreed to take them away we ate gummy frogs to show them disappearing!
Along came bugs! - We did the bug plagues together - shaking noisemakers to show how noisy it would be with all those flies, and pretending to be itchy and sore from the biting gnats. The snack for this plague was raisins - that look a lot like dead flies!
Then the animals got sick and the Egyptians got sore! - We put band-aids on dolls and toy animals (over red marks drawn in whiteboard marker). Then we ate iced animal biscuits
Next came hail! - This was our favourite part - we screwed up white paper and threw it onto the parachute. Then we held onto the sides and tossed the paper in the air. Next the kids went underneath and experienced the hail coming down on the chute above them. White marshmallows reminded us of the hailstones at snacktime.
Then came the locusts! - We made grasshopper headbands and hopped around the room.
When God made the sky dark we crawled into a blanket cave and ate black jelly beans.
Finally we read about how God had made the firstborn boys die, just like how Pharaoh had killed the babies at the beginning of Moses's story.
At playtime the kids could hide in the cave and look at the bible story books, or play with the doll hospital. We also set up a sensory bin filled with rice bubbles (as the crunchy bugs), plastic frogs, and polystyrene hail.
The next week was we learned about the Exodus, and how God parted the sea so the Israelites could finally escape from Egypt. And what better way to illustrate that, than by using our brand new bouncy castle? :-D The kids started at one end in 'Egypt' and climbed through, sliding all the way down the other side of the 'Red Sea'.