Unit 1 session 2 sin entered the world

Craft: The Apple Tree

Verse: But God said, 'you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.' Genesis 3:3

Materials needed: half sheet of brown paper, blue paper, green tissue paper cut into 1"by1" square pieces, red paper, hole puncher, scissors, glue stick, pencil. 

Instructions: 

1. Trace your hand and half of your arm on a piece of brown paper to make a tree trunk and branches 

2. Cut out the tree

3. Glue the tree to the piece of blue paper 

4. Use the pieces of green tissue paper to make leaves.(I like to twist the green tissue paper on the eraser end of a pencil to make the leaves 3D)

5. Glue the leaves on the tree

6. Use a hole puncher and red paper it make fruit for the tree 

7. Glue the fruit to the tree

Purpose: I love the symbolism of this craft...the hand print...sin entered the world by our own hand. Sin is awful, it breaks God's heart, it makes him sad, and angry, he can't be around it and one day he WILL destroy it. What a day of rejoicing that will be! I do terrible things! I lie and think bad thoughts, say bad things, roll my eyes, I am human. We all sin. This was no surprise to God. He knew this would happen, that we would ruin his beautiful perfect world. This world that God made is still amazingly beautiful and just being able to enjoy it is enough for me...I don't deserve it and I am so thankful for it. And though the beauty of this world and the life that I have been given is way more than enough for me it was not enough for God. We sinned...we screwed up...we reached up and grabbed that fruit with our own hands (and by the way we don't need satan to sin we are perfectly capable of doing that ourselves) and we let it happen even though we know it's wrong even though we have been told not to, we still do it...alot. BUT GOD wanted us. He wanted us so badly that he made a plan before the beginning of time to recue us. God knows that we can't stop sinning and we can't pay for our sins, he knows we are stuck and we will go to hell with out his help. He loves us so much that he wanted to make sure he could spend all of forever with us. So he sent Jesus to die for us. A horrible horrible death, and in that moment our sins were paid for. The wrath of God was satisfied and it was finished. And then Glory Hallelujah our savior beat death and rose from the grave leaving our sin in his place. I think this world is beautiful...I can't wait to see heaven! And because of Jesus's work on the cross I am able to enjoy it with him for all of forever! Thank you Jesus! 

Unit 1 session 1 God created the world and people

 Craft: MAGIC STARS 

Verse: 

4 He determines the number of the stars;
    he gives to all of them their names.
5 Great is our Lord, and abundant in power;
    his understanding is beyond measure.

Psalm 147:4-5

Materials needed: white card stock, white crayon, dark water color paints, paint brush

Instructions: 

1. Draw stars, planets, the moon on a piece of white card stock with a white crayon.

2. Paint over the crayon drawings with dark colors of water color paint. 

3. As you paint the stars will magically appear, just like when God first spoke them into place. 

4. Let your paper dry on a flat surface. 

Purpose: This craft is so much fun and the finished product is actually really cool looking. But that's not all...this craft is a great discussion starter about how God is all knowing, powerful, and so amazingly loving. As God was making our beautiful world He knew that we would mess it up. He knew that we could not, not sin. So before he even stared, he laid out a plan of how he would save us. As he was speaking very star into existance and speaking life into every animal he knew that one day he would send His son to redeem it all. He made Adam and Eve and loved them, loved them so much that He didn't want to be with out them and more importantly He knew that they COULD NOT live without Him. To be honest I am kinda jealous of Adam and Eve. Not the part where they sinned and pretty much messed up everything for all people everywhere. The part where they had such an intimate and tangible relationship with God. Walking with God in the cool of the evening in a perfect world, a beautiful garden. A beautiful sunset, a breeze blowing, hand in hand with their creator, the one who loves them more than they can even fathom. Amazing. And to think he thought this whole world up! What an awesome imagination and how smart! God created everything but not just the things but the ways they would work together and all the system and cycles. To think that I will be in His presence one day is totally mind blowing and so exciting! God made us, we messed it up, and Jesus saved the day! And soon we will get to walk with him, hand in hand, in a perfect again world. 

Why?

      

Hi! My name is Priscilla and I am on staff at Redemption Church in Gilbert AZ. Working with children's ministry, My main job is to develop activities for the kids to do during the in between time of getting to class and the lesson starting, a time we call transition time. We love to make volunteering in class room as easy as possible. One of the ways we do that is to provide crafts and activities and the supplies that go with them. So, it use to be that we would throw some ink pads and paper in the room and have them make thumbprint people, an activity that is so much fun but not really that purposefully. If we are going to have these kids for only 1 and 1/2 hours a week, let's make it count. We, as a ministry decided to strive for pourpose in everything we do with the kids. A finger print person...great...but what if we put thoes finger print people in a thumb print boat and relate it to Noah and start a conversation with the child before the lesson even starts. My goal: to create, rearrange, and reuse awesome crafts that have proved sussceful and use them to introduce, in force, and engage kids with the lesson each week. A HUGE PLUS- my campus has switched our curriculum to The Gospel Project for Kids which means all our kids are in the same lesson every week. I LOVE THIS CIRRICULUM!!!! Our church customizes the layout to fit our model of Sunday school and the kids, the teachers, and the staff are all in love with it! Every week every child get to hear about Jesus. Even when we are learning about Ehud it points to Jesus, our wonderful savior who died for us and in his defeat of the grave gave us eternal life. How can you not be excited about that? Any way in our model of Sunday school even with using this new curriculum we still get to have a transition time where the teachers and helpers get to sit with the kids at a table around the transition activity bin and do an activity or craft and spend quality time engaging with the kiddos. This blog will be about the crafts and activities that I have decided to use to supplement the GPK. Hopefully I will be able to post a craft every week and follow the GPK lessons that we have done so far. This curriculum is a 3 year set up that takes us through the whole Bible. We will start at the beginning where the GPK starts....the beginning.