Character Lessons

As you know from yesterday, Focus on the Family has a good new website, Kids of Integrity. I have been really interested in doing more teaching about our faith with Pk and I haven't known really where to start. We read the Bible and do little activities but I wasn't feeling like I was really applying it to daily life well enough. Last weekend, when we were at my parents'-in-law church, I was impressed with the Sunday school programme (I had to go with Pk because she was too shy about being left). She came away with a good understanding of the Hannah and Baby Samuel story and it made me realise that, while I LOVE our church, there isn't any good programming for the pre-schoolers and if we are going to stay at this church, I will need to pick up the slack. That's where Kids of Integrity comes in.

There are a series of character traits and each trait has a number of lessons that go along with it. I decided, after some browsing, that obedience is a good place for us to start (not that I think that doing this will make Pk instantly obedient but it gives us a really good jumping off point in our discussions of what we expect). I browsed the Bible stories associated and decided that we would take a week with each story - Jonah, Noah, Adam and Eve, Shadrach, Mishak and Abednego and finally, Moses. It's been fun putting some ideas together and doing the work with Pk.

We also have a memory verse for the unit -

Colossians 3:20 “Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.”

So far, we have done the Jonah work and I will post about that later but this week, we have started a focus on Noah. I will post the lessons we do, just in case anyone is interested. Pk is not quite three so I am trying to find ways to make the stories meaningful to her. We keep talking about the story all week and then I have colouring pages for her to do each day.

Lesson 2 : Noah's Ark

Materials :

- Noah's Ark stories (the one I used is below, it was a gift from Pk's babysitter who gave us the entire set which are dated but tell the stories really well - I also really

like the Barbara Reid version and I need to get a copy of that)

- a children's Bible (this is one of the ones we use - I love this one because it comes with CD's that go with it with a song that goes with each story - the Noah's Ark one is "Who Built the Ark"? which Pk knows)

- a bucket

-crayons

-coloring pages - here are some good printables:

Noah's Ark colouring pages - http://dailycoloringpages.com/images/noahs-ark-rainbow-bible-coloring-sheets.png

http://dailycoloringpages.com/noahs-ark-bible-coloring-sheets/

http://www.supercoloring.com/image_print.php?img_src=http://www.supercoloring.com/wp-content/original/2009_07/Noahs-ark-coloring-page.jpg

-different plastic containers that float

-paper towel

-toy animals (hollow ones that aren't too heavy work best)

Step 1 - Read the story. Ask some questions and point out the elements of the story (God told Noah to build the ark, an ark is a kind of boat, the animals come in pairs). I found that having Pk list all the animals she knows really engaged her interest.

Step 2 - Have the child complete a coloring page (I let Pk pick which one she liked best). We talked about what part of the story we were seeing in the picture and I reminded her, again, that Noah listened to what God was asking him to do.

Step 3 - Fill the bucket with water. Put the animals in the water and discuss whether they can swim (I had a cow, a cat, a pig and some teddy bears). We pointed out that those animals can't swim and it would be bad for them to be in deep water. We put one of the containers in the water and placed an animal in the container. We talked about how the "ark" we had made was helping the animal to be safe and dry. Repeat with all the animals. Try some of the different plastic containers. Ask the child whether the paper towel would make a good boat (Pk said that it would). Place it on the top of the water and try to put the animals on the towel. Discuss whether the animals are safe on the paper towel. Explain that it was important that Noah listen to God so that he knew how to make the boat so that it would keep the animals safe.

Step 4 - Review the memory verse (Pk has it memorized now if we start with the first two words).

There are a few other Noah's Ark resources that we like that we used. The first is something I have been wanting to write about for a while. I love this:

Noah's Ark puzzle - http://issuu.com/thinkpendesign/docs/blessings_spring09o

These are "family puzzle sets" and the idea is that it is wonderful for a family to be able to sit down and do puzzles together but rarely are all members of the family at the same skill level. Each set comes with three puzzles on the same theme with different levels of difficulty. Pk loves the simple Noah's ark puzzle and as she gets older, she will be able to complete the other two.

Another Noah's ark resource I like is the book Rise and Shine by Tim Warnes from the Little Simon Inspirations Series (lovely books with a faith focus).

As I design my other lessons, I will post them as well - not that they are necessarily going to be used by anyone else but I am having fun putting this together.

Blessings!