wordless bracelet

Friday:	Wordless Bracelet
Bible Lesson:	Fishers of Men: elementary, preschool, teen
Memory Verse:	Matthew 4:19

Age Groups:

• elementary
• preschool
• teens

Supplies Needed:

• beads in the five Wordless Book colors (black, red, white, yellow, green)
• fishing line, leather cord, or some other bracelet material
• clear beads (optional)

Instructions:

String the five colored beads onto the bracelet in order, knotting at each end to prevent them from sliding around too much (though you can leave a little slack so that there can be a small gap between the beads that have been explained and the ones that remain). (If you are using fishing line, the line must go through the bead twice, wrapping around, so that the knot ties together two strands. Otherwise, the knot could slip through the beads. With leather cord, this is unnecessary, since the knot is too large for the hole.)

Clear beads can be used to make the bracelet size adjustable, or you can just tie it at a reasonable size.

While you make the craft, discuss the meaning of each of the five colors and how the bracelet can be used to share the good news with friends.

Memory Verse on Heart

Thursday:	Memory Verse on Heart
Bible Lesson:
Memory Verse:	reference

Age Groups:

• teens

Supplies Needed:

• cardboard
• construction paper
• spongy-foam shapes
• glitter (optional)
• gellpens or markers

Instructions:

Make a heart shape out of cardboard. Cover it with construction paper. Make a border by gluing spongy-foam shapes around the edge. Write the verse in the middle with a marker, gellpen, or cetera. Try to make it look like calligraphy. Add glitter as desired.

Peat Pot Tomb Scene

Thursday:	Peat Pot Tomb Scene
Bible Lesson:	Fish in the Net: Jesus rose from the dead.

Age Groups:

• preschool

Supplies Needed:

• peat pots
• cardboard
• construction paper
• dirt or sand
• white cloth

Instructions:

Cut peat pots in half vertically; each child uses half of one for the tomb. The open side gets glued to a square of cardboard, which serves as the ground (it can be colored green if desired, or a layer of green construction paper can be glued on first, representing grass), and the open semicircular top of the peat pot forms the open door of the tomb.

A smaller piece of cardboard, cut to a roughly circular shape, brushed with glue, and dipped in sand or dirt to give it a texture, is mounted beside the tomb, representing the stone door that has been rolled away. A small piece of folded white cloth can be put inside the tomb to represent the empty burial cloths.

While doing all this, discuss with the children that the tomb is empty because Jesus isn't there anymore: he rose from the dead.

Fishing All Night Boat Scene

Thursday:	Fishing All Night Boat Scene
Bible Lesson:	Following God
Memory Verse:	2nd John 1:6

Age Groups:

• elementary

Supplies Needed:

• peat pots
• paper disciples
• netting from the bags that onions, potatoes, oranges, etc. are sold in.
• fish (stickers or other small fish objects)

Instructions:

Cut peat pots in half vertically; each child uses two halves for the hull of their fishing boat. Glue the two halves together end-to-end by the lip, so that the bottom of the pot is at each end of the resulting boat hull. Let them color paper outline pictures of disciples (e.g., from a coloring book) and mount them inside the boat. (A piece of cardboard can be glued on the back of each paper disciple to help him stand up.) Hang some of the netting out the side of the boat, representing the fishing net. Fish stickers (or some other small objects representing fish) can be placed either in the net (creating the scene in the morning after Jesus tells them where to put the nets) or else on the other side of the boat (creating a scene from earlier in the night, when they had caught nothing), but not both.

Colored Sand Tomb Scene

Wednesday:	Colored Sand Tomb Scene
Bible Lesson:	Raised from the Dead
Memory Verse:	1st John 4:10

Age Groups:

• teens

Supplies Needed:

• paper
• colored sand

Preparation: Colored Sand

While it is possible to dye actual sand, it is generally easier to use salt, and results in stronger colors. Add small amounts of food coloring to a container of the salt and stir until the color is evenly distributed.

Instructions:

Provide the teen with a sheet of paper each, glue, and an assortment of colors of colored sand. Have them create an empty-tomb scene in colored sand by brushing glue onto the portions of the page where each color will go in turn, then sprinkling the colored sand on the glue.

Basket of Fish and Bread

Wednesday:	Basket of Fish and Bread
Bible Lesson:	Feeding the Big Crowd

Age Groups:

• preschool

Supplies Needed:

• molding dough (see recipe)
• paper basket pattern

Instructions:

Provide each child with a quantity of molding dough, let them play with it for a couple of minutes to get a feel for it, and then show them how to shape it into small bread loaves and fish. Have each child divide up their dough into seven parts and make five loaves and two fish.

Provide a photocopied cut-and-fold basket pattern. If there is time, they can color the basket before being assisted with cutting it out and folding and taping it together.

Place each child's fish and bread in their basket.

Sponge-Painted Tomb Scene

Wednesday:	Sponge-Painted Tomb Scene
Bible Lesson:	Raised from the Dead
Memory Verse:	1st John 4:10

Age Groups:

• elementary

Supplies Needed:

• paper
• paint
• bits of sponge

Instructions:

Each child receives a sheet of paper. Provide small dishes of paint and pieces of cut sponge. Have them paint an empty-tomb scene by dipping the sponge pieces into the paint and stamping them on the paper.

You might want to provide them with an example to look at.

Sign of Jonah Craft (teen)

Tuesday:	Sign of Jonah
Bible Lesson:	The Sign of Jonah
Memory Verse:	Romans 6:23

Age Groups:

• teens

Supplies Needed:

• squares of yellow posterboard
• sticks (paint stirsticks or dowels)
• fishing line
• poster paints (for the whale)
• construction-paper
  • blue daytime sky
  • black night sky
  • yellow suns (3 per)
  • white moons (3 per)

Instructions:

Each teen gets a square of yellow posterboard, which will be angled at 45 degrees to resemble a roadsign. On one side, have them draw and paint a whale silhouette. On the flip side, the diamond should be divided vertically down the middle: to the left side blue black construction paper, and to the right side light blue. On the black half, glue three construction-paper moons, and on the blue side three construction-paper suns.

Using fishing line, have them hang the sign from the middle of a stick (paint stirstick, dowel, etc). When hanging the sign should rotate freely to show both sides.

Sign of Jonah Craft (elementary)

Tuesday:	Sign of Jonah
Bible Lesson:	The Sign of Jonah
Memory Verse:	Romans 6:23

Age Groups:

• elementary

Supplies Needed:

• squares of white posterboard
• sticks (paint stirsticks or dowels)
• poster paints (lots of yellow)
• black construction-paper figures
  • whale
  • numeral 3
  • empty tomb with stone rolled aside

Instructions:

Each child gets a square of posterboard and a stick to mount it on (paint stirstick, dowel, etc). The square, when turned at a 45-degree angle, resembles a diamond-shaped roadsign. The children paint the sign yellow, stick it on the stick (like a roadsign is mounted on a post), and stick black cutout construction-paper figures on it to make a sign of Jonah. The black figures on the sign may include a whale silhouette, the numeral 3, or a grave with the stone rolled aside. The sign means that just as Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights, so also Jesus was in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.